There are shows at Disney Parks?

There are shows at Disney Parks?

       Once again I was talking to someone about the price of Disney Park tickets. Yes, they are expensive and you can go to other parks for less and those other parks may even boast more thrill type rides. So why go to a Disney Park? One word, shows AKA entertainment!

       The entertainment at Disney Parks is unequaled. At the parks you will find shows that just pop up on the street and even inside shops at all different times. These include singing groups such as the Dapper Dans. They do different shows in different areas on Main Street at different times. Laughing Stock Company does some shows outside in front of the Golden Horseshoe and sometimes performs on the Golden Horseshoe stage. Billy Hill and the Hillbillies is a fun comedy music act in the Golden Horseshoe and sometimes outside in front of the Golden Horseshoe or at the entrance of Critter Country. These shows are usually short, 20-30 minutes and often involve audience participation.

       Parades at the Parks are another type of show. They are a moving show that happens right in front of you and is a pleasure to watch. Again these are not usually very long. They are often themed to a holiday or season. You can make these even more special and create a magical memory moments by “playing” with the characters as they go by. For example: Cinderella’s evil step-sisters walk by boo them! Often they will walk over and stick their tongues out at you. Call out, “To infinity and beyond!” to Buzz Lightyear and he may just give you the salute. Just know the characters and their catch phrases.

       One of the fun things about waiting for parades, fireworks or shows like Fantasmic is the entertainment that just pops up. A group of Janitors may become the Jamanators and play their trash cans to make your time waiting more pleasurable. All of the Cast Members who do crowd control help keep people happy. Some of the most magical times are when Cast Members get cheering contests going between different areas in the crowd or get the crown singing Happy Birthday or applauding an anniversary.

There are longer shows. At WDW there is Beauty & the Beast and Festival of the Lion King. DLR has Aladdin the Musical. All are fantastic and a great place to relax and enjoy a great show. But why would or should you spend 45 minutes sitting watching a show plus an hour or more waiting in line for the show. You could be spending that time in line for or on a ride!

The reasons to do the show are personal, many and varied. As stated before it is a great place to cool off or warm up as needed. You can rest your feet as you get a laugh. It is a fun activity for all members of your group. The kids will enjoy seeing some of their favorite characters singing and dancing. Adults will enjoy some of the adult jokes that are designed to go over the heads of the kids. All in all it is a magical time for all.

In short shows are a place to make some magical memories. Kids will long remember watching mom, granddad or uncle Joe laugh at the jokes. You will remember the looks on their faces as Aladdin and Jasmine fly over head or the Beast is transformed into a man. If dad or grandma is called up onto the stage during the Billy Hills you will laugh until you cry and your kids will be more than willing to hold that over their heads . . . for life. Even more the kids will remember it forever and feel the magic years later, maybe when they take their own kids to a Disney Park and make their own magical Disney memories.

Making Magical Memories

Making Magical Memories

       Do you remember your first visit to Disney? I was two when my maternal grandmother decided I just had to go to Disneyland. I still remember that day 50 years ago. But what do I remember?

       What makes Disney memories special is not always what you think it will be. It does usually include Mickey, Minnie or one of the favorite characters and/or a ride but what about that moment truly sticks in your mind and heart forever? Is it the ride experience or the time with the character or is it some other form of Magic?

       I remember riding the Matterhorn Bobsleds that first visit. Do I remember the ride? Not so much. I do remember being on the ride and yelling, “It’s a blast!!” as loud as I could the entire time. What sticks in my heart is what happened moments after that ride. I got off the ride and ran as fast as my little legs would allow while pulling mom behind to my waiting grandmother. She was elderly and could not ride Matterhorn and waited on a bench near the exit for us. I ran to her open arms and jumped into her lap to tell her all about the ride. I squealed as I told her how fast I thought it went, had to be at least a billion miles an hour and laughed at how the old couple (in their 20’s I now think) were moaning. I remember grandma’s smile and her laughter as she listened to my child’s excited view of that magical ride.

       I remember a magical trip under the ocean down to the depth of 20, 000 leagues in a fantastic sub! What amazing creatures we saw! I do remember the live mermaids swimming by. But once again the memory is more vivid when I continue to look back. I remember my grandma’s lap. I was sitting on her lap for the ride because I was a tiny little thing that could not see out the porthole. She hugged me the entire time and we gasped in unison as we saw the mermaids, fish and sea serpent. Her eyes were as big as mine!

       What a magical trip it was to Neverland with Peter Pan. I sat between my grandma and mother. Grandma pointed out London and made comments about going to some of the locations we could see. She was born in England you see. I remember listening to her talk about growing up there more than I remember the ride. The ride holds a special place in my heart because of it.

       Over the years I’ve found it is not the Magical things at Disney that make you gasp and bring tears of joy to your eyes years later it is the moments. It is the shared experience of joy and whimsy. It is not so much meeting Mickey as how your child or someone else responds to Mickey that touches you so.

       So when you to a Disney destination don’t try to “make” memories. Enjoy the moments and let the memories make themselves.

Fantasia ~ 1940

It’s Film Strip Friday!

Fantasia

Release Date November 13^th, 1940

 

SYNOPSIS:

Unforgettable images are brought to life by some of the world's best music -- the comedy of Mickey Mouse as a troublemaking sorcerer's apprentice, the beauty of winged fairies and cascading snowflakes, even plump hippos performing ballet in tutus! This movie in eight segments that each have different stories and many different characters.

FUN FACTS:

The first American film to use stereophonic sound as well as the first and only film recorded in Fantasound.

       This Disney production was an ambitious experiment to try to popularize classical music, especially by accompanying it with animation. Originally, the film was to consist of only The Sorcerer's Apprentice segment, but it was expanded to include the full anthology of shorts. And it was slightly controversial for its depiction of bare-breasted centaurettes in the Pastoral Symphony segment and other stereotypical racial depictions. [Adhering to the Hays Production Code and its strict rules, the figures were garlanded with flower bras for cover-up after swimming topless (still uncensored) in a waterfall and pond (seen from a distance). Also, in later releases of the film, in the Pastoral Symphony segment (again), two black Nubian/zebra centaurs who attend the Bacchus celebration were edited out, along with a female pickaninny centaurette with braided hair named Sunflower who shines the hoof of a white female centaurette. The black centaurette was first abruptly cut from the film and as technology improved, the scene was edited or 'resized' by zooming in on the frames with the character in them so that she was not seen in the shot.] Other segments, such as Ride Of The Valkyries, Swan of Tuonela, and Flight of the Bumblebee were storyboarded but never fully animated, and thus were never put into production for inclusion in future Fantasia-style releases.

The film, with a production cost of more than $2 million (about four times more than an average live-action picture), initially failed at the box-office (partially due to the expensive installation of "Fantasound" sound reproduction equipment in theatres), but then its popularity increased and its cult status was assured when the members of the 60's drug culture adopted it as a favorite hallucinatory experience when it was re-released (alongside other counter-cultural, head-tripping favorites, including 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Easy Rider (1969), and the re-released Alice in Wonderland (1951) in 1974). Because of the studio's financial difficulties, its next animated feature, Dumbo (1941), was a low-budget offering

Since the late 60s, Fantasia has been warmly embraced, and a sequel titled Fantasia 2000 (1999) appeared as a widescreen IMAX attraction. Fantasia 2000 was the first feature-length animated film released in the IMAX format. The film illustrated seven new classic pieces,

Disney had wanted Fantasia to be an ongoing project, with a new edition being released every few years.  His plan was to substitute one of the original segments with a new one as it was complete, so the viewer would always see a new version of the film.  From January to August 1941, story material was developed based on additional pieces, including Ride of the Valkyries  by Richard Wagner, The Swan of Tuonela by Jean Siblius, Invitation to the Dance by Carl Maria von Weber, and Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov,  which was later adapted into the Bumble Boogie segment in Melody Time (1948). The film's disappointing initial box office performance and the advent of World War II brought an end to these plans. Taylor had prepared introductions for The Firebird by Stravinsky, La Mer by Claude Debussy, Adventures in a Perambulator by John Alden Carpenter, Don Quixote by Richard Strauss and Picture at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky "to have them for the future in case we decided to make any one of them".

The Clair de Lune segment that was removed from the film's original program was completely animated, and then left out for its already long running time. It featured two egrets flying around the Everglades on a moonlit night. The sequence was later edited and re-scored for the Blue Bayou segment in Make Mine Music (1946). A workprint of the original was discovered and restored in 1992, along with the original soundtrack of Stokowski with the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was included as a bonus feature in The Fantasia Anthology DVD in 2000.

Disney digitally re-recorded the soundtrack for the 1982 re-release because the original Leopold Stokowski soundtrack from 1940 sounded dated and very limited in fidelity. But for the 1990 50th Anniversary release, Disney reverted to the original soundtrack from 1940, which they cleaned up as best as possible (although the limited fidelity could not be corrected) and this is the soundtrack the film has today.Facebook | Twitter | Permalink:

The 2000 restoration was the first time the longer, so-called roadshow version of the film was seen after the initial release. This version contains much longer interstitials from Deems Taylor explaining what will be seen. The picture of these segments was easy to find and was cleaned up, since most of them were used in the 1990 restoration, but the soundtrack for the segments that had not been seen since the 1940s either could not be found or was in terrible shape. After much debate, actor Corey Burton was called in to dub all of Taylor's speeches, including the "Sound Track" sequence halfway through the picture.

Are Disney Trips Just for Kids?

Are Disney Trips Just for Kids?

       Many people think that a day at a Disney park is just for families with kids or teens/young adults out for a day of fun and excitement. I think not!

       Often my husband and I go to the park without our teenage daughter. She has decided she is too old for Disney fun. Sometimes it is for an entire day of fun with rides and shows. Often it is for a several hour romantic getaway. We head out to the park and enjoy a leisurely cozy meal and maybe take in a show or a ride or two then we go home.

       Often our quiet time at the park involves just walking down Main Street looking at the shops. This is very romantic at night with the lights glowing. It is even more magical at Christmas with even more lights and Christmas music playing. We enjoy remembering past visits and other romantic times we’ve had. We stop by the French Market in New Orleans Square and laugh as we remember how we first realized we were in love after the Jazz Band at the French Market told us so.

       You can always find quiet spots to sit and talk. There are rides you sit close and it is fun to hold hands and cuddle. (Good time for us ladies to fake being scared. LOL) The Haunted Mansion is a good one to enjoy together and be “scared” into his arms.

       Most of all it is a day to enjoy just being together and having a laugh together. Let go of the day’s troubles and worries and smile. Be kids again and play.

Disney Legend and One of Walt’s Nine Old Men ~ Milt Kahl

Disney Legend and One of Walt’s Nine Old Men

º ~ Milt Kahl ~ º

September 3^rd, 1909 ~ April 19^th, 1987

Worked for Disney

1934 ~ 1976

Two of Kahl’s renowned colleagues, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, write in Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life, “Unlike many irascible temperaments who have filled the halls of history, Milt had a very sweet helpful side, when he chose. He gave unstintingly of his time and talent when it was to help the picture and almost as often to help a fellow artist who had a problem. However, he expected everyone coming for help to have worked hard and tried everything – to have done his best before coming.”

Brad Bird, who was his protégé referred to Kahl as "tough", but in a gentle way, as he often gave Bird advice on where he could improve in animation whenever he came up short.

As a young man Kahl cut his high school education short to follow his dream of becoming a magazine illustrator or cartoonist. He worked for several newspapers retouching photos and pasting layouts. He then started his own commercial art company that limped along after the depression. It was during this time he saw a screening of Disney’s The 3 Little Pigs and was intrigued by the new art form called animation.

In 1934 Kahl applied at the Disney Studio and was hired as assistant animator. He received high praise from all his colleagues. His draftsmanship was unequaled and his attention to detail unparallel.

From the very beginning he was assigned the tasks of animating the hardiest characters.  From the Prince in Snow White to Madam Medusa in The Rescuers. When "The Sword in the Stone" director Woolie Reitherman saw Milt's first rough drawings of Merlin the magician and Madame Medusa, he reportedly turned to Milt and said, "These things look so beautiful, they could hang in a museum" to which, Milt responded with a characteristic "Aw...You're full of it!" Kahl was often given the assignment of finalizing the character design for movies.

After nearly 40 years with Disney, Milt retired from the Studio, in 1976, and returned to his native California Bay Area to pursue other interests, including sculpting delicate wire into human figures, such as dancing ballerinas.

Billy Hill and the Hill Billies

Billy Hill and the Hill Billies

       If you like musical comedy check out Billy Hill and the Hill Billies at Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe in Frontierland. This is a “brother act” with four brothers all named “Billy”. They do some blue grass and often break into some Rock N Roll while making you laugh. Not only can you stop in for a fun show you can give your feet a break, cool off in the A/C and/or grab a snack or lunch at the “bar”.

       My parents use to drive to Disneyland two or three times a week just to have lunch at the Golden Horseshoe and watch the Billies make some music and laughs. This was a great joy for my dad in particular who had many health issues and went to Disneyland to find a reason to keep on living. The Billies were a huge part in what brought him joy and gave him a reason to get up and out of the house. We would often join them. We believe this kept him alive a few extra years.

       The fun of this show is joining in. Clap your hands and stomp your feet and sing along. They often call people up on stage to “help out”. Don’t hesitate and let them pull you in. They may ask you to join them on stage and play a fiddle or do a little dance. It is all part of the Disney fun.

       There is another way to join the fun. If you have seen the show before you can anticipate their jokes and respond to them as they happen. Let me give you an example. During the show they often play the Orange Blossom Special. During the song it sounds like a train is coming. At the climax of the song the group turns to stage right quickly as if the train just went past them and they were following it. If you get to the show early enough you can sit in a booth on stage right. (This was Walt’s favorite place to sit and watch Wally Boag perform.) We have had fun jumping off our seats when the group turns toward us as if dodging the train.

       Don’t be afraid to do things like this. The performers at Disneyland love it when you play with them. You are not detracting from the act you are adding to it by playing along with their illusion. You make other guests think twice and give the performers an extra hand in entertaining.

       All of the performers in this act are accomplished musicians that can play multiple instruments. During the show you will see the fiddle played and hear everything from classical to Rock N Roll. The other instruments change with the performers. You may see a banjo, mandolin, base and guitars in quick succession.

       In my opinion this is not a show to miss. There is something for everybody in this show and even the teenagers will find something to enjoy about it.

Walt’s Carolwood Barn

Walt’s Carolwood Barn

 

       This is the first of several stories about the Carolwood Barn, Carolwood Historical Society and the Los Angeles Live Steamers. This first article is an introduction to the Carolwood Barn and the Los Angeles Live Steamers.

Walt Disney had a passion for trains. His love of railroading played an enormous part in the creation of Disneyland. When developing his concept for a family-themed amusement park, Walt instructed his Imagineers;

“I just want it to look like nothing else in the world,

and it should be surrounded by a train.”

       Walt got his amusement park and he did in fact surround it by a train. Walt personally owned the Disneyland Railroad through his company, Retlaw Enterprises. (Retlaw is Walter spelled backward.) Guests would have been surprised to know that often the happy engineer in the cab of the Disneyland train was non other than Walt Disney himself.

       Walt’s love of all things railroad related goes back to his teenage years. When he was 14 years old Walt worked selling newspapers on the train. During his breaks he would climb into the engine of the train to visit with the engineer who he called Uncle Mike. He would trade fruit from his family’s farm as payment for allowing him to ride there. This is where he learned about trains.

       In the 1940’s Walt found several of his animators shared his love of trains and had trains in their yards. Walt would spend hours talking about their trains and trains in general. Ward Kimble and Ollie Johnston both had trains in their yards. In fact Ward and his wife Betty were the first privet citizens to own a full size railroad. Ollie Johnston had a 0 gage 1/12 scale train in his backyard in La Canada, Ca. Ward also helped Walt with setting up the Disneyland Railroad.

       Before Disneyland Walt had another railroad to call his own. When he purchased a good size piece of property in Holmby Hills, Ca in the late 1940’s he decided he wanted a backyard small scale train of his own. By the time it was finished he had nearly one mile of track with a series of eleven switches. He called his railroad the Carolwood Pacific Railroad. It was named after the street the house was on, Carolwood.

       Walt needed a place to work on his trains so he had studio craftsmen build a barn that resembled the barn from the family farm when he was a child. He had them add more windows to the barn and made it smaller than the original. This became known as Walt’s Happy Place. In this barn many ideas were born that were later incorporated into the park.

       After his death the Disney family donated the track for Walt’s beloved trains to the Los Angeles Live Steamers, a group of small scale train enthusiasts of which Walt was a charter member. Because of the gracious donation a secondary group called the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society was formed to maintain the track and share Walt’s history with trains. When Lillian Disney died in 1997 and the Holmbly Hills property was sold Diane Disney Miller asked the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society to help find a new home for her father’s barn. In 1998 an agreement was reached and arrangements were made to bring Walt’s beloved Carolwood Barn to the Los Angeles Live Steamers Museum in Griffith Park next to the famous Griffith Park Travel Town.

       80% of the original barn was used in the restoration. The roof had to be change due to changes in building standards in California and fire safety. Inside you will find the workbenches that Walt built along with his tools. You will also find many of the items that inspired Walt to build his Carolwood Pacific Railroad and Disneyland. There are items belonging to Ward Kimble and Ollie Johnston as well. The Carolwood volunteers are quite happy to answer questions and share stories about Walt and his love of trains.

Here are three websites to visit to get connected with the Los Angeles Live Steamers and the Carolwood Historical Society.

Carolwood.com

Carolwood.org

Walt’s Carolwood Barn

Open to the public the 3^rd Sunday of every month 11 am – 1 pm

Enter through the East Gate of the

Los Angeles Live Steamers Museum

LALS.org

Los Angeles Live Steamers Museum

Location

5202 Zoo Drive
Los Angeles, California 90027

Los Angeles Live Steamers

Open for the general public to ride from 10:45am - 3pm
every Sunday (weather permitting), except for the Sunday before Memorial Day and the first Sunday in October.

Admission and parking are free but donations are gladly accepted.