Is a pop-up book really a book?
That’s why I’ve been asking myself these past few weeks. Ever since the folks at Hyperion were nice enough to send me a review copy of “Popping Up Around Walt Disney World” (Disney Editions, June 2004). I mean — when I initially got this Disney Editions book — I opened the thing up, quickly scoped out its five sets of pop-up illustrations, said to myself “That was cute” and immediately set it aside.
And yet — here we are — three months after I originally recieved “Popping Up Around Walt Disney World.” And is this book down in the basement, hidden away with the rest of the volumes in my Disney research library? Nope. It’s upstairs. Right in middle on the coffee table.
Mind you, I don’t know why it’s there. I keep meaning to put “Popping Around Walt Disney World” away. And yet … Every now and then, I still find myself picking up this book and re-opening it. NOT to check out the five pop-up illustrations that art-and-paper engineer Tanya Roitman has created (Though these stylized versions of WDW’s Magic Kingdom Epcot, Disney-MGM, Animal Kingdom and a catch-all rest-of-the-resort page are admittedly pretty snazzy), mind you. But to read some more of the Disney World trivia that Jody Revenson has hidden in this book.
You see, that’s the really insidious thing about “Popping Up Around Walt Disney World.” Throughout this entire book (EX: Winding ’round the edges of the cover, tucked away under flaps, surrounding each of the pop-up illustrations) are dozens & dozens of WDW factoids. And each one is written in teeny-tiny type. And — just when you think you’ve found them all — you notice that Roitman & Revenson have done something really diabolical. Like stashing even more Disney World trivia out along the borders of each page.
Mind you, these aren’t the same old tired factoids that Mickey typically trots out whenever he’s trying to entertain the tourists (EX: How many stones did it take to build Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom? Yawn). This appears to be all-new stuff, kids. Intriguing new bits of information like:
- Nearly 100 shades of the color red were tested for the planet at (Epcot’s) “Mission: Space.”
- The Liberty Tree (In the Magic Kingdom) has produced over 500 offspring from its acorns.
- The Sorcerer’s Hat (at Disney-MGM Studio Theme Park) has enough paint on it to cover 500 Cadillac cars
- Disney’s Animal Kingdon is home to the largest groups of Nile hippos and African elephants in North America.
- 160 records appear along the balconies of Diseny’s All-Star Music Rock Inn.
Okay. I know. The rest of you probably don’t get as excited as I do about new Disney trivia. But — when you have the job I like do (Which is when you have to take seemingly random piles of information and — each day — turn them into reasonably entertaining stories) — you take your new info in whatever form you can get it in.
Soooo … Is “Popping Up Around Walt Disney World” a perfect book? Well — as I said at the very start of this review — I’m still not entirely convinced that this thing actually meets all the criteria to even be called a book. I mean — sure — this attractive volume has pages. But — then again — so does the U.S. Senate. And you don’t see anyone trying to put the U.S. Senate up for sale on Amazon.com, now do you? (Not this week, anyway … )
Anyhow … Getting back to this pop-up thingy … Given my druthers, I would have preferred if Revenson didn’t perpetuate the myth that “Ben Franklin at (Epcot’s) American Adventure is the first Audio-Animatronic figure to climb stairs.” That admittedly-kind-of-weird AA milestone was actually achieved first by an alligator in Disneyland’s old “America Sings” show. That 1976 Audio Animatronic figure really did appear as if it were walking upstairs in that Tomorrowland show’s “See You Later, Aillgator” sequence. And — more to the point — many WDI vets will tell you that this Alligator AA actually walked upstairs a lot more convincingly than Ben Franklin does. And that throw-away effect in this long-gone Disneyland show predated this much-hyped moment in the Epcot extravaganza by more than six years!
But only a real hardcore Disney dweeb would ever get upset by a mistake as trivial as that. I mean, someone would have to really have no life. Someone would have to have nothing better to do with his time than obsess over the teeniest-tiniest pieces of Mickey Mouse related minutia in order to get upset about … I think I’ll shut up now.
Anywho … Look, the point here is that — while “Popping Up Around Walt Disney World” may not actually be a book — it’s still one very entertaining curio. Something that — whenever you open the thing up — will undoubtedly bring back pleasant memories of your most recent trip down to Orlando. So — if you like that sort of thing — you may want to consider buying a copy of this Disney Editions pop-up book.
Okay. That’s it for this week’s book review. Now — if you’ll excuse me — I really have to get this thing down to the basement … Say, did you know that “The Great Movie Ride” has a hidden Minnie?
*Sigh* I’m never getting this off my coffee table, am I?