Two weeks to Disney's Aulani opening!

Link for pictures at bottom of article

The date is almost here. The single digit countdown is rapidly approaching and the excitement level is heightening for a couple of different reasons.

Raising the attention level for the resort is the news that broke on Friday night, August 12. Jim Lewis, the head of the Disney Vacation Club, was released from the company. The rumor was that it had something to do with Aulani. Two weeks ago I had heard from a DVC owner with points in both Walt Disney World and Disneyland that points for Aulani could not be sold. They had heard a rumor that there was something with the Hawaii paperwork at issue.

When the news of the firing became public, Jason Garcia at the Orlando Sentinel tweeted asking what people knew. I went to the Aulani kiosk at Ala Moana Center and asked when the person would be able to sell Aulani points and the response was now. When asked about Jim Lewis, the same person responded they didn't know about it. Less than 24 hours later when I asked the person at the on-property DVC kiosk if I could purchase Aulani points, they replied "We can't comment on that." Jason published a report on Monday, August 15 and apparently the release was related to Aulani. Jason's story is here.

In any case, it's providing publicity for Aulani and bringing an awareness of the project and property that wasn't there before. In the long run, that will be a good thing!

My latest set of update photos contain pictures from inside the resort. I went out to the resort and the first thing that I noticed was a change in the entrance. It looks different. Apparently there have been changes to the entrance and Disney is now manning the gate to direct people to the resort.

Around the resort the green construction wall is down except for a small area in the back near the project management office.

Along the beach front they have new beach cabanas available for rental. They were so new that the wrapping still remained on the cover. Not far behind them were stacks of beach loungers that were piled high and chained up for the time being.

There were workers still all over the place finishing up to get the resort ready for the opening date. Something that I didn't know how they did was railings that looked like wood. There were workers putting a putty or clay around the metal pipe and then they were individually creating little pukas (holes) and creases. The clay was a gray color so I'm thinking that after it dries or cures that they will paint it before putting on some sort of sealer. Now I know how they do that!

Walking with a lot of other people into the resort there is something that the operations folks might want to look at. Along the left side of the lo'i (taro patch) is a path leading from the sidewalk up towards the main entrance. It dead ends at the top tier. I saw several people jumping the wall and walking through a garden area rather than walk around. A sign saying no exit or putting a couple of stairs to allow an exit might be a valuable addition.

Walking into the lobby, Maka'ala, was a feeling that I can't fully describe. Here I was walking into a location that I filmed four years previously that was nothing but a vacant lot of land. I was shaking with excitement. I had a huge smile on my face. Here it was, one of my most favorite passions being materialized right there, right in front of my eyes, right under my feet. Just on the other side of the lobby out in Waikolohe Valley, Mickey Mouse was greeting people who were previewing the facility. Disney had come to me in Hawaii instead of me having to move to Orlando or Anaheim!

I walked around and was amazed at the details I saw. The calabashes, the art, the plants, the background music. At one point I did glimpse Joe Rohde. He was sitting on a couch near a wooden statue of a menehune talking to an individual. Across the way a little bit was a pahu (drum). I didn't get a chance to approach him. Someone came up to him and said something. Joe put on his hat and quickly walked away with the requester and another person following them.

On the lanai (patio) looking out into Waikolohe Valley you could hear live entertainment coming from the distance. Immediately below was a fountain where four streams of water were intersecting at a single point. A little beyond that was the line to meet Mickey. Off to the left was a small stage area where later on a trio would be playing live Hawaiian music.

From Maka'ala to the left was the Ewa tower that would have the DVC rooms. On the right was the Waianae Tower where the Laniwai spa could be found along with the regular hotel rooms. As a local, it was funny looking at the tower names. Usually when you look mauka (towards the mountains) and you're in Honolulu when you say ewa for directions you usually mean left, meaning out on the west coast of Oahu. With the location of the resort in Kapolei, you are past Ewa so at Aulani, ewa would mean east or towards Honolulu. For locals it may be a little awkward, but for guests who are visiting Hawaii and specifically Oahu for the first time, it will make perfect sense.

There is so much more that I could talk about but I'll hold off until the resort is fully open except for a specific topic. The one item I want to touch on is the refillable souvenir mugs. They've made some news lately as mugs with RFID chips are being tested out at the All Star Sports resort over at Walt Disney World. Get details here. These mugs are molded white plastic with the design screened on. They currently cost $13.99. The mugs at Aulani have a clear plastic exterior with an insert with Hawaiian designs and Aulani logo between the outside and black inside and comes in four design colors. Here's the kicker...it costs $32.99 for the mug! The sign reads "Unlimited refills available from any beverage station until the end of the stay in which the mug was purchased." When I talked to the cast member, she didn't know about the RFID chips being tested at All Star Sports. She did say that there are three beverage stations in the resort where refills can be obtained. I didn't think to look at the price of a single drink but when I get a chance I'll find out what the price and break even point would be. The $32.99 with Hawaii's General Excise Tax of 4.712% brings the total for a mug to $34.54 so the price does seem a bit high.

Between now and opening day there will be cast members staying on property to give it a shake out. Making sure that the rooms have what they need and the recreation CMs have a chance to test out the patterns and flows of the equipment and crowds will be the point of the stays. So that's it for this moment. I don't plan on going back to the resort until the official opening day although I've heard rumors of a public preview. We'll have to see about that.

Complete set of pictures here

Movie Review: The Help

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Well I must say, The Help turned out to be much more than I thought based on the trailer. I was expecting more of a comedy about a group of black women working for white families during the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi telling the follies of their experiences for the audience to laugh at. It was directed and the screenplay written by Tate Taylor based on Kathryn Stockett's novel, it was a much more poignant look at race relations at this time and place in American history than I had expected. There were scenes that did make you laugh, but there were more scenes that had I been looking at the audience instead of the movie screen I'm sure I would have seen faces of confusion, bewilderment and anger concerning the treatment of the black women who devoted themselves to these families.

The story is told from the point of view of Aibileen (Viola Davis), a women who doesn't know how to do anything else. Her mother was a maid and her grand mother was a house slave. She's more of a mother to the children in the households she serves than the women who are more concerned about their social standing and appearance in the community. Her best friend Minny (Octavia Spencer) works for the queen bee of the social circle, Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard) who professes "separate but equal" with a proposal that homes with black maids must provide them with a separate bathroom.

Returning to Jackson after graduating with a degree in Journalism from Ole Miss is Eugenia Phelan (Emma Stone) who goes by Skeeter. With a name like Eugenia, you'd probably want a cool nick name like Skeeter too, wouldn't you? Skeeter secures a job with the local paper writing a column about cleaning tips and who better to provide accurate and useful information than a maid. That's how Skeeter and Aibileen get to know each other. But Skeeter wants to be a novelist. She decides after seeing how Aibileen and Minny are treated to write a novel about these black women raising white children from the maids point of view.

It's during these observations that the connections between this group of women and their charges is exposed for what is it. Aibileen proudly states that she's raised seventeen children. These strong black women are taking care of the children in ways that their own parents aren't doing. Even with Skeeter, when she returns home she asks for Constantine (Cicely Tyson), the maid who raised her. When she finds out that Constantine is no longer there, she is heart broken and angry.

The dynamic of this complex relationship is the heart of the film. Mothers abdicating their parental role to other women who are considered help and not worthy of using the bathrooms in their employer's house and yet being charged with one of the most important duties and responsibilities of rearing a healthy and responsible human being. Stockett herself was a product of being raised by a black housekeeper while her own mother was largely absent. Words of affirmation like "You are beautiful. You are smart. You are important." played an important part in Stockett's life and echoed in Aibileen's narrative to those she cared for.

Davis does a wonderful job as the bitter Aibileen, as does Spencer as the smart mouthed help Minny. But it's Stone's performance which acts as the glue to pull together and chronicle the stories of these maids and their bosses from the disgust of her own mother's attitudes and actions to the unlikely friendship between Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. A story Skeeter felt demanded to be told against the risk of going up against her own social class and the Jim Crow laws while Medgar Evers and President Kennedy ended up being assassinated. Each of the women are strong individuals to do what they did during the time they were in against confusing and hypocritical standards in place in society.

The 137 minute film goes by quickly and is rated PG-13 for thematic material. There were a few swears and smoking. Lots and lots of smoking. They even managed to poke fun at the smoking. The period piece looks beautiful and the story combined with the acting was enough that not only were there times of laughter, but times when you could hear people sniffling and blowing noses in the theater. Having a few tissues on hand couldn't hurt while you watch The Help.

The Movie Monkey

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Movie Review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

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To listen, press the play button on the player below


We are now into the dog days of summer and the big movies are starting to wind down as families across the nation start heading back to school. The Movie Monkey has been waiting all summer for this particular movie. Not because it was going to be a great movie, but because one simian should support another, don't you think? While not the top of the movie evolutionary chain, Rise of the Planet of the Apes comes in with a very solid upright position.

While 2011 Academy Awards co-host James Franco, Oscar nominated John Lithgow and leading lady Freida Pinto from Academy Award Best Picture winner Slum Dog Millionaire received the top billing, in my opinion, Andy Serkis in his motion capture portrayal of chimpanzee Caesar should have had his name on top of the other three. As Caesar, Serkis' depiction of the primate with ever evolving intelligence was given through his eyes and body language, not through speech. This is when the acting skills need to be sharp and refined. Tied into the character were the good folks over at Weta Digital, the company started by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson who converted the digital plot points generated by the motion capture and rendered out the hairy bodies that became chimpanzees, gorillas, apes and orangutans.

The original Planet of the Apes with Charlton Heston came before the public in 1968. The last in the series, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, released in 1973. So it's been almost 40 years between the last time the series appeared on the big screen and lost to many younger people and now we're given the origin story. It would seem rather risky but at the same time not. In the original, it was never disclosed how the apes became the dominant species and humans below them. This unanswered question left the door wide open for exploration and didn't need to be rewritten or reimagined by Hollywood writers as seems to be the case for many pictures today.

In a number of cautionary tales of man creating something that ends up being his downfall the intent was with good and pure motivations. This origins story can be filed in the "good intentions gone wrong" folder. Dr Will Rodman (Franco) is working for a cure for Alzheimers which is afflicting his father Charles (Lithgow). Animal testing on chimps is going positively, especially on one chimp named Bright Eyes. When Bright Eyes goes on a rampage the program is shut down and all the animals are ordered to be put down but not before it is discovered that there was an off spring of Bright Eyes. In a moment of compassion, Will brings the baby chimp home and raises him. When growing chimp Caesar hurts himself and needs medical attention, it's at the vet's where Will meets Caroline (Pinto) and with prompting from Caesar through sign language the two start dating.

Will is able to hold onto his dad and Caesar for about eight years when things start to fall apart. Caesar was learning, reasoning and communicating from the altered genes passed down from his mother. While trying to protect Charles, Caesar injures a neighbor and ends up at a primate sanctuary where for the first time has interaction with other primates. Caesar is exposed to cruelty from humans and fellow apes. One of the handlers, Dodge Landon (Tom Felton) was a reference back to the original movie. If you saw The Green Mile, Percy and Dodge were cut from the same cloth. Both gave inhumane treatment to their charges and both ended up paying for that cruel handling.

In the third act, Caesar takes charge and leads the rebellion. He escapes from the sanctuary and sets free the other captives at the lab and zoo. Primates rampage through San Francisco using primitive weapons like fence spears and man hole covers to take out the opposition leading to the climatic battle on the ultimate icon of the city by the bay. King Kong had the Empire State Building and Caesar had the Golden Gate bridge...sort of symbolic as he crossed over from living in the world of man to living in the world of apes.

The movie runs for 105 minutes and is rated PG-13 for violence, terror, some sexuality and brief strong language. During the running time there are lots of nods to the original series of movies with names, lines and objects given. If you have seen any of the movies you'll appreciate the little tips of the hat. Don't immediately leave when you think the movie is over. Hang for a few moments as a bit of a set up for any possible sequels is given. After you leave the theater you can discuss with your friends some of the moral dilemmas offered ranging from animal treatment and animal experimentation to how far would you go for the care of a sick family member.

There are a few plot holes, but don't let that detract you from the overall experience. My biggest was were there really all that many of our evolutionary cousins located within the city limits of San Francisco? But still, the movie is a solid movie for the summer season praiseworthy of a bucket of popcorn and a cup of soda.

The Movie Monkey

To subscribe to the audio podcast of the reviews via iTunes click here. Audio versions are released the following Wednesday.