Progress City, U.S.A.

To rub in the fact that most of us aren’t remotely cool at all, the Walt Disney Family Museum is having a series of events this weekend to celebrate the 55th anniversary of Disneyland. A number of Disney luminaries will gather over the course of three days to discuss the park and Walt himself. Tickets are all sold out, naturally, but the Museum is going to be tweeting live from the event (you can follow them at @WDFMuseum). A photo recap will be made available after the event.

The sessions will be held in the Special Exhibition Hall at the Museum in San Francisco; the first is tonight, July 16th, at 6:30 PM. Saturday, the 17th, and Sunday, the 18th, they will be held at 3:00 PM.

The lineup for the gathering includes a number of fan-favorites, Disney Legends, Disney family members, Imagineers, and former company executives – including two Disneyland Presidents. Among these guests will be:

Diane Disney Miller – daughter of Walt Disney (Friday, July 16 only)
Tony Baxter – current SR VP of Creative Development for Disneyland
Jack Lindquist – former President of Disneyland
Dick Nunis – Disney Legend and former Chairman of Walt Disney Attractions
Matt Ouimet – former President of Disneyland Resort
Buzz Price – Economist who helped Walt Disney find original site of Disneyland
Craig Russell – Current Chief Design and Project Delivery Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering
Marty Sklar – Disney Legend and former Vice Chair of Imagineering
Bruce Vaughn – Current Chief Creative Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering

What can you say about a lineup like that?

So to everyone who’s going, I envy you. Be sure to ask Tony Baxter about WESTCOT and Imagination 4.0, and ask Dick Nunis about tiny pants. And ask Matt Ouimet to come back to run the parks division!

Be sure and follow the updates via @WDFMuseum!

It’s another month of exciting events at the Walt Disney Family Museum in August. For animation fans, award-winning animator and film historian John Canemaker will present his greatly anticipated new book, Two Guys Named Joe. Meanwhile, Disney film stalwart and Swiss Family Robinson actor Tommy Kirk swings in to visit the museum, which will be showing that 1960 film throughout the month.

Let’s take a look at the schedule, courtesy of the Museum:

FILM OF THE MONTH

Swiss Family Robinson (1960)
1:00pm and 4:00pm, Theater
(except Tuesdays and August 13, 14, and 21.)
Tickets available online
A family … a shipwreck … a deserted island … What should they do to survive? Build a home (in a tree), protect themselves (from pirates, of course), and fall in love! Live on an uninhabited island doesn’t sound so bad after all.

LECTURES

August 13 + 14 – John Canemaker Presents Two Guys Named Joe
6:30pm, Theater (August 13); 3:00pm, Theater (August 14)
Tickets available online
Academy Award-winning animator and renowned animation historian/author John Canemaker presents an illustrated lecture on Joe Grant (1908-2005) and Joe Ranft (1960-2005), two unique and important creative influences on the art of storytelling at the Walt Disney and Pixar studios. Join us for a book signing following each discussion.

August 21 – Inside the Tree House with Swiss Family Robinson Actor Tommy Kirk
3:00pm, Theater
Tickets available online
An adventure of a lifetime! Learn what it was like to salvage food, live in a tree, build new inventions, and explore the island. This presentation will give you an inside look at what it was like to work with Walt and be a member of the Swiss Family Robinson cast.

AUGUST DISNEY DISCOVERIES! + LOOK CLOSER SERIES

DISNEY DISCOVERIES: Second Saturday of each month

August 14 – Disney Discoveries! Survival Crafts and Survival Rafts
1:00pm – 3:00pm, Learning Center Art Studio
In honor of the film of the month, Swiss Family Robinson, create your own survival gear. Using a variety of materials, you will make a basket for picking fruit or a miniature raft that you can use to sail away on.

Imaginations and creativity will soar with our new Disney Discoveries! The second Saturday of each month, join us for family fun and activities in the Learning Center. The activities planned by our education staff will inspire the hidden artist in young visitors while learning about the life and work of Walt Disney.

The Disney Discoveries! Activities are free with paid admission to the Museum. No ticket is needed for members—just show your membership card.

LOOK CLOSER

August 27, 28 + 29 – Look Closer: Swiss Family Robinson Original Lobby Card
11:00am and 3:00pm, Theater Lobby

Would you like to know more about one of the artifacts in the galleries? Our Look Closer series will give you that opportunity—staff will reveal little known facts, behind the scenes information, or just additional information during the 5 to 8-minute gallery talk.

The Look Closer series is free with paid admission to the Museum. Members are always free and no ticket is needed. Just show your membership card.

Be sure to follow the Museum online, and on Facebook and Twitter!

Another month, another crackerjack lineup of events at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. June’s events focus on animation, with screenings of classic Silly Symphonies and certain-to-be-fascinating presentations by producer Don Hahn and author Russell Merritt. There are, as always, lots of interactive and educational activities for families too. For more information, visit the Museum’s website, and be sure to follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

The Walt Disney Family Museum
June 2010 Events Calendar

Explore the Innovation in Animation
Meet film producer and director Don Hahn
In June at The Walt Disney Family Museum

FILM OF THE MONTH

Silly Symphonies (1929-1939)
1:00pm and 4:00pm, Theater
(except Tuesdays and June 19 and June 26.)
Tickets available online at www.waltdisney.org

Starting with The Skeleton Dance in 1929 and ending with The Ugly Ducking remake in 1939, the Silly Symphonies is a series of 75 cartoons based on musical themes. The film of the month comprises selections from the series, which feature a different cast of characters in each installment. Highlights include The Old Mill (1937), Flowers and Tress (1932), Music Land (1935) and The Three Little Pigs (1933).

JUNE LECTURES

June 19 – Innovations in Animation: Sound, Color, and Depth
3:00 pm, Theater
Tickets available online at www.waltdisney.org

Walt Disney tested new technologies in the Silly Symphonies and produced animated shorts with sound, color, and depth. Russell Merritt, professor of Film Studies at Berkeley and co-author of Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies, will discuss Music Land, Flowers and Trees, and The Old Mill among other groundbreaking shorts.

June 26 – Firsts in Animation: A Look Back and Forward with Don Hahn
3:00 pm, Theater
Tickets available online at www.waltdisney.org

Learn how Walt took risks that pushed the boundaries in the industry and changed animation forever. Film producer (The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast) and director Don Hahn discusses “firsts in animation” and highlights the new technological and artistic developments in the industry.

JUNE DISNEY DISCOVERIES! + LOOK CLOSER SERIES

DISNEY DISCOVERIES: Second Saturday of each month

June 12 – Disney Discoveries! Silly Cartoon Cranked Moviola
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm, Learning Center Art Studio

Imaginations and creativity will soar with our new Disney Discoveries! The second Saturday of each month, join us for family fun and activities in the Learning Center. The activities planned by our education staff will inspire the hidden artist in young visitors while learning about the life and work of Walt Disney.

The Disney Discoveries! Activities are free with paid admission to the Museum. No ticket is needed for members—just show your membership card.

LOOK CLOSER:

June 25, 26 + 27 – Look Closer: Multiplane Camera
11:00 am and 2:00 pm, Theater Lobby

Would you like to know more about one of the artifacts in the galleries? Our Look Closer series will give you that opportunity. In the 15 – 30-minute gallery talk, staff will reveal little known facts and information not on the gallery label.

The Look Closer series is free with paid admission to the Museum. Members are always free and no ticket is needed. Just show your membership card.

March is almost here, so let’s see what the Walt Disney Family Museum has in store. There are some really cool events for you lucky souls out on the west coast…

The Walt Disney Family Museum
March 2010 Events Calendar

Disney Innovators, Sean Connery and a String Quartet top the list of March 2010 activities at the Walt Disney Family Museum

MARCH LECTURES

March 20 –Disney Innovator Don Iwerks discusses the Nodal Point Camera invented by his legendary father, Ub
3:00 pm, Theater
tickets available online at www.waltdisney.org

The making of Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959) presented particular challenges. Walt Disney wanted the audience to believe that Darby was talking and singing with the King at the Leprechauns but the scale had to be perfect. To tackle this technical problem, he turned to Ub Iwerks, Join Don Iwerks—former Disney executive, founder of Iwerks Entertainment, and son of Ub as he talks about Ub’s creation, the Nodal Point Camera.

March 28 –Disney’s first Female Imagineer, Harriet Burns, visits during Women’s History Month
3:00 pm, Theater
tickets available online at www.waltdisney.org

Harriet Burns became the first woman to work at WED Enterprises, adding her special touch to Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, the Haunted Mansion, and the Enchanted Tiki Room. Her daughter, Pam Burns-Clair, and Don Peri, author of “Working with Walt: Interview with Disney Artists,” will introduce you to a woman who worked beside legends and became one herself.

FILM OF THE MONTH

Darby O’Gill and the Little People
1:00pm and 4:00pm, Theater
(except Tuesdays, March 13, March 20 and March 28)
tickets available online at www.waltdisney.org

Before he was James Bond, actor Sean Connery was Michael Murphy, an Irishman caught up in the magical adventures of Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959). Follow Darby (Albert Sharpe) as he tries to out trick the King of the Leprechauns and reach that pot of gold. Does he succeed? You will have to come to one of our screenings to find out.

MUSIC BY MOZART

March 13 – String Circle Quartet
4:00 p.m., Special Exhibition Hall
tickets available online at www.waltdisney.org

This musical adventure will pair the last string quartet of Mozart’s with the first of Benjamin Britten’s; these are both pieces of sparkling wit, great beauty, and off beat character. Jonathan Dimmock will join the quartet on piano in a quintet arrangement written by Mozart for glass harmonica.

PUBLIC PROGRAMMING FOR MARCH

DISNEY DISCOVERIES: Second Saturday of each month

March 13 – An Enchanted Tiki Bird
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm, Learning Center: Art Studio

Imaginations and creativity will soar with our new Disney Discoveries! The second Saturday of each month, join us for family fun and activities in the Learning Center. The activities planned by our education staff will inspire the hidden artist in young visitors while learning about the life and work of Walt Disney.

The Disney Discoveries! activities are free with paid admission to the Museum. No ticket is needed for members—just show your membership card.

LOOK CLOSER:

March 26 & 27 – Inside Audio-Animatronics: The Making of Mr. Lincoln
11:00 am and 3:00 pm, Gallery 9, Lower Level

Would you like to know more about one of the artifacts in the galleries? Our Look Closer series will give you that opportunity—staff will reveal little known facts—and behind the scenes information during the 30-minute gallery talk.

The Look Closer series is free with paid admission or paid membership.

It’s a Disney family two-fer today, as the Walt Disney Family Museum has released its schedule for January. Coming off of the holiday-themed events of December, January finds the Museum delving into the deep with a number of events centered on the theme of undersea exploration.

This is an interesting and unexpected slate, but I have to say they’ve missed the chance to screen some aquatic True-Life Adventures! We also need some Harper Goff fanboys there to discuss the Nautilus, and Tony Baxter to do a presentation about Discovery Bay. And Kym Murphy talking about The Living Seas and Port Disney! And instead of doing it at the Museum, they need to come do it all at my house!

Oh well, if wishes were fishes. The schedule:

The Walt Disney Family Museum
January 2010 Events Calendar

FILM

Film of the Month: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
1:00pm, 4:00pm, Theater
(Every day except Tuesdays and January 23)
tickets available online at www.waltdisney.org

Dive into 2010 with Walt Disney and Jules Verne. Explore the ocean with two of the world’s most imaginative visionaries in this incredible underwater film.

PUBLIC PROGRAMMING

January 9 – Disney Discoveries: Underwater Creatures
1:00-3:00pm, Learning Center: Art Studio

Imaginations and creativity will soar with our new Disney Discoveries! The second Saturday of each month, join us for family fun and activities in the Learning Center. The activities planned by our education staff will inspire the hidden artist in elementary school children while learning about the life and work of Walt Disney.

The Disney Discoveries! activities are free with paid admission to the Museum. No ticket is needed for members—just show your membership card.

January 29 & 30 – Look Closer: The Underwater Camera and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
11:00am and 3:00pm, Gallery 7 at The Walt Disney Family Museum

Would you like to know more about one of the artifacts in the galleries? Our Look Closer series will give you that opportunity—staff will reveal little known facts, behind the scenes information, or just additional information that does not fit on a label during the 30-minute gallery talk.

The Look Closer series is free with paid admission or paid membership.

LECTURE

January 23 – Under the Sea: Discussion with Renowned Ocean Engineer Graham Hawkes
3:00pm, Theater
tickets available online at www.waltdisney.org

Discover the mysteries of the deep sea and learn about Walt Disney’s scientific and cultural contributions to society. Celebrated ocean engineer Graham Hawkes will discuss how imagination initiates exploration and leads to discovery. Graham will take you on a journey to the bottom of the ocean and show you the next generation of vehicles he is building to open the oceans for all to explore.

January 1st – New Year’s Day
Museum is closed