Sunday, May 31, 2009

WDW 3D Shows

Do you sometimes still miss Captain EO? Do you wish you could watch MuppetVision 3D at home?
Well slip on your 3D glasses and prepare for the show!




Captain EO was awesome, and now you can watch it again! Michael Jackson and weird scifi alien creatures.


Remember stopping in the middle is distinctly unpatriotic.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Disney World of Yore Part II


Okay,we saw a bit of the original "If You Had Wings" ride yesterday and I dug up another version of this ride, with higher quality footage and audio.This is the second version of the ride, "Delta Dreamflight," which later became "Disney's Take Flight" after Delta pulled sponsorship. This ride was totally removed and replace with Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. It was never one of my favourite rides but I feel it should have a bit of a tribute nevertheless.




Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is a ride that many long time Walt Disney World guests still miss, and I am one of them, though I do appreciate the ride that replaced it in the end. If you have never been on it, or miss it desperately take heart, it is still winding about it's dangerous way in Fantasyland in Disneyland, California. This attraction displays again the dark humor of Disney Imagineers; the guests vehicle gets hit by a train and then sent to hell, a risk that they just won't take with newer attractions (in fact the only reason you "survive" Tower of Terror is because Eisner thought that people wouldn't want to purchase anything in the gift shop after if they were dead; how he and other management came to this conclusion I am unsure, but it amuses me greatly.)



I honestly miss this ride most of all the ones posted here, not only for the attraction itself but for the ambiance the water brought to Fantasyland, also having even this small body of water made if seem more like a full land. I know they needed land for Winnie the Pooh, but they used very little of it, most of it is now taken up by the place holding Pooh's Playfull Spot and Ariel's Grotto (where I hope one day they will put the Voyage of the Little Mermaid Ride, but that is a topic for a later post.) Also, I feel that Tomorrowland Speedway could and perhaps should be destroyed, it takes up a lot of real estate and could have easily been broken up to make room for maybe three other rides, it is also on the cusp of Fantasyland, allowing it to have easily become a part of it.

Hmm, some of this doesn't seem to make sense, but I am dizzy, so I will edit later.


Disney World of Yore

I spoke earlier of my love of the Disney World of my childhood, I speak of it frequently, and I talk of missing many rides, some replaced with now long time favorites, others replaced with ill conceived toned down versions of themselves (i.e. Alien Encounters) and still others ripped out for a small amount of extra room for a new attraction (I am still not sure that 20,000 Leagues needed to be torn out for Winnie the Pooh, only to be filled in with a small Pooh play area)

Join me on another watch down memory lane:


This is a dark film so it might be hard to see, also there is no audio, but it is almost impossible to find footage of this attraction from Tomorrowland.


Journey into the Imagination with Dreamfinder, Epcot
It is sad, this attraction has been so deformed, and now the Pavilion is basically gone!




Cranium Command from the now closed Wonder of Life Pavilion, also in Epcot.
I love all the jokes in this, some of which are clearly geared towards adults, I feel this is missing in some of the new attractions.





This attraction was so terrifying and awesome, also, I feel like Tomorrowland had a real all encompassing theme during this time. I love the dark humor which, surprisingly I suppose, is in a lot of Disney rides. A crazy company using Earth for testing new technology that they will sell to them, then abandons the audience when things go wrong. And the very company motto has a Gordon Gecko-ness to it that is wonderful! If you can't do it with X-S, you shouldn't do it at all.



Saturday, May 16, 2009

Disney World Musical Theming

Disney Parks enshroud guests in a theme in every way possible; appearance first, and scents, and lastly, subtle background music. This background music is coveted by many Disney-goers, and is also rather difficult to find, but VAULTDISNEYreturns over on YouTube has gathered some of this music and set it to a slide show of attraction pictures, Enjoy!

Expedition Everest Background Music


I find this music very soothing and semi-hypnotic.

The Land Pavalion Background Music

This is really just "Listen to the Land" slowed down, and instrumental.

Canada Showcase Background Music

Weird western/?= awesome!



Friday, May 15, 2009

The Disney World of My Youth

The Disney World that I grew up with was, for the sake of narrowing it down, WDW between 1986 and 1997. These years were (for the most part Eisner years,) a period of rapid growth in Walt Disney World, and in particular in the "Resort" part of WDW.

In other words, though of course the theme parks themselves gained many attractions and rides, Disney hotels sprung up faster. These hotels added to the profit and all encompassing and enveloping theme of Disney, many more visitors could now eat on property, sleep on property, shop on property ( Downtown Disney,) and use Disney transportation. This time, dubbed by some Disneyites as the Disney Renaissance, marked also the new reign of Disney Classic movies, after a period of slowed production and, some suggest, decreased quality (Sword in the Stone, Fox and the Hound, et al.) Eisner brought with him Jeffery Katzenburg, and he, with Roy Disney, Howard Ashmann and Alan Menken, along with the great team of Disney animators, brought us The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and many more movies. Eisner's reign was, in the end more profitable and helpful to the Disney company than harmful, and despite the fact that I could rant for days about the problems with Eisner's heavy handed, quasi-tyrannical ways, I thank him, (as well as all Disney cast members of the peroid,) for my childhood Disney World.

And with no more delays, on with the show:



Yes, that is ORAC talking, want slightly clearer/louder audio?



I hope you enjoyed that trip back in time, from TTA to the WEDway Peoplemover!

Introductions are in order

Okay,a first post needs a mission statement like a It's a Small World needs the brain numbing music.

I plan to display and share awesome Disney Parks related articles(with a Walt Disney World slant,) videos,photos,graphics,and other awesomeness here for other Disneyphiles to find and enjoy as I have.