Recently, as part of their “limited time magic” promo, Walt Disney World held an event which let guests mingle with “obscure” Disney characters. In the end the characters they featured were neither obscure or even particularly rare, but the concept in general is a good one. Disney history is littered with characters who were used for special events or were tied into films, television shows, or other properties that are long gone from the spotlight; characters appeared in the park for every animated feature from the 1980s and 1990s, but when was the last time you saw llama Kuzco or the cast of The Great Mouse Detective?
While they’re no longer marquee names, many of these characters are still loved by fans and are worth trotting out on occasion. Who wouldn’t want their pictures taken with the Rocketeer, or the DuckTales crew, or any of a hundred long-abandoned walkaround characters?
The forgotten Disney roster doesn’t end there, though. Aside from film and TV stars, Disney also has created many one-off characters for specific in-park uses or for special events or outside sponsors. Dreamfinder and Figment, as well as the recently-flourishing Orange Bird are famous examples of park-specific characters; don’t tell me there wouldn’t be a meet-n-greet queue if they were to return. Where is the line to meet the Kaiser Aluminum Pig? Outside of the parks were a slew of others, many long forgotten, including Andy Anaheim and the 1984 Summer Olympics mascot, Sam the Eagle.
Occasionally, though, no matter how much of a nerd you are for these obscurities, you find something that you’ve never heard of. Something that somehow flew under your radar. Something so bizarre and amazing that it quickly becomes one of The Best Things Ever.
Tony Baxter with models of Discovery Bay and Dumbo’s Circus, 1976
As you’re no doubt aware by now, veteran Imagineer Tony Baxter resigned from Walt Disney Imagineering last Friday, his birthday, after a remarkable 47 years with the company. Tony will be staying on as a consultant to the company, providing his insight to those who are wise enough to seek him out.
But despite the fact that Tony will no doubt continue to do great work in the years to come, the fact that he has been a very public face of Imagineering for decades make this a deep loss for fans. Tony was not only the creative lead of a number of extremely significant attractions over the years, but he was also a very tangible link to the Golden Age of Imagineering; directly mentored by the great Claude Coats, Tony worked alongside a pantheon of creative legends in his early years. He is also one of the very few active Cast Members who were working for the Company when Walt was still alive.
As for the slate of Tony’s accomplishments, I’m reminded of the scene in Jaws when Robert Shaw introduces himself by saying “You all know me; know how I earn a livin’.” Tony’s resume is well-known to any fan, but bears re-examination; when you think about it, you’re staggered by its magnitude. With the customary caveat that no project is the work of any one individual, it seems clear that Tony has had the single greatest influence among active Imagineers on the modern Disney parkscape – the vision of Disney theme parks that most of us grew up with.
After all, what is a modern Disney park without Big Thunder Mountain? Without Splash Mountain? It’s hard to imagine what Disneyland would look like without Tony’s influence, and his breathtaking 1983 overhaul of that park’s Fantasyland completely re-invented how we envision that “cardinal realm” of Disney parks. It’s proved the template for similar lands ever since.
The list goes on: Star Tours, Indiana Jones Adventure, and the not-so-insignificant contribution of that jewel of a park, Disneyland Paris. He’s made critical contributions to everything from The Living Seas to Soarin’. And, for much of the last decade, he’s devoted himself to the restoration of his beloved Disneyland; his steady hand has guided the return of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, the Sleeping Beauty Castle tour, and the long-dormant submarines of Tomorrowland. Some might scoff at these smaller-scale projects, but I envy Tony for being able to tackle these deeply significant attractions that are fundamental to Disneyland’s unique texture. Disney parks are not beloved because someone plopped a bunch of “big box” e-tickets in a parking lot; it’s the unique blend of A-E ticket shows that makes Disney special, and featuring a variety of experiences allows everyone to enjoy the parks. Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln is just as important to Disneyland as Space Mountain, and Tony understands that.
Equally numerous as the attractions we’ve listed are the grand visions which never came to fruition. What fan doesn’t still pine for Discovery Bay, thirty years later? Tony’s proposed-but-unrealized projects read like a checklist of park devotee fantasies; they range from endless concepts for Disneyland and Disneyland Paris to my own personal obsession, WESTCOT. They also include a warehouse full of ideas that remain yet unknown to the general public, but will astound and amaze when they one day come to light. If you pine for “what could have been,” you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Tony’s striking original concept for Epcot Center’s “The Land.” A master modelmaker, Tony has often developed new projects through striking mockups such as this.
Special mention must be made here for my own personal favorite of Tony’s attractions, Epcot Center’s beloved Journey into Imagination. Alongside a team of talented artists and co-creators, Tony crafted an iconic and memorable experience that the public still pines for more than a decade after its closure. The pavilion gave Epcot Center what it sorely needed – it’s own trademark characters, Dreamfinder and Figment. It also combined technology and artistry to present a “creative playground of the future” that has never been bested since, despite today’s fancier technology, “interactive” flat-screen displays, and RFID. It was the one Epcot Center attraction that could have been as evergreen as the Magic Kingdom classics Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean; it was a show that demanded no updates to keep up with “the future”, and a show with timeless, universal themes.
I won’t feed you a line about how Imagination “made the magic of imagination come alive” or anything like that; what made it special for me was that it created a completely immersive experience that played to each of the senses in indelible ways. From the smell of atomized rose fragrance which I can vividly recall still today, to the beauty of white “paper” animals dancing in multi-hued lights, to the prickly tingle of the Imageworks’ “pin screens,” the Imagination pavilion presented an array of experiences that were completely and amazingly unique at the time.
And oh, that ride. Piling into the six-seater purple vehicles before those doors slowly slid shut, before your car accelerated into the first starlit show scene; it was as if you had passed the proscenium into another world, a multimedia fantasia that combined the best of Disney illusioneering with a barrage of visual and auditory puns and gags. That incredible turntable with the massive dirigible; Dreamfinder painting the world’s largest polarized light mural with a fiber-optic paintbrush; the volcanic organ spitting out words which became the ride’s reality. And some scenes which truly terrified young me, giving the ride a menacing edge lacking from today’s offerings. I could rattle on and on about the striking images and environments featured in that ride, but in the end it would wind up listing pretty much every scene of the show. One impression after another, vividly impressed into my subconscious for all time.
When Tony announced his departure from Imagineering, he sent out a letter to his collaborators. I encourage you to read it here. It’s heartbreaking, breathtakingly succinct, and profoundly and startlingly true. All my nattering on this blog over the last five years can be summarized (and stated far better than I ever could) in that one simple letter. I wish it could be carved in gilded letters five stories tall on the cliff faces over Glendale.
With the caveat that we expect many more wonderful things from him, Tony can rest assured that his legacy is secure. The list of attractions above are certainly enough to make one a lowercase-l legend, and it’s obvious that he will one day become an “official” Disney Legend; as a friend described it to me, it’s the equivalent of a pro sports star that gets inducted as an all-star on the “first ballot”. His work and his name will be remembered for all posterity, which is more than I can say for nameless managers and bureaucrats – “strategic planners” – who, at times, stymied his work. They will be forgotten, Tony will not.
There’s so much more I could say, but in the end there’s nothing I could say that we all don’t already know. I don’t know Mr. Baxter personally, so I can’t speak to his plans or intentions or feelings about all this. But what I do know is that, if he so desires, this could only be the beginning of spectacular things. Any theme park company in the world should be camped out on his doorstep Monday morning with truckloads of cash demanding that Tony create madcap, magnificent new things for them. Freed from the shackles of WDI’s demented internal politics, the sky is the limit for Tony.
We wish him well, and despite the fact that such words are inadequate, we thank him sincerely.
I would encourage all of you to leave a message in the comments below thanking Tony; I’ll try to see that they make their way to him. Tell us about your favorite Tony attraction, or any memories you might have about his work. For those of you who are creative professionals who might have worked with Tony, how about some stories about working with him? Thanks to everyone who comments.
A very young me (and family) enjoying one of Tony’s greatest creations in October 1982.
Recently, Epcot’s Test Track attraction reopened after a lengthy overhaul that saw a complete facelift of the attraction’s aesthetic. Gone are the old preshow, plot, and postshow area; gone are the Belgian blocks and the silly “tests” and the heat, cold and corrosion rooms. While the ride system and the actual ride profile itself remain the same, the entire show space has been overlaid with a sleek, TRON-esque feel replete with blue neon and special effects. There’s even wall carpet in the queue!
The conceit of the re-done attraction is that you design your own virtual vehicle in the pre-show area, and during the attraction your results are measured against the performance of your virtual car. After the ride there are other opportunities to interact with your custom-designed vehicle, whether through interactive games or photo opportunities. Although the ride itself is, unfortunately, still “Test Track”, there’s no doubt that the changes are a massive improvement and, at the very least, make the ride pleasant to look at. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the old ride and the new:
But of course all these events have made me turn my thoughts to Epcot Center’s original transportation pavilion, World of Motion. This Audio-Animatronic dark ride spectacular operated in Future World from 1982 to 1996 and informed a generation that it was “fun to be free”. It’s a good time, then, to go back and take a look at this classic show.
We’ve spoken before about the promotional videos that World of Motion visitors could obtain, via free mail-order, from General Motors. You might still be having night terrors from this particularly bizarre version. Mercifully, most of the General Motors promo videos weren’t quite as disturbing, and many of them provide a nice little time capsule of what Walt Disney World used to be like.
Here’s one from 1989 – “Make Your Own Magic”. It’s an overview of the three Walt Disney World parks with a focus on Epcot Center and – especially – World of Motion. There’s actually quite a bit of fun footage in this of things that are rarely seen in old promo films and, of course, nowhere to be seen today.
First of all, I think we can all agree Robert Stempel is a total rockstar.
Aside from the general “I miss all of those things” impulse, there are a number of very neat, odd little tidbits that are included in these park overviews that no longer exist. There’s a brief clip of Dick Tracy’s Diamond Double-Cross, a short lived stage show at the Disney-MGM Studios. There’s a few clips – and a picture of the marquee – of Here Come The Muppets!, a… short lived stage show at the Disney-MGM Studios. There are snippets of the Disney Afternoon stage show – featuring DuckTales and TaleSpin! – from the now-defunct Mickey’s Starland. There’s footage of Starland showing just how different it was from its successor, Mickey’s Toontown Fair, and you can see the false-front buildings of Duckburg as well as the leaping fountains featured in its hedgemaze. There’s even a lovingly over-long gaze at Delta’s Dreamflight in Tomorrowland!
At Epcot Center there are, of course, all the attractions we love and miss. There are lots of good shots of the World Showcase Omnibuses, as well as a peek at France’s Au Petit Cafe before it was consumed by the Chefs de France expansion. And there are all the wonders of the TransCenter – The Bird and the Robot, the Aero 2000, and the wonderful Lean Machine. It’s thirty years later, and I still desperately want a Lean Machine.
And, of course, with so many videos of this vintage, there are amazing guest testimonials. Why did there always have to be an awkward kid they forced to sing It’s a Small World? Props to the guy with the UNC ballcap, though. Unfiltered truth!
So the next time you’re peeling through Test Track in your SimCar(TM), take a moment to remember the animatronic traffic jams of yore, the speedtunnels now lost, the dulcet tones of Gary Owens that fall on deaf ears, and the stirring sight of the Centercore. And GM, I’m still waiting to make a deposit on a Lean Machine.
Way back when… so far back that the Disney Channel showed actual Disney-related content… the network often filled time between its programs with informative interstitials about Disney history. A series of these featurettes were produced about Walt Disney Imagineering, hosted by then-frequent Disney Channel host Eric Boardman. One of these, shown below, provides a glimpse at the history of and technology behind Audio-Animatronics. It also features Imagineers Dave Feiten and Eric Swapp, as well as Marty Sklar and beloved Disney personality Wally Boag.
While one could have a long debate over the greatest innovation brought about by the Disney theme park revolution, there’s no doubt that the advent of Audio-Animatronic technology is the one best known throughout popular culture. The idea of “robotic” actors that could perform, on cue, around the clock 365 days a year was a uniquely Disney innovation and the foundation of its most memorable ride experiences. It’s been a rough few years for Audio-Animatronics enthusiasts, what with Disney selling off all their AA technology, tooling, and equipment and finally eliminating and disestablishing the legendary MAPO dream factory and skunkworks in Tujunga. There have been high-profile animatronic failures (the Yeti, for one), as well as an increased reliance on film technology in rides and a corresponding decline in the immersive, dimensional attractions that Audio-Animatronics represent.
Back in 1988, though, it seemed that the sky was the limit for the Disney animatronic gurus, and this video presents a nice capsule history of how the technology had advanced to that point. Look also for a cameo by the under-construction Norway Pavilion!
Occasionally you come across a bit of old video that you don’t even remember directly but it stirs some primeval memory deep within and you just know you’ve seen it – probably a million times – long, long ago. This is one of those videos.
I’m not sure, but I believe this appeared on some Disney home video releases – perhaps at the end of the tape after a movie. They used to do stuff like this; weird little promos and things were tagged onto the end, and they always evoke vivid memories even if you haven’t seen them in twenty years.
It helps that the video, although painfully short, is just so, so cool. This is the Walt Disney World I remember – the low-lying fog on those early Florida mornings on the way to breakfast aboard the Empress Lilly before making it to rope-drop at the parks. Taking the train around, the wet pavement, the horse trolley… this video is just remarkably evocative of all that and it’s why it’s one of my favorites. You even get a look at the old Mark IV monorails with the trademark “cla-clunk!” of their doors.
Watching this video makes me think I could step off that monorail again and ride 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or Horizons one more time…
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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