Guest Writers

Blog Post: Another form of animation: Now at the Walt Disney Family Museum

Roger Colton — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 03:06:00 GMT

It's no secret that animation played a big role in the life of Walt Disney and the company that bears his name. A visit to the Walt Disney Family Museum offers guests the opportunity to learn about it. And usually, the process of two-dimensional, such as hand-drawn animation, is how the story unfolds.

That is, until this new exhibit at the WDFM. "Between Frames: The Magic Behind Stop Motion Animation" offers museum visitors a bit of a look into the process.

Now oddly enough, stop motion animation was one of the first things Walt Disney did on film. Way back in his earliest days doing shorts for the Kansas City Film Ad Company, Walt made use of some of the simple forms of the art as it existed then. Plenty of paper cut-outs became animations using the technique of stop motion. But he changed to the more popular form of cel animation with the Laugh-O-Gram films.

This new exhibit takes a look at the practice from its earliest days right up to the latest and greatest uses in film making. For example, the display includes a replica of the armature used in one of the best known stop-motion creations of film, 1933's "King Kong." It was this film that has inspired many artists to move further into animation. New mediums of stop motion such as television got into the act.

A favorite of many stop motion fans. Art Clokey's "Gumby."

On the recent end of the scale, you'll see a figure used in the Laika production of "Coraline." Recent Disney tales such as "James and The Giant Peach" and "The Nightmare Before Christmas" join in too.

Even though the use of stop motion animation may not normally come to mind when thinking of the Disney studio, it has been a part of a number of films throughout its history. Ever hear of this one?

From 1962, "Symposium on Popular Songs" features Ludwig
Von Drake and an amusing stop-motion sequence. You
can find it on the Disney Rarities DVD set.

Or how about the wooden soldiers in "Babes in Toyland"? Or "Mary Poppins"? Who can forget the song "A Spoonful of Sugar" with its clever scene in the nursery? Great use of stop motion animation. Even the Pixar short subject, "Your Friend The Rat" used this as part of the story telling method in bringing this animated film to us.

I'm not giving away all of the surprises on hand in this exhibit, but there really are some special items worth a visit to see if this form of animation is near and dear to you. The WDFM has gathered a fine selection to show what artists have accomplished using this technique.

You really won't want to miss an upcoming special program at the Museum on Saturday, October 20th. A quartet of folks with a world of stop motion experience will be on hand to discuss the art. Moderator Hal Hickel will join Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett, Tom St. Amand, and Jon Berg as they share tales of the art along with a secret or two. It promises to be a wonderful afternoon.

The Museum also will be screening "The Nightmare Before Christmas" between Friday, October 25^th through Wednesday, October 31^st (excluding the 30^th when the Museum is closed).

For more information about "Between Frames: The Magic Behind Stop Motion Animation," tickets to the special event and films as well as the Walt Disney Family Museum, visit www.waltdisney.org.

Did you enjoy today's article by Roger Colton? If so, please be aware that are a number of Colton columns to be found in JHM's archives. Or -- if you'd prefer to read Roger's more recent writings -- then you really want to head on to (or -- better yet -- bookmark) his personal website, The Blue Parrot.

Blog Post: "Pixar In Concert" reveals how a musical score can help tell a movie's story, get the audience inside of a character's head

Leo N. Holzer — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 04:13:00 GMT

It's engaging stories, great characters, good acting, lighting and hundreds of things working together that makes a motion picture a truly MOVING experience.

One of the most critical pieces is a film's musical score. Even before recorded dialogue, music was there and it's always had the power to excite us, amuse us, to elicit a tear or two. Those musical notes hit our heartstrings and have the ability to spark memories years later as well as certain feelings. Think about the deep foreboding ba dum, ba dum of "Jaws," the five notes from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," the Married Life sequence in Pixar's "UP."

"UP" is one of the 13 featured scores celebrated during "Pixar In Concert." Its world premiere was July 28-29 at the Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, hosted by Disney-Pixar Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter on Saturday and Pixar director Pete Docter on Sunday.

Photo by Leon N Holzer

"Pixar In Concert" will be performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic tonight, Aug, 3, through Sunday, Aug. 5, at The Hollywood Bowl. Tickets, priced from $20 to $59 are still available. On Nov. 2-3, it will be the featured program at the iconic Sydney Opera House in Australia. Hopefully, this family-friendly concert will be headed to a symphony near you in the coming months. I can't think of a better way to introduce children to live, orchestral music.

I attended Sunday's performance, which opened with the Pixar Logo theme and "Toy Story," the music filling the hall as favorite scenes played on a large screen above the symphony performers. Docter then came out to introduce the program.

Docter grew up in a musical family in Minnesota. He started playing the violin at age 5, his mom was a music educator and his dad was a choir director at a local university. He's listed as "Creative Director" for Pixar in Concert.

Pete Docter addresses the audience at last Sunday's performance. Photo by Roger Colton

"I'm really excited to celebrate the music of Pixar films with you all," Docter said. "... Personally, I credit music for getting me into animation. My parents took me to a lot of concerts as a kid. And what would happen is that I'd gather everyone's programs and draw cartoons on them.

"... Music is a crucial part of what we do at Pixar. It can really speak to an audience in a way that nothing else can, not dialogue, not acting. ... We have selected some favorite parts of all 13 of our films, starting with 'Toy Story' in 1995 up to and including 'Brave.'

The program features clips without dialogue, putting the emphasis on the great music.

Docter then introduced the next three suites, "Finding Nemo," by Thomas Newman, featuring guitar work by George Doering, who played on the original soundtrack; "Ratatouille," by Michael Giacchino (who was attending the concert and was repeatedly introduced every time Docter addressed the crowd); and "A Bug's Life," by Randy Newman. The Newmans and Giacchino, along with Patrick Doyle, who wrote the score for "Brave," created the music in every Pixar feature film.

Following "A Bug's Life," Docter returned to talk about the process by which music is composed for Pixar's films. For the composer, the job usually starts when the film is almost complete. "The composer and director will sit down and watch the film together -- in minute detail -- at what we call a spotting session ... talking about musical possibilities of every sequence. Then, armed with a bunch of notes, the composer goes away, disappears into their studio to somehow, miraculously produce music.

Where it comes from, I have no idea. Michael's tried to tell me that he has a team of musical hamsters that helps him. I'm not sure I believe him," causing the audience to laugh and Giacchio to scrunch a bit lower in his seat.

"Ratatouille" composer Michael Giacchino.
Photo by Roger Colton

"In some cases," Docter continued, "the composer will produce a demo, a synthesizer version and we'll discuss that and any changes. And in other cases, the first time we hear it is when we show up at the sound stage ... and I just walk away in awe. Partly because of the ... breakneck speed. In animation, it takes one animator about a week to produce 4 seconds of animation. With film music we typically record between 7 and 15 minutes a day ... and we'll walk away with the whole score in about two weeks. Then we'll come back and cut that into the final mix of the film."

The afternoon continued with Docter introducing us to "WALL-E," "Toy Story 2" and "Cars" as well as conductor Sarah Hicks and the "amazing musicians" in the San Francisco Symphony.

Another highlight came when Docter reappeared after "Cars" to illustrate how music helps tell the story and gets you inside the characters' heads.

"How does that actually happen?. Let's take an example from ...'UP,' one of my personal favorites," Docter said. "When we first introduce young Carl to what will turn out to be the love of his life ... Ellie, we introduce her with a musical theme and it's played initially on the piano in this upbeat jaunty fashion." Later, there's a similar piece of music that plays underneath a scene but this time, it's on the cello.

"Sound familiar?," Docter asked. "You'll hear that same theme played throughout the film in a very emotional way, in an action-adventure way. Every time you hear it, it's a reminder of why Carl is doing what he's doing."

"UP" was given the full-treatment and there weren't too many dry eyes among the adults in the crowd. Perfect time for intermission, to regain composure and to make my way to Giacchino and see if I could get a couple of quotes. He's a nice guy who I first met during the relaunch of Disneyland's Space Mountain.

Peter Docter (left) and Michael Giacchino (center) in the recording studio as they work on
the score for "UP." Copyright Pixar. All rights reserved

"I love watching other composers work," Giacchino said. "I love listening to the scores of Randy, Thomas and Patrick and I love for once to focus on the great stuff they've done. For me, that's what's been fun about this experience. I enjoyed putting together the pieces that they were going to use of my stuff, but I caught myself more enlightened by just what the other guys have done. ... I'm so lucky to even be in the same paragraph as those names."

Giacchino briefly explained the creation of Pixar in Concert. "David Tanaka is the guy who really edited all the video together and Pete took the first step. I would just sit there and give them comments about it. They know these movies inside and out; as well as I do. It's always nice to work together with a group of people who really know what they're doing."

He was also heartened by the crowd, a good 25 percent or so children. "That's the best. The more we can get kids in front of live orchestras, the better off we'll be."

The orchestra at last Sunday's performance. Photo by Leo N Holzer

Following intermission, the orchestra launched into another of Giacchino's creations, "The Incredibles." Then Docter returned to introduce "Monsters, Inc." and "Cars 2." He complimented the brass section, singled out Tom Scott, a saxophonist featured on several original Pixar soundtracks, including the opening credits of "Monsters, Inc." Docter then had more than two dozen Pixar employees stand for a moment of recognition.

He also delivered special thanks to "a few people without whom this program would not have happened ... Jonas Rivera, who championed it, ... Brice Parker, Laurel Ladevich and David Tanaka, who made it happen. And, of course, even with the best planning in the world, none of it would have happened without Sarah Hicks and the wonderful San Francisco Symphony."

The final two pieces included "Brave," featuring elbow-powered uilleann pipes and "Toy Story 3," which took the audience on another emotional ride with the laughs of Flamengo Buzz to the tears inspired by the incinerator scene and Andy's long goodbye to Woody.

Blessedly, an encore, of "You've Got A Friend In Me," left everyone feeling upbeat before heading home.

Blog Post: David Tanaka talks about the creation of the "Pixar in Concert" project

Leo N. Holzer — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 03:22:00 GMT

The following is an email interview that I recently had with David Tanaka, the creative editor of "Pixar in Concert." I'd like to thank David for his detailed answers and Chris Wiggum at Pixar for arranging the interview.

Q: Please tell me about the process. What prompted the Pixar in Concert idea? How easy was it to get everyone on board and how long did it take from idea to this past weekend's event?

Tanaka: The entire process for "Pixar in Concert" actually took around two-plus years, starting in 2010. Show producers Brice Parker and Laurel Ladevich, and myself were in constant communication with Pete Docter, Jonas Rivera and John Lasseter over that period of time, as we sharpened the conceptual approach to the concert, reached out to all the Pixar directors, producers and music composers, and refined the evolving edited musical suites for each of the Pixar movies to be featured in the performance.

It really all started with a simple, "What if we did a concert on the music of Pixar?" from Brice Parker to Pete Docter. Pete, whose mother is a music instructor and has a strong musical background himself, loved the idea. Based on his interest in the proposal, I started editing a few "sample cuts" on some of the Pixar films in accordance with the base idea. I believe the first few edits included "UP," "Finding Nemo" and the first two "Toy Story" movies.

After review with Pete and Jonas Rivera, the results were then shown to Disney Music Publishing's Chris Montan and Tom MacDougall. They in turn embraced the idea and encouraged us to continue to pursue the project.

A few edited iterations and additions later and we had a formal presentation to show to John Lasseter in one of Pixar's screening review rooms. John also loved the idea and agreed that the concert should really be only about the music - no dialogue at all from the Pixar movies to interrupt the audience's pleasure listening to the musical scores, very limited sound effects only to enhance the point of the music if need be, and imagery directly from the movies themselves with no additional "bonus material" such as behind-the-scenes conceptual artwork or crew photos.

This would instead be "all about the music," as it relates to what the audience members themselves experienced when they first enjoyed the Pixar movies through the years.

With this set of parameters understood and agreed upon, a constant stream of editing was produced and sent to Pete and John as our creative executives over the coming months. Given both individuals' busy schedules and other company commitments, this often resulted in a lot of QuickTime movie files generated and many "iPad" reviews. They in turn would give Brice Parker, Laurel Ladevich and myself cut content feedback via email or voicemail, with occasional formal review get-togethers wherever possible.

We would also arrange for individuals such as music composer Michael Giacchino to stop by my Avid Media Composer edit suite from time to time to review certain cuts (specifically "The Incredibles," "Ratatouille" and "UP" in Michael's case). Michael in particular was very gracious with his time, offering great suggestions not only with musical selections, but also pointers on how, for example, to rhythmically transition from low melodies to extremely fast paced scores and vice-versa in certain cases.

Q: What was your role as creative editor?

Tanaka: My role as Creative Editor entailed performing all edits for the entire set of Pixar musical concert suites, from the first rough-cut conceptual passes to final online polishing. The process involved collaborating with all of the Pixar directors, producers and music composers to ensure that my personal selection of music and related animated imagery jibed with their expectations for each of the 13 Pixar animated features to date.

Q: Tell me more about the selection and order of clips to support the underlying music.

Tanaka: I was pretty much left to my own accord regarding how to initially approach musical selection and accompanying Pixar picture content. With the amount of creative control I was given, I thought it best to approach the editing process by simply asking myself as a moviegoer, "What are my fondest memories from each of the Pixar movies?" For that reason picture and music were often cut together, directly from each Pixar movie as they were synced for original feature film release, as a starting point.

(But) we had two major challenges throughout the editorial process regarding edited content:

1 - Core Narrative Theme Per Film:

Since this concert project is to celebrate the music of Pixar, we don't necessarily want to re-tell the entire story of each movie, from start to finish, in some kind of condensed cut version. We knew we could pretty much assume that persons paying for tickets to experience this concert had seen most of the Pixar movies, if not all of them. Therefore, from an editorial standpoint, the challenge became how to craft one's favorite moments from the films into some central narrative core theme or message per movie.

In the case of "Ratatouille," for example, it was Remy's "joy of cooking" over, say, Linguini's romance story with Collette or his butting heads with Sous Chef Skinner. For "Finding Nemo," it was the father/son relationship between Marlon and Nemo despite how entertaining the banter between Marlon and Dory was to watch. For "UP," it was no question (it was) all about Carl Fredrickson's love for his best friend and wife Ellie, despite his newfound relationships with Russell, Kevin the bird and talking dog, Dug, in the movie.

In making these clear cut decisions to focus on specific narrative themes, it helped shape the direction of my edits further away from just being "best of" or "highlights" montage reels. Adhering to this approach of conveying narrative themes as best as possible, however, sometimes meant breaking with the actual chronological unfolding of events as originally presented in the movies.

For "Monsters, Inc.," for example, to tell the story of Sully's caring for Boo we needed to first explain how the factory "scare floor" actually worked, with its access to children's multiple bedrooms. To show how sad it was for Sully to leave Boo behind before he reopens her bedroom door at the end of the movie, however, I decided to introduce the characters' sad parting scene in "flashback," right before Sully opens the door. Such an arrangement deviated from the feature film, but gave the best emotional payoff possible for the concert audience while at the same time complementing Randy Newman's underlying score.

Another example is "WALL•E" in which it was decided early on that we would focus on the romance between the little trash compacting robot and E.V.E, as opposed to the story of "humans in space." Such scenes struck an emotional chord with moviegoers and also offered some of the most beautiful scores Thomas Newman created for the film. In order to center on the romance theme, however, we felt we needed to remind audiences of WALL•E's personality first - his humor and sense of awe. Again breaking from original feature film release narrative order, I decided to first showcase scenes in which WALL•E comically sifts through trash in his "day job," as well as when he takes in the wonders of the universe upon leaving Earth. Although WALL•E first meets E.V.E. before leaving his home planet, presenting concert audiences with his tour of the universe first made for a better understanding as to why WALLE•e is so awe-inspired by E.V.E.'s ability to fly (when she was introduced on Earth) and how easy it was to immediately fall in love with her.

2 - Concert Performance Time Constraints

The other challenge to editing this concert was purely logistical: time. Working closely with San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall, we determined that a concert event of this type should run approximately 90 minutes in total length, with a 20-minute intermission included. With thirteen Pixar feature animated motion pictures to account for, that roughly determined that each of my edited suites should run for as short as four minutes to as long as seven or eight minutes, but no longer. Given the adherence to highlighting particular narrative themes per movie and the ability to shift scenes out of sequence, I could cut in accordance to such time constraints, and as a whole deliver edited concert material within the requested 70-minute total running time.

In the final stages of production, my job as Creative Editor also entailed final video projection quality checks with Brice Parker and Laurel Ladevich prior to the actual live performances at San Francisco's Davies Symphony Hall, connecting with Disney Music Publishing's team of Jonathan Heely and Ed Kainins to go over technical concerns regarding smooth video projection playback rates and cross-comparing conductor versus audience synced video footage, and also communicating with Music Arranger Mark Watters, regarding any last (minute) questions or suggestions during rehearsals with Conductor Sarah Hicks and the Davies Symphony Orchestra.

Q: I found it interesting that the music wasn't shown in chronological order starting with "Toy Story" and ending with "Brave." Knowing Pixar, I knew there was some thought given to the program arrangement. Can you tell me more about the decision-making?

Tanaka: It was such an interesting selection process to go through regarding concert program arrangement, for we definitely had several key points of criteria to consider. Right from the start, however, the one fact that we knew didn't make any sense to adhere to was the chronological order in which the Pixar movies were originally released. "So what," right? As personal fans of cinema ourselves, our love of movies really has no bearing on compartmentalizing feature films to what specific year they were shown to the public for the very first time (we just love them!).

Beyond starting the concert with Pixar's first film "Toy Story" as sort of an homage to "the little film company that could," the program arrangement of the other movies came down to other factors. Those factors included:

who the Pixar director and music composer were for each production
if that particular production was a Pixar sequel
and, the resulting overall tone of the piece I ended up editing to represent each movie.

(L to R) Lee Unkrich, John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter and friends.
Copyright Pixar. All rights reserved

We really felt that the specific movies per each of our five Pixar directors (Andrews, Bird, Docter, Lasseter and Stanton) should be equally spread across the program as opposed to being clumped together since there may be aesthetic similarities if we group one filmmaker's body of work one after another. Why not instead spread them out?

Similarly, we felt that our four Pixar music composers (Doyle, Giacchino, R. Newman and T. Newman) should also be separated across the entire concert so their composing styles could be best appreciated played in contrast to one another, as opposed to being performed one after another.

In addition, it only made sense that Pixar sequels (such as sequels for the "Toy Story" and "Cars" sagas) should be separated from one another in the program so they could be appreciated on their own merits,and not unfairly condensed down as if to imply that they together represent just one story and individually nothing more.

Lastly, the final edited suite I created for each Pixar movie was then assessed for its content and the resulting overall tone that was created. For example, "The Incredibles" and "Cars 2" suites I cut really celebrated the action adventure spirit contained in each of those films, therefore they should perhaps not be placed next to each other in order to give the audience variety spread across the entire concert.

On the other end of the spectrum, "Finding Nemo" and "UP" evolved into offering two of our most dramatic and emotional suites for the evening, therefore they should intentionally be set apart from each other for optimum audience appreciation.

David Tanaka then volunteered some "closing thoughts" :

As mentioned, the entire process lasted for (more than) two years, with much collaboration and back and forth communication from all involved. It was truly a fun process for myself and everyone involved, all in the name of our love of musical scores.

In addition to the satisfaction of representing our Pixar movies, directors, music composers and movie soundtracks as best as possible, having audience members experience and enjoy Pixar's 13 movies through music and just in the span of a mere 90-minute concert performance was an extremely rewarding experience for me as the project's Creative Editor, and hopefully for the audience as well!

Blog Post: Wet 'n' Wild piles on the slides with its new Blastaway Beach waterpark playground

Jaime Schilling — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 03:21:00 GMT

Just in time for the beginning of 2012 summer break, Orlando's Wet 'n' Wild water park has replaced its former kids area with Blastaway Beach, a sandcastle-themed family water play area. Blastaway Beach opened on Saturday June 2, with a stampede of excited children trying out the new slides (17 of them!) and playing in the two pools included in the revamped area.

Photo by Max Schilling

Blastaway Beach is centered around a 60-foot tall sandcastle. Every minute or so, a trough within the top of the sandcastle pours gallons of water on the children underneath. On top of that, approximately 160 sprayers, jets, waterfalls and water cannons ensure that everyone gets drenched.

Photo by Max Schilling

Occupying 15,000 square feet, Blastaway Beach feels enormous compared to your average kiddie pool. In fact, Blastaway Beach is the largest waterpark playground in Florida. Wet 'n' Wild has designed the area in a secluded portion of the park (towards the front gate), and it has only one entrance and exit, hopefully making it a little easier to find your child at the end of a day of playing.

Photo by Max Schilling

Additionally, if Mom and Dad want to join in the fun, they're welcome to. There are no height or weight restrictions on any of the slides, and on some of the shorter slides, adult and child can slide together. And if the parents would prefer to sunbathe poolside, there is no shortage of lounge chairs and table seating.

Photo by Max Schilling

Blastaway Beach operates regular Wet 'n' Wild park hours, and is included with normal park admission.

Blog Post: Kingdom Hearts fans rejoice as Tetsuya Nomura hints that a return to home console games could be in the works

Alice Hill — Tue, 29 May 2012 02:56:00 GMT

2012 is a big year for all us Kingdom Hearts fans, given that it was 10 years ago this year that this hugely popular Disney-inspired game first came on the scene (with the Japanese version for PlayStation 2 dropping on March 28, 2002 while the North American version debuted on September 17th of that same year).

But for those of us who love the Playstation version of Kingdom Hearts, our hearts have been aching for a number of years now. Given that the last Kingdom Hearts game which came out on a console system was for the Playstation 2 in 2008. And even then it was a remake of a portable console game, the Game Boy Advance which came out in 2003. More to the point, the last original 'non-spinoff' Kingdom Hearts game that came out before that was back in 2005. Between then and now, Square Enix (the company that makes Kingdom Hearts) has released a DS game, a PSP game, a 3DS game, and a mobile game in Japan.

Each game that has come out since wasn't so much a way to continue the main story, but moreover a way to explain loose ends. With 'Final Mix' versions of the games with extra scenes and information being released. Kingdom Hearts games usually center around the main character, Sora, interacting with the Disney characters on different 'Worlds' to solve their problems, but slowly the story has become more and more about original characters & Square Enix characters and less about Disney. To the point where a game like Epic Mickey was considered to a breath of fresh air to Disney fans who just wanted to see Disney characters in a Disney game (Though -- that said -- the folks at Square Enix do make a point of recruiting the actors who originally voiced these Disney characters to come back and voice these characters yet again for the Kingdom Hearts games).

And these tying-up-loose-ends Kingdom Hearts games, while they are all very good, have gradually produced a backlash within the fan community. At first when 358/2 Days (A game that centered around a pseudo clone of Sora and the Organization he worked for), Birth by Sleep (A game that centered around three characters which had Keyblades, the magical weapon Sora has), and KH Mobile (A game where you can dress up a human avatar like Kingdom Hearts characters) were announced, the fans were extremely happy. But it's been seven years now since the last major Kingdom Hearts game was released and fans can't help but ask 'When will the spin-offs stop'? The arguments over whether or not these games are truly spin-offs have become so intense that many members of the community have adopted the phrase 'Don't Call It a Spin-off'.

So when Tetsuya Nomura, the creator of Kingdom Hearts, hinted in Nintendo Power that future KH games may return to consoles, the fans had reason to rejoice. '"I also feel that it's about time that Kingdom Hearts should go back to being on a console," Tetsuya said after being asked about doing a game on the PSP Vita.

That said, this doesn't necessarily guarantee a Kingdom Hearts console game from Nomura anytime soon. If anything, rumors suggest that a Birth By Sleep 2 is in the works. But whatever Nomura does next, Kingdom Hearts fans are sure to fight over it.

But -- for now -- let's just celebrate Kingdom Hearts' 10th anniversary by checking out Dream Drop Distance, the Nintendo 3DS game which hits store shelves on July 12th. And then hope that -- in our Kingdom-Heart-of-Hearts -- that console game which Tetsuya Nomura recently hinted at actually gets released before Kingdom Hearts' 11th or 12th anniversary rolls around.

Blog Post: Virtual Magic Kingdom fans attempt to rebuild the Magic

Alice Hill — Tue, 22 May 2012 02:39:00 GMT

Four years ago today (On May 21^st, 2008, to be exact) Virtual Magic Kingdom was shut down. One of Disney's more popular tries at an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Think World of Warcraft.), the closing of VMK was met with petitions, and a not-so-successful protest at the park. VMK was ultimately closed, and fans to this day still lurk the unofficial VMK forums, reminiscing about their old game. VMK was ultimately meant only to really promote other Disney products, but attracted a devoted fanbase.

The game itself was pretty standard - Disney's attempt at Habbo Hotel with beautiful backgrounds and excellent music. Fans created mods (Modifications to the game that can be installed) that improved the game, a common staple of MMOs. But once VMK was gone, its fansites (EX: vmkpal & vmkmagic) slowly began to shut down. All except one, that is.

And that one is VMK revisited , a fangroup's attempt at rebuilding the game. For legal reasons, it's not rebuilding the game itself, but only the scenery and familiar menus. It's an impressive effort. As someone who used VMK to enter into the world of MMO's, testing out the rebuild of VMK was happy nostalgia for me.

Although it was only around for a while, VMK had a largely positive community (And an extremely strict word filter) and an extremely dedicated fanbase. While it was up, VMK had the potential to be anything - Not to the extent of Minecraft, but enough that ten year olds could make a room into a comedy club if they wanted, or a fashion contest, or a trading room, or whatever they desired. Fans used the doors from the Monster's Inc. ride opening in Disney California Adventure Park to link their rooms and create large mazes with prizes and secrets. It allowed them to go to Disney when it was impossible to visit. To quote an 11 year-old fan who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy:

"I love VMK cause I can WALK, TALK, EAT, DANCE, SHOP and play checkers all by myself. p.s. VMK is GERM FREE too! p.s.s. and no one stares at me there."'

So it's understandable to see why fans would miss this game and try to rebuild it. And these fans have made a valiant effort. Whether or not you were a fan of VMK, VMKrevisited is definitely worth taking a look at.

Blog Post: Fruit Cocktail, Minor League Baseball and Mai Tais?

Roger Colton — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:24:00 GMT

Hope you're ready to join in the fun when Walt's Sierra Adventures when it departs for Reno on Saturday, March 17th. Yes, that is St Patrick's Day but it isn't a wee joke of the little folks that has this trip starting in Emeryville that morning.

No, that fault lies a bit to the south. The San Andreas Fault to be precise. Before October 17th, 1989. Amtrak trains heading out of the Bay Area stopped at a station in Oakland. In a neighborhood whose prime had passed a long time back. Definitely not in the better part of town anymore.

After the Loma Preita earthquake, Amtrak was forced to relocate as the 16th Street Station was condemned, red tagged as not safe to occupy. Looking for a new station site, local governments used the lure of a new train station for the growing Capitol Corridor as a way to jump start redevelopment.

Oakland wanted to keep it's role as the main station for the Bay Area. Using a site across from Jack London Square seemed a good fit. Using the lure of shops and restaurants in a shiny new complex, a new train station on the tracks across the street would be just the ticket. Or would it?

Jack London Square from above

Enter Emeryville. It, too, was in the early stages of redevelopment. Changing from the "garden" district where the factories grew to more of a combination of residential and light industry seemed a great way to bring new revenues to old properties. And a new Amtrak station would make a great addition to all of that.

Oakland seemed to be the natural winner here. Trains from all points had come to that city for a long time. For many years, that meant a nice ride on the ferry across the Bay to the City. San Francisco. When the Bay Bridge (San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge), to be formal opened on November 12, 1936, buses could and did make the trip from their connections with trains. The last ferry steamed out of town on July 29, 1958.

The Bay Bridge under construction in 1935

Even in the Amtrak days, a bus ride was what awaited train passengers after they arrived in Oakland. And the truth be told, that bus would have an easier time and a shorter trip if it went to Emeryville instead of Oakland's Jack London Square. That and the problems of bringing trains down the middle of the Embarcadero to start and end their trips. Just too much hassle.

Meanwhile, back in Emeryville... A long history of industrial uses. In 1890, there was a bit of everything here. Stockyards, an iron mill, a paint plant, plenty of warehouses, a racetrack and an amusement park. (If you ever get a chance to see Van Stroheim's 1924 film "Greed", that is indeed Emeryville where the family heads off to for a day of diversion.) But not much in the way of housing, churches or civic facilities.

That all changed when railroads came to town. The mainline of the Southern Pacific heading east passed through town. Competition came in 1902 when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe came through on it's way to Oakland and it's port. Streetcars and interuban electric trains offered commuters an easy way to travel from work to home. One of those companies even established it's headquarters in Emeryville with one of the largest railroad shop complexes in the West. Building and repairing railcars added to the industrial tax base and brought plenty of jobs to this growing community.

And it was far from alone. From the City of Emeryville web site, "A special "Thirty-Third Anniversary Edition" of the Emeryville Herald published in 1929 listed over 100 companies that called Emeryville home including California Packing Corp., Fisher Body, Judson-Pacific, Oliver Tire and Rubber, Pacific Gas and Electric, Paraffin Paint Company, Pennzoil, Santa Fe Railroad, Shell Oil, Sherwin-Williams Paints, Southern Pacific, Standard Electric, Union Oil, Western Electric, and Westinghouse." All in all, plenty of things going on there. Residential neighborhoods came as those folks working in all those businesses decided to stay, too. That meant all of the usual civic improvements. Emeryville had gone from just a sleepy spot by the Bay to being a player in the local economy.

Look! Jobs on Park Street in Emeryville!!!

That California Packing Corporation? It late became part of the Del Monte Company. Canning fruits and vegetables that would find there way to tables across the West. On a nice little place called Park Street. Just down the block from the City Hall, too. Wonder how many cans of fruit cocktail came out of that place over the years?

And just up the block? How about the home of the Oakland Oaks? One of the classic baseball teams of the old Pacific Coast League. They played their games at Oaks Park at the corner of Park Street and San Pablo Avenue. Even had a guy named Casey Stengel managed the Oaks for a while. He might have had some experience at that, having managed for both the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Boston Braves. So go that he went back to the majors and managed the New York Yankees in 1949. Oaks Park lasted until 1957 when it was torn down to make room for a Pepsi-Cola bottling plant.

An aerial view of Park Street in Emeryville. Oaks Ball Park on the right and
the Del Monte Cannery to the left.

Not far away at Sixty Fifth Street and San Pablo Avenue, a young gentleman made a name for himself with a nice little bar and restaurant called Hinky Dinks. So much of a name that he ended up creating one of the classic bar concoctions of all times. You may know him better as Trader Vic and the cocktail? The Mai Tai, of course!

So... a long way to the end of this tale? Well, maybe, but if you decide to come to Emeryville to join us for Walt's Sierra Adventures, you should plan to explore a bit of this city. For example, that Del Monte Cannery and the former Oaks Ball Park? Why indeed, that is today's home to Pixar.

Sorry, not open for tours. You can just look in from Park Street.

And although you can't take a tour of the studio, you should certainly stop by Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe at the corner of Park Street and Hollis Street. It's got that vibe, that high energy spirit found across the street making everyone's favorite family films. And the food is pretty tasty, too!

Or for something a bit more relaxed, why not plan to stop by the Trader Vic's mothership location on Anchor Drive. Fun, good food and beverages await. Either at the bar or in the restaurant.

Oh, those old school Mai Tai's!

But don't stay out too late! You won't want to miss the train when we head east that Saturday morning. Plenty of good stories to be shared aboard about Walt and the adventures that could have been in store for guests to the Sierra resorts at Mineral King and Independence Lake. And Saturday night's Ice Cream Social has some surprises in store that you won't find anywhere else. Hope you can join us for all of the fun in store!

Blog Post: "He was always grandpa" : The Miller children recall Walt Disney

Leo N. Holzer — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 22:37:00 GMT

Family togetherness and memories of shared experiences to last a lifetime ... those are at the heart of Walt Disney's many creations - from cartoon characters and heart-warming movies that have entertained generations to Disneyland, which has delighted guests between the ages of 2 and 102 since opening in 1955.

Family meant a great deal to Disney, both personally and professionally.

His daughter, Diane Disney Miller, told me in 2005 that despite her father's success, she and her sister, Sharon, lived a fairly typical family life. The girls had two loving, caring and protective parents.

Walt takes a photo of his daughters Sharon & Diane in the backyard
of the Disney family home in Holmby Hills

Her dad, she said, was a hugger who enjoyed family dinners at home, weekly outings with his girls, even time regularly spent driving his daughters to school on his way to the studio. Walt was quite happy with his little family, even though Diane learned many years later from her aunt that he had wanted more children but that doctors had advised her mother, Lillian, not to attempt another pregnancy after a few miscarriages.

It would have "only been me," Diane said, if her parents hadn't gone out and adopted her sister, Sharon.

Walt and Lillian would later become "very loving" grandparents. And, making Walt a grandparent was the "best thing I ever did for him," Diane said.

Diane and her husband, Ron Miller, parented seven children; six were born before Walt's death on Dec. 15, 1966.

Walt Disney's grandchildren: (L to R) Tammy, Chris, Joanna, Walter and Jennifer.
Photo courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Foundation

Five of them - Chris, Joanna, Tammy, Jennifer and Walter Miller - recently shared memories of their maternal grandfather in a special program at The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. Ron Jr., born in 1963, was too young when his grandfather died to participate with his siblings and Patrick Miller wasn't born until 1967.

The program provided an intimate look at Walt's family life from adored grandchildren who had a unique relationship to one of the most creative and influential men of the 20th century. They, too, said both their parents and grandparents did everything they could to give them a fairly typical family life.

The following is the first of two reports offering highlights of the program, plussed and sprinkled throughout with material obtained during an exclusive interview after the event. Part one focuses mostly on the grandchildren's memories of Walt. Part two will take a look at "Granny Lillian" and include more of their thoughts about Grandpa Walt, from his unfinished projects to the family foundation-funded museum at The Presidio.

Jeff Kurtti, a Disney historian, author and member of the team that helped plan the museum's galleries, served as the program's moderator. With an assist by researcher Paula Sigman-Lowery, Kurtti quoted Walt's own words as he introduced each participant in order from birth.

Disney author and historian Jeff Kurtti served as moderator of the "Our Grandpa, Walt
Disney" panel. Photo courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Foundation

In a letter to his Aunt Jessie dated Dec. 9, 1954, Walt wrote about the upcoming arrival of his first grandchild Chris Miller: "We are planning to spend Christmas up near San Francisco ... where Diane is now living. Her husband is in the service - he's stationed at Fort Ord, which is near Carmel. So, we'll all be together up there ... and I'm going to be a grandfather, which I guess will make you a great-great aunt. We're all very happy and excited about this coming event."

As an adult, Walt also wrote several annual birthday letters to his younger sister, Ruth, born on Dec. 6, 1903. Walt was born on Dec. 5, 1901.

In his letter to her in December 1956, Walt talked about the arrival of his first granddaughter, Joanna: "Now that Ron is out of the service, he and Diane are settling down and are building themselves a home here in the valley. While they are waiting for it to be completed, they are spending most of their time at the house with us. And, although it gets a bit hectic at times, granddaddy and grandma are having the time of their lives with little Chris and Joanna. Joanna is as cute a little pixie as ever drew a breath and Chris is still as wonderful as ever."

In December 1957, following a two-month trip abroad, Walt wrote to Ruth: "Lilly just about had a fit having to be away from the grandchildren so long and I guess I'll have to admit to being homesick for them, too. We were as happy as two grandparents could be with just Chris and Joanna, but then little Tammy came along and found her little niche in our hearts, too."

Walt Disney carries Tammy as he leads Christopher
through Disneyland. Copyright Disney Enterprises,
Inc. All rights reserved

In December 1960, Walt shared his excitement about his third granddaughter, Jennifer, as well as his desire for another grandson. He wrote: "Diane had another little girl last May 8. ... She's a little doll. No cuter than the others, but at this age she's a darn sight quieter. I was a little disappointed - kind of wanted another grandson - but Diane says 'I'm not to give up. There's always next time.' "

In December 1961, Walt wrote to Ruth: "I don't know if you had heard about the BIG news ... the birth on Tuesday, Nov. 14th, of Walter Elias Disney Miller. Diane finally decided to name one of her sons for me, and I'm thrilled to have a male heir bearing my name. With the first boy, Diane pulled a name out of the blue. She didn't seem to like tagging a son of hers with my name. She had a particular aversion to the 'Elias' part of it. But, when this one came, she changed her mind and gave him the full treatment. She certainly made me very happy."

The letters were a touching way of beginning the program. They also illustrated a side of Walt often overshadowed in biographies and the historical record by his numerous professional accomplishments. This "family" story - with photos, film clips and several personal artifacts showing Walt as a son, a brother, a husband, a father and finally a grandfather - provides key bits of information to those studying Walt's life.

When you listen to Walt's own voice and then hear Diane, her children and the people who worked with him, you get a sense that Walt was, as Kurtti said, "the man he purported to be."

"Everytime we saw grandpa in the public or on television, he didn't seem any different than when he was in his own living room or watching us play in the yard," Chris said, kicking off the discussion.

Joanna recalled her and her siblings kissing grandpa's image when they saw him host his weekly TV show, but she became a bit perplexed when some of her friends told her they did the same thing. She'd tell them, "He's not your grandpa."

"I'm trying to remember if we ever kissed him on the television when he was sitting in the living room," Chris added, in one of the afternoon's many lighthearted exchanges.

To us, Jennifer said, "he was always grandpa. When we walked into the door, we were excited to see him and he was just mobbed."

Joanna, Tammy & Chris join Walt for a parade at Disneyland. Copyright Disney
Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

Kurtti asked if the five, as children, realized how famous their grandfather was.

"We'd have situations at Disneyland where we were thrust into the parades. ... we recognized that something was different about him," Tammy said, adding that "another clue" came when Walt would take them to school and "people would run out and look at us."

"We're all pretty shy and I think some of our first experiences being in parades and the like at age 2, 3 and 4 ... that was probably the most traumatic stuff we did with grandpa," Joanna said, "but we did it for him."

And, Grandpa "thought we'd have jolly good fun," Chris added.

Walt explores Injun Joe's Cave with Disneyland's own Tom
Sawyer and Becky Thatcher. Copyright Disney Enterprises,
Inc. All rights reserved

Walter called his grandpa "a little bashful, but gregarious.

"He wasn't shy like we were. You hear about him when he was a kid. He was an adventurous Tom Sawyer, who befriended adults. We were all terrified of adults when we were little."

"But I think a lot of that (shyness) was because we were protected" Tammy said. "We were also a little insecure about the fact that our grandfather was Walt Disney. We didn't want people using or trying to manipulate us.

"Of course," she added, "he was born in a different day and age, too. Could there be a Walt Disney today? Could that personality exist today with all the paparazzi and technology?"

Christopher Disney Miller and Walt in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle. Copyright
Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

"I think there were a lot of assumptions," Chris said talking about his grandfather's fame. As children, it was ... "hard to figure out what were dangerous assumptions," when you could "engage the inquisitor," or know "what someone was trying to get out of you" - even if that was simply free tickets to Disneyland.

"We ... lived a very simple, traditional family life. So when people would confront us with 'your grandpa is Walt Disney,' it seemed like an odd affront to us," even though, Chris continued, "we knew grandpa was world-renowned."

"We were very lucky though," Jennifer added. "Our parents and grandparents did a beautiful job of protecting us. We really had such a normal life. They all made sure of it."

Walter talked about the three questions he and his siblings heard most frequently from peers at school: "Is your grandpa THE Walt Disney?"; "Do you get into Disneyland free?"; and "Is your grandpa frozen?"

Diane Disney Miller, Christopher Disney Miller and Walt take a spin on
Disneyland's Autopia. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All rights reserved

"I think the worst was having people ask if he had been frozen shortly after he died," Joanna said. "We were still getting over losing a relative."

She then asked her younger brother to repeat his reply to the cryogenics query. Walter would simply parrot the question back at the inquiring peer and ask - "Is your grandpa frozen?" It's a strategy he remembers using as far back as first or second grade.

Kurtti then asked "where is grandpa when you're having a memory about him?"

"I'm just thinking of the living room at their house," Joanna said. "He and granny sitting in their chairs, enjoying the evening together, before or after dinner."

Walt and Lillian traveling with Tamara, Walter, Joanna and Christopher
Photo courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Foundation

The grandkids spent most of their time with their grandparents at Walt and Lillian's two main residences, the "large but humble" Holmby Hills home and the Disneys' weekend retreat in Palm Springs. Both houses had huge yards and a lot of windows where Walt could keep a watchful eye on his grandkids if he wasn't sitting out in the yard as they played.

"You have to understand," Tammy said, "there were moments when grandpa was working and we'd be building forts with lawn furniture around him and he loved it."

"And I remember little Ronnie sitting in his lap landing airplanes on grandpa's head as he's reading," Joanna said.

"I think as children we didn't realize how much work he brought home," Chris said.

Walt and his grandson Christopher Disney Miller
Image courtesy of the Walt Disney Family
Foundation

"He tolerated all of our chaos and he always seemed to appreciate it," Tammy said. "We felt so loved - cherished by him as a group. He wasn't somebody who picked out favorites. He ... adored all of us and that's a wonderful feeling to be able to have."

Walter admitted that outside of the last year of his grandfather's life, he has "very few memories" of time spent with him. Most of his memories are sensory - tastes, smells, even some sounds.

He does remember sitting with his grandparents in the living room, "taking ice cubes out of (grandpa or granny's) Scotch Mist. I still remember that flavor, it was so unique," Walter said, adding that even today he's "not a Scotch drinker."

Kurtti recalled the early days of designing the museum galleries with Walter when boxes of Walt's personal items arrived. Walter responded to a shaving kit when he opened it and, Kurtti said, "I'll never forget you saying, 'Oh my God, it smells like grandpa.' "

Walter Elias Disney Miller with some of Walt's personal effects that he helped unpack
at the Walt Disney Family Museum. Photo courtesy of the Walt Disney Family
Foundation.

That prompted Walter's siblings to recall their own sense memories.

"The orange slices in the Scotch," Joanna said. "You really wanted one and (granny and grandpa would) put in lots of slices when we were there."

Tammy said she associates the smell of a grease pencil with her grandfather because he used them to mark up dozens of scripts he frequently brought home to review.

Jennifer says the smell of petunias brings back "happy memories" of Palm Springs, when grandpa would be in his office with the windows open "listening to us, enjoying us and watching us" as the kids would ride around and around on a path in the back yard. "He was always present when we were there," she said.

The Miller children pose for Grandpa during a Disney family vacation trip to Vancouver.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

In addition to the time spent with grandpa and granny at the Disneys' two homes, the children's play areas extended on occasion to the Walt Disney Studio and the Golden Oak Ranch, which featured several sets and was used as a film and television shooting location.

The grandchildren remembered using Chris' or Joanna's Autopia cars and riding bicycles to explore The Walt Disney Studio and its backlot. They talked of visiting their grandpa's office and admiring his vast miniature collection. (Chris' Autopia car as well as a representative sampling of Walt's miniatures are on display at the museum.)

Walter remembers one trip to the Golden Oak Ranch and seeing "the greatest, most incredible treehouse" and then returning later and being "devastated" to find that it had been removed.

Jennifer remembers visiting Zorro's horse, Tornado, which was enjoying retirement from showbiz in the verdant pastures of the ranch.

(L to R) Diane Disney Miller, Ron Miller, Christopher Disney Miller, Walt
Disney and Lillian out for a stroll at Disneyland. Copyright Disney
Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

Still as special as those two places were, they paled in comparison to their time spent with grandpa and granny at Disneyland, the world's largest and greatest playground for all ages at least until 1971.

"Going to Disneyland with them was obviously something totally different from what anyone else gets to experience," Joanna said, talking about how Walt would prepare before taking the children out into the park by stuffing some pre-signed autographs into his pocket. "He was intent on getting us to enjoy the place. That's why he made it."

She also recalled watching him "casually talk" to the cast members and noticed "a warmth that he had with everybody. I don't know a lot of people who are able to do that."

Chris finally piped in with a sensory memory - one shared by his siblings.

Lillian & Walt Disney and their grandchildren in their private family apartment over the
firehouse on Disneyland's Main Street, U.S.A. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All rights reserved

"Talking about the Disneyland experience, we had the great fortune of spending some nights at the apartment there (above the Main Street Fire Station.) We had this auditory sensation of The Jungle Cruise and the cannibals. We were safe in the apartment, but there were cannibals nearby."

"I'm very nostalgic about the apartment," Tammy said. "It was a personal favorite for us ... the way we interacted with the jungle people," prompting several of her siblings to begin a headhunters' chant. "We had some fun back there."

Kurtti asked whether the Miller kids if their grandpa, who some employees remember as temperamental at times, ever got angry with them.

"He didn't get mad," Chris said, "he'd get impatient."

The view out into Disneyland Park from inside Walt's apartment.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

"We're close in age and we'd have our little sibling arguments," Joanna said, adding that their grandmother had reminded them that grandpa was "a very busy man and he doesn't want to hear you argue."

There was one time in Palm Springs when grandpa said "something about not wanting to hear that ... that's all it took. We still argued at home, but not at granny and grandpa's ... we respected that."

"It's pretty amazing that in all the time we spent with them, there's only the one time any of us can remember," Tammy said.

Kurtti asked about Christmas with the Disneys as he introduced a 1958 letter from Walt to Ruth when Walt wrote about "the little chuckle" that Joanna and Tammy gave him and Lillian when they "asked for (toy) guns and holsters" for Christmas. "Lilly thought she hadn't heard right ... these old-fashioned grandparents thought the girls would want dolls, but guns it is."

Joanna and Chris drive their personal Autopia car around the Disney Backlot.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

"Christmases were amazing," Tammy said.

Joanna said that the grandkids would get boxes with "gifts from all the characters, Jiminy Cricket, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald ... lots of Disney products.

"I always felt sort of spoiled by that, but later on I learned that grandpa gave to more people than I knew and that pleased me."

Chris then talked about the Disney employee Christmas parties where everyone who brought a child left "with boxes of stuff," the same Disney products the grandkids would get from Disney's cartoon stars.

Toward the end of the program Kurtti asked about their final family vacation with Walt, taken five months before his death, before he knew he had lung cancer.

Walt and his grandkids do some on-shoring exploring during the Vancouver trip.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

"That was sort of a finale for the family in a lot of ways ... one of the first pure vacations we had," Chris said, talking about a two-week houseboat trip along the British Columbia coast. Walt and Lillian were joined by 11 immediate family members - their two daughters and their husbands, six of the Millers' kids and granddaughter Victoria Brown, Sharon's first-born.

"It was family on an adventure," Chris continued, "there wasn't a movie company nearby that grandpa was monitoring and my dad wasn't working."

Walter said some of his most vivid memories of grandpa are from the Vancouver cruise. One memory in particular stands out. Chris and Walter were in one of the rowboats when "Chris sees a bald eagle on a cliff ... He's rowing away from the boat when all of the sudden we hear this megaphone: 'Chris, that's far enough,' " Walter recounted. I don't think grandpa was mad, he "just wanted to play with the megaphone ... and during the cruise he loved to wear the captain's hat."

The grandkids remember stopping on small islands and walking through the forests with Walt. They saw totem poles and found eagle feathers on the ground. Walt stood on the deck and watched the grandkids swim and play in the water. During the trip Walt and Lillian celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary, not knowing it would be their last, and Tammy celebrated her ninth birthday.

Walt's grandchildren outside of the Walt Disney Family Museum.
Image courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Foundation

"Thinking back on it, it was just phenomenally fortunate that we had that with him when we did," Chris said.

This discussion lead to a beautiful multimedia presentation compiled by the family foundation's film archivist Scott Zone, featuring several photos (some on display in the museum galleries), a clip featuring Walter's film debut with Wally Boag as quite literally the bouncing baby boy in "Son of Flubber," and well as the Millers' personal family films, showing Walt enjoying his grandchildren at home, at Disneyland, and on that memorable Vancouver vacation. It was the perfect coda to a very special afternoon and left many people wiping away tears.

A few pre-selected audience questions followed, including what the grandkids would like their own children to know about Walt. For the answer to that and other highlights from the program and my exclusive chat, come back for part 2 of this article.

Blog Post: I am Number Three: Competing in the Ultimate Disney Trivia Tournament

Paul Schnebelen — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:08:00 GMT

I really should have studied.

That was the main thought going through my mind as I walked toward the Anaheim Convention Center on Thursday, August 18th. I had meant to prepare for the Ultimate Disney Trivia Tournament by reading my copy of "Disney A to Z" and any Disney trivia books I could get my hands on, but I never found the time. And by this point, it was too late to do anything about it. I was going to have to hope that whatever amount of Disney knowledge that was floating around in my brain was going to be enough to get me far enough in the tournament that I wouldn't embarrass myself.

Please understand that I had shown up for the Ultimate Disney Trivia Tournament with no expectation that I'd be in the running for the grand prize, a 3-day cruise on the Disney Fantasy. I had decided to participate just to get an idea of how much I knew about Disney, and because the whole idea of competing against some of the most knowledgeable Disney fans as well as the quiz masters from D23 & the Walt Disney Archives sounded as intriguing to me as it sounded terrifying. I made up my mind from the beginning that I'd be happy with my final standing in the tournament no matter how far I got - as long as I didn't get eliminated right from the start.

Dan Roebuck of "LOST" fame served as MC of the 2011 Ultimate Disney Trivia
tournament. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

That Thursday morning, there were a couple hundred people standing in line outside the Anaheim Convention Center waiting to test their mettle. The group was very diverse as far as ages and background. There were teenage girls and older men, folks from southern California and folks from the East Coast and Japan, and people that I knew pretty well from the Disney fan community as well as people who I'd never met before.

Some people were quizzing each other in the queue in the hope of improving their chances. While others just stood quietly, confident that they were ready for whatever Disney could throw at them. I spotted several people in line that I knew would go pretty far in the tournament. After hearing a few trivia questions, I was even surer that I really should have studied more. Well, as the Ghost Host might say, there's no turning back now.

The first round of the Ultimate Disney Trivia Tournament was the one that had me the most worried. What the folks from D23 did for the first round was to have a couple of people at a time walk through the doors of the Convention Center, where a D23 staff member would then meet each contestant. Each contestant would be asked one question. If the contestant got the question, they'd then get a sticker with Ludwig Von Drake on it, and they'd proceed up the escalator to the third floor of the Convention Center and Round Two of the tournament. If the person blew the question, they'd get a sticker with Bertie Birdbrain from Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom on it and they were done, although the person could get back in line and try again. The line was supposed to be cut off by 9:30 a.m., or as soon as Disney had 2,000 people who made it through the first round. Fortunately for anyone who did mess up on their question, it didn't look like there would be enough contestants for the 2,000-person-limit to be a problem.

I walked up to the D23 staff member, as nervous as all get-out and hoping that I wouldn't be taking the "Disney Trivia Walk of Shame". Then came the question: What were the names of Donald's nephews? I breathed a sigh of relief that I had gotten such an easy question, answered "Huey, Dewey, and Louie", and then got my Ludwig von Drake sticker.

Although I'd read the rules of the Tournament before deciding to participate, I really didn't know what to expect as I stepped off the escalator and walked to the entrance of D23 Expo's Stage 23. I definitely wasn't expecting to be handed a pencil and a Scantron sheet as I walked through the door. But that's what was used to test the contestants in the second round of the Tournament.

The contestants would be asked 50 multiple choice questions; they had 30 seconds to read the question shown on the auditorium's video screen and choose the correct response. A certain number of contestants with the highest scores would advance to the third round; a list of the people that would be announced later in the day, via a posting on the D23 website and a list posted at the entrance to the Convention Center Although Disney's original plan called for multiple second round quizzes to be administered to 500 people at a time, there couldn't have been more than a couple of hundred contestants in Stage 23 for this first quiz, so by this point I think everyone in the auditorium was feeling confident about their chances of making it to the third round. That didn't mean that any of us were going to take the second round quiz in stride, however.

Four friends of mine from the Disneyana Fan Club - David, Doug, Eric, and Roger - had also entered the Ultimate Disney Trivia Tournament and made it to Stage 23. So we decided to sit together to provide each other moral support. Our quizmaster for the second round, Graham from the Walt Disney Archives, walked on stage, explained how the quiz would work, and told us how to correctly complete the Scantron sheet. (Well, it had been a while since the last time some of us had taken a test).

The first ten questions of the second round quiz were easy enough that there were more than a few chuckles coming from the audience, but the questions got harder as the quiz continued. By the time Graham had gotten to the last 10 questions, things were getting pretty tricky. (Some examples: What year did the Flying Saucers attraction open at Disneyland? What was the real name of Marge Champion, the model for Snow White?) I felt relatively confident that I'd done well on the quiz, although I didn't think I'd done all that well on the final questions; my friends felt pretty confident, too. We handed in our Scantrons as we left Stage 23 and went our separate ways to wait for the afternoon and the announcement of the contestants selected to advance to the third round. (Oh, and for those of you who are wondering: The Flying Saucers opened in 1961 and Marge Champion's real name was Marjorie Belcher.)

It was about 1:30 on Thursday afternoon when I got the word. My girlfriend and I had decided to walk over to Disney California Adventure for lunch, and after we'd finished eating at Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta, I borrowed my girlfriend's iPhone and had a look at the D23 website. Disney had selected about 100 contestants to advance to the third round, and my friends and I were all on the list! I had until 3 p.m. to report back to Stage 23 for the third round, but I wasn't going to take any chances; my girlfriend and I left DCA and walked back to the Convention Center. After having faced my old schoolhouse nemesis the Scantron in the second round, I thought for a moment that for the third round we'd be handed "blue books" and asked to write a "compare and contrast" essay. The folks from D23 and the Archives weren't quite that mean, but some of the questions they asked in the third round made me feel like they'd gotten pretty close.

The contestants entering Stage 23 for the third round were given a sticker featuring Professor Owl and a big white sticker with a number. (We later learned that the number roughly matched our standings from the second round. It turns out that I came in about 15th - wow!). The contestants were divided into groups of eight, and each group was directed to sit in a row. On stage were several sets of flip boards, and each board had three sets of flip cards with the letters A through E. One row at a time would be brought on stage, and the quizmasters would ask each group three multiple choice questions; the contestants on stage would answer the questions using the flip cards. If someone got at least two questions right, they'd continue in the tournament. If they got no questions right or just one question right, they were out of the tournament. This would continue until there were about 30 contestants left.

Another new element for this round of the tournament was that we'd have an audience. Friends and family could join the contestants in Stage 23, and contestants who were eliminated from the tournament could then stay and watch as well. So now we had witnesses if we crashed and burned. Graham, who again served as our quizmaster for part of the third round, informed the competitors that the questions would be a little more difficult, with some of the questions being downright "fiendish". No pressure.

Actually, in spite of the added twists, things went reasonably well. This biggest problem the competitors ran into was a series of "flip card malfunctions", where the cards would fall off the stands from being tossed a little too vigorously. (We Disney geeks take our trivia quizzes seriously, folks.) The D23 folks were quick to take the problem flip card boards away at the first sign of trouble, so these flip card issues were at worst an annoyance. The questions...well, the questions were definitely getting really tough by this point.

Jason Robards and Jonathan Pryce in Walt Disney Pictures' 1983 release "Something
Wicked This Way Comes." Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

Anything related to Disney, no matter how obscure, was a possible topic, and the questions covered most of the major parts of the world of Disney equally well. A competitor might answer a question like "Where do the Wizards of Waverly Place live?" (New York), followed by a question about the name for the canoe attraction in Tokyo Disneyland (the Beaver Brothers Explorer Canoes), and then get a question about Jason Robards' character in "Something Wicked This Way Comes." (Jason Robards was actually in that movie?) A few competitors fell by the wayside in the initial quizzes. But after about three of four trips to the stage, most of the competitors - myself included - were doing well enough that it looked like this round was going to take a while. (Thank goodness you could miss one question in each round without being eliminated.)

Of course, Disney could not let this competition go on forever, so they made a few changes. Graham left the stage to be replaced by Steven Vagnini from the Archives, and short while thereafter came - DUM DUM DUUUM!!! - the tougher questions. This was the point where we really started losing competitors - we were down from about 70 competitors to 26 in almost no time at all. Alas, my friend David was the first in our circle of friends to fall, followed a short time later by Eric. But three of our group survived to make it into a group of 26 that would compete in the second part of the third round.

If the first part of the third round had been like running a series of sprints, the second part was more like running a 5K. We were once again divided into small groups - one group of 8, two groups of 9 - and each group was asked 23 questions in a row. The competitors flipped up their answers three at a time, and then cleared their flip boards for the next set of three questions. The questions were tougher than ever. But at least this time, there was no chance of instant elimination - the judges kept tallies of the number of questions gotten right, and once everyone had gotten their turn on stage, the scores were added up. The top 18 people would be invited to compete in the semi-finals. I don't know how everyone else felt, but I walked off the stage after my set of questions figuring I was done - I was sure I hadn't gotten more than two-thirds of them right, and I was sure that that wouldn't be good enough to get me into the next round. Well, at least I had made it this far.

The scores were added up, and a funny thing happened. I made the cut! My friends Doug, Roger, and I had all been selected to compete in the semi-finals, to be held at Stage 23 the following evening. The competitors received a button featuring Merlin from "The Sword in the Stone," and the 8 folks who didn't make it were then invited to come to the show the next day; they would serve as alternates if anybody failed to show up.

Remember the group of friends that I was afraid I was going to embarrass myself in front of? They offered their congratulations and wished all three of us the best of luck in the competition. About this time, Dan Roebuck from "LOST" -- who would be our MC for the final rounds -- came by and offered his congratulations. Dan told us that he was looking forward to seeing us in the competition. Somehow it didn't seem real to me just yet.

Let's flash forward to late Friday afternoon, when the remaining competitors gathered outside Stage 23. We were met by Graham, who told us the rules for the final rounds of the competition. First off, the 18 competitors who'd made it through the previous day's rounds would be joined by two more competitors who'd been selected in competitions at the Destination D events in California and Florida. We would be split into two groups, with one group being sequestered off-stage while the other group competed. We learned the how the final rounds would work (more on that later). We also learned that there would be no more multiple choice questions - we were on our own as far as coming up with answers, although we were told there would be notepads available for us to work with. (Oh, no - did that mean there would be MATH QUESTIONS?!?)

The stakes get higher as the 2011 edition of D23's Ultimate Disney Trivia Challenge
enters its final phase. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

Saying that I was nervous at this point would be a massive understatement, but Graham said something at this point that was actually comforting: "Just remember that no matter what happens inside, you folks are the twenty smartest people in the building today." I realized that making it this far was in itself a major accomplishment, and no matter how bad I flubbed it on stage, at least nobody could take that away from me. A little calmer now but not necessarily any more relaxed, I was escorted with everyone else to the waiting area, where we'd all sit and chat for a bit while the audience and our judges took their places inside Stage 23.

Each group sat at opposite ends in the waiting area - not out of animosity or anything, but just because the D23 folks wanted to be sure the first group could be quickly gotten on stage and the second group would be unable to hear how things were going for the first group once they went in, to prevent the second group from gaining any sort of advantage. Our group idly chatted about things Disney - by this point, nobody felt like quizzing each other to test their knowledge! I learned that two of the competitors in my group had won employee trivia tournaments once held by the Disney Store. That didn't make me feel much better about my chances. But by then I had decided that was going to be happy if I managed to get a couple of questions right and could thus be eliminated with a bit of dignity. A short time later, my group was brought on stage.

On stage, there was a table with ten mikes and notepads. Next to the table were a couple of plush leather chairs. And in those chairs were the competition's main judges: retired Disney archivist Dave Smith, current head of the Walt Disney Archives Becky Cline and our old friend Graham, who -- along with Steven Vagnini -- had written many of the questions for the Tournament. Dan Roebuck paced in front of the table with his mike and his cards. And in front of him (or behind him, from our perspective) were more judges and one really big audience. Aside from all my friends cheering me on as I took to the stage, I really didn't notice the audience much. Whether it was because they were obscured by the stage lights or because I was too nervous to notice, I wasn't sure.

"The biggest word you ever heard and this is how it goes ... "
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

The first round was the Basil of Baker Street Round. Each contestant was asked three questions. They earned a point for each question they got right, with no points deducted for wrong answers, and only the person being asked the questions could answer them. I can't remember what the first question I got was, but I do remember that I got it right, and that I got a nice round of applause from the audience. My next question was about "Something Wicked This Way Comes," and I didn't have an answer at all. (Someday I'm really going to have to watch that movie.) Fortunately, I got my third question right. Not a bad showing at all, if I say so myself. It could have been a lot worse - one contestant was asked to spell "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!"

The second round of the semi-finals was the Scare Floor Round. An image of a set of 12 doors appeared on the video screens in Stage 23, and each contestant got to choose one door; each door featured an audio clue, a video clue, or a prop that was brought on stage. For my question, an Egyptian pharaoh's headdress was brought onstage, and I was asked to name the attraction where this headdress had come from. (I recognized it almost immediately as being from Spaceship Earth.) Another contestant got a video from Disney Legend Bob Gurr, who asked for the name of the person that he and Walt had taken for an unauthorized ride on the Disneyland Monorail on its opening day. (That would be Vice-President Richard Nixon.) The questions were tricky, but our group did pretty well with them.

The third round of the semi-finals was the Lightning McQueen Round. Each of the contestants had buzzers in front of them, and for three minutes, Dan asked a series of questions. As soon as someone had the answer, they'd then try to buzz in first and respond. Unlike the two prior rounds, if someone missed the question, they lost a point, and other contestants could buzz in to try to answer. I decided that my best bet was to be conservative. If I wasn't sure of the answer, I wasn't going to try to buzz in and guess. I didn't lose any points following this strategy, but I didn't pick up any, either.

Then-Vice President Richard Nixon and his family help Walt Disney cut
the ribbon at the official opening of Disneyland's monorail system.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

The person next to me on stage, John Kurowski, had no intention of playing conservatively; he buzzed in on just about every question, and he got just about every one that he buzzed in on right. John got enough points that he easily became the top scorer of our group. The competition for the next two highest scores - and for the two remaining invitations to compete in the final round - was going to be closer.

I was so focused on trying to beat John to the questions that I really didn't notice the scores until the round was over. When I looked, it turned out that I'd gotten third place in my group. I had made it to the final round! Unfortunately, my friends Doug and Roger hadn't been as lucky in their round. It was up to me to make a good showing for our group. Again, no pressure.

The finals of the Ultimate Disney Trivia Tournament had only six contestants, and it worked about the same as the semi-final round. There were only two parts to the final round: The Hasbro's Trivial Pursuit Disney Edition Round and a second Lightning McQueen Round. For the Trivial Pursuit round, each of us would choose a Trivial Pursuit category and try to answer a question (roughly) based on that category. Each contestant got two points for getting the question right and lost no points lost for missing it. But the question would be open to everyone else if it was missed. By this time, I was so wrapped up in the excitement of being in the finals that all I remember about this round was that I answered a question about the location of Walt Disney World (it's in Orange and Osceola Counties), and I think that I missed my own question.

Walt Disney stands in front of the Florida Project site map in 1966.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

After having competed against John in the semi-final Lightning McQueen Round, I was pretty sure that the outcome of the final Lightning McQueen round - and thus the Tournament - was a foregone conclusion, and I was right. The round was five minutes long this time, and once again John dominated the round. He overwhelmed everyone else so thoroughly that by the final minute or so of the round - when I finally managed to beat John to the buzzer a couple of times - John was given my points by mistake. By the time the round was over, John was undeniably the winner of the Tournament and of that cruise on the Disney Fantasy. According to the scores displayed on the monitors, I was going to have to be content with finishing in fifth place.

Or was I? As soon as Dan went to shake the hand of the third-pace finisher, calls went out from the group that had come to cheer me on that the scores were wrong. The judges checked out the scores, and sure enough, I actually had a couple more points than the scoreboard showed. John was in no danger of losing the Tournament. But with the revised scores, I'd moved up from fifth place to third. When I heard that, even I was impressed!

Now I didn't get anything for my third-place finish in the Ultimate Disney Trivia Tournament other than bragging rights and a copy of Hasbro's new Trivial Pursuit Disney For All game (everyone who made it to the semi-finals got a copy). But I really didn't mind. I'd competed against some of the best and the brightest Disney fans, and I'd done better than I'd ever expected. I'm not going to claim I was smarter than anyone else on stage - honestly, had it not been for a bit of luck as well as what I had remembered, the outcome might have been very different. But it was an amazing experience, and I enjoyed all of the congratulations that I got from my friends throughout the weekend of the D23 Expo. A few friends called out "Hey, Number 3!" and held three fingers up in the air every time they saw me. And of course, I proudly wore my third-round button for the entire weekend.

"And for our runners-up, a lovely parting gift: a copy of Hasbro's new Trivial Pursuit
Disney For All game." Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

I can't wait for the next Ultimate Disney Trivia Tournament. I don't know if how far I'll make it next time, but I know it'll be fun. And who knows? Maybe if I study next time and learn to handle a buzzer better, I just might pull off a win. No pressure.

Blog Post: Disney's California Zephyr departs Anaheim, but not for oblivion

Roger Colton — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:48:00 GMT

Fans of the Disney California Adventure (yes, they do exist) have known for some time that the impending Buena Vista Street project would bring changes to the entrance to the theme park. As the Golden Gate Bridge makeover is well underway, the next phase of this project starts to take shape on Monday, August 1st. The shops of the Sunshine Plaza will emerge as a version of Los Angeles that greeted Walt Disney when he arrived from Kansas City in 1923.

Several of those locations in the Sunshine Plaza were originally opened with a railroad theme. A recreation of the famed California Zephyr greeted guests instead of an ordinary building façade. The Burr-bank Ice Cream, Bakersfield Bakery and Engineers Toys all were entered through the cars of the train. From the locomotive on the front of the train to the dome observation on the rear (with a faithful reproduction of the train's neon tailsign), guests were given the flavor of this 1950s passenger train. A bit of the story of the historic Zephyr was presented through photos and artifacts from the train displayed inside.

Guests to Disney's California Adventure admire the replica California Zephyr.
Photo by Roger Colton

Disney's Imagineers had a good foundation to recreate this train with. The cab of the locomotive actually had been a real locomotive once upon a time. Built by General Motors for the Canadian National, this 1940s design had served faithfully in freight and passenger service before heading off to the scrap yard for recycling. Moved to Anaheim by truck, it emerged as a locomotive from the Western Pacific - one of the three railroads that had operated the Zephyr between Chicago and San Francisco from 1949 to 1970. It was even detailed with a nod to the historic, being numbered the 804-A. That locomotive pulled the last westbound California Zephyr into Oakland on March 20, 1970.

When the planning for Buena Vista Street project was begun, the question arose as to how the train might fit into the new area. Perhaps it could be remodeled into the Santa Fe's famed Super Chief - a train that served Southern California, trading the orange and silver of the WP for the red and silver of the AT&SF Warbonnet? A nice idea, but the streamlined Chief didn't make its appearance until 1938, definitely outside of the 1920s era that the Imagineers intended for the area. In the end, the Zephyr was destined to make one last departure as it made way for retro-progress.

The California Zephyr made its mark with passengers when introduced in 1949. It may not have been the fastest train between Chicago and California, yet it offered the best of western scenery during the daytime hours. To capitalize on this bounty, the CZ was one of the first trains equipped with "Vista-Dome" cars, which featured a glass-enclosed upper floor with seating for 24. With a morning departure from Denver, there was the sunny climb up the Front Range of the Rockies, traveling the canyons of Colorado rivers during daylight hours. Into California, the train crossed the Sierra Nevada in daylight, traveling along the canyons of the Feather River. A 1950s advertising slogan for the train promised "Beauty by Day, All the Way!"

Today Amtrak operate its own California Zephyr over part of the original route. As one of the most popular long distance trains, it still offers the best scenery in daylight hours. The difference between the current route and the 1949 route is that the train crosses the Sierra Nevada using the Donner Pass (former Southern Pacific line, also now part of the Union Pacific system) along Interstate 80 instead of following the Feather River route.

The Silver Solarium, an original California Zephyr dome
lounge observation car travels behind Amtrak's
California Zephyr on a February 23, 2008.
Photo by Ryan Martin

Many of the passenger cars of the 1949 Zephyr survived the end of the operation of the train. Many were purchased by Amtrak while others went to Mexico and other rail operations. A surprising number still exist today in museums as well as in charter service. Along the Zephyr's original route, one of those museums shares the legacy of the California Zephyr. The Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, California offers guests the chance to learn more about the railroad (now a part of the Union Pacific system) and the famed train. The Museum has among its collection a complete Zephyr locomotive, the 805-A and several Zephyr passenger cars including a dome coach, dome buffet dormitory and a full dining car.

Locomotives from the Museum's collection on display in Sparks, Nevada.
Photo courtesy of the Western Pacific Railroad Museum

Thanks to Disney Imagineering, Disney's California Zephyr will now live on as part of the Western Pacific Railroad Museum's Zephyr collection. Items previously on display on the walls of the Burr-bank Ice Cream and Bakersfield Bakery will help show museum visitors the vintage years of the trains operation between 1949 and 1970. And the cab of the recreated locomotive will offer museum visitors the chance to experience what it was like for locomotive engineers to travel the Zephyrs route as the train traveled the Feather River canyon.

The cab of the Disney Zephyr loaded aboard the truck for its journey to Portola.
Photo courtesy of the Disneyland Resort

Although other pieces of Disney theme park memorabilia and attraction vehicles have been preserved in various museums across the country, this marks the first such effort for the California Adventure park.

The Western Pacific Railroad Museum in located in Portola, California. A popular feature of the Museum is the Run-A-Locomotive program. It offers guests the opportunity to learn about locomotive operation and then take the throttle to operate the locomotive (under supervision) about the Museums demonstration railway. Several different locomotives are available to choose from. For more information about the Western Pacific Railroad Museum, visit their website. The Museum is open 7 days a week 10am - 5pm, from the first Saturday in May through the first Sunday in October. Weather permitting, the Museum is open weekends and some days in April and November.

A rare opportunity to travel the original route of the California Zephyr will occur August 19th through 21st as a special 12 car-passenger train heads from Oakland to Portola for the annual Railroad Days festival. If you would be interested in riding this special train, Private Car Service is offering a limited number of spaces aboard the former New York Central lounge-sleeping car, "Two Rivers". For more information, please visit the web site or call (925) 321-0023.

Thanks to Disney Imagineering for preserving both the history of the California Adventure theme park as well as sharing the legacy of the California Zephyr as part of the Western Pacific Railroad Museum.

For more from Roger Colton, be sure to check out his stories here on Jim Hill Media as well as on his own site, The Blue Parrot .

Blog Post: Why George R.R. Martin's massive "A Song of Ice and Fire" books are worth the effort, worth waiting for

Jaime Schilling — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:37:00 GMT

I always feel a little bit ridiculous recommending George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series to anyone. Why? They're fantastic books - but the size ...

I have an unfortunate weakness for long novels, and the first four in the series have approximately four thousand pages combined. With book five, "A Dance with Dragons" (which was released last Tuesday), the total comes to 5200 pages. So I do understand the looks of horror that I receive when I suggest that friends might give the series a try - but it's really that good.

Imagine a fantasy world that's nothing like Lord of the Rings. No epic quests to destroy (or to find) some rare magical artifact, no knowledgeable wizard and bumbling farm boy hero. Picture instead a country reminiscent of Europe in the mid-fifteenth century. Rather than the Yorks and the Lancasters fighting the War of the Roses, "A Song of Ice and Fire" revolves around the Starks' and the Lannisters' battle for dominance in the Seven Kingdoms.

The series effectively begins when Ned Stark (played by Sean Bean in the acclaimed HBO series which is based on the first book in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, "A Game of Thrones") leaves his home of Winterfell, in the far north of the Seven Kingdoms, to become the king's advisor. He is extremely reluctant until his wife Catelyn (played by Michelle Fairley) receives a letter from her sister that convinces her that Jon Arryn, the king's previous advisor and Catelyn's brother-in-law, was murdered by the Queen's family, the Lannisters. Ned Stark feels he must become the king's advisor, both to investigate Jon Arryn's death, but also to protect the king from Lannister treachery.

Sean Bean (Center) as Ned Stark in HBO's "Game of Thrones." Copyright Home Box
Office, Inc. All rights reserved

While the Starks and the Lannisters vie for position in power, malign forces stir elsewhere. Viserys Targaryen (Harry Lloyd) and his sister Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), the only surviving heirs of the previous ruling family, seek to regain their rightful throne in the Seven Kingdoms. Viserys weds his sister to the leader of the Dothraki, a race of nomad warriors, in exchange for their promise of a golden crown, with which he can purchase ships and soldiers to invade the Seven Kingdoms.

In the north, in the vast land beyond a 700 foot tall wall of ice, the Wildlings, a barbarian race of "free folk" who refuse to honor a king, are also rising up. The Others, a race of necromancers who were thought long extinct, are reanimating corpses into Wights -essentially super strong zombies hell-bent on killing as many of the living as possible. The Wildlings plan to invade the Seven Kingdoms - less intent on conquering, and more focused on avoiding The Others.

"A Song of Ice and Fire" is unique in its focus on politicking and war - Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), the reigning Queen of the Seven Kingdoms describes it to Ned Stark this way: "When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground." And when the situation warrants it, Martin never hesitates to kill the characters that you've grown attached to.

Lena Headey as Queen Cersei Lannister in HBO's "Game of
Thrones." Copyright Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved

In Harry Potter, regardless of the danger that Harry faces, the reader is always confident that Harry will triumph, and Voldemort will ultimately be defeated. Sirius and Dumbledore might die along the way, but ultimately, Good will win out. "A Song of Ice and Fire," first of all, doesn't have any characters as clear-cut "good" and "bad" as Harry and Voldemort, but secondly - Martin can and will kill "Harry."

All this said, I have a few caveats: First, the cast of characters. In the back of each book, there is a series of appendices that guide the reader through the various major houses and characters that you encounter. As of the end of book four, there were seventeen "point of view" characters (each chapter features, and is named after, the point of view character - some characters have many chapters, some have only one chapter.) There are, I'd guess, a couple hundred minor, non-viewpoint characters. In the past, I've had a hard time with casts this large, but maybe because all the names aren't "elfish" sounding, I didn't have a real issue keeping the Who's Who straight.

Perhaps more of an issue, the series isn't finished yet. "A Dance with Dragons," book five of what is most likely seven novels, was released last week. More importantly, "A Feast For Crows," book four, was released in November 2005. Will there be six years between each of the remaining novels? I certainly hope not - but realistically, besides Harry Potter, I can't think of another series that I've read that I'd be willing to wait six years between books with any reasonable degree of patience (and if you can think of any, in any genre, please let me know - I'm always up for more great reading).

With that, I'm off - "A Dance with Dragons" is sitting on the Kindle App on my Ipad, and I've been waiting six years for it.

Blog Post: Pottermore website looks to lure lapsed Harry Potter fans back into the fold

Jaime Schilling — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:11:00 GMT

"Squee!" was my word for 2007. The ultimate fan girl sound, made all the more appropriate by the fact that I picked it up from Pottercast, one of the hour-plus long Harry Potter podcasts that I listened to immediately upon release every week. Not only was a I huge Harry Potter fan, I was a fan of the Harry Potter super-fans - those leaders among geeks who founded the two most popular Harry Potter fan websites out there, Melissa Anellli, webmistress and one of the early writers for The Leaky Cauldron, and Emerson Spartz, founder of Mugglenet. "Squee" just seemed to encompass all the nerdy-joyousness that a new Harry Potter tidbit entailed.

I'll admit it now - nearly four years later - I was obsessed with Harry Potter and the Harry Potter fandom. My online "favorites" folder was a mile long, and almost all Harry related. I'd check the fansites hourly, especially as the release date for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) drew near. I'd spend days puzzling over any new item on J.K. Rowling's highly interactive website, or coming up with more and more intricate theories about what might happen in Book 7, and I'd feel like one of the cool kids because I knew what all the Harry Potter community inside jokes referred to.

And then - shortly after Harry Potter 7 was released, I quit. Just like that. Cold turkey. I suppose I could have kept up with the site for the Harry Potter movies or theme park news, but it felt like a poor substitute for the continual anticipation of "What's going to happen to Harry/Ron/Hermione next?"

That was - until last week. JK Rowling's team sent the top ten Harry Potter fansites publicity emails including geographic coordinates and the address of a website that uses Google Maps to show a street-view of the entered location. Type in the coordinates from the-leaky-cauldron.org for example, and you get a view of Salem Common, in Salem, Massachusetts. Zoom in a little closer, and a huge "E" shows up on the corner of North Washington Square and Brown Street, with a little pop-up message informing the reader that "The Salem Witches Institute visited the Quidditch World Cup."

Harry Potter and Pottermore Publishing Rights copyright J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter
characters, names and related indicia are trademarks of and copyright
Warners Bros. Ent. All rights reserved

Now my life has changed just a bit in the four years since I last obsessed over Harry Potter. Due to the recession my company is half-staffed compared to the quasi-economic boom time of 2007. I've also gotten promoted. And married. With a huge-ish high-energy golden retriever named Remus, who is apt to eat drywall if left unexercised and unattended for long periods of time.

And all this amounts to one striking conclusion: These days, I don't have six hours a day to spend online looking for the latest & greatest on Harry Potter. But last Wednesday when the coordinates were released, I couldn't help myself. I spent my lunch hour traipsing from one site to the next, looking up coordinates, finding letters, and combining them like some epic word jumble to figure out what the heck it all meant.

J.K. Rowling smiles enigmatically in front of the "Pottermore" logo. Harry Potter and
Pottermore Publishing Rights copyright J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter characters,
names and related indicia are trademarks of and copyright Warners
Bros. Ent. All rights reserved

Then real life set back in and Harry Potter had to be set aside in favor of an afternoon of budget meetings and an evening of lord-knows-what-but-I'm-sure-it-was-important. By the time I emerged from adulthood, the Potter community had discovered the word was "Pottermore" and the youtube channel and @Pottermore account had been revealed. Even CNN got ahold of the story.

In the week since then, I've broken my ban on Harry Potter fandom and spent my "free" time perusing my old haunts - Mugglenet and The Leaky Cauldron. The sites are so much more polished now than in 2007 - run more as a business than as the hobby it was born from. The forums have discussion groups neatly separated according to book or movie number, and the podcast has sponsors. Some of the community from 2007 is still around - but there are all-new jokes that I don't understand and the community is much more movie focused than it was when the books were still coming out.

Harry Potter and Pottermore Publishing Rights copyright J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter
characters, names and related indicia are trademarks of and copyright
Warners Bros. Ent. All rights reserved

And now, the question remains: What is Pottermore? According to this morning's announcement, Pottermore will be a free online "reading experience" that allows the reader to become involved in the storyline. "Just as Harry joins Hogwarts, so can you. You visit Diagon Alley, get sorted into a house, cast spells and mix potions to help your house compete for the House Cup." Rowling has written more than 18,000 words of new content for the site, and though the site will also offer exclusive e-book sales, you can experience the new content without purchasing anything.

Pottermore opens in beta on July 31, 2011 (Harry's Birthday) for one million test-users. Pottermore will be open to all users in October 2011 (my guess is a Halloween release date, so that the beginning of the virtual story coincides with the date of Harry's parents murder by Voldemort). The content for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2), will go live in spring 2012.

Harry Potter and Pottermore Publishing Rights copyright J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter
characters, names and related indicia are trademarks of and copyright
Warners Bros. Ent. All rights reserved

I thought my fun with the Harry Potter fandom ended in 2007 after the media frenzy following Deathly Hallows. But, as my creative-rescheduling this week has proved, when a Harry Potter puzzle presents itself, I don't need a Time Turner to fit it all in.

Blog Post: Blast to the past at D23's Disney World & "Rocketeer" anniversary events

Alice Hill — Mon, 02 May 2011 03:39:00 GMT

Whenever Walt was asked about where he got the idea for Disneyland, he'd always trace that project's origin back to ...

... when my daughters were very young. And Saturday was always Daddy's day with the two daughters. I'd take them to the merry-go-round and as I'd sit there, sat on a bench, you know, eating peanuts, I felt that there should be some kind of an amusement enterprise built where the parents and the children could have fun together.

So where did the idea for Epcot come from? Well, according to Disney Archivist Steven Vagnini, to get an answer to that question, you then have to look to the next generation. To be specific, Diane and Sharon's children. Walt's grandkids.

Walt with his grandchildren Tammy, Joanna and Chris at the May 1960 grand opening of
Disneyland's "Mine Train through Nature's Wonderland" attraction. Copyright Disney
Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

"I mean, here was a grandfather looking at the decay of the urban landscape in the 1960s and thinking 'What sort of legacy are we leaving for our grandchildren," ' Vagnini explained. "And Walt being Walt ... Well, he can't just sit idly by and not do anything. So he dives right in, learns as much as he can about urban planning. About what the cities of the future be like, should be like ... And that's where Epcot really came from."

And trust me, folks. Steven knows what he 's talking about. After all, he's spent the past six months getting ready for Destination D: Walt Disney World 40^th. That two-day long event that D23 - the Official Disney Fan Club - will be presenting in the Fantasia Ballroom at Disney's Contemporary Resort May 14 - 15th in honor of "The Vacation Kingdom of the World" 's upcoming 40^th anniversary.

"It's been great fun going to the Archives' satellite facility in Burbank and then pulling out all of the 'Project Florida' boxes. Looking at files that probably haven't been touched for decades at this point," Vagnini continued. "All in an effort to find those bits of Disney history, those rarer-than-rare items that we know D23 members will really appreciate."

Walt in 1966, standing in front of the original site plan for "Project Florida."
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

Mind you, Vagnini's looking to use a lot of the archival material that he just recently unearthed as part of Destination D's "EPCOT: Walt Disney's Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" presentation. Which is why Steven and Disney expert Paul F. Anderson will walk you through Walt's Epcot. The futuristic city and innovative industrial center that the Company's founder hoped to build out there in the swamps of Central Florida.

"Just wait 'til you see that Epcot movie that Walt made in 1966. Ed Hobelman (Editor's note: Hobelman is the Manager of Media Preservation at The Walt Disney Company) has just finished restoring this footage. So it's never looked better," Vagnini said.

But it's not just archivists and historians who will be sharing their thoughts about how Walt Disney World came to be. D23 has persuaded people like Robert Foster - the lawyer that Roy O. Disney turned to 1963, entrusting him with the seemingly impossible task of acquiring the thousands of acres of land that were necessary to build Walt's dream - to return to the Resort that he helped create and then talk about what is like to be part of the early, early days of Walt Disney World.

Marc Davis working on the model for "Western River Expedition," the never-built attraction
which was supposed to have put a cap on "Phase One" of Walt Disney World's
construction. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

"We've also got just plain fun presentations like 'Weird Walt Disney World.' Where Becky Cline and Paul Anderson will show you some of the stranger stuff from WDW history," Vagnini stated. "And Tony Baxter will be doing a 'Walt Disney World That Never Was' presentation. Which will feature concept art and storyboards from all sorts of rides, shows and attractions that never made it off the drawing board."

All this - plus Tim O'Day's sure-to-be-entertaining talk with Disney World veterans like Jack Lindquist, Bob Matheison, Tom Nabbe, Charlie Ridgway and Bill Sullivan. Not to mention Disney Legend Marty Sklar holding court with other Disney Legends like Orlando Ferrante, Bob Gurr and Ron Logan. If you're a Disney history buff, the Fantasia Ballroom is really where you want to be on May 14 & 15^th.

If - on the other hand - you're a fan of Joe Johnston's wonderful 1991 film, "The Rocketeer," then where you want to be this morning at 10 a.m. PT is online. To be specific, at the D23 website. Which is where & when the Official Disney Fan Club will be releasing information about its June 21^st event at the El Capitan Theatre. Which will be celebrating the 20^th anniversary of this Walt Disney Pictures release.

Given that this late 1930s pulp period piece is primarily set in and around Hollywood ... Well, there's no better place in the world to stage a "Rocketeer" tribute than at the El Cap. But wait. It gets better. Prior to the screening, D23's arranged for a selection of cast & crew members to come by the theatre that night and reminisce about what it was actually like to work on this much beloved motion picture. "And who's going to serve at the MC of this 'Rocketeer' panel?," you ask. None other than writer & director Kevin Smith.

And the fun will continue even after this screening is over. After the last reel of "The Rocketeer" is shown, event participants will then be encouraged to hike on over the Hollywood Museum (which is located inside of the historic Max Factor building). Once there, people will be able to explore all four floors of the museum's exhibits. Which will include - for one night only - a special selection of "Rocketeer" props & costumes culled from The Walt Disney Archives' collection just for this event.

So if you're a "Rocketeer" fan, the El Cap is the place you really need to be on June 21, 2011. Mind you, the only way that you'll be able to get a guaranteed reserved seat for this once-in-a-lifetime event is if you're a member of the Official Disney Fan Club. Otherwise ... Well, you'll just have to wait 'til seats go on sale for the general public (which is May 23rd) and hope that something is still left at that point.

The interior of the El Capitan Theatre, one of Hollywood's last true movie palaces.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

For further information on D23's Destination D: Walt Disney World 40^th event, "The Rocketeer" 's 20^th anniversary screening and/or how one goes about obtaining a membership in the Official Disney Fan Club, might I suggest that you drop by the D23 website?

Your thoughts?

Blog Post: "Back to Space-Con" goes where no one has gone before

Roger Colton — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 03:19:00 GMT

Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek" is often admired for its appeal to the fans. Who can blame them?

Looking back to the times when the show first aired, there was a great deal of uncertainty in our lives. The USA was fighting an increasingly unpopular conflict in Southeast Asia. Racial tensions were unsettled at the least. The future did not look all that rosy.

The Star Trek cast. Image courtesy of Garfield Lane Productions

Yet, here was a television show that gave hope for future. A future where the people of Earth lived together in peace and harmony, without want. And that hope appealed to people of all generations. In those days before the Internet, sharing this common interest was not as easy as it is in today's world of social media. Perhaps you had some friends who enjoyed the show? From time to time, you would share that by watching an episode in reruns on a local television station. Maybe a local fan club would offer a place to share your interest, possibly at school. But that was about as far as it went.

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, that changed in 1975. One fan group organized themselves and held what their first Star Trek event. They called it "The Red Hour Festival", taking the name from an event in an episode of the show. What they started that day is now recognized as the basis for Star Trek fan events that have followed over the years.

This was an event produced by fans for fans. As Chuck Weiss, one of the folks behind the event described it; "This was a time when you could rent a high school for a day without having to worry about liability insurance." San Francisco's Lincoln High School was the perfect place for such an event. A large theater and good-sized cafeteria nearby just right for tables full of Star Trek items to be sold by vendors. And only two blocks away from public transit.

In the early 1970's, television in the Bay Area was still an expanding medium. UHF stations took advantage of all of the programming they could find to attract viewers. Everything from old-time movies to big-time wrestling and roller derby could be found on the airwaves. One station, KBHK Channel 44, was showing the original Star Trek episodes in reruns, Monday through Friday in late afternoons, beating some local news broadcasts in ratings.

Another unaffiliated television station was KTVU Channel 2 in Oakland. They found success in another timeslot, Saturday nights. By showing odd science fiction and horror films with an odd host with a fondness for cigars, "Creature Features" found a following with some of the same audiences that Star Trek had in afternoon reruns. Today, these might be termed cult classics.

That cigar-smoking host was Bob Wilkins. If you wanted to know what was going on in sci-fi or horror, you watched "Creature Features" to find out. And in the case of The Red Hour Festival, Bob was the first to get the word out on television. He went a step further and was the emcee for the event. Smart guy that he was, he also took along a camera man shooting 16 millimeter color sound film. Clips from that film later appeared on the show, giving folks who missed out a chance to see what a Star Trek fan event was all about.

(L to R) Actors Bruce Hyde (Lt. Kevin Riley), George Takei (Lt. Sulu) and James Doohan
(Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott) onstage answering fans questions at Space-Con
2 in Oakland, CA in August of 1976. Image courtesy of Garfield Lane Productions

A series of Star Trek conventions called "Space-Con" followed "The Red Hour Festival" thanks to Terry Terman and his company, Space... The Final Frontier. Bob Wilkins continued his role as emcee at events in Oakland and San Francisco along with his trusty cameraman.

Fans checking out items for sale in the Dealers Room at Space-Con 2 in Oakland, CA.
Image courtesy of Garfield Lane Productions

Fast forward. In retirement, Bob lived in Reno. After he passed away in 2009, that footage and more from other local Star Trek events came to filmmaker Tom Wyrsch. All together, there was about 40 minutes of footage with the cast of Star Trek, fans of the show and more from five events in the Bay Area. Contacting some of the folks who were the force behind these events provided interviews to tell the story of how these events began and grew, eventually attracting over 10,000 people for a weekend.

"Back To Space-Con" is the documentary project that resulted from that film footage and interviews. It tells the story of a time when fans of science fiction and horror films could gather together and share their interests with other like-minded people. One has to remember that for the most part, here in the Bay Area, there were no comic book or specialty stores where you could go. Maybe a local cut-rate movie theater might show a science fiction or horror classic now and then. Until these conventions came along, you just did not have a place to share your interest.

Before Star Wars was a hit, Star Trek was just another television show, out of production. Even Paramount didn't have much interest in it, other than rentals from syndication markets. It made a small amount but nothing to get excited about. So when events like Space-con were held, they didn't get excited about them. But fans? They had always hoped for a Star Trek movie. They knew that the Final Frontier, as Roddenberry called it, had infinite potential waiting to be explored. Once box office returns for the summer of 1977 came in, studios looked for their own sci-fi bonanzas.

Of course, it didn't hurt that events like Space-Con were drawing big crowds. Over 10,000 fans attended the Space-Cons 2, 3, 4 and 6 - in Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. And Paramount? Thanks to budget woes at Desilu (who first produced Star Trek), the series was not copyrighted in its first two seasons. It wasn't until the third season when Paramount stepped in that it took place. The result? Fans could have all of the Star Trek events they wanted, without worrying about licensing.

Star Wars? Well, it was copyrighted from the word go. 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm had licensing underway from the start. At Space-Con 4 in LA, they came prepared and told dealers that they could not sell unlicensed Star Wars merchandise.

That didn't stop fans of the film from making their own. They just couldn't sell it to each other. You name it, they had it. Homemade Wookie costumes and more. A Bay Area high school shop class even got into the act as students made their own Stormtrooper armor out of plastic just as the film crews had done.

A homemade Tusken Raider costume worn by a Star Wars Fan at Space-Con 6
in Oakland, CA in 1978. Image courtesy of Garfield Lane Productions

Events like Space-Con were fun for both guests and fans alike. As Scott Bakula later described his Quantum Leap fans, "It's nice to meet the people who paid for your house." I can attest that it was not at all out of the ordinary to find the cast mingling with crowds. Fans were polite and respectful, getting their photos and autographs. And the cast was happy to see them. Many went on to long friendships with fans, always glad to catch up on the latest news.

Did these conventions help get Paramount to make the first Star Trek film ? Certainly a debatable question. Let us say that it did not hurt. Big attendance only went to prove that the market for a revived Star Trek was out there. And after the success of Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, folks such as Michael Eisner at Paramount wanted to get their own piece of the science-fiction market. Even Disney's Black Hole was a direct response to that success, although not as successfully imitated at the box office.

Star Trek would go from a television project (Star Trek: Phase II) to a major motion picture. That spawned a series of film sequels and a television network with four long running series. Fandom? Oh, the Trekkers are still out there. With JJ Abrams re-imagining of the Trek universe and a sequel in production to hit the screens in 2012, "the adventure continues."

"Back to Space-Con" is a wonderful look back at those early days when Star Trek conventions were produced by fans and for fans. And those events certainly inspired other similar conventions for other genre fandoms around the world. If you were among people who took in a Star Trek convention, you will find the documentary a welcome look back.

Image courtesy of Garfield Lane Productions

The film is available on DVD for only $15 from November Fire plus shipping and sales tax, if you're in California.

And if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, Thursday, April 14th, you can enjoy a special screening of the film at the Balboa Theatre in San Francisco, not far from where it all began at Lincoln High School with "The Red Hour Festival". The program starts at 7 pm and includes the Star Trek blooper reel, Ernie Fosselius classic "Hardware Wars" and a Q&A session with director Tom Wyrsch - all for only $10.

You can check out this trailer for a glimpse of the film:

[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHJ4tGKsKRw]

Be sure to check out Roger Colton's blog, "The Blue Parrot" for more tales of his own "Space-Con" adventures.

Blog Post: The good times continue to roll at Universal Studios Florida's Mardi Gras celebration

Jaime Schilling — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:37:00 GMT

Happy Mardi Gras Day! Although the festivities in New Orleans officially end tonight at midnight (as Fat Tuesday gives way to Ash Wednesday), the party's just getting started at Universal Orlando.

So if you find yourself in desperate need of "Beads, Bands and Good Times" now through April 23^rd, Universal Studios Florida is the place you need to be. For Mardi Gras lives on at that theme park. Thanks - in large part - to Universal Orlando's attention to detail. Making sure that they get all of the essentials of this annual street celebration just right.

And by that I mean ...

The Food: From Gumbo and Jambalaya to Beignets, Universal Orlando's French Quarter Courtyard has all the New Orleans favorites covered.

The Alcohol: Vendors had everything from Bud Light to Jello Shots for sale, including classic Mardi Gras beverages like Abita Beer and the Hurricane.

The Music: Zydeco bands flown in from New Orleans play most Friday and Saturday nights. The evening that Max and I visited Universal Studios Florida, We watched Lil Malcolm and the House Rockers. And between the bounciness of the music (one of the band members played a washboard!) and the excitement of the crowd, more than a few people were dancing in the street.

The Parade: Unlike Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Universal Orlando's parade is entirely G-Rated. Floats are designed and built largely by Blaine Kern Studios in New Orleans (who also designs and builds many of the floats featured in the Big Easy's Mardi Gras parades). The theme for the 2011 parade is "The Elements." And if you're paying attention , you'll notice that the floats symbolize Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. The parade lasted about a half-hour and is then immediately followed by that evening's headlining band performing on the Music Plaza stage.

The Headliners: Each Friday and Saturday night until Universal Orlando's Mardi Gras celebration officially ends in late April, a headlining band will perform live onstage at USF's Music Plaza. This Saturday night, March 12^th, it's Foreigner. And the weeks ahead, Neon Trees (March 18^th), The Roots (March 19^th), One Republic (March 25^th), Blake Shelton (March 26^th), Sean Kingston (April 1^st), Ne-Yo (April 2^nd), Lifehouse (April 9^th), The Beach Boys (April 16^th), and Thirty Seconds to Mars (April 23^rd) will be wowing the crowds at Universal Studios Florida.

The Beads: It just wouldn't be Mardi Gras if there weren't beads. If you feel like you just didn't collect enough of those tens of thousands of strands that are thrown nightly from those floats that parade through Universal Studios Florida ... Well, this time of year, street vendors all over the Universal Orlando Resort have a grand & gaudy assortment of beads for you to choose from. I also noticed USF staffers who work in that theme park's French Quarter Courtyard handing out beads to guests who were dancing and having a good time in front of the zydeco bandstand.

I know, I know. If you're far away from New Orleans and Orlando right now, it might make you sad to think that (today, anyway) you're missing out on all this Mardi Gras-related fun.

So let me tell you about my most recent experience at the Universal Orlando Resort. Where - thanks to the kind folks in Universal's PR office - Max and I got to take part in a cooking class which was Steven Jayson, the executive chef who is responsible for all the menus and recipes at Universal Orlando.

Step by step, Steven led us through creating a delicious New Orleans-style gumbo - from cooking the onions, celery, and peppers in rendered bacon fat, all the way to adding the gumbo file for a final punch of flavor and thickening. Chef Jayson recommended customizing the gumbo to suit your personal tastes . For example, he suggested adding oysters instead of (or in addition to) the shrimp. Crawfish, chicken, whitefish or other shellfish are also great alternatives.

Steven Jayson, Executive Chef for the Universal
Orlando Resort. Copyright Universal Studios.
All rights reserved

And given that Steven was generous enough to share his gumbo recipe with Max and I ... well, I now thought - as kind of a Mardi Gras present - that I'd share this recipe with you.

Universal Orlando Resort's Mardi Gras Creole Gumbo

Ingredients:

1/2 cup onions (diced ¼")
1 cups celery (diced ¼")
1/2 cup red bell peppers (diced ¼")
1/2 cup green bell peppers (diced ¼")
4 cloves garlic (chopped fine)
5 slices bacon (diced into pieces)
1 bay leaves
1/2 Tbsp. Thyme leaves
1/2 lb. Okra, frozen (cut into bite size pieces)
1 28 oz. Can tomatoes diced with juice
1 Tbsp. Fish or shrimp base
¼ tsp. Black pepper ground
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
4 cups Fish stock strong, hot
1 Tbsp. Gumbo file
1/2 cup water, cold
1/2 lb. Shrimp (raw, peeled 26-30 count)
1/2 lb. Andouille sausage
4 Tbsp. Butter unsalted
4 Tbsp. Flour all purpose
½ tsp. Tabasco

Directions:

1.Prepare brown roux by cooking flour and butter.

2.Heat bacon in soup pot and cook until lightly brown add onions, celery, bell peppers and garlic and cook until tender.

3.Blend in okra, bay leaves, thyme, black pepper and Tabasco, stirring constantly.

4.Add fish stock, sausage and tomatoes and bring to a boil and then blend in roux mixing well.

5.Bring back to a boil, turn down heat and simmer for 45 minutes. Stir frequently.

6.Add shrimp, Worcestershire sauce and simmer 10 more minutes.

7.Remove from heat, blend gumbo file and water with wire whip and stir into soup. Adjust seasoning.

8.When serving, put one spoon of boiled hot rice into cup, pour in enough gumbo to cover and garnish with chopped green onions.

I know, I know. The above recipe might seem almost overly complicated. But Chef Jayson assured us that most of the ingredients necessary for his gumbo recipe can be found in your local grocery stores.

Though - that said - some of the rarer ingredients like gumbo file (sometimes called powdered sassafras) will be admittedly harder to find. Which is why - before you get started here - that you might want to consider making a quick side trip to your area's gourmet cooking store. Just to stock up on those little things that will make a good gumbo great.

Anyway ... At the end of our cooking class, Chef Jayson dismissed us with: "Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!" Which means "Let the good times roll!"

And the good times continue to roll at the Universal Orlando Resort. So if you find yourself in need of a"Beads, Bands and Good Times" fix, be sure and check out Universal Studios Florida's Mardi Gras celebration now through April 23^rd.

Blog Post: Mything in Action: Frogs are People Too

Adam Berger — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 05:14:00 GMT

With Fat Tuesday just around the corner, Disneyland recently unveiled its own Mardi Gras celebration as part of the park's Family Fun Weekends programming. The event runs through March 6, with Princess Tiana and other characters from Disney's The Princess and the Frog leading the New Orleans Square festivities. So it seems like as good a time as any to "dig a little deeper" and tease out the mythic source code of the 2009 animated release. Ready? Then let's hop to it!

"Oooh--yuck! I'd never, ever kiss a boy!" That's pretty much the attitude of most little girls when faced with the prospect of joining lips with the opposite sex. Reverse the genders and the reaction still applies. It's no coincidence that this is the same response pre-school-age Tiana has in the opening scene of Disney's The Princess and the Frog as her mother recounts the classic fairy tale of "The Frog Prince."

Of course, young Tiana is expressing disgust at the idea of kissing a frog (even an enchanted one)...but substitute "boy" for "frog" and you can be sure Tiana's reaction would have been the same. This is normal and expected (in the same scene, little Lottie's enthusiastic willingness to kiss a frog is so peculiar to us, we can't help but laugh). In the psychological landscape of fairy tales, it seems frogs are people too.

The Austrian-born American child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim, in his landmark book The Uses of Enchantment, identifies the psychological core of the original Brothers Grimm version of the fairy tale. He categorizes the story as belonging to a class of fairy tales that "...center on the shock of recognition when that which seemed animal [in us] suddenly reveals itself as the source of human happiness." (Yes--that's "happiness," not "hoppiness.")

To a young child, the physical and emotional particulars of adult intimacy come with a substantial "ick" factor and, at that age, seem nearly as appealing as the idea of kissing a frog ("It's not slime...it's mucous!") The story tells us that, in order to become well-balanced, loving, and happy adults, we must overcome our childhood revulsions, inhibitions, and preconceptions. It is a journey of transformation that Tiana must reluctantly undergo in a startlingly literal way, but the outcome for her (as for us in our own journeys toward maturity) is well worth the challenge.

External transformations are fairy tale mainstays, and physical metamorphoses are just as common in classical mythology. But in the metaphorical language of myths and fairy tales, these external transformations signify deep psychological changes. That is, of course, the essence of the Hero's Journey, which charts the emotional developments that each person must undergo in life to become a mature, centered, responsible adult. [If the Hero's Journey is new to you, here's a site that will get you up to speed in no time. And this is the mythic thrust of Tiana's journey in The Princess and the Frog as she finds herself abruptly transformed into an object of her own contempt. (To a similar extent, it is Prince Naveen's journey as well...but we'll get to him shortly.)

Much of the fun in watching The Princess and the Frog comes from observing how frog Tiana learns to shift her focus from her perceived need to make an external transformation (becoming human again) to her real internal need (becoming a fully-formed individual in the psychological sense) thanks to some cryptic mentoring from the voodoo priestess Mama Odie and the lessons Tiana learns from her encounters with the other characters she meets along the way.

Early in the movie, as we get to know Tiana--first as a child and soon after as a young woman--we find an individual who is smart, ambitious, pragmatic, and highly goal-oriented in pursuing her dream of owning her own restaurant. Yet, like many mythic heroes at the beginning of their journeys, Tiana's life is out of balance. The untimely death of her father James has apparently locked Tiana into her singular focus on her external goal to the detriment of her internal development.

Though Tiana has splendid ambitions and a powerful work ethic, she lacks an inner life. Her daily (and nightly) existence consists of working back-to-back waitress jobs, hoping to collect enough tips to eventually buy the empty sugar mill that she one day hopes will become "Tiana's Place." There is no time left for going out with her friends...or even catching up on her sleep.

To Tiana, the promise of future fulfillment that is perpetually "almost there" is worth the sacrifice of her present-day happiness. Yet, ironically, Tiana's neglect of her inner life is part of what holds her back from actually achieving true happiness--in the present or in the future. Thus, when her Call to Adventure (her key to eventual happiness) arrives in the form of an enchanted talking frog, Tiana literally recoils, shrieking in disgust. It's an emphatic Refusal of the Call.

The frog prince, Naveen, represents the free spirit that Tiana has suppressed within herself. He lives purely in the moment and is perfectly content to leave the future to its own devices. Self-centered and irresponsible, Naveen is Tiana's mirror image. In Jungian terms, he is Tiana's animus as she is his anima. Or, using the Freudian model, you could say Naveen is mostly id while Tiana is predominantly superego. Neither character is emotionally complete; instead, each represents what the other is missing.

During the course of the movie, Tiana's evolution into a fully-actualized adult will be complete when she finally integrates Naveen's joy of living life to the fullest with her own sense of "hard work," responsibility, and self-discipline. For Naveen, the complementary transformation proves to be his own key to happiness. Ultimately, as a married couple, they will perfectly complete each other.

To make this transition, Tiana must acknowledge and embrace the deeply-repressed "animal" qualities that we all carry within us--the fact that all humans are part of nature and our lives are connected to the natural world in important ways. Like Tiana, many of us go through life believing that the key to success and happiness involves conquering our primal desires and impulses. But the truth is, a life of compulsive work and single-minded ambition is not a very joyous one (just ask Ebenezer Scrooge). Instead, we must aim for a healthy balance somewhere between the extremes.

Tiana's magical transformation into a frog brings the repressed animalistic elements of her personality out into the open (including the "yucky" parts), making them unavoidable and undeniable. Some, such as her ability to converse with other animals (alligators, fireflies, etc.,) prove crucial to her survival. Yet even then, frog Tiana persists in disowning these qualities; she's repulsed by her fly-catching super-elastic frog tongue, for instance, and continues to focus instead on her external goals.

Frog Tiana and frog Naveen's meeting with the mentor archetype Mama Odie should have provided Tiana with a moment of clarity. Though Mama Odie is blind, her ability to see into the characters of other people reveals the importance of "insight" and confirms that outward appearances are not as important as what's inside. "Dig down deep inside yourself, you'll find out what you need," she sings. But for now at least, the mentor's most important advice is lost on Tiana. Even after a pull-out-all-the-stops production number, Tiana still doesn't get it. She thinks "digging a little deeper" means she has to work even harder to open her restaurant. Silly frog!

Ultimately, it is Dr. Facilier who prods frog Tiana into discovering her suppressed inner potential. A true shadow figure, his identity is literally defined by his own wraith-like shadow--a fanciful yet chilling portrait of a clinical sociopath. His is a personality at war with itself--an individual so contemptuous of humanity, including his own, that he is eventually consumed by his personal demons.

Dr. Facilier offers an extreme example of what can happen when one fails to integrate the different components of one's personality. By the time frog Tiana encounters the Shadow Man, she has at last internalized this lesson. Her inner transformation is signaled when she finally "digs a little deeper" to embrace the full spectrum of her identity--even the "yucky" parts. Suddenly, Tiana is able to call upon all the primal capabilities that she had formerly suppressed. Thus, she has no hesitation when it comes to using her super-elastic frog tongue to retrieve and destroy the voodoo talisman, saving the day.

Through his acts of selflessness and devotion meanwhile, Prince Naveen, has demonstrated his embrace of the responsibilities of mature adulthood. Therefore, the moment frog Naveen and frog Tiana are joined in marriage, the voodoo spell is broken and the two are returned to their human forms. But they are no longer the people they were before their amphibious odyssey; the experience of their shared Hero's Journey has enabled them to evolve into fully-formed individuals...no longer "almost there" but instead capable of achieving any goal their hearts desire.

But you can bet they won't be serving frog legs at Tiana's Place....

Adam M. Berger is president and senior writer at Berger Creative Associates, Inc., an Orlando, Florida-based creative writing and consulting firm serving the themed entertainment and attraction design industry. You can read more of Adam's thoughts on mythic storytelling in popular entertainment at his blogsite: www.TheMythingLink.com.

Blog Post: Kelly Asbury and his Extreme Makeover: Gnome Edition of "Gnomeo & Juliet"

Chris Rebholz — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 05:48:00 GMT

You've heard about love at first sight, right? Well, how about love at first sound?

Well, that's what happened to Kelly Asbury. As a teenager in the 1970s, he was walking by his brother's room and heard this amazing music coming from the stereo. It was the Elton John song, "Levon," from his "Madman Across The Water" album.

"From that moment now, I was a huge Elton John fan. I listened to his music all the time," Asbury remembered. "When I ran for student council in Junior High, I even went with an Elton John-themed campaign. With all of the campaign posters that I drew looking just like his album covers."

Now jump ahead 30+ years. When Kelly - just as he was coming off co-directing "Shrek 2" - gets a call from his old pal Baker Bloodworth. Who was looking for Asbury's help on this animated feature that Bloodworth was producing.

"Baker told me that this film was supposed to be a comic retelling of the story of Romeo & Juliet. Only with garden gnomes in the starring roles. Which was kind of an intriguing idea. But as soon as Baker told me that Elton John would be doing the music for this movie, that was when I knew that I had to make 'Gnomeo,' " Kelly continued.

Which isn't to say that "Gnomeo & Juliet" was a particularly easy film to make. For five years prior to Asbury coming on board this project, some of Walt Disney Animation Studios' brightest & the best had tried to figure out how to restage William Shakespeare's tragic romance in two genteel English backyard gardens. But they could never get a handle of the material. Get the mix of elements just right.

"I never got to see any of the stuff that Disney's artists & story people had been created for those earlier versions of 'Gnomeo.' And that was a deliberate choice on my part. I wanted to start fresh," Asbury said. "So we basically started from scratch. And then struggled for three years to find just the right balance between the high art of Shakespeare and the low art of garden gnomes."

Mind you, Kelly didn't do this Extreme Makeover: Gnome Edition all by himself. He assembled a like-minded group of writers, animators and directors - the "Friends of Gnomeo" - that Asbury would then run this film's story reels by. Get their comments on how the story was playing, whether "Gnomeo & Juliet" characters were relatable & sympathetic. And line by line, scene by scene, sequence by sequence, Kelly & his production team slowly built their movie.

Elton John performs at the world premiere of "Gnomeo & Juliet."
Photo courtesy of Getty Images

Of course, what made "Gnomeo & Juliet" particularly thrilling for Asbury was the chance to interact with that "Madman (from) Across the Water," Elton John himself.

"I mean, how many people get a call in the middle of the night and it's Elton John at the other end of the line? And he wants to play the new song that he's just written and get your opinion," Kelly enthused. "Or better yet, have Bernie Tauplin fax you the lyrics for this brand-new Elton John song. And you're the first person on the planet who actually gets to read Bernie's lyrics."

But to his credit, Asbury never lost focus. Never let the fact that he was working with this world-famous pop star, this performer that Kelly had idolized since he was a teen, keep him from trying to make "Gnomeo & Juliet" as good as it could possibly be.

"As filmmakers, we have a responsibility to the audience to deliver a film that's as entertaining as it can possibly be. So you can never make the mistake of falling in love with your own ideas. You always have to ready to revise, to be open to new story ideas and concepts," Asbury explained.

And clearly Kelly's careful, methodical approach to putting together this animated feature ultimately paid off. Given that "Gnomeo and Juliet" made $25.4 million this past weekend. Which gave this Touchstone Pictures release the biggest animated opening ever for the month of February (and January).

Which will hopefully make Asbury happy. Given that - according to what he told me last week - this animation vet would love to make a sequel to "Gnomeo & Juliet."

Kelly Asbury on the blue & red carpet at the El Capitan
Theatre for last month's world premiere of "Gnomeo
& Juliet." Photo by Frederick M. Brown / Getty
Images North America

"We could use another one of Shakespeare's plays, even more of Elton John's songs," Kelly laughed. "How's this for a title? 'The Merry Gnomes of Windsor' ? "

Here's hoping that Kelly Asbury gets his wish. That the guy who storyboarded the "Be Our Guest" number in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" as well as directing "Spirit: Stallion of Cimarron" does actually get the chance to go back to those genteel English backyard gardens.

After all, there's no place like gnome.

Your thoughts?

Blog Post: Former Disney CEO Ron Miller recalls his own "TRON" legacy

Leo N. Holzer — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Without "TRON," there wouldn't be "TRON: Legacy," and without former Disney CEO and producer Ron Miller, "TRON" may have never been made. Writer/director Steven Lisberger's "TRON" project had been rejected by at least three other studios before he submitted it to Disney, hoping for the best but not really expecting the positive reaction he received.

Miller, Walt Disney's son-in-law, is listed as executive producer of "TRON" and, if you're in your 40s or older like me, you probably remember watching dozens of Disney movies that are part of the "RON: Legacy" - animated films like "The Rescuers," "The Fox and the Hound" and "The Black Cauldron" as well as live-action films like "Never Cry Wolf," "The Shaggy D.A." "Tex," "Freaky Friday" and many others. But the movies represent just a piece of Miller's professional accomplishments.

Miller started working on the Disneyland project in 1954, joined the Directors Guild in 1957 as a second assistant director on "Old Yeller," and continued to advance in the company. By the time of Walt's death in 1966, he was a key executive and part of the management team. It was Walt's team that worked to complete both Walt Disney World and EPCOT in Florida. Miller became president of Walt Disney Productions in 1980 and was named as CEO in 1983, before being replaced by Michael Eisner and Frank Wells in 1984 in a move orchestrated by Walt's nephew, Roy E. Disney. Miller was there when the company entered the home video market, launched its cable TV network, made its initial foray on Broadway and when it negotiated the deal for Tokyo Disneyland, the first Disney theme park outside of the United States.

Miller was also directly responsible for creating the "Touchstone" label to broaden Disney's appeal beyond the G-rated films branded by Walt's era.

As Walt's son-in-law and Disney Company staffer, Miller had a unique professional and personal relationship with the creative genius. He directed several of Walt's introductions to Disney's weekly TV shows and watched as Grandpa Walt enjoyed time with his growing family.

I recently spent a few minutes with Miller discussing "TRON" in advance of Disney's huge reboot with "TRON: Legacy," a film that's been widely promoted at Comic-Con and elsewhere for nearly three years. "TRON: Legacy" opens Friday with expectations of a possible $1 billion worldwide box office gross.

In the case of 1982's "TRON," Miller says, he was the executive producer because "I was the individual who said 'Let's do it,' " based in part from a recommendation by a trusted Disney studio executive.

"God bless Tom Wilhite because he was the one who really took notice of it and felt very strongly that ('TRON') was something that time-wise was perfect for us. Which it was. Certainly it was something that we were looking for ... it was something unique. It was an area that hadn't really been explored before."

Still before committing to the production, the company had Lisberger complete a test scene to give Disney executives some idea of what "TRON" would look like.

"I would have to say that I was impressed with what I saw," Miller said. "I think everybody embraced it because it was so intriguing. We realized that it was a big challenge. We realized that it was going to be very expensive, which it turned out to be. But it was a gamble worth taking."

Wilhite would become the executive in charge of the production along with Lisberger's colleague Donald Kushner. Disney's Harrison Ellenshaw was tagged as the associate producer and praised Miller for his unyielding support of the project. You can hear a bit of Ellenshaw's interview along with highlights of my interview with Miller at Paul Barrie's latest WindowtotheMagic podcast ...

For "TRON," Miller oversaw "some of the production, but the producer - certainly - is more involved than the executive producer." Still, Miller says he approved the casting, visited the set, watched some of the dailies and kept finding the money as costs climbed.

I asked Miller if there was any point during the production that he considered pulling the plug on "TRON" or changing the approach on the film.

"Never," Miller said. "Once we approved the story, once we approved the cast, once we approved all the special effects, it was go. And you don't stop in the middle of the river and try to back pedal. You've got to go forward."

Still he admits, "TRON" was a "difficult picture to evaluate as it was being shot because the scene was not in front of you. You had all kinds of parts that came together that ultimately made the scene. But to sit through dailies - in my mind - was a little baffling. I didn't quite understand what was going on."

"TRON" reportedly cost about $17 million and grossed $33 million in its initial North American theatrical release. Worldwide box office figures were unavailable.

"I and a lot of other people were disappointed in the theatrical gross," Miller admitted. "I think that the film should have done at least 50 percent better than what it did. I thought it was going to be a much bigger picture because its freshness and uniqueness and all that. But maybe we didn't communicate what we had correctly, maybe we didn't market it correctly. ... We just missed the proper sales pitch on the film. I think people were a little bit confused with computer animation: What the hell is that, it was brand-new. Is it animation? Well, no. It's not animation as you know it."

"TRON" came out at the same time as "E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial," which was in the cute-and-cuddly mode more common to Disney films. I asked Miller if he thought "E.T." hurt "TRON" or if he thought that maybe audiences were more interested in outer space than cyberspace.

"I don't think that one competed against the other. (They were) two totally different approaches to filmmaking," he said. "When you're up against (Steven) Spielberg, it's tough. ... I elude back to something that I said before, that unfortunately I just don't think that we hit a home run with marketing and sales."

Still, Miller says, he considers "TRON" an artistic and commercial success. The film was a huge hit when it was released on home video. He also knows the film proved to be important and inspirational to several filmmakers, including a young Disney animator, John Lasseter.

Lasseter has said that "Without "TRON,' there would be no 'Toy Story,' " even telling the former Disney CEO that directly years later.

While at Disney, Lasseter "used to poke his head in ('TRON') dailes and see what was happening," Miller said. "He was very enamored with computer animation," even pitching "The Brave Little Toaster" as a computer animated film before he was dismissed from the company.

"... Yeah, John was let go shortly after that, (but) I had absolutely nothing to do with it," Miller said, wanting to set the record straight. Leslie Iwerks' documentary film, "The Pixar Story," said "that the CEO fired John. Well, I was the CEO and I would have never fired John," he said. "No, I think that Ed Hansen - who was the production manager - had nothing more for John and that was it."

Despite Lasseter's dismissal, Ron and Diane Disney Miller share a good relationship with him and his wife, Nancy. Both families have wineries in the Napa Valley and they see each other a few times a year. Lasseter has been one of several current Disney employees who have been very supportive of the Walt Disney Family Museum at The Presidio of San Francisco.

"I like John a lot," Miller says. "And we go all the way back to when Diane and I used to go to CalArts and there he was greeting us when we walked in. In fact, we thought that it was because of his affection towards Diane that he was there. But, we found out later, he was told to be there."

I asked Miller if at the time when "TRON" was pitched to him, if he or his children, some of them in their teens, played video games.

"... It's about 28 years later and I still don't play video games," he said, laughing. "But we did have one in our house, the 'TRON' game. In fact, my youngest son, Patrick, became very efficient at it and he went to the - I think - sixth or seventh stage out of 10, which was amazing. I could get to the second stage. That was a very popular game out there. We sold a lot of them and I think my youngest son still has his."

Miller also praised Disney's decision a few months ago to pull the "TRON" DVD off retailers' shelves with the new film coming out. "TRON" is reportedly being prepared for a Blu-ray release sometime in 2011.

"I think that it's a fairly interesting move ... I like it," he said. "Let's get ('TRON') off the shelves, let's concentrate on ('TRON: Legacy'). When people see this, they'll want to see the original if they haven't seen it already."

"TRON: Legacy" is certainly shining a blue laser light on Miller's period at Disney and reminding people that he laid the foundation for several changes that helped fuel the growth of the company in the late '80s and beyond. I asked him if he feels some vindication for what's going on, that more people are taking a look at the things he accomplished that other people seem to have gotten credit for over the years?

"Oh, I don't know," he said, displaying a sense of modesty. "I think that Michael (Eisner) deserves the credit that he rightfully has. He brought a certain vitality to the company. The earnings every year went up and up and up. He hit some really big blockbusters early on. Though 'Roger Rabbit,' we were developing that ..."

And, I interjected, "Splash" was yours.

"You know, 'Splash' is interesting. I told the gentleman from 'Variety' that it's something that I lived with for a long time," Miller said. "A G-rated film and you can't go beyond that because what ... are you going to do with the image that we have?"

Miller recalled watching "To Kill a Mockingbird" with Diane, Walt and Lilly in the projection room of Disney's Holmby Hills home. When the film was over and the lights came on, Walt pounded his hand on the armrest of his chair and said "Damn, I wish I could make a film like that." But Walt, Miller said, "was caught in his own web. He couldn't broaden. He couldn't go beyond what he had established as good Disney material or entertainment."

Still Walt was most proud of "growing his company." In multimedia clips at the Walt Disney Family Museum, you can hear him discussing branching out from the Mickey Mouse shorts to the Silly Symphonies, moving into full-length animated features, then tackling live-action films, TV and creating Disneyland. With every step forward, Walt was met with some nay-sayers.

"He always kept growing," Miller said. "There was always a curiosity with the man: What was on the other side of the hill? And that's what drove him. I mean, look, he was willing to drop motion pictures when he came out of the hospital, he had just had lung surgery, and he sat there and he said, 'You know, I've got to concentrate on EPCOT. That's the most important thing in the company's future right now. And you guys have done a good job. So I'm confident that you can go out and make motion pictures and all. I've put a good team together.' But my point being that his next project was EPCOT. And beyond that was another project. ... He was fascinating in that way."

I asked Miller if he simply was following Walt's philosophy and trying to grow the company while he was CEO by doing things like creating Touchstone.

"But we had to ... . The question became - do we continue making G-rated films which we had lost our younger audience because they wouldn't be caught dead going into a G-rated film. So - I'll never forget - it's interesting that, with 'Splash,' I just hired Richard Berger. And somebody put 'Splash' on my desk and I read it and I liked it. And I also liked that it was connected with Ronnie Howard. You know, good chemistry.

"So I went to Berger and I said, 'You know, Richard. I've got something here that I think we should consider. Because now I had made the decision to go with Touchstone. And he said 'What is it?' And I said that 'It's a Ronnie Howard project and it's called 'Splash.' "

Berger told Miller that he turned "Splash" down when he was at 20th Century Fox. Miller had Berger reread the script and they made a decision to go forward with it.

Eventually Miller screened the film to about 3,500 people after a shareholders meeting at Walt Disney World. Miller warned them that "Splash" was not a G-rated film, that it was "a bit more mature, a little bit more adult."

He told them that after the screening there would be a cocktail reception and he was going "to be there with all my armor on and everything else so you can take shots at me. And I sat through the showing of the film and you could tell that it was very well received," Miller said. "And afterwards, we met later on and I think everyone except two people that came up to me and said 'You're on the right track.' "

A few months later, Miller's Hollywood career came to an abrupt end leaving only the "RON: Legacy." But the Disney Company continues its global growth, even revisiting films from Miller's era, such as "Freaky Friday," "Escape to Witch Mountain," "The Absent Minded Professor" and others.

And given that "TRON: Legacy" director Joseph Kosinski's next project for Walt Disney Studios may be a reimagining of another Miller era sci-fi adventure, "The Black Hole " ...

it looks like we're far from the "end of (the) line" when it comes to the "RON: Legacy."

Your thoughts?

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Blog Post: Presents a-plenty to be found at the Walt Disney Family Museum

Leo N. Holzer — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 05:04:00 GMT

So it's the time of seasonal giving and you're looking for something a bit unusual for that special Disney fan in your life.

Photo by Mark Gibson. Courtesy of The Walt Disney Family Museum

Nothing says Disney any better than items related in some way to "Walt and his life" and the Walt Disney Family Museum has a few things worth considering. Here's the direct line to the Museum's onsite store, (415) 345-6859, where you can place a phone order if you're unable to make it to The Presidio of San Francisco for a personal visit. The phone number also enables you to purchase the few things available online at www.waltdisney.org as well as many other items sold at the site.

Photo by Mark Gibson. Courtesy of The Walt Disney Family Museum

For those who've complained or been disappointed by the Museum's rule of "no photography in the galleries," the store recently received its first shipment of "Picturing The Walt Disney Family Museum." Available online (beginning Dec. 10), this $34.95 hardcover book is about the same size of the "Art of ..." books published for Disney and Pixar animated productions.

Photo by Mark Gibson. Courtesy of The Walt Disney Family Museum

Not available at Amazon.com or other online retailers, "Picturing The Walt Disney Family Museum" features photos of each Museum gallery, highlights dozens of key artifacts and has an awesome two-page spread of the highly detailed "Disneyland of Walt's Imagination" model. It includes a forward by Walt's daughter, Diane Disney Miller, and light text by founding executive director, Richard Benefield.

Courtesy of The Walt Disney Family Museum

For those who've visited the museum, this book is a wonderful keepsake. For those who've not yet made it to the Museum, it's bound to whet your appetite by giving you a better sense of the place. The cover features the reflection of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge in the glass wall at the back of the Museum.

Courtesy of The Walt Disney Family Museum

Online, you can also find "The Man, The Magic, The Memories," a 96-page book written by J.B. Kaufman. The book tells the story of Walter Elias Disney in 10 chapters that parallel the 10 galleries of the museum, from his birth to his tragic, all-too-sudden death. It retails for $19.95. In addition, the online site is selling exclusive 16-inch Mickey and Minnie dolls, inspired by vintage designs from the 1930s. The boxes feature The Walt Disney Family Museum logo and vintage Mickey Mouse cartoon artwork. The dolls sell for $25 each.

Photo by Mark Gibson. Courtesy of The Walt
Disney Family Museum

Outside of memberships (always a good gift if you or the recipient lives near San Francisco) and tickets to the museum, monthly film presentations and special events, that's pretty much all that's available to purchase online from the Museum.

Photo by Mark Gibson. Courtesy of The Walt Disney Family Museum

But what about something you regret not buying during a visit to the museum? A pin perhaps? The Walt Disney Family Museum has several pins available, priced from $6.50 to more than $15. Maybe you forgot to buy a shirt or hat with Walt's smiling face and the Museum's logo? Maybe it was one of the items from Japan's recent Mary Blair art exhibit that was made available in the U.S. exclusively to The Walt Disney Family Museum. A few postcards, small plush figures and other Mary Blair items are still available in San Francisco.

Photo by Mark Gibson. Courtesy of The Walt Disney Family Museum

For fans of Disney history, there are several back copies of the "E-Ticket" magazine, other hard-to-find books like "Ellenshaw Under Glass: Going to the Matte for Disney" from 2003 and "Wally Boag: Clown Prince of Disneyland" to more easily found titles like "From Walt to Woodstock: How Disney Created the Counterculture" and "How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life." Two books you won't find at the Museum: "Walt Disney Hollywoods Dark Prince" and "Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination."

Photo by Mark Gibson. Courtesy of The Walt
Disney Family Museum

There are also several DVDs, including "Walt - The Man Behind the Myth " and the recent-release of the Walt Disney Family Foundation-financed "Walt & El Grupo" documentary by Ted Thomas, son of Disney animator and "Legend" Frank Thomas. The Museum is even offering the official theatrical poster for "Walt & El Grupo" in limited quantities and a pin depicting the image.

Photo by Mark Gibson. Courtesy of The Walt Disney Family Museum

If you're interested in something from The Walt Disney Family Museum, even if it's a gift for yourself, give the Museum's store a call at (415) 345-6859. The staff is friendly and they'll be glad to assist you with any purchase.

Blog Post: Can the "Fantasia" Blu-ray help raise the Walt Disney Family Museum 's profile?

Leo N. Holzer — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 03:31:00 GMT

Well, it looks like Christmas is coming a little early not only for fans of Walt Disney the man, but also for the Walt Disney Family Museum at The Presidio in San Francisco.

Today, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is releasing a combo Blu-ray / DVD collection featuring both "Fantasia" and "Fantasia 2000."

And if that wasn't reason enough to celebrate - both films look marvelous in high-definition Blu-ray and sound superb - the company is also releasing on Blu-ray / DVD "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," inspired by a segment from "Fantasia," and DVDs of three recent Disney-related documentaries: "the boys: the sherman brothers' story," "Waking Sleeping Beauty" and "Walt & El Grupo."

There's plenty of choices there for any Disney fan's holiday wish list.

To celebrate the release of "Fantasia / Fantasia 2000," the company flew dozens of media professionals from around the world to San Francisco a few weeks ago and gave them a quick tour of the Walt Disney Family Museum and a chance to talk with Diane Disney Miller and her son, Walter E.D. Miller.

Diane, Walter and founding director Richard Benefield are featured in a 5-minute bonus segment on both the DVD and Blu-ray "Fantasia" discs talking about the museum. The Blu-ray disc also offers a 14-minute look at one of the museum's prized possessions, the Schultheis Notebook, and the man who created it.

Throughout the development of the animated masterpiece "Fantasia," a member of Disney's camera effects department - Herman Schultheis - kept a detailed record of the work he and others pioneered long before the age of CGI. His notebook is filled with drawings, behind-the-scenes photographs, frames of film, charts and written descriptions that reveal many of the techniques that were used in early Disney films.

Animation historians like John Canemaker, Charles Solomon and others call the notebook "the holy grail of special effects," revealing how spinning snowflakes, volcanic eruptions and ghostly horsemen were created for "Fantasia."

Schultheis later disappeared in the jungles of Guatemala and the notebook was discovered decades later in a Murphy bed after his wife passed away, leaving the home to an order of nuns.

John Canemaker chats with Diane Disney Miller during his
recent visit to the Walt Disney Family Museum

During a round-table interview, Diane was asked about "Fantasia" and where it ranks among her father's classic films.

"It has to be right up there because of the music, the effects, the animation," she said.

"It stands apart," Walter added. "It's so different, so unique."

Walter Elias Disney Miller and Diane Disney Miller

In a detailed commentary track accompanying "Fantasia," Disney historian Brian Sibley says: "I know of no other motion picture that takes you on quite such an astonishing and stimulating voyage of visual and aural exploration. Walt Disney's 'Fantasia,' is a film that remains as challenging and rewarding as when it was first created more than 70 years ago."

While the focus of the press event was "Fantasia / Fantasia 2000," the questions quickly turned to the museum.

Diane explained how the idea for a museum grew out of the family-financed documentary film, "Walt - The Man Behind the Myth," a CD-rom project, "Walt Disney: An Intimate History of the Man And His Magic. Windows CD-ROM.," and an online "museum" dedicated to Walt Disney's life story. The family had been leasing warehouse / office space at The Presidio filled with Walt's numerous awards, his massive miniature collection, the Lilly Belle, a few paintings and other personal possessions. There really wasn't much in the way of animation art or maquettes, because Walt "didn't bring those things home," but there were still several treasures worth sharing with the world.

The Lilly Belle

Diane also thought that her father had been trashed in some biographies, including "Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince," and "Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination." Those books didn't reflect the man she knew and loved dearly or the warm relationship between Walt and his wife, Lillian.

"But why San Francisco?"

It's a question Walt's daughter heard many times that day and one that I've heard from several Disney enthusiasts since even before the museum opened on Oct. 1, 2009.

Diane Disney Miller cuts the ribbon at the Walt Disney Family Museum
on October 1, 2009

Diane explained that the family had considered several locations for the museum, including near Griffith Park, the Walt Disney Concert Hall or the Autry National Center in Los Angeles as well as a site in Kansas City. The family even considered Napa, where she lives with her husband, Ron Miller, a former Disney CEO.

Eventually, the Presidio Trust approached the Walt Disney Family Foundation after deciding to make the former barracks buildings available for lease. LucasFilm is located at The Presidio; DreamWorks has a production facility near the San Francisco Airport and Pixar is located across the bay in Emeryville.

The family looked at the beautiful brick structure and the view it offered of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. They saw its potential and were hooked.

The Walt Disney Family Museum at San Francisco's Presidio

Diane said, "Why not San Francisco?"

She also believed it was in her dad's "spirit to renovate an old building" and outfit it with cutting-edge technology to let him and his colleagues tell the story of his life.

There are some Disney ties to the city by the bay, although they're rarely mentioned: San Francisco's Courvoisier Gallery was the first to recognize animation cels as popular art. The Disney Studios was a longtime client of San Francisco-based Bank of America and museum visitors can listen to a few audio clips of Walt's brother, Roy O. Disney, talking about the studio's relationship with its bankers. Walt Disney's lifelong friendship with Art Linkletter was launched when the two met during a "Fantasia" event in San Francisco. Walt Disney received the Key to San Francisco in 1958, prominently displayed with the many Oscars and other awards in the museum's foyer.

And, arguably, San Francisco is a stronger international tourist destination than Los Angeles. Remember, Walt's influence was global.

The "1950s & 1960s: The Big Screen and Beyond" gallery at the Walt Disney Family Museum

Most everyone thought if you build it and it has the name Walt Disney attached to it, people will come. They are coming, but not in the numbers really needed for the museum to thrive.

I talked to Walter about some of the challenges the museum has faced, especially in regards to marketing. I've visited several times when the galleries are nearly deserted, although attendance picks up during the holidays as locals take out-of-town guests to visit the museum or to see "Christmas with Walt Disney," an hour-long film worth catching. Judge the relationship Walt and Lillian had based on the footage shown here as well as what's featured in "Walt & El Grupo."

Marketing is trying. There have been print ads and stories in several newspapers across the country, including New York and Los Angeles. There are banners up at various locations in San Francisco and some advertising with San Francisco MUNI. An award-winning "Eye on the Bay" evening TV magazine episode on the museum featuring Walt's daughter and John Lasseter has aired several times and there was a great segment on the nationally broadcast CBS' "Sunday Morning" shown when the museum first opened. D23 has included a few stories in the pages of its luxurious magazine.

(L to R) Diane Disney Miller, John Lasseter and Nancy
Lasseter at the Walt Disney Family Museum's
opening gala

One thing few people realize is that in 1982, long before there was any thought of opening a museum dedicated to Walt Disney, Lillian and daughters, Diane and Sharon, sold the company the rights to Walt Disney's name and likeness in deal that included the Disneyland Railroad and Monorail.

That means the museum must get company approval for its marketing and advertising campaigns. Items in the museum's store featuring Walt's name and likeness or any animated character have to be cleared. Even sponsors have to be OK'd by the company. The website, www.waltdisney.org, is hosted by the company and is updated only once a month.

To improve the timeliness of its communications, the museum launched a blog, Storyboard, and it recently held a fan-based contest to create a YouTube video to help with marketing. A winner will be selected soon.

Storyboard, the Walt Disney Family Museum's new blog

The relationship with the company is good, as the "Fantasia / Fantasia 2000" press event indicates. Still, even good relationships can be improved.

The Presidio Trust has also made things a bit more challenging with its restrictions on signage. Despite adding a massive glass wall and in-fill gallery to turn a U-shaped building into a rectangle because - in theory - the in-fill gallery could later be removed, the Presidio Trust will not allow the museum to install any semi-permanent signage or even a "Partners-like" sculpture. A couple of banners are put over the handrails and fold-out signs are set up on the sidewalk in front of the museum and removed daily.

There's ample free parking for the museum, a rare thing in San Francisco, although plans call for a great lawn to eventually replace the huge parking lot. Some visitors who take a taxi to the museum have had trouble getting service out of The Presidio.

One of the bus signs that are now rolling around San Francisco, promoting
the Walt Disney Family Museum

A few special promotions, including one tied to the World Series and the San Francisco Giants was a big hit, offering discounted admissions to anyone sporting a Giants hat or shirt. A Toys for Tots promotion is planned, but no details have been released.

The admission price of $20 for adults; $15 for students and seniors; and $12 for children 6 to 17, may seem pricey to some given the Bay Area's battered economy, but there are few complaints after people experience the galleries.

Those who've visited - even casual fans - walk away with a deeper understanding and appreciation of the man who launched a little cartoon studio with his older brother, Roy, and continued to grow and diversify the family business.

Lillian & Walt Disney receive the Key to the City from San Francisco Mayor George
Christopher and his wife in December of 1958. Image courtesy
of the Walt Disney Family Museum

"The reaction and word of mouth has been well beyond our expectations," Walter said. "We hope to utilize more of it in our marketing."

Stories written by those attending the "Fantasia / Fantasia 2000" press event and the bonus material in the Blu-ray / DVD releases will help. Walter said the short segment on the museum - or at least part of it - will soon be broadcast to rooms at The Disneyland Resort with hopes that it will eventually be shown on the ships of the Disney Cruise Line and the company-owned resorts in Florida.