For your answer, I turned to Steven Vagnini in the Archives, who has long been an expert on the attraction: “The characters that would become Dreamfinder and Figment originated as Professor Marvel and his dragon friend for a proposed, but never realized, area of Disneyland known as Discovery Bay. When that project was canceled, the characters became …
See moreYour second cel is from Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983). During the 1970s and 1980s, when these films were made, Disney was selling cels through art dealers throughout the country. The initials “WM” stand for Wendall Mohler, who was one of the Disney executives in charge of the cel sale program. You can check eBay to …
See moreThe original version of the show that ran at the New York World’s Fair is the one that was brought to Disneyland, where it opened in July 1965. It was a duplicate Audio-Animatronics® Lincoln because the original one was still running at the fair. The show continued until it was replaced by The Walt Disney …
See moreWalt Disney lost the rights to Oswald before any Mickey Mouse cartoons could be released. But you will find both characters in the recent Disney Epic Mickey games.
See moreI recall some scenes from the 1992 Chaplin film were shot at the studio. It was one of the last films to shoot on the studio’s old business street.
See moreThis has been suggested many times; perhaps someday we shall see it.
See moreThere were several structures and interesting items found throughout the property that would later become Walt Disney World. On my Spring 1971 trip to the construction site, I was shown perhaps the most unusual item discovered: the “lawnmower tree,” still located at Fort Wilderness near the Wilderness Trading Post and Marina. A manual lawnmower was …
See moreWalt Disney did not personally create the multiplane camera; that was Bill Garity on his staff. Walt was not an inventor or designer, but he hired a talented group of designers who worked at his WED Enterprises (now Walt Disney Imagineering). Walt often made suggestions, but it was his staff that carried out the work. …
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Yes, there are. The two vultures on the crane near the mine entrance of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train originally appeared in the Snow White’s Scary Adventures attraction, as did the figures of Grumpy, Doc, Bashful, Sleepy, and Happy seen in the cottage near the end of the attraction. New figures of Snow White, Dopey, …
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Walt loved England, perhaps because his early ancestors came from there, but it is also true that many of the beloved stories and folktales that he wanted to depict on the screen were set in England.
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