Disneyland Edutainment Part 10 of 10 ~
Disney California Adventure Part 2 ~ Reprised
There is even more to learn in DCA!
It’s Teaching Disney Thursday!
Now that we have done Condor Flats, Grizzly Peak, Challenge Trail and Paradise Pier lets head over to Bugs Land.
The obvious thing is stop in and watch “It’s Tough to be a Bug” and learn a bit about bugs. You get an idea of why bugs are important and we can’t just kill them all off. It helps to learn about the different kinds of bugs. You get an idea of how the protect themselves and what they eat. Step into the area where the Bugs play and get the feeling of what it might feel like to be as small as a bug. Ride in discarded food cartons’ and take a spin in a Lady Bug car. Bump around like a pill bug and ride on Hymlick and see how the world (and food) looks and smells to him.
Take a detour into Pacific Warf and step into the Bakery and see how sour dough bread is made. Watch it being made and then enjoy a free sample. Stop off at the Bakery Café for a bite to eat. There is soup in a bread bowl and other great food. The Mission Tortilla factory is now closed but rumor has it a Ghirardelli Chocolate Factory may be coming in its place. Look around and you will see the bakery then there are Mexican restaurants and Chinese restaurants across the way from each other. This shows the diverse make up of California.
Slip into the Blue Sky Cellar and check out what is new and coming to Disney California Adventure. Take a look at the miniatures they have set up of the new rides and other things coming to the park. It gives an idea of how the rides are built. Maybe try to design a ride for yourself once you get home.
Go through Bugs Land into the back end of Hollywood Backlot. Take a ride on the elevator of the Hollywood Tower Hotel (Tower of Terror). Here you can talk about the physics of the ride as well as looking at the story the line area and ride tell. Think you might get any good ideas for things to do for Halloween?
Make sure you take time to go to the Hyperion Theater and see Aladdin the Musical. Not only is it going to be an amazing show with fantastic effects, music and acting it is a good place to talk about art and literature. Maybe read some of the original story of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp. Watch the movie and then the play. What is the same and what is different. Can you come up with better jokes for the Genie? How do they do all the stage tricks? What is the moral of the story?
Drop by the Animation Building and visit with Crush from Finding Nemo. He is there in Turtle Talk, an interactive show where you get to ask Crush and friends questions of about life in the sea. Be aware Crush just might ask you about what it is like to live high and dry on land. You can ask about the food Crush eats, how fast he swims or where he travels. Let your imagination run wild when thinking up a question for Crush! Keep your eyes open for other visitors like Dore and the whale from Finding Nemo.
There is a “class” you can take where they teach you how to draw a Disney character. They change the character they are drawing every few shows so you never know if you will be drawing Mickey, Donald, Goofy or maybe even Pluto. Nice way to rest your feet and cool off.
Go into the Sorcerer’s Workshop and draw your own animation strip. You can put it in a zoetrope and see it animated. You also see some premade strips that you can spin and see move. You can talk about how the eyes trick the brain into filling in the missing information to make it look like it is truly moving. They show many ways to trick the mind into believing a still picture is moving.
Just for fun stop in the Beast’s Library and take the personality test to see what character you are most like. Be careful you may just find out you are a bad guy! There are some nice special effects in this room see if you can figure out how it works.
Now go visit Ursula. Try to put your voice into a scene from your favorite Disney movie. This will give you an idea just how hard it is to match your voice to the timing and movement of the animated movie. You can pick a singing part or just dialog.
There is a beautiful display off of the lobby that shows how things look animated using a strobe light. Be careful if you are sensitive to flashing lights. There are also some Maquettes, figures that Disney animators use to help them draw the various characters.
For now that is all there is for DCA. With all the construction things will change and there will be more thinks to talk about. I’ll come back to DCA and the edutainment there when the construction is done sometime in 2012.
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