Guest Relations
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She Cared About Minnie Mouse

On a few eves before Christmas Eve, members of the Los Angeles Kings hockey team visited a Children's Hospital bearing gifts.

A Buzz Lightyear here, a Furby there. It was part of the team's annual toy drive for pediatric kids.

Room by room came hockey players bearing toys.

Into one room went one of the team's more well-known players, Luc Robitaille. In his hand, he offered a little girl recovering from a transplant a Dolphin plush toy.

The girl cried.

He then offered her a Furby.

She still cried, then threw the Furby faster than you could say, "Kah-dah boh-bay."

Robitaille looked about as frustrated as he does when he faces a tough goalie. The little girl was deflecting his shots better than Dominik Hasek.

At that moment, Robitaille went to the last resort. From behind his back came a Minnie Mouse doll.

The girl laughed. The girl smiled. The girl turned her back on Robitaille and set her full attention to Minnie.

"She didn't care about me," Robitaille said. "She cared about Minnie Mouse."

Robitaille learned the hard way about how to please a kid on the holidays.

Being as that you are reading this website, you've probably managed to keep a little of the little kid inside you. With that, you still probably remember what it was like to get something you wanted for the holidays, and something you didn't want.

For me, it was always easy to tell I was about to open something I didn't want: It was soft.

If there was anything I hated to get when opening presents, it was clothes. You knew what you were about to open were clothes when you would pick up the wrapped item and you could squeeze it, or it would bend. Always a bad sign.

Clothes were fine any other time of the year, but this was the day to get toy trucks, Lego sets and die cast cars. It wasn't the day for a new sweater.

Yet, I do remember opening up one item of clothing for the holidays that I will always remember.

It was a blue pajama set with an embroidered Winnie the Pooh on the chest. My brothers got matching sets. We wore them as long as they could fit.

With that, I know why that little girl was so particular about what she was getting from Robitaille. Only Minnie could make her happy.

Here's hoping you will be happy with what you open up for the holidays.

Educational Films: You've probably heard that Disney is building a temporary IMAX theater to show the giant-screen version of Fantasia 2000 in January.

You may have not heard why.

In the shadow of the Los Angeles Coliseum and Exposition Park in Southern California is the California Science Center's IMAX Theater. It was, in fact, one of the first IMAX theaters in the world, build as part of the 1984 Olympics Arts Festival.

Disney wanted the theater to screen Fantasia 2000, but they refused. They said that they would only screen movies of "educational value."

I would buy this argument if I hadn't seen what the Science Center's IMAX was screening right now when I passed by the other day.

On the marquee was "Siegfried & Roy: The Magic Box."

A pair of Vegas musicians who specialize in making white tigers disappear has educational value? Perhaps universities should offer "David Copperfield 101."

Getting kids to enjoy Beethoven, Stravinsky and Gershwin seems to have more educational value than Siegfried and Roy.

[Ed Note: According to reports, the California Science Center's IMAX Theater chose not to show Fantasia 2000 because Disney requires an exclusive engagement where nothing else can play in the theater during the four month release. The science center, which has only one theater, chose not to. They wanted to play the educational films during the day and early afternoon and Fantasia 2000 in the late afternoon and evening.]

Something Disney Fans Would Like to See: Fantasia 2000 ... Desperately.

Something Disney Fans Would Not Like to See: Condorman 2000.

Like They Need a Plug: You've probably seen it already seen Toy Story 2 already.

You don't need me to tell you it is probably one of the best-animated works to ever have the Disney name atop it.

You don't need me to tell you. If you haven't seen it, you're missing out.

What if It Was a Disney Movie: The Green Mile would be The Green Giant.

Oops. That was what if it was a brand of vegetable.

Come to think of it, getting a box of Green Giant for the holidays is probably worse than getting clothes.

Until next time ... Don't give your kid Pokemon. Give them Minnie Mouse. They'll thank you for it.

Guest Relations is normally posted every other Friday.

The opinions expressed by Chris Reed, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future of Disneyland and the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.