Boom-Pop! Rises Again!

Yes indeed, like a classic Universal Monster, Boom-Pop!, our companion site devoted to 20th century popular culture has once again returned to life.  I was feeling distinctly over-ambitious when I launched the site in summer of 2008, only to sadly retire it a few months later.  I tried to bring it back in early 2010, but again lacked the necessary time and resources to keep it fresh and active.  Hopefully, the third time will be the charm.  I'm hoping a more conservative publishing schedule (2-3 posts a week) will prove more manageable.

This week, we returned to the animated architecture of the original episodes of The Jetsons television program, examined a vintage postcard of a popular Hollywood landmark, and investigated the fate of a classic toy from the 1960s--the Major Matt Mason Space Station.

Living in the past can be a lot of fun.  Take a look if you haven't already!

Bill Justice: " . . . with a page here and there"

Bill Justice literally did almost everything at the Walt Disney Studio.  Animation, television production, stop motion and special effects, theme park design and character costuming are especially notable among the many disciplines he pursued during his four decades with the company.  He passed away on February 10 at the age of 97, leaving behind a legacy that is near impossible to do justice to in the few paragraphs I will here provide. Justice was known for his outgoing, friendly personality and I believe he would have quite enjoyed my wholly unintentional pun of the previous sentence.

A veteran of the Hyperion studio, Justice spent 28 years in the Animation Department.  He remembered being in the Disney Annex across the street from the main studio buildings, shortly after starting with the company in 1937.  He worked as an in-betweener on scenes from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs before moving onto regular animation under the tutelage of Woolie Reitherman sometime after becoming Reitherman's in-betweener in 1938.

Bill Justice (left) with X Atencio and T. Hee

His name is associated with classics such as Fantasia, Saludos Amigos, Three Caballeros, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan.  With X Atencio and T. Hee, he pioneered stop-motion animation and special effects techniques for films such as Symposium of Popular Songs, Babes in Toyland and Mary Poppins, and the opening credit sequences for The Parent Trap, The Shaggy Dog, Bon Voyage and The Misadventures of Merlin Jones.  He is not given nearly enough credit for his prolific and impressive tenure as an animator on the Donald Duck shorts throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s.  His contributions to the development of Chip and Dale are especially notable.  He participated in a publicity tour to celebrate Donald Duck's 50th Birthday in 1984.  "The Disney Company had a plane to go to fourteen cities in four days so they packed up me and Clarence 'Ducky" Nash to fly to all these events," Justice  remembered.  "But they didn't make any plans for food on board, so we lived on Ding Dongs, Twinkies, apples and peanuts."

Justice worked extensively on the proposed animated feature Gremlins based on a story and ideas by Roald Dahl.  Although the film was never made, many of Justice's pencil illustrations were included in a Gremlins storybook, published by Random House in 1943 and recently reprinted by Dark Horse Books.  Justice recalled, "It was the first book I'd ever illustrated.  I loved those characters."

But perhaps his most famous piece of animation was the opening sequence of the Mickey Mouse Club.  He once noted, "I am proud of that opening animation.  It is the most used piece of animation at the Studio."  Also relating to the Mickey Mouse Club, Justice was very good friends with Jimmie Dodd and recruited him to write the theme song for the program.  Dodd was ultimately selected to be one of the show's two adult Mouseketeers.

In the mid-1960s, Justice was recruited by Walt to join WED Enterprises, and he worked extensively with audio-animatronics, contributing to such high profile attractions as Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, the Hall of Presidents and the Mickey Mouse Revue.  He was especially adept at designing floats and creating costuming for parades; he was responsible for the early Disneyland Christmas parades and did concept work on the Main Street Electrical Parade.  He was one the primary creative forces behind the Disney on Parade stage productions that toured cities across the country beginning in the late 1960s.  Justice's work on Disney on Parade helped significantly advance character costume design in the theme parks.  In 1970, he noted,  "In our amusement park they act as hosts for the guests and are not required to move with the same mobility as the characters in Disney On Parade. For this reason, we had to re-fashion every one of the characters, of which there are more than 100. The total number of costumes, including all the dancers and supporting performers, numbers some 565, and requires three large vans to transport."

Justice's engaging sense of humor was especially evident when he told this particular story in an interview with Disney historian Jim Korkis:

"I did a mural for Walt Disney World for the Walt Disney World Story.  It was twenty-four feet long and eight feet high and had about one hundred and eighty Disney characters in it.  It's beautiful.  I think it is great even though I did it.  Anyway, some guy complained that the Cheshire Cat wasn't in it and that was his favorite character.  So I told them to tell him that the Cheshire Cat is invisible.  The only time you can see him is in the upper right corner of the painting at 2:00 am on alternate Tuesdays and Thursdays when the park is closed."

In the same interview, Justice observed, "Walt Disney and the people I worked with at the Studio wrote the book on quality animation.  I'd like to think I helped with a page here and there."

More than a page here and there, the legacy of Bill Justice speaks volumes.

Totem Pole Parkeology

Editors note:  There must have been some totem pole karma floating around recently.  I had been working on this post for the past two weeks, only to discover that Meet the World addressed Walt Disney World totem poles in this excellent article from January 30.  In addition, our very good friend Jim Korkis discusses totem poles in his most recent article at Mouse Planet.  Hopefully I'll be able to add a little bit to the discussion.

In Walt Disney World's very early years, there was a vast expanse of open land at the edge of Frontierland.  It was the intended location of the never-realized Western River Expedition and its Thunder Mesa landscape; instead it became the home of both Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.  Prior to those expansions, the area was essentially grassy fields interrupted only by small clusters of totem poles and an adjacent walkway that took guests to the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes.  The above photo showcases a group of totem poles that were located near the original Frontierland train station.

This second photograph confirms an additional cluster of totem poles further up the walkway and parallel to the shoreline.  Taking into consideration the foreground location of Tom's Landing on Tom Sawyer Island, the placement of these poles would approximately match the area just to the right of the entrance to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.  There is a sign that is consistent in both photographs.  Here is an aerial view to better relate how it all fits together:

So what happened to the totem poles once Big Thunder moved into the neighborhood?  The following aerial photograph from early 1979 shows where the land has been cleared for the attraction, with barricades extending all the way down to the area of the first cluster.  The photograph also shows that the rear cluster of poles has been removed and relocated closer to the shore just beyond the Explorer Canoe dock.  The front cluster remains in place, but in a decidedly odd manner.  One pole remains outside of the construction barricade while three others remain within the work zone.

A second, ground level photo confirms that observation:

The specifics of when and where all the various poles were relocated will have to be left to sharper eyes than my own.  Jump ahead another year or so and you have two poles now in close proximity to the raft launch to Tom Sawyer Island:

Yet those would ultimately vanish, leaving the remaining ones at the far corner of the shore, where they would over the years slowly vanish into the growing trees and shrubbery. It appears that a few have survived to this day, and remain tucked away in that remote corner of Frontierland, remaining a hidden discovery for the always curious theme parkeologist.

Photo credits: Florida State Archives, Bill Cotter, Bing Maps and flickr user blm07.

Lost Imagineering: Adventures in Science

Our newest Lost Imagineering virtual trading card is a bit of an enigma.  Traveling back to the earliest years of Disneyland, Adventures in Science appeared in the "Dreaming" section of the illustrated souvenir books for a brief period of time.  Beyond the concept art, no additional information about the proposed attraction was given.  Obviously intended for Tommorowland, it never materialized, and it appears to have been off the table prior to that land's extensive makeover in 1967.  The concept art indicates that at least a portion of the attraction was intended as walk-through and outer space figured prominently in some of the content.

Vintage Snapshot! - A Quiet Morning in 1988

This photograph was snapped at EPCOT Center on a very quiet morning in September of 1988.  Aside from my good friend standing amidst the nearby trees, the area surrounding the World of Motion was completely deserted.  Although it was all about technology and progress, Future World possessed a certain intangible magic back then that has been very difficult to rediscover over the last decade or so.  It felt much less cluttered and more epic in scope as this particular image demonstrates.

Studio Geo: Kansas City and the Laugh-O-Grams

Walt Disney began his career as a filmmaker in January of 1920 when he took a job making animated advertisements for the Kansas City Film Ad Company. It was the beginning of a journey that would take a struggling young artist and entrepreneur and eventually mold him into one of the most celebrated icons of 20th century popular culture. The historical map of that journey is an extraordinary one.

Welcome to Studio Geo.  These are the places where Walt Disney created his moving pictures:

31st Street, Kansas City

Walt Disney was nine years old when he and his family moved from the small, idyllic town of Marceline, Missouri to Kansas City during the spring of 1911. Their first residence was a rented house at 2706 East 31st Street, in a neighborhood a few miles southeast of the city's downtown area. In the ensuing years, Walt would spend a year in Paris with the Red Cross and live briefly again in Chicago, the city of his birth. But before the end of the decade, he would return to Kansas City, where very significant events in his life would transpire within a twenty-block stretch of that particular boulevard. 

In the fall of 1914, Walt's parents, Elias and Flora Disney, purchased a small house several blocks east at 3028 Bellefontaine Street just off 31st Street. Frequently a carpenter and craftsman by trade, Elias Disney built a garage behind the house sometime in 1920. It was in this garage that Walt, with a borrowed camera, produced the Newman Laugh-O-Grams, a series of short, topical cartoons for the Newman Theatre, and later Little Red Riding Hood, the first independent Laugh-O-Gram cartoon. At around this time, Walt created the now somewhat iconic design of a cartoon artist at drawing board that identified him as Walt Disney, Cartoonist and listed his specialties of Comic Cartoons, Advertising Cartoons and Animated Motion Picture Cartoons.

Disney family members on the front porch at 3028 Bellefontaine Street.

In 1921, Walt's oldest brother Herbert moved his family to Portland, Oregon. Elias and Flora Disney sold the house and followed Herbert west a few months later, forcing Walt from the Bellefontaine Street residence and his garage studio. He took to renting rooms and set up studios in a few different locations in an area surrounding the intersection of 31st Street and Troost Avenue, about 20 blocks west of his childhood neighborhood. The aforementioned Walt Disney Cartoonist design graced an envelope that showed the 3028 Bellefontaine address scratched out and replaced with a handwritten "3241 Troost," undoubtedly the first of those locations.

The house and garage at 3028 Bellefontaine Street still stand and are privately owned.

Laugh-O-Grams Films and the McConahy Building

In May of 1922, Walt incorporated Laugh-O-Grams Films and set up a new studio on the upper floor of the McConahy Building located at 1127 East 31st Street in Kansas City. Walt often took his meals at the Forest Inn Cafe on the first floor of the building, the restaurant's owners frequently extending him much needed credit. It was at this location that Walt and his staff produced the Laugh-O-Grams series as well as Tommy Tuckers Tooth and the "Song-O-Reel" Martha, a live action sing-along. The studio was just beginning production of the first Alice comedy, Alice's Wonderland in June of 1923, when a lack of rent money forced them from the building. 

The McConahy Building at 1127 East 31st Street in Kansas City.

The names of Walt's colleagues and associates in Kansas City read like a who's who of animation industry pioneers. Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Max Maxwell all worked with Walt at the Laugh-O-Grams studio. One block away from the McConahy Building at the corner of 31st and Troost was a large imposing edifice known as the Wirthman Building. It was home to the elaborate Isis Theater, whose resident organist was a gentleman named Carl Stalling. A well known and popular Kansas City musician, Stalling would be briefly employed by Disney in Hollywood at the dawn of the Mickey Mouse era, but fame would come most notably from his tenure at Warner Bros. a number of years later, composing music for the Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies cartoons. Stalling allowed Walt to show some of his commercial films at the Isis, and he even commissioned him to produce a number of short "song films" for the theater. 

Walt Disney (in the back seat) with members of the Laugh-O-Grams staff.

Following his eviction from the McConahy Building, it is likely that Walt returned to a location he had previously occupied at 3239 Troost Avenue. It would have been there that the studio completed production on Alice's Wonderland, and the company that was Laugh-O-Grams Films subsequently went bankrupt. Shortly thereafter, former colleagues Harman, Ising and Maxwell launched their own studio, renting space in the Wirthman Building. Arabian Nights Cartoons would purchase and employ many of the assets and equipment of the former Laugh-O-Grams studio. Broke, discouraged, but still driven to succeed, Walt boarded a train for California in July of 1923.

The McConahy Building survives still, but it is severely deteriorated and has become the focus of a grass roots restoration effort entitled Thank You Walt Disney. The Wirthman Building and the Isis Theater experienced tragedy and adversity in ensuing decades. The theater survived fires in 1928, 1939 and 1954. In March of 1970, the Isis became the center of racial unrest and rioting, and closed permanently shortly thereafter. Other tenants continued to occupy the Wirthman Building but it was ultimately demolished in 1997.

Studio Geo is a five part series.  Subsequent parts will be published every Monday here at 2719 Hyperion.  Coming next week:  Kingswell and the Disney Brothers Studio.

 Saturday at the Archives: Farewell to a Friend

Editor's Note:  I just recently listened to the audio track for Wonders of China, the first CircleVision 360 film presented at the China pavilion at EPCOT Center.  It put me in mind of this article I wrote in spring of 2007.

Farewell to a Friend

By Jeffrey Pepper

Originally published March 20, 2007

On a recent visit to Epcot’s World Showcase, I discovered in a remote corner of the China retail shops a sentimental reminder of that pavilion’s original CircleVision 360 movie Wonders of China.

Browsing through a selection of small oriental fans, one design in particular caught my eye. It featured the Chinese script and corresponding English translation of the poem Farewell to a Friend, attributed to 8th century poet Li Pai.

First things first. Let's take a look at the description provided by the 1989 Birnbaum Disney World guidebook of the attraction Wonders of China: Land of Beauty, Land of Time. Here is its very detailed synopsis of the film and some background on how it was made:

This 19-minute presentation shows the beauties of a land that few Epcot Center visitors will ever see first hand—and does it so vividly that it's possible to see the film over and over and still not fully absorb all the wonderful sights. The Disney crew was the first Western film group to film certain sites, and their remarkable effort includes such marvels as Beijing's Forbidden City; vast, wide-open Mongolia and its stern-faced tribesmen; the 2,400-year-old Great Wall; the Great Buddha of Leshan, 8 centuries old and dramatically imposing; the muddy Yangtze River and the 3,000-year-old city of Suzhou, whose location on the Grand Canal, which is generally believed to be the largest man-made waterway in the world, encouraged Marco Polo to call it the Venice of the East. There are shots of Shanghai, as well as Hangzhou, where a handful of Chinese are shown doing their morning exercises along the river's edge. Also shown are Huangshan Mountain, wreathed in fog; the Shilin Stone Forest of jagged rock outcroppings in Yunnan Province; Urumqi, whose distance from the sea in Xinjiang Province earned it the title of the most inland city on earth; Lahsa, in Tibet, and its Potala Palace, boasting a thousand rooms and ten times that many altars. Just as fantastic are the Reed Flute Cave and the bizarrely shaped hills of Kweilin above, to say nothing of the very European-looking city of Shanghai. To complete the picture, there are fields of snow and of wheat, high meadows and beaches dotted with tropical palms, harbors and rice terraces, calligraphers, checkers and Ping-Pong players, lightning-fast acrobats, championship horseback riders, camels and a panda bear, glittering ice sculptures, and millions of bicycles.

Almost every step of the way, the film crews were besieged by curious Chinese, even in empty Mon golia. For the Huangshan Mountain sequence, which lasts only seconds, the crew and about three dozen hired laborers had to carry the 600-pound camera uphill for nearly a mile. The Chinese gov ernment would not permit Disney cameramen to shoot aerial footage in some areas, so Chinese crews were sent aloft to record the required scenes, first on videotape and later—after approval from the Disney director in charge of the project—on film. You can see for yourself just how well this collabo ration worked.

As thorough and extensive as this entry was, I was surprised that it made no mention of what to me was the film’s most charming and entertaining component--that being the character of Li Pai, the well known Chinese poet who alternately hosted and narrated the movie.

Depending on language and translation, this famous poet of the Tang Dynasty is known by numerous names--Li Bai, Li Po, Li Bo and our souvenir fan-inscribed Li Pai. Called the Poet Immortal, Pai is considered one of China’s greatest poets. A Wikipedia entry states he is “best known for the extravagant imagination and striking Taoist imagery in his poetry, as well as for his great love for liquor. He spent much of his life travelling, although in his case it was because his wealth allowed him to, rather than because his poverty forced him. He is said to have drowned in the Yangtze River, having fallen from his boat while drunkenly trying to embrace the reflection of the moon.” The website China Culture.org notes that “Li Bai had also an air of a swordsman, hermit, Taoist, and adviser. Notions of Confucianism, Taoism, and chivalry were all embodied in his character.”

In Pai’s compelling and colorful life, Disney filmmakers found a way to take Wonders of China beyond the novelty CircleVision travelogues represented by the various America-themed Tomorrowland 360 films and even to some extent by Epcot’s other CircleVision attraction O Canada. The character’s presence unified the film’s otherwise disjointed sequences, and in essence provided the audience with a wise and knowledgeable traveling companion for a journey into the vast landscape of modern China, heretofore largely unknown to most Walt Disney World guests.

Much of Pai’s charm and appeal in Wonders of China can be attributed to the veteran Hollywood actor who portrayed him--Keye Luke. Luke’s film career began in the mid-1930s and continued up until his death in 1991. He is likely best known for his portrayal of “Number One Son” in numerous Charlie Chan adventures, and later in life as the mysterious Chinatown shopkeeper in both Gremlins movies. When Wonders of China was updated and reintroduced as Reflections of China in 2003, the character of Li Pai remained, with a different actor replacing Luke in a number of newly filmed sequences. Some footage of Luke however did remain in the new film, but his original dialogue was dubbed over by his replacement. The mixture of the two actors makes for an odd disconnect in an otherwise excellent presentation, especially for those of us who hold such fond memories of Luke’s original performance.

So appealing in Wonders of China was this character, that, by the time he recited Farewell to a Friend at the film’s conclusion, you did feel you were parting ways with a longtime companion and not a mere acquaintance of nineteen minutes.

This is the place where we must sever . . .

You go thousands of miles my friend once forever . . .

Like the floating clouds we drift apart . . .

The sunset lingers like the feelings of my heart

Soldier, Do You Have a Light?

Earlier this week we unveiled our second wave of Disney-designed World War II insignia in the 2719 Hyperion Exhibition Hall.  As we have noted, we found the emblems and their identifications inside issues of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories.  Another notable use for the designs was on matchbooks.  According to author Walton Rawls in his book Disney Dons Dogtags:

"There were at least two series of matchbooks featuring Disney-designed military insignia, one of which, produced by the Maryland Match Company for the National Match Company, runs to twelve or more and appears to have been intended for use by the units themselves.  The other series, produced by D.D. Dean and Sons, is clearly an advertising gimmick for Pepsi-Cola and runs to forty-eight separate matchbooks."

The Maryland Match Company series actually included twenty-four designs in total, and were distinguished by their bright yellow color.  Both series duplicated many of the designs published in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories.

According to Rawls, Disney granted the United States Government "exclusive and perpetual right and license" to reproduce and use the designs, but it appeared that they did not want any commercial endeavors to extend beyond military channels.  It remains a mystery how Pepsi-Cola secured licensing for their matchbooks under these particular circumstances.

Matchbook images from Hakes.com

What a Character! - Fresh Up Freddie

You will not find him in any comprehensive listing of Disney animated characters, but Fresh Up Freddie was indeed born within the walls of the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California.  Specifically, he was created in the H-wing of the animation building by a unit of the company whose history has been largely swept under the rug.  Freddie was never destined for big-screen greatness; his sole purpose was to be a cartoon pitchman for 7-Up.

The Disney Studio produced hundreds of television commercials during the 1950s, primarily ones associated with their own television programs: Disneyland, Zorro and the Mickey Mouse Club.  Commercial production was not anything that Walt Disney himself was particularly proud of, and hence it remains largely undocumented in most Disney historical texts.  Fresh Up Freddie was born out of the 7-Up company's sponsorship of the weekly Zorro television show that premiered in 1957.

Of the numerous animated characters created by the commercials unit, Freddie is of particular note due to his similarities in design and personality to two other Disney birds, Panchito and the Aracuan, both of whom originated in the 1944 feature film The Three Caballeros.  In appearance he was a rooster much like Panchito; in mannerisms he was dodge-about hyperactive in a way that often directly mimicked the Aracuan bird.  Freddie was created and designed by Paul Carlson and Dave Detiege, who were both very active with the commercials unit.  According to Carlson, 7-Up bought 26 commercials at $100,000 apiece.  The actual animation was farmed out to freelancers.  Though initially without a name, the bird was ultimately given the moniker "Freddie," a likely tribute to 7-Up bottler Fred Lutz, Jr.  Freddie was voiced by Disney vocal veteran Paul Frees, best known for his zany renditions of Ludwig Von Drake.

Freddie was used as part of a larger advertising campaign that extended to radio, print and even premium items and merchandise.  The consistent buzz-line for the campaign had Freddie saying, "Right now, you're probably asking yourself--" followed by a query relating to the subject of the ad, i.e., "What does a ghost hunter drink to quench his thirst?" or "What does a hot test pilot drink for a quick, refreshing lift?"  Magazine and comic books ads featured full page Freddie adventures.  Freddie would interview fictional celebrities on radio spots, and Freddie was often incorporated into newspaper grocery store ads thanks to 7-Up co-op advertising programs.

Freddie even got into a little hot water with the FBI in 1959.  According to a newspaper account:

"7-Up ran an amusing radio commercial that had "Fresh Up Freddie" Interviewing a make-believe film personality, Kim Schullz. Freddie uttered the following words at the end at the interview, "Thank you, Kim, we'll be seeing you in your latest picture 'I Was a Wonderfully, Terrific Teenager for the FBI'. The FBI wasted little time pulling out the law books and showing Seven-Up that you can't use the word FBI without  written permission. They killed the commercial."

Vintage Snapshot! - That's My Dog!

Yes, there was indeed a time when actual film and television production took place at the Studios park at Walt Disney World.  Case in point: this Vintage Snapshot! documents the taping of an episode of that now classic TV show That's My Dog!  I was present in 1991 as part of the audience for the episode that featured the epic contest between Sassafras and Jenny.  My spouse even got to participate as a judge for one of the show's segments.  The exterior set for the show was located near Residential Street on the Studios backlot.

The gentleman in the white sports coat is Steve Skrovan, the host of That's My Dog! during its first season.  Skrovan would go on to work behind the scenes as a television producer, most notably on Everybody Loves Raymond.  That's My Dog! aired for two seasons on the Family Channel.  The show's second season was filmed at nearby Universal Studios Orlando.

Performing audience warm-up for the show that day was a gentleman named Phil Moore, who would go on to greater fame on a number of Nickelodeon game shows, most notably as the host of Nick Arcade.  According to IMDB, Moore also did warm-ups for the Mickey Mouse Club, another Disney-MGM Studios production.  He was a fun and engaging person and even took a moment to pose with an audience member (indeed, my aforementioned spouse).

Alice in Wonderland: Painting the Roses Blu

As we have said many times in the past, a new high-definition presentation of a Disney animated classic is always a welcome addition to one's home entertainment library.  Alice in Wonderland arrives this week in Blu-Ray format; it recycles many bonus features from previous DVD releases and adds enough new material to warrant a generally enthusiastic recommendation.

Alice in Wonderland has never been one of my favorite Disney films.  I appreciate it more for its artistic and musical pedigrees and the extensive amount of Disney history that surrounds it.  As entertainment, it tends to be a generally cold and dispirited affair.  Despite the tremendous amount of talent and effort that went into crafting it, it never seems to live up to the sum of its parts.  And I would agree that many of those parts are well realized, and even a few border on ingenious.  Ah, but one person's overall disappointment is another person's vibrant wonderland, and thus this version of Lewis Carroll's Victorian-era fantasies has inspired similar and sometimes passionate critical debate since its original release in 1951.

Alice in Wonderland compares favorably with other Disney Blu-Ray upgrades.  Picture and sound are top notch and certainly serve well the bright colors and designs brought to bear by Disney veterans Mary Blair and Claude Coats.  Bonus features from the previous 2004 Masterpiece and 2010 Un-Anniversary editions have been migrated over and new material is notable.  Through the Keyhole: A Companion's Guide to Wonderland is a very informative and entertaining visual commentary of the film.  Combining historical punditry by Disney experts and a plethora of archival footage and images with an actual presentation of the film, it is an immensely enjoyable and surprisingly educational experience.  Disney historians such as Brian Sibley and Charles Solomon participated as did noted Lewis Carroll scholars, giving the production a level of authority and credibility beyond your average DVD supplements.  Also new is the 13-minute documentary Reflections on Alice that is mistakenly identified and categorized with the previously released DVD features.  The original One Hour in Wonderland, Walt's very first television program and included in previous Alice sets, has been upgraded to high definition for the Blu-Ray disc.

Alice in Wonderland is a Disney animated feature that I do not revisit very often, so any excitement I might have for a new high definition edition is somewhat subdued.  But it does still hold a important and necessary place in my film library and I'm happy that it is there and Blu-Ray accessible.


Explore the 2719 Hyperion Archives: 
A Gem from the Musical Archives
Wonderland in Print

Freeze Frame! - Donald in Wonderland

 . . . or even possibly Alice in Mathmagic Land?

Relating to our Alice in Wonderland media review also published today, we thought it would be fun to take a look at a slightly more unconventional Disney interpretation of Lewis Carroll material.  It was rare indeed that a Disney character had the opportunity to cross-dress in the manner of say, Bugs Bunny.  But Donald Duck was drafted for just such a moment, in of all things, the 1959 educational cartoon Donald in Mathmagic Land.  Donald assumes the role of Alice, outfit and all, in a demonstration of how mathematics relates to the game of chess.   Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, was after all a well know Oxford mathematician, as the cartoon's narrator is quick to point out.

Exhibition Hall: Service With Character - Wave II

Our exploration of Disney-designed World War II-era insignia continues in this, our latest 2719 Hyperion Exhibition Hall exhibit.  Service With Character - Wave II: Whimsical Thought and Serious Intent presents forty more emblem designs culled from the pages of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories.  These particular insignia were featured in issues of the comic book published during the early part of 1943.  Included are the corresponding identifications and descriptions that appeared with each design.

Wave II includes a greater representation of established Disney characters.  Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto are all prominently featured, while Jose Carioca, Clara Cluck, the Big Bad Wolf and even a Fantasia broomstick were among other members of the Disney canon drafted into service.

The title of this exhibit is derived from the description for the insigne of the 117th CA GP (AA), affectionately dubbed "Annie Aircraft."  It noted that the design combined "whimsical thought and serious intent."  It seemed an appropriate description for the Disney Studio's overall efforts in providing insignia designs.

Service with Character - Wave II: Whimsical Thought and Serious Intent is currently on display in Exhibit Room 2W2.  Enjoy! 

 Saturday at the Archives: In the Land of the Peeweegah
Editor's Note:  Our recent exploration of Disney's Little Hiawatha reminded us of the classic Carl Barks comic The Land of the Pygmy Indians, which also owed inspiration to Longfellow's epic poem.  We discussed both Barks' story and Don Rosa's sequel to it in this article from 2007.

In the Land of the Peeweegah
By Jeffrey Pepper
Originally published July 10, 2007

Gemstone Publishing has just released the first volume of a new comic book series that features the work of their two most notable and famous comic creators, the legendary Carl Barks, and contemporary Duck scribe Don Rosa. Rosa has always used Bark’s body of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge stories as the foundation and inspiration for his own efforts over the past twenty years, often penning direct sequels to many of the Duckman’s epic adventures. Each issue of the ongoing Barks-Rosa Collection will bring an original Barks endeavor and its subsequent Rosa sequel together in one publication.

The just-released first volume pairs Barks’ classic 1957 Uncle Scrooge adventure The Land of Pygmy Indians with Rosa’s 1990 The War of the Wendigo.

While one does not normally associate America’s post-war years with eco-friendly attitudes and conservation-based movements, Carl Barks certainly and not-so-subtlety infused The Land of Pygmy Indians with environmentally-conscious sensibilities. The conflict between industrialization and conservation is encapsulated in Uncle Scrooge, who in the story’s opening panel, rages about Duckburg’s “smog and noise and shoving people,” and expresses his desire to relocate to an unspoiled land free of roads, cities, factories and people. Yet, just a few panels later after Scrooge has purchased a large tract of northern wilderness from Sidewalk Sam the Real Estate Man, Scrooge acknowledges to himself that he is the one responsible for the “chemical gases, smelter smoke and factory fumes” that permeate Duckburg. It touches on the same “we have met the enemy and it is us” supposition that fellow cartoonist and Disney alumnus Walt Kelly brought to his famous Pogo comic strip years later.

 
This theme continues as Scrooge, accompanied by Donald and the nephews, heads north to survey his newly acquired property. As the group marvels at sapphire blue lakes and beautiful natural vistas, Scrooge finds himself instinctively identifying the region’s untapped resources that are just begging for exploitation.

The Peeweegah Indians emerge from this wilderness and quite rightly question the motivations of the paleduck visitors. Scrooge, despite attempting to repress his crass commercialism, still insists that he is the land’s rightful owner. The Peeweegah chief disputes these claims in an eloquent oration spoken in rhythms inspired by Longfellow’s classic The Song of Hiawatha poem:

By whom was this token given?

By whose hand these written scratches?

Did the sun from high above you

Sell you all these lands and waters?

Did the winds that bend the pine trees?

Did the snows that fall in winter?

Did the rain shower or the lightning

Sign away these forests to you?

Me no believe that such a token

Would be honored by the fishes

By the creatures of the forest

By the birds we call our brothers

In the land of the Peeweegahs!

None could sign away these woodlands,

None could have the right or reason,

But the chiefs of all the brothers

In a powwow with the seasons!

Scrooge is forced to prove his not-so-sincere intentions by the standard trial by fire ritual, in this case besting the King Sturgeon, a giant villainous fish that terrorizes both the peaceful Peeweegahs and the local wildlife as well. Naturally it is Donald, the paleducks’ champion, who ultimately must challenge and bring about the sturgeon’s defeat.

It is no small irony that the sturgeon is vanquished using the very resources that Scrooge so desperately covets. The ever resourceful nephews concoct a pill comprised of the “oxide of strombolium” made of materials Scrooge has been lovingly sifting from the area’s soil. When Scrooge is later made ill and driven back to Duckburg by a drag on a peace pipe laced with the very same elements, that same irony is revisited again. In the tale’s final panels, Scrooge revels in Duckburg’s toxic pollution he initially sought so desperately to escape.

Don Rosa returned Scrooge, Donald and the nephews to the northern wilderness of Canada in The War of the Wendigo, and the environmental concerns of the late 20^th century became the focal point of this story still set in Barks’ postwar duck universe. Rosa always made a point of keeping his stories grounded in a 1950s time frame, maintaining consistency with Barks original stories. When the nephews astutely identify “acid rain” at one point in the story, it bears the tone of a newly coined term rather than an established idiom. Let’s face it, when recognizing ecological issues, the Junior Woodchucks were literally decades ahead of their time.

Traveling to Ontario to inspect his paper mills, Scrooge and the boys are drawn into the mystery of the Wendigo, legendary gremlins of the north woods. The Wendigo in fact turn out to be the Peeweegah, who with their animal brethren are sabotaging one of Scrooge’s main mills. The mill is spewing pollutants that are impacting the Peeweegah’s native lands, the same lands Scrooge had vowed to preserve and protect. After the Peeweegah kidnap Scrooge to hold him accountable for his perceived betrayal, the mill’s plant manager, Ravage DeFlora quickly sets in motion a plan to plunder the Great North’s natural resources and spread devastation.

Though the resulting climax involves a large scale revolt on the part of Mother Nature’s normally passive creatures and the destruction of the paper mill, it is once again the Peeweegah chief who provides Scrooge with some much needed wisdom and perspective:

Oh, paleface duck of big wampum,

How you think you got your riches?

Did man put gold in the Yukon

For you to dig out with shovel?

Did man fill you mines with diamonds?

Did man fill your wells with oil?

Did man plant the ancient forests

That turned to coal for your digging?

Scrooge Mac-Duck, you owe your riches

To the Mother Nature spirit!

This day spirit has decided

To take back this tiny portion!

With lessons hopefully learned, Scrooge vows to “install pollution controls in all his factories” and “plant two trees for everyone he cuts.” But it is the words of a Junior Woodchuck in the story’s final panel that reflects a contemporary reality that extends beyond any comic book story:

“Do you think Unca Scrooge will ever learn to appreciate the non-financial profits?”

It is the same question that we in the 21^st century must ask when confronting those inconvenient truths similar to the ones Scrooge McDuck encountered in the land of the Peeweegah. 

Uncle Scrooge Adventures: The Barks/Rosa Collection Volume 1 is available to order from the popular online booksellers, as well as directly from Gemstone Publishing.

Vintage Snapshots! - The Streets of Birthdayland

We have visited the locales of Mickey's Birthdayland quite a few times here at 2719 Hyperion, most recently showcasing Mickey's automobile in a recent Vintage Snapshot!  These two photographs highlight street signs that identified the various avenues of Birthdayland's Duckburg setting.  Of particular note is Hyperion Boulevard for obvious reasons.  If memory serves, there was also a sign that identified the corner of Barks and Nash, paying homage to comic book legend Carl Barks and longtime Donald Duck voice artist Clarance Nash.

Mickey's Birthdayland was hastily constructed in 1988 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the creation of Mickey Mouse.  It evolved into Mickey's Starland, and then after an extensive reconstruction, into Mickey's Toontown Fair.

Freeze Frame! - Young Jim Hawkins and Stitch

Relating to our recent Retro Review of Treasure Planet, we present this Freeze Frame that shows a certain pint-sized creature in residence at the Benbow Inn.  Lilo and Stitch preceded Treasure Planet into movie theaters by less than six months, but Treasure Planet background artists still manged to sneak in a reference to the furry blue alien near the beginning of the film.  A toy version of Stitch can be seen perched on a shelf  in Jim Hawkins' bedroom.

Retro Review: You're Going to Rattle the Stars, You Are

I just recently revisited Treasure Planet for the first time since its home video release in spring of 2003.  Even though I enjoyed the film very much when it was released in 2002, it faded rather quickly from my memory, no doubt in part due to its lukewarm critical reception and rather disastrous box office returns.  People for the most part, including even the most passionate of Disney fans, simply stopped talking about it.  It even seems that the Walt Disney Company itself has subtlety disowned it.

It deserves better.

Treasure Planet does have its passionate supporters of which I now include myself.  Voyages Extraordinaires author Cory Gross called the film an "unsung Disney classic" and noted, "It proposes a swashbuckling, romantic aesthetic for the Hubble Age that prefigured the popularity of Disney's pirate band and silhouettes them against beautiful novae and nebulae."  You can find Cory's intelligent and very articulate review of Treasure Planet here; he pretty much states all of the things about it that I wish I could have included here in this Retro Review.  Needless to say, I wholly agree with his conjecture that it is perhaps the company's most underrated film since Fantasia.  Similar to Fantasia, Treasure Planet, in concept, design and execution, was most certainly years ahead if its time.

I was drawn back to Treasure Planet, primarily due to my recent fascination with Victorian-Edwardian Scientific Romance and Retro-Futurism.  (Again, a nod to Cory and his Voyages Extraordinaires site, where I have been extensively educated in these matters, and in the nuances and ambiguities of what many people now refer to as "steampunk.")  My Hawkins Strongbox project reflects this passion, and my interest in matters of this regard can be easily traced back to the formative Disney years of my youth.  This was when I had only a passing interest in animation and had yet to experience a theme park, but was drawn like moth to flame to Disney live-action adventure films.  In Search of the Castaways and The Island at the Top of the World are among the Saturday matinee memories that I still cherish to this day, and I have no doubt that those experiences laid the subconscious groundwork for my most recent explorations into these aforementioned genres that encompass almost every known category of entertainment.  (Yes, there is even a steampunk category of music; check out Abney Park for starters.)

Treasure Planet is in my opinion, a creative amalgamation of themes attributed to three of the 19th century's most recognized authors of fantastic fiction: Robert Louis Stevenson, Jules Verne, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.  The connection to Stevenson is of course direct, being based on that author's classic adventure tale, Treasure Island.  From Verne and Burroughs come notions of space travel and otherworldly settings.  Treasure Planet filmmakers John Muskers and Ron Clements (writers-producers-directors) married these notions to some retro-modern technologies and crafted a stunning and often visually complex masterpiece, for which they have never been given enough credit.

One consistent criticism of the film is that it "lacked heart."  I have always found this to be a particularly shallow critical cliche and one all too easy to get away with.  Visually dynamic films frequently fall victim to this conjecture and Treasure Planet proved to be no exception.  The centerpiece of any Treasure Island adaptation is the relationship between the young Jim Hawkins and the always questionable Long John Silver.  Treasure Planet serves well that story element and brings to bear an emotional resonance that culminates with film's final interaction between the two characters.  Silver's journey of redemption rings especially true when he tells Jim with unabashed pride that, "You're going to rattle the stars, you are."

Hopefully in the years to come, Treasure Planet will shed some of the critical and box office baggage it has been forced to burden and move beyond the general apathy that continues to plague it.  It will certainly never receive the top-tier status afforded the likes of Snow White and Beauty and the Beast, but perhaps it will at least be able to rise to a more respectable level within the rankings of Disney animated features.