It’s been awfully quiet around Progress City during the holidays, but I thought I should drop in and wish everyone a Happy New Year. Things have been hectic, of course, and unlike more dedicated bloggers we’ve taken a little break. But the new year means returning to the real world, and that includes blogging. Look for things to pick up around here very soon.
2007 was an interesting year for Disney fans, as we watched the company try to pick itself up from the ashes of the last decade. The last stretch of the Eisner reign took a brutal toll on both theme parks and animation, with such infamous luminaries as Paul Pressler and David Stainton running the creative branches of the company over a cliff and into a seemingly unending morass of mediocrity.
But with new management came new times, and step by step we saw Disney slowly get itself off the ground again. There have still been setbacks (Laugh Floor and the continuing toonification of Tomorrowland) but there have also been halting steps forward (management change at EPCOT and the recognition of fan desire to celebrate that park’s 25th anniversary). 2008 is a real transition year in which the last projects of the old regime overlap with the first projects of the new. Bolt will hit theaters, having been reworked from the ground up by Lasseter’s WDAS story trust. Toy Story Midway Mania will arrive in theme parks, heralding the start of California Adventure’s billion-dollar facelift. Both projects, initiated under Eisner rule, have been fully reworked by Iger’s team and will truly indicate what the future holds for Disney fans.
Here at Progress City HQ we’ll be doing our best to chronicle all this, patting Disney on the back when they get it right and kicking them in the seat of the pants when they don’t. Also, we’ll probably talk about The Apple Dumpling Gang. Just because.
Here’s hoping that everyone out there has started their new year off with a bang; if not, then here’s to the rest of us digging ourselves out of the hole by, say, mid-May or so. There’s nowhere to go from here but up…
Jim Fanning over at Tulgey Wood jogged my memory by posting an article he had written about the old Disney Christmas special “From All Of Us To All Of You”. The special, which first aired on Walt Disney Presents in 1958, featured Jiminy Cricket as Master of Ceremonies as he introduced a series of holiday-themed clips from Disney features and shorts. Newly produced animation linked the shorts and featured Cricket, Tinkerbell, and Mickey Mouse as a very enthusiastic one-man orchestra.
Much like Disney’s Halloween Treat, this program was re-aired regularly for years afterward back in the days when Disney actually tried to air Disney-related programming. Parts of it were re-sourced for a Disney Channel special in the early 1980’s and a later home video release. It was also shown on syndicated re-runs of the Disney anthology program, where it became a staple of my childhood. In fact, all these years later the theme song tends to run through my mind during the holidays. Any chance this might show up on the Disney Channel this year? Nah, I didn’t think so…
Here’s our emcee Jiminy Cricket singing the theme for the special. Happy holidays, everyone!
Two days ago the first of the new Mark VII monorails was delivered to the Disneyland Resort and boy, is she a saucy wench. The first new Disney monorail since the last of the Mark VI’s were delivered to Walt Disney World almost 15 years ago, the new Monorail Red is set to go online in February 2008 according to the L.A. Times. Two other new monorails, blue and orange, will follow in spring and summer.
The new monorail evokes the aesthetics of Bob Gurr’s original designs for Disneyland’s monorail, as seen in the attraction poster on the right. The L.A. Times quoted lead Disney Imagineer Scot Drake as saying the Mark VII design represents a “streamline optimistic vision” of a “fantasy future that never was.” Guess we’ve kinda given up on that future then, eh WDI? Good thing we have no need for sleek and efficient rapid transit today – whew! Silly old people and their silly optimistic views of the future!
Hey, at least they look cool. More pics are up at MiceAge.
It was seventy years ago today, on November 21st, 1937, that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered at Hollywood’s Carthay Circle Theatre. Many of Hollywood’s royalty were in attendance that evening, but mixed among them were the anonymous and unknown animators who had struggled to create the film. As they watched the audience watch the film unspool, they realized that they had succeeded in achieving what many had claimed was impossible – the creation of a feature-length animated feature that would engage and affect audiences as much as a live action film.
Disney fans probably know all the stories and what was at stake; every ounce of the studio’s resources had been sunk into the film. Walt himself had mortgaged his home; he constantly struggled to find additional funding as the film’s budget skyrocketed from the original $500,000 to a then-astonishing $1,500,000. While not everyone echoed the sentiments of those who referred to the film as “Disney’s folly”, few could probably have anticipated the massive public response that followed Snow White‘s release.
Just a brief post to remind everyone that Walt Disney Pictures releases National Treasure: Book of Secrets today on 3,832 screens nationwide (the film is currently lighting up Rotten Tomatoes with a 35% freshness rating). The upside of all this is that before each screening will be shown the first fruits of Disney’s brand spanking new shorts division, How To Hook Up Your Home Theater. The Goofy-starring short and the shorts program as a whole have been discussed here in a previous post. The advance word on the short is uniformly fantastic – check it out if you can handle a little Nicholas Cage action.
From the Progress City archives comes this collection of 33 tall tales and true from Disney history. Available in paperback, hardback, and ebook formats.
The new monorail evokes the aesthetics of Bob Gurr’s original designs for Disneyland’s monorail, as seen in the attraction poster on the right. The L.A. Times quoted lead Disney Imagineer Scot Drake as saying the Mark VII design represents a “streamline optimistic vision” of a “fantasy future that never was.” Guess we’ve kinda given up on that future then, eh WDI? Good thing we have no need for sleek and efficient rapid transit today – whew! Silly old people and their silly optimistic views of the future!
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