2719 HYPERION

Adventures in True Life

2008-07-23T11:01:00.001-04:00

The great outdoors beckon! Let's spend the next part of our summer vacation on a trip through nature's wonderland.

Explore the 2719 Hyperion Archives:

Desert Living in the Living Desert
The True-Life Winston Hibler
A Different Kind of Disney Adventure

A South of the Border Holiday

2008-07-21T09:55:00.001-04:00

For our next vacation jaunt, let's head south of the border for some caballero-inspired fun and festivities.

Explore the 2719 Hyperion Archives:

Caxanga!
What a Character! - The Aracuan Bird
Comic Book Caballeros
Snapshot! - Burrito at Panchito's
Las Posadas
Taking the Gran Fiesta Tour
Festival de los Mariachis

Snapshot: Disneyland! - The Gullywhumper

2008-07-20T12:24:00.002-04:00

The Mike Fink Keelboats have not navigated the Rivers of America in Disneyland for over a decade. On May 17, 1997, the Gullywhumper tipped over, dunking a boatload of guests. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, but the Gullywhumper was ultimately retired to this remote area of Tom Sawyer Island. The Gullywhumper's sister boat, the Bertha Mae, was sold on eBay in 2001.

Vacation at Brownstone

2008-07-19T09:31:00.001-04:00

Summer is the perfect time for a vacation trip to one of our famous and picturesque national parks. How about a tour of Brownstone?

Explore the 2719 Hyperion Archives:

What a Character! - Ranger J. Audubon Woodlore
In the Bag - July 27, 1956
Happy Birthday Humphrey! Well Sort of . . .
Snapshot: Disneyland! - Fire Hazard: Medium
Snapshot! - Bear Crossing

You Don't Look a Day Over Forty . . .

2008-07-17T00:05:00.002-04:00

Explore the 2719 Hyperion Archives:

Souvenirs: Pennant Magic and Adventure

The Toontown Field Guide

Snapshot: Disneyland!
Donald Duck Goes to Disneyland

The Disneyland (Four Color) Birthday Party

2008-07-17T00:01:00.000-04:00

On this day, Disneyland's 53rd Birthday, we commemorate the 50th Anniversary of a comic book the celebrated the third birthday of the Happiest Place on Earth.

Walt Disney's Disneyland Birthday Party was a Dell Giant comic book published during the summer of 1958.

Adventure Awaits!

2008-07-15T10:49:00.004-04:00

My very, very good friend and podcast buddy Lou Mongello has released the second volume in his Audio Guide to Walt Disney World series. This time around, Lou guides us through the exotic paths of Adventureland. For an informative and extended review of the new CD, check out George Taylor's recent post over at Imaginerding.

My association with the Audio Guide series goes beyond just stumping for a friend. As with the first volume in the series, Main Street U.S.A., I had the distinct privilege once again to provide the illustration and design work for the compact disc packaging. Check out the JP Digital Graphics and Design site to view the entire graphics package.

Explore the 2719 Hyperion Archives:

Walk Down the Middle of Main Street U.S.A. - Without Leaving Home!

Vacation Parade

2008-07-13T21:58:00.003-04:00

Posts will be relatively light here at 2719 Hyperion for the next two weeks. My family and I will be taking an extended and distinctly non-Disney related vacation that will afford little opportunity for Disney-based discourse. I will try to fill in the spaces with some explorations into the 2719 Hyperion Archives, so continue to check in.

As always, thanks to our many, many loyal readers who continue to provide encouragement and support for our efforts here. It is very much appreciated.

Snapshot! - N.P. 5357

2008-07-10T12:06:00.003-04:00

In somewhat striking contrast to the feudal Japanese fortress that houses it is the Tin Toy Stories showcase, located in the Japan pavilion at EPCOT's World Showcase. Standing sentry outside the entrance to the exhibit is N.P. 5357, an oversize recreation of one of the most famous of all tin toy robots. A tin toy Mickey Mouse looks on from the nearby window display.

Adventurers Almanac: Artifact Overload Everywhere!

2008-07-09T14:40:00.006-04:00

From Volume 56, Issue No. 8 of the Adventurers Almanac comes this plea in regard to the aesthetics of the Club's entranceway:

A general announcement has been made on behalf of both the Landscaping Committee and the Artifact Committee. To put it simply, these Committees request that Members do not leave artifacts unattended in front of the Club.

Recent visitors to the Club could not help but notice many "new additions" to the Club entrance. There is, evidently, a new custom being practiced by our Members who have items they wish to submit as loans or donations to the Permanent Collection. Upon arrival at the Club, Adventurers appear to be simply leaving the trophies and acquisitions from recent expeditions on the front lawn and front stoop. While some of these are tagged or registered with Club curator, Fletcher Hodges, others are merely stacked, piled, or stuck in the ground. The aesthetic offense being taken by our more staid and traditional members, however, is nothing compared to the real danger created by this random manner of artifact warehousing.

A recent lecture scheduled on "Central African Tribal Feuds" turned into a minor tragedy as a result of our haphazard entry way decor. Lecture Committee chairman, Comdr. (Retired) Alan Glassman, had the near impossible task of calming down our hysterical guest lecturer, a Mishanti tribal chieftain named Oshubu.

Apparently a cluster of spears casually stuck in the front lawn by a thirsty Adventurer in a hurry to visit with Nash, was unknowingly placed in a configuration that symbolized a curse on Oshubu's livestock. Only after protracted apologies, pleas of ignorance, and lengthy financial negotiations was Comdr. Glassman able to convince our Ashanti visitor not to cut off the right thumb of everyone in the Club at that moment (evidently the only way to counteract the curse, according to their traditions). Needless to say, the lecture was canceled as a simple precautionary measure.

The delay and altering of the evenings activities caused further mayhem, however. Dame Mildred had come dressed for the lecture in an authentic Mishanti costume, quite fetchingly fashioned entirely out of porcupine quills. She consumed several chilled adult beverages while waiting for the evenings events and then several more than her usually liberal limit. She caused a great deal of alarm by inadvertently inflicting several nasty puncture wounds upon fellow attendees when the lecture was hastily replaced by a square dance competition.

In order to avoid further complications, we ask that no more artifacts are added to the front of the Club without first obtaining permission from Club curator, Fletcher Hodges.

Special thanks to Wade Sampson for mentioning our Adventurers Almanac series in his recent article at MousePlanet!

Freeze Frame! - Dancing With the Firehouse Five Plus Two

2008-07-08T09:32:00.005-04:00

"The roots of the band germinated in the early 1940's when some of us at the Disney Studio used to gather in my office at lunchtime to listen to my records of such jazz legends as King Oliver, Baby Dodds, Jelly Roll Morton, and Louis Armstrong. Since most of our little nucleus of old-time jazz lovers had played various musical instruments back in school, we decided to really get into the spirit of the music by playing along with the records. Then one day the phonograph broke down right in the middle of "Royal Garden Blues." Undaunted, we kept right on playing and found to our amazement that we sounded pretty good all by ourselves!"

-Ward Kimball

The Firehouse Five Plus Two was no mere musical novelty act. Popular with both the general public and jazz music enthusiasts, the group's notoriety extended well beyond their roots at the Disney Studios. In a 1999 article for the Frisco Cricket, writer Hal Smith described the origin of the band's firefighting motif:

With leader Ward Kimball, trombone; Clarke Mallery, clarinet; Frank Thomas, piano; Ed Penner, bass sax and Jim McDonald on drums, the group billed itself as the “Hugageedy 8” and later as the “San Gabriel Valley Blue Blowers.” Eventually they picked up a trumpet man—Johnny Lucas—and a fine banjoist: Harper Goff. The final evolution came about when the Kimballs discussed the idea of taking the band along on a Horseless Carriage Club caravan from Los Angeles to San Diego. The only vehicle Ward Kimball could locate which was large enough to hold the band and old enough to qualify for the caravan was a 1914 American LaFrance fire truck. Keeping with the “fire” motif, Kimball acquired genuine fire helmets and red fireshirts to outfit the band. The newly-outfitted band was rechristened as the “Firehouse Five Plus Two."

Being born out of the Disney Studio, it was only fitting that the Firehouse Five Plus Two find their way into a Disney-produced cartoon. In 1953, they appeared in the Goofy short How to Dance, and were even acknowledged on the short's title card.

Four Color Vacationland

2008-07-06T15:41:00.007-04:00

For many baby boomers such as myself, comic books were a staple of childhood summertimes. Walt Disney's Mickey and Donald in Vacationland, published in 1961, celebrated the fun and joys of summer vacation. The book's title story featured a major character mash-up set in a Wicked Witch-created amusement park called "Vacationland." Featured in the story were Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, Daisy, Uncle Scrooge, Goofy, both sets of nephews, Gyro Gearloose, Grandma Duck, Gladstone, the Wicked Witch, Big Bad Wolf and Captain Hook.

Other stories featured additional odd but inspired teamups. Goofy and Gyro go time traveling; Mickey helps the Seven Dwarfs solve their Diamond Mine Dilemma; and Chip 'n' Dale investigate Brer Rabbit's Bad Habit; Huey, Dewey, Louie and April, May and June help Gepetto test toys. And no Disney Dell Giant would be complete without a ample selection of activity pages. Here are a few fun samples:

Souvenirs: A Star Spangled Celebration

2008-07-04T10:31:00.005-04:00

More and more traditional types of souvenirs seem to be fading from view in the many, many retail shops across Walt Disney World. There was a time when you could pretty much purchase a button themed to just about any attraction, resort or special festivity. Here are a few with a distinct Independence Day theme. I purchased them sometime in the late 1980s, early 1990s.

Out of Town for the Holiday

2008-07-04T09:18:00.005-04:00

I'm spending the holiday weekend in Passammaquoddy for the big 4th of July Cookout. Many of my fellow Disney bloggers will also be there so be sure to check out the festivities. In the meantime, jump into the 2719 Hyperion Archives for some Independence Day-themed fun:

America on Parade

Souvenirs: License to Collect

Lost Imagineering: A Happy, Fun American Adventure

Lost Imagineering: Liberty Street

Lost Imagineering: Disney's America

The End of Pleasure Island

2008-07-03T08:03:00.004-04:00

. . . as we have known it.

Explore the 2719 Hyperion Archives:

The Leagacy of Merriweather Adam Pleasure
More on Merriweather Adam Pleasure
Souvenirs: Pleasure Island Memories
Tales from the Adventurers Almanac

Snapshot! - The House of Magic

2008-07-02T12:54:00.004-04:00

On the Streets of America in Disney's Hollywood Studios, a somewhat dark and mysterious storefront facade subtlety pays tribute to, what was for nearly two and a half decades, a Main Street institution at the nearby Magic Kingdom theme park. The House of Magic opened with Walt Disney World in October 1971 and was easily one of the most fun and entertaining retail shops on property. It was sadly closed in spring of 1995 as part of an extensive Main Street makeover.

Presto!

2008-07-01T22:25:00.004-04:00

In a somewhat surprising move, the Pixar short film Presto has been made available for purchase on iTunes while simultaneously playing in theaters with Wall-E.

The Toontown Field Guide: Country Living Issue 34.6

2008-07-01T20:51:00.004-04:00

Mickey's Toontown Fair at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World is dense with details and rich with backstory. The area's various attractions and set pieces come together in a central point of connectivity in Minnie's House, by way of large framed covers of the magazine Minnie's Cartoon Country Living. A careful examination of these covers will reveal connections to characters and locations scattered throughout Mickey's Toontown Fair.

Issue 34.6 features Minnie as the "Toon Painter of the Year." This bears a very direct connection to one of the rooms in Minnie's House. The room is an arts and crafts studio and in it are displayed various works of art including paintings and sculptures. It is also the home of Minnie's sewing machine and a prize-winning quilt is displayed nearby. Quite a bit of crockery is displayed in the room, indicating that Minnie also has some skill with a potter's wheel. The view from the room looks out across Toontown Fair to Goofy's Wiseacre Farm. From this vantage point, Minnie must have bore witness to Goofy's cataclysmic plane flight that formed the basis of the backstory to the Barnstormer attraction. She is in the middle of capturing on canvas Goofy's fateful encounter with the farm's water tower.

One less obvious detail from the magazine cover involves the headline "New Toon Diet- ERASE THOSE POUNDS AWAY!" In the hallway just outside of Minnie's kitchen is a small table with a telephone. On the table is a note Minnie has received from Flora, Fauna and Merriweather, the good fairies from Sleeping Beauty. The note reads:

Dear Minnie,

We tried the diet you recommended in your Summer Issue and it works like magic!

Yours Truley,
Flora, Fauna & Merriweather

We will continue to explore the various covers of Minnie's Cartoon Country Living in future installments of the Toontown Field Guide. Stay tooned!

The Reality of Wall-E

2008-06-29T11:30:00.001-04:00

Wall-E doesn't play by the rules. I refer to Wall-E the film as opposed to Wall-E the character.

While it seems that praise has been nearly universal for this latest Pixar film, a considerable amount of dialog has emerged about what many consider the movie's somewhat odd mixture of formats. Specifically, the initial presentation of photo-realistic characters and environments, the use of live-action footage (primarily in the scenes featuring actor Fred Willard) and the somewhat dramatic aesthetic shift to the more cartoony realizations of the human beings aboard the Axiom spaceship in the film's latter half.

Noted animator and animation historian Michael Sporn noted on his blog, "I was, again, impressed with the incredible artistic abilities of the Pixar people, but I didn’t feel as though I were watching an animated film. It felt like a live action film (until the balloony fat people entered) with high effects. Perhaps that’s a positive; I’m not sure anymore. Pinocchio, Bambi, Dumbo, Snow White. These films were magic to me as a child. I imagine Wall-E is like every other effects film to today’s children. I can’t imagine it will inspire future generations to get into the field. Maybe, you never know."

I agree with Michael; very often over the course of Wall-E's 97 minutes, I completely lost the sense of this being an animated film. In fact, so immersed was I in this environment that, when EVE ignited a cigarette lighter in one of the movie's earlier scenes and my friend next to me marveled at how the flame was a simple yet amazing piece of animation, it took me a moment to understand what he was talking about. And I understand Michael's reservations as well. With much of Wall-E, Pixar has stepped beyond the very genre it has espoused and remained generally faithful to over the course of its prior eight films. They clearly decided to, in many aspects, move beyond what would be considered a traditional animated presentation. To many, especially industry professionals like Michael, it begs the question--are we watching something akin to Pinocchio or Snow White, or product more related to George Lucas' FX-driven opuses, or blue screen-filmed dynamics like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and 300?

I believe the answer to that question is truly rooted in the out-of-box creative approach that Pixar has long been noted for. Wall-E is unconventional. It moves beyond the unwritten but still somewhat ingrained rules of animation presentation, and does so in the service of the story it wishes to tell. I submit that the combination of the film's disjointed aesthetic dynamics was very much a deliberate choice on the part of Andrew Stanton and his team. The movie's three very distinct design approaches--photo-realistic animation, live-action actors and sets, and cartoon-based characters--are in fact integral components of the film's overall theme and story.

While Wall-E is at its heart a character-driven love story, it is played out on a thematic canvas that contrasts reality with the artificial. Robots are artificial; that is and has been a consistent truism of all entertainment media. And typically accompanying that truism is the story device of imbuing robots with sentience and emotions. But that plot dynamic is in fact not really central to Wall-E. Wall-E is introduced as a fully developed personality, not requiring a journey of self-discovery. He is a survivor very aware of his harsh reality, a being who understands concepts of loyalty and friendship, and more than anything he is a lonely dreamer yearning for companionship. Though artificial in construct, Wall-E is very real; he is not very far removed from current executions of robot-based technology, thus he is all the more believable. In turn, his native environment is equally believable; from the haunting landscapes of an abandoned and garbage-filled megalopolis, right down to his battered Rubik's Cube and comical collection of garden gnomes. The intention becomes clear, Wall-E's world is not very far removed from our own.

The establishment of Wall-E and his environment by use of photo-realistic animation then serves to contrast the film's other not so subtle overriding theme--the reverse-evolution of humanity. Closeted aboard a giant cruise ship-inspired spacecraft, the human race has wholly embraced the artificial. Theirs is an existence of commercial over-consumption, supported by an infrastructure that simultaneously exposes and insulates them from their environment and fellow beings. The physical-emotional connectivity that Wall-E so desperately desires is seemingly always within reach for the denizens of the Axiom, but ironically only occurs by accident.

In filmed entertainment, there is in fact nothing more artificial than traditional cartoon-style animation. And so we thus see that transformation of human beings in the film. Humanity, as initially represented by the very real character of Buy-N-Large CEO Shelby Forthright, portrayed by Willard, is ultimately supplanted by the very artificial and cartoon style-designed incarnations aboard the Axiom. It is an evolution that is cleverly documented via the portraits of the Axiom Captains that hang on the wall in the current ship captain's quarters. It is there in that one subtle but very important set piece that the filmmakers' aesthetic and design intentions become especially clear.

Characteristic of Pixar, it is indeed a bold move. For they in fact use the various different formats of filmed presentation in the service of storytelling and transcend the very medium they have long been associated with. In many circles, especially those within the animation industry, it will likely remain a debated and somewhat controversial topic. As strictly a moviegoer, for me, Wall-E presented a wholly new and original approach to the animation genre. We can certainly split hairs as to how we want to categorize and classify the film, but in the end, at least in my opinion, it will remain a wonderful combination of stunning visuals and heartfelt storytelling.

Wall-E

2008-06-27T23:30:00.000-04:00

Wall-E is the right movie at the right time. It is at its core a sincere and simple love story devoid of sarcasm and cynicism, but framed within a cautionary fable that gently, though still pointedly, presents a post-apocalypse future brought about by environmental neglect and commercial over-consumption. It is a visually stunning combination of art and design that conveys an astounding emotional depth through not just its deftly animated central characters, but via landscapes and panoramas at times hauntingly surreal and and at other times dense in high tech polish.

The film's title character, a resilient and ever-curious robot appears to be the last of his kind left on a garbage-filled and long abandoned planet earth. With his only friend, an equally sturdy and resilient cockroach, he spends his days compacting and stacking trash cubes while also collecting objects and paraphernalia from what is our now bygone civilization. In doing so, he has developed an unexpected emotional dynamic that imbues in him a loneliness, inspired especially by the romantic musical vignettes he has discovered on a VHS copy of the film Hello Dolly.

Wall-E's world is rocked both literally and figuratively by the arrival of EVE, a sleek distinctly female robot sent by the space-exiled last vestiges of humanity living on a distant starship. EVE is seeking any sign of the reemergence of organic life; Wall-E in turn seeks companionship from EVE and an emotional-physical connection in the form of the hand-holding he has witnessed in the scenes from Hello Dolly. Their romance ultimately takes them into space where they confront the overweight and overstimulated remnants of the human race who live an idyllic, albeit mindless existence and have long ago lost the heartfelt connectivity that Wall-E so desperately yearns for.

The film's hallmark is most certainly its earthbound first act, almost entirely devoid of dialog yet dense in character-driven story and emotional resonance. Though his romance with EVE takes center stage, his friendship with the unnamed cockroach is equally rich in nuance and charm. Director/writer Andrew Stanton embraced a wholly unconventional approach with the material, but it paid huge dividends. So incredibly well-realized are Wall-E, EVE and the movie's other non-human denizens, you are never at a loss to understand what they are all about. It all represents a commitment to creative integrity that continues to set Pixar well above their closest competitors.

Equally entertaining, but in an altogether different way was Presto, the new Pixar animated short that preceded Wall-E. It is a beautiful and hilarious Tex Avery-inspired cartoon that is pure fun from beginning to end.

I Am Very, Very Excited . . .

2008-06-26T19:01:00.006-04:00

This is getting to sound like a broken record: Pixar Animation Studios has just topped itself. Again.

The film is so clever and sophisticated that you worry, slightly, that it might be too clever to connect with mainstream audiences. But like those worries last year that having a rat for a hero in "Ratatouille" might throw off audiences, surely "WALL-E" will make that connection. It's so sweet and funny that the multitudes undoubtedly will surrender to its many charms.

-Hollywood Reporter

The engaging and visually stunning computer-animated WALL·E (* * * * out of four) is a significant departure for the studio, with its sci-fi plot and soundtrack of beeps and buzzes that serve as communication between the bots.
WALL·E is at once futuristic, funny and fantastical. It's an extraordinarily captivating adventure, laden with equal parts humor and heart and populated with memorable and endearing characters.

-USA Today

EVERY time I think the studio that gave us "The Incredibles" and "Ratatouille" can't possibly top itself, Pixar comes up with a masterpiece like "WALL-E," which smuggles barbed political satire into a charming, hilarious robot love story aimed at the entire family.

-New York Post

Many will attempt to describe WALL-E with a one-liner. It’s R2-D2 in love. 2001: A Space Odyssey starring The Little Tramp. An Inconvenient Truth meets Idiocracy on its way to Toy Story. But none of these do justice to a film that’s both breathtakingly majestic and heartbreakingly intimate—and, for a good long while, absolutely bereft of dialogue save the squeals, beeps, and chirps of a sweet, lonely robot who, aside from his cockroach pet, is the closest thing to the last living being on earth.

But WALL-E will not be remembered by children–or the adults for whom WALL-E is really intended–for its tsk-tsking environmental policy or its Naomi Klein polemics. Rather, you’ll adore it because of a cuddly, lonely little robot who breaks your beeping heart.

-Village Voice

The first 40 minutes or so of Wall-E— in which barely any dialogue is spoken, and almost no human figures appear on screen — is a cinematic poem of such wit and beauty that its darker implications may take a while to sink in. The scene is an intricately rendered city, bristling with skyscrapers but bereft of any inhabitants apart from a battered, industrious robot and his loyal cockroach sidekick. Hazy, dust-filtered sunlight illuminates a landscape of eerie, post-apocalyptic silence. This is a world without people, you might say without animation, though it teems with evidence of past life.

-New York Times

IF Pixar Animation Studios has an enviable record of consistent success -- and with a worldwide box-office gross of $4.3 billion from its eight films, it certainly does -- it's because the company has an uncanny gift for pushing things further without pushing too far. Pixar's adventurous new film, the one-of-a-kind "Wall-E," shows how it's done.

Daring and traditional, groundbreaking and familiar, apocalyptic and sentimental, "Wall-E" gains strength from embracing contradictions that would destroy other films. Directed by Pixar stalwart Andrew Stanton, who co-wrote and directed the Oscar-winning "Finding Nemo," "Wall-E" is the latest Pixar film to manage what's become next door to impossible for anyone else: appealing to the broadest possible audience without insulting anyone's intelligence.

-Los Angeles Times

Yet even as the movie turns pointedly, and resonantly, satirical, it never loses its heart. I'm not sure I'd trust anyone, kid or adult, who didn't get a bit of a lump in the throat by the end of WALL-E, a film that brings off what the best (and only the best) Pixar films have: It whisks you to another world, then makes it every inch our own.

-Entertainment Weekly

Pixar’s “WALL•E” succeeds at being three things at once: an enthralling animated film, a visual wonderment and a decent science-fiction story. After “Kung Fu Panda,” I thought I had just about exhausted my emergency supply of childlike credulity, but here is a film, like “Finding Nemo,” that you can enjoy even if you’ve grown up. That it works largely without spoken dialogue is all the more astonishing; it can easily cross language barriers, which is all the better, considering that it tells a planetary story.

-Roger Ebert

It is, the more I think about it, a jewel of a film in conception, execution and message. But the kids, who had been laughing at a recent screening, got very quiet during certain sequences, especially when the Earth seemed irredeemable. "WALL-E's" glance into the future didn't do much for my bliss either, but the idea that a company in the business of mainstream entertainment would make something as creative, substantial and cautionary as "WALL-E" has to raise your hopes for humanity.

-Washington Post

Souvenirs: The Magic of Disney Animation

2008-06-25T18:53:00.006-04:00

Roy Disney's introduction to the magic of Disney animation souvenir brochure, circa 1989:

Welcome to Walt Disney Animation in Florida!

Can you imagine an American childhood without the magic moments of Disney animation? No Mickey Mouse...or Minnie. No sputtering, rasping Donald Duck, tossing and turning through a nightmarish night on an unruly mattress. No "Whistle While You Work." No epic, comic, cliff-hanging mouse-eyeview up a mammoth stairway to Cinderella's bedroom. Will they make it in time for her to try on the magic slipper?

Suspense, slapstick, imagination, heart, gentle humor and a happy ending—all are part of the tradition of Disney animation. Audiences of kids and grown-ups have delighted in sixty years of silliness and storytelling, sentimentality and terror. Dumbo flies. Snow White runs from the scary eyes in the forest. Lady and Tramp fall in love over a plate of spaghetti. Tito tries to hot-wire a limousine—instead, he hot-wires himself. Fairy godmothers appear on cue. Mickey Mouse leads a band, battles a giant, falls in love.

Disney animation provides a generous sprinkle of pixie dust. With it, you can fly up, up and away, over the rooftops of London to Never Land—or into the past, to darkened theaters, vivid images and the plaintive voices of kids asking, "Where's Bambi's mother?"

Disney animation pleases the eye and warms the heart. It makes you cry and it makes you laugh. As the foundation and wellspring of The Walt Disney Company, animation is celebrated in the Animation Building at the Disney-MGM Studios.

The Animation Building is a working studio. Inside, more than 80 artists and technicians are creating new animated films for theatrical and video release. A unique behind-the-scenes tour includes films starring animators—and animated characters—who tell the insiders' story of animation. Strolling through soundproof corridors, guests watch as animators bring classic Disney characters to life.

The magical world of animation is introduced by The Disney Animation Collection. The Collection, a changing exhibition of the best of animation art, is drawn from The Walt Disney Company Animation Research Library and the Walt Disney Archives. Some pieces are classics, and have appeared in museums and publications. Others have never before been seen by the public. The paintings and sketches, sculptures and drawings are more than just works of art ... they are basic to the lives of three generations of Americans.

The Collection begins at the point in the animation process when pen, paintbrush or crayon is first put to paper. A storyline has been crafted, the dialogue is in its final stages—enter the artists with concept sketches and paintings. Silly, scary, impressionistic or harshly detailed, these drawings provide inspiration for a scene, character or mood. Layout drawings indicate camera movements and serve as set designs. Next, detailed backgrounds are painted to provide characters with a house to live in, a forest to wander in or a corner pocket on a pool table, from a cricket's point of view.

Once the set is in place, the focus shifts to the characters. Animation drawings are produced by animators— "actors with a pencil" —who come equipped with rampant imaginations and plenty of technical know-how. Character movement springs from long days at the drawing table, fierce story sessions and plenty of foolishness (like the eager assistant who demonstrated how Pluto ought to eat—by getting down on all fours and dining from a dog dish). How do you animate a hat brim? Grab that three-dimensional study model on the desk. Turn it. Twist it. Draw it. Or take advantage of technology and computerize it—everything becomes a tool for getting the best movement to express a character's emotion.

Finally, after perhaps years of work, a single frame of animation is ready for the camera. A set-up—inked and painted animation cels laid over a background—has been honed and perfected, checked, assembled and charted. Special effects have been added. One twenty-fourth of a second of glory is committed to film—then captured on the wall of the Disney Animation Building for you to wonder at and admire.

Six decades of Disney animation have left posterity with surprisingly few examples of artwork. Paper is fragile; pastel rubs off. And in the early years, cels were reused for economy (remember "The Dip" in Who Framed Roger Rabbit). Now collectors' items, pieces of Disney animation art evoke childhood memories and weave together a rich tapestry of fairy tales, children's books, original stories and pure movement and motion.

From Steamboat Willie to The Little Mermaid, with over a hundred Dalmatians, a few handsome princes and various woodland beasts thrown in, Disney animation has been synonymous with quality, innovation, and fun. This proud tradition, celebrated in the Disney Animation Collection, continues in the Animation Building at the Disney-MGM Studios.

The current Disney Animation attraction at Disney's Hollywood Studios is but a very faint shadow of what was easily one of the premiere attractions of Walt Disney World. The shuttering of the Florida studio was certainly one of the saddest moments in the histories of both Walt Disney World and Disney Animation.

Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth Class

2008-06-24T18:27:00.001-04:00

Disney Lost and Found

2008-06-24T08:24:00.006-04:00

Disney Lost and Found: Exploring the Hidden Artwork from Never-Produced Animation by well-regarded animation historian Charles Solomon has arrived in bookstores and it offers another illustration-rich peek into the Disney Studios fabled Animation Research Library. Solomon provided a previous tour of that archive in his extensive 1995 book The Disney That Never Was. Slighter in text and pages than that earlier exploration, Disney Lost and Found still remains a joyful experience and a welcome addition to any Disney history library.

In the book's first section, Visions Lost and Found, Solomon presents artwork and conceptualizations from classic features such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty and The Rescuers. The chapter is essentially a collection of either deleted scenes or abandoned concepts. Especially revelatory were early concept designs for Sleeping Beauty by Bill Peet that demonstrated a dramatic contrast from that film's ultimate realization, and an extensive amount of material showing two early and very different story ideas for The Rescuers.

The remainder of the book focuses specifically on two more recent abandoned projects from Walt Disney Feature Animation.

Predating Chicken Little by a number of years, Wild Life was intended to be the studio's first foray into a wholly CG animated feature. Solomon notes, "Wild Life began as a Pygmalion story designed to show children the shallowness of the world of glitz and fashion. But over the a period of months, it turned into a more cynical story set in the club scene of Big City, a fictionalized 1970s New York, the era when David Bowie and The Velvet Underground hung out with jet-setters in urban clubs." Designs by artists such as Hans Bacher, Floyd Norman and Greg Killman reveal a concept that was indeed a very dramatic departure for Disney. Alternately stunning and outrageous (and sometimes both), the designs for Wild Life clearly extended beyond what was considered appropriate for a Disney feature and it is not difficult to understand why it was ultimately shelved. As Solomon notes, " . . . insurmountable problems arose, especially between the decadent milieu of the later versions and the requirements of the traditional Disney audience."

Much more regrettable is the abandonment of My Peoples. Solomon's description of the proposed feature indicates what might have been a wholly original and visually stunning film:

"The idea for My Peoples grew out of Barry Cook's interest in American folk art. The co-director of Mulan, Cook imagined a tale of star-crossed lovers set in Appalachia in the late 1940s. Old Man McGee swears to keep his daughter Rose away from Elgin Harper because of an old feud and the superstition that 'bad things happen' when Harpers and McGees get together. The 'Peoples,' folk-art characters Elgin crafts from found objects, come to life to bring the young lovers together."

The interesting twist to the film's design was that the Peoples would have been rendered in CG in contrast to the film's overall presentation in traditional animation. The artwork revealed in the book foreshadowed what could have been an amazing and visually arresting final film. A careful reading between the lines indicates that executive-level interference ultimately doomed the project, but Solomon does note that "Some artists still hope that My Peoples will be revived one day."

One common characteristic among Disney enthusiasts seems to be the hunger to see that which might have been. Disney Lost and Found serves up a veritable feast that satisfies and manages to squelch a least some of that hunger.

Snapshot: Disneyland! - The Charms of Main Street

2008-06-23T13:25:00.002-04:00

The aesthetic charms of Main Street USA in Disneyland are like magnets to the camera lens. Trademark windows of dedication combine with color and forced perspective to create a dramatic visual vignette.

As to the windows themselves--Emile Kuri was an Oscar-winning set decorator famous for Disney films such as Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. He also contributed designs for Disneyland and served as a consultant for Walt Disney World.

According to his official Disney Legends biography, "Former Executive Vice President of Walt Disney Attractions, currently Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Ron Dominguez is a 'native Disneylander.' Originally, his family owned and lived on 10 acres of the orange grove-covered property, which was purchased by Walt Disney for his premier theme park in 1954." Hence the faux-business name Orange Grove Property Mgmt.