Papercraft Skyway Bucket at The Disney Experience

How cool is this? Not only did somebody at The Disney Experience build a Skyway bucket out of paper, but they put the instructions online so you too can make one! (Hat tip: BoingBoing.)

New Disneyland Indy Stunt Show Casting Call?

The LA Times reports that Disneyland is casting for a new Indiana Jones stunt show, timed of course to complement the upcoming Indy movie, “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” The article reads, in part:

The Anaheim theme park is casting actors with combat experience for the Indy role, a duplicitous female archaeologist and a physically imposing bad guy for “The Summer of Hidden Mysteries,” a staged show to be performed on the balconies, rooftops and streets of Adventureland, according to the Disneyland auditions website. Park visitors would be enlisted to help solve mysteries and uncover ancient artifacts during the performance.

But here’s the odd thing:  the Times links to the Disneyland News Today site, which in turn links to the Disneyland Auditions site, which gives a 404 error for the specific page in question. A quick perusal of the Disneyland Auditions site didn’t find me the relevant information . . . so now I’ve gotta wonder.

No Plans for “Up With America,” Sez Sklar

Laughing Place has a statement from Marty Sklar, in response to the vocal fan-community criticism of rumored changes to Disneyland’s “it’s a small world.” It reads, in part:

Now the rumors are swirling that we are “ruining Walt’s creation.”  I’ve heard that we are planning to remove the rainforest, add Mickey and Minnie Mouse, create an “Up with America” tribute, to effectively “marginalize” the Mary Blair style and Walt’s classic (all not true).

Much of his post does effectively pull at the heartstrings, and makes a good argument for continued change in the parks (”the greatest “change agent” who ever walked down Main Street at Disneyland was Walt himself”). I’m still a bit skeptical, though . . . and not crazy about the branded Disney characters being introduced to the attraction in any context.

Teachers Going Beyond the Call of Duty for Disneyland Trip

Just saw this story on NECN, on a class of special needs students whose Disneyland travel plans were almost foiled by the recent bankruptcy of Aloha Airlines:

Bankruptcy at Aloha Airlines means some special needs children in Reno, Nevada may not get their trip to Disneyland. It’s a trip 20 kids were counting on this year after nine months of fundraising. Now, the tickets are lost in bankruptcy court.

Ten years ago, Shanna Moller and her team teacher Joanna Trimble decided to start taking their special needs kids to Disneyland as a reward of course, but to also help them implement those skills of impulse control, appropriate behavior, and social skills. For nine months they raised money, they’d made hotel reservations, meal and ground travel arraignments and yes, they paid their airfare. This year as in the past the carrier was Aloha Airlines.

Undaunted, the two teachers, along with another special education teacher, put $7,000 on each of her credit cards to pay for airfare with another carrier. They’ve had to make some concessions as well as to what the kids will be doing down in Anaheim. Of course the kids know nothing about any of this.

The Mickey News has the story too . . . along with information on how to help.

Interweb Abuzz Over “it’s a small world” Revisions

Interested in finding out what you can do to let Disney know you oppose (or support) the rumored revisions to Disneyland’s “it’s a small world” attraction? Or, want to know what the heck I’m talking about? An online campaign site has been set up at SaveTheSmallWorld.com. (Hat tip: The Disney Blog.)

Over the weekend, the LA Times ran a short piece about the controversy. The part that amused me most? This set of parody lyrics:

It’s a world of franchise,
it’s a world of fun
Piles of plush mean profit
for everyone
Wonder, Magic of Dream,
in our marketing scheme,
it’s a mall world after all.

It’s almost as if the author of those lyrics was surprised to discover that Disney is in fact a corporation, operating in a capitalist economy. Who knew? (That being said . . . I’m not crazy about being dumped into gift shops after riding so many Walt Disney World attractions, and much prefer Disneyland’s smaller number of grabs at my wallet.)

I think I’m more of a spiritual kin with a certain wonderfully cranky blogger, Your Souvenir Guide. I disagree with some of his opinions (I don’t like the addition of the branded characters), but there’s plenty of clear, critical thought in his post, “It’s a sacrosanct world after all.”

Blair Family Speaks on Changes to “it’s a small world”

Re-Imagineering has a letter today to the Disney Company, apparently from the family of late Imagineer Mary Blair, commenting on the rumored upcoming changes to the Disneyland attraction, “it’s a small world.” The letter reads in part:

The Disney characters of themselves are positive company icons, but they do NOT fit in with the original theme of the ride. They will do nothing except to marginalize the rightful stars of the ride “The Children of the World”. This marginalization will do nothing but infuriate the ride’s international guests and devoted Disney fans.

My Mother and I have always had a strong sense of patriotism for America and I DO support a tribute to America. Disneyland has several venues, which are perfect places for this tribute including “Main Street USA” or “New Orleans Square”; unfortunately the “It’s a Small World” ride is NOT one of them. Once again this will marginalize the children of the world theme and bastardize my Mother’s original art. Furthermore ripping out a rainforest (Imaginary or otherwise) and replacing it with misplaced patriotism is a public relations blunder so big you could run a Monorail through it.

“Bastardize” . . . they’re not mincing words here, now are they?

Re-Imagineering has also recently run a piece discussing its objections to the changes, in some detail.

it’s a small world: “Hooray for USA”??????

I was stunned to read this today in Re-Imagineering, regarding updates to Disneyland’s “it’s a small world:”

Unfortunately W.D.I. has taken ill advantage of the downtime by staking out areas throughout the attraction to place a selection of smiling Disney characters to spice up the proceedings. Imagine a grinning Stitch in Hawaii, a demure Belle in Paris, a Peter Pan in London.

And in one of the most egregious and downright disgusting decisions in Disney theme park history, the gorgeous New Guinea rainforest scene, replete with some of Mary Blair’s most whimsical character creations (a crocodile with an umbrella, colorful birds hatching from eggs) and her drummer children with Tiki Masks on the opposite shore will be replaced with a Hooray for U.S.A sequence.

Um, excuse me? I thought for sure this was an April Fools’ post . . . then I remembered today is March 5.

Now, I’ll confess to having mixed feelings about some of the rainforest section. There are some racial undertones that are disquieting to me, but what the heck, the whole ride’s full of stereotypes (good and bad). But replacing it with “Hooray for USA?”

And as much as I love Stitch, I don’t wanna see him in the Hawaii section of that attraction, thank you very much.

Mr Banks closes the Re-Imagineering post with a call to action:

This is not a change at Disneyland to take lightly. Letters should go out to all corners of the company pleading for a halt to the desecration of Small World once and for all. A campaign to “Save Our Rainforest” is appropriate, one with tee-shirts, wristbands and a countdown clock. It’s safe to say that with enough of a hue and cry from those of us who actually pay the bills at W.D.I the company might do an about face. Fortunately this was a concept that was pitched to executives before Bruce Vaughn and Craig Russell took the reigns at Imagineering so there’s still room for hope.

Wing Chung, The Disney Dentist

From the San Gabriel Valley Tribune:

No one considers a dental office the happiest place on earth.But maybe Dr. Wing Chung’s is the exception.

Chung, who owns a dental practice in Covina, has turned his three examination rooms into the various lands found within the Disneyland theme park.

“The whole thing started as kind of a joke,” Chung said.

But for a joke, Chung has taken the vibe of each examination room pretty seriously.

His first room, which was the original concept room for the other two that followed, is based on Fantasyland. It’s complete with limited edition attraction replicas, attraction posters and figurines based on characters that correspond to that land - like Dumbo and Peter Pan.

The next room is based on Adventureland, which features the Tiki Room bird, Tiki masks, a miniature Jungle Cruise replica boat and a commemorative ticket from the nascency of the Indiana Jones ride. There are even fake leaves that line corners of the ceiling.

His final room, and the most requested by patients, is his New Orleans Square room, with artifacts ranging from the the four creepy posters that stretch and grow in the elevator of the Haunted Mansion, to a replica map found just inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

I’ve gotta wonder if Dr Chung has seen the documentary Trekkies, which includes an interview with a dentist whose office is decorated entirely in Star Trek theme, and whose staff dresses in Starfleet uniforms. I’ll bet the two dentists could swap plenty of awesome stories! There are some aspects of fandom that cut across almost all genres.

I saw Trekkies for the first time near the tail end of a 24-hour sci fi film festival, and it was funny to hear people heckle the Trekkies, given that: a) said hecklers had been sitting around in the dark watching sci fi movies for 22 hours, and b) many of said hecklers probably had an opinion on Kirk v. Picard (Picard, duh).