Do you remember the classic Mentos commercials from the 90s? The ones with people in all kinds of ridiculous situation getting bailed out thanks to their roll of Mentos breath mints? Here’s a reminder:
The people at The Confused Breakfast podcast put together these videos, showing scenes from some classic 80s and 90s movies re-edited as Mentos commercials. First up is “Tremors,” which was actually released in January of 1990. Either way this is hilarious…
Yesterday was an interesting day for fans of Walt Disney World.
The official Disney Parks social accounts posted a video appearing to tease the TRON Lightcycle Run opening date. If you’re not familiar, TRON is the new roller coaster being built at the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. It’s a motorcycle style coaster that launches riders both indoors and outdoors with all kinds of cool lighting effects.
Disney first announced the new ride back in July of 2017. Construction has been well underway for over five years now. Recently we were told that TRON would open in “Spring 2023.” And yesterday we got this video:
It looks like the list of high scores you would find on a video game like TRON. That first line is exactly that – the top score on the TRON video game. If you were on social media yesterday you likely saw many Disney fans doing their best to break down the different lines and what they might mean. Hear is a screenshot of the list of scores:
So what DOES this all mean? A few of them are fairly obvious.
The TRON high score
(we’ll come back to this one)
The TRON Legacy opening date 12-17-2010
TRON star Jeff Bridges birthday 12-04-1949
Magic Kingdom’s opening date 10-01-1971
Disneyland’s opening date 7-17-1955
The original TRON movie release date 7-9-1982
(we’ll come back to this one)
Shanghai Disneyland’s opening date 6-16-2016
(we’ll come back to this one)
Let’s break down those question marks from above:
LINE #2: US 13,212,023
I believe the US before this line tells us that this is the United States debut for the TRON attraction. My first inclination was to see the 13212023 and think that was a March 21st date. But there’s a 1 before that 3. I think BlogMickey is right in thinking 3+1 and going with 4, which would mean a 4-21-2023 U.S. debut for TRON Lightcycle Run.
LINE #8: LB 07,049,504
I have no clue with this one. Could it be something related with to the stats ride? I really can’t figure this one out.
LINE #10: CM 04,482,023
This one is likely all about the cast member preview day – or dates. Disney usually gives their employees a few days to experience a new ride BEFORE it opens to the public. I’m going with cast member Preview Dates April 4-8, 2023 (4 48 2023).
So to recap, my predictions for all of this are:
TRON opens for cast member previews on April 4-8, 2023.
TRON opens to the public April 21, 2023.Â
It seems like we will get official confirmation of the opening date from Disney Parks very soon. Until then, let the speculation continue! When do you think the TRON Lightcycle Run Opening Date will be?
If you haven’t seen TRON in action, here is a video of the ride at the Shanghai Disney park:
A group of birdwatchers were out on New Year’s Day at Waukegan Harbor when they spotted a large bird out on a small patch of ice, floating in the water. Upon a closer look, they realized it was a bald eagle and it was in trouble.
They contacted the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors. This group of volunteers rescues birds in distress all over the Chicagoland area. They came out to the scene and one of their members jumped into a kayak to help guide the eagle to safety.
In the video below, you can see Jim Tibensky carefully guide the eagle towards the shore. There, the rest of the team was waiting to grab the bird with a net. Once the bird was removed from the water, it was driven to the Willowbrook Wildlife Center where it will be cared for.
Watch the bald eagle rescued in the video below…
So what happened to this eagle and why was it floating out on such a small patch of ice? They believe the eagle may have ingested some rodent poison secondhand. The birds will often eat an animal that has been poisoned, causing them to become sick from the toxins. The eagle is being treated at the center and they hope it will make a full recovery.
I have featured the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors on the WGN Morning News in the past. You can see my full report on the work this group does to rescue birds that fly into downtown Chicago high rise buildings here….
You may have missed this yesterday, but there was a gigantic upset in the world of college basketball.
Eastern Illinois University traveled to Iowa for a game that should have been a cakewalk for the Hawkeyes. EIU was a 31.5 point underdog and won. ESPN stats summarized it best:
There have been 90,000 men’s college basketball games with lines over the last 30 years.
30 point underdogs were 0-558 over that stretch.
With the Eastern Illinois upset victory over Iowa, that record is now 1-558, making it one of the biggest upsets ever.
Watch the reaction when Eastern Illinois coach Marty Simmons came into the locker room to meet with the team after their upset….
“Tom Cruise just rode a motorcycle off a cliff – SIX TIMES TODAY.”
That’s the line from the base jumping coach on the new movie “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning,” talking about the latest death-defying stunt from Cruise. Paramount Pictures released a lengthy behind-the-scenes video showing all of the work went into pulling this off.
The scene features Cruise’s character riding a motorcycle right off of a cliff. He lets go of the bike and eventually deploys a parachute to reach the ground. The crew built a huge ramp going right to the edge of the cliff. In the video, we see all of the prep work that went into this. It involved Cruise doing all kinds of motorcycle jumps elsewhere to get a feel for the bike and how it would work to let go of it mid-air.
Finally, we see the stunt in action and the relief of the crew when Cruise makes it out in one piece. Take a look at the video of the Tom Cruise stunt here…
After you watch that, take a look at the Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning trailer again. You can see a finished shot of the stunt. The effects team created rock formations to hide the ramp that Cruise was riding on. Pretty cool stuff!
All of this comes to a day after Cruise released a video thanking fans of Top Gun: Maverick for making it the biggest movie of the year, and he recorded that thank you while falling in the sky.
Simply put, we are watching somebody at the top of their craft, enjoying every moment of their time at work. That time includes riding motorcycles off of cliffs and falling backwards out of helicopters. As somebody who gets to ride the biggest roller coasters on Earth while on the job, I can relate.
Last night the Green Bay Packers hosted the Los Angeles Rams at Lambeau Field on Monday Night Football. One fan got extra creative with their green and gold, opting for a gumby costume instead of your standard Packers jersey or jacket. But of course, even though you’re in a full costume, you need to figure out a way to get the beer down.
All of this played out LIVE on the Manningcast on ESPN 2. Watch the guys react when Gumby drinks beer THROUGH HIS EYE….
If you’ve seen “Top Gun: Maverick,” you know the action in the movie is absolutely spectacular.
The sequel to the 1986 classic follows Pete “Maverick” Mitchell as he heads back to TOPGUN to train the next generation of pilots. They’re preparing for a seemingly impossible mission.
The movie features actual jets, flown by real-life U.S. Navy pilots, performing pulse-pounding maneuvers. All of it plays out on screen – giving us, the audience, the closest feeling we will get to actually flying in the cockpit.
But as I watched the movie, I kept wondering how realistic all of this was – especially the mission. Can these jets actually do the things the movie was telling us they can do? Would the U.S. Navy ever attempt a mission like this, and is this really how they would try to do it?
The Fighter Pilot Podcast answers pretty much all of those questions in their latest episode. They took a group of real-life TOPGUN instructors and Navy pilots to a screening of the movie, then sat them down for a 45 minute discussion afterwards.
If you loved “Top Gun: Maverick” this is an absolutely must-watch discussion. I could listen to these pilots tell stories about what it’s like to fly this aircraft all day long.
You can watch the TOPGUN instructors react to all of the action in “Top Gun: Maverick” in the video below. And subscribe to their podcast here.Â
First, he made him jump out of an airplane. Now, Tom Cruise got The Late Late Show host James Corden to ride in a fighter jet.
Did I mention it was a fighter jet that Tom was flying?
Cruise is a well known fan of aviation and has his pilot’s license. In this segment to promote the new movie “Top Gun Maverick,” Cruise convinced James to hop on board two different aircraft.
The first was a single-engine North American P-51K Mustang – seen in the image above. Next up was a bigger step, an Aero L-39 Albatros owned by the Method Seven Patriots Jet Team.
Corden admitted to having serious thoughts of canceling the segment, but said Cruise convinced him that he wouldn’t do anything to put him in danger. The result is a hilarious segment featuring some fun aerial stunts.
You can watch Tom Cruise fly Corden in the video below…
The Tokyo Disneyland Space Mountain ride is getting a major overhaul!
Oriental Land Co. made the announcement this morning and released some concept art. The company says the “entirely new attraction” will maintain its original concept as an indoor roller coaster that takes guests zooming through space, but they will add “enhanced performance and immersive special effects that will give guests even more thrills.”
As you can see from the image, the exterior of the attraction is also getting a major facelift along with the entire Tomorrowland plaza. The new area will “express the connection between Earth and the universe, representing an image of a future where humans are in harmony with nature.”
As for when this is happening? Tokyo Disneyland Space Mountain will close in 2024 and they’re aiming for an opening date in 2027. The project is projected to cost 56 billion JPY.
You can read the full Tokyo Disneyland press release here.
What do you think about these changes? Would you like to see the other Space Mountain rides get an overhaul like this? I’m excited to see more about what they plan to do with the interior of the ride.
How can you forget? A young boy discovers a golden retriever has incredible skills on the basketball court and the dog ends up helping his team compete for a state championship. The movie would go on to inspire an entire franchise featuring dogs that do incredible things, like talking and even traveling to space.
For some random reason, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver decided to dedicate an entire web segment to breaking down this movie – and it is glorious.
If you haven’t seen Air Bud you won’t get as much joy from this, but it should give you a laugh either way. Enjoy…
