Today's two-for-one special

To borrow an expression, “the only constant is change” is an apt phrase that can apply to Walt Disney World. Attractions, lands, restaurants all come and go, occasionally leaving behind a trail of metaphorical crumbs to guide us through the past. Today, we’re going to review a small corner of property that’s undergone significant change since opening day.

The Magic Kingdom’s gradual expansion of Fantasyland, dubbed New Fantasyland, was announced at the 2009 D23 Expo, and includes land formerly occupied by Mickey’s Toontown Fair and fallow property formerly occupied by one of Walt Disney World’s original E-Ticket attractions, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. This submarine voyage simulation, similar in size and scope to Disneyland’s 1959 addition Submarine Voyage, retraced Captain Nemo’s aquatic journey both through the lagoon, visible to Guests in the queue and around its perimeter, and an oversized show building, obscured by foliage, rock work and waterfalls, which hosted many of the sights featured in the attraction. It operated for over twenty years, from 1971 to 1994 when it was temporarily closed. Alas, the attraction’s longstanding weaknesses - low hourly ride capacity, slow loading, frequent ride breakdowns chief among them - finally caught up with it and Disney management shuttered the attraction for good.

This image, circa 1995, shows the lagoon still filled with water and the massive show building behind the tree line (on the far left is the it’s a small world show building, and on the right are the tents from Mickey’s Toontown Fair, the site repurposed from the ‘temporary’ Mickey’s Birthdayland originally set up in 1988).

(image courtesy Google Earth)

The lagoon was eventually drained of water and filled in and the show building removed. A tree line was stood up to hide the former property, and a small portion was modified into Pooh’s Playful Spot, a playground for restless children. Naturally, it was across from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, itself an attraction in the show building formerly occupied by Mr. Toad. This next image, from March 2005, shows the outline of the former lagoon and show building.

(image courtesy Google Earth)

So, what do to with this site? The Magic Kingdom is the smallest of the four Walt Disney World theme parks and its most popular. Fantasyland was expanded, functioning as a glade and hosting new eateries - Be Our Guest and Gaston’s Tavern, and new attractions and shows - Enchanted Tales with Belle, Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid and the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Sitting on the footprint of the former 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea now is the Little Mermaid attraction. The last entry to open in New Fantasyland is the Mine Train, a lateral replacement of the shuttered Snow White’s Scary Adventures, which yielded to Princess Fairytale Hall. New Fantasyland is now complete.

(image courtesy Google Earth)

Today, tributes to the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Snow White’s Scary Adventures can be subtly found in New Fantasyland. When aligned, icons of both can be found along an upper sightline. A weather vane atop a building in Prince Eric’s castle features a squid, one of the notable antagonists from the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea film and the attraction. Just beyond it is a vulture found on the first lift of the Mine Train ride. The vulture is the former Audio-Animatronic previously featured in Snow White’s Scary Adventures.

Both of these original attractions are gone, but keepsakes and reminders remain.

But wait - there’s more. The iconic image from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is Captain Nemo’s submarine Nautilus, a terrifyingly original submarine designed by Disney Legend Harper Goff. His design influences for the sub include an alligator and shark - the green eyes and rough skin of the ‘gator and the imposing dorsal fin and tail of the shark led to the Nautilus’ unique appearance. An outline of the Nautilus could be found in a tree knot outline on the tree in Pooh’s Playful Spot. Presently, a larger outline of the Nautilus can be found in the rock work along the outside queue for the Journey of the Little Mermaid attraction.

For more information of the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea attraction, visit this wonderful fan tribute site.

A two-for-one Main Street special

One of the  many reasons I enjoy visiting Walt Disney World is for the immersive experience it provides. In Adventureland, I’m transported to exotic ports and  layers of intrigue. Liberty Square is Disney story-telling at its finest, from the patriotic tones of the Hall of Presidents to the playfully spooky Haunted Mansion. Everything has a beginning, and for the Magic Kingdom that’s Main Street U.S.A. It’s a fanciful recreation of a bygone era, showcasing life at the turn of the century - the 20th, that is.

The Walt Disney Company, diversified as it is today, built its foundation on movie making, first with animation and then live-action. The Magic Kingdom borrows many filmmaking elements, beginning with how Guests are introduced to the park. As you arrive, you walk underneath the train station along red carpeting, as if you’re attending a movie premiere gala. Attraction posters line up either side of the tunnel, as if they are trailers for future films. As you exit the tunnel, you enter into Main Street, transported back in time. Continuing to use filmmaking concepts, the buildings utilize forced perspective, a technique that alters the ratio of second and third stories, making them appear larger. We’ll start with the establishing shot, which takes in the broad avenue of Main Street and ends with Cinderella Castle, it too featuring forced perspective, allowing us to believe that its spires are magnificently tall. The wide shot of Main Street also features store fronts and a horse-drawn trolly gently clip-clopping along. Next, a medium shot is featured, highlighting the town square and the adjacent Town Square Theater. A dolly shot, tracking alongside its subject, showcases the eatery Tony’s Town Square and the nearby confectionary shop and The Chapeau, featuring Disney hats and custom monogramming. Finally, a closeup shot fixates on a pink hat box hanging outside The Chapeau. That’s where our story begins.

(quick sidebar - whenever I think hear the word chapeau, I immediately recall Steve Martin’s monologue about the French language: “Chapeau means hat. Oeuf means egg. It’s like those French have a different word for everything!” But I digress . . .)

A pink hatbox hanging outside a hat shop? Perfectly natural, of course.The Main Street barbershop still uses the traditional red, white and blue striped pole to indicate the service offered within. The ornate hatbox, complete with a bow, elegantly states Chapeau, indicating it’s a fancy store. If our story ended here, it would be, pardon the pun, neatly wrapped up in a bow. Instead, this is where it gets interesting.

Recall that Tony’s Town Square is next door. Its inspiration is from the 1955 Disney animated classic Lady and the Tramp, a canine love story. A key scene in the movie is set at an Italian restaurant, lending an air of authenticity to Tony’s Town Square. There’s a clever nod to the film outside Tony’s, where a paw-drawn heart, pierced by Cupid’s arrow, is forever memorialized in the cement. Two sets of paws are within, one from Lady and the other from Tramp. However, the key establishing shot from the movie is Lady’s entrance. Jim Dear presents a gift to his wife, Darling, one Christmas morning, in a beautiful lavender- and cream-striped hat box. As Darling unwraps the bow, the lid pops up to reveal Lady, a sweet cocker spaniel pup. There it is - Tony’s Town Square and The Chapeau shop next door, each cleverly referencing and reinforcing each other.

But wait - there’s more.

Disney fans will be thrilled to learn that the Christmas scene from the film also has a story, taken directly from Walt’s life. Walt longed for a family pet but his wife Lillian was steadfastly against it. Walt researched the ideal dog breed to counter Lillian’s objections and settled on a chow, given their disposition, odor and fur. The next challenge - how to deliver it. Walt used a Christmas eve family gathering to present his special gift to Lillian. While family guests weren’t looking, he placed the chow pup into a hat box and set it under the tree. The label read: To Lilly, from Santy Claus. When presented with the hat box, Lillian made the logical conclusion that she was getting a hat. To her great surprise, instead it was a dog! She quickly fell in love with the gift, and named the chow Sunnee. You can hear more about this special gift in Walt’s own words, courtesy of the Walt Disney Family Museum.

There you have it - Main Street U.S.A.’s two-for-one hidden Disney tributes. The chapeau sign cleverly referencing a classic Disney animated feature, and also pays tribute to a special moment between Walt and Lillian Disney.

Welcome to Frontierland, Mr. Smith

File this one under ‘extinct.’ One of the cleverest hidden Disney tributes in the Magic Kingdom has, apparently, walked away.

You remember the slapstick scene from Mary Poppins in which Bert and Uncle Albert are oddly floating high in the air, giddily singing “I love to laugh,” as if the lyrics were a combination of nitrous oxide and helium. While Mary Poppins, Jane and Michael watch  from below, they hear hysterical dialog, including this classic exchange:

Mary - “Why, it's the most disgraceful sight I've ever seen, or my name isn't Mary Poppins.”

Bert - “Speakin' o' names, I know a man with a wooden leg named Smith.”

Uncle Albert - “What's the name of his other leg?”

This misplaced modifier causes even more riotous laughter and they continue with their airborne antics.

Disney Imagineers cleverly paid tribute to this scene by placing a wooden leg high on a shelf in the Frontierland train station, along with other lost items. Naturally, the leg is labeled Smith. Sadly, this hidden tribute didn’t survive a recent furbishment of the train station, since I didn’t see it there on my last few visits. But just thinking about it is worth a laugh.

Harper and The Old Mill

Let's return to the Magic Kingdom, where there's a subtle "two-for-one" hidden tribute to Disney. Tom Sawyer Island is an adventurous place for fun and excitement, serving as a time-machine to whisk you back to another era. The Island opened in May, 1973 and the main attractions on Tom Sawyer Island are the mysterious caves and Fort Langhorn. However, one very distinctive bright red building is Harper's Mill, which is quite appropriate given that water mills dotted the landscape in the pre-electrical era. You might think that its name pays tribute to perhaps Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, a town that played a pivotal role in American history. The name “Harper” comes several sources. Tom Sawyer’s good friend was Joe Harper, so this name makes sense, keeping with the theme of the island. But it's also named after Disney Imagineer and Disney Legend Harper Goff. Goff is famous for his design work on the classic Disney attraction the Jungle Cruise, as well as his work on the film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

The Disney tributes don’t stop here, however. Inside Harper’s Mill is a subtle tribute to one of Disney’s earlier animation efforts. Before Disney delved into feature-length animation, the company was famous for cartoon shorts. Mickey Mouse, of course, was an original star but Disney had another impressive series of animated shorts, culled together as the Silly Symphonies. Although they didn’t feature any particular character, they were increasingly used as an animation “testing ground” for techniques and styles, much like Pixar’s use of animated shorts. In 1937, Disney released The Old Mill, a story about how animals now occupy an abandoned windmill. Dave Smith, the recently retired Walt Disney Company archivist, lists this as one of his favorite animations. Disney used a groundbreaking technique of a multiplane camera, allowing for a rich depth to the scenery. This method would again be used to great acclaim in Disney’s first feature-length animation effort, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

One key scene in The Old Mill features a bluebird atop her nest inside one of the cogwheels of the defunct mill. During a thunderstorm, the mill springs to life and as the blades turn, the gears inside move as well. It looks like the bluebird will be crushed, but fate intervenes. The opposing gear is missing a cog and the two gears pass by gracefully at the exact location of the bird.

Why is this scene significant? Because inside Harper's Mill there is a series of gears, and resting inside one of them is a little bluebird atop her nest!