Merry Halloween!

Merry Halloween to all!

...and to all, a good night!

Be Safe Everyone!

Deck the Halls with Ghoulish Delight

It's that time of the year again, when holidays collide!  Once again, the Halloween decorations are dense and immense all over Disneyland. There is extra fun during Mickey's Halloween Party, when there is added music and lighting effects.  The various windows on Main Street are back-lit with flashing LED glow. It's hard to describe and something you just need to see. It would be fun to see this any night during Halloween Time and not just during the special event

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Walt's Formal Office - D23 Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives at the Ronald Reagan Library

After Walt Disney passed away in December 1966, his office was left untouched with exception of his secretaries and housekeeping. When Dave Smith was initially hired by the company as a consultant, there was not much work to do. The archives had not been officially created yet and many in the company were not aware that anyone was keeping track of such things.

Recently, I had the chance to speak to Dave about the process of archiving the offices. One of the first assignments Dave took on occurred in 1970, was to catalog and store everything in both Walt's formal and working offices.  He painstaking made detailed notes, took exact measurements and catalogs each item including furniture, books and trinkets through the rooms. The items were boxed up and put into storage.  Dave said that he felt perhaps one day, someone would want to recreate the office, much like is done with the oval office at Presidential libraries.

The office space was later used by Ron Miller and then Michael Eisner.  Currently, it is occupied by Shaun Cassidy for his production company.

It wasn't long before these items came out of storage and were put into Disneyland when The Walt Disney Story opened in the Main Street Opera House in April 1973.  Walt's working office was packed up and shipped to Walt Disney World in 2002 as part of the "One Man's Dream" exhibit and remains on loan there from the archives to this day.  The formal office was packed up at Disneyland in 2009 when The Walt Disney Story featuring Great Moments with Abraham Lincoln was again reworked and reopened.

Current Display at the Reagan Library

 Right now, the formal office is once again on display.  It now features the exact dimensions and exact placement of all items as they were originally when Walt Disney used the office.  

 

You can see this display at the D23 Treasures of the Archives exhibit opening July 6, 2012 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA.

New and Improved! Disney California Adventure

The all new entrance to Disney California Adventure Park is complete.  Buena Vista Street is now where you make your way into the park.  The detail is incredible and immersive.  You really feel transported to something between a movie set and the real thing.  There are new shops and dining establishments.  There are even "streetmosphere" entertainers, like those found at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida.  The place looks fantastic.

The details are not just outside, but inside the shops as well.

These are just a few of the places you'll upon entering the park.  It is really nice to see the amount of detail and care put into DCA, making it the kind of park we actually all expected to see in 2001.  Well, it took another decade and a little over a billion dollars to get there, but it was worth it.  It reopens June 15, 2012.

Friday Quote from Mr. Disney

"I never called my work an 'art' It's part of show business, the business of building entertainment."
-Walt Disney

Cars Land is opening June 15, 2012

Leap Day 2012 at Disneyland

Starting at 6 AM tomorrow morning, Disneyland (and the Magic Kingdom at WDW) will open for 24 hours straight.  I plan to hit the park around 1 AM on March 1st to experience some after hours magic.  Here are something unique happenings at the park during the late night hours:

• Performances by Billy Hill & the Hillbillies at The Golden Horseshoe from 11:15 p.m. – 4:45 a.m.
• A Special showing of “Fantasmic!” at 1 a.m.
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• Character meet & greets throughout the night (subject to change):
• Mickey Mouse and friends in pajamas at Carnation Plaza Gardens
• Darth Vader and Stormtroopers in Tomorrowland
• Country Bears in Frontierland

Monday Quote from Walt Disney

“A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive.” - Walt Disney

Monday Quote from Walt Disney

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."  -Walt Disney

Some Special Sights at Knott's from 1/12/2012

Marion Knott and the Mayor of Calico at the re-dedication

A real live bandit

Marion, posing for press.

Backstage tour of the Calico Saloon stage, by "Fingers" himself.

Fantastic model trains on display this weekend only.

A roundhouse you can visit!

The Lone Boysenberry

It's very unorthodox of me to put posts about Knott's up on this blog, but today I visited the park for the 60th re-dedication of the Calico Railroad and Ghost Town.  I learned that there is only one known boysenberry bush remaining inside the park.  It's located on the outside of the roundhouse but unless you are touring the building, you probably won't ever notice it.  It seems the last of the known bushes were removed from the park when the Silver Bullet was installed over the lake.  This current bush was transplanted from some of the other remaining bushes across Western Avenue several years ago.

Pulling An All-Nighter

I was there! at the 60 hour party in 1986 for Captain Eo's premiere and again in 1987 when Star Tours opened at Disneyland. I remember lots of people sleeping on benches and a long line that stretched down to Main Street. I even still have my Captain Eo t-shirt given out to everyone who attended the party.

Disney announced early this morning that they will be holding a similar event at both Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom on Feb 29th from 6am through March 1st at 6am. This time it's only 24 hours and not three days, but it's the same concept.

I must admit that I am intrigued over the idea of being at Disneyland and perhaps riding the Haunted Mansion at 3 in the morning. As for staying the full 24 hours, forget it. For me, it would likely end up causing an aversion to the park that could last for weeks. I'm not gonna take the chance.

Happy New Year from Walt's Magic Kingdom

Original Cel from Steamboat Willie held by The Walt Disney Archives

Merry Christmas from Walt's Magic Kingdom!

The Disney Archives Christmas Tree

Missing the Reindeer

Photo from Flickr

The Christmas Fantasy Parade of the old days featured the tall, silly looking reindeer, with tongues that hung out farther than Pluto's.  They were whimsical.  The newer reindeer appear more feminine, in my opinion.

Breakfast with Leonard

The man is a legend.  I mean who knows more about movies than Leonard Maltin? I sourced a lot of material from him while working on my masters thesis, specifically on the topic of Disney films.  When I found out I was going to get to interview him regarding his 2012 Movie Guide, I couldn't decide what not to ask him.  I was only going to have 10 minutes and I had so much that I wanted and could discuss with him.

First off, I inquired why he is still printing a book version of his guides being that we live in this iPad/Kindle/digital age.  Well he quickly informed me that the information is available as an App for your Ipod and iPad with more information than what could be put in the book.  The other reason for the book is the target audience - older people.  I even told him how as a kid, I used to go through his books and memorize stats like a sports fan memorizes baseball cards. The fact is that older generations are not necessarily interested in looking up information on the internet, they want a physical reference guide.  And really, a book is just easier to use.

Maltin also explained that he too will use IMDB on occasion but it it not always the most effecient way to find or organize data.  Sometimes you want the simplicity of a book, where you can look up the title and see if it's worth watching and who starred in it.

Since we share a love of Disney animation, I went on to discuss some concepts with him.  One of my first questions was to name his favorite Disney short.  He quickly and simply answered "The Band Concert." You'll recall that one.  It's where Mickey is conducted the orchestra in the park as it gets picked up and carried away by a tornado.  It was the first color Mickey Mouse cartoon and is considered by many to be one of the best.  It even has it's own theme park attraction at DCA!  It was no surprise that Maltin named it as his favorite.

I went on to discuss with him my actual thesis topic, which was the restoration of Disney's animated features and the loss of the animation art.  I wish had this access to him about six years ago when I had first begun that project.  He made a good point, which is that as much as they try, there is no way to completely reproduce on a DVD and television the look of those animated films which were recorded onto silver nitrate film and projected against a silver screen.  They can come close but it won't look the same.  There is also the slippery slope of "what were they trying to make it look like?"  Akin to "What would Walt do?"  He thinks the most recent restoration work done Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was excellent.

My time with Mr. Maltin went by all too fast, but I did get to ask one other fun question: Keaton or Lloyd?  While he appreciated my slant on the old question of Keaton or Chaplin, he still refused to answer.  He said it was pointless to try to say one is better than the other.  While I admit I am a Harold Lloyd fan over Chaplin and Keaton, it is still silly to compare them against each other.  Each was a master of comedy.  The discussion ended when Tony Anselmo walked by the table and had some small talk with Maltin.  That too was almost unbelievable.

Much like our conversation, the book is awesome.  Maltin's 2012 Movie Guide has grown by another 300 entries since the 2010 edition with over 17,000 movies covered.  He also has the Classic Film Guide with over 10,000 movies from the beginning of film through the 60s with even more detail given to each movie.  These books would make great holiday gifts and are reasonably priced at Amazon. Get your 2012 Movie Guide now!

Lucky photo op!

(c) Disney

On a recent studio visit by D23 for media, they just happened to also be taking a photo for an upcoming D23 magazine issue.  After watching the initial photo being snapped, we were invited into the photo for the legends and luminaries.  In addition to the media and family members of those special guests, were the following people:

Kathryn Beaumont - voice of Alice and Wendy
Alice Davis - Imagineer
Lisa Davis - voice of Anita in 101 Dalmatians
Joe Hale - animation producer
Dickie Jones - voice of Pinocchio
Margaret Kerry - model for Tinker Bell
Burny Mattinson - storyboard artist
Floyd Norman - animator
Richard Sherman - composer/lyricist
Ruthie Thompson - scene planner, ink and paint girl (101 years old!)
Tyrus Wong - background artist for Bambi (also 101 years old!)

Another visit to the Disney archive

D23 hosted a media event recently to give a us a presentation of some of the upcoming D23 events.  While at the Disney Studios, we were also given another chance to explore around the archives, including the mysterious second floor!  Below are some items I found interesting:

Disneyland Barker Bird

Jug from Darby O'Gill and the Little People

This photo is just one of many bookshelves of random items.  Above, you can see heads from Pirates and Haunted Mansion.  There is also a small model of the multi-plane camera.  The maquette on the right is from The Black Cauldron.  The ships on the left were used for designing the ships for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Happy Birthday Uncle Walt!

110 Years Young Today!

Meeting Richard Sherman

I had the awesome opportunity to visit the archives as a D23 media guest.  In addition to learning about all the fantastic D23 events coming up, I also was able to rub shoulders with several Disney legends and luminaries such as Alice Davis, Dickie Jones, Floyd Norman and Richard Sherman.

We all were fortunate to have Richard Sherman sit down at Walt's piano and play some tunes.  This is the same piano that the Sherman Brothers used to showcase their new tunes for Walt in his working office.  This piano for many years was seen inside the Opera House on Main Street at Disneyland.

Richard Sherman played for us the music to Feed the Birds, followed by a sing-along of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.  Lastly, he played Chimpanzoo, a song cut from Mary Poppins prior to production.

After the performance and after many of the guests left, I approached him for a photo and some small talk.  I told him how much I enjoyed the documentary "The Boys" about he and Robert's relationship.  I also expressed my appreciation for the legendary music he created over years.  He mentioned how special it was to work at the studio during Walt's time. "It felt like a family," he said.  To say it was a magical moment is an understatement.  All of the invited luminaries seemed truly happy to be recognized.  Their group photo will appear in an upcoming issue of the D23 Magazine.