Best thing about going on an exciting trip for a week is that you come home with a week's worth of blog posts. :) Now in case you have not heard, some very interesting things have been happening in the world of central Florida theme parks. It is, to put it lightly, a damn good time to be a fan of theme parks. When they compete with each other, we win, as each park will try to design more awesome attractions than what their competitor has lined up. Which brings us to the mayhem that is unfolding as we speak. If you were watching the Winter Olympics, you certainly saw this commercial maybe eighty times:
Now, we didn't go to Universal this trip (the ad says that the park will be "coming this spring" but according to a recent press release, "Spring" = "The middle of June" -- and I feel bad not warning my fellow airplane passengers of this), but I have seen Hogwarts Castle from the road, rising in the air like a giant middle finger right in Mickey's face. Now, here's the fun part. At the D23 Expo (a huge convention for Disney fans; it's surprising that there was never anything like that before), Mickey essentially countered with this bigger, and even ruder gesture in Universal's face:
So as I visited Magic Kingdom this time, I was on the lookout for (a) evidence of construction and (b) things that might not be there next time we go. Construction in the Magic Kingdom must be interesting to work on. They need to work on a project without destroying the illusion of being in a magical land. They probably work mostly at night. They hide their progress well; you wouldn't know that Cinderella Castle was being worked on unless you looked very hard. The construction here in Fantasyland is a little easier to make out. This view will be radically different in a few years. Now so far the biggest point of contention in Disney message boards, regarding the Magic Kingdom expansion, is that there isn't anything new for boys what will become of Toontown? The history of this little "land" has been... interesting to say the least. A full rundown can be found over at the lovely Walt Dated World. I very distinctly remember riding the train into this new "land". And I do have vague memories of the first version of the stage show described on the site. Now Toontown is basically a place for people to meet the Disney characters in a predictable spot. It's niche is gradually being overtaken by the old Emporium building right when you enter Main Street. (This building was the site of one of our best serendipitous moments. I went in hoping to see a different animated mural -- this one does exist and shows off all the significant moments in Disney history -- and wound up meeting all manner of Disney characters. It was raining, so the Magic Kingdom was practically empty, and we got lots of attention. So I can't ever not say that I was hugged by a bunch of people in furry suits on my B-day. Tellingly, we saw no characters at all in Toontown. So, instead, here is a photo of me in Minnie's house. Note the Notorious Birthday Button. ---- Sketch of the Day! Now, in all my journeys to WDW, I have never ever tried a Dole Whip. This time, I went well out of my way to rectify this glaring oversight. ---- I was listening to Episode 24 of the very nice Sci-Fi Saturday Night podcast and was delighted to hear them give a shout-out to the Comicbook Artists Guild (they were actually giving away some art we had donated during the October Boston Comicon as a contest prize. Still, very cool.) ---- I feel incredibly bad for all the animation fans in New Hampshire.
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I also watched "$9.99" and... well, about fifteen minutes in, I had to ask myself what will henceforth be known as the "Only Yesterday" Question: Would I have watched this entire movie if it were live-action? It is, essentially, one of those "just a bunch of things that happened" movies -- but it's all stop-motion animation. I can't even say whether I liked it or if I can recommend it. I will say this: it is weird in ways you would not expect a stop-motion existential film about just a bunch of stuff that happens to be... if that makes any sense.
We went to Walt Disney World. It was a lot of fun. Then we went home. The end. As if! You're in for FIVE Disney World related posts. Fortunately, I'll be focusing on some of the more unusual things we saw and did. For example: weird things at the Disney Hollywood Studios. The Disney Hollywood Studios park opened in the late 80's as the Disney/MGM Studios. Originally, it was a working television and animation studio, and was essentially the basis of operations for the Disney Channel at the time. The original rides and shows were largely based upon the popular Disney movies of the time - but if you look closely, so are many elements of the park design itself. Keep your eyes open especially for Roger Rabbit. He's all over the park even today (see above; I'd have a photo of the "Hidden Roger" in the window of one of the buildings above the Prime Time Cafe but it didn't come out). This makes sense as the entire parks' aesthetic is based mostly upon this film. The meat and potatoes of the old Disney/MGM live shows were audience participation. This theater (as the sign suggests) used to hold one such show: Superstar Television. Today, the theater holds the much-hyped American Idol Experience. Now, I was not so enthused about this as I am not a fan of the show -- but it's a lot of fun! The main reason is simply because it hearkens back to the old audience participation shows. This photo is really just for the LOLs. This is how you can spot people who did not read The Unofficial Guide to Disney World. These poor people are standing in line to walk through a small room with a few props and then watch commercials for a three year old movie based on a book series Disney no longer even owns the rights to. What? Now, I was in this area for two reasons. One: to find the brand new Toy Story Midway Mania ride, which is so much fun it shouldn't be legal. (We waited in line for an hour and a half, though.) Two: to go into the old Magic of Disney Animation building and try to find the Animated Mural. Supposedly, there is a mural in the building upon which the animators drew a character from every animation worked on at the studio. This mural doesn't seem to exist (although there are many Disney characters drawn on the walls), but if you poke around, you will find a lot of cool stuff like this: Posters for "Rapunzel""Rapunzel Unbraided""Rapunzel" "Tangled". Looks very nice so far. (By the way, I don't *even* have an opinion about the title change. They could call it "Captain Kickass and the Testosterone Twins" and I -a person with ovaries- wouldn't be scared away because I love me some Glen Keane. And the thing is, everyone's just going to call it "Rapunzel" anyway.
Disney's kind of strange about naming things anyway, aren't they? I saw the arcade in Tomorrowland and remembered that they're rumored to be retheming it and it's Disneyland equivalent to "Flynn's Arcade". My thought is, what took them so long? It could have been called Flynn's Arcade for decades! They had the little cafeteria in Fantasyland [now known as Mrs. Pott's Cabinet] named Gurgi's Munchy-Crunchies for *years* after "The Black Cauldron" nose-dived on arrival and there's a barbecue on Castaway Cay named after Cookie, which is like daring Disney fans to get the reference.) Far more interesting (speaking of Keane) is what I found in the attraction's old queue line: An outdoor gallery of concept art! God, I love concept art! The path snakes all around the building, so there's a ton to look at. Check out Cody and Marahute. Next Post: The Magic Kingdom, before Princess Ragnarok. ---- Sketch of the Day! Here's the view from the Rose and Crown Pub: ---- There is a phenomenal interview with Don Hahn over at the Onion AV Club and it is definitely worth a read, if only to learn the strange sibling rivalry between "The Lion King" and "Pocahontas" and to remind yourself why we all need to raise a pint to Roy E. Disney. I've already got "Waking Sleeping Beauty" in my "Saved" Netflix Queue.
---- Wikkid Important Addendum!
I have just received my comp copies of IF-X's April issue with my cover art in the mail today. I'm not gonna lie. It was emotional.
(Note that this was pushed back a bit from last week, thanks to the email fromIF-X. And, once again, OMG YAAAAAY!!!)
When I say "weirder" adaptations of Alice in Wonderland, I mean probably weirder. I'm really not all that jazzed about "Tim Burton in Wonderland" though some of the nonhuman character designs are a lot of fun. (Honestly, this looks like the kind of movie Tim Burton could make in his sleep now, and as Sam Adams mentioned in this recent AVQ&A, it's very sad that in the last few years, Burton has "managed to rid his work of anything vaguely inventive or personal while still keeping up the facade of being the goth kid who sits alone at lunch.")
There is something about Lewis Carroll's Alice books that makes people want to do adaptations that play hard and loose with the source material. I'm limiting myself to five today, though I can certainly think of more (for example, you can't technically say that "Lost" and "The Matrix" AREN'T adaptations -however loose- of "Alice" can you?)
This is certainly not the first Disney take on Wonderland. But while everyone knows the 50's "Alice", and Disney fans are generally aware of the early "Alice' shorts, one Disney take has faded into obscurity. In the year 1990-ish, the Disney Channel announced a new series for young children. This was around the same time Disney/MGM Studios was still in use as a working television/film/animation studio and was essentially the Disney Channel's headquarters. A massive set was built upon a soundstage in the Studios, and the series "Adventures in Wonderland" was born:
Answering the inevitable question: yes, the early 1990's really were like this. Giant anthropomorphic rabbits and everything.
I've already discussed "Dreamchild" over at The Realm. Sadly, the film is not available at Netflix (which doesn't even seem to have even heard of it). Fortunately, a kind soul on YouTube has uploaded the utterly terrifying tea party scene, so I can spread the Nightmare Fuel around. (I am indeed giving this a very serious Nightmare Fuel warning. Kids, stay far away. Adults, don't watch this late at night.)
EDIT: "Dreamchild" has recently appeared in among Netflix's instant-watch options. Enjoy.
Speaking of Nightmare Fuel. There's also the odd tendency to want to make scary, dark and edgy versions of Alice's adventures and of all the Wonderland characters. When most 80's kids think of weird versions of the Alice books, their minds immediately go to this little slice of childhood trauma (again, not embedding this because, seriously, between the creepy mirrors, the parents ignoring Alice, and the monster -however cheesy the costume is- popping up in the dark hallway, the scene seems coldly designed by committee to scar a child for life). What's especially weird about this version is that this one scary scene comes right the f**k out of nowhere; the overall tone of the miniseries was upbeat and whimsical up to this point. But you can expect to say, "What the hell" at least once during the cast list in the opening credits.
Thankfully the next two weird "Alices" are far more lighthearted throughout. This was something my sister and I watched one Easter morning for some reason. This little slice of crazy stars Mr. T as the Jabberwocky. That's probably all you need to know.
Skipping right to the middle for you. This is because, as you will see, their Humpty Dumpty is... different:
And rounding out our journey through Wonderland is yet another 80's oddity. Even as a kid sitting in the theater, I thought, "This feels like the studio wanted to make an Alice in Wonderland movie, and then for the hell of it they stuck in their most famous characters." It's not hard to find the full film on Youtube:
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Quick movie review. I watched "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and I thought it was cute. Yes, cute. Cute is not a bad thing. It's charming and whimsical, I love the herky-jerky low-tech stop-motion animation, and I'm curious enough to see Wes Anderson do more animated films. Also, it's interesting how the more derived adaptations of Roald Dahl books are better as movies. (If you're not sure what I mean, watch "Willy Wonka" and then watch "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". I am not talking about the nostalgia filter here.) By the way, "Mr. Fox" is fine for kids, though I wonder what kids will think of it.
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And in case you missed it, there's a fun review of an old "Simpsons" episode (it happens to be one of my favorites) that turns into a meditation on the use of pop-culture references over at the Onion AV Club.
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Sketch of the Day!
Hocus Crocus Alimagocus!!!
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Feederwatch Friday!
Rock Pigeon 3
Mourning Dove 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Blue Jay 2
American Crow 2
Black-capped Chickadee 4 (!!!)
Tufted Titmouse 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
American Robin 2
Song Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 1
House Sparrow 20
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Next week: Four-Part Walt Disney World Trip Report!!!
EDIT: (Because I have no idea what the final post is going to look like from the "preview" option.) Ah, formatting. :/ Click to see the pictures full-sized. By another one of those extremely happy coincidences, one of the members of the Belgrade Draggin' Masters Snowmobile Club had seen one of the dragons I drew for the 700 Dragons project, liked it, and contacted me to create a new logo for the club. This was a very fun project to work on, and I thoughtfully kept a record of the work in progress. This is just one of many concept sketches. Both the club and I enjoyed this one the most. I went ahead and brought the sketch into Photoshop to do a line art version. I wanted to keep the feeling of the original sketch, but make the lines more graphic. The image had to be easy to read, and it had to still be understandable when printed at wildly different sizes. The Club liked this concept, but they wanted a very different style. And here is the *almost* final version. The Club approved this, but they still wanted a few minor changes (nothing big, just human errors -- Belgrade isn't spelled right here!) This has the honor of being the first piece I (a) produced on my Macbook and (b) drew the line art with a calligraphy Photoshop brush, which is almost a trademark of mine by now. The final version can currently be seen as the title graphic of the Belgrade Draggin' Masters' website. ---- Once again, in lieu of a Sketch of the day, here is some wonderful news: Starting today and going through Sunday night, the MA Horticultural Society's Spring Flower Show is back! This is fantastic as my aunt and I were going through withdrawals last year. ---- And dang it, Disney, WTF?
Please excuse me, I have to do sort of a Small Name Big Ego thing for the next two posts. Hey, it's not every day I get published now is it? As usual, click the pictures to see them big. In a great stroke of luck, I happened to be in a Comic Artists Guild chat when Michael Marcus of the Hamtramck Idea Men asked me if I wanted to do the cover illustration for the upcoming April issue of IF-X. My response was, essentially, "Sure, I'd love to!" So later that night, I emailed these doodles. Marcus liked the "Easter Bunny who wandered into an Alien nest" concept the best. By a happy coincidence, so did I. I quickly drew this little thumbnail (the original really is tiny) just to get the layout figured out. I emailed this to Marcus too, and he approved it, just requesting a few small changes. Here is the pencil line art on what would soon be the final version. I like to scan or photograph the various stages of an art project *just in case*. It is nice to have a record, but it's also nice to have a backup just in case things go wrong. And here is the *almost* almost final version. I knew I wanted to have some of the eggs already painted, but I didn't want to risk losing those neat sponge-painted textures. Photoshop layers seemed the best way to go... Finally, here's the version I sent to Michael Marcus. I used a series of transparent layers to "paint" the Alien eggs. I also took the opportunity to enlarge the facehugger in the foreground, just to make it more prominent and to emphasize just how screwed our poor Dumbest Bunny is. The final version can be seen here. ---- In lieu of a Sketch of the Day, here is a brief Movie/DVD Review. I saw "Ponyo" the other night and... and...
Welp, this is the weirdest Anime I've seen in a while. And it is certainly the strangest thing I've ever seen coming out of the mind of Hiyao Miyazaki. You see, his films usually start out in a place that's fairly normal and mundane (but beautifully realized; my favorite Miyazaki moment of all is that little scene in "My Neighbor Totoro" where the little sister collects rocks and seeds and things and piles them on the desk to show her daddy, who is hard at work on something and is basically like, "oh, that's nice"), but then some fantastic element or other enters into this normal world. "Ponyo" starts weird and ends in an even weirder place, so by the time you get to the more typically Miyazakian scene where they're eating Ramen, it gets... odd. While I did find plenty to like in it, it is definitely for kids. Gotta give their little brains something strange once in a while, but "Totoro" is much better in this regard. ---- I've got some art cards up for sale on ebay. Give them a good home, won't you?
I am very excited about this news, which I just got after checking my email (I was having an Internet-free week at Disney. By the way, remember those halcyon days when you could go for half a month away from the Internet and not miss anything important?) So if you'll indulge me, I need to be immature for a second here: Yaaaaay!!! Hey, it's the first time I've been published in dead tree recycled post-consumer paper (I hope) form! Anyway, here is the email announcement: The line-up for this next issue of IF-X, "April Fools" is as follows: Cover: "The Dumbest Bunny" by Tricia Arnold (OMG That's MEEEEE!!! I drew the Dumbest Bunny! My baby's being published!!!) "The Adventures of StupidBoy" by Matt Feazell "Suburban Heroes" by Terence Cover and Tom R. "Best Prank Ever" by Michael Marcus "Hans Beucher: Devil Baker" by George McVey "Dorm Disasters" and "Witness Protection" by James Mascia and Mike Bunt "Fearman: April Fools" by Thomas Jankowski "Gas Pains" by Dino Caruso and Paul Houston "Doveman and Pandaboy" by Mike Theis and Nick Mueller Back Cover: "April the Fool" by Michele Witchipoo ...Congratulations, and thank you for taking the time to participate-- I love putting out IF-X, and I certainly could not do it without each of you. Eventually, when this is making more money, I'll be able to pay in more than just comp copies! All the best, Michael Marcus Hamtramck Idea Men
You can purchase this issue or any back issue of IF-X for around three dollars at the Hamtramck Idea Men website. I might, as the song suggests, have to order five copies for my mother. ---- In other happy news from the email inbox, as soon as I finish writing this, I'll be responding to my invite to join Art Evolved as a member. Which is wonderful, because even though I like comic art, I definitely want to learn more about the field of natural history illustration. Freelance illustration is one of the few fields where it's actually good to have your fingers in a variety of pies. ---- Feederwatch Thursday! Thanks to the scary rainstorm, there wasn't much going on here. But the Crocuses have started to bloom in that one sunny spot! Blue Jay 2 American Crow 3 Black-capped Chickadee 2 House Sparrow 7 ---- Sketch Finished Piece of the Day! Ba-hahahahaha... ---- And last but not least, I hope everyone has had a wonderful Annoying Negative Ethnic Stereotype Reinforcement Day St. Patrick's Day! Here is a review of an excellent Irish movie for you at the Realm.
It will be some time before I can get a Disney World trip report ready for you (I will probably start writing it as a series of subject-specific blog posts after I finish catching up on my various internet type things). So here's a quick review of an animated film I found on Netflix, gawked at, screamed "THAT'S what it was called!", rented, and watched."Gay Purr-ee" is an oddly-named animated film made by United Productions of America in the early '60s, based upon a short-story written by Chuck and Dorothy Jones, and directed by Abe Levitow. And boy does it look like it. I must say that Chuck Jones' style doesn't often mesh well with the ultra-stylized UPA style. It's often jarring to see such fluidly animated characters against such psychedelic backgrounds. Then again, that means that this is an animated film that really doesn't look like anything else out there.The plot concerns the adventures of Mewsette, a farm cat living in the French countryside who dreams of a better, more fabulous life. Her suitor Jaune-Tom is content to live out in the country. Mewsette overhears some humans talking about Paris and she stows away in a Paris-bound suitcase. Jaune-Tom runs after her with his Obligatory Sidekick in tow. Before they can catch up with her, Mewsette falls in with a conman (or concat, whatever) and... you can guess the rest.
Except, perhaps, for the part about the Alaska gold rush.It's funny how this movie could very easily be confused with "The Aristocats", with a dash of Don Bluth's "All Dogs Go To Heaven" (in that it is another movie where you also must not ask why the animals are conning each-other out of money -- what do animals even *want* with man's money?) But this was made almost a full decade *before* "Aristocats". Hmmm...So is the movie any good? Well, it's always fun to watch something Chuck Jones was involved in, but there is one major thing to consider: The leads are voiced by Judy Garland and Robert Goulet. Now ask me, a person who it has been established does not enjoy musicals, if they EVER STOP SINGING...
But first, an important announcement: Now, we are Thirty-Two. Once again, I refuse to act mature.
A long, long time ago, I posted a YouTube video of a Disney special from my childhood that I had only the vaguest of vague memories of. This special was meant to commemorate Mickey Mouse's 60'th birthday (I wonder exactly what they counted as his birthday; probably -and inaccurately- the "Steamboat Willy" premier.) I posted the link, but I didn't ever find the time to watch the whole thing. Well, some time before I headed to Disney World, I decided to watch a few old Disney specials to get myself primed for the Disney Magic (TM, patents on Childhood Wonder and Whimsical Nostalgia pending). "Mickey's 60'th" was among them.
Ho-lee Swiss Cheese.
Here's the special, for those who missed it the first time:
OK. Some thoughts:
1) Have you ever seen such cheap, off-model animation used on Mickey and his pals? You'd think, for his birthday and everything, that Disney wouldn't have skimped on the budget.
2) Poor Roger Rabbit. Once the breakout star and worthy of co-starring in Mickey's birthday special, now they act like he never existed. (His niche has basically been overtaken by Stitch.)
3) Who in the world is that dude in the mirror and what has he done with Yen-Sid?
4) I had completely forgotten that "Family Ties" had a Cousin Oliver/Scrappy-Doo equivalent.
5) Nice little tribute to the very cool "Mouse Mania" short.
6) The "Cheers" scene is surreal.
7) Part Nine has no audio. Then again, it's a great opportunity to mentally dub in "The Happy Workers" from the "Toys" soundtrack.
8) I love how nobody believes that the anthropomorphic cartoon mouse who introduces himself as Mickey Mouse IS Mickey Mouse. I know that's part of the spell, but how many anthropomorphic cartoon mice can there be running around?
9) DONALD SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE FIRST TO SEE MICKEY!!! WHOEVER DECIDED OTHERWISE MUST PAY!
10) Another kind soul has uploaded "Totally Minnie". My afternoon is now booked.
(Not much to say about that special except that it is probably the 80's-est thing you will ever see and that Minne singing with Elton John is adorable.)
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This is a nifty website that was brought to my attention recently by the "On Animation" blog. "WIP" is a gallery of short Flash slideshows that show the progress of various illustrators' artwork. It's very cool to watch.
Also of note is this well-written Fanboy.com post about the recent Nick Simmons cluster... um... fudge.
You may have seen recent commercials for Disney's "Give a Day, Get a Day" promotion featuring the Muppets. You may have suspected that there is an interesting story there.
Boy howdy, is there ever an interesting story. It is the tale of a corporate merger gone sour, of a genius who passed away suddenly before his time, and -uh- a guy with a bucket stuck on his head.
I am not going to tell that story. It's too sad. But it does help to explain why different Muppet DVDs feel like they are each put out by about five different studios.
Instead, here's the special. I like how they edit it so that it looks like Star Tours, Big Thunder Mountain, and Body Wars are all within walking distance. Other highlights include Jim Henson and Wayne Allwine doing the voices of Kermit and Mickey, a Sprocket cameo, and a very, very young Raven-Symone singing to Kermit. Man, if only they knew, back then, that Mickey would some day be their boss again.
---- Sketch Finished Piece of the Day!
I painted this pretty dragon:
This is the big reason why I want to visit the rides and shows in Disney World that will change in the near future. For a while in the early '90s, the Disney/MGM Studios was my favorite of the Walt Disney World theme parks. One of the main reasons for this was the original version of the Magic of Disney Animation tour. Here's a video that gives a quick overview of the sad, strange history of this attraction/studio:
This was the very first time us unwashed fanpeople could watch Disney animators do their thing. This was immediately preceded by a short film that gave a brief overview of the process. Thankfully, some kind soul has uploaded the original film on YouTube): After the film, you got to walk through the animator observation area. Admittedly, it did feel like walking through the gorilla exhibit at Franklin Park Zoo. The tour ended with an exhibit of art from upcoming movies (I got to see some early maquettes of the "Toy Story" characters) and a film with interviews of the top animators at Disney of the time, like Glen Keane. You only got a few minutes in this room until you were ushered into another theater to watch a montage of classic Disney film and short clips, mostly culled from this TV special (including the introduction. Ah, the Michael Eisner era.) Certainly, this is a Weird Disney Thing. But it may also be the Saddest Disney Thing, because now the Magic of Disney Animation at the Studios, in it's entirely, looks like this (bonus points for making "dragon" not even sound like a word anymore): I've seen this in action a few visits to the park ago. I half expected Mr. DNA to show up. After the events you've just seen, we were brought to a small room with a very small exhibit of animation art and were invited to "learn how to draw Mickey Mouse". And... that's it.😠---- The Therizinosaur Gallery is up at Art Evolved and my entry is the first on the page! YAAAAAAYYY!!! Seriously, though. There is great work from everyone. ---- Sketch of the day! More Great Backyard Bird Count cuteness.
"So, Trish. Your work is going to be published -twice- this spring and you've done other illustration work that you probably ought to blog about soon. What are you going to do now?!?"
"I'm goin' to Disney World!"
I'm really excited because I want to make a special effort to see the parts of the park (ie Fantasyland) that might be significantly altered the next time we go. There's a good reason for this: A significant portion of the WDW I grew up with no longer exists.
Thankfully, there's a way to easily show you the Disney World I remember. Take a look at this notoriously earwormy commercial from 1991:
I will now identify for you the "Twenty Reasons" I recognize from this ad.. Half of them are no longer available at the parks and note that I only used Walt Dated World for fact-checking:
1) Surprise in the Skies. This was a crazy daytime show that took place in EPCOT and involved such madness as colored smoke bombs (advertised as "daytime fireworks"), stunt kite-flying, giant balloons, and costumed characters flying around in hang-gliders and parasail-planes. I don't remember if I ever got to see it as intended (in the park itself), but I did get to see the characters fly their various aircraft in for the show as we hung out by the Beach Club pool. Strange but cool. 2) Roger Rabbit as a costumed character! There was, as you shall see, an influx of characters whom you'll need extremely good luck to run into now. Roger was also a much more visible presence in Disney World on the whole.
3) Pleasure Island, back when it was a never-ending party with live music and shows and basically The Place To Be. Instead of something they've since decided to shut down and start over with.
4) The Yacht and Beach Club! This quickly became my family's favorite place to stay and we did so for, I think, three visits in a row. Why yes, EPCOT was our favorite park (still is if we ever have to pick).
5) The Little Mermaid Stage Show premiered back then. It's been almost another twenty years and the show won't go away is still running!
6) The Living Seas took another selling point away from poor Sea World when they introduced their herd of Manatees.
7) Golfing! Yay!
8) Minnie Moo! She may be the weirdest of all the weird Disney things in this commercial.
OK, you know how every so often people will see The Virgin Mary in a piece of toast or something? Imagine if such an image was seen on a living thing. Now you have an idea of how crazy life must have been for poor Minnie Moo, a cow who just so happened to have spots in the shape of what we now would call a "hidden Mickey".
She was treated like a celebrity when she came to stay at the little barnyard made for her in the middle of what is now Toontown. Dated World says she lived out the rest of her days in a bigger farm near Fort Wilderness, but I still wonder what else happened to her. Did Disney clone her? Try to breed a whole herd of Hidden Mickey calves from her? Did they preserve her hide at all? The mind boggles.
9) "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" "Movie Set Adventure". Disney MGM Studios, as I may have said before, used to be a working TV/Movie studio and it trumpeted this as often as it could. There was also a much greater emphasis on the art of movie-making. This was basically just a walk-through movie set, but it's still standing and it's still pretty interesting to see the oversized props up close.
10) Darkwing Duck, another costumed character you'd be hard-pressed to see or hear any mention of today.
11) The Sinclairs from "Jim Henson's Dinosaurs", who also got their own stage show (which only proved that, after twenty-three gorram years, we need a new song about dinosaurs). What I said for Darkwing Duck goes quadruple for them.
12) Spectromagic, the night-time parade at Magic Kingdom, which is still running.
13) Surprise Celebration. A parade loosely based on the Party Gras parade from Disneyland. The big deal was that one specially-chosen family could ride in the base of the Roger Rabbit balloon/float.
14) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costumed characters. They may have also been involved in a stage show. They were the earliest in a string of characters from non-Disney movies who were brought into Disney MGM for some damn reason. Others included the Power Rangers (ironically owned by Disney now), that creepy dummy from the Goosbumps books, and Ace Ventura.
15) Port Orleans, now known as Port Orleans French Quarter. probably here to represent the resorts that only cost an arm, rather than an arm and a leg. By this time, there were twenty Disney resorts in all.
16) The Sci-Fi Drive-In Diner, a Studios restaurant and a place after my own heart. They don't serve anything (that's good) more interesting than sandwiches and ice cream, but you get to watch trailers for cheesy old movies and the occasional weird non-Disney cartoon (of note was Tex Avery's "The Cat Who Hated People"). Man, I now want to go there this visit.
17) This castle balloon is the only "reason" that stumps me. I'm surprised they're highlighting it as I recall the infamous LiMouseIne was a bigger deal.
Tangent: I can't believe the internet is failing me here, because this giant-sized limo built for Mickey Mouse (I promise you this was real) with a pool and movie theater and other crazy stuff built in deserves it's own Weird Disney thing post.
18) The Beauty and the Beast stage show, which was pretty good and might be still around.
19) Muppet-vision 3D, which is also still going.
20!) Sorcery in the Sky, a very elaborate fireworks show that ran at Disney MGM Studios until Fantasmic came along.
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Note that updates may be sporadic after I get back from the trip. Until then, here is a very colorful Fairy Dragon:
