Disney! Disney World / Disneyland / Disney+ / EPCOT / Magic Kingdom / "Woke"

[Luke]

We're huge Disney fans. First taken by my parents to Disneyland at the age of six, ended up as a founding producer of the Disney/MGM Studios, and then representing The Walt Disney Studios online in their first online foray in the 90s thanks to Michael Eisner and Sid Bass (the Bass family sold a lot of the land for Disney Word through their Arvida company to Disney), starting with The Lion King.

Walt Disney always said the parks should keep progressing and growing, and that's what they are doing. Yet some Assistant DA in Las Vegas went nuts and has gotten torched:

Column on ‘Wokeness’ Ruining Disney World Experience Draws Backlash
In a guest column for The Orlando Sentinel, a Disney fan said he was reconsidering his commitment to the park “because Disney cares more about politics than happy guests.”
By Jesus Jiménez April 24, 2021, 4:54 p.m. ET

A column complaining that Disney World’s “wokeness” is ruining the fun “because Disney cares more about politics than happy guests” drew a sharp backlash online this week. The guest column, “I love Disney World, but wokeness is ruining the experience,” was written by Jonathan VanBoskerck and appeared online Friday in The Orlando Sentinel. In the column, Mr. VanBoskerck, of North Las Vegas, wrote that he was “strongly rethinking” his commitment to the amusement park and the city of Orlando, Fla., home of Disney World. “The more Disney moves away from the values and vision of Walt Disney, the less Disney World means to me,” Mr. VanBoskerck wrote. “Disney is forgetting that guest immersion is at the core of its business model.”

Disney has made changes to its parks in recent years to make them more “inclusive” and provide an experience that “all of our guests can connect with and be inspired by,” it wrote in a blog post. Among the changes, Disney announced last year a “retheming” of Splash Mountain, which was previously based on the 1946 Disney film “Song of the South,” in which a former slave recounts African folk tales. Changes have extended beyond Disney’s parks, such as with the decision not to stream “Song of the South” on Disney+.

Disney World reopened its Pirates of the Caribbean ride in 2018, replacing a scene that showed pirates selling off women in an auction. The scene now depicts the sale of “townspeople’s most prized possessions and goods,” according to a blog post on the Disney Parks site. Jonathan VanBoskerck wrote, “I love Disney World, but wokeness is ruining the experience.”

[Here's the new Pirates scene:



Among other changes, the company announced that it was “building on the story” of the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland and Disney World to “include new adventures that stay true to the experience we know and love — more humor, wildlife and skipper heart — and also reflect and value the diversity of the world around us.” The Jungle Cruise ride includes an Indigenous character named Trader Sam, who sells shrunken heads. The character was recently removed from the ride. “We are addressing negative depictions of natives in the attraction,” Disney told Attractions Magazine.

In his column, Mr. VanBoskerck said Disney was “taking a woke scalpel” to the Jungle Cruise. “Every grown-up in the room realizes that Trader Sam is not a representation of reality and is meant as a funny and silly caricature,” Mr. VanBoskerck wrote. “It is no more based in racism than every Disney caricature of an out-of-touch white American dad.” Mr. VanBoskerck, who described himself as a “Christian and a conservative Republican,” said that he and his family have been Disney customers for decades and that in addition to annual visits to Disney World, the family also takes a Disney cruise “every year or two.” The Las Vegas Review-Journal and court documents identified Mr. VanBoskerck as Clark County’s chief deputy district attorney. The district attorney’s office and Mr. VanBoskerck did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday. “The parks are less fun because immersion and thus the joy is taking a back seat to politics,” Mr. VanBoskerck wrote. “Immersion should not be sacrificed on the altar of political correctness and appeasing the Twitter mob.”

Then a Twitter mob came for Mr. VanBoskerck, whose comments drew a strong reaction online, including from some politicians. Representative Val Demings, who represents Florida’s 10th Congressional District where Disney World is, said on Twitter that she supported Disney’s work to be more inclusive. “I am proud to represent a community that is welcoming, tolerant, and always evolving to offer the best possible experience,” Ms. Demings said. Florida state lawmaker Anna V. Eskamani took a different approach on Twitter. “So this adult man from Las Vegas is mad about Disney removing racist characters and animatronic rapists from their rides?” Ms. Eskamani said. “Did I get that right?”

Mr. VanBoskerck criticized other changes Disney has made, such as one announced this month to allow “greater flexibility” for Disney employees regarding “forms of personal expression,” such as nail and hair styles and visible tattoos. “The problem is, I’m not traveling across the country and paying thousands of dollars to watch someone I do not know express themselves,” he wrote. “I am there for the immersion and the fantasy, not the reality of a stranger’s self-expression. I do not begrudge these people their individuality and I wish them well in their personal lives, but I do not get to express my individuality at my place of business.”

Disney announced in a blog post written by Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Parks experiences and products, that the change would allow its cast members to “express their cultures and individuality at work,” and for the company to “remain relevant in today’s workplace.” Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday. The decision is among many the park is taking “to bring a greater focus to inclusivity and belonging for our cast” after listening to cast members about their ideas for change, Mr. D’Amaro wrote. Mr. VanBoskerck wrote that the next time he rides the Jungle Cruise or looks at Splash Mountain, he will think about Disney’s political agenda. “That’s a mood killer,” he wrote.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/busi ... olumn.html

This guy is a jerk. Now for the fun stuff


We had so many meetings in the 90s about whether ride videos could be posted online! There was just no way it was controllable, and finally Eisner and Katzenberg gave the green light. Still dazzled at the quality and breadth of the YouTube fans, even Second Life has really cute tribute rides in 3-D.

Mon, March 19, 2018
Pirates of the Caribbean at Walt Disney World Resort Reopens March 19 with New Auction Scene
When Pirates of the Caribbean reopens at Magic Kingdom Park March 19, guests will be introduced to the new version of the attraction’s auction scene we first announced last summer. Just as Walt Disney embraced and encouraged Disney Parks to “keep moving forward” since the opening of Disneyland Park in 1955, Walt Disney Imagineering has introduced many new characters at Pirates of the Caribbean attraction over the years. The pirate auctioneer now oversees a sale of the townspeople’s most prized possessions and goods. In this scene, the familiar redhead figure has switched sides to become a pirate named Redd, who’s just pillaged the town’s rum supply and has something to say about it. As we previously shared, the auction scene in the attraction at Disneyland Paris received a similar revision last year. Disneyland park will also receive similar updates to its Pirates of the Caribbean attraction later this spring, with work beginning April 23.

A fellow named David O'Neal did a series of amazing documentaries on the making of the Disney attractions, complete with interviews of the Imagineers who originally built them. If you like Disney, these are addictive. Here's a 90 minute look at the Making of Pirates:





Here was the sneak preview of next-generation Audio-Animatronics, the Beauty and the Beast attraction coming to Tokyo Disneyland.





This is one of the great new rides, [Excellent Low Light] FULL Shanghai Disneyland Pirates of the Caribbean Ride. Front Row





Splash Mountain is a bit trickier... while yeah it's based on South of the South, it never featured Uncle Remus and the attraction is anything but racist. But Disney also wanted to update it with a more contemporary property, Princess and the Frog; that's more of the reason. There's a new Princess show on Disney+ etc. But they haven't been in a hurry with it.

Here's the making of Splash Mountain, started in Summer 1983:





The characters in the last scene of Splash were reused from an attraction called America Sings, here's a docu on the history:





Here's a full 4K ride through:





Here's a video with some concept art about the changes:





And a virtual overlay (these fans are incredible):

#splashmountain​ #princessandthefrog​ #disneyland​
Take a virtual voyage through the upcoming Princess and the Frog attraction coming soon to Disneyland and Walt Disney World. This overlay is planned to rethemed Splash Mountain on both the east and west coasts. Follow Princess Tiana and Louis on a musical adventure as they prepare for their first ever Mardi Gras performance. This virtual ride through was built inside Planet Coaster- Console Edition. Be sure to keep comments civil and appropriate please. Don't forget to like and subscribe for more magical content.
The attraction scenes were described from Disney Dish Podcast and other Jim Hill Media: https://disneydish.bandcamp.com/

Here's the full audio from Journey Into Inner Space (with the song "Making Modern Miracles" from Monsanto) And about the attraction: http://www.themeparks360.com/2020/03/18 ... ner-space/

The idea of the attraction goes as far back as 1957, when Walt Disney introduced a concept for an atomic-themed exhibit in Tomorrowland on the Disneyland television show episode, Our Friend The Atom. Plans for the attraction were put on hold for the 1964 New York World’s Fair. After the success of the fair, the atomic-themed attraction was green-lighted for the New Tomorrowland project. It would stand where the “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea Exhibit/Monsanto’s Hall of Chemistry” building stood. This was the first ride with an Omnimover system. It opened as a free attraction, unlike most, but required a “C” ticket starting in 1972.

Hope this brings back some fun memories or introduces some new Disneyana you didn't know about

[MN-Skeptic]

Yeah, this brought to mind Southern Baptists' boycott of Disney. For those fuzzy on the details, here's part of an article from NBC, dated 6/22/2005, about the end to the boycott -

Southern Baptists end 8-year Disney boycott

The Southern Baptist Convention, which kick-started a widespread conservative religious boycott of Walt Disney Co. eight years ago, voted Wednesday to end the action but warned Disney that it was keeping its eye on the company.

The vote by the 11,000 "messengers" here at the convention’s annual meeting added the nation’s largest non-Catholic denomination to the list of conservative evangelical groups that have stood down from a confrontation that the American Family Association began in 1996. The AFA began the boycott to protest what it saw as Disney’s promotion of a gay agenda.

The AFA dropped its boycott last month, and Focus on the Family, the influential evangelical ministry led by James Dobson, quickly followed suit. Like them, however, the SBC said it would continue to “monitor the products and policies” at Disney, whose ABC television series “Desperate Housewives” has been criticized for its sexual content.

Critics said Christian groups were throwing in the towel, noting that Disney, which had no immediate comment Wednesday, maintained that it never changed any of its policies or practices in response to the boycott.

But the Southern Baptist resolution defended the boycott as having “rightly and appropriately” challenged Disney and said that for a boycott to work, “it must be specifically targeted and of limited duration.” It said the action had “communicated effectively our displeasure”; the convention noted an executive shuffle and the dissolution of Disney’s deal with the founders of the Miramax studio, whose film “Priest” was the touchpoint for the boycott in 1996.

That explanation echoed the reasons given last month by the AFA, the Tupelo, Miss.-based ministry run by the Rev. Donald Wildmon, which said that conservative Christians had made their point and that it was time to move on.

[neonzx]

We're huge Disney fans. First taken by my parents to Disneyland at the age of six, ended up as a founding producer of the Disney/MGM Studios, and then representing The Walt Disney Studios online in their first online foray in the 90s thanks to Michael Eisner and Sid Bass (the Bass family sold a lot of the land for Disney Word through their Arvida company to Disney), starting with The Lion King.

Walt Disney always said the parks should keep progressing and growing, and that's what they are doing. Yet some Assistant DA in Las Vegas went nuts and has gotten torched:

This idiot was already mentioned here (maybe in the Hijack thread). You, orlylicious, and I get our discounted passes being Florida residents. They're are the other assholes from outside our state....

My earliest memories of Disney was the TV show "The Wonderful World of Disney". There was no politics.

[Volkonski]

I go back a little further to 1954.

[Volkonski]

And of course-

[MN-Skeptic]

My husband loved all things Disney. I remember the first time we went to Disney World. My sweetie said "We should come back here for our 10th anniversary!" Me: "Sweetie, we've been married 13 years." Time flies when you're having fun!

[Estiveo]

My parents first took me to Disneyland when I was 3 or 4, and it was apparently a fine outing with one exception. Wee little babby Estiveo pitched an absolute screaming fit at the very beginning of the Storybook Land Canal Boat ride because he didn't want the ferocious scary whale to eat him.

Estiveoshot_20210424_230107.jpg

I have no memory of this, but I refused to go anywhere near that creepy fucking whale on any & all subsequent trips until my early 20's, and that one time was only because some friends dared/shamed me into it.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

My husband loved all things Disney. I remember the first time we went to Disney World. My sweetie said "We should come back here for our 10th anniversary!" Me: "Sweetie, we've been married 13 years." Time flies when you're having fun!

What a great story! Your sweetie sounds like my dad in the years department. Dad, a structural engineer with LOTS of math brains in his head bone, came home from work one day and told Mom he had seen a an old friend of theirs. The friend asked about Mom then asked Dad how long they had been married. Dad told him 19 years. Dad then asked Mom if that was right. "Considering your youngest children (twins) (out of four kids) are 23, that's pretty close."

[fierceredpanda]

I will always appreciate Family Guy for reminding the world about Walt Disney's vile bigotry with this cutaway gag imagining him being unfrozen in the future:



"Put me back in."

[Phoenix520]

My first trip to Disneyland was for the official grand opening. Dad had to attend cuz his boss was the Grand Opener (Gov Brown) and he brought us with. I must have been 7 or 8.

We stayed at a motel nearby with a pool. Good thing, too. My babby brother got very sick the moment we arrived, throwing up on Dad’s shoulder as he crossed the threshold into our room.

Bro was 3 I think. He’d had double pneumonia when he was 6 mos old and mom didn’t mess around with his health. I didn’t actually get to go at all. We stayed at the motel for three days.

But I made a “friend”. I spent the whole three days at the pool with her. She was famous at the time for a Hawaiian Punch commercial where she seemingly drank an entire glass in one go. (This was pre-Punchy, who’d punch you in the nose).

I didn’t go again until my 30’s. The last time I went I took sprout and a niece and nephew to California Adventure. They had a blast and at the end of the day went on one ride, a roller coaster, that they didn’t like. “Feels weird” was the judgement.

The next day there was an accident with that ride.

[Luke]

Love all the replies, poor baby little Estiveo! That whale was scary to a LOT of kids, you weren't alone. Amazing what we all remember (or not but are imprinted) about those early trips. And absolutely Neon, the Florida resident deal is excellent. Definitely looking forward to heading back -- Spirit Air has (used to have?) a Ft Lauderdale-Orlando flight for $19 each way vs. the 4 hour drive and that's how we did it, departing flight was at 6am and in Orlando at 6:30, and return was like 9pm back 9:30pm. Apparently they were positioning flights, as soon as the plane got to cruising it headed back down so it was like another ride

The alleged anti-Semitism is a strong charge and want to give another side of the story from my perspective having been around Disney my whole life. Often hear about Mr. Disney's alleged anti-Semitism, but it wasn't true in my experience. Was disappointed about the Meryl Streep comments which supercharged that narrative; over the years got to know a lot of Disney Legends and their families. Irving Ludwig began as a salesman for Fantasia in 1940, and ultimately became the president of Buena Vista (Disney's movie distribution).

What a lot of folks maybe don't consider is that among the studios, Disney was one of only a few that weren't owned by Jewish people. (United Artists, created by D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin, wasn't, and Howard Hughes ran RKO). In reverse, a lot of non-Jewish people had a tougher time getting in at the other studios, and ended up at Disney. But a ton of Jewish people worked there. The Sherman Brothers and many others at the Studios push back hard on the anti-Semitism claim and they were there. The Ludwig family are dear friends, in addition to Mr. Ludwig, another Disney Legend, his daughter Arlene, joined Disney as a publicist for Mary Poppins and was still there when Julie Andrews made The Princess Diaries.

Walt Disney Was Enigmatic, Uncompromising But Not Anti-Semitic, ‘American Experience’ Panel Insists – TCA
By Lisa de Moraes August 2, 2015 4:59pm

Walt Disney could be a ruthless boss who instilled employee terror or a beloved father-figure to his staff, but he was not a Nazi sympathizer, said panelists this afternoon at PBS’s Television Critics Association press tour for Walt Disney, a four-hour American Experience documentary that airs September 14 and 15. Though the film doesn’t delve into allegations that Disney was pro-Hitler, the panelists didn’t shy away from the topic as they painted Uncle Walt in just about every shade imaginable but that one.

“It’s not based on any truth,” panelist Sarah Colt, the docu’s producer and director, said of the long-rumored charge of anti-Semitism, “so we saw no reason to bring it up in the film.” Colt said she looked for evidence of Disney’s bigotry, but to no avail, unlike the subject of her previous PBS film Henry Ford, “who was a virulent anti Semite.” In the case of Disney, she said, “it wasn’t relevant to who he was, so it’s not part of the film.”

Others on the panel agreed, at least on that particular subject. “I saw no evidence” of anti-Semitism, said Neal Gabler, author of Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination and An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood. Gabler said his Disney research for both books turned up nothing more “than the casual anti-Semitism” that was common at the time. Said Gabler, “There have been so many such charges against Disney, you could make a four-hour movie on just that.”

Gabler suggested the charges were “primarily made by enemies of Walt Disney who had a political beef with him,” and he did not think it important for the documentary to devote any time to that.

Richard Sherman, the composer (and son of Jewish immigrants) whose credits include Disney’s theme park tune It’s A Small World After All and music for Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book, repeatedly called the old allegations “preposterous” during the Q&A. Sherman said Disney treated him and his songwriting partner/brother Robert like his own sons.

Though everyone seemed in agreement about Walt’s bigotry (or, rather, lack of it), the TCA panel agreed on little else. Offering their opinions about Walt were Disney producer Don Hahn (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Maleficent), University of Virginia’s Carmenita Higginbotham, who teaches a class on Disney in American popular culture, and the docu’s EP Mark Samels.

https://deadline.com/2015/08/walt-disne ... 201489492/

Irving Ludwig
LEGENDS AWARD CATEGORY: FILM
YEAR INDUCTED: 1993

In 1953, when Walt and Roy Disney decided to create their own film distribution company, they called on seasoned exhibitor and distributor Irving Ludwig to help make it happen. Over the next 27 years, Irving helped grow the newly formed Buena Vista Distribution Co. to 20 regional offices in cities including Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. The division he helped create arranged exhibition of Disney movies at theaters throughout the United States and Canada. He later recalled, “Booking theaters was always a good experience because the name ‘Disney’ assured exhibitors they would be showing movies that the whole family could enjoy.”

Born in Russia on November 3, 1910, Irving immigrated to the United States with his family in 1920. Raised in Brooklyn, he later studied advertising and marketing at New York University. In 1929, he entered the entertainment industry as a part-time usher at New York’s famed Rivoli Theatre. After making a suggestion to the owner that he replace a section of the theatre, which had become obsolete with the advent of talking pictures, with an additional 62 seats, he soon found himself promoted to house manager.

Then, in 1939, Irving was hired to manage the 8th Street Playhouse. In 1940, he opened and operated the Greenwich Village Art Theatre, the first movie house built in New York to exclusively screen foreign films. Later that same year, Irving joined The Walt Disney Studios to manage the roadshow engagements of Fantasia, in cities including New York, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Remembered Irving, “Back then, when you had a roadshow engagement, you had something unusual—reserved seats, two performances a day, a higher admission at $2—you made an impression upon the public.”

In 1945, Irving became a full-time member of the Company’s sales administration staff, helping direct motion picture promotional campaigns. Then, in 1959, after serving six years as vice president and domestic sales manager for Buena Vista Distribution Co., Irving was named its president. He went on to shape a successful program that mixed new films with reissues of Disney classic fare.

Among the high points of his career, Irving pointed to Mary Poppins, which he initially opened in only a handful of theaters until word of mouth paved its way to more movie screens. He explained, “We weren’t in a position to promote it massively and we felt that a slow beginning could lead to bigger things.” Indeed, at that time, Mary Poppins became Disney’s greatest box office success and went on to win five Oscars®. Irving retired in 1980. He passed away on November 26, 2005, at the age of 95, in Santa Monica, California.

https://d23.com/walt-disney-legend/irving-ludwig/



So the Ludwig family was at Disney from 1940 through the 2000's in very high-level positions. Just pulled one example to provide something concrete.

Now, about the political side...

As it happens, Disney *was* very political for a lot of reasons. During the War, Disney was recruited to make a lot of propaganda for the Allies. There wasn't much studio production during that time, so it was an economic decision as much as anything else. Warners made a ton of these too. Lots are on YouTube now.

But it was during the war that they honed disseminating complex information to the general public through animated entertainment. As part of their government contract, Disney produced patriotic propaganda films aimed at getting Americans behind the war effort. Der Fuehrer’s Face pushed war bonds; in The New Spirit, Donald Duck encouraged tax-paying. Education for Death took a more serious tone, depicting a young boy indoctrinated into Nazi ideology, with “no seed of laughter, hope, tolerance, or mercy.”

In 1942, Walt Disney read Alexander P de Seversky’s Victory Through Air Power, which made a case for the use of long-range bombers by American forces. Until this point, US war preparations had focused on things like battleship production over manufacturing aircraft. Convinced by the core message of the book, Disney funded the production of a film version himself, rushing it into production with Percival Pierce, the story director of Bambi.

The film mixes a history of flight with thrilling animated dog fights, as Seversky himself explains his theory. The message is hammered home—without much subtlety—with an image of an American eagle destroying an Axis octopus and the dark shadow it had spread across the globe. Victory Through Air Power was given a theatrical release by United Artists. But it was also seen by Winston Churchill, who then organized a screening for Franklin D Roosevelt, who in turn organized a screening for his Joint Chiefs of Staff.

https://quadfectee.com/quartzy/1332008/the-prop ... on-empire/

Here's Donald Duck - Der Fuehrer's face (activate subtitles since some of the German accent is hard to hear) with an intro by Leonard Maltin:





And Education For Death from 1943:





Last but not least, years ago a book came out called "How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic" by Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart. Much later, Ariel Dorfman wrote Death and the Maiden. Still have it on my bookshelf, it was a wild look at how allegedly Disney was marching evil capitalism forward.

How to Read Donald Duck (Spanish: Para leer al Pato Donald) is a 1971 book-length essay by Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart that critiques Disney comics from a Marxist point of view as capitalist propaganda for American corporate and cultural imperialism. It was first published in Chile in 1971, became a bestseller throughout Latin America and is still considered a seminal work in cultural studies. It was reissued in August 2018 to a general audience in the United States, with a new introduction by Dorfman, by OR Books.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_Donald_Duck

First published in 1971, How to Read Donald Duck shocked readers by revealing how capitalist ideology operates in our most beloved cartoons. Having survived bonfires, impounding and being dumped into the ocean by the Chilean army, this controversial book is once again back on our shelves. Written and published during the blossoming of Salvador Allende's revolutionary socialism, the book examines how Disney comics not only reflect capitalist ideology, but are active agents working in this ideology's favor. Focusing on the hapless mice and ducks of Disney, curiously parentless, marginalized and always short of cash, Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart expose how these characters established hegemonic ideas about capital, race, gender and the relationship between developed countries and the Third World. A devastating indictment of a media giant, a document of twentieth-century political upheaval, and a reminder of the dark undercurrent of pop culture, How to Read Donald Duck is once again available, together with a new introduction by Ariel Dorfman.

Incredibly, a PDF of the book is online!

https://monoskop.org/images/2/28/Dorfma ... d_Duck.pdf

Folks can read almost anything into the huge library and history of Disney. Gosh, this is a very different post from the fun attractions but the points were well taken and wanted to provide perhaps a different perspective.

Back to rides this is the new TRON coaster at Shanghai Disney which will be coming soon to the USA, although it, a Mary Poppins attraction and Guardians of the Galaxy have been pushed back. Damn you, COVID!





Here's what we know so far about GOTG (this dude is CAFFEINATED!):

[Azastan]

When my family first emigrated to the United States, we wound up living in Norwalk, CA. My father had gotten a degree in business before he emigrated, but thought he was going to be working for Thomas Cook in Los Angeles/Beverly Hills. When he got to the Thomas Cook office, however, it turned out that the local branch didn't do the hiring, as that was the responsibility of the New York office! So he went looking for work and wound up becoming the foreign exchange officer of the Beverly Hills branch of Union Bank. He met a lot of interesting people in that job, including Walt Disney and Walter Knott.

Way back when Memorial Day was on May 30th, we would go to Disneyland for my birthday because my birthday is May 29th. Memorial Day was traditionally when the summer rates went into effect. My favourite ride was the Pack Mules Through Nature's Wonderland, because there were real mules for that one. After that, Mr Toad's Wild Ride was fabulous, but I also enjoyed the Nautilus one.

[jcolvin2]

While I have only been to Disneyland a handful of times, my first trip at age 8 or 9 was the most memorable. My father was a psychiatrist, and he was attended the American Psychiatric Association's annual convention in Anaheim with the family in tow. On one day, the park was closed to persons other than APA attendees and their families. It was a phenomenal day: there were no virtually no lines. I really enjoyed a ride in Tomorrowland that had a name something like "Inner Space." The premise was that you were shrinking to microscopic then atomic size. I guess my inner nerd was coming out at a young age.

[Luke]

That's awesome! My Dad was with Mattel and they did the same, closed the park except for Mattel folks & families. That ride is "Journey Into Inner Space", the audio track and background on that ride are in my first post at the end. That attraction was so cool, remembered it and when seeing it online it was amazing. Check that post above and you'll see the whole story, there's a link to a post by David Oneal about it too.

[jcolvin2]

That's awesome! My Dad was with Mattel and they did the same, closed the park except for Mattel folks & families. That ride is "Journey Into Inner Space", the audio track and background on that ride are in my first post at the end. That attraction was so cool, remembered it and when seeing it online it was amazing. Check that post above and you'll see the whole story, there's a link to a post by David Oneal about it too.

Thanks for posting the Extinct Attractions video. The "Journey Into Inner Space" ride was hokier than I remember. I did not recall at all that the ride was sponsored by Monsanto. (I had an uncle who worked for Monsanto at a chemical plant on Chocolate Bayou near Alvin, Texas, so I was aware of what Monsanto did.)

[Luke]

Thought the same thing but as a kid, it was so cool!

The voice is the great Paul Frees, he was also Boris in Rocky & Bullwinkle

PAUL FREES (1920-1986)

Frees was a very popular voice over actor in many movies that span from the early 50 to the late 80's. He has voiced over so many films that chances are you have heard him somewhere in a television program or movie. Rumored that he get his start as the Pillsbury Dough Boy and has vocal talent that spans many famous movies and animated shorts. He was also the voice talent on many rides in the Disney Land park such as the "Ghost Host narrator in "Haunted Mansion" and many of the Pirates in "Pirates of the Caribbean."

Miracles from Molecules was written by the Sherman Brothers, it's so catchy. We have it on our Alexa morning playlist

Lyrics

Miracles from molecules,
Around us everywhere.
There are miracles from molecules,
In the Earth, the sea, the air.

Now men with dreams are furthering,
What nature first began,
Making modern miracles,
From molecules, for man.

Every atom is a world,
An infinity unfurled,
A world of inner space without an end.
A world of mystery,
Of endless energy,
With treasures more than man can ever spend.

Miracles from molecules,
Are dawning every day.
Discoveries for happiness,
In a fabulous array.

A never-ending search is on,
By men who dare and plan.
Making modern miracles,
From molecules for man.

Making modern miracles,
From molecules for man!

There's another whole website devoted to it: https://www.themightymicroscope.com/home.htm

Uniform 1967



And there's an Oculus Quest or PC ride-through created in 2018
https://www.micechat.com/261070-project ... k-to-life/
https://crankysomething.itch.io/atisvr

Disney History Institute: Disneyland 1967 - Adventure Thru Inner Space

[Fortinbras]

I am sorry that DSisney is erasing all memory of Song of the South. I appreciate that the original 1946 movie is mired in the racial attitudes of the time (actually it was a bit extreme, to enable to movie to play in the Jim Crow south), but the stories of B'rer Rabbit are a solid part of American culture; it's like trying to erase Moby Dick or Tom Sawyer.

[neonzx]

I am sorry that DSisney is erasing all memory of Song of the South. I appreciate that the original 1946 movie is mired in the racial attitudes of the time (actually it was a bit extreme, to enable to movie to play in the Jim Crow south), but the stories of B'rer Rabbit are a solid part of American culture; it's like trying to erase Moby Dick or Tom Sawyer.

Ok, but the film was done for a rated 'PG' audience (young'uns). Young children (and teenagers, too) don't have the emotional nor intellectual maturity to process some of the scenes. They are impressionable at those ages. You can't take a 10yo and expose them to scenes that you need to be a 25yo to safely comprehend.

[Luke]

It's a good point Fortinbras, but it is online at archive.org for streaming or download Here's the full movie:




This guy does deep dives into roller coasters, including Disney's. He gets into the history, theming and issues with ride performance. It's highly technical and focuses on engineering challenges. It also explains "Disco Yeti" and the nightmare that happened with the one of the most expensive parts of the ride and at that time, the most complex audio-animatronic ever made. Hadn't seen his work and am impressed, the guy with the GOTG update in a previous post also really gets into it, love the passion.


Problematic Roller Coasters - Expedition Everest - Disney’s Animal Kingdom





And he rode it for an hour " Ever wonder what perfect five train operations at Expedition Everest looks like? Nope, well here is the video you never asked for! Perfect five train operations at Expedition Everest for an entire hour!"





Space Mountain:





Big Thunder Mountain Railroad:





Not Disney but his supergeek report on Hagrid at Universal is really entertaining. If you want to learn more about the engineering, load balance and safety processes, you'll like this.

► Show Spoiler

Problematic Roller Coasters - Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure - One Of The Most Complicated Attractions
899,814 views•Sep 24, 2020

Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure quickly gained a reputation as being one of the most unreliable roller coasters in the world after a rocky opening in June of 2019. The ride combines some of the most daring elements of a theme park attraction into a single experience.

[Volkonski]

"Song of the South" is available on the Internet Archive-



Also DVD versions published outside the USA are available.

Lots of folks have tried to ban "Moby Dick" for various reasons. While I am not sure about "Tom Sawyer", "Huckleberry Finn" attracts many complaints. However there are no Herman Melville Land or Mark Twain World theme parks or cable channels trying to attract customers by sanitizing content.

[sugar magnolia]

Thanks for the earworm Orly!

[jcolvin2]

Alabama? I prefer my take on Southern Culture via Kurt Weil:

[Luke]

Wow! If you want to have a smile, Check out this dancing drummer Mickey, this is a TV broadcast of the finale of the "Big Band Beat" show at Tokyo DisneySea. Lots of joy. At the end, you'll hear a lot of "Psycho!!" Sīkō in Japanese means "the best", "highest", or "supreme"!!!

Big Band Beat -Disney Tokyo TV Special
237,307 views•May 26, 2012
Denise Pitter

I had the immense pleasure of performing in this show in 2011/12 and happy memories of my time in Japan.
This was a Filmed TV special of the last dance piece of the show.

My friend Aldrin was Peter Pan at Tokyo Disneyland, grueling schedule, 4 or 5 a day. Funny thing was/is that when Japanese fans take video or photos of you, they feel obligated to give you a copy. Kid you not -- Aldrin got over 10,000 videos of his Peter Pan performance, it was crazy.


This is fun, the Haunted Mansion was completely recreated at Hong Kong Disneyland. The happy haunts didn't work there because of China and death. So they created Mystic Manor. This is Secrets, Story & History of Mystic Manor - Virtual Guided Tour




And this is the attraction in 4K. Many call it the best attraction ever. As it happens, it introduces Lord Henry Mystic, a member of the Adventurers Club. Disney is backing into this idea to wrap many of the attractions together ala Marvel. They are doing major renovations to Jungle Cruise (partially because the old story has some racial points that aren't up to date) and the Adventurers will be featured. Many attractions will have the characters going foward.

4K Mystic Manor - Trackless Ride - Best Disney Ride Ever - Hong Kong Disneyland 2016
2,729,508 views•Feb 2, 2016

The attraction utilizes a trackless ride system similar to that used in Pooh's Hunny Hunt. Mystic Manor tells the story of Lord Henry Mystic and his monkey Albert. Having recently acquired an enchanted music box, Albert opens the box and brings everything inside the house to life."

[Luke]

Just cause. 1960's Date Night At Disneyland... would set you back $4.50! Love this arrangement.

66.JPG (49.48 KiB) Viewed 2870 times

Full LP, some really fun holiday weekend tracks.





Bonus: 1962's Disneyland After Dark with Louis Armstrong, Bobby Rydell & the first TV appearance by The Osmonds, among others... Intro by Leonard Maltin. Love how they reconstruct and remaster these, it's so cool. Walt: "There's firewalkers... and girls, too!"

At 6:15, the all-white barbershop quartet singing about how they "labored so hard for old massa" in "old virginny" wouldn't be on the playlist today. Just no.

Fun swing with Annette Funicello at 7:45.

Full HQ version of the Wonderful World of Color episode 'Disneyland After Dark'. No watermark, correct aspect ratio, and no ads. From the Walt Disney Treasures: Disneyland DVD set. Content starts at 1:00

"Disneyland After Dark" was an episode of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color that aired on April 15, 1962. Later, it was released theatrically overseas as a short subject.

As the name of the episode implies, Walt Disney himself presents a view of Disneyland at night. It features some nighttime entertainment, including a fireworks display (complete with Tinker Bell flying across the sky) and Tahitian dancers performing for Adventureland dinner patrons. However, this episode focuses less on Disneyland itself and more on the many celebrity singers at the different sections of the park, including the Osmond Brothers, former Mouseketeers Annette Funicello and Bobby Burgess, teen heartthrob Bobby Rydell, Monette Moore, and Louis Armstrong. In a running gag, Walt Disney introduces but is unable to attend these attractions and performances, being pinned down by an endless supply of autograph seekers (including a repeat customer) throughout the program.