Disney press conference fails audience participation

by Alexander Sliwinski { Jul 25th 2007 at 8:27PM }

We're just going to say the editing by GameTrailers was done to spare you. We've shown you the face of a man after the Disney press conference, we even gave the thing an award for being so fantastically painful. Is it as bad as the Jamie Kennedy performance at the Activision press conference? Well, it's a different type of pain. Instead of feeling bad for the man on stage making a fool of himself, in this case you have to feel for the audience who definitely didn't sign up for what was incoming. Watch, enjoy, and remember that this is supposed to be a press conference -- not the halftime show at some Six Flags concert.

Tags: disney, e307, HighSchoolMusical, pressconference

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

deadpool @ Jul 25th 2007 8:34PM

HAHAHAHAHAhaahaHAHAHAHAHAA

Kenny @ Jul 25th 2007 8:40PM

Oh my God.

That's just... wow... seriously?

I can't imagine being in the audience. It had to be the most awkward experience of their lives.

Evan @ Jul 26th 2007 3:58AM

OH MY GOD is right! What just happened. I just watched the VGVN video and thought that was ridiculous?

Disney has been spending too much time with the pre-teens and somehow brainwashed themselves into believing that they are their only audience.

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

student @ Jul 25th 2007 8:41PM

Honestly, at least they tried. If the gaming press wasn't so jaded from lck of sleep, I think this could have been a breath of fresh air. Activision's was FAR worse.

ssuk @ Jul 26th 2007 8:30AM

If Disney wasn't insulting the gaming press' inteligence by getting up 2 'volunteers' who just happened to know the entire song's dance moves, then having a bunch of cheerleaders screaming "whoo" at every little thing they talked about, maybe, just maybe... The audiance wouldn't have completely tore into this pile of crap.

djhindsight @ Jul 25th 2007 8:46PM

I never can view file from that site. Why was the other person's comment deleted? is there a mirror?

S. Smith @ Jul 25th 2007 8:46PM

My favorite part had to have been the "volunteers" jumping right into the totally not-obviously rehearsed and yet super Disney cool performance!

I used to work for Disney doing retail. I don't think the management was too in touch with real reality and for a fantastic six dollar an hour paycheck (!!!), I had to force myself to be a part of their crazy delusional super happy universe. If I didn't actively engage each customer in a song and dance magical routine regarding our awesome sun lotion products (I worked in a swim suit store)...they do some psychological talking down to you crap and after four months, I had had enough.

Ulgh. I hate Disney.

zwarrior @ Jul 25th 2007 9:59PM

Hahahaha! Everytime I've been to Disney, the workers there always seemed superhyped on too much sugar, now I see why

Ningaru @ Jul 25th 2007 8:48PM

I have never felt so embarrassed for those sitting in that audience. Not only were there hardly any attendees but I saw those that were there looking around. I mean, how awkward must that woman who apparently was a volunteer asking for other people to join her have felt to see no one responding...

Jay @ Jul 25th 2007 8:49PM

Hahahaha. After the writeup at IGN [http://games.ign.com/articles/804/804373p1.html] I was interested in seeing how awkward this was. WOW talk about a huge mistake, Disney. This might have been OK for a free show in a Jr. High parking lot cross-country tour, but E3... ABSOLUTELY NOT.

AlexP @ Jul 25th 2007 8:56PM

Remember kids, this is why the '90s sucked.

Grant @ Jul 26th 2007 9:04AM

hahaha,
So true.
i thought for a second i was watching the mickey mouse club.

Did anyone else see the flames as they were crashing and burning?

root @ Jul 25th 2007 8:58PM

the hell of disney - DIRECTLY into your kids brains.

hahaha

Mromson @ Jul 25th 2007 9:03PM

Good lord, lmao, roflcopter!

That was the funniest shit I've ever seen. Today.

waynski1457 @ Jul 25th 2007 11:41PM

i second that!! this is just great!

Iann @ Jul 25th 2007 9:10PM

That got me HYPED!!!

Gross Greg @ Jul 25th 2007 9:11PM

I agree with #3 (student). If you haven't seen the Activision press conference yet, go watch it now. It is quite possible the most painful thing I've ever seen.

Yeah, this Disney press conference is monumentally stupid and misdirected, but as #3 stated, at least SOMEBODY is into it (unfortunately they are the ones presenting).

Jamie Kennedy, on the other hand...dear God.

REUYL @ Jul 25th 2007 10:01PM

Foe fun? FOE SHEEZAY!

Yeah, it was bad.

Imadogg99 @ Jul 25th 2007 9:19PM

That audience sucks, cmon get into it

tlozwarlock @ Jul 25th 2007 9:38PM

There are times for prep rally dance routines aimed at selling subpar merchandise based on soulless and intellect-free kid fare...E3 is not one of those times.

Trying to get a bunch of jaded, cynical, 25yrs+ game journalists to do a Disney Kids dance would be the equivalent of asking Satan to crochet a doiley with a cross in the middle of it. Not gonna happen.

At least the Jaime Kennedy thing angered people. This just made people shake their heads in shame.

Baineblade @ Jul 25th 2007 9:47PM

This...was just painful...I remember sitting through High school pep rallies that were better than this! My god! Shoot the cheer leaders! Shoot em!!

Rick Taylor @ Jul 25th 2007 9:51PM

First of all, I have no idea what the hell "High School Musical" is. It's no movie *I've* ever heard of and I watch a LOT of movies.

Second, did they really think they could pass two people off as "volunteers" when they start chroeographed dancing immediately and then start spouting a rehearsed speech about the game to get the audience into it? Um.. DUH.

Third, watching this made me ill. It's not hyperbole and I'm not being a drama queen. I very honestly started to feel a little vomit-y after about the fourth repitition of those retarded cheerleaders (I know, redundant phrase) screaming "yay!".

The rest of it just made me borderline want to cry. It punches me in the soul that corporations think this is what gamers want or that we're just such a bunch of brainwashed, numbed, consumer tards that they can slip anything by us and we can be so easily sold on things.

It is stuff like this which makes me wince every time that Reggie guy or some other guy clearly business oriented and so far removed from my own generation (I'm 30 years old) get on stage and talk about the new direction gaming is going in or their great new products. Look, you're some fat balding 45 or 50 year old tool who couldn't care less as long as you're selling units. It's just painful to watch those guys try to feign excitement and knowledge and culture and strive so hard to be "hip" only to look like total douches.

I really hope everyone who was on that stage gets hit by a bus and spends the rest of their lives in a coma.

zwarrior @ Jul 25th 2007 10:01PM

cynic!

Gross Greg @ Jul 26th 2007 8:24PM

Guess what, buddy? I'm in your demographic - and kids are eating this crap up. It's sad, but this contrived High School Musical/Britney Spears/Avril Lavigne/Boy Band/Whatever's on the radio as long as it is "cool" stuff is (unfortunately) what sells.

Now THAT makes me sick...and whoever said, "this is why the 90's sucked," at least kids in the '90's aligned themselves with SOMETHING...

Seriously - think about the most high profile celebrities: Britney Spears, Christina Aguilara, Justin Timberlake, Lindsey Lohan, Hillary Duff, that kid from Transformers (who landed a role in Indiana Jones 4 as well). What do they all have in common? Yep, you got it - Disney launched all of their careers.

Disney is beginning to scare the Hell out of me. Cartoons are one thing, but their "products" are beginning to completely infiltrate popular culture.

Tuatara @ Jul 26th 2007 3:36PM

tl;dr
:D

REUYL @ Jul 25th 2007 9:54PM

HAHAHAH that was the funniest thing I've seen all day. More awkward than your typical episode of "The Office."

Jim @ Jul 25th 2007 10:24PM

QUOTE: HAHAHAH that was the funniest thing I've seen all day. More awkward than your typical episode of "The Office."

Haha yeah but at least the Office is entertaining (Funniest show on TV i might add.)

Evan @ Jul 26th 2007 4:02AM

Ryan started the fire...

It is so awkward I almost wanted to turn my head I felt so bad for the crowd. I would much rather embrace Dwight as a coworker!

FM @ Jul 25th 2007 9:55PM

WOW. That was weird.

zwarrior @ Jul 25th 2007 9:56PM

They tried. They must have not known what kind of audience they were dealing with.

gamabunta @ Jul 25th 2007 9:56PM

Did they really think that a game based on a movie targeted towards the pre-teen market would have middle aged reporters dancing in the crowd? This and the fact that E3 is invite only now pretty much guarantees the audience is pure business.

roberto @ Jul 26th 2007 2:14AM

lmao!!!!!! that comment was full of win

SleepyBum @ Jul 25th 2007 10:01PM

Yeah... I would agree that the Activision press conference was a lot worse, and very painful to watch, like that David Hasselhoff drunk video. But yeah... a song and dance for a press conference asking for audience participation is a misplaced.

But dude! You guys had cheerleaders! This E3 equivalent of (or as close as you'll get to) booth babes. And they kicked really high! WWWhhhhhhoooOooOOoooo~~~``1`1!1!

REUYL @ Jul 25th 2007 10:04PM

Booth babes? More like jailbait...

Derka @ Jul 25th 2007 10:10PM

First, anything invloving High School Musical makes me want to vomit on sight, secondly, they may have been the most painful thing ive ever seen.

RRT @ Jul 25th 2007 10:42PM

What's sad is that all the High School Musical videogame paraphernalia is going to become a bestseller before the year ends.

horngreen @ Jul 25th 2007 10:59PM

Watching it on an internet clip was uncomfortable enough for me...Couldn't even watch it till the end. This will make me want to pick up a PS3...

Obie @ Jul 25th 2007 11:11PM

What a trainwreck! Loved it!

JLobes @ Jul 25th 2007 11:22PM

As if we needed another reason to abhor Disney. What happened to the days when Disney movies were... bearable? "High School Musical" WTF is that?! Straight to DVD movie + Karaoke + video game DOES NOT EQUAL ANYTHING GOOD.

But seriously. There were people, most of them college graduates, who sat around in a room, and thought,"Hey, we should make a VIDEO GAME based on our FAILURE OF A MOVIE" and everyone else thought it was a good idea.

I feel like i've been stabbed in the brain.

Gavin @ Jul 25th 2007 11:42PM

Laugh all you want to people but this type of presentation and the games it represents is indicative of where the industry is heading. With the DS and Wii being on every developers mind, they look towards the idiotic "tween" market to cash in with licensed dumbed down garbage based on more of the same type of crap we always see flooding the DS.

Gouki4u @ Jul 25th 2007 11:45PM

I'm not sure who I feel more sorry for; the audience, or the poor dopes Disney convinced to do this, and are getting no response.

Savok @ Jul 25th 2007 11:53PM

The infamous Sony E3 conference of years back was so bad it was hilarious, it gave us the giant enemy crab, Riiiiiidge Racer, and hit the weak point for massive damage.

Activision, for how bad it was, was a SINGLE horrible mistake that simply poisoned the whole thing. It was even apparent to the other people on stage as they made fun of Jamie in an effort to distance themselves from him.

This, this was orchestrated crap on levels I didn't know mankind could go to. The number of people who had to be in on this is quite large when you think about it, that not one of them said "guys, this is fucking awful, I would so far as to say the people who had these ideas should kill themselves immediately, and whoever is left should hire people that know what they're doing".

I hate you Disney, you have murdered my innocence.

Lijik @ Jul 25th 2007 11:55PM

Hey you jaded cynical journalists remember that no matter what you can ALWAYS follow your dreams and be that person you always wanted to be!! WHOOOOOOOO!

S. Smith @ Jul 26th 2007 12:22AM

I'm going to make a second post here to ditto Rick Taylor's comment. Their E3 presention, presented to adult press journalists, was, in no other way to describe it, insulting. As I mentioned in my previous post, managers expect Disney employees to maintain that kind of enthusiastic state of mind when pitching anything. And while it may be appropriate for, you know, something for a Disney park (which by the way, I have a hard time handling all the Disney magical spirit OVERLOAD crap in one day), or a Disney TV show, but completely inappropriate for something like this.

Very insulting. These are professionals. You can't pull the same bullshit you do with your consumer sheep, Disney.