Thursday, July 26, 2007

Desktop Retro: The Orange Bird


After receiving great acclaim last week from 2719 readers, Dan Cunningham returns this week with an amazing and beautiful desktop design that celebrates another fondly remembered bit of Walt Disney World nostalgia.

The Orange Bird was another prominent icon of the resort's first decade. Just this week, Wade Sampson posted a terrific and very comprehensive article on MousePlanet that details the history of this now relatively little know Disney character. And be sure to check out Foxxfur's fun Orange Bird post over at Passport to Dreams Old and New.

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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

another great desktop, Dan! Keep them coming! Thanks for posting it Jeff.

Jessica said...

I LOVE the Orange Bird. What a fantastic character from Disney past. I always feel a little sad when I think that he was gone before my time, and I never got to see the original Sunshine Tree Terrace.

Great design Dan! Now the Sherman Brothers' song is playing in my head. :-)

Anonymous said...

Did you know that the Japanese toy company Tomy made a Orange Bird figure as part of the Disney Magical collection? He was the only theme park character to be in that line. Unforunatly he's only available in Japan.

Steve Tanner at Magical Trash said...

And now I'm thirsty!

Dan, nice job. Love the retro stuff. Very much appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to make my work day a little more enjoyable with your nice desktop.

Kimberly @ kimberussell.com said...

My first time there was 1979. I remember Orange Bird...but vaguely. Was there an Orange Bird walk-about character?

Kimberly @ kimberussell.com said...

There *was* an Orange Bird walking character! (just checked the 2nd link and saw the pic)

Thanks for the memories!

Lou Mongello - WDWRadio.com said...

Love it!! Great job on the desktop and bringing back fond memories of our old friend.

I recall going there and drinking from the little plastic oranges and even seeing the Bird himself walking around!

Now I find myself talking to myself, staring at the ground or garbage cans, wondering what obscure references can be found threin. My how things have changed. :)

Keep the great desktops coming, and the excellent posts as well, Jeff!!

Dan said...

Thanks to everyone for such kind comments, and to Jeff for posting the desktop!

I have great memories of the Orange Bird, too... it seems like I am in good company around the web, where a surprising amount of information and adoration is present. I personally recall those small green mesh bags of orange gumballs at Florida souvenir stands and the Orlando airport that featured the bird, and those glossy vinyl change purses shaped like his head.

Oh, to Jessica: I played the Sherman Brothers song frequently on iTunes while creating the desktop! More to come soon, folks!

Anonymous said...

I love the orange Bird. I actually still have an Orange Bird figurine from one of my first visits to the park.

meltayser said...

i LOVE the desktops you've been posting. but sadly, i can't use them as a i have a widescreen monitor and the desktops look terrible all stretched out.

any chance of making them in a few more sizes? 1680 x 1050 perhaps?

thanks for sharing them, they really are fantastic.

Ronn Roxx said...

Cool Orange Bird desktop. It took a while in Photoshop to remove the 3 odd squares on the sides, but it now looks great on my Mac's desktop!
Just curious, why were the squares on there? They looked very out of place!