By Cory Doctorow at 1:30 pm Thursday, May 10
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The Tattoine Traders store at the Disney Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World will soon have a build-your-own-droid option, along with a cardback box so that you can package it up to look like one of the original Star Wars figs. This is one of the rare times when the official Star Wars product is as interesting as the incredible, imaginative array of fannish creations.
[T]he Droid Factory has 71 different pieces to create the 3 ¾-inch figures! To get started, guests chose a dome, a body and legs offered in a variety of colors and styles (Cody said that availability of various parts and colors may change). There are optional third legs and novelty hats that can be added.
“We wanted lots of options for [the Droid Factory],” continued Cody. “There are literally thousands of combinations making each droid unique. Guests can also name their droids with sticker sheets provided at checkout.”
Three domes – R6, R8 and R9 – were created exclusively for this experience at Disney Parks. Cody also told me the multi-colored ear hats were inspired by Jedi Mickey’s Astromech droid, R2-MK. Four additional hats arrive later this summer including a Goofy hat, a pirate hat, a fedora and a Yoda cap.
Build Your Droid at the Droid Factory Coming to Tatooine Traders at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
By Cory Doctorow at 7:12 pm Wednesday, May 9
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Byran Boyce takes Robert Di Niro to Disneyland in "Walt Disney's Taxi Driver":
According to Boyce this is a trailer for Walt Disney’s re-imagineering of Martin Scorsese’s classic film “Taxi Driver”. It follows Mickey Mouse-obsessed Travis Bickle as he looks for love in a rapidly transforming New York City.
New Mashup: Walt Disney’s Taxi Driver
By Cory Doctorow at 5:46 pm Sunday, May 6
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Guygadbois sez, "Two years in the making, this one-of-a-kind mechanized miniature Main Street Electrical Parade runs nighttime shows from a display the size of a coffee table."
This guy is the poster child for Happy Mutantism. What a wonderful video. I want to grow up to be him.
Mechanizing a Miniature Main Street Electrical Parade
By Cory Doctorow at 6:22 am Sunday, May 6
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A joint Disney Research and CMU team have produced a demo showing gesture controls on a variety of everyday, non-computer objects. The system, called Touché, uses capacitive coupling to infer things about what your hands are doing. It can determine which utensil you're eating your food with, or how you're grasping a doorknob, or even whether you're touching one finger to another or clasping your hands together. It's a pretty exciting demo, and the user interface possibilities are certainly provocative. Here's some commentary from Wired UK's Mark Brown:
Some of the proof-of-concept applications in the lab include a smart doorknob that knows whether it has been grasped, touched, or pinched; a chair that dims the lights when you recline into it; a table that knows if you're resting one hand, two hands, or your elbows on it; and a tablet that can be pinched from back to front to open an on-screen menu.
The technology can also be shoved in wristbands, so you can make sign-language-style gestures to control the phone in your pocket—two fingers on your palm to change a song, say, or a clap to stop the music. It can also go in liquids, to detect when fingers and hands are submerged in water.
"In our laboratory experiments, Touché demonstrated recognition rates approaching 100 percent," claims Ivan Poupyrev, senior research scientist at Disney Research in Pittsburgh. "That suggests it could immediately be used to create new and exciting ways for people to interact with objects and the world at large."
Disney researchers put gesture recognition in door knobs, chairs, fish tanks
By Cory Doctorow at 9:00 am Saturday, May 5
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The Long Forgotten blog -- the world's greatest source of informed critical speculation about the design thinking behind the Haunted Mansions at the Disney parks -- has just put up a smashing post about dueling theories of the intentions (conscious and subconscious) of the Mansion's creators. In the middle of that post is this remarkable photo, showing the Mansion's facade, and the ride building behind it, outside the railway berm, in what was once the parking lot. I've never seen this shot before -- I'm riveted by the sight of the ride's apparent structure and the huge, actual structure behind it.
Add to this the surprisingly flexible limits of "realistic" presentation under any circumstances, not just haunted houses, and things really become loose. Few films or rides concern themselves too much with reconciling inside and outside architecture. Someone with a perfect sense of architectural space may wince once in awhile, "knowing" that if the character really did turn left down that hallway, he should by rights walk smack into the outer wall of the house, but for the most part such concerns are ignored. This includes size considerations. With the HM, even if we discard about a third of the show building as housing an outdoor scene (the graveyard), the square footage of the house we experience is still much larger than anything that could pass for the "original" house remodeled into the current Mansion.
Long-Forgotten: The Ghostland Around Us, Beneath Us
By Cory Doctorow at 9:05 pm Friday, May 4
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Disneyland's "secret restroom" is an isolated, disabled-accessible bathroom tucked away to one side of the castle in the Carnation Plaza. Very easy to miss, it is a refuge when all around the park is chaos. This site is a loving (and somewhat tongue-in-cheek) tribute to the toilet that Walt forgot.
The moment you open its door (assume it's unlocked), you will be overwhelmed by just how enormous the Secret Restroom is. As a point of fact, the Secret Restroom is not only larger than the average American home restroom, it's larger than the typical Anaheim apartment that can be afforded on a Disneyland castmember's starting salary.
Because the Secret Restroom is cleaned ever half hour, it is always in a state of perfection and readiness, and even a glance shows the luxuriance of its copious amenities and artistic touches (each of which is detailed elsewhere on this site).
Welcome to the Secret Restroom!
(Thanks, dcwaterboy!)
By Cory Doctorow at 11:00 am Thursday, May 3
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The Disney Blog's John Frost captures one of my favorite sights: the interior of the Walt Disney World Space Mountain with the lights on, as seen from the silently retrofuturistic maglev safety of the Wedway Peoplecrusher.
Space Mountain – Lights On Via the Peoplemover
By Cory Doctorow at 3:12 pm Wednesday, Apr 25
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Philip Glass and the English National Opera will stage "The Perfect American," adapted from Peter Stephan Jungk's fictionalized account of Walt Disney's last months.
Glass – described by the ENO as “one of the world’s most important composers” – said the life of the man behind Mickey Mouse was “unimaginable, alarming and truly frightening”.
The story follows cartoonist Wilhelm Dantine, who worked for Disney in the 1950s. The production does not have the rights to use Disney’s most famous characters, but it is likely to find a way to reference them. Berry said: “Glass is very interested in the impact that a personality of that order has on wider culture.”
ENO to stage Philip Glass opera about the last days of Walt Disney
(
Thanks, Tom!)
By Cory Doctorow at 6:05 am Sunday, Apr 22
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The Orange Bird, mascot of the Florida Citrus Growers and one-time Adventureland icon from the opening days of the park, has been relaunched at Walt Disney World after a campaign by Disney parks fans and their sympathizers in the park. A source close to the company says, "People had to REALLY fight the system to make this happen, and were almost laughed out of the company for wanting to try. A lot rides on the success of this line." Disney parks management is in a perpetual three-sided war between engaging with its trufans, maintaining margins, and trying to engage people who visit rarely, if at all.
Soon after his unveiling and introduction in Magic Kingdom, the Orange Bird was recognized nationwide through his association with Florida citrus growers. The character was seen on billboards, television advertisements, and a wide assortment of Orange Bird products that could be found throughout Walt Disney World and the Sunshine State.
But the Orange Bird’s permanent home was in Adventureland, where he swung from a branch of the fabled Sunshine Tree. For many years, park guests could pose for pictures with a strolling character, designed by Disney Legend Bill Justice. Sadly, in 1987, the Orange Bird left the Magic Kingdom when the Sunshine contract with the Florida Citrus Commission expired.
Today, after a quarter century away from his Magic Kingdom home, the Orange Bird has returned, allowing a whole new generation of guests to experience this classic Disney character. “With the 40th Anniversary for Walt Disney World, we thought this was a nice way to bring a slice of 1971 back to the park… bringing back the original figure is a great way to do that,” Jason said. In honor of this milestone, several teams within The Walt Disney Company have come together to celebrate the Orange Bird’s return. At Magic Kingdom Park, the original Citrus Swirl—along with new refreshing offerings—is available once again at the Sunshine Tree Terrace. A whole new array of adorable Orange Bird merchandise will roll out in the months ahead. And the Walt Disney Archives has dug deep to uncover rare documents, photos, and stories that illuminate the character’s origins.
D23 Tweet Meet Reveals the Return of the Orange Bird to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World
By Cory Doctorow at 8:13 pm Tuesday, Apr 17
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On the Vintage Ads LJ group, a widescreen, two-page Mary Blair ad for AT&T and Disneyland's Tomorrowland. It's everything I love about Blair's illustration in an x-wide package. There's a 1600px+ wide version that deserves your scrutiny.
Tuesday Two-Pagers: AT&T/Disney/Mary Blair
By Cory Doctorow at 12:54 pm Tuesday, Apr 10
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TheRealDuckie (and friends) is working on a complete, functional replica of Walt Disney World in Minecraft, and has posted an update to Reddit. The Magic Kingdom is largely down, with the rides all ridable, and working restaurants. Epcot is underway. The files are available as free downloads.
This project started on the Reddit Creative Server and was later moved to Redstonehost.com. It took us 4 months of work and over 25 Cast Members to finish. We have recently started on EPCOT and will be continuing the resorts soon. As each park is finished we will release another download. As always, these downloads are free. We seek no monetary gain.
Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom - Finished! + EPCOT started (w/ world download) (imgur.com) (Thanks, Dave!)
By Cory Doctorow at 5:50 pm Thursday, Mar 29
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Here's a great 19412 Donald Duck toon funded by the Treasury, explaining to war-torn America why they need to all file their taxes to defeat tyranny.
Help Donald Duck File His 1941 Federal Tax Return
By Cory Doctorow at 1:12 pm Wednesday, Mar 28
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The Long Forgotten blog -- my best source for scholarly discussion of the Disney Haunted Mansion and spook houses more generally -- tackles the historical origins of the rides' haunted organ and the ghostly hitchhikers. It's a timely piece, as I published the long-mothballed comic that Christopher and I made in 2007 to explain the origin of the ghosts in the organist's pipes.
"The Canonic Curse" is a better than average supernatural thriller about a demonic, medieval musical composition that has a rather nasty effect on anyone who plays it three times. You can read the whole thing HERE. However, there's nothing in the story that looks to me like a direct inspiration for the Haunted Mansion's ghost-infested organ. For one thing, it's not the organ but the musical score that's demonic. For another, no visible ghostly forms emerge from either the sheet music or the organ in the story itself. If there's a HM inspiration, it's more likely coming from the illustration above rather than from the actual tale. The sketch shows a ghostly figure emerging from the musical text, but without looking closely the figure could easily be read as coming from the organ. (Frankly, it's not a great drawing.) And the caption reads, "From the smaller organ raved up a pandemonium of...ghoulish execrations." (There are two organs in the room.) In the story, the "ghoulish execrations" are sinister presences in the form of sound, but the illustrator has to draw something to represent that.
Whether or not Marc Davis or one of the others saw this sketch, it is the only depiction I have seen of an organ spewing out spirits as it is played.
But hold on a sec. "The Canonic Curse" sends me back to the ballroom for a fresh look. For some stupid reason, it never occurred to me to think of the musical composition as the thing that actually summons the banshees up and out of the pipes. The tune grows more frenzied as it sails along and disintegrates into a mad improvisation as it reaches its climax. It's as if the music were the thing compelling them to appear.
Long-Forgotten: Haunted Organs and Ghostly Hitchhikers
By Cory Doctorow at 8:15 am Tuesday, Mar 27
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This little comic, written by me and drawn by Christopher in 2007, explains the origin of some of the Disneyland Haunted Mansion's most engaging ghosts: the ballroom organist and the screaming singers who fly out of his organ pipes.
This has never seen the light of day before -- it's the closest I've come as an adult to writing fanfic, and it was incredibly satisfying to produce. Christopher's Al Jaffee-style detailed illustrations really make it, too.
The Organist (PDF)
