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A Dream Called Walt Disney World

Back in the day… wait for it… the Disney Channel showed content aimed at us theme park fans. Crazy, I know, but true! One special I remember well is 1986’s A Dream Called Walt Disney World, which aired in conjunction with the resort’s yearlong 15th anniversary celebration.

The hour-long special gives a history of the […]

A Ray Of Sunshine

Too often in the modern era the role of a Disney observer is to chronicle the slow loss of special things, as the parks’ offerings are pared down in service of cutbacks and streamlining. It’s a slow, depressing process that columnist Kevin Yee has termed “declining by degrees”.

Every now and then, though, we win […]

Behind The Masterpiece, 1967

Fans of Imagineering will no doubt recognize this artwork by the great Herb Ryman; said to be the first painting of Walt Disney World’s Cinderella Castle, it became an iconic image during the creation and promotion of Disney’s Florida resort. Much as he had done with Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle years earlier, Ryman provided […]

Keeping Walt Disney World As Walt Disney World

Everyone – especially any of you bunkered down in Burbank or Glendale – should read the latest at Passport to Dreams Old and New about how alterations to Walt Disney World have stripped it off some of its unique feeling. More often than not, these alterations are caused by sloppiness, and a general lack of […]

Goofy About Health

Amongst Disney watchers, there is a subset of us which could glibly be referred to as the “WED did it better” crowd. With a historical view of Disney attraction offerings, one can come to the conclusion that the old-guard Imagineering that created Pirates of the Caribbean, the Country Bear Jamboree and Horizons possessed a certain […]