Hey remember when the Maleficent float caught fire in the Disneyworld parade a few years back? Today I was arsing about on the Internet with nothing to do and I found a closeup video of it.
And I must give A MASSIVE SHOUT-OUT to the poor actor playing Prince Philip and his wonderful facial expressions here.
“Hi kids! Don’t worry about what all those people opposite are looking at and I won’t either.”
“oh god it’s really close behind me isn’t it”
“keep it together man, keep it together”
“OH FUCKING HELL THE FUCKING DRAGON IS ON FIRE”
“Uh should I… do something? In… in character?”
“Yeah you know what I’m not paid enough for this”
“Oh crap I forgot to smile! THAT’S WAY WORSE! Crap crap crap crap!”
“Okay stay calm dude you can salvage this with a cape-flip. philip out.”
and I felt honest-to-god very sad, although admittedly that may be just the pandemic and the lockdown and the uncertainty getting to me.
But hey, while we’re on the subject of Disney animatronics, let me tell you the story of one of my favourite ones! This one:
THE YETI!
Poor, poor Yeti. Disney had such high hopes for him and he was SO expensive. I mean, look at him moving! That sort of technology doesn’t come cheap. They built a whole rollercoaster around him! Heavily promoted him as one of the most sophisticated robotic creations out there! And then he broke.
Now the Yeti is in “Disco Mode” which means he basically has a light under him to give the illusion of movement. Because if he actually moves too much, he’ll damage the actual rollercoaster itself and, uh, we don’t want that. The Disney corporation also surprisingly considers that human lives > one multi-million hairy boi. So for almost a decade now, the Yeti has been unmoving while it lurks over passengers.
Here’s what the Yeti’s boss, I mean Imagineer Joe Rohde, said about the situation back in 2013:
“You have to understand, it’s a giant complicated machine sitting on top of, like, a 46-foot tall tower in the middle of a finished building. So, it’s really hard to fix, but we are working on it. And we continue to work on it. We have tried several ‘things’, none of them quite get to the key, turning of the 40-foot tower inside of a finished building, but we are working on it… I will fix the Yeti someday, I swear.
So that got me thinking… Disneyworld is obviously closed for the time being. Maybe, ONCE the coronavirus has retreated to a safe distance (human lives still > one multi-million hairy boi) they could keep Animal Kingdom closed for just a little bit longer, depending on how things go with regard to opening very crowded places, and finally/safely fix the yeti?
Anyway here he is in his original glory back in 2006.
It’s sad to think the park is closed for now and no-one is having a party, but what can ya do. Here’s some of the photos I snapped when I was there for my honeymoon back in 2017. Dave had never been to a Disney park so I decided to take him.
Pssst. Bored while on lockdown? Why not take to the wonderful world of Disneyparks vlogging and treat yourself to the fascinatingly ridiculous saga of Buzzy, the dearly departed Epcot animatronic?
It’s like watching a murder mystery unfold in real life, except with far fewer stakes because the victim is a puppet. Enjoy:
It’s the ’10s and Buzzy has been out of a job for quite some time. Disney being Disney, once they decomissioned the ride he was part of (Cranium Command in Epcot) they just… left him there. Obviously the area he was in was inaccessible to all but staff, but Buzzy was still there, just sitting around smiling with childlike innocence in the dark.
He was quite beloved to Epcot fans I gather, but whatever. It’s Disney. Then in late 2018 it all suddenly kicks off! Buzzy’s clothes have been stolen. Or has Buzzy himself been stolen?!
A Twitter account called DreamfinderGuy, who says he’s spoken to someone else known as BackDoorDisney, claims that Buzzy was ripped outta the old attraction wires and all.
So, the story as it goes from him was that Buzzy was removed from the theatre, had his hydraulics slashed and everything, and just ripped off and taken out. This was done via the lift underneath Buzzy, which someone probably left the keys into.
Inside job? Very possibly! But either way, somebody’s hands are REDhydraulic-fluid-coloured I guess a sort of yellowish-orange? with the BLOOD of Buzzy.
Offhand Disney lays out the basics in January 2019, making fabulously silly use of film noir tropes. They interview BackdoorDisney, who claims to have seen a police report regarding Buzzy. This will be important for later!
Everyone wants to know WHO TOOK BUZZY?!?! Some people in the comments of that video appear to point the finger at the guy who did this urban exploration trip into the unused bits of Epcot in 2017 (getting what was probably the last known footage of poor Buzzy:)
It was not him. (He did get banned from Disney though.)
NOW apparently at around the time that stealthy video was taken Buzzy had a “do not destroy” tag on him put there by Disney! So Disney was apparently planning to move him somewhere, just don’t ask me how or where because MAN Disney is wasteful as hell when it comes to the cool stuff they own, those beautiful submarines from the 20000 Leagues ride ended up rotting in a junkyard even!
Unsuprisingly BackDoorDisney, who is actually a man called Patrick Spikes, was arrested. PATRICK SPIKES? Okay, that… sounds like a too-on-the-nose name Disney would make up for a movie about a baddie who goes around murdering innocent robots. The situation gets weirder!
His Twitter account, which amassed more than 17,000 followers before going dark last week, promised to give fans an inside view of Disney World. In its seven months of operation, the account uploaded pictures of Disney control rooms, secret maps, and Disney cast members pretending to have sex while dressed as characters from Toy Story.
Value your childhood? Don’t click that link.
The people who are in charge of putting out these things released a PDF of the details. Turns out Spikes was ACTUALLY arrested back in December 2018, before he spoke Offhand Disney and made out he didn’t know what was going on. He’d altered a search warrant and stuck it up on YouTube to make it look like he was innocent. Oh and he had ALSO stolen a bunch of other expensive Disney stuff from the Haunted Mansion and thereabouts.
Now at around this point the NBA comes in. (Yep) Spikes sold some of his ill-gotten gains to NBA player Robin Lopez, apparently specifically telling him they weren’t stolen. Some of these things were Buzzy’s aforementioned clothes and his headset it seems. Poor Buzzy was probably dismantled at around that point. Awww man.
Here’s Offhand Disney discussing their interview with Spikes:
And from The Daily Beast:
In July, police alleged, Spikes printed a fake Disney employee card for his cousin and snuck him into the park. The pair allegedly snuck into the Haunted Mansion, a popular ride, and stole a collection of wigs and outfits from backstage. The clothes, which were designed for the ride’s animatronic ghosts, cost between $40 (a tiara) and $1,746 (a robot’s jacket), adding up to more than $7,000.
Spikes and his cousin allegedly took pictures throughout the heist, and posed in the wigs at a nearby 7-Eleven. A video from shortly after the theft allegedly shows Spikes’ cousin’s girlfriend wearing a robot’s stolen dress.
(Wouldn’t “Robot’s Stolen Dress” be a great name for a band?)
Anyway, there’s even a video of Spikes being questioned by the police and it is… weird.
Oh, and according to the police report, Spike and his magnificently named cousin Blaytin (also in on things) whipped up a fake employee ID with the name “Jack D Marrow” on it. Jack Marrow… like… Jack Sparrow? Geez it’s like they wanted to be caught. Anyway…
A former Walt Disney World employee has been sentenced to a decade of probation and 250 hours of community service after pleading guilty to stealing costumes and props from Magic Kingdom, some of which he allegedly sold online.
On Tuesday, Patrick Spikes was served 10 years of probation, hundreds of community service hours and restitution, plus orders to stay away from Disney parks, WESH reports. The Winter Garden, Fla. man and his cousin Blaytin Taunton, also a former Disney World employee, were arrested in May 2019 for allegedly using their Disney IDs to sneak into the theme park and steal memorabilia.
And…
“I’m going to Disney World,” WESH reports that he declared, apparently referencing the famous phrase often shouted by Super Bowl champs after victory on the field.
He, ur, he did not go to Disney World.
And that’s the whole Buzzy Saga, for now! Poor thing probably ended up faceless in a dump somewhere, but on the other hand Disney does that to a lot of their stuff anyway…
…Words cannot describe how much I love this stupid wacky robot-theft story, and I want it turned into a dumb heist movie like, now. (Just not one made by Disney.)
Sometime this year, the Marvel Universe will arrive at the Disneyland Resort when Avengers Campus opens at California Adventure in Anaheim. We’ve seen in concept art already released that Spider-Man can be seen swinging around the campus, just as he does in the movies. But that was all just pie-in-the-sky concept art, right? Nope. It…
…For back in the day, the park was actually named MGM Studios! Now, I believe it’s called Hollywood Studios. Let’s just settle for calling it “the Studios” from this point.
I look remarkably unimpressed here. God knows why, it’s not like there was a shortage of interesting stuff.
It seems like I was there just on time to see the Toy Story Parade! I kinda remember Buzz on the float repeating his stock phrases as he went by.
I have one better photo from the parade, too. Looks like a camera flash was caught in the metal thingy there.
There was more Toy Story stuff inside. I think this might have been the Art of Animation exhibit… or what became the Art of Animation exhibit?
In the same building, or possibly another building, who knows:
Back outside again we have a rather comical-looking old dinosaur:
What or who is this large green dino? Lemme google around to try and identify it. I think it’s an earlier version (?) of Gertie, who is the first result for “disney mgm studios green dinosaur.”
Ahhh, here’s some shots of the Honey I Shrunk The Kids play area, which was my FAVOURITE bit of the park.
You’ve probably noticed by now that I took like, two outfits to Disneyworld. I still have that Minnie Mouse hat somewhere! It’s turned grey now.
I loved this play area so much, I think I must’ve spent at least a couple hours here. I wonder if it’s still there?… nope, Galaxy’s Edge ate it. Oh well.
Well, that’s most of the good photos and this post is long enough!
You can repost the pictures of the attractions here, but please don’t repost any pictures with people in them!
This little girl is so amazingly talented! Her dancing is so good I’ve watched it over and over on a loop now.
Whenever I complain about Disney, which is quite frequent despite the fact I love so many of the movies, I’m definitely not talking about the theme park cast members.
So a while backI started posting some vintage Disneyworld photos, all the way from 1996, on here. And then I forgot all about it. But now I have remembered again! So seeing as I still have the photographs lying around on my disk drive, shall we take a look at ’90s Epcot?
You can repost the pictures of the attractions here (not that they’re very good), but please don’t repost any pictures with people in them!
Terrible quality photo but you get the idea.
Ah, Spaceship Earth. I remember… going inside it and there was a dark ride in there? Lemme check on Google. Aha! There WAS a ride in there! And I have almost entirely no memory of it.
Look who it is! Yep, at some point during that day we met Mickey. The thing that takes me aback about this photo is the lack of crowding around him.
Tigger was also there…
But it looks like I enjoyed meeting Winnie the Pooh most, if these photos are anything to go by.
I deemed meeting Pooh worthy of inclusion in my holiday scrapbook, even though I couldn’t quiiiite spell his name right.
Awww.
Now this photo… this I think might have been taken inside a restaurant called The Electric Umbrella. I remember it was technology-themed.
…But, looking up pictures of The Electric Umbrella, it looks a bit different (and lighter) so maybe it wasn’t in there? Perhaps it was on the Spaceship Earth ride? If anyone knows I would love to hear from you!
Let’s move onto the World Showcase!
Heeeere we are! I wonder what was in that bag I was holding? I think it was a plushie of Nala from The Lion King, but I’m not 100% sure.
Some landmarks:
Now I definitely remember IllumiNations being held on the lake here, but sadly I don’t have any photos of it as far as I know. (I imagine some of that is due to ’90s-era cameras being really bad at taking photos at night.)
Hey, person all in pink, d’ya mind not photobombing?
Here’s some shots of me and my family posing all round the World Showcase. Selfies hadn’t been invented yet so I guess the last one must’ve been taken by a kindly stranger.
And lastly, a lovely water feature.
Alas, I don’t know what part of Epcot that’s in, either.
Geez, this brought back memories. I can remember Epcot a bit more clearly than the other Disney parks for some reason. It must have left quite an impression on eight-year-old me.
DISCOVERY ISLAND! It has long been a source of fascination for me. That sweet little zoo I visited as a child in 1996 is now apparently an overgrown, decaying, delightful house of mild horrors. There are vultures! There are dead snakes in jars!
Anyway. Many brave souls have ventured their way into Discovery Island over the years. Some also have been sued by Disney I believe. I would definitely jump at the chance to explore the still-very much abandoned Island, but instead, hey, let’s see what it was like as a fully-functioning, snakesinjars-less part of the park.
(You can repost the pictures of the attractions/animals here, but please don’t repost any pictures with people in them!)
It’s a croc! Is it just me or does he not look all that happy to be behind fencing?
I can’t read these signs but I think they’re telling you to please not feed the animals or presumably the Mouse will get you.
These adorable Roseate Spoonbills all got relocated to Animal Kingdom when it opened, I think.
I don’t think my family spent too long at Discovery Island during ye olde Disney holiday. From what I remember it wasn’t really appealing to children because there were no rides or costumed characters around.
My brother it seems REALLY REALLY liked the sand though.
So I stumbled across a treasure trove of photos in my parents’ house, hooray. I was DELIGHTED.
Ya see, my love affair/general bizarre fascination with theme parks probably started when I was 8 or so and got taken to Disneyworld in Florida. I have very few actual memories of the experience, but thank god, my parents were early adopters of state-of-the-art camera technology!
…Sadly I am not, and all of these pictures are photos of photos because I have no access to a scanner. But for my fellow lovers of the Disney parks and spectacular theme parks in general, here’s a reasonably clear look of what Disneyworld looked like circa 1996 (yep, pre-Animal Kingdom). Part one! I’ll cover Epcot, the Studios, Typhoon Lagoon and poor, forgotten, abandoned Discovery Island later.
You can repost the pictures of the attractions here, but please don’t repost any pictures with people in them!
The ferry to the Magic Kingdom. Whether this ferry still exists, and where one would get on it, I have no idea. Hey, there’s the castle in the background!
The cable cars! I have vague memories of us riding in either a red or yellow one. Apparently the cable cars are gone now? Aw man. One of the memories I do have from Disneyworld is going over a lake (I think that’s the black blob to the left) in the cable car and my dad telling me that the submarines used to be under there. That would have been the 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea ride, which shut down a mere two years before my family visited. I was so close.
The castle as seen from the cable cars.
Now this is from a parade I gather was a surreal celebration of all things Mickey. According to my husband, the picture on the left “looks like a Mickey Mouse head stuck on something’s crotch.”
Still, at least the ‘real’ Mickey was less unnerving, right?
Okay nevermind.
A couple of other, much better photos from the Mickey Parade (Why does the name ‘Mickey and Friends Parade’ keep coming back to me? Maybe that was its actual name?)
Here’s Splash Mountain, which I never rode:
According to my eight-year-old self, encouraged by my parents to label the Disney photos in the family photo album, this is a ‘indien village’. What it actually is and where it was, if it’s even actually in the Magic Kingdom, I have no idea. Anyone recognise this?
Here’s Cogsworth. Why he has a tiny Mickey inside him I have no idea.
Here’s It’s A Small World, which I gather has not in fact changed much in the past couple decades:
I’m guessing this is Discoveryland, with its funky retro rockets:
And that’s 1996 Magic Kingdom! I have a few more disconnected memories. I remember we nearly set the holiday villa on fire. Ah, good times.
