Orange Bird Returns

That's right folks, an oldie is back. I'm a little late on the band wagon with this but as of April 2012, Orange Bird has returned to the Sunshine Terrace at the Magic Kingdom. Who is Orange Bird? Well he was originally conceived in cooperation with the Florida Citrus Growers and Disney to promote their products and sponsorship of the terrace. At one time the bird was even a walk and meet and greet character, which has since "flew" the coup. A quick Google search for that brings up images of two different versions. One with a fuzzy head and one with a smooth shinny head. Chances are you won't be seeing him again in character form any time soon. You can however currently see the original Orange Bird figure, which was lost for years and found stashed in a drawer at Imagineering. It is now fully restored and sits atop the soft serve/juice machines greeting thirsty patrons. Much like Figment was created in association with Kodak, Disney now retain all rights to this orange headed fowl. In fact, Figment has been embraced and adopted by Disney Imagineering. Why the sudden resurgence of Orange Bird? Well a "little birdie" has informed me that recently, representatives from Tokyo Disneyland were digging through the archives and discovered the obscured and forgotten Orange Bird. They loved him and due to their interest in using him, it was discovered that he now fully belonged to the company. Expect to see lots of merchandise for him out their soon if you haven't already. If he is really popular, perhaps Tokyo will get a new Orange Bird character to meet guests. As far as I know that process hasn't happened yet. But Tokyo Disney Sea is where Duffy originated from. What I find cool is that Sunshine Terrace now has a retro looking attraction poster featuring Orange Bird in the train tunnel leading to and from Main Street. I expect to see a lot of Orange Bird at the D23 Expo next year,



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Jurassic Park Island has always been......

Jurassic park has always been one of my favorite franchises. I first read the novel way back when I was in middle school. It was in that same year that Spielberg, announced he was making the film. I'm even a fan of the popularly hatted Jurassic Park Three, because it took all the really cool parts from the first and second novels that were not used in the films and combined them together. As I'm sitting here playing and really enjoying Jurassic Park Builder on my ipad/iphone, which you can get free HERE, i recall how disappointed I was in Jurassic Park Island. It could have been something fantastic. When I heard about Islands of Adventure being built and that it was going to have a Jurassic Park Island, I was super stoked. This was my Harry Potter. When the park finally opened, as I said before, I was disappointed. Especially with its big attraction, Jurassic Park River Adventure. The robotics were cool and going through the big iconic Jurassic Park gates with the movie music playing and hearing "welcome to Jurassic Park" does set at very an exciting tone. However, there is something very off about it. You are in a boat and not a tracked SUV. Why oh why, did you go with a river boat ride Universal? Everybody wanted to ride in the tracked, Ford Explorer you saw in the movie and experience the movie and the Trex attack that we remembered. A boat ride that gets you wet is overkill. You have two other water rides in close proximity, Bluto's Bildge Rat Barges, and Duddly Do-Right's Rip Saw Falls. Plus I couldn't even ride the Pteranodon Flyers, what's the deal with that!? Having the visitors center was cool, but again I wanted to board the cars at its entrance just like in the film. Even the interior of the visitors center was lacking. It didn't look like the film, and there was no tour taking you through the labs with Mr. DNA. The lab was instead crammed into the lower level amid silly kid stations. Unfortunately, the cool dinosaurs on the attraction deteriorated fast. Not sure if that's due to the water, open sun, both or either. Regardless, I have been on the ride countless times only to be greeted by giant tacky tarps covering non functioning/damaged/refurbishing Dinos. So much potential was lost with this land. I look at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and I see what could have been possible.
There are a few things I do like about it. The child's play area Camp Jurassic, is full of places you can climb explore and get lost. It has a lot of fun hidden GEMS located inside if you start looking. It also has some very cool coves and nooks that just are well designed and are fun to explore. I also enjoy the raptor hatching out of the egg at the visitors center even If it's not on the tour ride you saw in the film. And finally, my favorite thing is Triceratops Encounter, it's truly a nice way to make the whole area seem real. Never seen it before click HERE to see my video of it. It was closed for such a long time, but thanks to funds coming in due to Potter, Universal was able to afford to repair at least one Dino and have it open. It's unfortunately only open on really high attendance. You wouldn't even know it was there if you didn't know where to look. Next time your there look for the big flat rock that has a Triceratops fossil in it. You'll see a bar that looked like it use to say something on it. This is the entrance to the attraction. Maybe you'll get lucky and get to see it.
I still hold out hope that someday that Trex attack ride will be made, but unless the franchise gets risen from the dead I seriously doubt it.


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Noel MacNeal

Tonight I had the great opportunity to take a puppetry workshop from one of the masters and one of my idols Noel MacNeal. If you don't know who he is you can click his name and go to his site. Noel is an exceptionally fun, funny and talented puppeteer. He currently is working with Sesame Street and is in part responsible for training puppeteers for their sister shows in other countries. But what's the Disney connection you may ask? Noel is the one and only Bear, from Bear in the Big blue house.

Bear is a special part of my life and part of the reason I have a full time job today. Bear and me were close for several years. I have never met Noel in person, so tonight was a real treat. Noel has recently wrote a new book called 10 minute puppets. It's available HERE on Amazon. You should check it out. It's a book about making puppets but "not crafty". It's for people like you and me who aren't "the Martha Stewart type". Thanks Noel for a fun night, I learned a lot.
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20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

One of my favorite attractions when I was a child was 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at the Magic Kingdom. It was always a treat when I got the opportunity to ride it. The reason for this is because it suffered from a very slow loading process and caused it to have a very long line. So as a result of this we often skipped it on
our summer trips. If you have had a chance to ride the Nemo subs at Disneyland it is the same ride system, but instead of a sub you ride the Nautilus.


I have recently been on this kick on trying to read classic novels that I have never read. Since I recently did a video on how to find the hidden nautilus in Pooh's tree and the new Mermaid ride will have tributes to it hidden in its cue, I decided to read 20,000 leagues under the sea. I loved the classic Disney film but haven't seen it in 15 years. So I decided to read the novel first and then watch the film.
I was surprised with the differences between the novel and film. However, the film still manages to stays true to the general theme and story. They both however end very differently. (SPOLIERS) The novel leaves it open to the possibility that Nemo survives by taking the nautilus into a swirling maelstrom while the film very clearly shows him die via a gun shot wound. Other differences include that Nemo reveals personal details about himself in the film while he is left in mystery in the novel. Apparently these details are revealed in a later novel by Jules Verne, called the Mysterious Island. In the novel, it is revealed that Nautilus' power source is that of electricity but in the film it's eluded to being nuclear. But the biggest change I was surprised to find out while reading the novel is that the Nautilus is never attacked by a giant squid. I know! That iconic scene is totally fabricated. The ship is attacked instead by several giant cuttlefish instead. This is a cuttlefish.

Isn't it .....scary? Yeah I think changing to one gigantic squid was a smart move and it allowed them to show off Ned Lands harpoon skills and save Captain from the clutches of the squid, which never happened in the book.
But here is a fun fact about the film. Nemo's organ resides in Disneyland. It has had a facelift and it's pipes replaced. Where is it you may ask? It is the pipe organ in the ballroom seen at Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. Molds were taken of it and placed in consecutive Mansions later on. Here is an article from Doombuggies.comdiscussing the ballroom as well as the organ's history.

I'm back

I've decided to come back out of hibernation. I'm also looking at what exactly I would like to do with this blog. For now I am going to focus on my videos which will be posted on my YouTube channel. I'm working towards getting more of this up. Especially with the advent of New Fantasyland opening, I thought it would be good to document the process. Especially with the Storybook Circus section already opened. I have some Dumbo videos coming soon as well as a first person view of walking from the castle through all the changes and construction walls in Fantasyland to Storybook Circus. As you may or may not be aware, Snow White's Scary Adventure is no more. It's being converted to a new princess meet and greet location. This kind of makes sense to me. Snow White was always in the firework fallout zone and this caused a problem for cast members getting people to the ride due to the area needing to be roped off. With a meet and greet location you can simple close the doors. Problem solved. Not to worry though, I have heard rumor that some of the elements will be in the new attraction. I also recently attended a D23 Fanniversary event where it was stated that the Disney Archives have taken several elements to save. Dumbo's old foot print has completely been removed, as you'll see in the walk through video, and leaves quite a large and awkwardly empty space behind the carousel. Most of the main decorating elements look completed from over the view over the top of the construction walls. They are currently building the new castle wall facades and the steel work is being laid for the new Dwarfs mine coaster. Here is a computer mock video i took at this past D23 expo of what it should look like.
I'm also looking for suggestions on. A good app I can write blogger posts I my IPad. The Blogger app just first cut it.
A new thing I'm going to do is have myself open to questions, and of you have any video requests don't hesitate to post a comment here, on my Twitter or my Youtube channel