August 18, 2010
The engagingly named Oral Adams writes in TopCultured today of a hand-written letter sent by a little girl named Wendy to Walt Disney in 1964.
Walt probably got lots of fan mail. But this letter was different: Wendy claimed to have seen Walt on the 'WoodyWood Pecker' show. She wanted Walt to sent her a picture of him with Woody Woodpecker. She closed by telling Walt that she was now off to watch Bugs Bunny. Cute kid.
Walt took it in stride, explaining that his characters weren't related to Woody Woodpecker but that he'd forward her letter to Woody's creator, Walter Lantz. (No wonder the confusion: everyone's name starts with 'W'!) Of course, Walt enclosed a few pictures of himself with the Disney characters.
Why waste a marketing opportunity?
MORE: TopCultured (Oral Adams)
I've debated with myself (in private, so people don't think I'm crazy) whether to headline Disney trip reports. They're not really news, and they're of interest mostly to the people who were on the trip.
But trip reports are the essence of the Disney experience. Nothing else gets so sweaty-close to the action. And the very best trip reports often contain cool trivia, useful tips, or fantastic narrative. I decided to look for those 'very best trip reports' and headline only them, occasionally.
I quickly found a long, detailed report of the trip to Disneyland Paris taken recently by Tara Peter who runs the website DisneyLovinMom. Her trip report, in two parts (with perhaps a third on the way), has exactly the kind of stuff that interests me: a writer's eye for detail and plenty of personal opinion, not to mention personality. And pictures!
For food junkies, Part 1 of Tara's review is all about the eats, including her family's wonderful experience at Walt's Restaurant on Main Street, while in Part 2 she writes about the characters.
MORE: Disney Lovin' Mom (Tara Petar)
1:15 PM
Disney Everywhere
Warren Spector, co-founder of Junction Point (an independent game development studio now part of Disney Interactive), is the designer of a new Disney game for the Wii entitled Epic Mickey and scheduled for release later this year.
In the game, Mickey takes on the evil Phantom Blot (who likely will not be galumphing through Disney World and posing for pictures any time soon) in a bid to save the Cartoon Wasteland.
The game features a 'morality system' in which Mickey's actions determine his appearance and present different paths for gamers to explore. You can play Mickey as a beloved Hero or as a feared Scrapper, depending on your own morality system, but in the end you won't escape a showdown with the Phantom Blot.
You can pre-order Epic Mickey from Amazon and from lots of other places, including the official Epic Mickey site, where you'll also find a recently released video trailer narrated by ... the Phantom Blot.
MORE: Junction Point (Warren Spector)
12:21 PM
Disney Everywhere
Adventurer Mickey? Sure. Chef Mickey? Absolutely. But Steampunk Mickey? Give me a second...
Steven Miller, Project Manager for Disney Trading, announced today on his Disney Parks Blog the imminent release of a six-piece set of Vinylmation steampunk Disney figures and a spectacular Vinylmation steampunk pocket watch.
So what's steampunk? It began as a science fiction sub-genre in the 1980s and came to prominence in 1990 with the release of the novel The Difference Engine by science fiction authors William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. The Difference Engine was invented by Victorian visionary Charles Babbage as an early computer (quite limited because the technology hadn't caught up to the concept). Steampunk posits an alternative past, a Victorian era with modern - and often post-modern - technology.
Steampunk themes tend to be dark, grungy, and startling: imagine using an Apple computer by candlelight in a Dickensian work house.
Disney, of course, doesn't dwell on the dark or the grungy, though its steampunk figures do lack the smiling faces and colorful attire found in its other lines. For me, that's a welcome change, and if the positive fan reaction to a previous steampunk pin collection is a reliable barometer, then Steampunk Mickey is here to stay.
DisneyParksBlog has gotten hullabaloo here before, most recently in the August 15 edition for Rapunzel Concept Art, Plus: Tangled Passes the Popcorn Test.
MORE: Disney Parks Blog (Steven Miller)
Yesterday, Jack Spence of AllEars published the first part of a two-part photo essay about Coronado Springs in his blog, The "World" According to Jack. Today, Part 2.
If you thought the first part of Jack's series had lots of photos, get a load of these: 56 pictures, ranging from the resort's iconic Mayan Pyramid to a shot of a hair dryer that Disney helpfully stores in a white drawstring bag entitled 'Hair Dryer'. (This is presumably the same hair dryer used by Jack during his stay at Coronado Springs - so far, though, it hasn't appeared on eBay.)
Jack makes the valid point that Coronado Springs is a 'forgotten' resort. Many people associate it with conventions and choose not to book it for that reason. I've stayed there (for a convention) and found it just as family-friendly as Disney's other moderate resorts. Other than myself, there were no drunken, singing, semi-clothed conventioneers in sight.
The dining at Coronado Springs leaves something to be desired - but then so does the dining at Disney's other moderate resorts. The Coronado's food court, unfortunately, is my least favorite of any Disney food court, mostly because it's operated unlike any other Disney food court: instead of grabbing your food and finding your own table, a server assigns you a table and gives you a ticket which is stamped each time you pick up some food. The server refills your drinks and handles your other (dining) needs, too. For that, you're charged an automatic 10% gratuity, which isn't bad, but at a food court I like to serve myself.
Jack Spence has gotten hullabaloo here before, most recently in the August 17 edition for Coronado Springs Photo Essay: Part 1.
MORE: AllEars (Jack Spence)
In the August 13 Disney Dispatch, I headlined Part 4 of Chuck Schmidt's interview with Disney Imagineer Bob Gurr. Today, as he promised, Chuck presents penultimate Part 5 on his Staten Island Advance blog, Goofy About Disney.
Now we're getting to the really good stuff.
Bob tells Chuck about several of his influential projects from the 1950s, including his early work on Disneyland's Autopia miniature car ride (which provided the blueprint for the monorail and the Matterhorn Mountain Bobsled, both of which Bob also helped design), and the Ford Magic Skyway.
Chuck shares several wonderful vintage pictures. I especially like the one of the 1950s American family - with Dad in a suit and Mom in a skirt - seated spell-bound in a car on the Ford Magic Skyway as they roll slowly past a quaint dinosaur diorama. Imagine that sedate family teleported instantly to Downtown Disney's T-REX. Call 911!
The final part of the Bob Gurr interview will roll slowly past your monitor on Friday.
Chuck Schmidt has gotten hullabaloo here before, most recently in the August 13 edition for Interview with Disney Legend Bob Gurr.
MORE: Goofy About Disney - Staten Island Advance (Chuck Schmidt)
9:42 AM
Disney Everywhere
Alyssa Pallett runs a designer vintage clothing store called The Sweet Ones on the lower East Side of Manhattan. Her store has been featured in Harper's Weekly and the New York Times, and Alyssa herself has been interviewed by Playboy for its GirlWatcher feature.
I provide all this detail because it demonstrates, yet again, the powerful appeal of Walt Disney (or rather the ideals as expressed through Disney's creations) to people from every walk of life, not just kids and guys like me who sometimes wear lanyards and smile freakishly on the Jungle Cruise.
Alyssa also writes a blog called Bonjour Coco. Yesterday, she wrote a short post entitled "On My Love for Walt Disney" that expresses some familiar points in unfamiliar ways. For example, I've never heard anyone else compare Walt Disney to Andy Warhol. I don't necessarily buy into the comparison, but it's a new perspective, one that wouldn't have occurred to me, and upon reflection does make a bit of sense.
The Andy Warhol comparison is a tiny part of Alyssa's post which in four paragraphs sums the essence of Walt Disney's appeal to little kids, men with lanyards who write into a computer all day, and women who sell designer vintage clothing on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
Now you tell me there's no magic in that...
MORE: Bonjour Coco (Alyssa Pallett)
Disneyland held its 3rd Annual Taste of Downtown Disney on August 12, with proceeds benefiting the Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC).
Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix and her husband Tony, co-owners of the popular Disney site Mouse Planet attended the event. Adrienne posted photos and an entertaining description of the festivities on her Mouse Planet blog yesterday.
No word yet on how much was raised for CHOC, but the event did sell out early at $50 per ticket.
Disney deserves credit for putting a cap on attendees. The event, judging from Adrienne's photos, drew a crowd but was not crowded: lines for food and drink seemed short or non-existent and people were able to comfortably mingle.
MORE: Mouse Planet (Adrienne Vincent-Phoenix)
