Back Stage Magic Tour Day Three: Imagine the Possibilities

We began the day with a breakfast buffet at Twist starting with a shot of their wake-up smoothie. I don’t know what was in it but if Vodka was involved, there wasn’t enough.

We then boarded our luxury motor coach and headed to Disney Imagineering in Glendale and passed the NBC Burbank Studios and the Warner Bros lot along the way. The Imagineering Studios are a set of non-descript building and unfortunately, was another no photo zone.
We proceeded into a viewing room, were given our own Imagineering notebook and saw a video presentation on the concept to actualization process of Imagineering projects. This included the new concept for the California Adventure park which will be transformed from its original concept as being a celebration of the state of California into the Hollywood era of Walt’s Arrival in the late 20’s and early 30’s.

After the presentation they brought out Lucky the Dinosaur which is a full audio-animatronic dinosaur that walks rather stiffly, moves his head and expresses himself in a kind of groaning mumble. Very much like Ozzie Osborne.

We then visited an audio studio where they demonstrated various audio techniques and a sculpture room where they sculpt the characters that will be used in Disney features and Park rides. This was a museum of Disney characters is various stages of development. Interestingly, sitting in the middle of the floor were the original marble sculpture of Snow White and the 7 Dwarf’s from Snow White’s grotto which is off the east side of Sleeping Beauty’s castle.

The sculptures were there as they had to be replaced years ago due to the ravages of the elements. Now the story I had read in official Disney publications is that the Italian sculptor made Snow White the same size as the Dwarfs because he patterned them off of a pack of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs soap in which they were all the same size. This required that the Imagineers use the process of forced perspective by placing Snow White at the top of the hill with smaller proportioned animals around her and the Dwarfs below her to provide the illusion that she was taller. This had been the official story until the Imagineer that was responsible for the grotto died in the 1990’s. In going through his papers they found that he had actually provided the specifications for the Dwarfs in centimeters and Snow White in inches and the mix up caused the Imagineer to use the forced perspective solution rather than spend the thousands of dollars to have another sculpture of Snow White prepared. He then invented the cover story about the bars of soap being used as the models and the legend prevailed for almost 40 years.

From there we had a brief visit to the room where they build the models for new attractions. They were working on a Pixar Cars ride and new façade changes for the California Adventure Park.

We then visited a room for a more detailed demonstration of how audio animatronics work. They had a full sized electronic model of a man programmed to lip sync and move his body like Joe Cocker singing “Feelin’ Alright”. This was an interesting demonstration but I failed to ask about its history as I do not remember any park attractions featuring Joe Cocker at either WDW or DLR.

After this we shopped at Mickey’s of Glendale, featuring Disney merchandise exclusive to the Imagineers and I must say that I dropped some substantial coinage (although not as much as we would drop at the World of Disney the next day).

Recommendation: Allow photographs in all but top secret areas. I understand why I could not take pictures in the studio where they were building the models for new attractions, but other than that nothing else we saw was anything in a pre-release or working state. I would have loved to taken a photo with Lucky the dinosaur and the sculptures of Disney characters.

We then headed over to the Disney Studios. The first real Disney studio was at 31st and Troost in Kansas City where Walt and Ub Iwerks founded the Laugh-O-Gram Films which was located in two different office buildings in the area. The one at 31st and Troost still stands and there is a movement afoot to fund a restoration and museum.

In the Hollywood area there were two studios before the one in Burbank, both were located in East L.A. and Disney outgrew them quickly. The first was rented space in the back of a real estate office and the second space on Hyperion was used solely by Disney and frequently expanded to include both indoor and outdoor recreation equipment. It was a pretty nice facility for a still fledgling studio which only made animated shorts and was much the envy of the animators interred at “Termite Terrace” over on the Warner Bros lot. Once Snow White was a success the Hyperion Street studio was too small for the work that would go on now that Walt have proved that the public was hungry for feature length animated films. The site of the Hyperion Street Studio sadly is now a strip mall featuring a Gelson’s Super Market but at least there is a roadside marker to mark the spot. The profits from Snow White paid for the new studio and homage is paid on the front façade of the administration building which was added in the 1980’s.

The oldest building on the lot was brought over from Hyperion studios.

This street sign in the studio is really a fake. The signs do not really point toward any of the spots indicated on the informational markers. This sign was used in one of their vintage cartoons and they liked it so much that they actually built the sign and put it in the studio. We like it so much that we squeezed it into our carry-on and brought it home.
Recommendation: I don’t want to say that the visit to the studio was disappointing. We did get inside the studio gates which is not normally open to the public and we did get to see the legends courtyard containing the Walt and Mickey “Partners’ statue, a statue of Minnie and Roy seated on a bench, a statue of the legends award and the plaques commemorating those people who have been named Disney legends but we did not really get to see any of the “behind the scenes” inner working of the studio and I expected to see some type of presentation about their animation process. When National Treasure 2 opened last fall it was preceded by a great Disney cartoon staring Goofy trying to purchase and set up a home theatre system prior to the big football game. The cartoon was great and would have been a great vehicle to use in giving us the behind the scenes experience. (Please do not get me wrong. I am not unhappy with this tour, where could you possible find a tour that allowed us to experience and see all of what was offerred on this trip? I am merely offerring suggestions to make the experience better.)

From the studio we were hustled back aboard the motor coach and headed south to the “Happiest Place on Earth”. After check-in at the Grand Californian and a brief rest period we met at the wine cellar below Hook’s Pointe for a wine tasting (I enjoyed a vintage Welches Grape Juice) and then adjourned upstairs for dinner where we found that Sea Bass looked and tasted a lot like Salmon (and having lived in Idaho for five years we know our Salmon).

Afterward we trekked over to the Magic Kingdom and visited the Haunted Mansion attraction. It was very cute as one of the Katie’s, no not the one from the first day’s trivia contest and not the one that was celebrating a birthday, was a little apprehensive and covered her ears (strangely, not her eyes) and buried her head in her grandmother’s shoulder through the ride. I am happy to say that she survived just fine. Since our last visit the portion of the ride showing the bride has been enhanced. It now shows that the bride had done away with her multiple husbands of which I counted seven documented in the trip. There was a vintage wedding photo of her with each of them and their heads would disappear from the picture as you passed by. This was an excellent addition and exactly what you expect from Disney, continuous improvement.

After the Haunted Mansion we moved over to our private viewing area for Fantasmic which is always a good show. Immediately afterward the fireworks began. Both of these events are a perfect topper to a day at the Magic Kingdom and while others ventured onward to hit some rides we went back to our hotel room to get some rest.









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