Author: Mike

  • Running the Inaugural Tower of Terror 10 miler

    I’ve never been a runner, so when my friend Trish initially suggested I join her in running the inaugural Tower of Terror 10 mile run, I declined.   I’d be happy to come along and cheer, I said,  but running 10 miles was not even a remote possibility.

    But despite my initial response, the idea did stick with me.   I knew I needed to be doing something for exercise.   And I’d heard good things about the Disney runs … my brother Marcus did the WDW Marathon years ago, and on various Disney discussion groups and podcasts it’s impossible to miss mention of the various runDisney events, and they always end up sounding like a lot of fun — except for the bit about actually running.

    I was intrigued enough to start poking around on the internet and looking at training plans … wondering what, exactly, I’d be committing myself to if I decided to do this.   I started, as many do, by looking at the Couch-to-5k training plan.   And I decided to start with that.   This was early January, and registration for the Tower of Terror event opened February 14th.   I figured I’d start training and see how my progression went over the initial four or five weeks, and then decide whether I could do it.

    Training

    As a non-runner, my initial progress was disappointing.   I continued to look at other resources, and picked up Jeff Galloway‘s book on my brother’s recommendation.   There I found the idea that I didn’t need to run 10 miles — I could use a run/walk strategy.    Suddenly it seemed much more feasible — I didn’t need to run 10 miles, I just needed to run a few minutes at a time, take a walk break, then run a few more minutes.     Another friend, Bobbi, recommended the Chi Running website and book, and there I found the technical details on form and technique that would allow me to train and run without injury.

    I don’t mean this to be a recap of the entire training process, so I’ll just briefly summarize.   I used Chi Running for my running methodology; I downloaded Galloway’s race-specific training plans from runDisney and decided, somewhat arrogantly, to follow the training plan for experienced runners looking to improve their time rather than the beginning runner’s plan.   I played with different run-walk intervals and eventually settled on 1 minute run, 1 minute walk.  My longest training run was 13.5 miles — shorter than what was called for in the training plan, but long enough to give me confidence about the 10 miler.   I headed to the race feeling good about my preparation.

    During the months of preparation, our running group had expanded; Trish recruited her friends Amanda and Sarah, and I recruited my brother Marcus and my ex Debbie.   So we had six runners of varying ages and abilities joining the more than 10,000 other runners ready to tackle the course the night of Saturday, September 29, 2012.

    Race Night

    Almost all of my training (and all of my long runs) had been morning runs, and all in relatively mild weather (I usually start running before sunrise with temperatures no higher than low 60s).   The ToT race was an evening race, starting at 10 p.m.   At race time the temperature was 80, as was the humidity.   While I’d rested most of Saturday, the previous days had been full-on Disney park days, and I was starting out with tired legs and a blister on one toe.    The heat, humidity, and initial tiredness made me realize I probably wouldn’t be doing this 10 miles as fast as I had done my training runs … and my training runs were really just trying to be fast enough to stay ahead of the “sweepers” who come along and pick up anyone who doesn’t keep the required pace of 16 minutes / mile.    During training I averaged about 13:30 minutes / mile for my longer runs.   I thought this would give me a cushion sufficient to allow for any slow-down due to heat, and also the opportunity to stop for photos along the way.

    Our group of runners was spread out from Corral A to Corral D, so clearly we wouldn’t be starting together.   And given our different paces and the large field, I really didn’t expect to be seeing others during the race … so it would have to be a big reunion at the after-party.

    But I was in the same Corral as Marcus, so we filed into the Corral B together to await the start.   Just after we had gotten into the corrals they started walking us out to the starting line.   There were a bunch of announcements and it seemed the time went by quickly — before long, the fireworks went off marking the start of the race for the wheelchair racers.   Just a few minutes later, the fireworks went off again and Corral A was off.   And then five minutes later, it was our turn, and the group surged forward through the parking entrance that marked the race start.

    We went straight only a little ways before making a sharp turn and heading up a cloverleaf section of the interchange between World Drive and Osceola Parkway.   I’d done some practice running hills, but the ramp was tilted quite awkwardly side-to-side which I really wasn’t prepared for.   I ended up walking a lot of the ramp and then tried to get into my rhythm once we got onto the level surface of the overpass.   We headed toward the Animal Kingdom.   When I hit Mile 1, my pace was 14:00 — that was slower than almost every training mile I’d done.   But I had planned to start out slow so I didn’t worry about it.    But as it turned out, that would be my fastest mile of the night.

    Course Map

    A little past Mile 2, we passed the entrance plaza for the Animal Kingdom.  (I can still hear “Attention Runners:  Speed bumps ahead” repeating endlessly).   After the turn we were headed back the way we came on Osceola Parkway.   It was a chance for me to see how many people were behind me, and I was happy to see I wasn’t in last place.

    The Osceola Parkway sections of the run were pretty dull, which is unfortunate since it made up the bulk of the race course.   Around mile 5 we turned off onto a narrow trail.   This was probably the best-themed area of the course, a narrow trail leading into the Wide World of Sports complex.   Spooky lighting, things hanging in trees, and music fit the theme.   But the trail was very narrow, forcing everyone down to a walk.   And the trail surface was rock and gravel — I was running in very thin-soled Vibrams so it was not a fun surface to walk or run on.

    We emerged from the trail into the bright lights of practice fields at the WWoS complex.   We ran most of the way around the quarter mile track ( a much nicer running surface! ) and made our way over to Champions Stadium, where we were “cheered” on by a handful of spectators who had come to watch.   (One sign I spotted read “Worst.  Parade.  Ever.”.   We were being broadcast live onto the JumboTron but I didn’t try to spot myself, at this point (a bit more than six miles in) I was really just focusing on moving forward.

    We finished mile 7 and headed back out to Osceola Parkway again, and turned back toward the studios.   At this point I’d slowed pretty much to a walk with an occasional minute or so of running thrown in every quarter mile or so.    Mile 8 went by, and then we started backtracking, running down the same tilted cloverleaf ramp that we’d covered at the start of the race.   Just before Mile 9 we entered into the Hollywood Studios near the Lights, Motors, Action attraction and ran in front of the bleacher seating for the show.   Right around here, Debbie, who had started 2 corrals (and 10 minutes) behind me, caught up with me and we did the last mile together.

    From there, it was down the backstage New York street, and then a turn to come down the alley way behind the American Idol attraction.   We looped our way around the Sorcerer’s Hat, thru the archway leading to Animation, and down Pixar Place.   There we turned backstage and began making our way toward the Tower of Terror finish.

    The backstage part was uninteresting and we mostly walked, but when we rounded the last turn, there was the finish line, and suddenly our legs were ready to run again.   We crossed the finish line with arms raised in victory and received our finisher’s medals from the volunteers.   Beyond this we were handed bananas, PowerAde, and a goodie box with other snacks.   Cruelly at this point we had to walk up a steep hill to get to the setup where finisher photos were being taken with the medals.

    After Party

    After the photos, we had to make our way over to the bag check which was at the Indiana Jones Adventure.   Never has it seemed so far from Tower of Terror to Indiana Jones … with the race done, all motivation to move had left me.   But we made our way over.   I made my way down the IJ steps like a 90-year old man, retrieved my bag, and sat in the bleachers for a few minutes before making my way to the changing tents.  After changing we met up with Marcus and his wife Ginny at Toy Story Mania.  We walked up to Rock n Roller coaster, where we ran into Trish.   I really wanted to do Tower of Terror post-race, but the wait suddenly went from 20 minutes to 55 minutes while we were standing around talking, and I decided to catch it another time.    As it turns out, I ended up not getting on a ride during the after-party, just standing around and talking (we eventually ran into Amanda and Sarah also, so the entire party was accounted for and everyone had finished without injury or incident).

    I was really happy to finish my first runDisney race, and I’m looking forward to the WDW half-marathon in January, where I’m hoping the heat and humidity will be friendlier and I’ll put in a performance more in line with what I’ve seen in my training.   But since it’s my first 10-miler, it’s a PR, and I’ll take it proudly.

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  • Destination D: Day Two Afternoon & Evening

    Hearing Voices: A Salute to Disney Voice Artists

    This is one of those you-had-to-be there sessions; hearing is everything.    It’s impossible to listen to Bill Farmer doing his most well-known Disney voice without breaking out into a big Goofy grin.

    Bill Farmer

    Bill Farmer does the voice of Goofy and also Pluto (and for Pluto, he not only does Pluto in English but in foreign languages as well … what range!).    He talked about auditioning and winning the role of Goofy, and gave a dramatic reading of Goofy doing Romeo.

    Lisa Davis voiced Anita in 101 Dalmatians.   She had worked with Zsa-Zsa Gabor in (I’m not making this up) Queen of Outer Space, and had learned to do a pretty good Zsa-Zsa impersonation.    Walt had heard this and wanted Lisa to do the voice of Cruella De Vil, who he pictured as being Zsa-Zsa like.   During the audition, during which Walt read the Anita part to Lisa’s Cruella, Lisa felt she just wasn’t right for the character, and asked if she could try Anita.   They tried it that way, and Lisa won the part.

    David Frankham did the voice of Sgt. Tibbs (the cat) in 101 Dalmatians.

    Kathryn Beaumont was Alice in Alice in Wonderland, and also Wendy Darling in Peter Pan.   She shared stories of working directly with Walt.   She was cast, she says, because her voice was English enough to fit the role, but not so much so as to sound too foreign to American audiences.

    Kathryn Beaumont

    Chris Sanders was the director of Lilo and Stitch.   Frequently during the animation process, animators or others working on a film will do temp voice tracks to use during early cuts of the film, when animation is in storyboard or pencil test form.   Chris did the Stitch voice fully intending that it would be replaced with a real actor at some point.   Even when no better voice was found, he was very hesitant, telling his co-director that if his track wasn’t great, there would be no hard feelings about tossing it.    But he obviously nailed it.

    Bruce Reitherman is the son of Disney Legend and animator Woolie Reitherman.   He did the voice of Christopher Robin in the first Winnie the Pooh featurette,  and also Mowgli in The Jungle Book.

    Snow White: Still the Fairest of Them All

    Since the theme of the weekend was “Celebrating 75 Years of Disney Feature Animation”, it was only fitting that a segment be devoted to the one that started it all, Disney’s first full-length animated motion picture.    Tim O’Day was again the host, joined this time by musicologist and historian Alex Rannie. and special guest Marge Champion.

    Marge was the original live-action reference model for Snow White.   She’s 93 years young and can tell great stories about how certain scenes were staged for the reference (for example, ropes hanging from clotheslines were used to simulate the forest Snow White runs through).

    Marge Champion
    Marge Champion as Snow White

    An Evening with Alan Menken

    Once again, the evening was capped off by a concert.   Dick Van Dyke set the bar pretty high, but I’d have to say the performance by 8-time Oscar winner Alan Menken was even better.   Other than the opening and closing numbers, the evening progressed chronologically through Alan’s career.   Because of the sheer volume of things he’s worked on, most movies and shows were represented by just brief excerpts of songs, rather than full numbers.   I think this was a great choice so that more material could be included.

    There were a number of songs featured that did not make it into the movies or shows, for whatever reason.    Songs written for Little Shop of Horrors back when they were still trying to find the right tone for the musical; songs dropped from Aladdin when the story was extensively reworked, even a song from a Roger Rabbit prequel that was never made.

    The evening opened with Prince Ali, from Aladdin.   Then we heard selections from God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater; Little Shop of Horrors; The Little Mermaid; Beauty and the Beast; Aladdin; Newsies; Pocohontas; Hercules; Hunchback of Notre Dame; Tangled; Enhanted, and several others.    The evening concluded with Proud of Your Boy, an Ashman-Menken collaboration that was dropped from the Aladdin film, but is being used in the upcoming Broadway production.

    Alan Menken

    This really ended things on a high note, and the weekend was a fantastic tribute to the long storied history of Disney Animation.

  • Destination D: Day Two Morning Sessions

    Wild and Wacky Disney Animation

    When you ask animation buffs to describe the style of Disney animation, you’ll hear that the drawings are lifelike, the overall style realistic, the stories moving, the characters memorable.   Other studios like Warner Brothers and Fleischer get the adjectives funny, wild, zany, and of course looney.

    But in the long history of Disney animation, there have been many wild and crazy bits of animation, and this morning’s session set out to provide that Disney can be just as wild and wacky as any animation department.

    The evidence:

    • A clip of deleted material from Steamboat Willie, described as NSFW, and definitely NSF PETA members.   Mickey engages in various forms of animal abuse to create music.
    Steamboat Willie deleted scene
    • A segment from The Barn Dance.   Mickey and Minnie are dancing, and he keeps stepping on her feet.  Oblivious, he walks on her feet, flattening them and then proceeding to her ankles and right up the leg, which is getting stretched out and starts being dragged across the floor behind them.   Eventually her tortured leg gets so long that she has to tie a knot in it to shorten it back to length, and then cuts off the excess.
    • Mother Goose Goes to Hollywood, a caricature piece featuring many Hollywood notables (Katherine Hepburn as Little Bo Peep, the Marx Brothers, etc.)
    Little Bo Peep
    • Thru the Mirror, in which Mickey Mouse has an Alice in Wonderland experience.
    • Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom, a history of musical instruments
    • The Fantasia Dance of the Hours segment, featuring dancing hippos and alligators.
    • The Fantasia 2000 Carnival of Animals segments, in which a flamingo masters the yo-yo (and asserts his individuality over the flock)
    Flamingo with Yo-Yo
    • Pink Elephants on Parade, from Dumbo
    • “After You’re Gone” segment from Make Mine Music
    • “Blame it on the Samba” from Melody Time
    • A bit of early Genie animation.   When Disney wanted to get Robin Williams to play the Genie, they wanted something to show him.  So they used audio of Robin performing his stand-up act and animated the Genie to that as a demo.
    • A few clips of never completed Alice in Wonderland scenes
    • The soup eating scene from Snow White (this is a bonus feature on one of the DVDs)
    • Donald’s dream sequence from Three Caballeros.

    The verdict:  Disney can indeed be pretty wild and wacky.

    Drawing with Personality

    This was great to watch, and a write-up just won’t be able to do it justice because it was so visual.

    Animator Andreas Deja brought a number of pencil drawings of well-known Disney characters drawn by top animators.   His comments were insightful, pointing out where certain poses really showed strength of line, or pointing out various things that make a drawing “work”, but that a non-artist would not likely notice.   (One thing that comes across again and again in all these presentations is the tremendous respect that the current animators have for those that preceded them … there is just such a legacy there, and it seems they never lose sight of that and are incredibly respectful of it).

    Seeing so many great drawings from the archives was interesting, but the presentation really took off for me when Andreas picked up a marker and began drawing some of the characters he was the supervising animator for.

    A gallery showing these drawings is here.

    Tinker Bell: The Evolution of a Disney Character

    Frankly, going in this was a session I was not really interested in … Tinker Bell isn’t a favorite of mine, and knowing that at least some of the talk was covering “modern” Tink (3D graphics and she talks!  The horror!)  I was tempted to duck out and take in a few rides.   I’m glad I stayed … although it wasn’t my favorite talk of the weekend, it was very well researched, contained some surprises, and was worthwhile.

    The presenter, Mindy Johnson, is author of an upcoming book from which most of this presentation was drawn.   (The book, Tinker Bell: An Evolution, will be coming out in fall of 2013 so don’t go looking for it yet).

    The presentation started with the earliest ideas about Tink in J. M. Barrie’s writing and early stage adaptations of his works.     Tinker Bell was represented on stage by just a light effect and the sound of a bell.   (Specifically a bell such as would be used on a tinker’s wagon to alert customers, not unlike an ice cream truck’s music or horns).   The character, originally called Tippy Toe, thus became Tinker Bell.

    We saw early concept art of Disney’s Tinker Bell as a redhead before Marc Davis drew the character we know today.    We heard from Margaret Kerry, who was the live action reference model for Tinker Bell, and also from Ginny Mack, an ink and paint girl who was recruited as the facial model for Tink.

    Moving on to the modern era, we also heard from Mae Whitman, who has voiced Tinker Bell in recent releases, and director Peggy Holmes, director of Secret of the Rings, the next film in the Tinker Bell series.

    That was it for the morning panels … come back tomorrow to hear about the afternoon panels.

  • Destination D: Day 1 Afternoon & Evening Highlights

    (for coverage of the Saturday morning presentations see here)

    Inside Walt Disney Animation Studios Today

    Based on the title, I thought we might be getting some insight into how the animation department works today (how CG and hand-drawn animation departments compete or co-operate, and similarly for Disney and Pixar animation groups).   Instead, this was really a look at upcoming animated features and shorts.

    Frozen

    The first feature that we heard about was Frozen.  This is a Holiday 2013 release.  I had not heard anything about this feature prior to Destination D, so it was exciting to get a look at something completely new.

    The presenter was CG animator Darrin Butters (Prep & Landing, Bolt, Fantasia 2000, and others).

    Frozen is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen.   We saw a number of story sketches here; no finished animation was previewed.

    The story focuses on two sisters, younger Anna (Kristen Bell) and older Elsa (Idina Menzel from Wicked, Rent, and Enchanted).   Few plot details were given other than it involves a curse, some prophecy, and snowmen sidekicks.

    Songs will be provided by Bobby Lopez & Kristen Anderson Lopez (Book of Mormon, Avenue Q, Winnie the Pooh).   We heard one song from the movie, “Let it Go”, performed live for us on stage to close out the presentation.

    Paperman

    The short film Paperman will play in front of Wreck-it Ralph coming this November.   We were shown this delightful film in its entirety, and were the first non-industry audience to see it.

    The presentation prior to showing the film described the unique animation style that is a blend of hand-drawn and computer generated.  The idea is to preserve the animators original sketch lines (which usually get cleaned up) all the way to final animation.   The technique was interesting but it was really the story that made this stand out.

    Paperman is the story of a chance encounter; boy meets girl on subway platform, then they are separated.   While at work, he spots her in a building across the street, and tries desperately to reach her with a paper airplane.   Then another.   Then another.    You’ll have to see the film to find whether it all works out in the end.

    Wreck-it Ralph

    The final film discussed in this presentation was Wreck-it Ralph, coming in November.    We were shown about 10 minutes of footage from the movie.  I think most of the information that was shared with us (casting, plot details) was already known, so I’ll just recap briefly.

    Ralph (John C. Reilly) is the villain in the 80s style arcade video game Fix-it Felix Jr.  (Felix is Jack McBrayer).   But Ralph doesn’t want to be a bad guy anymore.  So he leaves his game in search of a place he can be the hero.  (The premise here is that the power cord for the game leads to a ‘Game Central Station’ — a power strip where all the games are plugged in — allowing characters to come and go, and enter other games.

    Ralph’s adventures will take him to the Sugar Rush game (think Mario Cart) where he’ll meet Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman) and Hero’s Duty (similar to Call of Duty or any first-person shooter) where he’ll encounter Sgt. Calhoun (Jane Lynch).

    The different games have very different visual styles which definitely makes things  interesting to look at.   There are many, many cameos by game characters dating from classics such as Pac-Man and QBert right up to present day.

    The Greatest Disney Animation You Never Saw

    This sounded like it would be a fun presentation, and it certainly was.   This was a presentation of Disney rarities — I probably had seen close to half of what was presented here, and given the Disney Geek quality of the audience I was probably not unusual in this respect.   But the animation that was shown has been in the vault for a long time, so it’s certainly hard-to-find, rare footage that it was fun to see again, or for the first time, as the case may be.

    Don Hahn and Dave Bossert were the hosts.   The format was to alternate film snippets (or in some case complete shorts) with commercials; it was very entertaining to get a look back at a time when Disney was more than willing to have their characters used in ads for all sorts of products.

    The playlist:

    • Back to Neverland.   I absolutely loved seeing this again — it was the original introductory film to the Animation Tour at the Disney-MGM Studios park.  The film features Robin Williams and Walter Cronkite and is vastly superior to the current film with Eddie Murphy’s Mushu character from Mulan.   Can we bring this one back, please?   Also, we were told that Robin’s performance here led to his being approached for the role of the Genie in Aladdin.
    • A 1950’s “I Like Ike” commercial produced by Roy O. Disney  (Walt’s brother, Roy E.’s dad)
    • The Roger Rabbit short “Tummy Trouble” (1989).
    • A commercial for American Motors featuring Jiminy Cricket (for the 1955 Nash Ambassador).
    • The pre-show film from Cranium Command at EPCOT’s Wonders of Life pavilion.  Directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale who would go on to do Beauty and the Beast.
    • A commercial for Peter Pan peanut butter featuring Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, and Captain Hook
    • Film of Walt performing Mickey’s voice for “Mr. Mouse Steps Out”
    • A commercial for Jell-O featuring Alice and the Cheshire Cat.
    • An extended deleted sequence from Who Framed Roger Rabbit where Eddie is “tooned” (has a pig’s face painted on his head).
    • Roger Rabbit advertising Diet Coke
    • Early pencil animation for a very different version of the Fantasia 2000 Pomp and Circumstance segment.   In this one, we get a parade of all of the Disney princesses and many other characters both major and minor.   At the end of the segment, a flock of storks, led by Dumbo, deliver babies to each of the princesses.   A true what-were-they-thinking moment that had the audience unsure whether to laugh or cringe.
    • An ad for Disney Magix cereal, from the 1990s, featuring Mickey.
    • A sequence pitch for a never-produced Hiawatha movie.
    • Another Peter Pan ad, this one with a cowboy and a spaceman.   (Definitely not Woody and Buzz, but maybe this was inspiration)
    • and finally, the Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah segment from Song of the South.

    This whole presentation was just wonderful; kudos to whoever curated the content as it was a great mix of historically significant pieces, just-for-laughs segments, and great nostalgia for bygone attractions.

    Animating the Disney Parks

    Like some of the morning sessions, this was a session that focused very much on personalities rather than technical aspects.    Essentially there are three individuals whose contributions to the parks were featured, although a lot of other imagineers and animators were mentioned along the way.

    Claude Coats was the first to be featured.   Tony Baxter (Sr. VP, Imagineering and future Disney Legend) who worked with Claude, did this part of the presentation.   Claude did the show design for some of Disneylands’s most memorable attractions, including the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Alice in Wonderland, and Mr. Toad.  At EPCOT he contributed to Horizons, World of Motion, Universe of Energy, and several others.    On several projects he collaborated with Mary Blair.

    Claude Coats with Mary Blair

     

    The next Imagineer to be featured was Herb Ryman.   If you’ve ever seen concept art for Disneyland or EPCOT, it was most likely Herb’s work.   The original concept drawing for Disneyland, shown to investors to help line up financing for the park, is a Herb Ryman piece.

    Herb Ryman’s Disneyland concept art

     

    Next we hear about Marc Davis.   As an animator, Marc worked on Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan (Tinkerbell), and others.  He drew some of the definitive Disney villains including Maleficient and Cruella de Vil.   As an Imagineer he worked on it’s a small world, the Jungle Cruise, the Tiki Room, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and others.

    An Evening with Dick Van Dyke

    After a day full of presentations, after dinner we had a fabulous performance by Dick Van Dyke and his a capella group, the Vantastix.   They opened with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and continued with selections from Bye Bye Birdie. Mary Poppins (of course!), Jungle Book, Dumbo and quite few others.   It was a magical evening of music and laughter, if you ever have the chance to see this group perform, don’t miss it.   (Buy their CD here)

    Dick Van Dyke and the Vantastix perform

  • Destination D: Day 1 Morning Session Highlights

    On August 11th and 12th 2012, D23 (The Official Disney Fan Club) presented the third Destination D event.   The theme of this one was “Celebrating 75 Years of Disney Feature Animation.

    The event was held in the Grand Ballroom of the Disneyland Hotel.

    I’ll be recapping the event over the next several blog entries — in this first post, I’ll cover the two Saturday morning presentations, which covered different eras in the history of Disney animated features.

    Walt and the First Golden Age of Disney Animation

    The first presentation of the day covered the earliest days of feature animation.  This panel was hosted by Disney Archives director Becky Cline, and included panelists:

    • Disney Legend, animator, writer, storyboard artist, and director Burney Mattinson
    • Layout artist and producer Joe Hale
    • Documentary filmmaker Ted Thomas, son of Disney Legend Frank Thomas
    Becky Cline, Ted Thomas, Joe Hale, Burny Mattinson. In background, the Nine Old Men

    The discussion started off with anecdotes about working with Walt and generally what it was like to be working in animation during that era.  Then the discussion focused on each of the nine old men, with anecdotes about working with them, and discussions of specific films and scenes that each man was responsible for.

    Anyone who has an interest in animation is familiar with how storyboards are used to present ideas for the story; we were treated to a video of Burny doing a story pitch using storyboards for the “Eeyore loses his tail” segment of the new Winnie the Pooh movie.

    Overall the panel was very informative and did a great job of setting up the history of the animation studio.

    Roy and the Second Golden Age of Disney Animation

    The second panel of the morning moved on to the Second Golden Age of Disney Animation, a period that started with the Little Mermaid.   This period of studio history is very well chronicled in Don Hahn’s  Waking Sleeping Beauty.

    The panel was led by Tim O’Day and included panelists

    • Roy Patrick Disney, son of Walt’s nephew Roy E. Disney, who was head of animation.
    • Don Hahn, director (Waking Sleeping Beauty) and producer (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King)
    • John Musker and Ron Clements, directing team of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, and The Princess and the Frog

    (No photos were allowed during this session so I can’t show the panel)

    The panel opened with a film called “Mickey’s Audition”.   Although it wasn’t identified as such I’m pretty sure this used to play as part of the Backlot Tour at the Disney-MGM Studios park (as it was then called).   Very entertaining with cameos by Angela Lansbury, Mel Brooks, and other stars.  The significance here was that it featured the acting debut of Roy E. Disney, portraying Walt  (and there is quite a resemblance).

    The second panel was far more energetic and lively than the earlier one.   Don Hahn is always entertaining, and moderator Tim O’Day kept things moving along and frequently injected a bit of humor (not that it was lacking otherwise).   It seemed to be generally agreed among everyone, as Don Hahn stated, that Roy E. didn’t just save animation at Disney, he saved the company.

    There was an amusing anecdote about a scene in a True Life Adventure where a scene of a duck sliding across the ice was cut short by the cameraman before the inevitable collision with another group of ducks just standing around.   When Walt was shown the sequence, he insisted that they had to “find” the “missing” footage of the collision, but it didn’t exist — the cameraman had stopped filming.   But Walt was insistent, so eventually Roy E. and a crew had to head back out and get the footage — bowling with ducks.

    We also got to see, courtesy of Roy P., some candid family photos of the Disney family.    A favorite was a shot of him and his siblings standing in front of a nondescript pile of dirt — a pile of dirt in the spot where Cinderella Castle would soon be built.

    Overall, this was less of an animation history lesson and more of a tribute to Roy E., and that seemed an appropriate and fitting way to conclude our first morning.

    Would love to hear from other attendees in the comments — what were your favorites in the morning sessions?

  • Coming Attractions

    Now that the new blog is up and operational, I’m looking forward to some of the things that I’ll be blogging about here in the months to come.

    June and July will probably be light, but things will begin to pick up after that.

    In August, I’ll be attending Destination:D, Celebrating 75 Years of Disney Feature Animation, at the Disneyland Resort.   So in mid-August I’ll be blogging about

    • The D23 Destination:D Event
    • The new Cars Land expansion to Disney’s California Adventure
    • The re-themed Buena Vista Street area of DCA
    • Some fine dining experiences at Napa Rose and Carthay Circle restaurants

    Then in September, it’s off to Florida for an incredibly jam-packed week including

    • The inaugural Tower of Terror 10-mile race
    • D23’s EPCOT 30th Anniversary celebration
    • Any other in-park events for EPCOT’s 30th anniversary
    • The first weekend of the Food & Wine festival at EPCOT
    • Mickey’s Not-so-Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom
    • WDW Radio’s e-Ticket event
    • Plus other events by WDW Today and WDW Celebrations to commemorate EPCOT’s 30th.

    Then, in 2013 there will be a cruise on the Disney Dream, and the 3rd D23 Expo.  So much to look forward to!

    UPDATE: Edited 6/8/12 to add link to the D23 EPCOT Event details

  • Waiting for the train

    This past week was supposed to be the kickoff of my 18 week training period for the Tower of Terror 10 mile race in September.   In reality, I started running in January — as a total couch potato I figured I needed all the time I could get for training.    I’m glad I got the early start, as this week I wasn’t able to train at all.

    Just before Memorial Day, while doing an easy slow jog, I felt a really severe cramping in my calf.  I was unable to continue that run, but hoped that with a couple of days’ rest I’d be right back at it.   That hasn’t happened.   I’ve been icing it, working it over with a foam roller, and stretching it (gently, no bouncing).   It’s been feeling a little better each day, and today I thought I’d be able to get in my 4 miles as scheduled and be right on track.    But just as I started out — barely a minute into my run — it tightened up again, and I turned around and headed back in.

    Very frustrating.    I’m traveling this week so I think I’ll just plan on not running while I’m away, but will continuing icing, stretching, and rolling the calf.   Next weekend, I’ll see whether I’m ready to pick up with the training.

  • Hello world!

    Apple’s MobileMe service is being discontinued, forcing me to find a new home for theYawns.com.   For quite some time I’ve really only been using the domain as my email address, and the web presence has been rather neglected.

    Maybe I’ll be inspired now to update the site more frequently, now that it’s moved to WordPress.

    But don’t hold your breath.