The Fabulous Disney Babe
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As I mentioned on the message boards, I got a full-sized Coke Machine, a New Tomorrowland one, to be exact, for my birthday. Today's my birthday, but I got the machine last week. I'm still unsure as to how I'm going to get it to my house, but when I do, I'm putting my Moonliner collection on top of it.  I spent the last hour trying to find a photo of one online, but couldn't. I'll take a picture of it next week and put it up for you.

I took a month or so off, and it was nice moving back down to San Diego with no deadlines. I did a lot in that month, including a few trips to Disneyland. While there this week, I got some discouraging news: they're numbering down the Tiki Room. What does that mean? Well, if an attraction doesn't reach its goal numbers, it could be in trouble. The goal numbers for the Tiki Room are 900 per hour.  Remember that number, we're going to do math now: the Tiki Room does 3 20-minute shows per hour. The maximum number of bodies that fit in the Tiki Room per show is 220 people. The goal number, again, is 900 people per hour, or it's considered "underperforming".  We might be seeing a change come to that area; the notion has been tossed around for quite a while, but this may actually cause it to happen. I don't mind if they replace the Tiki Room with something better. I do mind if they don't replace it at all, or replace it with something half....hearted.

July 17 was indeed a treat, and most of you weren't there for it. No, not at Disneyland. That night, at the Glendale Public Library, a band of some of the greatest animators of this generation appeared to talk about the 11th anniversary of my favorite Disney Animated film, Beauty and the Beast.

Appearing were Jim Hillin, who did the CG stuff (ballroom), Don Hahn, the producer, Brenda Chapman, Story Sketch, Gary Trousdale, Director, Roger Allers, Writer, Nik Ranieri, animator of Lumiere and Master Animator Tom Sito hosting the discussion.

I'll do bios Friday, but let's get to the discussion:

I arrived about ten minutes late; fortunately, the discussion had not started. The room was set up to seat about two hundred. Because of the Disneyland birthday, only about forty people showed up. Man, did the absentees miss a heck of a show!

Kirk Wise couldn't make it, so Don Hahn showed up for him. Andreas Deja found out about it after everyone was booked, and was peeved at not being able to come, but will be there for the next one: Aladdin. I am SO there.

Disney had been tossing together the idea of doing Beauty and the Beast for some time, and cemented the plans in the late 80s, during the last few months of production of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Jeffrey Katzenberg, then-head of animation for Disney, wanted Richard Williams, the film's animator, to helm the project. Richard said no: he only worked on the film to finance The Thief and the Cobbler, and was anxious to get back to work. They pulled together a team headed by Richard Purdum to helm the non-musical film. After ten weeks of work in London, the storyboards were presented to Jeffrey, who didn't like what he saw. "I guess it's time to fish or cut bait."

It was a long, depressing flight back to the US, and they planned their retrenchment: the Purdum's plan was far different from what the studio wanted, and they'd have to go back and work on it from scratch...with one exception: they had a deadline for the film, and it wasn't moved back to reflect the time lost with the non-musical team. They had to get a team together to do this, and fast.

If you go to Epcot's Wonders of Life Pavilion, you'll see a great little show there called Cranium Command, which has what has to be the funniest preshow of any Disney attraction: Corey Burton plays General Knowledge, who commands a crack team of Cranium Commandoes: "Little women and little men" who work inside your brain and pilot it. With its Terry Gilliam-like animation, deranged humor, and inside jokes (Burny Mattinson is the female rocket scientist, and Sito and Trousdale are both Cranium Commandoes abused by the General, who threatens to put Trousdale in "A Squid! A Lungfish! A Talk Show Host! There's your all-pro running back right there!"

Best of all, they did it quickly and they did it cheap.  Music to Disney's ears. In what Trousdale calls "A Battlefield Promotion", they were called into Charlie Fink's office: "Can you be on a plane Wednesday to direct Beauty and the Beast?" The two directors looked around for hidden cameras. They then learned that they were the second choice - as far as they knew - Robin Hancock was the first choice, but demanded complete creative control. From Disney. With Jeffrey Katzenberg in charge. (This got a huge laugh from the audience).

Kirk asked about his wife: "Fly her out" and girlfriend: "Deflate her." Off they flew to the romantic-sounding town of Fishkill, New York.

In Part 2:
Claire the Cat and the Music Box are gone, Enchanted Objects are in.

-- Fab

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