One of the mandates during the creation of EPCOT Center was to differentiate its offerings from what could be found in Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom. One of the more famous elements of that agenda was the lack of traditional Disney characters in the park; instead of Mickey and friends, EPCOT would showcase new characters.
The best known of these are, of course, Dreamfinder and Figment from Kodak’s Journey into Imagination pavilion. The professorial Dreamfinder was an evolution of “Professor Marvel,” a character conceived for Tony Baxter’s unbuilt “Discovery Bay” Disneyland expansion. He migrated east when a host was needed for the Kodak pavilion, becoming the character we know today.
These images are from March of 1981, when the character was starting to come to life in the workshops of WED Enterprises.
Dreamfinder, host of the Journey into Imagination Pavilion in Epcot Center, nears the final approval stage in the Sculpture Shop. Pictured [below] is the full-scale clay model, which recently took on a whole new look as fittings were made for his wardrobe.
The model stands 5’6″ and has reddish-blonde hair. Wayne Strong, who set aside his sculpting tools and did the make-up for Dreamfinder, revealed that early conceptual drawings specified white hair, but were changed when the character began to look a bit too much like Santa Claus.
"And-a-one, and-a-two, and..."
Dreamfinder has been gone from Epcot for more than a decade now, but we live in hope of his eventual return…
A rare ray of sunshine appeared this week for Disneyland Paris, which has spent most of the last twenty years unable to finance expansion because of a domino effect of economic badness. The resort’s second gate, the Walt Disney Studios park, bears the unhappy distinction of being officially The Worst Disney Park In The World, but its attempts to improve itself have been hindered by a lack of sufficient funds.
Happy news, then, that the resort has secured a revolving line of credit from the Walt Disney Company in the amount of €150 million. This is in addition to an existing and yet-untapped credit line of €100 million, making it no coincidence that Euro Disney S.C.A. simultaneously gained permission from its existing lenders to make new investments in the amount of €250 million (currently around $317 million).
This new cash infusion is allegedly earmarked for a new ride based on the film Ratatouille, which has been long planned and for which permits were approved last year. Whether or not Disney has more tricks up its sleeve for this non-insignificant amount is unknown; aside from the Studio park, it’s been a very long time since Disneyland Paris itself has received meaningful new investment. At the very least, the resort is getting something new, and that’s great news.
On his discussion thread at WDWMagic, Eddie Sotto posted a link to this video from 1965′s The Jack Benny Hour. In an attempt to take his entire studio audience to Disneyland, the notoriously stingy Benny heads to Walt’s office to hit him up for some free tickets. There’s an animatronic bird, a tiger, and much wackiness. And if that doesn’t sell you, there’s 1965-era Elke Sommer. So, that.
The first thing that always jumps out to me is what a natural “ham” Walt is; as a child he always wanted to be an actor, and he might have actually been a pretty good one. He has the Midwest-deadpan thing going for him, but his timing is really quite good – in fact, he’s better than Benny, who admittedly I’ve never “gotten”. Benny hams it up and plays to the camera, but Walt manages to hit the right notes perfectly.
You have to love how smooth Walt is at promotion. He stages the bit so that it starts with product placement for the then-upcoming That Darn Cat – “The title of the picture is important! You gotta punch it!” You sure do, Walt! Well played. He also drops Mary Poppins in there. And while he doesn’t like to talk about the charity work that Disneyland does, he apparently does keep huge bricks of tickets in his desk just in case!
Just another day at the studio, I suppose. No wonder kids of this era thought Walt was just this side of Santa Claus – he hangs out in his huge office with magical birds, tigers roaming the halls, and deskfulls of free Disneyland tickets. What a life!
While Benny managed to make out like a bandit on this visit, Walt had managed to get some money out of him previously; when Walt’s Celebrity Sports Center opened near Denver in 1960, one of its investors was the tightfisted Benny.
There’s been a lot of thought lately directed towards the problems facing the Disney theme parks, and how – if possible – they can be resolved. One rather shocking discovery I’ve made, and which I plan on addressing more in the future, is that a tide seems to have turned against Disney on the fan message boards and social media. Fan boards have typically been on the sunny side in the past, happy to accept whatever Disney hands down, but this seems to have changed. Sometimes it seems that folks like myself, who have tended to view the company with a critical eye and were often branded cranks in the past, have become among the least despondent members of fandom.
This has taken me by surprise, and I’ve been at a loss to really explain it. As I’ve said, it’s an odd time to be a critic, with the company willing to spend once more but making dubious choices in the theming of these multi-million dollar expansions. Even more baffling is Walt Disney World, my personal area of greatest interest, which seems to rise and fall on a daily basis; depending on which subject you’re addressing – attractions, entertainment, foods, transportation – you can waver between optimistic and despondent on an hourly basis.
Big new Fantasyland plans? Yay! Decaying Tomorrowland? Boo! Tasty new burgers at Pecos Bill? Yay! Shortened hours and generic chicken nuggets at Columbia Harbour House? Boo! Classy new Town Square Theater? Yay! The hideous Stitch stage blaring Cotton Eye Joe in Tomorrowland? Boo!
It’s hard to keep track. And it’s hard to really chart the progress of the resort when you have snazzy new rockwork going up in Fantasyland but monorails falling apart outside the gates. What is most baffling is that many of us feel that the absolute nadir of the Magic Kingdom is behind us, and the park has seen an overall rise in quality and maintenance over the last few years. While it is far, far from its historical peak, of course, it’s at least better – better than when Under New Management festered in Adventureland, or the Exposition Hall remained empty, or the 20,000 Leagues lagoon sat stagnant and filled with floating garbage. The Magic Kingdom is better off, and the other parks are certainly no worse off than they were five years ago, so why are so many people worried? And why does the future quality of the resort feel like such a dicey proposition?
"Suddenly there was no Mission:Space. Gary Sinise, rescued, alive, well, and of normal size some 8000 miles away in a cocktail bar." - 7 hours ago
Twist: Turns out Chief from Mesa Verde Times hit his head exploring Horizons & DREAMED THE WHOLE THING INCLUDING MISSION SPACE & GARY SINISE - 8 hours ago
I hope at the end of John Carter, the twist is the evil villain is Gary Sinise who's just mad because he's hung over and got lost on Mars - 8 hours ago
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