Progress City, U.S.A.

Donald seems concerned…

When, as is inevitable, a comic book is one day written about me, it’s conceivable that the blurb on the first cover could read, “The World’s Most Optimistic Cynic!” For someone who was once accused by a teacher – in middle school – of being an “embittered cynic,” I’ve somehow managed to develop a certain level of “magical thinking” that allows me to expect certain positive outcomes despite the laws of probability.

With that as background, I was both hopeful and skeptical when Disney introduced the D23 concept earlier this year. Disney was saying all the right things, and seemed to have picked an excellent staff for the task, but their track record in fan relations was so sketchy (about the only thing missing from those last Toad-Ins in 1998 were snipers on the rooftops) that I had my doubts. Disney seemed to understand their audience less and less each year, and it was growing doubtful that they could be bothered to appeal anymore to an audience more diverse than the young nuclear family princess, pirate, and “dream”/”wish”/”magic” demographic.

Finally! Respect at last!

I gave them the benefit of the doubt, as I knew I would eventually want to buy the D23 magazines anyway, and was pleased with the quality of the first issue. It was very tastefully put together, and while I still hope they start digging a little deeper on more esoteric subjects, it was a good start. The second issue, which came quickly on the heels of the first, really knocked me out because it featured Mr. D. Duck front and center. As he’s my favorite of the Disney regulars, I always feel that Mr. Duck is too often overshadowed in the company’s efforts by the less interesting Mickey Mouse. While I’m convinced that Mickey needn’t be boring, that’s a topic for another day. The point is, by giving Donald the credit he deserves – and the only company-wide recognition he’s received for his 75th birthday! – D23 showed that they were giving *me* what I wanted, and isn’t that the most important thing?

Stuff? I love stuff!!

It also didn’t hurt that the second issue included a neat little freebie – a replica of a Disneyland souvenir fan from the 1950s. D23 was smart to recognize their fans’ love of stuff – especially free stuff – and the desire to have something neater than another pin (or $400 pen). The D23 website continues to regularly provide interesting content of historical interest, and the magazine continues to look to impress, as can be seen with this preview cover from the upcoming Fall issue:

Prankish spooks! And the Hatbox Ghost!

Even more impressive was the slate of events that D23 began to announce over the summer. Free tours of the Studio Archives in Burbank and panel discussions with Imagineers at Disneyland were definite draws, although they sold out immediately and did little for those of us on the east coast. The big shindig, of course, will be the D23 Exposition this September in Anaheim. I hadn’t even considered going at first; Anaheim seems so far away in distance and dollars that it might as well be on the dark side of the moon, and in the best of circumstances I’m hardly a convention-goer. Visions of hard-core fans milling around with pin lanyards talking about their favorite Jonas brother put me off, until I started to see what Disney was actually planning for the event.

He’s either reaching for your wallet or your soul – better be careful either way

In short, it sounds like it’s going to be massive. Every division of the company is coming out to woo Disney’s most devoted fans, and an array of talent from the theme parks, Imagineering, and animation worlds will all be there. There will be displays of rare artifacts from the Disney Archives, and previews of upcoming attractions and films. I started to get the feeling that if I stayed at home, I would feel like I’d been grounded while the coolest kid in town had a pool party with five types of cake and go-go dancers.

So, through a great deal of fortuosity, I’m going. Progress City will be going on the road to Anaheim, and it’ll be my first (I know, I know) trip to Disneyland. We were, by necessity, a Disney World family growing up, and by the time I had the means and method of getting to Disneyland they had destroyed that fantastic and alluring 1967 Tomorrowland and replaced it with the sad DMZ that sits there today. I had sworn that I wouldn’t go to Disneyland until it was fixed; a nice, arbitrary Mary Poppins declaration would be, “I shall go when the Peoplemover track is no longer empty.” I can’t pass this opportunity up, though. Of course, I’d also sworn that I’d never enter DCA until it was worthy of the Disney name, but now that I’m going to be there before the big fix, I kinda wish I had seen it with all the original, awful attractions so I could maximize my mockery. Oh Califia, I’ll never meet you in person!

Anyway, Disneyland. I need ideas from you folks. I don’t need goofy tourism advice like how to use FastPass, or “Mom’s Panel” advice on where to get carrot sticks or how to get the best towel animals in your room. I need that deep, esoteric knowledge that people only have about their home parks. The weird, out-of-the-way things to see; the odd and delightful park-specific snacks; the things that real Disney nerds shouldn’t miss. I’m going to try and memorize Disneyland: The Nickel Tour before I go, but if I come home without experiencing Disneyland’s equivalent of School Bread I’ll be very, very sad.

Oh School Bread, I never knew how difficult long-distance relationships were until I met you… (Photo by sanctumsolitude)

I also need to figure out the best way to publicly disgrace myself by begging for someone to sneak me onto the Burbank lot or into Flower Street. Catburglar/ninja skullduggery is not beneath me, but I’d prefer to get there by legitimate means. I clean up fairly well, am unobtrusive and house-trained, can speak in hushed tones and am extremely discreet. NDAs signed upon request. If anyone at WDI or the Studios is from North Carolina, I can smuggle you valuable goods like real barbecue, Sun Drop, or Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

So, two more months and I’m in Walt’s footsteps. Where’s the churro cart?

It’s been a while, eh?

First, a note on the Tron 2 buzz that’s circulated since our last story. Jim Hill posted a somewhat breathless tale this week about the film’s production and how original TRON director Steven Lisberger had been taken off the project by John Lasseter, scrapping the years of development work that he had put in on the production. Lasseter, says Hill, was inspired by the original TRON to pursue a career in computer animation and thus has a great deal of interest in the film’s success. According to Hill, Lasseter’s interest has led to a great deal of drama with new writers being brought in and Lisberger being replaced with director Joseph Kosinski.

What Hill’s potboiler tale of seething angst and intrigue left out is that many of these changes were made months, if not years, ago, as described here in March. Thankfully Harry Knowles of Ain’t It Cool News had a scoop handed to him when, upon reporting on Hill’s article, he was contacted by Lisberger. Although Lisberger is not directing the project, he remains actively involved in the production as Producer and promises amazing things to come. Good news all around.

Old links for perusal:

- In the light of recent events, this seems even more germane. In fact, I might trot that visual out every time the P.R. machine puts up their typical smokescreen

- Remember when the Disney Channel was good?

- World’s oldest animation!

- Donald Duck’s family tree. Expect to see a great deal about the Ducks here in the future.

- When the new Spaceship Earth show opened last fall, there was a great deal of controversy about the new, oversimplified narration and (to put it politely) anticlimactic finale. While the first act of the attraction, replete with new animatronics, is indeed spectacular, the more objectionable changes are symptomatic of the problems endemic to WDI’s output in recent years. Re-Imagineering posted a very on-the-target analysis of this thematic drift.

- Alvy Ray Smith, though unknown to most Pixar fans, was one of the three founders of that company along with Steve Jobs and Ed Catmull. He has posted some documents from Pixar’s founding at his website.

- Taking a moment to reflect up the recent it’s a small world fiasco, I’d like to link to a rebuttal to Disney P.R.’s spin by John at the Disney Blog. I think it’s an excellent riposte to Disney P.R.’s highhandedness (also to be seen in last month’s Adventurer’s Club dealings) as well as an indictment of Disney’s corporate dependence on the fleeting popularity of trends.

Finally, since one cannot link enough to the fine writings of Foxx at Passport to Dreams Old & New, these stories:

- First, her thoughts on the small world issue. Not only does this mirror my own first thought about the Adventurer’s Club fiasco – I thought we were past this – but she also points out the complete breakdown of communication between Disney and its fans since the Toad Wars of 1998. Not only have certain elements within Disney corporate made no secret of their disdain for their most devoted fanbase, but they have repeatedly and publicly lied to said fandom. Those rifts will take a while to heal, and apparently there’s still need of some housecleaning at Team Disney.

- I encourage everyone to read this dissection of Walt Disney World’s film-based attractions. Although I far too often get distracted by current news or the state of the animation program, this is the Disney I am most in love with. The Disney of Walt Disney World, 1971-84. I only wish I had more time to write about it. These “Phase I” attractions were technologically advanced, thematically and tastefully sophisticated, and embodied that great era before “loud = FUNNY” became the watchword of the day. If I had one wish for WDI’s future, it would be that they could in some part return Walt Disney World to that wonderful holistic feeling of balance that made the resort “The Vacation Kingdom of the World”.

On this day in 1953, Walt Disney Productions released a pair of animated shorts that remain well-known to this day. Ben and Me told the odd story of a mouse who lived with and inspired Ben Franklin. Based on a book by Robert Lawson and adapted for the screen by the great story artist Bill Peet, the two-reeler was eventually nominated for an Academy Award. On his blog, Michael Sporn has posted a series of storyboards that Peet created for the film.

Also released today was the famous Donald Duck short Working for Peanuts. Directed by Jack Hannah, and featuring perennial Duck antagonists Chip and Dale, the short was Disney’s first to be released in 3-D. While it would later be seen on television in 2-D, it would be revived for 3-D presentation in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom as a preshow for Magic Journeys from 1987-1993 and again theatrically in front of 3-D presentations of Meet the Robinsons in 2007. The Animation Backgrounds blog has posted a series of stills from the short showing the stylized, non-traditional backgrounds created by Disney artist Eyvind Earle. Earle, who most notably worked extensively on Sleeping Beauty, employed a very modern and impressionistic style that marked a break from the past in Disney animation of the 1950’s.

For a long time, Disney didn’t really do Halloween. Disney is more of a Christmas kind of organization. But laced throughout Disney history are some nice, moody spooks suitable for the season (aside from the blinding terror of Bambi, of course)…

Foremost in my mind when I think of Disney and Halloween is a little special that used to show around this time called “Disney’s Halloween Treat” and later “A Disney Halloween.” The difference between these two specials was the host; in “Halloween Treat” we were welcomed by a hilarious pumpkin puppet (I’m of the opinion that anything in the world, funny or unfunny, is made a million times funnier by enacting it with a puppet), while “Disney Halloween” was hosted by the Magic Mirror from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Both shows were clip compilations of various spooky and supernaturally themed scenes from old Disney films, and the specials aired in various formats and venues from 1982 until the 1990’s. Now, of course, Disney would never be caught dead showing something ancient (read: pre-1995) on ABC or the Disney Channel; “Disney Halloween” would get bumped for “Haunted High School Musical.” But we have the internets!

Featured in the show were a number of films and shorts, but a few are notable in the classic Disney canon. Lonesome Ghosts is perhaps the most famous, with Our Heroes as proto-Ghostbusters back in the era when Mickey was interesting, but my favorite was always Trick or Treat, starring the inestimable Donald Duck. Directed by legendary Duck director Jack Hannah, and concurrently adapted into comic form by the great Carl Barks, the short isn’t seen nearly as often as it should be.