Category Archives: Articles
Modern Mouse Weekly Recap (1/30/16)
I know technically Matt, the character from Saturday Night Live, isn’t really a Disney related creation, but you have to admit that skit was great and it has legs! So I’m running with it this week for the header of the Recap! If you missed anything from the past week, this is a great time to catch up because here is everything you might have missed:
Podcasts
Modern Mouse News: New Parks and Earful Towers – A few big stories popped up in the past few weeks that Josh and Angie had to go over. One was the addition or Kylo Ren meet and greets which have replaced Darth Vader meets. (When are we gonna meet Matt though?) They also discussed what it might be like if the Hollywood Studios park closed down for a while to speed up construction. Would it be a worthwhile idea for Disney?
Articles
Disney Now and Then: The Disney Look – Being a Disney cast member means not only do you need a friendly smile, but you need to abide by a certain look. Erika runs down what the “Disney Look” is and what you have to do to fit it.
Videos
Disney California Adventure for the First Time (Part 3) – Keith continues to tour his family around the Disneyland resort for their first time. They try out attractions at Cars Land and make sure they get in one last viewing of Aladdin before it went away.
Things I’ve Said Working at Disneyland – Working at a Disney park means keeping the magic going no matter what which can lead to some pretty weird and funny things you’d say. See what Erika recalls saying in this video about her time at Disneyland.
Tsum Tsum Mystery Pack Unboxing – If you are a fan of tsum tsum plush toys, which why wouldn’t you be, this is a pretty fun new product from Disney. Keith “unboxes” some and shows off his new collection.
Costumes I Wore Working at Disneyland – Have you ever seen some of those red carpet shows where they rundown a person’s style? Erika does that but to herself with pictures of what she used to wear as a Disneyland cast member.
Awkward Video Diary: Tempted by Disney World – Josh and Angie bring you their second video diary, have joking, but half serious as they prepare to make the move to California and live closer to Disneyland. Enjoy a funny video where they just get kinda weird and awkward.
Modern Mouse Weekly Recap (1/23/16)
Jan 23
The Modern Mouse team was in full force again this week! We had a great week of content, from Star Wars to Mulan to obscure Disney films. This week is the kind of week you have to at least check out one or two things from the blog because everything was so fun to post! Hopefully you enjoyed this week’s workload from us. If you missed anything, we have it all right here!
Podcasts
Modern Mouse Radio #97: The Future of Star Wars – Josh invited Sarah and Richard from the podcast Skywalking Through Disneyland to talk all things Star Wars. With the Force Awakens out and accepted in a huge way, we will be seeing lots of Star Wars in the coming years. Josh wanted to pose the question of how will the franchise fair? Will the public tire of Star Wars or will we continue to embrace all aspects of it?
Articles
Disney Now and Then: Technology at the Park – We can say that much has changed since the turn of the 21st century. Most of those changes come in the way we interact with technology and the rest of the world. Erika breaks down what it was like back in the day and what it’s like now at the theme parks. Selfies and instagrams and snapchats, oh my!
Disney Film History: Toby Tyler – Josh steps into the 1960s with a look at a forgotten Disney film called Toby Tyler. A film starring Zorro and Mickey Mouse Club actors about the circus with practical stunts, jokes, and a tie to Walt Disney’s childhood.
Comics
Above the Line #10 – Holly takes us into the world of nerdy online dating. Sounds familiar right? Like some kind of mingling site?
Videos
How to Kill a Wookie (Chewbacca Meet and Greet) – This video from Keith integrates meeting characters, Modern Mouse Boutique products, and a weird story about killing Chewbacca’s relatives. Seriously, that’s what it’s about.
Pros of Working at Disneyland – Ever wonder about the benefits that come with working at a Disney park? Erika gives you all the answers you ever wanted to know.
Taking Newbies to Disneyland! – Are you a Disney park pro? Do you have friends that are Disney park virgins? This video from Erika is a gift to you.
Mulan Loves Pokémon – Keith loves Mulan. It’s one of his favorite characters in Disney film history and he also loves seeing her around the park. He stopped to chat with her about buttons, pokemon, and then has a brief run in with a Disney villain.
Disney in Five Words Round 2 – Josh and Angie play another round of Disney in Five Words. A game where you say a topic and the other has to describe that topic in five words. It’s actually more difficult than it sounds.
Disney Film History: Toby Tyler
So here we are, the 1960s. It’s taken a while to get here. We went through the early Disney animated films, through the packaged films during World War II, to the adventures, westerns, and nature documentaries. So what’s next for us in this new decade. Well, it seems like the family comedy, and there is a great representation of that in the first film of the decade from Disney, Toby Tyler (or Ten Weeks with a Circus).
It’s pretty well documented that Walt Disney favored his childhood home of Marceline, Missouri and the early 1900s. Even Disneyland and Magic Kingdom’s Main Street U.S.A. is supposed to reflect that turn of the century small town America feel. If you are unfamiliar with the time period, one of the biggest attractions in the world was the circus and when it came to town, it was like seeing the show of shows. So Walt Disney read James Otis Kaler’s Toby Turner story, possibly during his childhood, and he decided it would be a wonderful piece to turn into a film.
The studio had several actors under contract at the time, many of whom were regulars on television, so it wasn’t a difficult choice to cast some of these actors in his film. Kevin Corcoran, better known as Mickey Mouse Club’s Moochie, who had also starred in previous films The Shaggy Dog and Old Yeller, was cast as the title character in the film. Gene Sheldon and Henry Calvin from Zorro were cast in supporting roles, as well as Zorro’s Charles Barton as director.
The story revolves around an orphaned boy, raised by his aunt and uncle, who runs away and joins the circus. He takes over as a horse rider in one of the acts when another rider becomes injured. He befriends several circus performers including a chimpanzee named Mr. Stubs. When he hears that his uncle is sick, he and Mr. Stubs run off, but return to the circus so that his aunt and uncle can see him perform. If the movie sounds simple or silly, that’s because it was meant to be. This is a comedy film with little substance, but filled with practical stunts and slapstick comedy.
The movie was released on January 21st, 1960 with critical acclaim from critics. The movies praise came in it’s simplicity, it’s hysterics, and the family fun adventure. The film, when opened to the public, got little response. The film was never released again in theaters, but like other poor box office draws, was broken up into segments and shown on television so that it could make money through advertising instead.
If the film is any indication of what’s to come, I’m ready to enjoy a few laughs. The simple comedy is a much enjoyed departure from the True Life Adventures and the ridiculous over-the-top westerns starring Fess Parker. As simple as they are though, I do hope we see some live action films with a little substance. Toby Tyler was a fun movie, but forgettable in the long run.
Josh Taylor
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Previous film: Jungle Cat
Next film: Kidnapped
Disney Now and Then: Technology at the Park
Erika Jenko
Modern Mouse Weekly Recap (1/16/16)
It was a mixed week here at Modern Mouse. Josh and Angie announced they are upping their videos to once a week, meanwhile, Erika had some problems with editing and rendering so we lost some videos from her. Regardless, there was some fun content on the site this week. Here is this weeks recap!
Podcasts
Modern Mouse News: Farm Animals and Firework Drones – Josh and Angie bring you the news in audio form every other week. In this week’s Modern Mouse News show, they discuss the closing of Big Thunder Ranch and what that means for the animals that inhabited the area. They also talk about Marathon Weekend at Walt Disney World, Disney’s permission to use drone technology, and the Star Wars box office.
Articles
Disney Now and Then: Planning a Day at a Disney Park – Erika gives us a look at how she plans a day at the parks and how her mother used to plan a day at the parks and her tips for maximizing a fun filled day regardless of weather, crowds, or anything else.
Disney Film History: Jungle Cat – Josh renamed “The Whole Picture” into “Disney Film History”. (He went back and made the change to all of the others in this category too.) He has been going through the films chronologically and has landed on the last film on the 1950s in this post. He gives the history and story behind Walt Disney’s last True Life Adventure film.
Comics
Above the Line #9 – Holly is taking us further into her comic and “Disney style” park with queues, meet and greets, and a strange character named Franky Fox.
Videos
Disneyland First Timers! (Part 2) – Keith’s continues video blog where he shows his cousins, aunt, and uncle around Disneyland. What do they think of the park as compared to Walt Disney World?
Meeting Spiderman at Disneyland – Keith and his friend Tyler made their way to the new Marvel Headquarters inside the old Innoventions building at Disneyland. There they met Disneyland’s newest superhero, Spiderman!
Modern Mouse (YouTube) Channel Update – Finally to round out the week, Josh dropped a video announcing more video content from himself and Angie on the Modern Mouse YouTube channel. They will be uploading once a week and have promised to mix it up a bit.
Disney Now and Then: Planning a Day at a Disney Park
Jan 12
I’ve never been in a Disney Drought until now. And it’s terrible. As we speak, I’m listening to Disney music on a loop and I wish that I was soaking up the sun getting ready to go on Splash Mountain, rather than sitting in my icy apartment in New York. Growing up, I went to Disneyland a lot. We’re talking multiple times a month. I was an annual pass holder and my mom used to pull me out of school so that we could play at Disneyland.
These were happy times for me. Not just because I got to go to Disneyland all the time, but because my mom knew how to make every moment of these trips magical. She knew how to plan a day at the park so that it was perfect. And no, she didn’t cram in every ride and character meetup into a fully packed day. She used to pick one focus for the day. We would visit Toontown. We would get ice cream on Mainstreet. Sometimes we would head out after rush hour just to pop in and see Fantasmic! She knew how to take all of the stress out of visiting Disneyland. Yes, it was one of the perks of living so close to Disneyland, but the same mindset can be applied for the people who only visit once in awhile. Ever since I quit working at Disneyland, I’ve had to find ways to plan my trips so that they still feel spontaneous yet memorable. Below are my tips for having a magical trip without overwhelming yourself. These tips are a mix of things that I learned while working at Disneyland and things that my mom learned while taking two kids to Disneyland all the time. Enjoy!
1) Sit Back and Enjoy the Flowers!
So, you got through rope-drop and off you go! You have a list of things that you must-see and you can’t mess with the list! Please remember to stop, breathe and enjoy the flowers. Sit on a bench at some point in the day and take in the beauty of the park. You don’t want to miss it because you were on your phone or racing to the next attraction. My mom used to spend entire days in the park simply photographing the plants. They are a VISION. The landscaping of the entire park is gorgeous. Sit on Main Street with a coffee or stroll by the plants in the hub. I promise, you will love it.
2) Visit City Hall
It will be crowded, but I recommend a visit for a couple reasons. They have buttons for anything that you’re celebrating that day (Happy Birthday buttons, anniversary, etc). They have every park map in every language, and you can take the Disney pledge with a cast member or have your little one use the phone to talk to Goofy. The guest relations team were Walt Disney’s team of gems from the very beginning. They are some of the loveliest people and they have a strong working knowledge of the entire park. If you have any questions going into your visit, go see them.
3) You Won’t See Everything.
Tell yourself this the minute you park your car. You won’t see everything. It’s not meant to be a downer. It’s meant to be realistic. Even the seasoned pro who can navigate the park blindfolded may not be able to see everything in a single day due to large crowds and unforeseen circumstances. Your focus needs to go to enjoying every moment rather than worrying about the entire day. For instance, going into my first trip to Walt Disney World, we checked the weather every single day leading up to the trip. The day of the trip it down poured all day. All of the parades and shows got cancelled. Nothing could wipe the smile off of my face. It wasn’t a wasted day, but rather it gave me more time to do other things. I ended up trying all of these really wonderful snacks and relaxing and having more time to visit with characters and it took the pressure off of us having to do and see everything.
4) The Art of Dining
One must understand the art of dining at Disney, and to understand that is to understand the fact that there is no art to it. All of your decisions during the day will be based on how much time you have to eat. You may not have time for a sit-down restaurant like you thought you would. You also might think that you’re ok with grabbing food and eating on benches all day and you may actually hate doing that. My advice, is make 2 reservations through Disney Dining. Make one in-park reservation at a restaurant and make one reservation at Downtown Disney. You may decide you don’t want to go to either restaurant since you filled up on hotdogs. No problem. Cancel the reservations. However, you always want the option of a sit-down. The crowds can be draining sometimes.
5) Put Your Energy into Seeing a Show
There is NOTHING like seeing a show at Disney. Doesn’t matter if it’s a parade or fireworks. They are all spectacular and handled with so much care and magic. Even if you are positive that you are not a show person and would rather commit your time to rides, please schedule at least one show into your day. You won’t regret it.
6) Enjoy What You’re Watching!
I used to race to watch the parade or fireworks almost every day after work. I never took pictures of what I was experiencing but I still remember exactly how I felt when I watched the shows. I remember tearing up. I remember my heart racing. I remember feeling bliss. It’s been a few years since I’ve worked at Disney and on my last trip to Disneyland, I had my camera ready during the new Paint the Night parade. I wanted to document a parade that I may not get to see again for awhile. I haven’t looked at a single photo since the trip, but I do remember how I felt when the parade first rolled out. What I’m trying to say is, you don’t have to capture every single moment to remember it in a powerful way. The memory of a parade will stay with you. If you try to snap a photo of a float going by, you may miss the moment when that princess waved at your child. And please don’t take pictures of the fireworks. It’s just so silly and disruptive.
7) Spend Time on Main Street
You may only see Main Street when you enter the park or later in the day when it is packed as people wait for the parade. Take a moment during the day to browse the shops. There are candy shops and an ice cream parlor and adorable souvenir shops. You can also snag a ride on a Main Street vehicle. While you’re there, wave hello to Walt’s apartment for me!
Erika Jenko
Modern Mouse Weekly Recap
As we grow and the website continues to gain more content, we thought it would be reasonable to have a weekly recap of all the of the great content we had this week. This also makes sense because it’s a new year and it just seems fitting to start with something new and definitive for the site! Expect this every Saturday! This way, if you missed anything, you’ll be able to catch up!
Here is what happened for the first week of January 2016!
Podcasts
Modern Mouse Radio #96: Disney Year in Review 2015 – Josh, Angie, and Erika look back on 2015 and give their thoughts on the best films, parks, television, and all around Disney happenings of the year. Plus we get their opinions on the best films of the year from Disney!
Articles
Disney Now and Then: Disney Career Magic – Erika gave us her thoughts on what it was like while working as a Cast Member at Disneyland and what her thoughts are on it now since she has been away from Walt’s original park. It’s sentimental, sweet, and will probably give you “Toy Story 3” tears.
The Whole Picture: Third Man on the Mountain – Josh’s in depth look at all of the Walt Disney company films returns with a look at the film that inspired one of Disneyland’s greatest attractions! Despite it’s lackluster box office, Josh thinks you should give this one a watch.
Comics
Above the Line #8 – Holly gives us a picture perfect comic this week….if by perfect, you mean strollers knocking you down.
Videos
Top 5 Cast Members to Answer Your Questions – Ever wondered who to ask a question to while wandering around a Disney theme park? Need a park map? Need to know when the fireworks start? Erika gives you advice on who to ask with a top 5 list.
Disneyland First Timers! – This past year, Keith moved to Southern California. That move gave his family a reason to visit Disneyland, some of them for the first time. See his families reactions to what they see and do.
Disney Park Princesses are the Best – Being a Disney Princess is hard work. Don’t believe it, ask Erika. She accompanied many princesses around the Disney parks while being a cast member and she can tell you how tough it is to be perfect, energetic, and wearing a ball gown in 100 degree weather.
Awkward Video Diary: We’re Moving to Disneyland – Angie and Josh have an announcement. They decided to announce it in a fun video that they made more awkward than it ever had the right to be. Seems like it will be a recurring video series as well.
Disney Film History: Third Man on the Mountain
The 1950s had been an interesting time for Walt Disney. He had grown to enjoy the process of live action film making. He built his idealistic park for families. He had regrown his studio from a place made out of bank loans, to a profitable studio that was churning out multiple films a year. With so much on his plate and with such success, he deserved a vacation or two and there was no better vacation spot for him than Europe. He took his family multiple times and found inspiration for the studio, because he was never off the clock, and got excited about projects to come. One such instance was after a several skiing trips in Switzerland. He got excited about the location and making a picture in or near the Swiss Alps. That movie became Third Man on the Mountain.
Shooting started in the summer of 1958 under the name “Banner in the Sky”. The title came from a book of the same name written by James Ramsey Ullman. Walt thought the story of a man who had died upon a mountain and his son who wanted to climb that same mountain in the name of his father was a great story. It’s a heroes journey and a man versus nature story. The film was shot over the course of 3 months, between the Switzerland location and a studio in London. James McArthur, who had played the lead in The Light in the Forest, played the hero Rudi in the film. Janet Munro, who had been in Darby O’Gill, came aboard to play the love interest of Rudi, and Michael Rennie, who had been a big star in The Day The Earth Stood Still, played Rudi’s boss and mentor.
A great cast, an amazing backdrop, and a very good story won over film critics. Walt Disney was proud of the film, but when the film was released on November 10th, 1959, people didn’t want to see the film. It could be that the film didn’t do well as Disney’s name had been on so many movies in the past few years and the world had tired of the Disney name. It could be that the story is suited for a niche audience. Third Man on the Mountain is basically an action story with a love story shoved in. That being said, we could be missing out on a female audience for the film or even the family audience Disney had been known for.
The film was expensive to shoot due to the travel the cast had to go through to get to different areas of Europe. To make money out of the film, Walt decided to show the film in parts on his Disneyland TV show under the novel’s Banner in the Sky name. The film was never released in theaters again and has seen minimal home video release, the last release being in 2004. It’s a shame as this film is much better than many of the western films made off the back of Davey Crockett.
The shining light at the end of the tunnel came in strange fashion. The film, which did poorly, gave us one of Disney’s new Disneyland ideas in the late 1950s. Filming took place on a mountain titled Matterhorn mountain, and when developing new attractions for the park, Walt thought building a roller coaster inside of the Swiss mountain would work for the park, especially since there was such a large mound of dirt from them digging up areas of the park. The Matterhorn is now a Disneyland classic and constantly has a long line at the park. If anything, Third Man on the Mountain gave us Disneyland’s first roller coaster and an attraction never replicated anywhere else in the world.
Josh Taylor
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Previous Film: Darby O’Gill and the Little People
Next Film: Jungle Cat
Disney Now and Then: Disney Career Magic
Back when I auditioned for my first job at Disneyland at the age of 18, a couple things were true about me. I had just graduated high school. I had a list of things I wanted to be when I grew up (and the list changed daily). I wanted to work someplace that made me happy. I ended up working at Disneyland for 5 years. I worked at Disneyland all through my college years (And yes it took me 5 years to finish college without a break because I changed my major 3 times and added a minor due to my ever-changing mind). There was a moment while I was in college that I thought to myself, “Was I an idiot for working at Disneyland? Should I have spent my time starting a career or working someplace a little less fun so that I could get more life experience?”
I laugh out loud as I type those thoughts that passed through my head while I was still in college. You see, here’s what I know for a fact now that I’m 30, no longer working at Disneyland and living on the other side of the country: Getting that job at Disneyland was the best damn choice I ever made.
Working at Disneyland helped me get through the most difficult part of my childhood. It gave me a workplace that would nurture that smile back on my face after my grandmother passed away. Disneyland gave me permission to feel like a kid. To help make other people happy. To find that pixie dust in life when things get hard. There’s no way that I knew at the age of 18, that Disneyland would cram more life experience into my life than most of the jobs I would ever have. All I knew at the time, was that I left work every single day with a smile on my face and a really fun story that I couldn’t wait to share with my family at the dinner table.
Post-college and post-Disneyland I wanted to pursue a life of theatre. As the adorable Pinocchio once said, it was all about “An actor’s life for me.” My love of being in front of crowds at Disneyland translated to me being in numerous theatre productions before landing work behind-the-scenes. I had always dreamed of working in theatre in New York. To take that first step, I made a temporary move to Boise, Idaho to save money where I lived for a year before moving to New York. I took on a job at Directv that I never in a million years would’ve imagined I would have. I went from hanging out with Mickey Mouse to hanging out on the phone with angry NFL fans screaming at me because their NFL Sunday Ticket channel was blacked out during the big game. I cried at my desk numerous times, and would frantically spend my afternoons looking up harassment policies while on a call so that I could have documented proof on my screened calls to pass the calls off to a manager. I ended up getting promoted. If you’ve ever called Directv to cancel your service, you’ve probably chatted with me. I was so good that I once convinced a guy who was cancelling service because he was getting a divorce, that he should keep the service because he shouldn’t also have to miss out on great television. Yes, I sold my soul for a year. However, I’m telling you all of this because my co-workers always pointed out how goofy I was. They liked talking to me. At the end of the day, my Disney personality got me through one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had.
After I survived talking on the phone with some of the worst people on the planet for a year, I made the move to New York. And it was amazing and energizing and so damn cool and wait a second where the hell is Disney stuff?? Yes, I knew that I could never go to Disneyland in New York. But I didn’t realize how little Disney magic existed out there. The Disney store in Times Square is packed with tourists and they tore down the amazing location on Madison Avenue that used to have character meet n’ greets. But none of it mattered because I was out there to pursue theatre! And that’s exactly what I did. In 3 years in New York, I wrote 1 play, 1 musical and 1 cabaret show. All 3 got produced on a New York stage. I’m a billionaire now (kidding). And now I’m sitting in my tiny closet-sized Brooklyn apartment and here’s what I can honestly tell you, it does matter. It absolutely matters that I can’t get enough Disney in my life out here. I wish that that wasn’t true. It sounds ridiculous to say, “I need to leave New York because I have to be closer to Disneyland.”
But it’s not as ridiculous as you think, Disneyland is a part of who I am. That’s the truth of it. When I was 18, I made a decision that my job should make me happy. That’s a big choice for a kid. I chose to put lifelong happiness before the cliché work responsibility of, “Your job should make you miserable.” Choosing Disneyland meant choosing magic. In New York, I feel like my personality has been suffocated. I don’t wear bright colors because in New York, you have to keep your head down and remain invisible. I tuck my platinum blonde hair into a beanie so that I don’t hear disgusting comments from people on the train, and my laugh lines have faded and I’ve developed frown lines and a crease between my eyebrows from furrowing my brow. I have found a way to survive out here. I was Barry Manilow’s dog sitter, I solicited donations for the 9/11 Memorial and I currently am the cleaning lady of the dressing rooms for a Broadway theater. I have enough work stories from the past 3 years to fill an interesting interview on the Conan couch someday, but none of it compares to the magic and happiness I gained working at Disney.
It’s a new year. We’re all going to make resolutions, and if you’re reading this, chances are you’re also a huge fan of Disneyland. So go right now with your friends and family. Ever dreamed of working there? Go do it! You’ll love it! No matter where you end up, you absolutely have to seek happiness. Don’t let anyone tell you that your job is just your day job if it is in fact the job that brings you the most gusto for life. Chase your dreams. I left Neverland for a few years to return to the nursery, and I’m finding that being a full-time grownup is quite dull. There is that place between childhood and adulthood. That place for me, is Disneyland. Let’s see what new adventures I can stir up in 2016. Happy New Year, everyone!
Erika Jenko
Disney Film History: Jungle Cat
Jan 13
Posted by The Modern Mouse Crew
More than any animated film, or more than any Western film starring Fess Parker, I can sum up the 1950s as the decade that Disney experimented with documentaries. The True Life Adventure series had been Disney’s “little project that could”. The crew for True Life Adventures was small and had continued to be the same for the majority of it’s run. It made the leap at the beginning of the decade from short subject film making to full length feature film. Many of the films were praised for their content by critics. So now, at the end of the decade, it’s fitting to wrap up the True Life Adventure series with one last film before we head into the 1960s.
The 7th and last True Life Adventure film was Jungle Cat, a film focusing on jaguars in Brazil. The film starts like all of the others, with an animated paintbrush. The film gives a quick history of cats before focusing in on the main subject. The film also includes snakes, sloths, monkeys, crocodiles, and otters. (Otters are one of my favorite animals ever! Where was a complete Otter movie in this series Disney?)
It’s wide release came in August of 1960, but it’s official release is December 16th, 1959 as it was played in a few theaters so it would be eligible for awards season. At it’s release, the film was praised by critics and this film was generally liked by audiences as well. Despite troubles with it’s production (Amazon weather destroyed some film before it made it back to the studio.) Disney and the True Life Adventure crew had very little trouble putting this film together and making sure it would be a hit with audiences.
So why is this the last film in the True Life Adventure series? If they were making money on low budget documentaries, wouldn’t they want to continue making them? That’s a big mystery. There are several possible answers to this. The most popular answer is that Walt himself didn’t see the need to continue these films in theaters, but instead use the footage for television as he was working to stay on tv. He felt the nature documentary was suited for 30 minute or one hour episodes of television. He was right as Disney did continue to be successful with showing nature on television. Beyond Disney, nature has become a big subject for television, especially during the expansion into cable in the 1980s when we started to see channels like Discovery completely embrace the nature documentary. That’s practically all they show. That has also expanded into travel channels, and even National Geographic bringing it’s popular magazine to the small screen.
The other probable answer to why the True Life Adventure films died with Jungle Cat despite it’s success has to do with the previous film in the series, White Wilderness. If you recall from my previous article on the subject, White Wilderness was later found to include “phony” images. Polar bears were shot in a studio instead in real snow, and lemmings were forced into killing themselves to sell the audience on rumors of lemmings following each other, even to death. The controversy of the film didn’t make it to the public until decades later, and Walt may not have even known about the film’s use of fake material, but if he did I would suspect that Jungle Cat was our last film as he wanted know part of cinematography that was portrayed as real but wasn’t. He had no intention of fooling the audience, and he especially didn’t want his subjects on film being killed just to make money.
Whatever way you want to spin it, the fact is the True Life Adventure series was the birth of the nature documentary and it’s legacy lives on in film and television. Disney did eventually go back to the nature documentary as something they would like to put in theaters when they created the permanent division of Disney titled Disney Nature. Those films will eventually be covered, but we still have decades of material to go before getting there. In the meantime, we will have to look to the 1960s as the death of the nature documentary and the beginning of something new. What that is, I guess we will see as we venture into the oncoming films of the decade!
Josh Taylor
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Previous film: Third Man on the Mountain
Next film: Toby Tyler
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Tags: commentary, Disney, Disney Nature, Film, History, Josh Taylor, Jungle Cat, mmr, Modern Mouse, Modern Mouse Radio, movie, Nature Documentary, thoughts, True Life Adventures, Walt Disney