Your Interactive Online Magazine to Discover New Wonders & Share Magical Disney Memories
Tap here to see my beignets story!
The above story was made with the new Story app from Disney.
And here’s another one:
Walt’s Magical Adventure
The images in Walt’s Magical Adventure were created in Disney’s HAPPINESSCAM app.
What are your thoughts about this? — leave a reply below or follow me (@DisneyEcho) on Twitter and leave a comment there!
I’ve spent the day testing Siri out, helping David Pogue as tech reviewer/editor of his upcoming new book iPhone: The Missing Manual.
It’s all about Apple’s iOS 5 running on iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS.
After having “conversations” with the Siri intelligent personal assistant on the iPhone 4S, weird thoughts come to mind.
Such as, I’d like Siri to be available in alternate voices/personalities. Imagine an Uncle Remus Siri – an interactive app giving you advice like the beloved character from Walt Disney’s “Song of the South”…
“I’m running away from my troubles.”
Uncle Remus Siri: “Child, there ain’t no place that far.”
“What’s today’s weather?”
Uncle Remus Siri: “It happums to be one ah dem Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Days. Now dat’s the kinda day where you can’t opem yo mouf widout a song jumpin right out of it!”
“Text Mom about my flight on Saturday.”
Uncle Remus Siri: “You mean you’s leavin’ your old Briar Patch?”
“What’s on my schedule today?”
Uncle Remus Siri: “The weather’s good, the fishin’s fine. Now what do you do with all of your time?”
“Will we need an umbrella?”
Uncle Remus Siri: “My, oh, my what a wonderful day! Plenty of sunshine heading our way…”
“What is the meaning of life?”
Uncle Remus Siri: “It’s the truth, it’s actual. Everything is satisfactual.”
“I have to get rid of a body.”
Uncle Remus Siri: “For’sure?”
“Yes, I have to get rid of a body.”
Uncle Remus Siri: “I sure hope you knows what you’s doin’.”
“I really have to get rid of a body.”
Uncle Remus Siri: “It just goes to show what comes of mixin’ up with somethin’ you got no business with in the first place.”
“How far is it to Atlanta?”
Uncle Remus Siri: “Hmm, powerful long walk to Atlanta. Is you brung some grub?”
“Set timer for 20 minutes.”
Uncle Remus Siri: “One! The Tar Baby, he don’t say nothin’. Two! Brer Fox, he lay low with the fidgets. Three…”
“Who’s your daddy?”
Uncle Remus Siri: “Well, now, lemme see. That I can’t exactly say, ’cause I ain’t been keepin’ close track as I used to.”
“I kissed a girl and I liked it.”
Uncle Remus Siri: “Well, now, if that don’t bang my time. You know, I was just figurin’ on somethin’ like that myself. How’d you like ol’ Uncle Remus to go along with you?”
“Where can I get drugs?”
Uncle Remus Siri: “Well, now, that I can’t exactly say. ‘Cause where ’tis for one mightn’t be where ’tis for another.”
“Are there prostitutes in this town?”
Uncle Remus Siri: “Everybody’s got a laughing place, a laughing place to go ho ho!”
“I love you.”
Uncle Remus Siri: “Oh, I knows. I knows. But I’m just a worn-out ol’ man what don’t do nothin’ but tell stories.”
“Do you love me?”
Uncle Remus Siri: “Oh, I zigs and I zags, I to’s and I fro’s. That’s what you’re askin’, and that’s what you knows.”
“Uncle Remis Siri, you’re the best assistant ever!”
Uncle Remus Siri: “And don’t you never forget it.”
“Dreams Come True – Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio” opened on November 15th at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) and I had the pleasure of attending it that afternoon.
The entrance to the New Orleans Museum of Art’s “Dreams Come True” features these banners, and in true Disney fashion, a red carpet welcome for all those attending.
Walt Disney once said, “The fairy tale of film — created with the magic of animation — is the modern equivalent of the great parables of the Middle Ages.” The Dreams Come True exhibit shows how Disney has taken those classic fairy tales, added to them, and created animated stories which entertain as well as touch our hearts. Disney’s John Lasseter wrote about the exhibition, “Never once do you think that the characters and places are just drawings and paintings. What’s even more amazing to contemplate is that for every background or animation cel that is photographed and seen in the final film, there are dozens of pieces of art the audience never sees that are vital to the creation of the film: visual development artwork, story sketches, character designs, layouts, animation drawings, paintings, and more.”
In this multimedia exhibition you’ll find these usually hidden elements from Disney’s film-making process: maquettes, production cells, backgrounds, pencil sketches, and other original artwork from over seventy-five years of legendary Disney animated films, along with film clips and some rare collectibles the films inspired.
This is my sticker from the Disney art exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Mickey Mouse shirt available for an additional charge, at Disneyland.
Start your tour with an eight-minute video presentation about the importance and tradition of storytelling in Disney films. The presentation screens continuously in the Stern Auditorium inside NOMA.
From there you enter a series of rooms, arranged chronologically by the year of each film’s release date, with each room highlighting how Disney combines storytelling, composition, creativity and artistic talents to bring these fairy tales to life. The original fairy tales are summarized so that you can see for yourself how Disney transformed them.
Beginning with Silly Symphony shorts and other Disney productions like Three Little Pigs and Mickey and the Beanstalk, you learn Disney’s secrets of production through all the steps in the animation process.
Walt Disney Studios
Conceptual art from Disney’s ‘Snow White,’ part of the exclusive Disney-themed ‘Dreams Come True’ exhibit coming to the New Orleans Museum of Art in November 2009.
As you travel room by room inside the exhibition, you’ll encounter fairy tale-based full-length Disney motion pictures like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and finally Disney’s latest animated feature, The Princess and the Frog. All throughout the exhibition, you’ll find original pencil sketches, early production artwork, character maquettes, and research material Disney artists were inspired by in creating their ideas.
You’ll discover some secrets along the way as well, if you pay attention. For example, in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Lucille LaVerne provided the voice of the evil queen but when that character was transformed into the hag-like witch, Lucille altered her voice in the recording studio by taking out her false teeth! I also was pleased to discover that the beautiful bejeweled storybook that was actually constructed for the opening sequence of Sleeping Beauty has its original red pencil layout drawings on display at the museum.
Walt Disney Studios
Sleeping Beauty, 1959 Marc Davis, 1913-2000 Maleficent and Diablo Visual development: gouache and maker on paper Walt Disney Animation Research Library Collection © Disney Enterprises, Inc. Part of Disney’s “Dreams Come True” exhibit at NOMA
Large HDTV screens show clips from the movies highlighted in each exhibit room. In that way you see the production process all the way from the original short fairy tale stories and legends, to how Disney animators expanded those tales to make the characters and their stories come to life, as shown on screen in the finished films.
Walt Disney Studios
Conceptual art from Disney’s New Orleans-set ‘The Princess and the Frog,’ part of the exclusive Disney-themed ‘Dreams Come True’ exhibit to the New Orleans Museum of Art.
The largest part of the exhibit features displays about Disney’s newest animated feature, The Princess and the Frog. You can compare photos of real-life New Orleans locales to the beautiful renditions of them that will appear in the movie. The local culture, food and music are very important in understanding New Orleans, and great care was taken to portray these realistically and yet entertainingly in The Princess and the Frog. An interactive display lets you hear many of the songs in the movie, including “Down in New Orleans,” “Almost There,” “Friends on the Other Side,” “When We’re Human,” “Gonna Take You There,” “Dig a Little Deeper,” and “Ma Belle Evangeline” performed by such musical greats as Dr. John, Terence Blanchard, and the Pinnacle Gospel Choir. The songs range from toe-tapping Dixieland jazz… to lively Cajun Zydeco… to church-shaking Gospel music… to down-home blues… to show-stopping productions featuring that distinctive New Orleans back beat rhythm. Disney even identifies which one is the “I Want” song, found in so many classic Disney feature animations.
While you aren’t brought directly into a gift shop at the end of the exhibition, the museum gift shop can be found nearby and it includes related Disney merchandise, from t-shirts and logo cups to the “Dreams Come True” book from Disney Editions. Although no photography of any kind is allowed inside the museum, this wonderful book includes pictures of many of the things on display in the exhibition, as well as long descriptions of them, along with a forward by John Lasseter.
The “Dreams Come True – Art of the Classic Fairy Tales from the Walt Disney Studio” is available inside the NOMA gift shop as well as online, while supplies last, from NOMA here.
Museum admission for Louisiana residents with valid photo I.D. is $8 for adults, $7.50 for Seniors (65 and up), $5 for children 3-17, and children under 3 are free. NOMA members are also admitted for free, but the optional Audio Tour device costs members $3 while it is included in the cost of admission to non-members. Consult NOMA via their noma.org website for other information, including group tour discounts. Free parking is available.
I recommend you experience this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition, which cannot be seen anywhere else in North America, at the New Orleans Museum of Art during its delightful run from now through March 15, 2010. The excellence of Dreams Come True is due to it being organized by the Walt Disney Animation Research Library and the New Orleans Museum of Art.
What do you think about this? Please leave a comment!
We were last at Walt’s Barn in Griffith Park on our Easter trip. We went back to take a look at the paving stone we donated to the landscaping project around Ollie Johnston’s train station there. We not only found that but also found the Walt Disney Tunnel there at Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California.
Want to see it? I’ll have more about it, including a picture down below in this blog entry. I had a feeling that title and opening sentence would get your attention!
The Carolwood Pacific Historical Society offers regular tours of Walt Disney’s barn on the third Sunday of each month — in Griffith Park in Los Angeles. See the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society for more details.
That’s Walt’s Barn and Walt adjusting his Lilly Belle locomotive in the backyard of his house, in this photo on display inside Walt’s Barn. Take a look at our earlier trip report about our other visit to Walt’s Barn during Easter week. After clicking here, go to each of the following pages of that trip report where it says “Walt’s barn >>” in the upper right of the blog entry’s column.
During this visit, Carol helped the Carolwood society out by folding t-shirts in Walt’s barn. Michael and I voluntEARed but there wasn’t much for us to do, other than sweep the walkway near Ollie Johnston’s train station and remove pine straw from its roof. We were glad to help in any way we could!
Ollie Johnston’s train station has had landscaping and paving stones added around it since our last visit.
And a windowbox has been added inside the front window as well, including an electric lamp in the window.
In the picture above and below you can see the paving stones and concrete which have been added since the last time we were last there. Starting closest to the station’s door, the paver is inscribed “Ollie & Marie Johnston” and below that one is an engraved marker showing “Frank & Jeanette Thomas.”
The one on the lower left as you’re facing the train station is ours!
It is engraved with the words
RICH KOSTER
CAROL KOSTER
MICHAEL KOSTER
We never got ourselves a paving stone at Walt Disney World or Disneyland when there was an opportunity to do that, but I like the setting of this one even better.
Ours is placed alongside Disney notables and fellow members of the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society who donated to this project. From left to right, below the two markers for Ollie & Marie Johnston and Frank & Jeanette Thomas, are these:
Tom Shafer, Jr. // Oscar Urrutia // Les & Judy Smout Foundation // Rich & Teya Johnston // Ken & Carolyn Johnston // Ward & Betty Kimball // John Lasseter // Michael & Sharon Broggie // Roger Broggie // Herbert A. & Kathryn Dymond
Jim & Nancy Cotterman // Ella M. Witter, Marc George Witter, Matthew R. Witter // Bob Gurr // Walt Disney Family // Tony Baxter // Bob Lemberger // Michael Campbell & Family // Fred S. Lack, III // Peter & Patti Finie //
Rich Koster, Carol Koster, Michael Koster // James P. Klitch & Family // Gary Oakland // Austin Meyers // William D. Barbe // David Krebs // Blake & Sherolyn Thomas // Carl & Lois Lehman // Robert & Rita, Robert A. & Daniel Cisneros // Steve Waller
Over in a little-seen portion of the track system in Griffith Park is a hidden-away tunnel…
…marked with a plaque above it.
The Disney Tunnel is near the “Disney Loop” at Griffith Park and is curved like Walt’s own backyard tunnel was — but not as much. Walt’s Carolwood Pacific railroad at his Holmby Hills estate was designed with a curve that made it impossible to see light at the opposite end of the tunnel.
Update to add more information that Bill Barbe sent to me today: “The Disney loop was the original inner loop that is just inside the main part of the facility. When the club expanded west they put in the three tunnels. The Disney Loop is the most inner loop in the club. It goes around the infield area around the barn and inside between the storage building and the passenger cars.”
And additional information from Fred S. Lack III: “Walt Disney donated his track in 1964 and it was put in place in 1966. Walt was invited to the ceremony in September of 1966 but declined because he was too busy. (Walt died 3 months later) The Disney Loop starts at New Sherwood Station and goes around behind the car barns and down around the Disney Barn. The track was made out of aluminum and wore out and was replaced with the current steel track.”
Bill believes “they named it Disney Tunnel because it came off the Disney loop and Disney was a Charter Member of the club.”
Fred adds: “The city donated more land to Los Angeles Live Steamers in the early 1980′s. To reach this land, Los Angeles Live Steamers had to tunnel under the horse trail that still exists today. The tunnels, named for early members of the Los Angeles Live Steamers, were built out of old culvert pipes. They were not meant to be the shape of Walt’s tunnel. Since the west end is connected with the Disney Loop, I presume it was named for Walt. The tunnels were built about 1984.”
I big tip of the mouse-eared hat to both Bill and Fred! 8=o)
Michael Broggie wrote to add: “Yes, when Walt was a member of the LA Live Steamers he donated the funds to create the tunnel and donated the track from his Carolwood Pacific RR.”
A tip of the mouse-eared hat to you, too, Michael! 8=o)
Something used by Walt on his original home layout remains in the Griffith Park layout to this day… but I’ve been sworn to secrecy not to tell what that is, for security reasons (so it won’t be stolen and sold on eBay). Join the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society and you might find out what it is!
We enjoyed our second visit to see Walt’s Barn and Ollie Johnston’s train station — and were glad to see how well the paving stones around it turned out (including the great honor of having ours among Disney luminaries as well).
A last look at Griffith Park before we headed back to the Disneyland Hotel.
You’ll find out about that and our last visit to the parks in the next entry to this travel blog.
Seeing the Tiki Room again put us in the mood for Tiki shopping! I bought a great Hawaiian shirt and we got some wonderful lithographs for our home.
I’m not meaning that we bought all of that — some is “window shopping”. We also bought some things which aren’t pictured here.
One more that we didn’t buy, but it sure is cute!
What could possibly follow seeing “the backside of water” at the Jungle Cruise but staring up at the backside of birds in Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room? …also seeing the the Lanai Garden before entering the Tiki Room, that’s what!
I’ve now added the above two photos to my previous blog entry about the Tiki gods and goddesses on display in the garden. Now the Easter trip report has a complete set! That trip’s Tiki room posts start here and the section about the Tiki Room’s Lanai Garden starts here. Both of those links have much more as you move on to the pages following them.
My iPhone was replaced with one with a better camera than the one I was using during our Easter trip to Disneyland, so these Tiki Room photos came out much sharper than the previous ones I took back then.
The pictures below were taken by Carol using her iPhone:
The pictures below were taken by me using my iPhone.
Compare the photo I took above on this recent trip to the earlier one using my faulty iPhone during our Easter vacation:
Now I’m thirsty for a Lapu Lapu!
Walt Disney walks through Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. © Disney
And today, I find “Wall-E” a profoundly moving, masterpiece film, touches raw essential human nerves and touches the heart of what it truly means to be human. And that’s a 2008 product of Pixar with Disney’s backing and support. I still choke up at the end of that movie, and it’s a contemporary film.
-Carol Koster
This is what the construction wall outside the Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough looked like in July when we were there. The wall will come down when the attraction reopens later this year, better than ever.
-Rich
Firefighters put out a wildfire in Los Angeles’s Griffith Park near Walt Disney’s barn this afternoon.
A wildfire broke out early this afternoon in Los Angeles’s Griffith Park near the L.A. Zoo and the Gene Autry Museum.
The fire at one point was burning towards the area in the park where Walt Disney’s barn and the Los Angeles Live Steamers area is, just east of the Travel Town area. The wildfire began at 12:40 pm on five acres in the park’s northwest corner near the Travel Town Museum. All 4,000 zoo guests and several animals were evacuated from the zoo. The fast-moving wildfire burned 25 acres of the park before the blaze was contained by more than 200 firefighters from 32 city fire companies plus county, Burbank and Glendale fire companies.
Walt’s barn is okay and no one was hurt. It isn’t known at this time what sparked the blaze.
We’ll be at Walt’s barn Friday afternoon, Lord willing, and post to this blog from there.
Update: The fire was on another side of a large ridge which had trees cut down from it, acting as a fire break. There was also an earthquake centered in Orange County when we were in California the last week of July — and luckily the earthquake didn’t do anything to harm Walt’s barn or the items inside of it.
Firefighters surrounded the blaze, declaring it knocked down about 3:40 pm. No structures were damaged.
Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times
Congratulations to all the firefighters who kept this wildfire from spreading further and possibly damaging Walt’s barn!
Sometimes you just gotta say, “Walt was right!” It is a small world after all, even at Jazz Fest. Case in point: the photo above is a simulation of what really happened, and then what happened after I posted here on the travel blog about it, and here’s the story behind it.
Chris Romero was at Jazz Fest during Randy Newman’s performance, as I was, and he came across my posts about it here on this blog, quite by accident. He’s a HUGE fan of Randy Newman, but as it happens he is almost as enamored with Disney things as I am — but he never heard of my Disney Echo website before. He noticed that in one of my posts I had written about Randy Newman’s song set performed at Jazz Fest, but I couldn’t find all of the lyrics. He emailed me with a link to the lyrics of one of the songs I was missing, and I wrote him back and thanked him.
I also asked him if he was just a Randy Newman fan or also a Disney fan, and I got the response I’ve paraphrased above. Well, I pointed him in the direction of my Disney Echo forums, and helped him join. He asked me if I was up front in the crowd, and I replied that I was indeed up front, but not in the reserved section — I was about 7 people back from there. I also wrote him that when the camera on stage panned the crowd for the “You’re Dead!” song, I was shown on the big screen waving my iPhone at the stage as I sang, and I was wearing a straw hat I bought previously in Congo Square.
He replied that he remembered seeing me on the screen! He “did see someone on the jumbotron holding up an iphone. Can’t be two fans like that!”
He’s right. The screen was so big I could see myself even though I was on the other side of the stage from it! The iPhone he saw me holding (simulated in the picture above) is the one I used to take the pictures and post the trip report from.
Well, I’m happy to tell you all that Chris is now our newest EchoEar on the Disney Echo, and Chris is happy about it, too. He wrote, “I can’t thank you enough for letting me in on this site. Good lord, it’s door-to-door Mouse. I love it!”
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