Don’t you love it when you chase some links down the Internets rabbit hole and discover something hawesome you wouldn’t have discovered on your own?
I started at boingboing, where Cory linked to a blog created by Pixar employees who offer advice to Disney on how to improve Disneyland. I love Disneyland (I’ve been a nerd for MiceAge, Laughing Place, and Yesterland for years) and I really hate what they did to the park in the last decade or so, especially the absolutely horrifying "updating" of Tomorrowland. It was cool to read this post where Merlin Jones says many of the same things I’ve been saying for years:
The utopian, ultramodern design of 1967’s New Tomorrowland, gleaming
like a moonscape in stark white, black and cool shades of blue and
silver, was unsucessfully updated in 1998 to reflect a bronzed
Victorian/Vernian mechanical view of the future. While this was great
at Disneyland Paris, where the concept was fully realized, it never
gelled here in Anaheim, particularly as a layover to the modernist
original.[. . .]
Tomorrowland’s apocalypse is the elephant-in-the-room at Disneyland. It
should be fixed immediately – – and before any new expansion or
additions. This decay impacts the guest’s experience and memory of the
park. The imminent return of Submarine Voyage and new Monorail trains
will help get the ball rolling. Why not drop the other shoe and revive
the entire land at the same time? It would be a marketing coup.
The blog is still relatively young, and I read the entire thing in about thirty well-spent minutes. I hope that the new management at Disneyland will listen up: it’s not about selling plush toys or trading pins, guys. It’s not about "synergy" with whatever movie is going to be forgotten in two years. Disneyland is about escaping from the cares and troubles of real life, and immersing ourselves in a world of Adventure, Fantasy, and a great big beautiful Tomorrow.
Continuing down the rabbit hole: I looked at some of the links on their blog, and found myself at Don Shank’s blog, which has some really amzing artwork he did for The Incredibles (one of my favorite movies of all-time) as well as some ultra cool artwork he’s done for himself. I can do a lot of things, but drawing is a skill that has always eluded me. As far back as fifth grade, I remember my dodge ball nemesis Jimmie Just could draw the most amazing monsters and things, while I struggled to do a step-by-step Garfield (which Donald Garwood could draw flawlessly.) I’ve favorited and bloglines-ed Don’s blog, and some day I’ll get the courage to ask him if he’ll do a drawing for one of my books.
I hope this illustrates how cool the internets is: I never would have seen Don Shank’s blog if I didn’t read boingboing, and I wouldn’t read boingboing if I hadn’t met Cory at the Boxing with Barney EFF event several years ago. (Even though I read the ‘zine version of boingboing back in the day, I didn’t know it was a website until 2002-ish.) It’s sort of like following real-life hyperlinks to a website, where you follow traditional hyperlinks long enough to find that place down the Long Tail that seems to speak only to you.
Photo of Space Mountain via Flickr user Sky Traveler
Image of Noobly Squirbulette via Don Shank’s blog.
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Ah, one of my favorite topics, “historical future.” I always thought it would be cool if someone made a movie with the setting of the future as envisioned by 1960’s era futurists. I’m thinking along the lines of the hovering modernist apartment buildings in the “Jetsons.” 🙂
oh man, boxing with barney… i was a legal intern at EFF when they organized that… and i almost went… but i couldn’t handle the thought of being around barney…. if i’d known you were the opponent, i woulda reconsidered… hope you didn’t let us down.
Having been to Disney World a lot with my family as a child, Disneyland kind of dissappointed me, being small and not quite as impressive. It definitely could use a facelift.
The internet is a wonderful interesting virtual world, that will always suprise you.
GO INCREDIBLES!!!!!! *throws the goat*
Maybe it’s because I grew up watching and reading a LOT of sci-fi as a child…or I just watched Logan’s Run and 2001: A Space Odyssey about twelve times too many…but I’m completely and totally fascinated by and somewhat smitten with the whole “retrofuturist” asthetic. I fell in love with the stark white, clean-lined designs featured in such films. I was twelve years old when I discovered that most of the designs that I loved derived their inspiration from Bauhaus School of Design. (Especially the works of the school’s first director, Walter Gropius.) I won’t go into the school’s short, yet difficult history here. If you looked at the photo of Space Mountain and gasped with exhiliration – the English language Bauhaus Museum site is worth taking a good long look: http://www.bauhaus.de/english/
and if you want spend an afternoon lost in the glorious world of yesterday’s tomorrow, head on over to: http://www.yesterland.com/yester.html
Sorry this comment is SOOOO long but like I said – I love this stuff!
Oh and if you want to listen to yesterday’s future sound check out Raymond Scott: http://raymondscott.com/
Okay I’m done. I’m off to spend a little too much time frolicing in the brave new world of the year 2000…
Wholeheartedly agree on Tomorrowland! That place has been a wasteland for several years now! While Space Mountain was closed during its recent “re-imagineering,” I think the only reason I ever ventured into there was for a quick DDR game or to kill some time on Star Tours. At least its on the rebound a bit, but it’s still not going to be all that “futuristic.” While it’s been a Tomorrowland staple since the beginning, I’ve never seen Autopia as fitting the theme. And while I could classify the old Submarine Voyage as “futuristic” from a Jules Verne perspective, the new Finding Nemo overlay is less futuristic and more fantasy. I guess it’s a good thing that’s on the border of Fantasyland, so they can make the argument that it belongs there instead.
Merlin Jones has been known around Disney boards for awhile. I’ve gotten into a couple debates with him before – he makes very insightful posts, so he’s lots of fun to argue with. 😉
The retrofuturistic stuff reminds me so much of Woody Allen’s Sleeper. I think of the Orgasmatron as the ultimate machine of the future… all white, shaped like an egg.
BTW, love to hear your thoughts on the online version of D&D.
Dear Mr. Wheaton,
You have to know. I am 100%, without a doubt, CRAZY in love with you.
Yes, you’re married and I have a boyfriend. I just need you to know. I LOVE YOU!
Tell your wife she is the luckiest woman in the world. She HAS to know how lucky she is to have you.
In case you’re thinking this is one of those Meg-look-a-likes, think again. Family Guy is my favorite show and the only time I saw Star Trek was when I saw you in the opening credits. Sorry! It was “Toy Soldiers” that got me hooked. Probably the earring now that I think about it.
Well, whatever the reason, you’re my number 1. You know, the game us non-celebrities play. A safe-list of 5 celebrities your significant other would let you sleep with if you ever met them. You have always been my #1.
I look forward to reading all you have to say. This is my first time reading anything you’ve wrote and let me say, you’re hilarious!!
I’ll probably never post again. I’ll just read. I hope you don’t mind that I have your picture on my myspace.com account. I can’t help it!!
I just wanted you to know how wonderful I think you are.
I hope you have a great week!
Wil, I totally agree with you about Tomorrowland (and the Incredibles). And lets not forget what they’re doing to Pirates in order to make it flow with the movie.
On a lighter note, since the Submarine Voyage was mentioned, my favorite Disney memory:
1990, my fourth b-day, Submarine ride, Captain had everyone sing happy birthday to me and I got to steer the submarine. Good times…
Re-Imagineering
Re-Imagineering A forum for Pixar and Disney professionals passionate about the Disney Theme Parks to catalog past Imagineering missteps and offer up tenable practical solutions in hopes that a new wave of creative management at Imagineering can once a…
Wil,
I so much enjoy reading your blog and Anne’s, as well. She really should update more cuz she also has a lot to offer. I know, I should tell her that, but I’m telling you too.
Garsh, this post makes me nostalgic. Probably because I adore Disneyland too, and because (*cough*) that’s where I got to meet you. Embarassing moment for me as it was, you told me about your blog, and here I am still reading it two years later.
Just so you know, that you introduced me to “blogging” by reading yours and meeting people in The Soapbox who also had journals(I have my own now). So, a chain of events occurred after that brief encounter, I have friends I never would have met, and I got to meet a hero of mine (that would be you). Loved this post 😉
Pixar’s outlook on the park is refreshing, and encourages me that there is hope to returning the park it its former glory. What impressed me the most is that the men on the Pixar blog were referring back to how effective Walt’s dream was so many years ago, and through modern management and convention, the park has seriously changed.
My uncle worked as the manager of Main St. USA, Adventureland and Frontierland, and was constantly going to “blows” with Eisner and the think tank of the 80s and 90s until he was asked to retire. It’s good to see some of the changes and maintenance issues he struggled with are starting to be looked at critically.
I found an incredible site! This guy has created an incredibly detailed CGI ride-thru reproduction of Adventure Thru Inner Space! It’s at http://themightymicroscope.com