Monthly Archives: March 2013
A Black Sheep Turned Green
Mar 27
At Walt Disney World, it feels like there are a bazillion resort hotels. Well that’s exaggeration, but you get my point. Disney World opened with plans for several hotels. On opening day in October or 1971, only two of those hotels were open to the public; the Polynesian Village resort and the Contemporary resort hotels. The Campground known as the Fort Wilderness resort opened a month later in November, but the resort wouldn’t see a new hotel built until 1973 when they opened Disney’s Golf resort.
The Golf resort started out as a clubhouse for Disney’s two PGA championship courses; Disney’s Palm an Disney’s Magnolia. The two story clubhouse was made solely out of volcanic rock and wood. The clubhouse did actually open along with the rest of Walt Disney world in 1971 but it wasn’t until 1973 when the clubhouse was expanded due to the need for more guest rooms, especially for golfers during the PGA championships at Walt Disney World. Rooms were all large, at 480 feet, and were the biggest regular rooms at any of the Walt Disney World hotels.
While the Polynesian and Contemporary hotels were constantly booked full due to their easy monorail stop near the Magic Kingdom, the Golf resort never hit full occupancy, unless it was golf season. That’s in part due to it’s lack of a monorail stop and that it wasn’t nearly as elaborate as the other two hotels. You could say that the Golf resort was somewhat of the black sheep amongst the hotels. Most travel agencies and guests didn’t even see the hotel as a Disney hotel.
Despite it’s reputation, the hotel did have it’s amenities. The pro shop at the resort offered classes for anyone who wanted to learn about golf and they taught all ages, keeping with the family friendly atmosphere of the rest of Walt Disney World. Of course, guests could always rent clubs at the shop and take their game onto one of the two 18 hole courses or the Oak Trail course which was a 9 hole course and it’s subsequent putting greens. The Golf resort also had a fine dining restaurant in The Magnolia Room (and later the Trophy Room). The Magnolia was known for it’s french fried ice cream and was open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Dinner service came with live entertainment from a duo named Amos and Charles, playing acoustic guitars, mixing in country, rock, bluegrass, and folk music. Beyond eating and golfing, tennis courts and a large pool, also called the Magnolia.
Lack of interest from guests led the Disney company to eventually change the hotel’s name in 1986 to The Disney Inn, hoping that the stigma of the resort’s niche golf audience would vanish. The lobby and rooms were remodled to have more of a country cottage feel with an overall Snow White theme being added in. 150 rooms were also added at this time. The Garden Gallery restaurant was added to another dining option at the hotel. Offering more American style dishes, it became a favorite amongst guests staying at the new Disney Inn. A lounge called The Back Porch was also added during the renovations made to the hotel. Other additions included a second pool, a snack and poolside bar, and an arcade.
Unfortunately for the hotel, it still didn’t pick up any momentum, even with the additions and name change. It was still just too far off the monorail track to be noticed or cared for by the average guest. By the early 1990s, the Army came in and sought to lease the property to be it’s first national resort since many of it’s troops were asked and Orlando, or Walt Disney World, was the number one choice for military personnel as a vacation destination. In 1996, the Army bought the resort outright for $43 million but Disney still owns the land it sits on so many decisions for the resort are made by both Disney and the Army.
The resort’s name was once again changed to Shades of Green, acknowledging the many green uniforms the military has. The former Garden Gallery stayed but everything else has since changed to fit the military occupancy of the hotel. Manginos took over the old Magnolia room and America, an Ice Cream Parlour was added to the resort. Other amenities have also been added since the military take over including more rooms, bringing the total to over 500 rooms for the hotel, with all of them being the biggest standard guest rooms on Walt Disney World property. The Magnolia Ballroom is used as a conference and meeting area.
Due to the military’s ownership of the hotel, it is not open to the public, but to those who are or have served our country. With that being said, the hotel is constantly packed and continues to be a hit among the men and women that server the United States of America. Regardless of if it is open to everyone or not, it’s nice to see a hotel finally hit it’s groove, especially with such a good cause behind it. I salute Disney for allowing the Army to find a place on their property and I salute the Army for creating such a wonderful experience for their soldiers.
Josh Taylor
https://ModernMouseRadio.com
Modern Mouse Radio #16: Disney Cruise Tips and Tricks
Mar 24
Josh and Keith are joined by Amanda from Mouseketrips and http://www.LivingWithTheMagic.com We talk a bit about general Disney Cruises, Keith’s upcoming Disney Cruise, and tips and tricks you should know before boarding and while on your Disney Cruise ship. Enjoy this weeks show
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Conversations with Duffy: “Love”
Mar 23
A brand new video series I hope you like. They will be sporadic, but I enjoyed making it, so I hope you enjoy watching it. Leave a comment below. Tell me if this series should continue or stop and what Duffy and I should talk about next.
Josh Taylor
https://ModernMouseRadio.com
Disney Film History: Dumbo
Mar 20
I believe more than anything the reason I started writing these “Whole Picture” articles in chronological order. Starting from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, we saw how the Walt Disney company made money, then lost money going into the 1940s due to production costs and the lack of an international market due to World War II. Dumbo is a unique film in that regard because it wouldn’t have been made the way it did without everything the Disney company had felt the last couple of years all coming to a head. So what is so special about Dumbo? Well, there are many answers to that question. Let’s take a step back though and maybe we can answer that.
Dumbo was originally a children’s story by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, but this story wasn’t even a book. The Dumbo story was put into 8 sketches with hardly any text to demonstrate a new children’s toy called roll-a-book, something I would associate with the current toy, the view-master. The 8 pictures tell the story of a flying elephant who believes in himself after being convinced by a robin. Abused by a clown and forced to jump off a platform onto a trampoline, the elephant jumps and instead glides away with the ringmaster announcing his awesomeness. This roll-a-book was brought to Walt Disney by the head or Merchandise Kay Kamen in 1939. He loved it and decided to purchase the rights to the story. Funny thing though, it was hardly a story. Snow White, Pinocchio, and the Reluctant Dragon were all stories with a distinct narrative. Dumbo was just few sketches thrown onto a toy.
Originally intended to be made as a short-film, Walt decided the only way to do justice to the story of Jumbo Jr. was to make it a full length film. With no complete story to go off of, just a scene, storymen Joe Grant and Dick Huemer were put to work. The ended up actually writing the story as if it were really a book before storyboarding took shape, allowing them to reference their own piece of work. This is interesting to note because it had never been done at the Disney studio up until that point, and would never happen again that any storymen would actually write out the book themselves. Usually, if they don’t have a story to go off of, a script is written and then storyboards are made, not a book.
Due to the financial failure of Pinocchio and the soon-to-financially-fail Fantasia and Reluctant Dragon films, Dumbo was given a small budget, only $950,000. That is half the cost of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and only one-third of the cost of Pinocchio. Despite the lower budget, Disney still wanted some name actors to be a part of the film. Edward Brophy, a character actor best known for films like Freaks, The Thin Man and The Champ, was given the part of Timothy the Mouse. (Timothy Mouse replaced the robin character since it was seen as somewhat of a gag that a mouse and an elephant would be friends.) Cliff Edwards, who had voiced Jiminy Cricket, was asked to return to the studio to provide the voice for Jim Crow and sing a song for the film’s soundtrack. Sterling Holloway and Verna Felton, who were character actors at the time, were asked to star as voices in the film. Both Holloway and Felton would become mainstays at the studio, giving voices to several other films over the next several decades. I’m not entirely sure as to the decision to keep Jumbo Jr. as a silent character. Was it a budget concern? Was it an intentional silence? We might never know, but the title character truly thrives without it and it adds serious depth to the film.
Also due to a lower budget, Disney gave the orders to keep the film simplistic and focus more on characters than backgrounds and details. Ben Sharpsteen, who was the supervising director on the film made the budget work with less detailed drawings and still cels that were used in several scenes, not just one. Some expenses were made though, like bringing in animals to classrooms so animators could be a feel for how these elephants looked and moved. (A scene of animators drawing an elephant cane be seen in Disney’s previous film The Reluctant Dragon.) Water color backgrounds, a technique used for Disney short films, helped keep budget costs down as well. This was a technique also used on Snow White but wasn’t used again until Lilo and Stitch in 2002.
What Dumbo did gain from it’s low budget was the animation department’s ability to really delve into characters instead of worrying about the fine art of the film. Vladimir “Bill” Tytla was in charge of animating Jumbo Jr. and gave an acting performance of a lifetime. In fact, many of the characters in Dumbo don’t only act well, they also pull serious emotions out of their audience. Up to this point, Disney feature films had been visually stunning and had connected with the audience in drama and comedy, but not at this level. The scene in which Jumbo Jr. visits his mother who is locked up is still a tear-jerking moment in my book and one of the best scenes in all of animation.
Other characters also bring out emotion like the leader of the elephants or the clowns that give Jumbo Jr. such a hard time. I’ve talked with several people over the last few weeks about this film and many of them were passionate about the showcasing of cruelty towards our protagonist as well as their stories of tear-jerking moments from the film. Those answers I got about a cartoon film from 1941 drove my point home that this film was different in that it had that additional sense of drama added to it due to the animators jumping on the project and delving deep into these characters.
It can also be noted that during production of the film the Disney studio went on strike. The strike of over 300 people at the studio, due to layoffs and lack of raises and bonuses promised after long hours at the studio, lasted five weeks and after all was said and done, tarnished Walt Disney as the “father” figure and killed the family atmosphere the studio had. This impacted the film directly as many of the animators on strike were caricatured in the film as clowns. I think this also indirectly impacted the film, adding a larger sense of “I can do my job better than you” mentality amongst the staff, while also many pushing themselves to do their best work in fear of losing their job.
The film debuted in theaters in October of 1941 and was distributed by longtime Disney partner RKO Radio Pictures. RKO initially saw the film and wanted Disney to change it. The film being the shortest of the Disney animated features at only 1 hour and 4 minutes, RKO wanted them to either lengthen the film or turn it into a short film. Walt Disney refused to change the film and RKO did agree to run it as a feature length film on the note that Disney had been a success for them in the past. Everyone was anxious to see what the film would do at the box office considering the failures of the last three films. Despite World War II and the lack of an international audience, Dumbo earned $1.6 million in it’s initial theater run and was seen as a savior for the Walt Disney studios, bringing morale back up for the first time since the strike. Critical reception was also overwhelming, with plans for Time magazine to put the lovable elephant on it’s cover as “mammal of the year” but that didnt’ occur after the attack on Pearl Harbor and Time dedicating their December 1941 issue to the attack. Even though it never made the cover, in 2011, Time named Dumbo one of the top 25 animated films of all time. Dumbo was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song, “Baby Mine” and won Best Musical Score at the 1941 Academy Awards.
Dumbo has left it’s deep roots as one of the foundations of Disney and has spread itself out into other formats for the company. Dumbo’s Circus was a live action puppet show for Disney Channel in the 1980s, several books have been published about the adventures of Jumbo Jr. by the Walt Disney company, and let’s not forget the most popular attraction at any Disney theme park, Dumbo the Flying Elephant. Any commercial for a Disney park, Dumbo is shown and has become a serious must-do for any first time traveler’s vacation.
The film has seen some backlash with allegations of Jim Crow and his cohorts being displayed as African-American stereotypes but I for one don’t buy into these racism allegations. If you look at the other films of the time or even after Dumbo, characters are shown as stereotypes, but should not been seen as racism. Just merely adding to the story as Walt had always intended. Walt always believed that story and characters are at the heart of every film and that’s really what Dumbo is; a terrific story about quality characters told in the best of ways by his animation team and despite the ups and downs of low budgets, a new war, or even a civil strike, Walt and his crew of great people made things work, and not just for themselves, but for the enjoyment of everyone.
What are your thoughts on Dumbo? Do you like the film or do you hate it? Why so? Keep the conversation going and leave your comments below.
Josh Taylor
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Previous Film: The Reluctant Dragon
Next Film: Bambi
Steampunk Dreams and Purple Dragons (Part 2)
Mar 13
(If you haven’t read part 1 of this article, you can do so RIGHT HERE!)
In 1994, an attraction came to the Imagination Pavilion at Disney’s Epcot park that would cause the entire pavilion to change. Honey, I Shrunk The Audience replaced the former Michael Jackson 3D film in the Magic Eye Theater, and with that came ideas to renovate the Journey Into Imagination attraction and it’s corresponding ImageWorks playground.
Ideas flew due to Kodak’s sponsorship expiring before the end of the millennium. Fujifilm, Kodak’s largest rival, wanted to take over many of the park’s attractions including the Imagination pavilion. Fujifilm threw out the idea of turning the pavilion into a roller coaster and ditching the “Imagination” theme. Kodak countered with an approach Disney eventually went with. Keeping the “Imagination” in the Imagination pavilion but adding more of a scientific approach to the attraction and linking it to the Honey, I Shrunk The Audience show. Eric Idle, who plays a key role in the 3D film, was asked to come back and play the role of a narrator for a refurbished version of Journey called “Journey into YOUR Imagination.” The attraction went down for refurbishment in October 1998 and reopened as the new scientific version in October 1999, just one year later.
In Journey Into YOUR Imagination, guests are sent through several different labs, after Eric Idle’s character, Dr. Nigel Channing, proves that the guests don’t have any imagination. He fills them with different ideas as they move through each laboratory room. Sound, illusion, color, connections, and gravity are the labs each guest travels through before being met by a scanner to show that they are then full of imagination by the attractions end. As for the Dreamfinder, he was cast away from the attraction as well as his steampunk settings. The more scientific approach is met with Figment, however, and he can be seen in cameo rolls in the queue area, in a set of constellations, and can be heard at the attractions end, being shooed away by Dr. Channing.
The previous version of the Journey attraction was one of the most advanced dark ride attractions at Walt Disney World and it cost the company quite a bit to run the attraction. They were banking on the renovations, which cheapened expenses and shortened the length of the attraciton, would still inspire guests to jump aboard the omnimover, but the reopened ride was met with lackluster fanfare. What was missing from the newly re-dubbed journey Into YOUR Imagination attraction? Everything fans of the original loved. The quirky settings were gone and had made way for white lab rooms, the catchy Sherman Brothers theme song, “One Little Spark,” was nowhere to be heard, and the lovable characters of Dreamfinder and Figment were replaced with a narrator the is only heard and never seen. Some would contest that there was a very big lack of imagination put into the new version.
The ImageWorks was also changed drastically. Once taking up a large area of the second floor, the ImageWorks was renamed the What If Labs and was based on the 1st floor. The What If Labs was much smaller in scope and size, keeping guests moving onward from the attraction instead of pulling them in to stay longer. The second floor was partially dismantled and never reopened to the public.
Luckily, Disney listened to their guests and decided to once again close down the attraction for a refurbishment in October 2001, only three years after reopening. The attraction reopened as Journey Into Imagination With Figment in June 2002 with Figment returning in a much more prominent role. The song “One Little Spark” returns as well, this time with Dr. Channing singing it instead of the Dreamfinder. (Dreamfinder is still not part of the attraction and may never be again.) The comedic team of Dr. Channing and Figment lends itself much better to the attraction. The labs that guests travel through are somehow overrun by Figment despite Dr. Channing’s efforts to keep him away.
Unfortunately, not everything could be saved. Unlike the much better version of Journey Into Imagination, the What If Labs stayed the same and the second floor of the once great ImageWorks playground was not renovated. The area still sits dormant. That doesn’t mean that it will sit dormant forever. As time passes, and the space isn’t used, it is possible that new refurbishments will come to the Imagination Pavilion. Who knows what we will get next! Anything is possible of you use your imagination!
What are your thoughts on the current Imagination Pavilion? What changes would you make if you could? Do you think we will get another refurbishment sooner than later? Leave your thoughts and thanks for reading
Josh Taylor
https://ModernMouseRadio.com
Modern Mouse Radio #15: Top 10 Things to Do at Disneyland
Mar 10
This week, Keith and Josh explore their favorite recommendations for Disneyland. Thinking off the beaten path, the list came out rather surprising and fun. Enjoy this weeks top 10 as we would like to do more of these recommendation top 10 lists for other parks in the future.
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Top 5: Reasons Pinocchio is Dumber Than Rocks
Mar 9
A few weeks back I took a historical look at the making of Pinocchio and gave my review of the film (You can read that RIGHT HERE!) but ever since I’ve poked fun of one thing, the lack of smarts that Pinocchio the character actually has. Walt Disney and his story men decided to change the character in the book, who was more mischievous and troubled, to a character that basically played “dumb” so that his conscience could play more of a leading role in the film. That’s all great news for the Cricket character, but the whole film I just thoughr how stupid Pinocchio was. Yes I know he is made of wood, but that is now excuse why he has to be so stupid. How stupid is he? Well here are my top 5 reasons Pinocchio is dumber than rocks.
#5-His Nose Growing. When the Blue Fairy comes to chat with Pinocchio after being held hostage by Stromboli, Pinocchio creates lies to make himself look innocent. The funny joke on him is that his nose starts to grow everything he tells a lie. The Blue Fairy continues to let him tell lies, and Pinocchio doesn’t notice that his nose has grown until is almost twice his size. Any normal person would have started asking serious questions if their nose grew more than a few centimeters, but the wooden boy waits until he is almost a freaking tree before starting to wonder what is happening. Why would you let that happen to yourself? At least he is made of wood and the Blue Fairy has magic so it could be shrunken back down or cutoff.
#4-Looking For Monstro. There is a large percentage of ocean on this earth. In fact, water encompasses 80% of the earth. That is a significant amount. So why on earth, without knowing what Monstro looks like, would you go searching for a whale in the ocean? I understand love and family triumphs all, but in a realistic fashion, there is now way Pinocchio would be able to find Monstro unless he looked for days, weeks, maybe even months underwater. Not only that, but when he does find a whale 100 times his size, what would he do? It seems as though the thought process here didn’t even start for Pinocchio, he just did it. Luckily it worked out for him in the long run, but he could have spent his whole life either searching for Monstro or never being able to save his father, fish, and cat from staying within the monster’s belly.
#3-Becoming A Donkey. The infamous transformation scene in the film pushes the envelope of family friendly and starts to becoming quite scary. Like Pinocchio, I too would have been afraid if my friend was turning into a Donkey, but once Lampwick turns into a full blown donkey, he starts destroying the pool hall they are in and kicking everything in sight. Pinocchio, instead of running away, hides behind a chair with no back to it as if that will protect him from the donkey going crazy bananas on the place. Seriously? That’s like being told that if you hide under your desk, it will save you from a nuclear war. I would have been running out of there as quickly as possible and forgetting that the donkey in the room was a friend I had just made, but he was a bad influence anyways so who needs friends like him.
#2-Listening To Honest John. When Geppetto sends Pinocchio off for his first day of school, he is stopped by a stranger. A more detailed description of this stranger is Honest John, a talking fox dressed in rags. Now I too would stop to listen to a talking fox because I’ve never seen one before, but I do remember that my first day of school was exciting and nothing would stop me from going. Instead of listening to his father, he listens to John who tells him he will be a star, but never really explains how. Now, if a talent agent told me that I was going to be a star but couldn’t provide details on how or when, I would think this guy was just trying to scam some money out of me in some way. Instead, Pinocchio just goes along with it, forgets about school, and doesn’t ask any questions. Really?
#1-Listening To Honest John Again. So Honest John leads Pinocchio into a money making scam, he is held prisoner by Stromboli, not paid, and has to escape just to get back home. So naturally, you would never listen to Honest John again right? Not Pinocchio! He is taken advantage of a second time by John and sent off to Pleasure Island. Why would you even give him the chance to talk? I mean, Jiminy should have just let him go at that point because he was hopeless. “Fool me twice, shame on me.” That’s the saying right. Shame on you Pinocchio for acting without thinking of the consequences you’d probably face by listening to Honest John again!
Any other reasons why Pinocchio is dumber than rocks? What do you think of my reasons? Would you change any of them? Leave your thoughts and comments as always.
Josh Taylor
https://ModernMouseRadio.com