EYE CANDY: Balloons!

We bring you photos of those good old iconic Mickey Mouse balloons.

I don't know the history of the Mickey-shaped balloons. I do know I loved picking one out as a little kid every time we went to Disneyland.

Spiffy old balloon vendor costumes...

This next photo is wonderful. It was sent to us by a fan of the blog, Jeffrey Lipack, as part of our Photo Hunt. Look at the grass hill!

These next two were sent in by Daniel Zuccarelli (@PerpetualGeek, PGMShow.net). I love Main Street morning shots like this. If you look closely you'll see a few kids have already gotten their balloon for the day.

Speaking of kids.... This kid is selling the balloons. Lucky guy. Look behind the balloons on the left. The artwork on the bag is fun. It features a very early Mickey and Minnie with that old Walt Disney World logo we all love. Click here for a clearer image.

On a date with a sailor. Great balloon and a fantastic pennant. Pennants were one of my favorite souvenirs after growing out of balloons. Where are all my pennants now?? Sadly I have no clue.

Lone balloons.

Characters with balloons.

Chip and Dale in Rescue Rangers garb.

Chip and Dale in the nude.

Roger Rabbit.

The "new school" version of the Mickey balloon. I actually love these balloons-in-balloons. It's a rare thing to take a classic product and improve on it without ruining any of its original qualities.

Related posts:

EYE CANDY: National Geographic Aug '63 [Part 1]
EYE CANDY: Not Having Fun at Disneyland
Vintage Disneyland Home Movies- Meeting Walt Disney Himself
Disneyland 1955 Model Close-ups
Magic Kingdom Map Found in a Main Street Wall
THEN AND NOW: Disneyland [Part 1]
THEN AND NOW: MK Fantasyland [Part 1]
EYE CANDY: Behind the Scenes Muppeteering

Mural-Removin' Season at Disney

We bring you rare documentation of an old mural you might remember.

Recently my soul was hit with a sledge hammer when I read Kevin Kidney's post about a different mural literally being hit with a sledge hammer. Then I was informed by Michael Crawford that another equally obscure mural had the same fate. It's times like these I'm glad I documented the Bill Justice character mural in the old Walt Disney Story Theater.

Above for the first time online (we think) you can see the entire mural panned out this way. Forgive the distortions here and there. I photographed it in sections years ago with a digital camera that was sub-par. Nevertheless I'm happy I did it. Click image to enlarge or click here for extra larger version (6.6meg).

Bill Justice seen here working on other projects.

The mural was placed in the holding area of the Walt Disney Story attraction (1973-1992) in the Gulf Hospitality House on Main Street.

Guests would approach the mural on the curved wall, hear a cast member speil a few words, then proceed to one of two theaters. Doors would open on either the left or ride side of the mural depending on which theater was available at the moment. For a detailed history of this experience I refer you the great Widen Your World site.

Here you can see the doors to Theater 2 to the right of the mural.

Here you see where the doors to Theater 1 were removed when that theater was drastically changed to accommodate plywood photo ops (not pictured). Just behind those (temporary) curtains there used to be a Mr. Toad's Wild Ride car. Even better than the plywood in my opinion.

"But you hate when characters are mixed together" you say? Yes, normally I do. But I only really hate it when characters from different time periods/locations interact with each other. Like in the hideous Villains Tonight show on the Disney Cruise. A less-offensive-to-my-intelligence way of mixing characters is Mickey's PhilharMagic. Those characters do not interact with characters from films (Donald being the exception). The same is the case with this mural. The characters only look at the other characters from their own film (with a couple exceptions, like a Dalmatian puppy barking at the antics of The Three Caballeros).

Sleeping beauty was represented with a whopping 19 characters.

And Robin Hood with 14, including one of my favorites, Alan-a-Dale.

I know many fans of less-represented movies who loved the mural wide-spread representation of many films.

Black Cauldron fanatics (all thirty five of you), I'm sorry your only Black Cauldron reference is now gone.

I'm glad Elliott made it onto the mural. But I have a question... Isn't Pete's Dragon a live-action film with some animation mixed in? But so is Mary Poppins. And others. Song of the South made the cut. That makes sense because it's more of an animated film with live-action mixed in. Elliott was added years after the original mural was painted. I'm sure it was done to promote the latest film. And the film did have an animated title character. It makes sense.

The Three Little Pigs wasn't a full-length feature but they fit in nicely.

Charcters from new releases were added up until The Great Mouse Detective (1986).

When was this quote added? After the microphone and control box were no longer needed?

Added bonus.

Here are two control boxes from Theater 2. I love discovering remnants of things that no longer exist. Things like labels for "PRE SHOW PODIUM" or "PROJ ROOM" or "TURNSTILE". Even better, "MAPO", a label we don't see much anymore.

Theater 2 awaiting its fate.

Instead of posting my thoughts about what currently occupies this great Magic Kingdom building, I refer you Mr. Crawford's post about the Town Square Theater. I share his thoughts. And when you visit the Town Square Theater in person look closely for this little nod to the mural. Thanks @Crushinat0r for sending us the photo.

As it turns out, this particular mural has escaped the ill fate that other murals have not. The Disney Archives has kept the actual painting for preservation. And maybe to post it somewhere else??

UPDATE:

We are getting messages that the mural was NOT saved. Reports claim that the fine people of the Archives attempted to save it but the 40 year old paint crumbled as the canvas was removed from the wall. Let us know if you have further details.

UPDATE 2:

Thanks to a comment from "Wedway" we share this little tribute to the Plaza Pavilion mural that Kevin Kidney wrote about. This artwork can be found in what was the Plaza Pavilion, now called the Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe. It resembles the former mural but features song lyrics and imagery from Mary Poppins. Thank you Wedway, Kevin, and The Disney Food Blog.

To anyone who worked on the refurb who might have found my Mike Fink Keel Boats sign... GIVE IT BACK. It was given to me a few years back, then I hid it in the theater for a moment, and I never saw again. Another soul-crusher.

Related posts:

Illustrated Donald Duck
Magic Kingdom Map Found in a Main Street Wall
What Disney Characters Love
Disney Characters...Maybe We Should Rethink a Few Things
Walt Disney and the Santa Maria Railroad
HORIZONS MURAL, "The Prologue and the Promise"
ABANDONED DISNEY: MK Fantasyland Skyway Tower

What Disney Characters Love

Article by Lilly

 
Ten things to consider when meeting characters in the parks. 

Okay so my co-writers are rolling their eyes at me for writing this post, and I realize this post takes on a much different energy than the rest of our blog, but I don’t care, I really feel that there are many out there that would really appreciate this post (so what if most of them have fur).

Having spent some time with our fuzzy friends at the Disney Parks, I picked up on some things that really make them smile. Okay so they’re always smiling, but you know what I mean. So, here are some tips when visiting your favorite Disney characters.

1.  Disney characters will not accept money or food, but they CAN accept small gifts, drawings, and letters. Want to make a Disney character remember why they love to hug your kids everyday? Have them write a letter to their favorite character or draw a picture (drawing it is way cuter than a coloring book picture) and bring it to the park to give to the character. It’s adorable and will probably end up hung up behind the scenes or permanently placed in a scrapbook.

2. Consider the limitations of characters. If you had really big hands would you want someone to hand you a tiny pencil? Characters can spend less time signing and more time hugging your kids if you just hand them a nice big empty page and a large uncapped pen. If you really want to impress them, give them a retractable Sharpie like this.  

That way even if your kid clicks it, the character can easily click it back. They also write really well and last a long time. Characters also love it when kids make their own books. Homemade books are so cute and you can put more pages in them than the overpriced books you buy in the parks. Just make sure you put something solid behind it. It’s really hard to write on a flimsy piece of paper especially if you have big fuzzy hands.

3. Having characters sign clothing is fine, but here’s a few tips. First, characters won’t sign anything while you are wearing it. So, if you want your shirt signed, bring it don’t wear it. Also, it’s really hard to sign material. You kind of have to stretch it out which is hard to do while you are trying to sign. What is really nice is those people who have the part they want signed already stretched out and stuck in one of those cross stitching hoops. Something to think about.

4. If your kid has something contagious like chicken pox or pink eye, think about that before letting them hug characters that will be hugging hundreds more children that day.

5. Babies. I am sorry to tell you this but characters don’t want to hold your baby. Someone had to tell you and it might as well be me. They are little fragile things and it’s just more responsibility then they want. They also have a tendency to get all kinds of fluids on fur and lovely princess dresses. So don’t throw your babies on characters if you want to get on their good side.

6. Along the same lines is crying and/or terrified children. I know you waited for 20 minutes in a long hot line to see Donald, but if your kid gets to the front of the line, takes one look at Donald and starts screaming, please don’t take the next 7 minutes trying to get your child to take a picture with him. You’re wasting so much time that Donald could be spending with other kids and it isn’t going to be a good picture anyway.

7. Don’t ask them to do stuff that is out of their character. Pinocchio doesn’t want hold up a piece sign for your picture. Snow White doesn’t want to say “holla back girl” for your video. Don’t ask.

8. Even though characters shrug their shoulders and shake their heads whenever you ask them the silly question of “are they are hot in there,” they are standing in a 40 lb. costume in Florida in the dead of August, you do the math. So don’t whine and complain when the character attendant lets you know that Pooh needs to get some honey and he’ll be right back. Just calm down, he really will be right back. Character attendants are usually really good about closing the line when the character is going for good, but just know all characters–furry or not–will not likely be outside longer than 20-40 minutes depending on how hot it is. And don’t pull the “I have to catch a plane in an hour and Belle’s my favorite princess and I didn’t get to see her” stuff, because it will never work.

9. Ask them questions. They are ready to answer them whether they can talk or not. Characters love to know that you have actually seen their film/cartoon/attraction. Ask Mary Poppins how Uncle Albert is doing. Ask Cruella if she still works with Horace and Jasper. Ask Friar Tuck how Skippy, Sis, and Lady Cluck are doing and if he still parties behind the waterfall. Most people don’t even know who Friar Tuck is when they see him. Believe me. Have your kids get their questions ready before they get their turn with the character and I guarantee you’ll get more one on one time with characters while everyone else gets the “love and shove” treatment.

10. Last but not least, stop suing Tigger. Seriously, he just has a lot of energy. Give him a break.

Related Posts:

Disney Characters: Maybe We Should Rethink A Few Things

Originality In Theme Park Design