Rediscovering (Walt) Disney

I love these black & white construction/publicity photos from Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Here is one of the Star Tours queue area under construction in 1989. The queue area was inspired by  Return of the Jedi , with Imperial forces invading the Ewok village on the forest moon of Endor. Most impressive is the towering 35-foot Imperial All-Terrain Armored Transport Walker (AT-AT) near the attraction’s entrance.     Vintage Walt Disney World  Disney Parks Blog

So Maddy pulled 'The Great Mouse Detective' off the shelf yesterday and said she wanted to watch it. Okay I thought, we hadn't watched it yet, she was interested (it's got cute mice right?) and I vaguely remember it was supposed to be good (had not seen it in, like, forever) so we popped it in and settled back... Well, what the H*** was that!?!? This supposed Disney Classic is by far the WORST Disney animated feature I have ever seen! Right from the get-go this movie is dark, violent and frightening. Then there are all the technical problems the most glaring of which is the sub-par animation that looked about as good as say, Disney's Gummi Bears or maybe Duck Tales . On second thought it wasn't even that good. The original songs are weak, uninspiring and in one instance damn near sexually explicit! The poor voice casting and the lack-luster script weren't helping either... Why is Uncle Scrooge disguised as a mouse? At times even I had trouble following...

Another good day on eBay and we have some more amateur shots of the 20k ride, I've also included three Disney press photos of the ride under construction, so enjoy! The first two photos were shot in 1974. This photo was taken in 1985 from the Skyway ride. Here's an overhead shot of the ride, you can see the layout of the track for the subs to follow and the building that housed the dark portion of the ride. Its interesting to note that this building shares a very similar footprint to the one that was contructed for the Ariel/Little Mermaid ride in the Fantasyland expansion. Check it out HERE . Here an Imagineer is applying gold leaf to one of the underwater sculpture pieces. Interior work on one of the Nautilus submarines.

I only rode this ride a handful of times, on one visit to WDW, in the late '70's. But the skill of Disney's Imagineers, the magic of the Disney film and the Victorian steampunk sci-fi of Jules Verne has left a lasting impression. I am (almost) heart broken that Maddy will never get to experience the mysteries of the deep or the thrill of a giant squid attack for herself, good thing we have the movie for her to watch! Anyway, I made a couple of purchases on eBay this week and picked up some great vintage photos of Walt Disney World. Among them are a Disney publicity shot of the 20k lagoon and one of the Nautilus subs... I love the crew members in costume walking her deck, as if preparing to set sail from Vulcania! These next pix are by the gentleman I purchased the photos from - Bill Cotter. check out his website for more great vintage photos on sale: World's Fair Photos And here are some aerial views, shot during helicopter tours of the Magic Kingdom (I've highlight...