Global Disney Pinvestigation

The Florida Project: Vinylmation Previews!

2011-09-11T17:29:00.001-04:00

I was able to attend the Vinylmation Showcase at the Florida Project this weekend on Sunday September 11th, lots of news and information as well as previews were released. Let’s just cut to the chase… here we go!

First, we have a preview of the upcoming Alice in Wonderland blind boxed mystery set.

The set will also feature a limited edition 9in/3in Walrus and Oyster Cook set.

As well as a limited edition, two-3in set of Disappearing and Re-appearing Cheshire Cat!

Park 7 will begin represent important milestones in Walt Disney World’s 40 years.

Some 9in figures, featuring River Country and the Elliot float from the Main Street Electrical Parade.

It seems to me, a Kitchen Kaberat Set will be coming out…

As well as an America On Parade set…

Moving onto the Holiday Series #3!

And Animation Series #2!

Urban Series #8!

Special Figures released for a variety of occasions like the Halloween, Epcot Food and Wine Festival, Christmas, and the Disney Cruise Line Mexican Rivera cruise.

A new Open Edition series titled “Theme Park Favorites” will be released in February.

Light Up Figures!

D-Tech Merchandise, from Computer Cases, to Computer decals, to phone covers (not pictured)

Moving onto the Vinylmation Talk with Donald Ferro, who announced a plethora of items, like a Park Series #8 preview which will continue Park Series #7’s Walt Disney World inspiration.

Cutesters at the Beach Preview…

One of the most anticipated series, Casey Jones’ The Haunted Mansion! To be released next year, but NOT at the Room for One More event, Donald made that very, very clear.

Some upcoming pins showcase more figures from the series, like the Hitchhiking Ghosts.

As well as Master Gracey, the Bride, Knight, King Casear’s Ghost, as well as a few more.

There will be a Robots Series #2, which will be released not only in Disney Stores like Series 1, but also in the parks.

A new collection by the same designer as Have A Laugh is the Classic Collection.

Two new nerds will be added to the Open Edition series, Stitch and Figment!

A new Open Edition, Open Windowed set will be D-Tour, which will periodically change, here are some previews of graphic, and trendy versions of Mickey Mouse.

Vinylmation Jr. Series #5 will be This and That, like Up and Down, Unicorns and Rainbows and Pins and Needles, they will tell both sides of story!

Vinylmation Jr. Series #6 will feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

New Open Edition, Open Windowed sets to be released in May 2012 featuring Disney Characters as Star Wars Characters.

Star Wars Series #2 will be released in August 2012, based off New Hope.

At end of presentation, Donald revealed what exactly Project Z was! To much what seemed to be disappointment in audience, Project Z stands for Park Starz, which is a new way that Vinylmations will be created, for Park Starz Series, the figures will be shaped like a variety of Disney Park’s original characters, like the Yeti from Expedition Everest, Big Al from Country Bear Jamboree, and Figment from the Imagination Pavilion. Also, Park Starz series will be blind boxed in a tin, and sold in trays of 12, so if you want to purchase a series, you will just have to buy the tray of 12 and have one set, with no duplicates.

Finally, at the very end of the presentation, Donald revealed Mickey’s Circus for the Vinylmation Showcase next year as well, and showed a preview of a figure to be released, Ring Master Mickey!

The Florida Project: Pin Previews!

2011-09-11T16:33:00.001-04:00

Attending the Florida Project on Friday September 9th and Saturday September 10th was a real treat, it really hadn’t changed from the Pin Celebrations of years past, same issues, and same complaints from everyone, but overall it was enjoyable. I’m sure most of you didn’t come here for my analysis, but for the various previews and announcements of the event. In the words of Peter Pan, “here we go…!”

We’ll start off with the releases that are the soonest, Epcot’s Food and Festival 2011.

Disney Vacation Club pins!

40th Anniversary Pins to come out on October 1st. Information about release will be released soon, via Disney Pins, its unknown if it will be Online RSP like Disneyland Piece of History pins, or wristband distributions.

Pin accessories. Reversible lanyards!

Disney Parks will soon be offering online exclusive merchandise, like this puzzle pin set, lanyard starter set, and mini-pin Disney Character Eating food set.

Annual Passholder set for Disneyland resort. Unlocking the Magic, with a variety of attractions and keys attacting to base pin (which are Open Edition).

Walt Disney World Resort Annual Passholder pins. Base star pin with Mickey, and each quarter of the year features a diamond shaped pin with hinged picture of character inside.

D23 Exclusive pins, featuring pocket watch of Mickey (Disneyland Resort) and Chip & Dale (Walt Disney World). The time 3:09 on watch is the date that D23 was announced.

Disney Cruise Line pin! Pins for the Inaugural Sailing of the Disney Fantasy.

Disney Piece of Movie History series continues for 2012, with regular animated movies but also CGI movies like Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Tangled.

Disney Trading Nights will continue in 2012, with 12 total on both coasts, 6 on each coast (bi-monthly).

Hidden Mickey Pin previews!!!

Preview of a variety of pins coming out for Re-do of Disney’s California Adventure, including Carsland and Buena Vista Street.

Disneyland Resort’s Summer Pin Event is Gear Up For Adventure, which will tie into the Carsland opening, but not represent the various CARS characters, but classic Disney characters in car scenarios.

During the Pin Presentation Alex Maher was drawing the logo character, Ring master Mickey, for the Pin Celebration 2012, Mickey’s Circus. Information will be out soon, dates, and other information will be released when made information.

Meet Marty Sklar For Charity—May 13th

2011-04-26T00:03:00.001-04:00

Hello All!

I am a part of the Future Theme Park Leaders Association at the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management in Orlando, Florida and on May 13th at 4:00pm (same weekend at Destination: D), we will be hosting Marty Sklar for an information session and conversation.

The event will be hosted at The Rosen College Darden Auditorium:

The Rosen College Hospitality Management
9907 Universal Blvd
Orlando, Fl 32819

Tickets are $15 with Valid Student ID and $25 for any non students.

The Future Theme Park Leaders Association will also be auction off seats for a “Dinner and Story Time with Marty Sklar” at the Oceanaire on International Drive in Point Orlando.

All proceeds from “Conversation with Marty Sklar” and “Dinner and Story Time with Marty Sklar” go to Give Kids the World.

For a lot more information about these events, and ticketed purchasing information, check out the Future Theme Park Leaders Association webpage.

GDP Park Report: Epcot Flower and Garden Festival 2011

2011-03-06T11:27:00.001-05:00

GDP Pin Preview: February 8, 2011

2011-02-08T15:09:00.001-05:00

GDP Special Report: Love Is Magical

2011-02-06T10:31:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I was one of the few pin people who attended the Love Is Magical event in the Wonders of Life pavilion at Epcot. I’m not going to lie, before attending this event and the months leading up to the event from registration, I was a bit hesitant about this event as not much information was really put out there about it, I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by this event.

This is definitely not a “September Event” caliber event, but (and its a big but), this was a $50 event, not a $175 event like the “September Event” is, so when everyone was complaining “its not like the September event”, I just stood there, and rolled my eyes. I even heard one guest say, “This event is sabotage, just so they can say it didn’t make enough money”, after hearing that I thought why would you even say that?, you like pins don’t you, (obviously since you have two suitcases full of them). My worst experience was guest wise, lots of nonsense complaints I overheard about the boards, the gifts, everything, like normal.

Ok, now from my nit-picky event guest complaints, here is my review of the Love Is Magical. Pre-registration opened at 10am, I arrived to the pavilion around 10:30ish, the line was decently long, but not too bad, it moved pretty fast for the length, I thought. After registering, I walked around the facility to see the small area of tables set up for trading on one side, then on the other side were 5 pin trading boards (though not there just yet), a spinning game, and a giant key hole. The trading activities didn’t open until 1pm, so I walked around then went to lunch. By the time I came back, it was 12:30ish and people were lining up for the activities.

Each guest received 6 coupons for the event: 4 trading boards, 1 Sweet Treat Experience, and 1 Good bye, bye, bye Gift. The trading boards had long lines, but I thought they moved rather quickly, and they were ‘refreshed’ every half-hour on the mark, which was good on Disney’s part. Unlike the ‘normal’ “September Event” the boards were NOT littered with Hidden Mickey pins, they were littered with tons of Artist Proofs, and Pre-Production pins, many people I talked to enjoyed them, I know I did. Some good pins I got included an LE 50 Stitch Disney Cruise Line AP, LE 100 Figment Bumper Sticker PP, and LE 500 Stitch Disney Cruise Line PP.

After waiting in line for the trading boards it was time for the dessert reception (sorry no pictures camera died, go figure). The selection was good, and it had a variety of chocolaty things.

Overall, the event was a nice event, worth the $50, in the end of the day to actually figure out it would have cost for the (Random) Jumbo Pin you received, the gift pin, and the various desserts, it adds up to more than $50. On a side note, my biggest disappointment was the LACK of Duffy, he was on the event logo, and that was it, I thought we might have a meet and greet with him, nope, no other merch, just the logo pin. This event is definitely not the best event I’ve been too (cough, cough Animal Kingdom events), or definitely not the worst event, it was ok.

Stay tuned later for pictures of the various previews offered at the event for upcoming pins… I see food, Star Wars and Walt Disney World’s 40th.

New Fantasyland Expansion—January 20, 2011

2011-01-20T11:45:00.001-05:00

Today we have a special Fantasyland posting, with the latest news and information from the expansion, and this is our first Fantasyland posting of the new year. A year ago at this time we posted our very first posting regarding the Fantasyland Expansion, and it was very successful.

Here is a list of our previous postings regarding Fantasyland:

January 2010 and January 2010 2.0
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010
September 3, 2010
September 17, 2010
October 1, 2010
October 22, 2010
November 20, 2010

On Tuesday January 18, 2011, the Walt Disney Company announced, on the Disney Parks Blog, additions to the Fantasyland expansion in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Pixie Hollow are no more, instead we have an expanded Circus area and the long-rumored Dwarf Mine Train.

Let’s take a look at the original aerial view from September 2009:

Now take a look at the aerial view released on January 2011:

Let’s take a look at the newly announced Snow White Mine Cart Rollercoaster to be placed in the location of the original ideas of the Cinderella Chateau and Sleeping Beauty Cottage.

The new rollercoaster “will take you on a rollicking, musical ride into the mine “where a million diamonds shine.” The coaster will feature a first-of-its kind ride system with a train of ride vehicles that swing back and forth as they whisk along the track. The journey will be accompanied by music from the classic Disney film and animated figures of Snow White and the Dwarfs.” (Disney Parks Blog)

With Snow White and her Dwarfs getting a new attraction in the new Fantasyland, that means Snow White’s Scary Adventures will be replaced with the Princess Fairytale Hall, a new meet-and-greet opportunity to meet other Disney Princesses, like Cinderella, Princess Aurora, Tiana, and Rapunzel.

Other news released this week was more information about the new Circus themed area coming to the location that is Mickey’s Toontown Fair now. The “Dueling Dumbos” will be housed in the Storybook Circus tent where guests will be able to fly with Dumbo, and also play fun and interactive games as they wait to ride their favorite elephant.

Goofy’s Barnstormer will be re-themed to the Great Goofini, a circus themed version of this Mickey’s Toontown Fair attraction. This attraction will take guests on a twisting, turning, daredevil, roller coaster “flight” high above the circus fun.

In the Circus themed area of the New Fantasyland the Toontown Train Station will be re-themed to Casey Jr, and be the Fantasyland Train Station.

Finally, more details were released about the Beauty and the Beast area of the Fantasyland expansion. The Be Our Guest restaurant is set in the halls of the Beast’s Castle, and will seat up to 550 guests and offer “great food fast” service by day and full table service dining in the evening. Just outside the restaurant, you will also be able to explore Belle’s Village, which includes Gaston’s Tavern and Bonjour! Village Gifts.

Here is an updated overhead view of what is to come and open by 2013 in the New Fantasyland, as they are calling it now.

Now, onto the second half of this report, a photo report of the updated area that is now New Fantasyland Construction. First off, during the Press Event new artist renderings were added to the wall, including several aerial views of the project and a new Seven Dwarves Mine Train preview, as well as plussed Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid wall coverings.

Moving along the Great Wall of Fantasyland from Pinochios Village Haus to Mickey’s ToonTown Fair, this is the order of the wall coverings. First is a ‘mini’ version of the Fantasyland aerial view.

Moving down the wall, we come across Maurice’s Cottage which had two new additions, a new “New Fantasyland… Dreams Come True 2012” banner across the top, as well as a cut out of Belle reading a book titled “Fantasyland”.

Across from the newly named Storybook Treats we have the newest addition to the Great Wall of Fantasyland, the Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train preview.

In front of the Beast’s Castle picture, a cut out of the Beast was added along with the new banner.

My favorite addition to the wall is the GIANT aerial view concept art of the New Fantasyland, it is right in front of the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh attraction, and near the new Pooh Meet-and-Greet location.

Finally, the Little Mermaid board has been moved to in front of the Mad Tea Party attraction, and Ariel, Prince Eric, and Sebastian have been added to the board, along with the new banner.

Now onto the various construction photos from today’s early morning adventure in the park. The stupid trees are in the way of most of the views, sadly.

That will finish up our super-sized Fantasyland Expansion posting, but before we go I have two questions for you, one of them for you to ponder. One, With Cinderella Chateau out of the picture, do you think we can see the renaming of Prince Charmings Regal Carousel back to Cinderella’s Royal Carousel? And two, with the new plans unveiled, do you think we can see the new exhibits in One Man’s Dream at Disney’s Hollywood Studios to be unveiled soon?

Pictures and Information from Disney Parks Blog

Pixar Pals: Countdown to Fun!, Are We Sure This Is a Good Title?

2011-01-17T10:13:00.001-05:00

Hearing that Block Party Bash was leaving in January to bring an actual new parade to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, I was very excited, because I was one of the few people who didn’t like Block Party Bash, I’m not a fan of show stops in a “parade”, why? because it isn’t a parade that way. Originally titled Pixar Pals Cavalcade, I was excited to see what this new parade was going to be about. Once hearing the name changed to Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun I was a bit skeptical, why? because that title is a mouthful, and most things (in my opinion) that have a long title, don’t live up to the title. This new parade, personally I wouldn’t even call it a parade, its just an eight minute long procession of color and recycled stuff, followed suit.

I went with a group of friends, braved the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Weekend Crowds and went to Hollywood Studios for the day. We were one of the first people staked-out near the Sorcerer’s Hat at 2:00pm. (If you were there, we were the ones sitting basically in the middle of the promenade in front of the giant hat.

The announcements letting guests know what is coming happen at 2:30pm, 2:45pm, and 2:55pm (30 minutes, 15 minutes, and 5 minutes respectively), are very annoying, no more Green Army Men, now we have an annoying lady/girl with a squeeky voice. But I figured I wouldn’t judge until I saw the parade. The music started, and as known before premiereing it was going to be “Countdown to Fun!” from Disney’s California Adventure’s Pixar Play Parade, so I had a tiny hope that we MIGHT get a float or two from DCA, though that was highly unlikely, guess what…we didn’t.

The parade turned the corner and headed down Hollywood Blvd and you could hear a sigh of “eh” as it moved down the route, not even to us yet, because we could see the recycled costumes, and all of the floats, just in reverse order that they were in Block Party Bash. I’ll let you see for yourself…

When the parade was over you looked around at the guests, who you could tell were there for THE NEW PARADE, and they were just filled with disappointment at this eight minute long procession. After talking to a few people, including one of my friends who was standing next to some of the executives of the park, everyone is in hope of a change as-soon-as-possible, as without it, this parade will become a tremendous failure, sadly. One question I had was, where were Lightning McQueen and Mater? You couldn’t just add them to the back of the parade like in Pixar Play Parade, you could have easily placed them in back, then had the two cones behind them, it would be better, I think, than just having two RANDOM cones at the end of the parade. Or what about Finding Nemo and Wall_E?

After yesterday, it wouldn’t surprise me if we see some changes, and fast! Did you see the parade?? What did you think? Leave comments in comment section below.

The First Fifty: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

2011-01-07T12:34:00.001-05:00

Development on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs began in early 1934, and in June 1934, Walt Disney announced the production of his first feature to the New York Times. Before Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Disney studio had been primarily involved in the production of animated short subjects in the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies series. Disney hoped to expand his studio's prestige and revenues by moving into features and estimated that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs could be produced for a budget of US$250,000; this was ten times the budget of an average Silly Symphony.

Walt Disney had to fight to get the film produced. Both his brother and business partner Roy Disney and his wife Lillian attempted to talk him out of it, and the Hollywood movie industry referred to the film as "Disney's Folly" while it was in production. He even had to mortgage his house to help finance the film's production, which eventually ran up a total cost of $1,488,422.74, a massive sum for a feature film in 1937.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full color, the first to be produced by Walt Disney, and the first in the Walt Disney Animated Classics canon.

Through a textual prologue the audience is told that Snow White is a princess living with her stepmother, a vain and wicked witch known only as the Queen. Fearing Snow White's beauty, the Queen forced her to work as a scullery maid and would daily ask her Magic Mirror "who is the fairest one of all". The mirror would always answer that the Queen was, pleasing her.

At the film's opening, the Magic Mirror informs the Queen that Snow White is now the fairest in the land. The jealous Queen orders her huntsman to take Snow White into the woods and kill her, demanding that he bring her the dead girl's heart in a jeweled box as proof of the deed. The huntsman, unwilling to harm Snow White, instead spares her life, and urges her to flee into the woods and never come back, bringing back a pig's heart instead.

Lost and frightened, the princess is befriended by woodland creatures who lead her to a cottage deep in the woods. Finding seven small chairs in the cottage's dining room, Snow White assumes the cottage is the untidy home of seven orphaned children. It soon becomes apparent that the cottage belongs instead to seven adult dwarfs, Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey, who work in a nearby mine. Returning home, they are alarmed to find their cottage clean and surmise that an intruder has invaded their home. The dwarfs find Snow White upstairs, asleep across three of their beds. The princess awakens, introduces herself, and all of the dwarfs (Grumpy is initially suspicious, but eventually warms to her) welcome her as a house guest after they learn she can cook. Snow White begins a new life cooking and keeping house for the dwarfs.

The Queen eventually discovers that Snow White is still alive when the mirror again answers that Snow White is the fairest in the land. Using magic to create a drink that will disguise herself as an old hag, the Queen goes to the cottage while the dwarfs are away and tricks Snow White into biting into a poisoned (magic wishing) apple that sends her into a deep sleep, which can only be broken by love's first kiss. As Snow White falls asleep the Queen exclaims "Now I'll be fairest in the land!" The vengeful dwarfs, alerted by the woodland animals who recognized the Queen, chase the Queen up a cliff and trap her. She tries to roll a boulder over them but lightning strikes the cliff she is standing on and she falls to her death.

The dwarfs return to their cottage and find Snow White seemingly dead. Unwilling to bury her body out of sight in the ground, they instead place her in a glass coffin trimmed with gold in a clearing in the forest. Together with the woodland creatures, they keep watch over her body through the seasons in an "eternal vigil".

After several seasons pass, a Prince who had previously met and fallen in love with Snow White, learns of her plight and visits her coffin. Captivated by her beauty, he kisses her, which breaks the spell and awakens her. The dwarfs and animals all rejoice as Snow White and the prince ride off to the Prince's castle.

The film ends with a non-animated scene showing the last page of a book which reads "...and they lived happily ever after."

Disney's wife, Lillian, told him: "No one's ever gonna pay a dime to see a dwarf picture". Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre on December 21, 1937 to a wildly receptive audience, many of whom were the same naysayers who dubbed the film "Disney's Folly". Six days later, Walt Disney and the seven dwarfs appeared on the cover of Time magazine. The New York Times said "Thank you very much, Mr. Disney".

RKO Radio Pictures put the film into general release on February 4, 1938, and it went on to become a major box-office success, making four times more money than any other motion picture released in 1938. In its original release, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs grossed $3.5 million in the United States and Canada, and by May 1939 its total international gross of $6.5 million made it the most successful film of all time. By the end of its original run, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs had earned over $8 million in international box office receipts, and has had a lifetime gross of $184,925,486 across its original release and several reissues. Adjusted for inflation, and incorporating subsequent releases, the film still registers one of the top ten American film moneymakers of all time.

Snow White's success led to Disney moving ahead with more feature-film productions. Walt Disney used much of the profits from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to finance a new $4.5 million studio in Burbank - the location on which The Walt Disney Studios is located to this day. Within two years, the studio would complete Pinocchio and Fantasia, and had begun production on features such as Dumbo, Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan.

Welcome New Year!!

2011-01-03T12:32:00.001-05:00

Dear GDP Readers,

Welcome All to 2011! The New Year has begun and Global Disney Pinvestigation has returned from its end-of-the-year hiatus. Though we didn’t produce as many postings as we had hoped to during our break, we are back in the new year with some great things ahead of us. Starting this Friday we will be presenting a series called The First Fifty, where each week we do a Pinvestigation on a Animated Disney Movie from Snow White to Rapunzel. A returning feature we will have once a month, is the Imagineering Insight, a popular series that didn’t take off last year, but this year it’s back with some changes. Our popular Fantasyland Forest Updates will return and be more frequent on Sundays, no more Fantasyland Fridays. This year we also will have specially themed months, like all of April will be dedicated to Disney’s Animal Kingdom and more.

We have many surprises to come. Be sure to stay tuned and follow us throughout the year.

Sincerely,

Cody Smith

GDP Special Pictorial: Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee

2010-11-25T11:29:00.001-05:00

Today we have a special pictorial of a short lived show at Magic Kingdom, that everyone I talk to, and I mean everyone wishes it would return, Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee. Running from mid October 2009 to December 2009, this musical show took place on the Lilly Belle Riverboat that sailed around the Rivers of America in Frontierland. The boat stopped in front of the Thunder Mountain Bridge and the cast, along with a special group of guests, performed various songs from the Princess and the Frog. This short lived show was more of a promotion for the film, and many thought it would return for the DVD/Blue Ray release of the film, but it did not.

Disneyland also had Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee, but it ended when Magic Kingdom’s did, but it appeared again, on land and with a new name in New Orleans Square.

After the performance, the boat went on a tour of the Rivers of America and got a personal meet and greet with the characters from the film.

In my opinion, it was one of the greatest pieces of entertainment that have been in the Magic Kingdom in years.

Anything and Everything Disney’s Animal Kingdom!!

2010-11-24T10:33:00.001-05:00

Dear Global Disney Pinvestigation Readers,

In preparation for the 2011 Blogging Season I’m planning various postings and series throughout the first couple months of the year, so first and foremost I’m taking any and all suggestions for Blog Postings about ANYTHING Disney, from Movies to Shows to Theme Parks to Various Attractions or even Themed Lands… Anything!

In April, I’m planning a special, month long series, dedicated to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, from lands to attractions, and more special stuff to come. But in early December I will have the honor of going on a special tour with one of my friends (who is an Animal Kingdom lover), and has been on every tour offered at Disney’s Animal Kingdom multiple times.

In this special tour, I will be going on a in-depth walk through the park, earlier in the day she will be going on a Backstage Tour and asked me if I had any questions for her to ask, as of now I can not think of anything, go figure! So I’m opening the floor up to you, the readers of GDP. What do you want to know about Disney’s Animal Kingdom?? Anything and Everything! Just email me, tweet me (be sure to use #GDPDAK in tweet), Direct Message Me on Twitter, or Facebook me. I will go through the questions and pick out the ones that are the most interesting, I have no specific number so I could pick all, or none.

Be sure to do either of those types of communication if you have suggestions for the blog topics as well.

I can’t wait to see what you wonder about Animal Kingdom. If all questions can be sent in by December 7, 2010 11:59pm EST. Oh, and I forgot to mention, from EVERYONE who sends in a question, I will be choosing a random winner for a special prize that will be announced in April!

Sincerely,

Cody Smith

GDP Park Report: 4 Parks, 5 Entertainment in 6 Hours—Part 1

2010-11-20T16:32:00.001-05:00

This was an impressive feat, in my book. On Thursday I closed down three parks (Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Epcot), went to all four parks, and saw five pieces of entertainment (Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade, Mickey’s Jingle Jungle Parade, Fantasmic!, Osbourne Spectacle of Dancing Lights, and Illuminations).

Here is Part 1 of the report, Part 2 should be posted tomorrow. Part 1 will consist of the first half my adventure, the two Kingdoms, Magic and Animal.

Fantasyland Forest Expansion—November 20, 2010

2010-11-20T09:59:00.001-05:00

This is our archives of our bi-monthly edition of Fantasyland Forest Friday, keeping you up-to-date on the latest happenings over in the Fantasyland area that is being made over into the “Fantasyland Forest”.

Past Fantasyland Forest “Fridays” for you to keep track of the progress:

January 2010 and January 2010 2.0
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010
September 3, 2010
September 17, 2010
October 1, 2010
October 22, 2010

As with the last couple of Fantasyland Expansion postings there hasn’t been much news in this realm, though we do have some pictures of the expansion. First, we have our general construction shots, and obligatory crane shots.

The Little Mermaid attraction building is looking great, they are beginning to wall off the queue area of the attraction.

The Beauty and the Beast area is taking shape as well, they’ve added another floor to the structure.

Obligatory Great Wall of Fantasyland shot.

The Many Adventure of Winnie the Pooh re-opened on Monday, kind of. The attraction was plagued with spurts of working on Monday, but on Tuesday it was fully operational. From Monday until Thursday the attraction used its FastPass entrance as the queue for the attraction because the interactive portion of the queue for this attraction was still getting the finishing touches, but it opened on Friday. For more information and pictures from the recently opened queue, be sure to visit WDW News Today for Banks Lee’s report.

Pooh’s Thotful Shop reopened as Hundred Acre Goods.

Portion of the outdoor queue area for the attraction still being worked on. (at time of shot, Thursday)

Last week, the Mad Tea Party reopened with a new color scheme on the roof, sadly no glass roof.

Finally, lets take a trip to Disney’s Hollywood Studios for the recently reopened One Man’s Dream, where we have some ‘previews’ of the Fantasyland expansion, a glass case is dedicated to the expansion, it wouldn’t surprise me if the area that reopens soon, now titled The Legacy Continues, will feature more concept art.

Though nothing in this case is new for us to see, it does give us great hope that this will be updated, similar to the Blue Sky Cellar in Disney California Adventure.

That’s it for now, be sure to stay tuned for more updates throughout the months.

GDP Announcement!

2010-10-25T09:24:00.001-04:00

Dear Loyal Readers and Fans of GDP,

After much consideration, Global Disney Pinvestigation will be taking a special hiatus from scheduled series and postings until January 2011. Not to worry though because the blog will be updated throughout the ‘break’ featuring various photo reports, announcements, and our very popular (now bi-monthly) series, Fantasyland Forest Fridays. I hope you all understand. So even though we’re ‘gone’, we are still technically here updating with reports and information as needed, and ways you can participate. In preparation for April, we will be posting a special post in the beginning of November for input, so stay tuned.

During this hiatus we will begin planning our 2011 Blogging Season, so, if you have any ideas for series, postings, or new featured articles, feel free to email me, tweet me, or send a message through Facebook.

For up-to-date information and news around the Disney Theme Park world, be sure to check out the Disney Food Blog and WDW News Today. For the latest Disney Pin and Vinylmation News, be sure to check out Disney Pincast and the Vinylmation Station.

Sincerely,

Cody Smith

Fantasyland Forest Expansion—October 22, 2010

2010-10-22T22:17:00.001-04:00

Past Fantasyland Forest “Fridays” for you to keep track of the progress:

January 2010 and January 2010 2.0
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010
September 3, 2010
September 17, 2010
October 1, 2010

Once again, sorry for the lateness of this Fantasyland Forest Friday posting, I’ve been busy, but I have been getting pictures of the expansion, which is progressing quickly.

First, Mad Tea Party is still in refurbishment, and has been repainted a pink. It seems that the rumors of getting a Disneyland Paris-esque glass roof are incorrect with the new roof in place and not looking like glass. But after closer inspection, to me, it seems that there still is a possibility of glass, the pieces could just be covered.

The Little Mermaid Showbuilding has walls up on the second floor area, and construction is progressing quickly.

The crane looms over Fantasyland, and even the whole park, and actively moves everyday.

Pooh’s Playful Spot tree is now fully out from scaffolding and tarps.

New temporary sign on the condensed Pooh’s Thotful Shop.

Finally, it seems that the structure for Belle’s Meet-and-Greet area are beginning to rise from behind the Great Wall of Fantasyland.

Pictures For Use of WDW News Today

Pinvestigation: A Parisian Tower of Terror

2010-10-21T13:33:00.001-04:00

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Walt Disney Studios Park is based on the same designs as the version at Disney's California Adventure. However, it was originally Imagineered for the Paris park at the same time as Tokyo's tower and planned to open just 2 years after the opening of the park itself.

When financial troubles again hit Disney's Parisian resort, the attraction had to be put on hold. In the mean time, it was constructed at Disney's California Adventure as an additional crowd-puller.

The attraction was finally greenlit in 2005 and was under construction right in the center of the park, behind the "La Terrasse" seating area, in early 2006. Upon completion, it was joined by a new themed development producing an outdoor Hollywood Boulevard of faux movie sets. Unlike its American cousins, the Paris Tower was constructed using concrete rather than steel due to French construction guidelines and standards, at a total cost exceeding €180 million^.

The Paris and California versions were originally believed to become identical versions upon completion, but some differences remain, notably the height of the building, the location of some rooms backstage as well as other differences due to construction and work regulations being stricter in France.

The name of the attraction in French is La Tour de la Terreur - Un Saut dans la Quatrième Dimension. (The Tower of Terror - A Jump into the Fourth Dimension)

The default audio language for the pre-show library video and the ride is French, but can be changed to English by the Cast Member. The library video is the same as the American version but is dubbed in French and subtitled in English.

The Walt Disney Studios version opened on December 22, 2007. The official opening to the press was April 5, 2008.

Pictures and Information from

DLRPMagic, Pin Pics, and Tower of Terror.org

Pinvestigation: Hightower Hotel

2010-10-20T12:01:00.001-04:00

The Tower of Terror at Tokyo DisneySea has no connection or tie-ins with The Twilight Zone, and is instead themed as the Hotel Hightower, an 1890s' New York City hotel owned by eccentric billionaire Harrison Hightower III who disappeared on December 31, 1899 while taking the elevator up to his private quarters shortly after taking a mysterious idol of a trickster spirit called Shiriki Utundu from an ancient civilization in Africa.

The ride's facade is an example of Moorish Revival architecture, and the Tower is located in the American Waterfront area of the park, close to the S.S. Columbia cruise liner. The ride system for this version is similar to that of Disney's California Adventure's version and that of Walt Disney Studios Paris' version.

The story of this Tower is much more complex then the others. The story follows the adventures of the hotel's famous builder, Harrison Hightower. Having completed many expeditions around the world and collecting thousands of countless artifacts, all of which he stored in his hotel. As it would turn out, he actually stole these many items for his own personal gain. After one such expedition to Africa, he brings home an idol by the name of Shiriki Utundu.

He claims that the natives were very unhappy to part with their beloved god and threatened him that it would curse him. On December 31, 1899, Hightower held a huge party, attended by many members of the press. There he boasted about how great he was for taking the idol and denied any claims to it being cursed and even went so far as to insult it. He even used the idols head to put out his cigarette. Around midnight, he entered the elevator to retire to his quarters at the top of the hotel. As the elevator neared the top, Shiriki Utundu came to life.

The idol zapped him and the elevator, causing it to drop and crash at the bottom. When the elevator was finally pried open, only Hightower's hat and the idol were found. The hotel was then abandoned and left for many years, claimed by the locals to be haunted. After several years, in 1912, a woman from a New York restoration company reopened the hotel with paid tours available. It is on these "tours" that guests embark on when they enter the hotel.

The queue starts outside the hotel and winds through the gardens, all filled with many fascinating statues from many different countries. Signs are posted all over the front advertising the tour. Guests then enter the lobby, a very elaborate and well-decorated room filled with lush furniture and beautiful art. Across each arch near the ceiling is a mural of Hightower on one of his adventures. If one looks closely, they will notice that he is actually escaping the people in some way with a valuable artifact or item in his possession. At the end of the lobby are the elevator doors, broken open slightly and held in place by a plank of wood. The broken cable is visible inside. Guests are then ushered into a room filled with many pictures of Hightower, his expeditions, and his hotel.

Guests then enter one of two rooms, either his office or the library. From here the story is the same, in both rooms, a large stained glass window of Hightower is in the middle with Shiriki Utundu sitting on a pedestal nearby. A tour guide talks about Hightower a little bit, then winds up an old gramophone with a recording of Hightower's last interview. At this point, the stained glass window comes to life. The window changes to show Hightower holding the idol. It then shows him entering the elevator and the doors closing. It then shows the outside the hotel as the elevator ascends. Suddenly, all the lights on the hotel turn off, there is a big blast of green lightning and the elevator drops, leaving a shattered hole in the window where it lands.

At this pont, Shiriki Utundu comes to life. It looks around with an evil grin on its face before laughing evilly and vanishing into a starfield. (This effect works with the room going dark, the projection that gives the doll its features turns off and it drops into the pedestal. The starfield is done by fiber optics on the pedestal, idol, and wall.) Guests are then ushered into an enormous storage room (the loading room). The room is two stories and is filled with countless artifacts from countries all over the world, from statues to furniture. There are multiple loading rooms on the second floor, each themed to a different type of item. One has swords, another has tapestries, another has masks, another has stone tablets.

Guests are then put into rows and loaded into an elevator. The restraints are over the shoulder and waist seatbelts, similar to car seatbelts. The doors close, the elevator goes dark, and pushes away from the doors. Suddenly, the idol's eyes appear on the door, a starfield appears, and Hightower continues talking about the idol. The elevator begins its ascent. The first stop is in front of a long hallway. Shiriki Utundu sits on a table and Hightower's ghost appears next to it.

He reaches out to touch it, but the idol zaps him into the elevator opposite the hall, it then drops. The idol turns toward the guest's elevator and its eyes glow menacingly as the hallway vanishes into a starfield. The doors close and the elevator ascends another level. This time the doors open, revealing a large mirror, Hightower tells the guests to wave goodbye to the real world. As they do, green lightning fills the mirror and the guests' reflections becomes green and ghostly.

It then vanishes altogether and the idol appears in the mirror. He starts laughing evilly and zaps the elevator with his eyes. The elevator then ascends rapidly to the top and begins the drop sequence. At some point the doors open at the top and a camera takes a photo of the elevator riders while giving them a view of the park. After the drop sequence ends, the elevator pushes back to the doors with idols eyes still on it. Hightower tells the guests how lucky they are to have survived. Guests then exit into a gift shop where they can buy their picture and other Tower of Terror merchandise.

Most of the pins for this attraction either feature the building, similar to the concept art and pin below, or the sacred idol that Hightower stole.

This series of pins was released on the opening of the attraction and featured each of Tokyo DisneySEA’s lands ‘mascot character’ getting cursed/scared by the idol, and all can be placed on the final card (pictured below) with Mickey on it.

As most pins feature the idol, only this Walt Disney Imagineering pin feature Harrison Hightower III in this ID Badge, from the set.

Pictures and Information from Pin Pics and JTCent

GDP Park Report: Magic Kingdom—October 19, 2010

2010-10-19T18:03:00.001-04:00

It’s been a while since we’ve had a Park Report, so here we are for today, a very quick report from today’s hour long adventure through Magic Kingdom.

The Little Mermaid show building/facade is visible now from over the wall and its second story.

Active construction equipment behind the Great Wall of Fantasyland.

Construction continues on the facade of the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Pooh’s Thotful Shop has a temporary sign over its entrance that is covered up with beige covers.

Refurbishment on the Mad Tea Party is almost done, the roof has been replaced (in the midst of being replaced) and it seems the various rumors of us getting a Disneyland Paris-esque roof have been falsified, they’ve just re-roofed it.

Moving onto the Rapunzel Meet-and-Greet, construction is busily happening behind the walls, in anticipation of the October 25th opening date.

That’s it for today, be sure to stay tuned for more information and pictures later this week in our Fantasyland Forest Friday posting.

Pinvestigation: Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 2.0

2010-10-19T16:23:00.001-04:00

While similar in concept and theme to the original attraction in Florida, the West Coast version of this attraction at Disney California Adventure does have some differences. This version of the ride opened in 2004, 10 years after the opening of the original Tower of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios. The main focus of this attraction was to lure guests into the struggling, at the time, Disney’s California Adventure park.

In order to conserve space and money, Imagineers redesigned the entire ride system for the attraction at Disney's California Adventure, and made some general changes to the show scenes. The attraction features three elevator shafts with a mark where the lighting stuck on it. Each shaft, in theory, is its own separate ride with its own separate operating system. Doing this made it easier to repair individual areas of the attraction without causing the entire attraction to go down. Each shaft has two vehicles and two load levels. It is designed so that the lower vehicle can be in its ride profile while the upper vehicle is loading, giving the attraction the ability to move its line much faster. Since each vehicle loads and unloads from the same point, it ended up saving space.

When the horrific show cycle starts, the vehicle pushes backwards away from the elevator door while a starfield appears around it and a purple spiral appears on the doors. The narrator (Rod Serling) says, "You are the passengers of a most uncommon elevator, about to take the strangest journey of your lives. Your destination...unknown, but this much is clear, a reservation has been made in your name for an extended stay." A door closes, placing riders in darkness as the elevator rises.

The first stop for the elevator is a large mirror. Rod tells riders to "wave goodbye to the real world." As they do, lightning strikes and electricity begins to arc around the mirror and the reflection of the riders is replaced by a ghostly silhouette of themselves. The passengers' reflection then disappears with the narrator saying "For you have just entered ... the Twilight Zone!" The elevator shudders as the door closes and the elevator slowly descends to the next show scene. As the door opens, it reveals a corridor of the hotel, with an elevator door located on the far end of it. Here, the narrator says, "What happened here to dim the lights of Hollywood's brightest show place is about to unfold once again," which is followed by an appearance of the hotel's permanent residents. Electricity courses through the hallway after their disappearance as Rod Serling continues his narration: "One stormy night long ago, five people stepped through the door of an elevator and into a nightmare...."

The hallway slowly fades away into a starfield with the permanent residents standing in the now open elevator that was at the end of the hallway. Serling then says "That door is opening once again, but this time, it's opening for you." Then the elevator at the end of the hallway with the permanent residents has a little "show sequence," when it shows them standing helplessly in the shaft then their elevator drops. Then the "ghostly" projected passenger elevator drops, followed a second later by the actual passenger elevator beginning its drop sequence: a drop from the show scene to the first floor, then a rise to the "13th" floor. After flashing strobe lights and the photo opportunity, the elevator has a short drop, followed by a longer one, then a rise that goes up 2/3 of the way up to the top and an immediate fall down to "B3." The lights flicker as the elevator goes all the way back up to the top; it is then that the top floor doors open and riders are treated with a sky-high view of both Disneyland and California Adventure. The elevator pauses there a moment and falls to a place between the load levels (so that both load levels give the same ride) and a door opens again and passengers see an elevator door. The vehicle begins moving toward the door. The Twilight Zone theme begins again as Rod Serling says, "The next time you check into a deserted hotel on the dark side of Hollywood, make sure you know just what kind of vacancy you're filling or you may find yourself a permanent resident of...The Twilight Zone." The door opens, and a bellhop is standing in the doorway to greet departing passengers.

Goofy seems to be the ‘unofficial’ mascot of the Tower of Terror in the USA parks as he seems to be on all of the ‘original’ merchandise in the Bellhop uniform.

Original logo pins for the attraction in California, similar to the Disney’s Hollywood Studios version.

Unlike in Florida, many of the Tower of Terror pins do not feature the elevator like this pin showcases the elevator.

Celebrating the 5th Anniversary of the attraction, the California version released this pin that has some Twilight Zone references/elements throughout the pin.

Pictures and Information from Tower of Terror. Org and Pin Pics

The Original Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

2010-10-16T09:53:00.001-04:00

Opening on July 22, 1994, the ride system of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios employs specialized technology developed specifically for Disney, particularly the ability to move the vehicle in and out of the vertical motion shaft. The elevator cabs are self-propelled automated ride vehicles which lock into separate vertical motion cabs. The cabs can move into and out of elevators horizontally, move through the "Fifth Dimension" scene, and on to the drop shaft. After the elevator cab has completed its profile, it propels itself to the unload dock and then back to the show shaft. The Floridian ride system runs on a unique loop system, although this is not as efficient as the newer "franchise" version used in California, Paris, and Tokyo.

In this version of the attraction, Rod Serling greets passengers the moment the elevator doors close, saying, "You are the passengers on a most uncommon elevator about to ascend into your very own episode of The Twilight Zone." The elevator rises for a few seconds before coming to its first stop.

The doors open to reveal a long, dimly-lit hotel corridor with a single window at the opposite end. A violent thunderstorm is raging and lightning flashes outside the window. Ghostly images of the five doomed guests from 1939 appear for a moment, then vanish in a burst of electricity. The guests disappear in a burst of lightning. The corridor then fades away, but the window remains and morphs into a creepier black-and-white version and shatters in the now star-filled hallway, like in the opening segment of each episode.

The elevator doors close and the car continues its ascent. Serling's voice continues on, saying "One stormy night long ago, five people stepped through the door of an elevator and into a nightmare. That door is opening once again, and this time, it's opening for you." The elevator stops once more. The doors open to what at first looks like a maintenance room, but slowly morphs into an endless field of stars. The elevator car emerges horizontally from the lift shaft and enters a section of the ride called The Fifth Dimension, which is a bizarre collection of sights and sounds and starfields, once again in the style of the television show's opening sequence. A rendition of The Twilight Zone opening sequence plays throughout. The scene ends as the elevator reaches another star field which splits and opens much like elevator doors. The elevator enters another vertical shaft. Serling's voice is heard again, saying, "You are about to discover what lies beyond the fifth dimension, beyond the deepest, darkest corner of the imagination, in the Tower of Terror."

On the last word of Serling's narration, the elevator starts its drop sequence. Rather than a simple gravity-powered drop, however, the elevator is pulled downwards, causing most riders to rise off their seats, held down only by a seat-belt. At least once during the drop sequence, wide elevator doors in front of the riders will open to reveal a view of the park from a height of about 170 feet. The back of the "Hollywood Tower Hotel" sign partially obstructs the view.

In the years since the attraction's initial opening, a randomized pattern of drops and lifts have been added, where the ride vehicle will drop or rise various distances at different intervals. Other effects were also added, including new projection images of the breaking window, wind effects, lightning flashes, and ominous blacklit figures of the five ghostly original riders. These changes were made so that each trip on The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is a slightly different experience. The ride was reprogrammed most recently in its fourth conversion. The result of the reprogramming is that the ride system allows for any number of randomized drops and lifts. When guests enter the drop shaft, a computer randomly chooses one of four drop profiles, one of which is a modified version of the ride's third incarnation. Regardless of the number of randomized drops and lifts, each drop sequence always features one "faux drop" meant to startle the riders, and one complete drop through the entire tower. Since each trip results in a unique drop sequence, Florida's slogan for the ride is "Never the Same Great Fear Twice!"

After a series of these drops have been made, the elevator returns to the basement of the decrepit Hollywood Tower Hotel. A movie plays, showing elements from the season four opening sequence, along with the 1939 elevator passengers and Rod Serling, falling into the "vortex" seen in the season three opening sequence. Rod Serling's voice states, "A warm welcome back to those of you who made it, and a friendly word of warning; something you won't find in any guidebook. The next time you check into a deserted hotel on the dark side of Hollywood, make sure you know just what kind of vacancy you're filling. Or you may find yourself a permanent resident of... The Twilight Zone." Guests then exit the elevator, leaving the hotel through the gift shop.

And finally, onto the pins! The first couple featured are ‘original’ logo pins for the attraction, as you can see, they feature the theme of the attraction, which is the tall ominous Hotel Building, and the crashing elevator.

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was such an important milestone for the Disney theme parks, it was featured in many ‘history’ series, like the Dave Smith Collection and the 35 Magical Years Series, as well as the Original Piece of Disney History Series.

There are a few pins that have more elements from the attraction, and more than just the elevator or the building, the feature items in the attraction that are references to the Twilight Zone series.

Like the Haunted Mansion in Magic Kingdom, The Tower of Terror has been featured in many Friday the 13th Collections throughout the past couple of years, here are just two of the many themed pins.

Finally, we have two 15th Anniversary pins for the Disney’s Hollywood Studios version, though the one on the left’s tower looks like Disney California Adventure.

Pictures and Information from Tower of Terror.Org, and Pin Pics.

Tower Origins

2010-10-12T10:47:00.001-04:00

Originally as an idea for a Disneyland Paris attraction, the concept for a ‘free-fall drop’ attraction began in the 1980s. Part of the original plans for Disneyland Paris was Geyser Mountain in Frontierland - just past Phantom Manor, next to the geyser that exists today. This would have been a mine train ride through a mountain, with a geyser bursting out from the tracks and catching your train from below. then pushing it up a chasm and out of the top of the mountain - and dropping you back down onto the tracks. The water jets would have hidden an elaborate free fall mechanism. This attraction never got off the planning stage, but the idea stayed in Paris. Discovery Mountain was to be built soon after DLP opened in April 1992, being twice as large as the present Space Mountain. As well as housing the space rollercoaster, there was to be a Journey to the Center of the Earth attraction and had a freefall ride vehicle. At least 2 versions of this were looked at - one had a vehicle with a `drill` underneath it to plunge straight down into the floor (volcano), the other was a more elaborate steel rig where the ride would either start or finish with the passenger vehicle on its side in a curved spur off of the main drop shaft. Due to DLPs financial issues, Discovery Mountain was shrunk into Space Mountain, and so the idea was put away again.

Once the Disneyland Paris ideas were scrapped, the Walt Disney Company was looking to expand Disney-MGM Studios, which was, at the time, a small park with shows, and three attractions. The expansion would involve a new ‘land’ area coming off of Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard. All early plans for the land were scrapped, from a Mickey Movieland, to a Roger Rabbit attraction with licensing issues, and Dick Tracey film struck out in theaters. What was needed was a major E Ticket Attraction, and they preferred that it would act as a weenie for the new land, to move guests past and thru the shops of Sunset. Space was reserved for future attractions on Sunset (Rock 'n Roller Coaster`s plot, Fantasmic!'s plot, the third plot between these two and the Farmers Market area - always planned to be a temporary structure.) Until these spaces were filled, the Disney-MGM Studios needed a must see at the end of Sunset. The Imagineers dug out the free fall attraction plans.

In the fall of 1989, Mel Brooks, Michael Eisner, Marty Skylar, C. McNair Wilson and the rest of the Imagineering group met together. It was the beginning of an attempt by Eisner to bring Mel Brooks over to Disney to produce his films at the then brand new Disney-MGM Studios. Mel initially had to be sold on the idea of a theme park attraction after being explained that a theme park attraction has a lasting effect of being in place and seen every day of the week by about 20,000 people for anywhere from 10-20 years. Mel Brooks made about six trips to Imagineering and a number of telephone calls to work on the attraction. Disney Imagineers wanted to shoot for something scary and funny with Mel Brooks and at one point in the early development with Mel Brooks, what later became the Tower of Terror started out as "Castle Young Frankenstein" which would have featured a Bavarian village with winding streets to the castle with a drawbridge. The queue line would be towards the back of the "village" with a kind of indoor line that had the feel of Pirates of the Caribbean in the Magic Kingdom. The idea later changed to "Mel Brooks' Hollywood Horror Hotel".

Around the time the Disney-MGM Studios was opened, Bob Weiss wanted to do a 1930's art-deco high-end 4 or 5 diamond hotel at the front of the Disney-MGM Studios. Because murder mysteries were all the rage in the 1930's, McNair mentioned to Bob Weiss an idea for the hotel to build in little clues that could be found all around the grounds of the hotel and would be a mini scavenger hunt and had ideas like all the hotel staff would know little key phrases that would lead guests onto other clues and you could solve it and the end you could get a certificate that the guest had solved the mystery of the hotel. This idea lead to another idea of the Hollywood Hotel having one end being covered in ivy and had broken windows and was falling apart and when you went into the hotel, if you went down the hall to that section, it would say "closed" or "condemned" and that part would be the Hollywood Horror Hotel so that it was two buildings but it would look like it was one large building.

Some other ideas were tossed around, including an idea to incorporate Mel Brooks into the Studios was to do a "comedy Haunted Mansion" that would feature Castle Young Frankenstein on the same grounds in case the elevator based attraction was scrapped. Mel Brooks eventually left the project at the time Disney Imagineers had some firm ideas and brought in an idea to have a moving elevator off it's track and moving down hallways and crash out one side of the building and they had architects and engineers brought onto the project and Mel lost interest partially because Disney wasn't building on Mel's original idea anymore. Once Mel Brooks had left, Imagineers started to figure out what the new attraction would look like and budgets and so forth and played with it some more and with Mel leaving, Imagineers started leaning toward that Spanish-Renaissance/Riverside Mission Inn "look" because of the great architecture and because it would fit in with the eclectic store fronts on Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards. Disney felt the attraction needed a movie reference and eventually settled on the Twilight Zone theme after calling around and see what movie rights were available. The Twilight Zone theme was a fairly easy overlay for the Disney Imagineers and went through all the Twilight Zone episodes to pick elements from the series although the theme did not change the attraction much. The one element that was lost in all of this was the comedy aspect to it that Mel Brooks had wanted but with Mel gone, Imagineers focused on the eeriness and thrill of the attraction with a Twilight Zone theme to it.

One of the initial ideas for the Tower of Terror attraction was to have a bench near the queue with a man sitting down, hunched over with a newspaper in his lap and cobwebs between him and the newspaper and he would slightly move his head to the left and right and when he would sense a guest starring at him, he would "come to life", revealing he is a live actor and start conversing with the guest. There was another idea of having audio-animatronics including a elevator repair man sleeping in the boiler room. But this and other ideas were eventually scrapped because they slowed the line down too much, also because the line barely was in the lobby where the theme.

Now that they have their idea, the Imagineers had to think of a story to fit into theme of the park. After much consideration, the Imagineers finally found one that seemed to work, the plot revolved around a studio wrap party in a modern day hotel, where the owner started to kill the guests. Management knocked this back straight away due to the murder storyline. Next up was a narrated by Vincent Price, with a part walk through, part ride about a group of movie stars staying in a hotel and who disappeared during a storm. As the walk through progressed, clues would tell the story bit by bit, until you enter an elevator and what happened becomes all to obvious - and its too late to get out. Eisner liked this story, but wanted the guests to be more involved. And so the Twilight Zone theme was worked in, with guests starring in their own `lost` episode. The ride through portion of the attraction became the queue area - hence its great theming and little clues all around - and the boiler room holding area. Twilight Zone themes were worked into the attraction, but it became apparent the original freefall ride vehicle would have to do a lot more. Disney initially involved Otis elevators, who balked at the idea of a freefall car - they had spent 140 years making elevators feel like they were stationary.

The Fifth Dimension idea played a strong part of the story from the beginning - and it became the ideal transition from Ride shaft to drop shaft (early plans called for the 5th Dimension floor to be in the basement, having descended from the corridor scene, and then to rise to the top of the building and move into the drop shaft without a show scene.) To maximize capacity without duplicating everything it was decided to have 4 ride shafts but only 2 drop shafts. This, and the 5th Dimension transition, called for a new type of ride vehicle. Imagineering had to have an elevator car, but one that could also move horizontally. Disney had to think of their own ride system and vehicle, the Autonomous Guided Vehicle. A self controlling self contained ride vehicle, that could move without track. Although the 5th Dimension floor has guideways for traction, the vehicle itself runs on its own wheels along the floor. Such a vehicle needed to have onboard power, with fast charging. Inductive power coupling was designed for EPCOT Centers Universe of Energy travelling theatre cars by Inductran Corp, and can recharge onboard batteries without a physical connection. This technology was refined for Tower of Terror, and also used later in Tokyo Disneyland`s Poohs Honey Hunt. Onboard computers follow a pre programmed ride path, and `talk` to the Ride Control System via a wireless frequency. A secondary tracking system follows a wire embedded in the floor to keep track of the AGV`s location, and these can easily trigger a ride shutdown if a carelessly discarded park map comes between it and the underside of the AGV.

Fantasyland Forest Expansion—October 1, 2010

2010-10-03T21:49:00.001-04:00

This is our archives of our monthly edition of Fantasyland Forest Friday, keeping you up-to-date on the latest happenings over in the Fantasyland area that is being made over into the “Fantasyland Forest”.

Past Fantasyland Forest “Fridays” for you to keep track of the progress:

January 2010 and January 2010 2.0
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010
September 3, 2010
September 17, 2010

My apologizes for the lateness of this report, originally scheduled for Friday October 1st. Here is an in depth look at the Fantasyland Forest Expansion. We Have Vertical Construction!!

Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh facade construction progresses.

Cranes all around Fantasyland.

Mad Tea Party is closed, and walled off. The roof is untilled fully, in preparation for the ‘rumored’ new Glass Roof.

A look over the Great Wall of Fantasyland, thanks to our friend Dumbo, the Flying Elephant, which is rumored to be engulfed by the wall in January 2011.

Finally, we have Vertical Construction of the Little Mermaid attraction building, two stories finished already. And the Beast’s Castle, not pictured, is going higher and higher, with the elevator shaft in place.

Pictures Taken and For the Use of WDW News Today

Pics and Pins of the Song of the South

2010-09-22T07:54:00.001-04:00

First, lets take a look at a few of the Song of the South Movie Posters for when it was released throughout the many years.

A group shot of the Live Action Cast, as Uncle Remus and the Children.

Pictures of various characters in Uncle Remus’ story, including Bluebird, Brer Frog, Brer Bear, Brer Fox.

Brer Rabbit with Brer Fox and Brer Bear’s trap of the Tar Baby.

Onto the pins! For a movie that hasn’t been released in its entirety, it has more pins than you would expect, most which are released online or overseas. Like this first logo pin released on DisneyStore.com and the second pin, featuring Walt Disney was released in Disneyland Paris.

Brer Bear and Brer Rabbit were featured on two of the state pins, Georgia and Louisiana, both states are ‘Southern’ and give a setting of the film, and where it took place.

Pictures and Information from Pin Pics, and SongofTheSouth.Net

Movie Monday: Song of the South

2010-09-21T10:25:00.001-04:00

Released on November 12, 1946, Song of the South was a film based on the Uncle Remus cycle of stories by Joel Chandler Harris. The live actors provide a sentimental frame story, in which Uncle Remus relates the folk tales of the adventures of Brer Rabbit and his friends. These anthropomorphic animal characters appear in animation. The hit song from the film was "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", which won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Song.

The film has never been released in its entirety on home video in the USA, because of content which Disney executives believe would be construed by some as racist toward African-Americans, and is thus subject to much rumor. Some portions of this film have been issued on VHS and DVD as part of either compilations or special editions of Disney films.

Walt Disney had long wanted to make a film based on the Uncle Remus storybook, but it wasn't until the mid-1940s that he had found a way to give the stories an adequate film equivalent, in scope and fidelity. "I always felt that Uncle Remus should be played by a living person," Disney is quoted as saying, "Several tests in previous pictures, especially in The Three Caballeros, were encouraging in the way living action and animation could be dovetailed. Finally, months ago, we 'took our foot in hand,' in the words of Uncle Remus, and jumped into our most venturesome but also more pleasurable undertaking."

Disney first began to negotiate with Harris' family for the rights in 1939, and by late summer of that year he already had one of his storyboard artists summarize the more promising tales and draw up four boards' worth of story sketches. In November 1940, Disney visited the Harris' home in Atlanta. He told Variety that he wanted to "get an authentic feeling of Uncle Remus country so we can do as faithful a job as possible to these stories." Roy Oliver Disney had misgivings about the project, doubting that it was "big enough in caliber and natural draft" to warrant a budget over $1 million and more than twenty-five minutes of animation, but in June 1944, Walt hired Southern-born writer Dalton Reymond to write the screenplay, and he met frequently with King Vidor, whom he was trying to interest in directing the live-action sequences.

Production started under the title Uncle Remus. Filming began in December 1944 in Phoenix, where the studio had constructed a plantation and cotton fields for outdoor scenes, and Walt Disney left for the location to oversee what he called "atmospheric shots." Back in Hollywood, the live action scenes were filmed at the Samuel Goldwyn Studio.

Song of the South was the first live action dramatic film made by Disney. James Baskett was cast as Uncle Remus after answering an ad to provide the voice of a talking butterfly. "I thought that, maybe, they'd try me out to furnish the voice for one of Uncle Remus' animals," Baskett is quoted as saying. Upon review of his voice, Disney wanted to meet Baskett personally, and had him tested for the role of Uncle Remus. Not only did Baskett get the part of the butterfly's voice, but also the voice of Br'er Fox and the live-action role of Uncle Remus as well. Additionally, Baskett filled in as the voice of Br'er Rabbit for Johnny Lee in the "Laughing Place" scene after Lee was called away to do promotion for the picture.Walt Disney liked Baskett, and told his sister, Ruth Disney, that Baskett was "the best actor, I believe, to be discovered in years." Even after the film's release, Walt stayed in contact with Baskett. Disney also campaigned for Baskett to be given an Academy Award for his performance, saying that he had worked "almost wholly without direction" and had devised the characterization of Remus himself. Thanks to Disney's efforts, Baskett won an honorary Oscar in 1948. After Baskett's death, his widow wrote Disney and told him that he had been a "friend indeed and [we] certainly have been in need."

Also cast in the production were child actors Bobby Driscoll, Luana Patten and Glenn Leedy. Driscoll was the first actor to be under a personal contract with the Disney studio. Patten was a professional model since age 3, and caught the attention of Disney when she appeared on the cover of Woman's Home Companion magazine. Leedy was discovered on the playground of the Booker T. Washington school in Phoenix, AZ by a talent scout from the Disney studio. Ruth Warrick and Erik Rolf, cast as Johnny's mother and father, had actually been married during filming, but divorced in 1946. Hattie McDaniel also appeared in the role of Aunt Tempy.

The animated segments of the film were directed by Wilfred Jackson, while the live-action segments were directed by Harve Foster. On the final day of shooting, Jackson discovered that the scene in which Uncle Remus sings the film's signature song, "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," had not been properly blocked. According to Jackson, "We all sat there in a circle with the dollars running out, and nobody came up with anything. Then Walt suggested that they shoot Baskett in close-up, cover the lights with cardboard save for a sliver of blue sky behind his head, and then remove the cardboard from the lights when he began singing so that he would seem to be entering a bright new world of animation. Like Walt's idea for Bambi on ice, it made for one of the most memorable scenes in the film.”

The film premiered on November 12, 1946 at the Loew's Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. James Baskett was unable to attend the film's premiere because he would not have been allowed to participate in any of the festivities, as Atlanta was then a racially segregated city. The film grossed $3.3 million at the box office.

There are three animated segments in the movie. These animated sequences were also shown as stand-alone cartoon features on the Disney television show. Each of these segments features at least one song that is heard in the various versions of Splash Mountain:

"Brer Rabbit Runs Away": about 8 minutes, including the song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah".
"The Tar Baby": about 12 minutes, interrupted with a short live action scene about two thirds of the way into the cartoon, including the song "How Do You Do?"
"Brer Rabbit's Laughing Place": about 5 minutes and the only segment that doesn't use Uncle Remus as an intro to its main story, including the song "Everybody's Got a Laughing Place"

The last couple of minutes of the movie contain animation, as most of the cartoon characters show up in a live-action world to meet the live-action characters (a combination of live-action and animation) as they all sing "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", and in the last seconds of the movie, the real world is slowly merged into an animated variation as the main protagonists walk off into the sunset.

As had been done earlier with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney produced a Sunday strip titled Uncle Remus & His Tales of Brer Rabbit to give the film pre-release publicity. The strip was launched by King Features on October 14, 1945, more than a year before the film was released. Unlike the Snow White comic strip, which only adapted the movie, Uncle Remus ran for decades, telling one story after another about the characters, some based on the legends and others new, until it ended on December 31, 1972. Apart from the newspaper strips, Disney Brer Rabbit comics were also produced for comic books; the first such stories appeared in late 1946. Produced both by Western Publishing and European publishers such as Egmont, they continue to appear to this day.

In 1946 a Giant Golden Book entitled Walt Disney's Uncle Remus Stories was published by Simon & Schuster and was in print for at least a decade. It featured 23 illustrated stories of Brer Rabbit's escapades, all told in a Southern dialect based on the original Joel Chandler Harris stories.

Although the film was a financial success, some critics were less enthusiastic to the film. Bosley Crowther wrote in The New York Times, "More and more, Walt Disney's craftsmen have been loading their feature films with so-called 'live action' in place of their animated whimsies of the past, and by just those proportions has the magic of these Disney films decreased," citing the ratio of live action to animation at two to one, concluding that is "approximately the ratio of its mediocrity to its charm." However, the film also received positive notice. Time magazine called the film "topnotch Disney."In 2003, the Online Film Critics Society ranked the film as the 67th greatest animated film of all time.

Although the film has been re-released in theaters several times (most recently in 1986), Disney Enterprises has avoided making the complete version of the film directly available on home video in the United States because the frame story was deemed controversial by studio management, despite Uncle Remus being the hero of the story. Film critic Roger Ebert, who normally disdains any attempt to keep films from any audience, has supported the non-release position, claiming that most Disney films become a part of the consciousness of American children, who take films more literally than do adults. However, he favors allowing film students to have access to the film.

Despite rumors of a imminent DVD release, Disney CEO Robert Iger stated on March 10, 2006 at a Disney Shareholder Meeting that it had been decided that the company would not re-release it for the time being. At the annual shareholders meeting in March 2007, Iger announced that the company was reconsidering the decision, and have decided to look into the possibility of releasing the film. In May 2007, it was again reported that the Disney company has chosen not to release the film. However, rumors to the contrary continued to surface. In March 2010, Disney CEO Robert Iger reiterated that there are no current plans to release the movie on DVD, calling the film 'antiquated' and 'fairly offensive'.

Disney Enterprises has allowed key portions of the film to be issued on many VHS and DVD compilation videos in the U.S., as well as on the long-running Walt Disney anthology television series. Most recently, the "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" number and some of the animated portion of the movie were issued on the Alice in Wonderland 2-DVD Special Edition set, although in that instance this was originally incorporated as part of a 1950 Walt Disney TV special included on the DVD which promoted the then-forthcoming Alice in Wonderland film.

The film has been released on video in its entirety in various European, Latin American and Asian countries. . While most foreign releases of the film are almost direct translations of the English title, the German title Onkel Remus' Wunderland translates to "Uncle Remus' Wonderland", the Italian title I Racconti Dello Zio Tom translates to "The Stories of Uncle Tom", and the Norwegian title Onkel Remus forteller translates roughly to "Uncle Remus tells stories".

Despite the film's lack of home video release directly to consumers in the United States, audio from the film—both the musical soundtrack and dialogue—were made widely available to the public from the time of the film's debut up through the late 1970s. In particular, many Book-and-Record sets were released, alternately featuring the animated portions of the film or summaries of the film as a whole. Additionally, bootleg copies of the film in NTSC format, converted either from the UK PAL videotape or from a Dutch version based on the laserdisc, with subtitles made by amateurs, are widely available and have been sold in the United States at retail outlets and on online auctions with no legal action being taken by the Disney corporation.

Pictures and Information from Song of the South.Net

GDP Park Report: Duffy The Bear Passholder Event—September 18, 2010

2010-09-18T14:01:00.001-04:00

This Annual Passholder event was a great event, the first one I have attended in a long time, and we got some great pieces of information out of the event, but sadly, no pictures during the presentation (though some people were sneaking pictures).

We began with Vanessa Rosas, WDW Ambassador, introducing Dara Trujilo, the Manager of Synergy and Special Events, who was our host throughout the event. We first began with a short virtual story that played out on the large screens that were a virtual book of who Duffy, the Disney Bear, actually is. Then, were told the history of Duffy the Disney Bear from Tokyo Disney Resort, and why and how he is so popular over there, and the various items that are over there for him, from photo opportunities, to merchandise, and his own show. From there, we were shown a video of the Duffy the Disney Bear show in the American Waterfront, which was, of course, fantastic.

After the video clip we were told what will be happening with Duffy the Bear in the theme parks in the states:

He will be appearing in Disney California Adventure (in Disneyland Resort) and Epcot (in Walt Disney World Resort)
The New Meet and Greet area will be just outside the Odyssey pavilion, across from what is now Disney Traders (the store closer to Mexico on the Promenade), will open on October 14th, 2010
New Meet and Greet will expand on story of his journey around the world, and will be a gazebo themed to his various travels with Mickey around the world.
For the first year, guests will receive a special sticker that reads: I Hugged Duffy The Disney Bear
Duffy will become a prominent character in the World Showcase Lagoon with new merchandise featuring, specific cultural outfits from each country (like a poncho from Mexico, lumberjack from Canada, Uncle Sam-esque for America), special mementos (key chains, bags, etc) from Tokyo Disney Resort, as well as special holiday themed outfits (starting with Halloween and Christmas)
Much of the Japanese merchandise will come over to the US, as well as having some exclusive merchandise
Duffy will get his own shop, located across from his Meet and Greet, in the current location of Disney Traders (store close to Mexico), and will be the “Duffy Central”
The Kidcot Fun Stops will be transformed, the mask will be no more, instead you’ll have a picture of Duffy the Bear in the same style (and on a stick) as the mask we have now, and each country will have a new stamp with Duffy in the countries attire
Food wise, a new kids menu/activity paper will be at all of the World Showcase restaurants, and a new specially designed Popcorn Bucket AND Mug will be released in Late Fall/Early Winter 2010
In other news, beginning March 2011, there will be Duffy pins (though there already are some), and a special Annual Passholder pin.
In Vinylmation News, a special Vinylmation is in the works that will be special, as it will be the first one that is specifically molded to look like Duffy, and will be flocked (have fur). [Though I’m not sure how I feel about that, as it takes away the ‘Vinylmation’ creativity aspect]

Our gift was a specially themed (possible preview) of a Duffy themed Rice Crispy Treat. One lucky member of the audience won a Duffy the Bear, and the Disney Merchandise team were nice enough to allow the attendees of the event to have exclusive access to Duffy and the Sailor outfit today, and today only at the event to purchase, it doesn’t go on sale until October 14th.

Construction of the Duffy the Disney Bear Meet and Greet.

Fantasyland Forest Expansion—September 17, 2010

2010-09-18T09:11:00.001-04:00

Past Fantasyland Forest “Fridays” for you to keep track of the progress:

January 2010 and January 2010 2.0
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010
September 3, 2010

Today we don’t have any news for you all, just various pictures of construction and progress of the Expansion.

There are now four cranes, and multiple bulldozers on site behind the wall, and each was actively working, as the pile of dirt in the middle of the area continues to grow.

As the Many Adventure of Winnie the Pooh prepares for its closure soon the entrance to the attraction has been moved over to a new area, where we can see the first glimpses of the new facades/theming of the attraction. (Might I Add, It’s Gorgeous In Person!)

Photos For Use of WDW News Today

GDP Park Report: La Hacienda De San Angel Grand Opening—September 15, 2010

2010-09-17T12:15:00.001-04:00

I had the privilege to go to the Grand Opening of Walt Disney World’s newest restaurant, La Hacienda de San Angel, in the Mexico pavilion of Epcot’s World Showcase, for WDW News Today. And, of course, I took pictures be sure to head over to WDW News Today to find all the pictures and short reviews of the food.

The Jingle Jamboree

2010-09-15T12:36:00.001-04:00

The Country Bear Christmas Special is a special holiday edition of the Country Bear Jamboree attraction at Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. The show premiered in both parks in the winter of 1984. Also, the show opened at Tokyo Disneyland as Jingle-Bell Jamboree in 1988. Since then, it has run every November through January.

However, it hasn't been presented since 2006, due to copyright issues with some of the songs, such as Rodolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer but it has been rumored to return in the future. The show still plays at Tokyo Disneyland every year during their Christmas events.

The show is a mesh of many different traditional Christmas carols, more modern songs and original Christmas "bear-ols" all sung by the bears in a country twang. The show begins as always with Buff, Max, and Melvin. As the three argue over who gets to sing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", Henry appears onstage and begins the show.

Songs Featured in the Christmas Version of the Show:

"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"- Melvin
"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"- Henry and Gomer
"Tracks in the Snow"- The 5 Bear Rugs and Henry
"12 Days of Christmas (Oh What a Christmas)"- Wendell
"The Hibernating Blues"- Trixie
"Deck the Halls"- The 5 Bear Rugs
"Rock and Roll Santa"- Liver Lips McGrowl and Gomer
"Blue Christmas"- Terrence (with his penguin)
"Sleigh Ride"- The Sun Bonnets
"Hungry as a Bear"- Ernest and The 5 Bear Rugs
"The Christmas Song"- Henry and Teddi Barra
"Another New Year"- Big Al
"Let It Snow/ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer/ Winter Wonderland"- Cast (except Ernest & Trixie as she is on the opposite side of the performing Henry and Ernest is opposite Big Al's stage)

Because the show was a Christmas Special, the characters in the show were put into Christmas outfits for their various acts. Here are a list of the bears and other animals featured in the Christmas Edition of the show, and their changed outfits (NOTE, most outfits are different colors than from Tokyo Disneyland version, and most pictures are from Tokyo Disneyland Version):

Henry-The "ringmaster" of the show, Henry is a welcoming and friendly brown bear. He wears a grey top hat with a red trim and a scarf.

Liver-Lips McGrowl-Liver Lips is perhaps the funniest-looking bear. He's a brown bear who gets his name from his very large lips. He becomes an Elvis impersonator in this show, playing a Christmas tree-shaped guitar.

Wendell-Wendell is a brown bear with a massive overbite and buck teeth. He carries a squirrel gun, which he accidentally fires a couple of times throughout the show. He wears a hunter's hat and jacket.

Teddi Barra-Teddi Barra descends from a hole in the ceiling on her swing. She is a brown bear who holds a pair of skis, has a cast on her leg and is dressed in ski gear.

Ernest-Ernest is a brown bear who plays the fiddle. He wears a beanie cap and sweater with a trim in the middle with reindeers. There's also a sled next to him.

Terrence-A tall bear who plays a guitar. In this show, he wears a scarf and earmuffs and has white fur to resemble a polar bear. He is also joined by a penguin encased in ice.

Trixie-Trixie is a very large brown bear who wears a blue bow on her head, a blue tutu around her waist, a pair of skates hanging from her neck and holds a pair of mittens in one hand and a mistletoe in another.

Big Al-Big Al is the fattest bear. He is grey with a light grey belly and plays the guitar. In this show, he's dressed as baby New Year (sash and diapers) and wears an icepack and a party hat on his head. A banner hangs above him.

The Sun Bonnet Trio

Bunny-Bunny stands in the center of the stage. Because she and her sisters are triplets, they all have brown fur. She wears a green hood and sweater with her name on it.

Bubbles-Bubbles stands to the audience's left between Gomer and Bunny. She wears a red hood and sweater with her name on it.

Beulah-Beulah stands to the audience's right. She wears a red hood and sweater with her name on it.

Gomer-Gomer never sings, but instead plays his piano, which has a small Christmas tree on top of it and Christmas decorations. He is considered Henry's right-hand bear. He is tall and brown and wears a heavy winter coat and sunglasses.

The Five Bear Rugs

Zeke-Considered the leader of The Five Bear Rugs, Zeke plays a banjo and taps on the dishpan with "a real ol' country beat". He is a grey bear with glasses who wears a black hat and yellow scarf.

Zeb-Zeb is brown bear with a light brown stomach. He plays the fiddle as well and wears a bandana around his neck and a winter hat. His feet are in a hot bucket of water, due to having a cold, and sneezes several times throughout the show.

Ted-Ted is a tall, skinny bear who blows on the cornjug and plays the washboard. His fur is brown and he wears a white vest and a red Santa Claus hat.

Fred-The biggest of The Five Bear Rugs, Fred ironically plays the smallest instrument: the mouthharp. He is a brown bear and wears blue jeans held up with red suspenders as well as a red Santa Claus hat and a green tie with a candy cane on it.

Tennessee-Tennessee plays the "thang", which has only one string. He is brown and wears a hunter's jacket and red hat.

Baby Oscar-Oscar appears with The Five Bear Rugs, but plays no instrument. He is a brown bear and always has his teddy bear to keep him company. Oscar wears white earmuffs and red boots and holds a candy cane. His teddy bear has a tag with his name on it.

Rufus-Rufus is not a performer, but instead runs the projections and lights. He is never seen, but can be heard from time to time running backstage, constantly out of breath.

Buff-Buff is considered the leader of the animal heads and is also the largest. He is the head portion of a buffalo, wears a red Santa Claus hat and is voiced by Disney legend Thurl Ravenscroft.

Max-Max is the head portion of a stag. In this show, he has a small red light bulb sitting on his snout, making him look a bit like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Melvin-Melvin, a moose head, often makes good-natured jokes and, in this show, he has lots of Christmas lights hanging on his antlers.

Sammy-Sammy is Henry's raccoon pal, who cuddles around Henry's top hat. He acts like a coonskin cap for Henry. He wears a piece of a Christmas leaf next to his right ear.

Pictures and Information from JTCent and Yesterland.

A Vacation Hoedown

2010-09-14T10:27:00.001-04:00

The Country Bear Vacation Hoedown was an attraction created due to the overwhelming popularity of The Country Bear Jamboree. In the summer of 1986, it replaced The Country Bear Jamboree show at Disney World. It remained there year round for five years until the original show was once again put in. In Disneyland, it opened in February 1986 replacing the original show indefinitely. The show remained until the Country Bear Playhouse closed September 9, 2001.

On July 15, 1994, the show opened at Tokyo Disneyland as Vacation Jamboree. Out of the three shows, it features the most differences between the US and Japanese versions. Several of the songs are different, and there is more dialog from Henry.

Songs Featured in Disneyland/Disney World Versions:

"The Great Outdoors" - The 5 Bear Rugs and Henry
"Life's No Picnic Without You" - Trixie
"On the Road Again" - Wendell
"We Can Make It To the Top" - Liverlips McGrowl
"California Bears" - The Sun Bonnets, Gomer, Max, Buff, and Melvin
"Two Different Worlds" - Terrence the Shaker (with his octopus)
"Rocky Top" - The 5 Bear Rugs
"Nature" - Ernest the Dude
"Singin' In the Rain" - Teddi Barra and Henry
"Ghost Riders In the Sky" - The 5 Bear Rugs
"On My Way To Your Heart" - Big Al
"Thank God I'm a Country Bear" - Cast

Songs Featured in Tokyo Disneyland Version:

"The Great Outdoors" - The 5 Bear Rugs and Henry (sung in Japanese)
"On the Road Again" - Wendell (sung in Japanese)
"Achy Breaky Heart" - Trixie (Verses 1 &3 in Japanese and verse 2 in English)
"Hawaiian Love Song" - Terrence (with his octopus) side note: This song was almost used in the U.S. version) sung in Japanese
"California Bears" - The Sun Bonnets, Gomer, Max, Buff, and Melvin (sung in English but abbreviated from the U.S. version)
"We Can Make It To the Top" - Liverlips McGrowl and The Sun Bonnets (sung in English)
"Singin' In the Rain" - Teddi Barra and Henry )sung in English)
"Mountain Music" - Ernest the Dude, Henry and The 5 Bear Rugs (sung in Japanese)
"I've Been Working on the Railroad" - Big Al (sung in Japanese)
"Camptown Races / She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain / V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N" - Cast (sung in Japanese)

This special variation of the classic show features the Country Bears celebrating the many joys of summer and the great outdoors. Its opening is different from the other shows because Max, Buff, and Melvin do not talk at the beginning. Instead, the 5 Bear Rugs can be heard tuning up their instruments. Zeke calls for Rufus to turn on the lights, and then the show begins with "The Great Outdoors". Here is a list of bears and other animals, and their descriptions of their Vacation themed outfits.

Henry- The "ringmaster" of the show, Henry is a welcoming and friendly brown bear. He wears his old "Camp Grizzly" t-shirt (which barely fits him) and a scout master's hat. Like in the original show, he is voiced by Pete Renaday.

Liverlips McGrowl- He's perhaps the funniest-looking bear. He's a brown bear who gets his name from his very large lips. He becomes an Elvis impersonator in this show, appearing as a mountain climber wearing an Elvis-style shirt with German pants and suspenders. He plays a Fender stratocaster guitar with a strap.

Wendell- He's a brown bear with a massive overbite and buck teeth. He wears a vacation shirt and hat and carries a camera, which he takes a couple of flash pictures with. In this show, he is voiced by Dave Durham.

Teddi Barra- She descends from a hole in the ceiling on her swing. She's a brown bear who wears a yellow raincoat and galoshes and holds an umbrella.

Ernest- He's a brown bear who plays the fiddle. He wears his old derby from the original show and a stripped shirt. He even uses a fly swatter as a bow for his fiddle.

Terrence- He's a tall bear with tan fur who plays a guitar. In this show, he wears a blue scuba mask and snorkel and blue trunks. Seaweed is around him. He's also accompanied by his octopus "girlfriend," Delores.

Trixie- She's a very large brown bear who holds a napkin in one hand and a sandwich in the other. She wears a pink skirt with Butterfles on it and a hat. .

Big Al- He's the fattest bear. He's grey with a light grey belly and plays a guitar with his name on it. In this show, he wears a plaid flannel shirt with a miner's hat and camping gear.

The Sun Bonnet Trio

Bunny- She stands in the center of the stage. Because she and her sisters are triplets, they all have brown fur. She wears a two-piece sailor-inspired swimsuit.

Bubbles- She stands to the audience's left, between Gomer and Bunny. She wears a one-piece, white swimsuit covered in red hearts, a red towel and heart-shaped sunglasses.

Beulah- She stands to the audience's right. She wears a pink floral bikini.

Gomer- He never sings, but instead plays his piano, which has a clam and a pineapple on top of it and fishing net thrown over it. He is considered as Henry's right-hand bear. He's tall, brown and wears a pink Hawaiian shirt, a lei and a straw hat.

The Five Bear Rugs

Zeke- Considered the leader of The Five Bear Rugs, he plays a banjo and taps on a dishpan with "a real ol' country beat". He is a grey bear with glasses who wears a fishing vest and hat.

Zeb- He's a brown bear with a light brown stomach who plays the fiddle. He wears a fishing hat, brown boots and a white t-shirt with Binoculars.

Ted- He's a tall, skinny brown bear who blows on the cornjug and plays the washboard. He's completely naked in this show, wearing only a racoon hat and camping gear.

Fred- The biggest of The Five Bear Rugs, he ironically plays the smallest instrument: the mouthharp. He has brown fur and wears a green bandana, a racoon hat, blue jeans with suspenders and camping gear.

Tennessee- He plays the "thang", which has only one string. He has brown fur and wears a fishing hat and a Hawaiian vest.

Baby Oscar- He's a brown bear who appears with The Five Bear Rugs, but plays no instrument. He wears a Boy Scout uniform and always has his teddy bear to keep him company. ulike the other two shows, He was given a minor speaking part at the beginning of "Ghostriders In The Sky", simply saying "Uh huh" when asked if he wanted to hear a scary story

Rufus- Rufus is never seen, but only heard in the projection booth as he runs here and there to fix light bulbs, change projections, alter backdrops, etc. He can be heard from time to time running backstage, constantly out of breath.

Buff-Buff is considered the leader of the animal heads and is also the largest. He is the head portion of a buffalo, wears a fisherman's hat and is voiced by Disney legend Thurl Ravenscroft.

Max-Max is the head portion of a stag. In this show, he wears a green baseball cap. He's voiced by Mike West.

Melvin-Melvin, a moose head, is the Dopey of the animal head trio. He often makes good-natured jokes and, in this show, he has lots of assorted hats, most of which are hanging on his antlers as if they were hatracks. He's voiced by Frank Welker.

Randy-Randy, a skunk who loves to sing and tap dance, appears in this version of the show in place of Sammy the Raccoon. He keeps breaking into the backstage. At various times throughout the show, the bears can be heard offstage running here and there, trying to get away from him. In the finale, he manages to get on to the top of Henry's hat and finally reveals that he only wanted to break into show business with the bears.

Pictures and Information from Walt Dated World and TDR Fan

The Original Country Bear Jamboree

2010-09-13T12:40:00.001-04:00

The Country Bear Jamboree was originally intended by Walt to be placed at Disney's Mineral King Ski Resort which he was trying to build in the mid 1960s. Walt knew he wanted some sort of show to provide entertainment to the guests at the resort, and he knew he wanted the show to feature some sort of bear band. The project was assigned to Imagineer Marc Davis. Davis, together with Al Bertino came up with many bear groups, including bear marching bands, bear mariachi bands, and Dixieland bears. One day Davis was working on drawings of the characters in his office. Walt Disney walked in and saw the drawings and laughed because he loved the characters. On Walt's way out he turned to Marc Davis and said "Good Bye", which Walt was known never to say. A few days later he died on December 15, 1966. It was the last time Marc saw Walt.

After Walt's death, plans for the show still carried on. The bears would be featured in the resort's Bear Band Restaurant Show, and it was decided that they would have a country twang. But while plans for the show progressed, plans for the ski resort did not. Instead, the Imagineers working on the project decided to place the show in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in time for its grand opening in 1971. Imagineer X Atencio and musical director George Bruns created songs for the bears to sing.

On October 1, 1971, The Country Bear Jamboree opened its doors in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. It received so much good feedback that Imagineers immediately planned to make a replica of the show to be placed in Disneyland on March 4, 1972. The addition to the show in Disneyland, inspired a brand new land appropriately titled Bear Country. Because of the tremendous popularity of the show in Walt Disney World, excess capacity was added to the Disneyland incarnation in the form of two identical theaters, each housing a copy of the show in its entirety. Tokyo Disneyland received another ‘copy’ of the show and it opened with the park (like Magic Kingdom’s) on April 15, 1983.

This attraction was originally sponsored by Pepsi-Cola and Frito-Lay for a few years. Not only did the show mention their sponsorships, but at the beginning, Henry even mentions part of Pepsi's old slogan at the time ("You've Got a Lot To Live; Pepsi's Got a Lot To Give!") by saying, "Just refrain from hibernatin' and we'll all enjoy the show, 'cause we've got a lot to give." When Pepsi's sponsorship of the attraction was dropped, only the mention by Henry of its sponsorship was dropped, but such was not the case for his introduction that included part of the slogan.

In 1986, the Vacation Hoedown debuted at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. To supplement the change, the DL attraction was renamed the Country Bear Playhouse. Attendance struggled during the Vacation Hoedown's run in Florida, so for the Magic Kingdom's 20th anniversary in 1992, the original show returned to rotate with the Christmas show as it had since 1984. There were rumors of bringing the Vacation Hoedown back to Disney World in the summer of 2002, but it never happened.The Country Bear Playhouse at Disneyland closed on September 9, 2001, to make room for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh on April 11, 2003. Rumors of the Disneyland Country Bear attraction being rebuilt in the Grizzly Peak Recreation Area of Disney's California Adventure have surfaced from time to time and some Cast Members have even admitted to it possibly happening. However, the attraction's return has yet to be made official.

During the holiday season, the bears still performed their Christmas Show in Florida through 2005. It hasn't returned since then, but is rumored to return in the future. The Country Bear Christmas Special was the first time an attraction at any Disney theme park became interchangeable during the year. The Country Bear Vacation Hoedown was added a year later. Both the Country Bear Christmas Special and The Country Bear Vacation Hoedown were created, directed and animated by Dave Feiten and Mike Sprout. The Tokyo Disneyland version of the attraction still features all three versions of the show at different times of the year.

In the fall of 2008, the WDW attraction underwent a major rehab to receive much-needed technical upgrades, including a new sound system and refurbished animatronics of the characters.

The show is basically a continuous string of short country songs sung by the various bears. As each bear sings their song, a curtain opens to reveal them, except in the case of Wendell (who rises from the stage), Teddi Barra (who descends from the ceiling), Gomer (who ascends from the stage), and The Sun Bonnets (who also rise from the stage itself).

The show begins with Max, Buff, and Melvin telling Henry to get on with the show. Henry then asks Gomer to give him a "little intro", and then the jamboree begins. The show features a great cast of characters from small bears, to be bears, from bears that come from the ceiling, to ones that rise from the stage:

Henry- The "MC" of the show, Henry is a welcoming and friendly brown bear. He wears a grey top hat, starched shirt front, and a string tie. It is implied that he and Teddi have some sort of backstage romance.



Liver Lips McGrowl- Liver Lips is perhaps the funniest-looking bear. He gets his name from his very large lips. He is a brown bear and plays the guitar.

Wendell- Wendell is a hyperactive golden brown bear who plays the mandolin. He wears a blue bandanna around his neck and a light brown hat. He also has a massive overbite and buck teeth.

Terrence (aka Shaker)- A tall bear with tan fur (in the Disneyland version his fur was grey), Terrence wears a miner's cap and plays the guitar.

Teddi Barra- Teddi Barra is a unique bear because she never appears on stage. Instead she descends from a hole in the ceiling on her swing, which is decorated with pink roses. She is a brown bear and wears a blue hat with a pink feather as well as a long pink boa around her neck.



Ernest- Ernest is a brown bear who plays the fiddle. He wears a derby and a red polka-dot bowtie around his neck. He was voiced by Van Stoneman from October 1971 until July 1975, when his vocals were rerecorded by Randy Sparks.

Trixie- Trixie is a very large brown bear who wears a blue bow on her head, a blue tutu around her waist, and holds a blue handkerchief in her left hand. She also has a slight crush on Henry.

Big Al- Big Al is the fattest bear. He is grey with a light grey belly and wears a tan hat and a red vest. He plays an always out-of-tune guitar and is voiced by Tex Ritter.





The Sun Bonnet Trio

Bunny- Bunny stands in the center of the stage. Because she and her sisters are triplets, they all have brown fur and wear matching blue bonnets and dresses.

Bubbles- Bubbles stands to the audience's left between Gomer and Bunny.

Beulah- Beulah stands to the audience's right and is voiced by Peggy Clark.

Gomer- Gomer never sings but instead plays his piano, which has a honeycomb on top of it. He is considered Henry's right-hand bear. He is tall and brown and wears a collar with a blue tie.

The Five Bear Rugs

Zeke- Considered the leader of The Five Bear Rugs, Zeke plays a banjo and taps on the dishpan with "a real ol' country beat". He is a grey bear with glasses who wears a grey top hat. He was voiced by Dallas McKennon from October 1971 until July 1975, when Randy Sparks rerecorded his vocals.

Zeb- Zeb is brown bear with a light brown stomach. He plays the fiddle as well as wears a bandanna around his neck and a miner's hat.

Ted- Ted is a tall, skinny bear who blows on the cornjug and plays the washboard. His fur is brown, and he wears a vest with a brown hat.

Fred- The biggest of the five bears, Fred ironically plays the smallest instrument: the mouthharp. He is a brown bear and wears blue jeans held up with suspenders as well as a striped red and white tie.

Tennessee- Tennessee Bear plays the thang, which has only one string. He is brown and wears a red bandanna (blue in the Disneyland version) around his neck.

Baby Oscar- Oscar appears with The Five Bear Rugs, but plays no instrument. In fact, he never says a word, aside from mumbling "uh-huh" during the Vacation Hoedown (in which he is dressed as a Cub Scout). He is a brown bear and always has his teddy bear to keep him company. In the 1971 album, it is mentioned that Zeb is his father.

Rufus- Rufus is not a performer, but instead runs the projections and lights. He is never seen, but can be heard from time to time running backstage, constantly out of breath.

Though named Country BEAR Jamboree, there are some other characters that aren’t bears that make the show a classic:

Buff- Buff is considered the leader of the animal heads and is also the largest. He is the head portion of a buffalo and is voiced by Disney legend Thurl Ravenscroft.

Max- Max is the head portion of a stag and is voiced by Peter Renaday.

Melvin- Melvin, a moose head, is the Dopey of the animal head trio. He often makes good-natured jokes and is voiced by Bill Lee.

Sammy- Sammy is Henry's raccoon pal who cuddles around Henry's top hat. He acts like a coonskin cap for Henry. He is voiced by Bill Cole.

A tribute to the Disneyland Jamboree is made in their version of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in the form of Max, Buff, and Melvin.

Our final pins we will be taking a look at are an Walt Disney Imagineering Series featuring posters for the acts featured in the Country Bear Jamboree.

Pictures and Information From All Ears Net, Yesterland, and PinPics

GDP Park Report: September 11, 2010—Disney’s Hollywood Studios

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Yesterday, Saturday, I took a trip to Disney’s Hollywood Studios to check out several closed attractions, and just to walk around, here are some important photos from the journey.

For more newsworthy pictures, be sure to check out Banks Lee’s pictures from his trip yesterday, as well, on WDW News Today.

GDP Park Report: September 10, 2010—Magic Kingdom

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On Friday, I took a trip to Magic Kingdom to take advantage of the small crowds this time of year before the “Fall Season”. Here is a pictorial walk-through of some noteworthy items.

…Ev'rything is Satisfactch'll

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Opening on October 1, 1992, Splash Mountain at Tokyo Disneyland is very similar to the Florida version of the ride, with a few exceptions. The ride's layout differs from the two previous versions, with the outdoor sections starting from a bottom left first lift to a top left first hill. In the first two versions, riders would start out climbing a lift hill on the far bottom right, and going down the first drop at the upper right side of the mountain. The Tokyo version also lacks a mill or barn-like structure on the second lift. Instead, the logs venture into a cave-like opening to begin the second climb.

Like in Florida, the main melodies consist of banjos, fiddles and harmonicas. The vocals, however, are completely different between the two parks. The secondary characters are altogether different, the show scenes (and the specific verses sung in them) are in dramatically different orders, and choruses and back-up vocals arranged with different harmonies. Additionally, dialogue and lyrics in Tokyo are Japanese for "How Do You Do?" and "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah", but English for "Ev'rybody's Got a Laughin' Place". In both instances, "Burrow's Lament" is heard as an instrumental track, using the original Disneyland soundtrack, with dramatic orchestra and choir.

Like normal, there aren’t that many pins/buttons for Tokyo’s Splash Mountain, but there are a few. The first button displays the Grand Opening Date and Celebrates October 1, 1992.

There are a couple logos, a plan logo with no characters, many of the parks attractions have one similar, and another Splash Mountain logo that features Brer Rabbit, who is grey.

Pictures and Information from Pin Pics, and TDR Fan.