Amusing Ads For Star Wars Weekends
Photo: Lucasfilm/Disney
There’s a bunch of new print ads out for Disney’s Star Wars Weekends, and they’re pretty funny. See Darth Vader wait in line, Ewoks get denied, TIE fighters at airport gates and more at The Chive.
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Happy Birthday, Mickey Mouse!
Mickey Mouse made his public debut in the cartoon Steamboat Willie on November 18, 1928 -81 years ago! The character appeared in Plane Crazy a few months earlier, but the Walt Disney Company doesn’t count that because it was a silent film. Link
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Sociological Deconstruction of the Disney Princesses
Image: Jeff Brunner
Jeff Brunner offers this scathing critique of the values that the Disney Princesses teach girls. At the link, you can view a response about what Disney teaches boys.
Link via Popped Culture
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13 Tombstones
The Haunted Mansion attraction at Walt Disney World features tombstones inscribed with the names of real people. This series of posts called 13 Tombstones tracks down who those people are -mostly Disney employees whose names are now enshrined in the parks for posterity. Link -via Boing Boing
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A Day at the Magic Kingdom
Today is the 38th anniversary of the opening of Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. In honor of the occasion, Disney created a stop-motion video using the tilt-shift effect.
“A Day at the Magic Kingdom Park” is a never-before-seen look at the park in miniature scale. The video is created from a series of photos snapped inside the Magic Kingdom Park. And the trick is tilt-shift photography.
This really does remind me of my last trip to Disney World -because of how crowded it is! Link -via Boing Boing
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Why settle for a boring computer mouse when you can surft in style with Road Mice, a wireless cool computer mouse that looks just like the car of your dreams? Road Mice is available in various Chevy, Chrysler, Dodge, and Ford models including the popular Corvette shown to the left. It's the perfect gift for the auto-enthusiast in your life! |
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Disney and Marvel Character Mashups
John of Super Punch Blog has a really neat post showing mashed up characters
from Disney and Marvel to mark the recent purchase of the comic book publisher by The Mouse.
The Galactus/Goofy (Gooflactus) is by our pal Adam Koford, Venom/Mickey is by Serge Kliavaing, and MODUCK by Chris Samnee.
Link – Thanks John!
Previously on Neatorama: Disney to Acquire Marvel Comics
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Disney to Acquire Marvel Comics
The Walt Disney Company has agreed to buy Marvel Entertainment, which includes 5,000 comic book characters, including Spiderman, Captain America, the X-men, and the Fantastic Four.
Under the terms of the agreement and based on last week’s closing price of Disney, Marvel shareholders would receive a total of $30 per share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own.Based on the closing price of Disney stock on Friday, August 28, the total transaction value is $50 per Marvel share or approximately $4 billion.
Get ready for plenty of speculation on what this will mean for the comics. Link -via Fark
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10 Horrifying Original Endings of Fairy Tales
We all grew up with the beloved Disney versions of fairy tales and stories, which have wonderful "all’s well that ends well" happy endings. What you may not know is that Disney left out a few horrifying details from the original version in order to keep its customers happy.
Here’s a post about 10 original fairy tales in their full and gruesome glories. Take, for example, Snow White:
In the tale of snow white that we are all familiar with, the Queen asks a huntsman to kill her and bring her heart back as proof. Instead, the huntsman can’t bring himself to do it and returns with the heart of a boar.
Now, fortunately disney hasn’t done too much damage to this tale, but they did leave out one important original element: in the original tale, the Queen actually asks for Snow White’s liver and lungs – which are to be served for dinner that night!
Also in the original, Snow White wakes up when she is jostled by the prince’s horse as he carries her back to his castle – not from a magical kiss. What the prince wanted to do with a dead girl’s body I will leave to your imagination.
Oh – in the Grimm version, the tale ends with the Queen being forced to dance to death in red hot iron shoes!
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Post-Apocalyptic Disney World
Disney comissioned artist former Deus Ex designer Warren Spector to come up with his interpretation of a very twisted Disney World as concept art for the Wii game Epic Mickey.
…images from both Gambino and Glover, covering rotted Epcots, foreboding Cinderella castles, terrifying scorpion-like mecha-Country Bears, and more — all of which come with the obvious caveat that they may or may not reflect anything of the current state of the project.
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Six Repurposed Disney Songs
Poor songwriters – they spend a ton of time writing and composing music for movies, only for a good chunk of their work to be cut at a later date. OK, that probably goes for most people in the movie industry, and songwriters actually have it better than most – with a key change and a tweak to the lyrics, their songs can be repurposed to fit the next big movie… or sit in a vault for 19 years to be pulled out for a television show, as the case may be. Read on!
“Beyond the Laughing Sky”
Alice In Wonderland has some great songs – “The Unbirthday Song” is bound to get wedged in your head if you’re not careful. In fact, the soundtrack consists of 18 tunes, the most number of songs in a Disney film at the time. Some of them are only used for a few seconds here and there, but Disney wanted to try to capture at least some of Lewis Carroll’s quirky little rhymes and verses and felt that song snippets were the way to do it.
But not all of them got included – more than 30 songs were written, including one about the Jabberwock (he ultimately got cut from the movie altogether), a song for the Caterpillar called “Dream Caravan,” a song for the Cheshire Cat called “I’m Odd,” and a song that Alice sang to open the movie called “Beyond the Laughing Sky.” Although “Dream Caravan” and “I’m Odd” never saw the light of day, you might know “Laughing Sky” by a different name – “The Second Star to the Right” from Peter Pan.
The song was cut from Alice because the song was a ballad and was a bit difficult for young Kathryn Beaumont, the voice of Alice, to sing. It was also determined that the slow song might start the movie off a little too slow, so the opening song was replaced with “In a World of My Own” instead – it’s a bit more upbeat and matched Beaumont’s range and style better.
“I’m a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow”
Similarly, Pinocchio had lots of songs that wouldn’t fit into the movie: “Monstro the Whale,” “Turn on the Old Music Box,” “Three Cheers for Anything,” “Honest John” and “I’m a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow.” “Honest John” eventually turned up on the 70th Anniversary Platinum Edition DVD that came out just a few months ago, but “I’m a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow” was released to the public just seven years after Pinocchio came out. Disney didn’t even have to change the lyrics to this one – they used it as and even had Mr. Cricket sing it in the 1947 package film Fun and Fancy Free.
The movie is really two shorts all rolled into one experience; “I’m a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow” appears in the very first one called “Bongo.” It’s about a bear cub who works for the circus but runs away and ends up having all kinds of adventures in the wild. What does this have to do with Jiminy Cricket, you’re probably wondering? Well, he sets up the story of Bongo by strolling through a house, singing this tune. When he gets to the record player conveniently set up in the house, he puts “Bongo” on and the first short officially starts. You’re probably familiar with the second short – “Mickey and the Beanstalk.” Fun and Fancy Free actually takes its name from a line in Jiminy’s song:
“I’m a happy-go-lucky fellow
Full of fun and fancy-free
You can make the whole world seem mellow
If you take it in your stride like me.”
Don’t feel sorry for Jiminy, by the way – although he may have had to wait seven years for this particular song, his ballad from Pinocchio, “When You Wish Upon a Star,” has been one of Disney’s signature songs ever since and was ranked #7 on the American Film Institute’s “Top Movie Songs of All Time” in 2004.
Here’s Jiminy singing “I’m a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow,” if you’re interested. The song plays throughout the opening credits, but if you want to hear him, he starts chirping around 1:47.
“The Right Side”
“Land of Sand” and “Bobbing Along on the Bottom of the Beautiful Briny Sea”
There was also a song for the magical compass sequence called “Bobbing Along on the Bottom of the Beautiful Briny Sea” that was later shortened to “The Beautiful Briny” for Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
If it seems like a lot of Mary Poppins songs were repurposed, that’s because they were – the Sherman Brothers once laughingly refused to say what else they had reworked from the movie, saying that people would think all they had done for the past 10 years was shuffle songs around.
“The Morning Report”
Moving on to a more recent film (relatively), The Lion King originally had a song called “The Morning Report” where Zazu delivers a report and Simba fine-tunes his pouncing technique. Although it didn’t make it to the final film and was replaced with a simple conversation instead, it did find a spot with The Lion King musical just a few years later. The lyrics had to be slightly rewritten, but the changes proved successful. “The Morning Report” was a such a hit that the song was animated (it’s believed that it didn’t even make it to storyboards prior to the musical) and added to the 2002 IMAX release of the movie and the Platinum Edition DVD release in 2003.
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Darth Hammer
(College Humor link)
Darth Vader and his Storm Troopers break it down at the dance-off show at Disney’s annual Star Wars Weekends. See the entire show at YouTube. -via Buzzfeed
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Disney Movie Trailer Mashups
(YouTube Link)
Urlesque has a post full of mashups of Disney animated movie trailers, such as the above mix of Sin City with Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, as well as Kill Bill with Beauty and the Beast, and Pulp Fiction with Alice in Wonderland.
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Disney's 1983, CGI test for "Where the Wild Things Are"
In 1983, future Pixar boss John Lasseter was a young animator working for Disney when he co-directed a test clip featuring a traditionally animated Max (the lead character from Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are,) running through a 3D house that was created with CGI that was then cutting-edge. The studio rejected the technique for being too expensive… and fired Lasseter soon after!
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Destino: A Cartoon Short by Disney and Dali
In 1946, famed surrealist artist Salvador Dali and Walt Disney became unlikely collaborators, and set to work on a short film called Destino.
The project was ultimately abandoned with less than 20 seconds of film shot, but six decades later modern Disney artists completed the film using Dali’s original storyboards. The result is easily the strangest thing to come out of the Disney studios since… well, probably ever.
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Mickey Mouse Gas Mask
It’s important to keep kids feeling comfortable and happy, even when they need to watch out for poisonous gas clouds -or at least, that must be the theory behind this Mickey Mouse gas mask sold in WWII. Paranoia and consumerism sure make for an interesting combination.
Link Via Consumerist
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The Dark Side of Disney
Disney isn’t always the Happiest Place on Earth. The parks sometimes harbor deep, dark secrets – and we’re not talking the Haunted Mansion or the Tower of Terror. Below are a few sinister secrets Mickey doesn’t want you to know about.
Deaths
We’ve all heard the rumors that no one has ever died at a Disney park because Disney has paid officials to refrain from declaring injured or ill people dead until they hit a hospital outside of Disney property. But it’s not true. There are several incidents where the victims were reported to have died at the scene.
In June of both 1973 and 1983, 18-year-old boys drowned in the Rivers of America. Both had stayed in the area when they weren’t supposed to – the incident in ‘73 occurred when a boy and his brother decided to stay in the park after closing and the ‘83 incident happened when a boy capsized a rubber emergency raft he had stolen from a cast-only section of the park.
In 1984, Dollie Young was riding the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland when her seatbelt became unbuckled. To this day, it’s not known how Dollie fell out of her car, but she did. She fell to the track and was hit by another car, then caught under its wheels and dragged for a bit before the ride came to a stop. She was pronounced dead at the scene due to massive head and chest injuries.
And, of course, there was the infamous “America Sings” death of 1974. An employee named Debbi Stone was working as the hostess to the show one evening when her fellow cast members were alerted to the fact that she was missing. Some reports say they noticed at some point during the evening; other reports say a guest heard Debbi’s screams and immediately told cast members. Either way, by the time she was found, Debbi had been crushed to death between a rotating theater wall and a permanent theater wall; she definitely didn’t make it to a hospital first. Photo from Yesterland.
Ashes
In 2007, a guest alerted cast members at the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction that she had seen another woman sprinkling some sort of a powdery substance into the water, and the Los Angeles Times reports that the ride was shut down the same year when a group of people managed to leave a pile of ashes in the Captain’s Quarters section of the ride.
Hidden Messages
I’ve done it, and I bet a lot of you have done it as well: pausing and rewinding and going frame-by-frame to catch hidden messages or images in certain Disney films. Some of them are really there and some of them are just products of our active imaginations. Here’s the lowdown:
Aladdin does not tell children to take off their clothes in Aladdin. It’s a scene where “Prince Ali” is trying to get up to Princess Jasmine’s room to talk to her when he comes across her tiger, Rajah. The tiger growls at him menacingly, and Aladdin says, “C’mon… good kitty. Take off and go!” while shooing the feline away with his turban. The captioning supports this argument. However, the line is whispered and not enunciated well, and in addition, it seems to be edited poorly. Snopes http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/aladdin.asp says that the same bit of dialogue seems to have been inserted twice, so the whispered line is doubly garbled. Because it was so close on the heels of The Little Mermaid controversy, people heard what they wanted to.
Speaking of which, The Little Mermaid did not contain any sexual images on purpose. There were two issues that concerned the public: first, that artwork for the movie contained a phallic images as part of a castle in the background, and second, that the priest officiating over the wedding scene near the end of the movie seems to get an erection right in the middle of the ceremony. Neither is true, according to Snopes. The phallic image was unintentional and was not drawn in by a disgruntled employee who had recently gotten laid off (the artist didn’t even work for Disney) and the “erection” is actually the priest’s knees.
So what is true? Well, there’s definitely an image of a topless woman in the 1977 movie The Rescuers. And Disney fully admits it. In fact, the image – which is a photograph, not an animated bit, and was clearly intentionally placed in the movie – was basically pointed out to the public by Disney themselves. The image occurs so fast in two single, non-consecutive frames, that a viewer would have to know exactly where to pause the movie in order to even see it. The movie was recalled in 1999 after Disney discovered the image was there; they claimed it must have been inserted in post-production. Photo from Snopes.
One that’s maybe true: Jessica Rabbit going commando in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. There’s a scene in the movie where Jessica and Eddie Valiant are thrown from a car, causing her dress to flip up very briefly. It goes fast, but people who have slowed the movie to frame-by-frame say that the way the coloring was done suggests that mischievous animators may have drawn Jessica without any undergarments. However, the coloring, which is darker than the rest of Jessica’s skin, may also suggest underwear.
There are definitely more dark Disney tales – in fact, we could probably turn this into a series! What weird and/or disturbing rumors have you heard about the House of Mouse? Share in the comments, and maybe we’ll investigate for future posts.
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World’s Most Interesting and Dangerous Raceways
Ever since the dawn of civilization, humans have had the need for speed. Indeed, raceways have been in existence for just about as long as we have cars, and although you may have
never found yourself in the middle of a Formula 1 competition, I’m sure
you’ve experienced the taste of racing in some form or another.
Perhaps our interests in speeding things are the result of an early childhood training. Take, for instance, Disney’s Autopia:
In 1955, Autopia was an example of the multilane limited-access highways which were still being developed. Before the park initially opened, the cars were tested without their rubberized bumpers. This is course resulted in some major collisions, although that was the fun part of the initial test drive. The cars at Autopia were eventually fashioned with rubber bumpers, and a guard rail was put in place to discourage reckless driving. What’s the fun in that!
Over the years, Autopia was updated using the very latest is fashionable vehicles including a 1967 Corvette
Stingray, a Volkswagen Bug, “Dusty, an off-road style car; Sparky, a sports car; and Suzy. Each was designed to be tied into the Chevron line of animated ‘Chevron Cars‘, and 4 versions of the Autopia cars were sold as toys during the 2000 summer season at Chevron stations nationwide.”
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Fallen Princesses
Photographer Dina Goldstein gives a preview of a series featuring Disney princesses portrayed in their later lives, or what happened after “happily ever after”. The complete series will go on exhibit in October. Link -via Metafilter
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Movie Trivia: Mary Poppins
I’m kind of a Disney freak, so it’s hard for me to pick one favorite Disney movie. But Mary Poppins is definitely in my top five – it’s such a classic. And there’s no shortage of trivia about it, so I had to pick some of my favorites. If you want more, I suggest buying the 45th anniversary DVD – it’s packed full of behind-the-scenes information, deleted bits, commentary and pop up facts. But in the meantime, this should tide you over!
After being rejected by P.L. Travers for more than 20 years, Walt finally paid a visit to P.L. in person to convince her to let him make her books into a movie. It was the personal visit that convinced her – she described Walt as the friendly old uncle type who hypnotized you with his gold pocket watch. Not exactly a compliment, but she gave him the rights nonetheless.
Mary Martin, Bette Davis and Angela Lansbury were considered for the role of Mary Poppins. Casting directors saw Julie Andrews singing Camelot’s “What do the Simple Folk Do” on the Ed Sullivan Show and immediately knew that they had to have her for Mary Poppins. They told Walt, who flew out to New York to see Julie sing her part on Broadway, and that was that. Andrews still had to pass muster with P.L. Travers, though, but it didn’t end up being a problem – Travers adored her.
Travers wrote to Walt Disney to suggest Karen Dotrice for the role of Jane Banks, but Walt had already cast exactly that actress in the part. At least they agreed on one thing!
Julie Andrews almost didn’t take the role – she was actually holding out for the Eliza Doolittle part in My Fair Lady that eventually went to Audrey Hepburn. Andrews had played the part on Broadway and loved it. Audrey may have played Eliza, but Julie Andrews was so brilliant in Poppins that she beat Audrey for both the Best Actress Golden Globe and Academy Award.
The actors who played Jane and Michael had already starred in a movie together - The Three Lives of Thomasina – and went on to do another one together post-Poppins: The Gnome-Mobile.
Matthew Garber was afraid of heights, so the crew paid him an extra dime every time he had to go up on the wires for the scenes where the kids are floating in the air. But they weren’t always on wires – Disney didn’t want people to look at the scene and go, “Oh, they clearly used wires for that,” so sometimes wires were used, sometimes teeter totters were used, and sometimes they flipped the set on its side or upside down and filmed that way.
Next time you watch the movie, check out the queue of nannies lined up to interview for the nanny position – a bunch of them are actually men.
When the kids look surprised at all of the stuff Mary Poppins pulls out of her carpet bag, that was genuine shock. They couldn’t see what was being fed to the bag from under the table, so when she pulled hat stands and huge potted plants out of that regular-sized bag, the kids were completely stunned.
Dick Van Dyke freely admits that his cockney accent was awful and in fact kind of gets a kick out of it.
Lots of the actors played multiple roles: Dick Van Dyke played Bert, of course, and also played Old Mr. Dawes the banker. Other than the title role, Julie Andrews also provided her own whistling accompaniment when Mary Poppins sings with the robin during “Spoonful of Sugar” and was also one of the Pearly ladies in “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” David Tomlinson, AKA Mr. Banks, was also the voice of Mary’s umbrella when it talked and one of the jockeys in the animated horse race scene. In addition, he dubbed the voice for Admiral Boom’s first mate.
A bunch of songs were deleted from the movie. A few include “The Chimpanzoo,” which you can now hear on the 2004 special anniversary edition DVD; “Practically Perfect,” which ended up being the music for “Sister Suffragette”; “Admiral Boom” which was to be Admiral Boom’s theme song; and “Measure Up,” which Mary Poppins was going to sing while measuring the kids with her magical tape measure. One song was actually repurposed for Bedknobs and Broomsticks and was called “The Beautiful Briny” in it.
Elsa Lanchester, who played the childrens’ former nanny Katie Nanna, was previously best-known for her role as the Bride of Frankenstein.
Mary Poppins’ sets often ended up being used for other Disney productions. One episode of The Wonderful World of Color featured a haunted house, which was actually the Banks house covered with cobwebs and dust.
The Bird Woman is played by Jane Darwell, whom Walt Disney cast after remembering her amazing performance as Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath. He made sure she was given the full-out star treatment and was brought to the set in a limo and treated with great respect. It was to be her last film performance.
The “Chim-Chim Cheree” and”Step in Time” sequences are my favorites, I think. The background of the London rooftops is actually matte paintings done on glass. The “smoke” staircase was actually made out of sponge because it was assumed that if you were walking on smoke, it would have a bouncy feeling to it. The “Step in Time” dance had to be filmed twice because the film the first version was on got scratched. And I guess I’m not alone in loving the “Step in Time” scene – Walt enjoyed it so much he would come to watch the daily dance rehearsals and told the choreographers to go nuts and have fun with the steps.
Every member of the crew – not the cast, mind you, the crew – asked for a copy of the soundtrack.
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Which Disney Princess Are You?
Which Disney princess are you? Just answer these 10 probing (kidding!) questions over at Brainfall to find out.
Apparently, I’m Pocahontas:
You defy convention and sometimes do what is considered taboo. Unfortunately, others do not always appreciate your differences, so it’s good that you are so strong-willed. You are loyal and you believe in fate. Your true love will find you one day.
Link – via The Zeray Gazette (Maybe they’ll do villains next, now that will be fun!)
So, which Disney Princess are you?
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"Oo De Lally" in 13 Languages
The 1973 Disney animated film Robin Hood has been translated into languages all over the world, which has to be a difficult job because so much of the story is told through songs. Andy Baio at Waxy has collected over a dozen translations of the opening song “Oo De Lally” for your listening pleasure. The singers are quite talented! My favorite is the Arabic version. Link -via mental_floss
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Disneyfied China
The Harbin Winter Festival, one of the oldest winter festivals in China, used to be a frozen wonderland of indigenous charms: a Qing dynasty ice palace, snow dragons, the Forbidden City sculpted in snow.
But this year, a Disney licensing company is taking over operations from the local communist government. It’s the first time a private company has run the ice festival.
So instead of candles flickering in ice lanterns in front of a frozen replica of an ancient pagoda, Harbin now has Cinderella’s castle with an escalator and neon lights, and people posing for photos with ice sculptures of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
Sometimes it’s a too-small world after all.
Photo by StrudelMonkey
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Seven Secrets About Disneyland
Gudrun Enger has a friend who works in Disneyland, and whenever she visits the park her friend comes along and acts as a tour guide, and usually shares a few secrets. Here are some you might not know:
The drawbridge to Sleeping Beauty’s Castle really works. It’s been raised only twice: once on opening day, and once in the l980s when Fantasyland reopened.
The crest above the drawbridge is the Disney family crest.
It took only 364 days to build Disneyland.
Main Street represents Walt’s home town, Marceline, Missouri, in 1901, the year he was born.
The organ that was in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea now lives in the ballroom of the Haunted Mansion.
In the early years of the park, the Rivers of America were stocked with catfish and visitors were allowed to fish off the docks of Tom Sawyer Island.
When Disneyland launched its original Submarine Voyage ride, it included Weeki Wachee-type mermaids swimming among the submarines. Here’s a video of them.
Photo of Tom Sawyer Island by Gudrun Enger
More posts about Disney on Neatorama:
- 10 Cool Secrets About Disneyland
- Happy Birthday, Walt!: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Walt Disney
- 6 Attractions You’ll Never See Again at Disneyland
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Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion Turns 40 in Style
Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion ride is quite possibly one of the best attractions Disney’s Imagineers have created during the theme park’s history. From the tombstones surrounding the mansion’s decaying exterior to its cobwebbed interior, the whole ride creates a pitch-perfect atmosphere of gothic glee.
This year the attraction celebrates its 40th anniversary. To commemorate the milestone, one of Disney’s favorite artists, Shag, has been commissioned to create original artwork inspired by the ever popular attraction.
>“Represented in the artwork are some of the attraction’s most beloved scenes, including the Stretching Portraits, the Ballroom, the Séance Room, the Attic, Graveyard, among others. This unique collection is a must have for any Shag and Haunted Mansion enthusiast.”
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Snowing Nightly in Florida
Celebration, Florida is a planned community near Orlando that was developed by the Disney Company in the 1990s with early 20th c. architecture.
Every night during December the palm-lined main street in the town center is filled Christmas music and artificial snow (tiny soap bubbles) is pumped out of the streetlights.
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Happy Birthday, Walt Disney!
So, you think you know Walt Disney. But did you know that "Disney" wasn't his family's ancestral surname? That he drove an ambulance? That his first studio went bankrupt in just one year? Or that he was a train nut and had a miniature railroad put in his backyard? To celebrate the 107th anniversary of his birthday, here are Neatorama's 10 Fun Facts About Walt Disney:
Origin of the "Disney" Name: d'Isigny
Walt's ancestors were named d'Isigny, and came from Isigny-sur-Mer
in Normandy, France. They moved to a village in Lincolnshire, England
now named Norton Disney.
Disney Tried to Join the Army, but was Rejected
In 1917, Walt tried to join the Army to fight in World War I and was rejected
... because he was too young! He was 16 at the time, so he joined The
Red Cross instead. His first job there? Driving an ambulance.
Walt Disney as an ambulance driver in France - photo via Croce
Rossa Italiana
Laugh-O-Gram: Disney's First Venture Went Bank-O-Rupt
In
1922, Disney founded an animation company called Laugh-O-Gram. The company
immediately ran into financial troubles (Disney had to live in the office
and take baths once a week at a neighboring train station). In just about
one year, the studio declared bankruptcy. Disney sold his movie camera
for a one-way ticket to Hollywood, California.
The studio produced only a few animations, including one called Tommy Tucker's Tooth, which was commissioned by a local dentist about the merits of brushing your teeth. (More on Laugh-O-Grams at The Animation Empire)
Before Mickey Mouse, There was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Walt and Ub Iwerks created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (who looked
suspiciously similar to Mickey) for Charles Mintz of Universal Studios.
In 1928, with the popular cartoon series going strong, Disney asked Mintz
for an increase in budget. Instead, Mintz took over his current employees
and demanded that Walt take a budget cut!
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit - via Los
comienzos de Walt
Mintz thought that he had Disney cornered - instead, Walt went on to start anew with Iwerks and a loyal apprentice named Les Clark. They tried sketches of various animals, including dog, cat, cow, frog and horse before settling on a mouse (based on Disney's pet mouse Mortimer).
They were going to call the character Mortimer Mouse, but Walt's wife Lilian convinced him to change the name to Mickey Mouse (she thought "Mortimer" sounded pompous) (Source).
Disney's Folly: Snow White
In 1934, Disney embarked on his most ambitious project yet: a
full-length animated feature called Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Both his brother Roy and wife Lilian tried to talk him out of it, saying
that it would be too difficult and too expensive (Lilian said: "No
one's ever going to pay a dime to see a dwarf picture.") The Hollywood
movie industry mocked it as "Disney's Folly."
Two years later, while still in mid-production, Walt ran out of money. The initial production cost of $250,000 (already 10 times the average budget of his other animations) ballooned to over $1.5 million. (today's value: $21 million) He had to mortgage his house and get a loan to finish the movie.
Walt in the trailer of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - via Wikipedia
In 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarf was released and became an instant success. The movie won an honorary Oscar (see this post on Neatorama: Oscars Fun Facts) and grossed over $66 million domestically. Over its lifetime, the movie grossed over $184 million. Not bad for a "folly."
Disney Goes to War
In
1942, a naval officer wrote a letter to Walt asking for a design for an
emblem of the Navy's new fleet of torpedo boats nicknamed "mosquito
boats." Disney obliged with a drawing of a mosquito riding a torpedo
(the insignia was such a hit that every torpedo boat in the fleet soon
had it).
Words spread, and Disney was bombarded with requests for insignias for tanks, minesweepers, bombers, and figher planes. Skylighters.org has a neat article about Disney's artistic contribution to the Great War: Link (text from LIFE Magazine)
Walt Disney was a Train Lover
Disney
loved trains. He even built a miniature railroad in his backyard called
the Carolwood Pacific Railroad. It was named after the street on which
his home was located.
Walt's railroad had 2,615 feet of track, including trestles, loops, overpasses, and even a tunnel (after his wife vetoed the train going through her flower beds).
Disney's backyard railroad became an inspiration for the Disneyland theme park.
Walt's Disneyland Tribute to His Father
Photo: David Ball [Wikipedia]
Elias Disney, Walt's father, was a carpenter who earned about $1 a day. In 1895, Elias began a modest home construction business that ultimately failed. He continued to work odd jobs afterwards, including farming, running a newspaper delivery business, and working in a jelly factory.
Elias didn't live long enough to see Disneyland, but the lamp in his window is always lit in his honor. (Source: Disneyland Detective: An Independent Guide to Discovering Disney's Legend, Lore, and Magic by K. Trahan, D. Hawkins, and B. McKim)
Cigarettes Killed Disney
Walt Disney was a chain smoker. In 1966, he was scheduled to undergo a
neck surgery for an old polo injury, but a pre-surgery X-ray showed a
large tumor in his left lung. Doctors ultimately removed the lung, but
Disney died later that year.
In 1951, Disney produced a short clip titled "No Smoking" of Goofy trying to quit smoking. The company banned the cartoon from TV broadcast.
Disney's Mysterious Tie Clip
The Walt Disney bronze statue in Disneyland has a weird tie clip that
looks like a symbol from an alien language.
Photo: Zesmerelda
[Flickr]
It turns out the symbol is made of the letters S, T, and R, which stands for "Smoke Tree Ranch," Disney's ranch in Palm Springs, California. Nearby Walt's ranch lives a good friend of his, who became the inspiration of the character "Jacques" the Mouse in Cinderella! (Source: Hidden Mickeys, with a lot more fun facts of Disney)
Previously on Neatorama: 10 Cool Secrets About Disneyland|
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10 Cool Secrets About Disneyland
Regardless of where you believe to be the true “Happiest Place On Earth” is, you have to admit, Disneyland is at least pretty magical. It’s so magical, in fact, that even after 50 years and over 500 million of visitors, there are still tons of secrets hidden in and about the Magical Kingdom.
1. Disneyland was expected to fail.
Opening day was such a disaster that pretty much every press organization that attended the celebration had predicted the park’s failure within one year.
It opened on a day that was 101 degrees and the street asphalt still wasn’t dry, leading to it sticking to shoes. By the end of the first day, all but 2 of the 48 Autopia cars were crashed and about half the rides were broken.
Despite all that, park visitors loved it and attendance continued to grow day by day.
Source (Photo: ThomasFredrick [Flickr])
2. Need a real drink?
While many Disney fanatics may already know this one, others may find it surprising to know there is exactly one place in the entire park that serves alcoholic beverages.
The place is called Club 33 and it is a very exclusive club to get in. To gain entry, there is a ten year waiting list and admission is at least a thousand dollars. Supposedly, the food is good though.
Source (Photo: emmyboop [Flickr])
3. Tomorrow Land is so outdated.
Or at least, the first version is by now. The only Tomorrow Land ride that still exists in its original state from the opening is Autopia, and even it was changed to fit with Cars the movie. Actually though, there is one major change in Autopia from how it was on opening day -there were originally no guide rail to keep people on track. Sometimes Disney was a little too trusting of the good of humans.
Source (Photo: Frikitiki [Flickr])
4. There’s a Disney Underground.
Photo: lwr [Flickr]
It’s not quite as exciting as it sounds though. Despite rumors, the area under the park isn’t a massive underground city. There are many underground basements though, where cast can relax, change in and out of costumes and eat lunch in peace. Think of it like a few really big break rooms.
Disney World on the other hand, was built late enough that they have a full city underground.
5. Olympic sports anyone?
Photo: Frikitiki [Flickr]
Just walking around the park over and over again is exercise enough for most people, but employees have the option of working out in the Matterhorn. Surely you didn’t think that huge mountain was only used for one little ride did you? No, the Matterhorn is officially classified as a gym and has a full basketball court inside. In 1984, it was even certified as an official Olympic Stadium.
6. It’s safe, but not 100% safe.
Photo: videocrab [Flickr]
Despite persisting urban legends that claim no one ever died in the park, people have. At least 12 people have died there, reports vary as to whether some additional death tales are true or not. All things considered though, 12 deaths in over 50 years isn’t that bad. Keep in mind, aside from dangerous rides, there is also a notable amount of gang violence at other Southern California amusement parks that doesn’t occur as frequently at Disneyland.
7. Ever feel like you’re being watched?
You might be. There are cameras everywhere. Aside from average security brigades, they even have special tasks forces with only a handful of things to focus on.
There are at least two special forces at the park, one dedicated to catching people using drugs at the park, and another dedicated to catching people who flash or flip off the cameras during the photo parts of the rides. If you’ve ever gotten a message saying your photo isn’t available when you got off the ride, there’s a good chance someone either flashed some breast or flipped the bird to the camera.
8. A ghostly Hazmat problem.
Photo: major_clanger [Flickr]
There are many reports of people trying to spill the ashes of loved ones in the Haunted Mansion. As nice of a thought as it is, there are plenty of ghosts in the Mansion already and if everyone dumped their ashes here, then the whole thing would be covered in dust. So, every time it happens, the Mansion needs to be closed and a hazmat team cleans it.
9. A pirate’s life for Jack.
We all know that Johnny Depp is dang sexy, but just the character of Jack Sparrow? Apparently, a lot of women still think he’s just as good as Depp. In Pirate’s Booty, an ex-actor at Disneyland confessed how many women would try to hump him just for playing the character. The stories range from flirting to receiving napkins with naughty offers.
(Photo: Locket479 [Flickr])
10. Words from beyond.
Ever notice the telegraph clicking at the New Orleans’ train station? It’s ticking out the speech Disney gave out on the park’s opening day. Traces of Disney are all over the park, my favorite one though is his old apartment over the fire house on Main Street. They always leave the light on in his memory. Not only is it cute, but it’s also rad that he got to live in the park.
Source (Photo: Mysteryofmaps [Flickr])
A few other fun tidbits:
- Steve Martin used to work in the magic shop here.
- There used to be live girls dressed like mermaids in the 2000 Leagues Under the Sea pool.
- Did your balloon pop? Just show any balloon seller your popped balloon and they’ll give you a new one.
- The Imagineers put special touches everywhere. The Haunted Mansion features faces of a few of the early Imagineers and has tombstones written with inside joke references.
- Coke gives the park free soda to eliminate competition in the park and for the advertising.
- Hidden Mickeys are spread all over the park and there’s at least one in every ride.
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Disneyland Remodeling "It's a Small World"
I know, I know, the song is an infectious earwig and you’re going to spend the rest of the day cursing me for even bringing it into your realm of thought. But bear with me.
photo by Stacy Conradt
The ride is currently under major renovations at Disneyland, and while I admit it’s not one of my favorite rides, I was disappointed that my sister-in-law didn’t get to experience it on her first-ever Disney trip last month. And now, she may never get to experience the original World’s Fair version that has resided in Fantasyland for the past 40 years.
Disney says that the main change is a change of boats, but according to insiders in the know, it’s actually going to be much more. We’ll get to that in a second.
The original IASW is based on the idea of world peace. No, really. Walt Disney attended a conference held by President Eisenhower in 1956 about promoting world peace and cultural understanding through world travel. Inspired, Disney recruited Mary Blair to design the attraction, Marc and Alice Davis to design the scenes and the doll outfits respectively, and Joyce Carlson to design the dolls. At first, the ride included the national anthems of all of the different nations represented, but Disney decided he needed one uniting song. Robert and Richard Sherman wrote the now-famous tune and that was that.
photo from feministJulie on Flickr
A couple of quick facts:
• The attraction debuted at the 1964-65 World’s Fair in New York.
• Major themes of the boat ride include Europe, Asia, Africa, Central/South America, South Pacific Islands, the Finale and the Good-bye Scene.
• Throughout your 10.5 minute boat ride, you’ll hear the repetitive song in Spanish, French, and Japanese, to name a few.
And now the changes: The changes are going to see the rainforest scene – a really detailed, colorful and innovative representation of Mary Blair’s artwork – replaced with a massive “Hooray for the U.S.A.” scene. Right now, the only American characters represented are a cowboy and an Eskimo. This might seem like the U.S. isn’t very well represented, but when you consider that the point of the ride is to explore other cultures, it makes sense.
Another big change is that Disney is going to stick its characters in scenes where they “belong”. So you might see the Hunchback of Notre Dame in the France section, Simba and Rafiki in the African section and Ariel with the gurgling mermaids at the beginning of the ride (at Disneyland, not Disneyworld). Commercialism at its worst, I guess. I get that it’s Disney and its bread and butter is its characters, but the original IASW was not designed to sell Disney product. Walt himself commissioned it with the idea of promoting global understanding, not global marketing.
photo from Re-Imagineering
I guess I’m torn – I can understand the need to update and improve the ride, but maybe not to the lengths they are going. Can’t they up the America factor by adding a few more characters instead of destroying an entire classic scene? And what about subtly putting Disney character references into the ride instead of the actual characters themselves, which won’t match the dolls in the rest of the ride? For instance, make one of the French dolls wear the simplistic blue-and-white Belle dress and carry a book. Give one of the mermaids red hair. I think it can be done in a way that doesn’t rip the integrity of the original design away.
What do you guys think? Horrible updates, or is Small World long overdue for some modernization?
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