A lot has certainly changed in the past fifteen years.
A relatively new Kidcot Funstop had been set up and largely featured Goofy exploring aspects of aerodynamics and automobile design. One particular montage at the station was entitled Dream Cars and featured nine different scenes from the 1943 Goofy cartoon Victory Vehicles. Nearby was an actual scale model of the bathtub contraption featured briefly in a blueprint design near the short’s beginning.
Victory Vehicles is truly a short immersed in the history and popular culture of the time in which it was made. At the height of World War II, gasoline and rubber shortages severely limited the average citizen's use of automobiles, and in this cartoon, Goofy demonstrates some imaginative and very humorous alternate forms of transportation. It is a number of these concepts that are used to form the basis of the Kidcot Dream Cars display.
Victory Vehicles, while clearly fun and lightweight, is very much a time capsule of the U.S. home front during World War II. Director Jack Kinney and his crew filled the short with numerous wartime references, many of which are likely lost on today’s younger generations. The swing-shift defense worker, the air raid warden, the drugstore cowboy, rationing boards and Victory housing projects are all prominently featured. Details abound and it takes a quick finger on the DVD remote pause button to catch many of them. One particular moment involves a newspaper article with Goofy portraying a stumping politician. Incredibly, the fine print is an actual story, not just typeface filler. The first paragraph reads:
WASHINGTON D.C. (Special) -- Professor Donald Da Gradi, noted heel, and tire specialist, declared today, “If human beings needed tires to travel, they would have been born with a set on their pedal extremities.”
The story continues on for three more paragraphs.
When the short turns into a celebration of the pogo stick, sight gags and wordplays literally spring up everywhere. Billboards and signs are filled with “pogo” references. An advertisement for the Hop Right Inn is my favorite.
Recycling was the order of the day, and in that same spirit, Imagineers recycled the fun elements of Victory Vehicles some sixty years later for a kid-friendly Epcot exhibit.
A fun element from the queue area of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Walt Disney World. Wordplay is the order of the day throughout the attraction. Look carefully at the names of the trains, and check out some of the signs in the flooded mining town of Tumbleweed.
It's amazing what you sometimes find stashed away in the remote corners of your own home. This cartoon adorned the cover of a Valentine's Day card I gave to my spouse some twenty-one years ago. Credit for the piece is given to a Kevin Pope. The interior of the card read: "Let's Go Out and Get Goofy. Happy Valentine's Day."
Tucked away amidst Frontierland's many shops and restaurants at Walt Disney World is this tiny little establishment. It's a real blink-and-miss-it element you'll likely zoom right past in your dash to the FastPass machines at Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Funny, it always seems to be closed for business when I'm there.
They’ve been a part of our popular culture for over fifty years. Outside of Disney they are still instantly recognizable. To Disney fans, employees and cast members they are iconic. So much so that just the word “ears” can be used to reference any number of Disney-related connotations.
Chuck Keehne, head of the wardrobe department, outfitted the newly hired kids in their Mouseketeer outfits, including their uniquely designed hats, which Roy Williams is credited with creating. "In 1929, after the sound cartoons came out, Walt hired me for two weeks to sketch some ideas for his animated shorts," Roy explained. "One of them had Mickey tipping the top of his head to Minnie, which left him with a flat head. So when 'The Mickey Mouse Club' came about years later, Walt said, 'How do we dress the kids?' And I said, 'Why not with Mickey Mouse ears?' I made sketches of the first hats and Walt liked them. That's how it happened."
With less than four months until the much anticipated release of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, buccaneers and swashbucklers seem to be plundering the media and invading all aspects of our popular culture. In this spirit, I would like to make my own contribution to this potential over saturation, by revisiting a favorite souvenir from one of my early Walt Disney World vacations.
Pirates of the Caribbean almost instantaneously became my favorite Disney attraction, and some thirty years later still retains that distinction. That souvenir booklet became the tangible piece of the experience I was able to bring home with me that year. Pouring over its contents repeatedly, it inspired me to seek out more information on the both the history of piracy, and the methods by which the Disney Company created its theme park entertainment.
With an informative history of the “Golden Age of Piracy” serving as an introduction, the booklet provides a behind the scenes record of the making of the attraction, and then ends with an illustrated ride-through via production art and photographs. It was my first real exposure to the Imagineering division, then still known as WED Enterprises. At the time, I was just fifteen years old and knew little of the creative talent behind the Walt Disney brand. Hence, I had no idea that the production artwork featured extensively throughout the booklet came from the hand of Marc Davis, alumnus of the Nine Old Men and one of Walt’s early Imagineers. Davis himself is pictured within the pages, but sadly, is never identified by name.
Since I started 2719 Hyperion this past September, I've steered clear of many of the more controversial issues concerning the states of the various Disney theme parks. While I have very strong opinions in regard to many of these debates and discussions, I resolved early on to keep this site more focused on celebrating the rich heritage and history of the Walt Disney Company. There are a number of excellent blogs that specifically address the Disney Company's management of its parks, most notably Re-Imagineering, EPCOT Central and Passport to Dreams Old and New. I have long followed and respected their articulate and insightful commentaries, and the subsequent discussions they inspire.
Arguably, they have been the studio that has made the best animated movies over the course of the last decade, yet there is certainly a wave of anti-Pixar sentiment building as their cast of popular characters continues its migration into attractions at Disney Parks worldwide. As usual, it is a small, but very vocal minority of the Disney passionate decrying the “Pixar-ization” of the company’s theme parks. However, it is disturbing in that, up until the recent merger between the two entertainment powerhouses, Pixar, its films, and the creative talents behind them, have been almost universally embraced by the Mouseketeer faithful.
Molding and ducts in the exterior queue area of Jim Henson's Muppet*Vision 3D at Disney-MGM Studios become the targets of some good-natured vandalism. Gonzo the Great is immortalized by means of some selectively placed chalk and blue paint. Very little in the surroundings escapes "Muppet-ization," as demonstrated by these pipes and conduits.
Jim Henson's Muppet*Vision 3D follows a very loose back story of sorts. The building itself is the World Headquarters of Muppet*Vision 3D and the home of Muppet Labs. A directory just inside the entrance lists a number of departments within the building. Among them are Muppet Kitchens and Pyrotechnic Research, the Institute of Heckling and Browbeating, the Academy of Amphibian Science, and the Dept. of Comedic Timing and Delivery. Muppet Security is also present at the entrance, with the now famous key that is hidden under the mat.
Nearby to Muppet*Vision is the Stage One Company Store, selling merchandise themed to Kermit and company. The interior showcases elements drawn from the Happiness Hotel, a location that featured prominently in the film The Great Muppet Caper. One cashier station is modeled after the hotel's check-in desk, and a sign nearby reads "PLEASE STEAL LINEN - IT'S CHEAPER THAN HAVING IT CLEANED." Another (pictured) communicates the benefits(?) of securing valuables in the house safe. Assorted laundry is strung across the "lobby" area; a careful inspection will reveal Mickey Mouse's shorts among the items.
And you have to look closely at all these posters. Take for example this funny bit in the corner of the one entitled Some Scientific Thoughts Regarding Safe and Hygienic Use of Muppet*Vision 3D Glasses:
Another funny series of posters features The World’s First Experimental Line. Here are a couple of examples that chronicle your progress “from here to there”:
More to come tomorrow as we take a few snapshots in the exterior queue, and look at the
No doubt Disney fan sites and blogs will be buzzing about today's USA Today article featuring photographer Annie Leibovitz's celebrity photographs for the Year of a Million Dreams marketing campaign. The online version is here.
The 1941 Mickey Mouse cartoon The Nifty Nineties makes subtle, and not so subtle references to numerous Disney Studio staffers of the time period. Now famous animator/writer/producer/director and Nine Old Men alumnus Ward Kimball literally takes center stage with fellow animator Fred Moore in the short’s vaudeville show sequence.
Contemporary animation director Brad Bird paid tribute to the pair in two of his films. In The Iron Giant they appear as railroad men, especially appropriate considering Johnston’s longtime passion for trains and scale model railroading, a hobby he shared with fellow animator Ward Kimball and also Walt Disney himself.
Bird brought the two back again in his first film for Pixar, The Incredibles. They appear near the film’s end, uttering the very telling lines “That's the way to do it. That is old school,” and “No school like the old school.”
One other homage to Frank and Ollie appeared in the 1995 Mickey Mouse cartoon Runaway Brain. There they found themselves the namesake of the story’s short-lived mad doctor.
I believe this photo was taken at the Hyperion site. They have used a Mickey Mouse poster to hide the sink in the background. I tried to enlarge the photo to see what was being photographed, but to no avail. There appears to be a nice stack of art on the back left side of the camera table.
The second photo I believe was also taken at Hyperion.
Yes, comic book stories. Really, really good comic book stories. But alas, somewhat difficult to find comic book stories.
"I have never been especially interested in the animated Disney Donald Duck cartoons... they seemed to be a different character to me altogether. However, the best thing I think that the Disney Company ever did with Donald was his appearance in the 1945 film "The Three Caballeros"! I thought the interaction between Donald and the other two characters, Jose Carioca and Panchito Pistoles, was marvelous, and the action and music in the film was wonderful! In fact, their rendition of "We're Three Caballeros" is one of my very favorite musical numbers in any movie! I have always thought it would be a neat idea to do a new Donald Duck adventure with Jose and Panchito, and in 2000 I finally got around to it! And when I did, I knew I'd include a new rendition of the classic musical number from the film, even though that's a wacky idea to attempt in a comic book!"
It is a real shame that these and Rosa’s many other wonderful stories are by and large inaccessible here in the United States. Both Caballeros stories are available directly from Gemstone Publishing, but unfortunately, each one is split among three separate issues of Walt Disney’s Comic & Stories, with each issue costing a pricey $6.95.
Here are two postcards from the New York World's Fair 1964-1965. Both feature the Disney-designed Pepsi-Cola Pavilion that was home of the original incarnation of It's a Small World. The left card is an actual photo from the fair, while the right card shows a concept model of the attraction. Both cards were postmarked during the summer of 1964.
Here are a couple more items from the queue area of Walt Disney World's Jungle Cruise. Again, the Jungle Navigation Company is identified prominently as the owner of the attraction's fleet of boats. It will be interesting to see if the Jungle Navigation Co., LTD becomes a part of the upcoming Jungle Cruise movie.
