"Positive Attitude Reflects Todays Youth" - Let's Watch "The Party In Concert"

Goodness, I can't wait to experience (vicariously, through Disney Blog People who can actually afford this thing) the Galactic Starcruiser Interactive Experience can you?  In the meantime, let's travel back to the early days of Disney Hollywood Studios, especially for those of you who were longing for a weird vintage Disney special the past few weeks.

The audio quality on this one is kind of bad but it's pretty fascinating.  This is "The Party In Concert" from 1990, and early-90's Disney Channel doesn't get much more pure than this.  (Like, look at the schedule for the rest of the evening right at the beginning of the video.  Late-night Disney Channel was basically uncharted space back then, and you could tune in and see anything.  Classic movies, a documentary, a concert, maybe even an actual vintage Disney thing, or a combination of two or more of these!)

I'm not even sure if the special itself is as interesting as The Party itself as an entity.  The Party (and yes, it does stand for "Positive Attitude Reflects Today's Youth, and that's maybe the funniest aspect of the whole thing) was composed of five particularly popular and talented teenagers with Disney sanctioned attitude plucked from the ranks of the 90's Mickey Mouse Club: Albert Fields, Tiffini Hale, Chase Hampton, Damon Pampolina, and future Pearl voice actress Deedee Magno.  They were pitched to us kids as our new favorite band ever and promoted as such, starring in specials and on a regular segment on the Mickey Mouse Club and recording a cover of a Rubinoos song (one which would be the center of a small controversy later) which was the style at the time.

Now even at the time, I thought, "Clearly Disney saw how popular New Kids On The Block were so they made their own pop group.  I am sorry for The Party, but I am already too much of a fan of NKOTB!  And by 'a fan' I mean, given my as-yet-undiagnosed Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, 'I start vibrating through several formes and dimensions with an intensity that could shatter glass when I see that one Magic Can commercial.'  Anyway.  I am not falling for this."

Now as an adult, I wondered if that really was The Party's origin story.  Surely there's more to it?  Well, not really.  Disney really did see how insanely lucrative NKOTB were, so they reverse-engineered their own even more wholesome group (and later created an even squeakier clean, no reckless use of the word "Hell" version of them with the MMC group).  They lasted into 1993, releasing a final album ominously, wonderfully titled "The Party Is Over", and reunited a few years ago.  Last I checked, they're scheduled to perform for Walt Disney World's 50'th Anniversary at Disney Springs.

So that's The Party.  A weird Disney moment from the weird 90's.  More dinosaurs and/or animation next week, I promise.

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Art!  A beautiful fellow who visits the Cornell Panama Fruit Feeder sometimes.  Lizards really are the best live models:

The 70's Mouseketeers in 70's Walt Disney World!

It's suddenly December! In the coming weeks, I will be recounting the Magical Christmas Adventure I had recently. But for this week, I'm wishing Walt Disney World a belated 40'th birthday.

A few months ago, I posted a montage of strange moments from Disney Theme Park television specials made by Everything Is Terrible. It turns out that about half of the most deeply strange moments came from a television special featuring the Mouseketeers visiting Walt Disney World (we'll get to the place where the other half came from in due time):



So first off, the 70's Mouseketeers! I knew about the fifties Mouseketeers obviously, mostly because of the reruns on the Disney Channel. And I knew about the 90's Mouseketeers since I was their target audience at the time. But up until very recently, I had no idea that there was a 70's Mickey Mouse Club. There doesn't seem to be all that much nostalgia for them online, so I don't even know.

But more importantly, I love how this special shows two important things about Disney World circa 1977: (a) how they advertised it and (b) what they had to offer back when they were still essentially starting out. In the days before Epcot, the Studios, and so forth, Disney had to establish that Walt Disney World was not just "Disneyland East". And so they promoted the truly unique things they had at the time like... Fort Wilderness Campground! The boats in Bay Lake/Seven Seas Lagoon! Tennis! Tennis?!? Tennis! And their one very small water park.

Speaking of, some highlights:

* River Country! This was the first water park in WDW and it set the tone for Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach, both of whom eventually swamped it. River Country was much smaller than those two subsequent water parks and felt more like part of nearby Fort Wilderness.

* We're in Disney World! Let's play pinball! Then we'll have a Shopping Montage!

* Every so often, critics will make a big noise about how characters on children's television, etc. act too acerbic and even hostile towards one-another. I am going to make a bold statement after watching this and say that what they are criticizing is not new.

* So at some point a little girl runs away (and somehow sneaks into the Magic Kingdom unnoticed?!), makes her way to the Cinderella fountain, takes a nap, and dreams about... Winnie the Pooh inventing a new style of Polka. What, you though she'd dream about her friends and how upset she is and how much she misses them?

* But more importantly, she dreams about the earlier version of the Winnie the Pooh costume. This thing is notorious for being a horrible walking design flaw (for a point of reference, see that honey pot? That's where the costumed cast member's head is), especially since if some little brat knocked you over, you were pretty much stuck there on the ground. Forever. Furthermore, that thing was bound to scare children.

* Epic Boat Chase!!! With a random stopover in Discovery Island.

* We don't get to see the other Mouseketeers reconcile with the little runaway girl. I guess cause they ran out of time.

And for an extra treat, here's a very, very strange promotional video dug up by the good folks at Progress City. On the one hand, I like how it highlights many 90's WDW things I miss. On the other hand...



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Sketch of the Day!



I don't know either.