Film & Movies
Disney California Adventure’s original entrance complex gets ready to make its exit

I know that this is going to sound strange to all of you
folks out there who absolutely hate Disney California Adventure, who have been happily
sitting back and watching as this theme park undergoes its $1.4 billion
makeover … But it kind of makes me sad that they’ve begun dismantling Sunshine
Plaza. That – starting later today —
those two huge, beautiful mosaics that flank that miniature version of the
Golden Gate Bridge are getting pulled down.
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But maybe the reason that I’m feeling so down about this
particular aspect of the DCA redo is that I know how long & how hard the
Imagineers struggled to come up with a suitable entrance complex for the
Disneyland Resort‘s second gate. Believe it or not, WDI fretted about this
particular creative decision for almost 15 years. Which is why many pieces of
this particular puzzle didn’t actually come together ’til 18 months shy of
Disney California Adventure’s grand opening back in February of 2001.
Strange but true, folks. This story actually begins back in
late 1984 / early 1985. Which was right after Michael Eisner had come onboard
at Disney as the Company’s new Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. And one of
Eisner’s first orders to the Imagineers was to find ways to expand Disneyland.
So that it could then go from being just a stand-alone theme park to becoming a
multi-day destination resort.
Obviously this plan was put into play before January of
1988. Which was when The Walt Disney Company acquired the Wrather Corporation
so that the Mouse could then own the Disneyland Hotel outright. But I digress …
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Anyway … The easiest way to expand Disneyland was
to build a second gate (i.e. theme park) in Disneyland’s old parking lot. But
that then raised issues about where Guests would park once they arrived in
Anaheim. More to the point, how thousands of people would transition from The
Happiest Place on Earth to … Well, whatever theme Disneyland’s companion park
was going to be built around.
Back when Westcot 1.0 was in the works, Disneyland Plaza (as
the area between the two theme parks was then known) was supposed to have been
this world-class public space. A seven-acre area that would not only provide
Guests with a Dramatic Entry Sequence (which then created a sense of place as
well as providing notable gateways to the theme parks) but would also serve as
the transportation hub of the Disneyland Resort. Giving DLR visitors the option of walking
(if they wanted to visit Disneyland Center. Which was supposed to be this
version of the Resort’s retail, dining
and entertainment district), boarding a Monorail (if they were headed to one of
Disney’s on-site Resort Hotels) or hopping an elevated PeopleMover (if they wanted
to return to their car. Which was located in one of the Disneyland Resort’s peripheral parking structures).
Now as for what the entrance plaza of Westcot 1.0 was
supposed to have looked like … Given that the Imagineers now felt that Epcot‘s
original entrance plaza was rather austere (which is why “Leave a Legacy” was
eventually added to the front of that theme park), they were looking to create
something lush and green.
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So the original entrance complex for this first iteration of
Disneyland’s second gate … Well, you were to have crossed this highly stylized bridge
and then walked under a cascading waterfall. After you’d have done this, you’d have found
yourself in this enormous lobby. Where you could then have boarded Westcot
1.0’s signature attraction. Which was to have been housed in Spacestation
Earth. Which was this 300 foot-tall golden sphere that would have loomed over
the horizon in most of Anaheim.
But when Orange County residents began carping about the
size of Westcot 1.0’s icon (Based on how big Spacestation Earth seemed to be from
the Disneyland Resort model, one Anaheim wag quipped that this 300-foot tall
golden sphere looked like a Sunkist Orange on steroids), the Imagineers then decided
to revise their plans for the Disneyland Resort. Opting instead to go with
Westcot 2.0. Which (it was felt at the time, anyway) would have been a far
better fit with that world-famous theme park right across the way.
Mind you, one of the reasons that it was felt that Westcot
2.0 would be a better fit with Disneyland is that the portions of these two
theme parks that faced into Disneyland Plaza would share a similar sort of
architecture. With Disneyland’s train station obviously reflecting Main Street
U.S.A.’s turn-of-the-century stylings while Westcot 2.0’s entrance complex was
to have been modeled after those beautiful glass-and-iron structures that were
built to house Philadelpia’s Centennial International Exhibition of 1876. Which
was the first official World’s Fair to be held inside of the United States.
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But after Euro Disney struggled to meet its initial
attendance & financial projections after that $4 billion Resort opened in
April of 1992, Eisner lost his enthusiasm for ambitious multi-billion dollar projects.
Which is why – in January of 1995 – Michael pulled the plug on Westcot (which –
at one point, anyway – was to have cost $3 billion to build) and then asked the
Imagineers to come up with a more affordable alternative. Which is where the
idea for Disney California Adventure came from.
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Now for a while, the plaza that Disneyland and DCA were to
share did retain some of the features that had been initially designed for the
Westcot versions of the Disneyland Resort’s expansion plans. To be specific: A
huge fountain that – just like Epcot’s Innoventions Fountains (which are
located in Future World’s Innoventions Plaza) – were to have presented
elaborate water ballets to entertain Disneyland Guests every 15 minutes.
But – over time – as the Imagineers struggled to stretch the
$1.4 billion that Michael Eisner had given them as far as they possibly could
(Because – let’s remember – this wasn’t just $1.4 billion that had been set
aside for construction of a new theme park. No, this money also had to be used
to build the Grand California Resort & Spa, the Downtown Disney shopping
& dining district, that six-level Mickey & Friends parking structure as
well as DCA), certain decorative elements got dropped along the way. And among
those items were the fountains that supposed to have been built at the very center
of Disneyland Plaza.
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Now as for the entrance complex for Disney California
Adventure itself, this area went through 5 different iterations on the next
four years. As the Imagineers struggled to get a handle on what the icon for
this theme park should be. Should it be a huge ornamental fountain shaped like the State
of California …
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… or a giant golden spike (Which was supposed to be
referencing the California Gold Rush of 1848 – 1855.
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Though – truth be told –
this icon was actually a carry-over from the massive Future World show building
that the Imagineers had initially designed for Westcot 2.0.
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Which – to be
completely honest – had been inspired by the Trylon and the Perisphere, the
Theme Center for the New York World’s Fair of 1939-1940. But – again – I
digress …)

The only problem with the first five versions of Disney
California Adventure’s entrance complex is that they were clearly inspired by
the all of the Spanish & Mediterranean-style architecture that you already
see throughout Southern California. In short, while this type of design was
entirely appropriate for a theme park that celebrated the Golden State, it was
also nothing special. It just didn’t stand out.
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Or so thought Tim Delaney. At that time (circa 1998), this
veteran Imagineer was already the Creative Director, Producer & Field Art
Director of DCA’s Paradise Pier area (which was supposed to be this
affectionate recreation of California’s seaside amusement piers of the 1920s).
But as Delaney watched WDI constantly flailing and then failing to come up with
a suitable concept on Disney California Adventure’s entrance complex, Tim
finally felt that he had to intervene.
Back when I interviewed Delaney at DCA’s Grand Opening in
February of 2001, Tim talked about how concerned he was.
“After all, you only get one chance to make a first
impression. And the designs that WDI had come up with previous to my coming
onboard this project were … To be honest, they weren’t special enough,” Tim
explained. “I mean, this is the theme park that’s being built right across the
way from Disneyland. People have been coming to Anaheim for almost 50 years now
for the magic and the fun. Which is why they’re going to expect that the Park
that Disney builds right next door to Disneyland is going to be magic and fun
as well.”
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And to get that point across, Delaney suggested that WDI
step away from all of the Spanish & Mediterranean-style architecture and
instead turn DCA’s entrance complex into this giant 3D postcard version of
California. So that – even while they were standing outside of this theme park
— Disneyland Resort Guests could get a sense of some of the Golden
State-themed fun & magic that lay just beyond those turnstiles.
So Tim pitched this design to Imagineering management. Who
liked it and then immediately passed this concept along to Eisner. Who quickly
signed off on the 3D picture postcard idea for Disney California Adventure’s
entrance complex.
The only problem was … Again, this was 1998. And – what with
the Paradise Pier project — Delaney’s plate was already very full. So could he
really pull that part of the theme park off as well as supervise the design
& construction of DCA’s entrance complex?
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Tim didn’t even think about it. He just plunged right in.
With one of his first tasks being determining how high that miniature version
of the Golden Gate Bridge should be.
“We were originally going to make those bridge supports
79-feet tall. But then when we did some balloon tests and stood at the Partners
statue at the Hub, we found that a 79-foot tall support would have stuck up
from behind the Main Street Train Station,” Delaney continued. “So we lowered
the height of those two supports to 72 feet. And that way, DCA’s entrance
complex didn’t visually intrude into Disneyland.
Determining the proper height for those enormous letters
that are used to spell “CALIFORNIA” just outside of DCA’s entrance led to one
of the funnier moments on this construction project. As senior principal
construction designer Charlie Kowalski recalled:
“(Mock-ups of the letters C and A had been constructed in
both 12-foot and 13-foot heights). It was early one Sunday morning and we had
both sets of CAs next to one another. Within half an hour, Operations comes
running over yelling ‘Quick, knock one of those letters down! Our
Spanish-speaking Guests at Disneyland are upset about the giant CACA they can
see from the Monorail! (So we quickly knocked down that second A).”
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As for the 210-foot long mural portion of this project,
Delaney decided that the left side would represent Southern California from
Mount Whitney & Yosemite Valley down to San Diego. While the west side
would depicts Northern California landmarks from San Francisco north to Mount
Shasta. Tim also included all sort of witty touches as part of his design, like
those whales & mule deer that appear to be jumping over DCA’s security fence
in order to gain entrance to this theme park.
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And to turn his design (which drew its inspiration from the
artwork that you used to see on those citrus labels that California’s fruit
packing plants used to slap on packing crates back in the early 20th century) into ceramic tiles,
Delaney turned to Theodora Kurkchiev and Dimitri Lazaroff of TND Studio, Inc. Which is this San
Pedro-based art studio that specializes in the design and production of ceramic
works of art.
In a February 2001 interview with the Los Angeles Times,
Theodora recalled what it was like when Tim initially came to TND Studio,
asking if they’d be able to pull off the mural component of the DCA entrance complex project:
“Dimitri told (Tim that) it would take at least 19 months to
do this, but Disney wanted it in half that time. We started work in February of
2000 … I worked seven days a week, 12 to 16 hours a day, hand-painting each and
every tile (for this project). I couldn’t take even one day off in the last six
months because I was afraid we would not make it.”
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“And why was that?,” you ask. Because translating Delaney’s
design into individual pieces of ceramic tile was a fairly labor-intensive
process. It involved taking Tim’s design (which had been broken up in this series of
8-foot-long paintings) and then blowing those images up into 16-foot-tall
posters. Which then had to be enlarged 105% (because clay shrinks
5% when it’s being fired).
After each piece of clay was baked, it was then hand-painted
and glazed (sometimes with 14-carat gold paint). Afterward all 14,500 ceramic
tiles were alphanumerically encoded so the Imagineers would then know just
where to put each piece of ceramic once it arrived on site.
And did I mention that – as Delaney, Kurkchiev and Lazaroff were
designing and then building what eventually became one of the largest
hand-crafted tile murals in the world – that they had to take the sometimes
brutal Southern California sun in account? Which is why – to prevent all of
those exquisitely painted pieces of ceramic from cracking – these two giant murals
feature expansion joints.
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Anywho … From the moment that Disney California Adventure
opened, this theme park’s 3D picture postcard entrance plaza was a hit with the
public. People immediately began using the enormous “CALIFORNIA” sign outside
of this Park as a point of reference at the Resort (i.e. “Meet me at the Letter F at 4 o’clock”). They also happily took pictures of friends & family as
they climbed on and/or posed in front of these over-sized letters.
But all of that goes away starting today. DCA’s original
entrance complex and Sunshine Plaza will be pulled down to build Buena Vista Street.
Which will be this romanticized version of the Los Angeles that Walt Disney
encountered in the 1920s after he made that fateful train trip from Kansas City
to Hollywood in 1923.
And while I’m sure that people will enjoy entering Disney
California Adventure through a recreation of the entrance of LA’s old
Pan-Pacific Auditorium (After all, WDW Guests have enjoyed Disney’s Hollywood
Studios‘ entrance for over 20 years now. Which also draws its inspiration from
the Pan-Pacific), I know that – me personally – I know that I’m going to miss
DCA’s original entrance complex as well as its Sunshine Plaza area.
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Mind you, not all aspects of this part of Disney California
Adventure worked for me. That large metal sunburst statue and fountain located
towards at the back of Sunshine Plaza were pretty ineffective icons. I don’t
know if this was because of their positioning and/or because (to be honest)
these pieces were kind of on the puny side. But that sunburst statue &
fountain never worked as weenies. At least for me. They never made me feel like
I had to go deeper into that theme park, find new things to experience and
explore.
That said, what did work for me (at least in DCA’s Sunshine
Plaza area) was that replica of the California Zephyr. Looking at this thing,
it’s hard to believe that the Imagineers found this engine rusting in a pond
next to a rail salvage yard in Moline, IL. I’ve spent many a happy afternoon
seated right outside of this beautifully restored engine enjoying a sweet treat from Baker’s Field
Bakery or Bur-r-r Bank Ice Cream. Or
looking down at DCA’s feral cats (which – for some reason or another – just
love to sleep in the sun right on those train tracks that are directly in front
of the California Zephyr. As if to say “Go ahead. I dare you. Try and run me
over.”) Or just sitting in the shade there, taking notes, chatting with
friends, smiling whenever I’d hear Al Jolson start to sing “California, Here I
Come!“
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It’s sad to think that this part of DCA is now going away. I
mean, I’m certain that Walt Disney Plaza will have its charms. And it’ll be
interesting to see what eventually winds up being installed of that recreation
of the Carthay Circle Theatre (Which was where the Imagineers had initially
hoped to install a West Coast version of “Mickey’s PhilharMagic.” Until they
realized that this show building wouldn’t actually be big enough to house that
150-foot wide seamless projection screen which Disney needs in order to properly present this 3D
film).
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But until that happens … Well, at least I’ll have those
pictures of my daughter Alice seated in the gap of the letter A in DCA’s old
“CALIFORNIA” sign to remind of what the entrance complex of this theme park
used to look like.
But what about you folks? Is there anyone else who’s going
to miss Disney California Adventure’s entrance complex after it exits? Or are
you all just focusing on what Buena Vista Street and Walt Disney Plaza will
look like once they open in 2012?
Your thoughts?
Film & Movies
Before He Was 626: The Surprisingly Dark Origins of Disney’s Stitch

Hopes are high for Disney’s live-action version of Lilo & Stitch, which opens in theaters next week (on May 23rd to be exact). And – if current box office projections hold – it will sell more than $120 million worth of tickets in North America.
Stitch Before the Live-Action: What Fans Need to Know
But here’s the thing – there wouldn’t have been a hand-drawn version of Stitch to reimagine as a live-action film if it weren’t for Academy Award-winner Chris Sanders. Who – some 40 years ago – had a very different idea in mind for this project. Not an animated film or a live-action movie, for that matter. But – rather – a children’s picture book.
Sanders revealed the true origins of Lilo & Stitch in his self-published book, From Pitch to Stitch: The Origins of Disney’s Most Unusual Classic.

From Picture Book to Pitch Meeting
Chris – after he graduated from CalArts back in 1984 (this was three years before he began working for Disney) – landed a job at Marvel Comics. Which – because Marvel Animation was producing the Muppet Babies TV show – led to an opportunity to design characters for that animated series.
About a year into this gig (we’re now talking 1985), Sanders – in his time away from work – began noodling on a side project. As Chris recalled in From Pitch to Stitch:
“Early in my animation career, I tried writing a picture book that centered around a weird little creature that lived a solitary life in the forest. He was a monster, unsure of where he had come from, or where he belonged. I generated a concept drawing, wrote some pages and started making a sculpted version of him. But I soon abandoned it as the idea seemed too large and vague to fit in thirty pages or so.”
We now jump ahead 12 years or so. Sanders has quickly moved up through the ranks at Walt Disney Animation Studios. So much so that – by 1997 – Chris is now the Head of Story on Disney’s Mulan.

A Monster in the Forest Becomes Stitch on Earth
With Mulan deep in production, Sanders was looking for his next project when an opportunity came his way.
“I had dinner with Tom Schumacher, who was president of Feature Animation at the time. He asked if there was anything I might be interested in directing. After a little reflection, I realized that there was something: That old idea from a decade prior.”
When Sanders told Schumacher about the monster who lived alone in the forest…
“Tom offered the crucial observation that – because the animal world is already alien to us – I should consider relocating the creature to the human world.”
With that in mind, Chris dusted off the story and went to work.
Over the next three months, Sanders created a pitch book for the proposed animated film. What he came up with was very different from the version of Lilo & Stitch that eventually hit theaters in 2002.
The Most Dangerous Creature in the Known Universe
The pitch – first shared with Walt Disney Feature Animation staffers on January 9, 1998 – was titled: Lilo & Stitch: A love story of a girl and what she thinks is a dog.
This early version of Stitch was… not cute. Not cuddly. He was mean, selfish, self-centered – a career criminal. When the story opens, Stitch is in a security pod at an intergalactic trial, found guilty of 12,000 counts of hooliganism and attempted planetary enslavement.
Instead of being created by Jumba, Stitch leads a gang of marauders. His second-in-command? Ramthar, a giant, red shark-like brute.
When Stitch refuses to reveal the gang’s location, he’s sentenced to life on a maximum-security asteroid. But en route, his gang attacks the prison convoy. In the chaos, Stitch escapes in a hijacked pod and crash-lands on Earth.

Earth in Danger, Jumba on the Hunt
Terrified of what Stitch could do to our technologically inferior planet, the Grand Council Woman sends bounty hunter Jumba – along with a rule-abiding Cultural Contamination Control agent named Pleakley – to retrieve (or eliminate) Stitch.
Their mission must be secret, follow Earth laws, and – most importantly – ensure no harm comes to any humans.
Naturally, Stitch ignores all that.
After his crash, Stitch claws out of the wreckage, sees the lights of a nearby town, and screams, “I will destroy you all!” That plan is immediately derailed when he’s run over by a convoy of sugar cane trucks.
Waking up in the local humane society, Stitch sees a news report confirming the Federation is already hot on his trail. He needs to blend in. Fast.
Enter Lilo
Lilo is a lonely little girl, mourning her parents, looking for a pet. Stitch plays the role of a “cute little doggie” because it’s a means to an end. At this point, Lilo is just someone to use while he builds a communications device.
Using parts from her toys and a stolen police radio, Stitch contacts his old gang. But Ramthar, now the leader, isn’t thrilled. Still, Stitch sends a signal.
Then he builds an army.

Stitch Goes Full Skynet
Stitch constructs a small robot, sends it to the junkyard to build bigger robots. Soon, he has an army. When Ramthar and crew arrive, Stitch’s robots surround them. Ramthar is furious, but Stitch regains command.
Next, Stitch sets his robotic horde on a nearby town. Everything goes smoothly until a robot targets the hula studio where Lilo is dancing. As it lifts her in its claw, Stitch has a change of heart. He saves her.
From here, the plot begins to resemble the Lilo & Stitch we know today. Sort of.

The Ending That Never Was
In Sanders’ original version, it’s not Captain Gantu who kidnaps Lilo, but Ramthar. And when the Grand Council Woman comes to collect Stitch, Lilo produces a receipt from the humane society.
“I paid a $4 processing fee to adopt him. If you take Stitch, you’re stealing.”
The Grand Council Woman crumples the receipt and says, “I didn’t see it.”
Nani chimes in: “Well, I saw it.”
Then Jumba. Then one of Stitch’s old crew. Then a hula girl. And finally, Pleakley pulls out his CCC badge and says:
“Well, I am Pleakley Grathor, Cultural Contamination Control Agent No. 444. And I saw it.”
Pleakley saves Stitch.


How Roy E. Disney Made Stitch Cuddly
Ultimately, this version of Lilo & Stitch was streamlined. Roy E. Disney believed Stitch shouldn’t be nasty. Just naughty. And not by choice – he was designed that way.
Which is how Stitch became Experiment 626. A misunderstood creation of Jumba the mad scientist, not a hardened criminal with a vendetta.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Ricardo Montalbán’s Lost Role
Here’s a detail that even hardcore Lilo & Stitch fans may not know: Ricardo Montalbán—best known as Mr. Roarke from Fantasy Island and Khan Noonien Singh from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan—was originally cast as the voice of Ramthar, Stitch’s second-in-command in this early version of the film. He had already recorded a significant amount of dialogue before the story was reworked following Roy E. Disney’s guidance. When Stitch evolved from a ruthless galactic outlaw to a misunderstood genetic experiment, Montalbán’s character (and much of the original gang concept) was written out entirely.

Which is kind of wild when you think about it. Wrath of Khan is widely considered the gold standard of Star Trek films. So yes, for a time, Khan himself was supposed to be part of Disney’s weirdest sci-fi comedy.
Stitch’s Legacy (and Why It Still Resonates)
Looking back at Stitch’s original story, it’s wild to think how close we came to getting a very different kind of movie. One where our favorite blue alien was less “ohana means family” and more “I’ll destroy you all.” But that transformation—from outlaw to outcast to ohana—is exactly what makes Lilo & Stitch so special.
So as the live-action version prepares to hit theaters, keep in mind that behind all the cuddly merch and tiki mugs lies one of Disney’s strangest, boldest, and most hard-won reinventions. One that started with a forest monster and became a beloved franchise about found family.
June 26th is officially Stitch Day—so mark your calendar. It’s a good excuse to celebrate just how far this little blue alien has come.
Film & Movies
How “An American Tail” Led to Disney’s “Hocus Pocus”

Over the last week, I’ve been delving into Witches Run Amok, Shannon Carlin’s oral history of the making of Disney’s Hocus Pocus. This book reveals some fascinating behind-the-scenes stories about the 1993 film that initially bombed at the box office but has since become a cult favorite, even spawning a sequel in 2022 that went on to become the most-watched release in Disney+ history.
But what really caught my eye in this 284-page hardcover wasn’t just the tales of Hocus Pocus’s unlikely rise to fame. Rather, it was the unexpected connections between Hocus Pocus and another beloved film—An American Tail. As it turns out, the two films share a curious origin story, one that begins in the mid-1980s, during the early days of the creative rebirth of Walt Disney Studios under Michael Eisner, Frank Wells, and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
The Birth of An American Tail
Let’s rewind to late 1984/early 1985, a period when Eisner, Wells, and Katzenberg were just getting settled at Disney and were on the hunt for fresh projects that would signal a new era at the studio. During this time, Katzenberg—tasked with revitalizing Disney Feature Animation—began meeting with talent across Hollywood, hoping to find a project that could breathe life into the struggling division.
One such meeting was with a 29-year-old writer and illustrator named David Kirschner. At the time, Kirschner’s biggest credit was illustrating children’s books featuring Muppets and Sesame Street characters, but he had an idea for a new project: a TV special about a mouse emigrating to America, culminating in the mouse’s arrival in New York Harbor on the same day as the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in 1886.

Katzenberg saw the patriotic appeal of the concept but ultimately passed on it, as he was focused on finding full-length feature projects for Disney’s animation department. Kirschner, undeterred, took his pitch elsewhere—to none other than Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg’s production partner. Kennedy was intrigued and invited Kirschner to Spielberg’s annual Fourth of July party to pitch the idea directly to the famed director.
Spielberg immediately saw the potential in Kirschner’s idea, but instead of a TV special, he envisioned a full-length animated feature film. This project would eventually become An American Tail, a tribute of sorts to Spielberg’s own grandfather, Philip Posner, who emigrated from Russia to the United States in the late 19th century. The film’s lead character, Fievel, was even named after Spielberg’s grandfather, whose Yiddish name was also Fievel.
Disney’s Loss Becomes Universal’s Gain
An American Tail went on to become a major success for Universal Pictures, which hadn’t been involved in an animated feature since the release of Pinocchio in Outer Space in 1965. Meanwhile, over at Disney, Eisner and Wells weren’t exactly thrilled that Katzenberg had let such a promising project slip through his fingers.
Not wanting to miss out on any future opportunities with Kirschner, Katzenberg quickly scheduled another meeting with him to discuss any other ideas he might have. And as fate would have it, Kirschner had just written a short story for Muppet Magazine called Halloween House, about a boy who is magically transformed into a cat by a trio of witches.
The Pitch That Sealed the Deal
Knowing Katzenberg could be a tough sell, Kirschner went all out to impress during his pitch. He requested access to the Disney lot 30 minutes early to set the stage for his presentation. When Katzenberg and the Disney development team walked into the conference room, they were greeted by a table covered in candy corn, a cauldron of dry ice fog, and a broom, mop, and vacuum cleaner suspended from the ceiling as if they were flying—evoking the magical world of Halloween House.
Katzenberg was reportedly unimpressed by the theatrical setup, muttering, “Oy, show-and-tell time” as he took his seat. But Kirschner knew exactly how to grab his attention. He started his pitch with the fact that Halloween was a billion-dollar business—a figure that made Katzenberg sit up and take notice. He listened attentively to Kirschner’s pitch, and by the time the meeting was over, Katzenberg was convinced. Halloween House would become Hocus Pocus, and Disney had its next big Halloween film.
A Bit of Hollywood Drama
Interestingly, Kirschner’s success with Hocus Pocus didn’t sit well with his old collaborators. About a year after the film’s release, Kirschner ran into Kathleen Kennedy at an Amblin holiday party, and she wasted no time in expressing her disappointment. According to Kirschner, Kennedy said, “You really hurt Steven.” When Kirschner asked how, she explained that Spielberg and Kennedy had given him his big break with An American Tail, but when he came up with the idea for his next film, he brought it to Disney rather than to them.
Hollywood can be a place where loyalty is valued—or, at least, perceived loyalty. At the same time, this was happening just as Katzenberg was leaving Disney and partnering with Spielberg and David Geffen to launch DreamWorks SKG, which only added to the tension. Loyalty, as Kirschner found out, can be an abstract concept in the entertainment industry.
A Halloween Favorite is Born
Despite its rocky start at the box office in 1993, Hocus Pocus has gone on to become a beloved part of Halloween pop culture. And, as Carlin’s book details, its success helped pave the way for more Disney Halloween-themed projects in the years that followed.

As for why Hocus Pocus was released in July of 1993 instead of during Halloween? That’s a story for another time, but it has something to do with another Halloween-themed project Disney was working on that year—Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas—and Katzenberg finding himself in the awkward position of having to choose between keeping Bette Midler or Tim Burton happy.
For more behind-the-scenes stories about Hocus Pocus and other Disney films, be sure to check out Witches Run Amok by Shannon Carlin. It’s a fascinating read for any Disney fan!
And if you love hearing these kinds of behind-the-scenes stories about animation and film history, be sure to check out Fine Tooning with Drew Taylor, where Drew and I dive deep into all things movies, animation, and the creative decisions that shape the films we love. You can find us on your favorite podcast platforms or right here on JimHillMedia.com.
Film & Movies
How Disney’s “Bambi” led to the creation of Smokey Bear

When people talk about Disney’s “Bambi,” the scene that they typically cite as being the one from this 1942 film which then scarred them for life is – of course – the moment in this movie where Bambi’s mother gets shot by hunters.
Which is kind of ironic. Given that – if you watch this animated feature today – you’ll see that a lot of this ruined-my-childhood scene actually happens off-camera. I mean, you hear the rifle shot that takes down Bambi’s Mom. But you don’t actually see that Mama Deer get clipped.
Now for the scariest part of that movie that you actually see on-camera … Hands down, that has to be the forest fire sequence in “Bambi.” As the grown-up Bambi & his bride, Faline, desperately race through those woods, trying to find a path to safety as literally everything around them is ablaze … That sequence is literally nightmare fuel.

Mind you, the artists at Walt Disney Animation Studios had lots of inspiration for the forest fire sequence in “Bambi.” You see, in a typical year, the United States experiences – due to either natural phenomenon like lightning strikes or human carelessness – 100 forest fires. Whereas in 1940 (i.e., the year that Disney Studios began working in earnest of a movie version of Felix Salten’s best-selling movie), America found itself battling a record 360 forest fires.
Which greatly concerned the U.S. Forest Service. But not for the reason you might think.
Protecting the Forest for World War II
I mean, yes. Sure. Officials over in the Agricultural Department (That’s the arm of the U.S. government that manages the Forest Service) were obviously concerned about the impact that this record number of forest fires in 1940 had had on citizens. Not to mention all of the wildlife habitat that was now lost.
But to be honest, what really concerned government officials was those hundreds of thousands of acres of raw timber that had been consumed by these blazes. You see, by 1940, the world was on the cusp of the next world war. A conflict that the U.S. would inevitably be pulled into. And all that now-lost timber? It could have been used to fuel the U.S. war machine.
So with this in mind (and U.S. government officials now seeing an urgent need to preserve & protect this precious resource) … Which is why – in 1942 (just a few months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor) – the U.S. Forest Service rolls out its first-ever forest fire prevention program.
Which – given that this was the early days of World War II – the slogan that the U.S. Forest Service initially chose for its forest fire prevention program is very in that era’s we’re-all-in-this-together / so-let’s-do-what-we-can-to-help-America’s war-effort esthetic – made a direct appeal to all those folks who were taking part in scrap metal drives: “Forest Defense is National Defense.”

And the poster that the U.S. Forest Service had created to support this campaign? … Well, it was well-meaning as well. It was done in the WPA style and showed men out in the forest, wielding shovels to ditch a ditch. They were trying to construct a fire break, which would then supposedly slow the forest fire that was directly behind them.
But the downside was … That “Forest Defense is National Defense” slogan – along with that poster which the U.S. Forest Service had created to support their new forest fire prevention program didn’t exactly capture America’s attention.
I mean, it was the War Years after all. A lot was going in the country at that time. But long story short: the U.S. Forest Service’s first attempt at launching a successful forest fire prevention program sank without a trace.
So what do you do in a situation like this? You regroup. You try something different.
Disney & Bambi to the Rescue
And within the U.S. government, the thinking now was “Well, what if we got a celebrity to serve as the spokesman for our new forest fire prevention program? Maybe that would then grab the public’s attention.”
The only problem was … Well, again, these are the War Years. And a lot of that era’s A-listers (people like Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable, even Mel Brooks) had already enlisted. So there weren’t really a lot of big-name celebrities to choose from.
But then some enterprising official at the U.S. Forest Service came up with an interesting idea. He supposedly said “Hey, have you seen that new Disney movie? You know, the one with the deer? That movie has a forest fire in it. Maybe we should go talk with Walt Disney? Maybe he has some ideas about how we can better capture the public’s attention when it comes to our new forest fire prevention program?”
And it turns Walt did have an idea. Which was to use this government initiative as a way to cross-promote Disney Studio’s latest full-length animated feature, “Bambi.” Which been first released to theaters in August of 1942.
So Walt had artists at Disney Studio work up a poster that featured the grown-up versions of Bambi the Deer, Thumper the Rabbit & Flower the Skunk. As this trio stood in some tall grasses, they looked imploring out at whoever was standing in front of this poster. Above them was a piece of text that read “Please Mister, Don’t Be Careless.” And below these three cartoon characters was an additional line that read “Prevent Forest Fires. Greater Danger Than Ever!”

According to folks I’ve spoken with at Disney’s Corporate Archives, this “Bambi” -based promotional campaign for the U.S. Forest Service’s forest fire prevention campaign was a huge success. So much so that – as 1943 drew to a close – this division of the Department of Agriculture reportedly reached out to Walt to see if he’d be willing to let the U.S. Forest Service continue to use these cartoon characters to help raise the public’s awareness of fire safety.
Walt – for reasons known only to Mr. Disney – declined. Some have suggested that — because “Bambi” had actually lost money during its initial theatrical release in North America – that Walt was now looking to put that project behind him. And if there were posters plastered all over the place that then used the “Bambi” characters that then promoted the U.S.’s forest fire prevention efforts … Well, it would then be far harder for Mr. Disney to put this particular animated feature in the rear view mirror.
Introducing Smokey Bear
Long story short: Walt said “No” when it came to reusing the “Bambi” characters to promote the U.S. Forest Service’s forest fire prevention program. But given how successful the previous cartoon-based promotional campaign had been … Well, some enterprising employee at the Department of Agriculture reportedly said “Why don’t we come up with a cartoon character of our own?”
So – for the Summer of 1944 – the U.S. Forest Service (with the help of the Ad Council and the National Association of State Foresters) came up with a character to help promote the prevention of forest fires. And his name is Smokey Bear.
Now a lot of thought had gone into Smokey’s creation. Right from the get-go, it was decided that he would be an American black bear (NOT a brown bear or a grizzly). To make this character seem approachable, Smokey was outfitted with a ranger’s hat. He also wore a pair of blue jeans & carried a bucket.
As for his debut poster, Smokey was depicted as pouring water over a still-smoldering campfire. And below this cartoon character was printed Smokey’s initial catchphrase. Which was “Care will prevent 9 out of 10 forest fires!”

Which makes me think that this slogan was written by the very advertising executive who wrote “Four out of five dentists recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum.”
Anyway … By the Summer of 1947, Smokey got a brand-new slogan. The one that he uses even today. Which is “Only YOU can prevent forest fires.”
The Real Smokey Bear
Now where this gets interesting is – in the Summer of 1950 – there was a terrible forest fire up in the Capitan Mountains of New Mexico. And over the course of this blaze, a bear cub climbed high up into a tree to try & escape those flames.
Firefighters were finally able to rescue that cub. But he was so badly injured in that fire that he was shipped off to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. and nursed back to health. And since this bear really couldn’t be released back in the wild at this point, he was then put on exhibit.
And what does this bear’s keepers decide to call him? You guessed it: Smokey.

And due to all the news coverage that this orphaned bear got, he eventually became the living symbol of the U.S. Forest Service’s forest fire prevention program. Which then meant that this particular Smokey Bear got hit with a ton of fan mail. So much so that the National Zoo in Washington D.C. wound up with its own Zip Code.
“Smokey the Bear” Hit Song
And on the heels of a really-for-real Smokey Bear taking up residence in our nation’s capital, Steve Nelson & Jack Rollins decide to write a song that shined a spotlight on this fire-fightin’ bruin. Here’s the opening stanza:
With a ranger’s hat and shovel and a pair of dungarees,
You will find him in the forest always sniffin’ at the breeze,
People stop and pay attention when he tells them to beware
Because everybody knows that he’s the fire-preventin’ bear
Believe or not, even with lyrics like these, “Smokey the Bear” briefly topped the Country charts in the Summer of 1950. Thanks to a version of this song that was recorded by Gene Autry, the Singing Cowboy.
By the way, it was this song that started all of the confusion in regards to Smokey Bear’s now. You see, Nelson & Rollins – because they need the lyrics of their song to scan properly – opted to call this fire-fightin’-bruin Smokey THE Bear. Rather than Smokey Bear. Which has been this cartoon character’s official name since the U.S. Forest Service first introduced him back in 1944.
“The Ballad of Smokey the Bear”
Further complicating this issue was “The Ballad of Smokey the Bear,” which was a stop-motion animated special that debuted on NBC in late November of 1966. Produced by Rankin-Bass as a follow-up to their hugely popular “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (which premiered on the Peacock Network in December of 1964) … This hour-long TV show also put a “THE” in the middle of Smokey Bear’s name because the folks at Rankin-Bass thought his name sounded better that way.
And speaking of animation … Disney’s “Bambi” made a brief return to the promotional campaign for the U.S. Forest Service’s forest fire prevention program in the late 1980s. This was because the Company’s home entertainment division had decided to release this full-length animated feature on VHS.
What’s kind of interesting, though, is the language used on the “Bambi” poster is a wee different than the language that’s used on Smokey’s poster. It reads “Protect Our Forest Friends. Only You Can Prevent Wildfires.” NOT “Forest Fires.”
Anyway, that’s how Disney’s “Bambi” led to the creation of Smokey Bear. Thanks for bearin’ with me as I clawed my way through this grizzly tale.
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