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By Michael - June 4th, 2014 Here’s something I’ve wanted to share for quite some time now – it’s a video that made the rounds on the Disney fan circuit years ago, and is still some of the best documentation out there of Tokyo DisneySea. This spectacular park – Tokyo Disney Resort’s “second gate” – opened in 2001, and is world-renowned as perhaps the most detailed and elaborate theme park ever made. In this video, you’ll get a sense as to why theme park fans revere its name.
The park overall has a nautical theme, with areas evoking ports of call from around the world as well as from the pages of fiction and fantasy. You can visit Renaissance-era Italy, or Captain Nemo’s mysterious volcanic hideaway. There’s turn-of-the-century New York City, the lost ruins of South America, and the exotic bazaars of Arabia. There’s even an undersea playground for aspiring mermaids. At the park’s entrance is the Hotel Miracosta, Disney’s most ornate and luxurious hotel.
One look at the video and you’ll understand why stateside fans clamor for a trip to Tokyo. It’s a shame so little documentation of the park is available here in America – the park’s many DVD and CD releases are only available for exorbitant prices on the secondary market, and there are no books or magazines available in English. An “art of” book for the park would surely do well sales-wise among fans worldwide.
This video was made in the park’s early years, so later additions like the park’s magnificent version of the Tower of Terror are missing. Of note is ride Sindbad’s Seven Voyages, which would go on to be completely reimagined in 2007 as Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage. The attraction’s overhaul saw it transformed into a more whimsical musical adventure, made much more “cute” to appeal to local sensibilities.
Hopefully the park will see some equally impressive expansions in the future, but for now sit back and enjoy the unparalleled beauty of Tokyo DisneySea.
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By Michael - April 22nd, 2014 
Fifty years ago, in Flushing Meadows, Queens, the 1964/65 New York World’s Fair opened its doors. This grand exposition featured exhibits from around the world in massive mid-century structures; it also included four marquee attractions developed by the Imagineers at WED Enterprises – General Electric’s Progressland, Ford’s Magic Skyway, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, and it’s a small world. This, perhaps, has proved to be the Fair’s greatest legacy. Five decades later – hard to believe, but true – those four attractions have paved the way for the modern Disney theme park experience. They each pioneered technologies that came to define what we think of as a “Disney” attraction; before the Fair, Disneyland was a very different park than the one it would be afterwards.
The Fair itself seems to have been the last great American expo to have a major cultural impact. There have been fairs since, true, but none have left the kind of lasting iconography of the 1964 Fair. I was born more than a decade after the Fair ended, but even in my childhood so many of the elements of the Fair – the Unisphere, the Disney shows, key elements of the architecture, and even the general attitude of bygone futurism – remained in the cultural currency. Perhaps it is the idealistic futurism that people still find appealing about the Fair; certainly, the event remains popular today with generations born long after most of the exhibits were bulldozed. The 1964 Fair occurred just as the mid-century shine started to wear off of America; while President Kennedy had already been lost, the country had yet to have its innocence ended with Vietnam, more assassinations, Nixon, the dominance of corporate greed, and everything that has followed. It was a time when even major corporations were still portrayed as innovative, benevolent forces, guaranteeing a “Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow”.
We’ll be talking about each of these four masterpieces in the days and weeks to come, but I wanted to start with a reminder of this musical treasure which is a must-buy for any fan of the Fair, the Disney attractions it inspired, or just of Walt and the Sherman Brothers. It’s been out for several years now, but I’d advise picking one up before they become difficult to find. It’s a great set of music.
I also wanted to link to this old article of mine, which is my favorite story about the Fair and a fun look at all the logistics that had to go in to operating four major shows on the other side of the continent from Disneyland.
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By Michael - April 6th, 2014 
As if their current Mary Blair retrospective wasn’t enough to get you to the Walt Disney Family Museum this year, the museum has just announced a second exhibition that will debut later this year. Leading Ladies And Femmes Fatales: The Art Of Marc Davis will go on display in the museum’s Theater Gallery from April 30 to November 3, 2014. It will feature around 70 pieces ranging from pencil animation drawings to Imagineering concept art, and is co-curated by Michael Labrie, the museum’s director of collections and exhibitions, and animation legend Andreas Deja.
If you’re a reader of this blog then Davis is probably a household name; his long and varied career spanned the fields of animation, Imagineering, and fine art. He was the lead animator for iconic characters such as Tinker Bell, Malificent, and Cruella de Vil, and his inspirational drawings and gags led to the creation of a slew of signature Disney attractions such as Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, the Country Bear Jamboree, America Sings, and unbuilt masterpieces like Western River Expedition and the Enchanted Snow Palace. He was one of Walt’s Nine Old Men, and a true master among masters.
It’s a bit of a banner year for Davis; a glaring gap in Disney literature will be filled this fall when Disney Editions releases Marc Davis: Walt Disney’s Renaissance Man.
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By Michael - April 5th, 2014 I’ve been feeling a bit spacey lately…
Let me rephrase that.
Space has been on my mind lately. Not that it’s ever too far off, but it’s nice to have a weekly dose of spacey goodness due to the new series of Cosmos airing on Fox and National Geographic (it’s well worth your time, and past episodes can be found on Hulu).
It might be strange to realize today, but Disney (formerly Walt Disney Productions), used to be a major source of educational films and materials due to the long-running Walt Disney Educational Media Company. If you grew up like I did in the era of actual filmstrips, you probably saw a few during your school days. I stumbled across one of these films recently, which ties together nicely with my space-bound mood, and might serve as a nice appetizer for the next episode of Cosmos.
The film is Comets: Time Capsules of the Solar System, directed by the wonderfully-named Chuck Finance and released in 1981. It’s an interesting look at our conception of comets in the not-so-distant past; it’s remarkable what we’ve learned in the years since, as probes have actually examined, sent landers, and even returned samples from these mysterious objects. We’ve even discovered entirely new areas of the solar system which were unknown and unexplored in 1981.
While I can’t be sure that I ever saw this one “back in the day”, I’m pretty sure I did; for some reason I vividly remember the computer plotter printing out the orbits of the comets, and the great proto-CGI animating the orbits. It’s really wonderful to see what the technology was like back then – that plotter is really cool! It’s highly likely that I remember this from the Disney Channel because – believe it or not – they actually aired stuff like this way back when to fill the space between movies and programs. I believe the animations of the solar system forming were also used by Disney Channel as stock footage for some of their interstitials that needed a “sciency” feel.
Enjoy!
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By Michael - April 4th, 2014 It’s been quite some time since we’ve tuned in for an episode of Walt Disney World Inside Out, so for some Friday night viewing let’s turn back the clock to 1994 for another round of awkward, awkward, awkwardness and 90s style.
Episode three, from August of 1994, brings us a vague sports theme meant to tie in to the debut of the All-Star Sports Resort. There are tennis gags and golf gags, which I assume can be attributed to last-minute rewrites by Card Walker. We get a look at a number of new attractions, including Muppet*Vision 3D (with an appearance by Kermit himself), Innoventions at “Epcot ’94” (featuring the SEGA arcade!), and The Legend of the Lion King, which, weirdly, is referred to here as “The Lion King – Live on Stage”. There’s also a peek behind the scenes at the Fantasy in the Sky fireworks show, as well as a big dose of the aforementioned awkwardness.
Enjoy!
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The Progress City Primer
 From the Progress City archives comes this collection of 33 tall tales and true from Disney history. Available in paperback, hardback, and ebook formats. |
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