An Interview Tim O'Day
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Tim O'Day and Cruella De Vil preparing to
break molds at Mr. Toad Enchanted Evening

LP: The next event will the Pirates of the Caribbean event on May 20th

O'Day: Yes.

LP: Can you talk about that?

O'Day: We have a lot of Marc’s concepts for Pirates that we are going to talk about. We’re going to talk about the music, in particular, because everybody knows the music from Pirates and X. Atencio is the lyricist for that. We’re going to talk about the changes that have been made over the years which are considerable. When you look at the attraction when it first opened, the facade of the attraction, then they added the bridge, the gallery, and some of the scene changes, it’s pretty neat. That attraction to me just seems to get better and better and better with age. That attraction to me, I think, it’s the best Disney attraction ever created. It’s like a movie. It has an underscore. It has action. It has comedy.

We’re going to show a lot of the clips from the old TV shows. We have some photographs. Mainly, if you’ve seen these presentations before, we don’t really show a lot of clips and we don’t really focus on the visuals too much because everyone comes to hear the stories. So the toughest part is trying to find a happy balance. We don’t want the clips and the footage to overshadow the fact that we have these guests right here and they do have these great stories to tell. That’s what we’ll focus on again with the Pirates. X. and Alice of course have great stories. And I think it will be exciting to talk to Kim and Bob to find out what was the thought process going into the changing and improving of some of the things. I think it’s always interesting to hear a different perspective on it. So that’s what we’ll be doing.

LP: You mentioned the Mansion discussion got cut short. How long will the Pirates discussion be?

O'Day: 45 to 50 minutes. Unless the fireworks go off. [chuckles]

LP: Just a moment ago you mentioned how Bob Baranick and Kim Irvine are going to be a part of this panel. I think this is the first time there are going to be current or recent Imagineers on a panel.

O'Day: Yes and I think it is great.

LP: Do you have anything special planned for that?

O'Day: I think it’s great to bring in the newer Imagineers, the newer animators and artists and things. But what I really like to see, I like to see the legendary artists and animators with the newer crop because the newer artists or current Imagineers and artists, they do a terrific job as well and they have created some fantastic things for the parks and the films and when you see them with the Disney Legends it's almost a co-admiration society. The newer group has access to things that the Disney legends never had access to like computer animation and all of that. And they’re taking entertainment - be it theme park or film entertainment - to new heights that weren’t even dreamed of years ago. I always like to see this cross pollinization as they get together. I actually look forward to that. I figure we should have more in the future too.

LP: Do you have any surprises planned?

O'Day: Men at lunch tell no tales. [laughs]

LP:  You’ve said you don’t like talking about this, but I’ll ask anyway. The fact that you put together the tribute video of Marc Davis for the Cinderella event.

O'Day: Marc’s passing caught us all by surprise. Marc had had some health issues through the years, but Marc always surprised everybody because he always bounced right back. When Marc passed away his absence left a great hole in that event. I think it was pretty evident that he was dearly missed. We thought that we needed to come up with something to pay tribute to him besides talking heads and testimonials. We could start having Marc tell his own story, that would probably be the best.

It’s really, really incredible when you stop to think about it. I think he said he went to 13 different high schools before he graduated. His dad was a rainbow chaser, so he had many different vocations. And the fact that Marc had this vagabond education, if you will, bouncing all over the place. His early work as an artist - I think the phrase was that he wanted to paint the next Cistine Chapel, but they weren’t buying Cistine Chapels during the depression. It was the idea of having Marc tell his own story that fascinated me the most and I think that was the most appropriate way to do it. If you see the video there is nothing that takes focus away from Marc telling his own story. There is no recognizable music. It was all cleared music. We didn’t take any focus away from Marc in any way whatsoever. We wanted it to be Marc and his story and I think it served its purpose. The audience seemed to react very very well to it and most of all Alice liked it. That to me was all the reward I needed from that video.

[The Cinderella event], that was tough, I’d seen the video over and over and over again and when it was about to be shown my wife Tracy said “where are you going? “ I said “I can’t watch it again.” She said, “why not?” “I’m going to stand back there.” So I went over and stood by the stage manager and I watched everybody watching it. I didn’t need to see the video again but I just watched everybody’s reaction. Everybody was glued to it. It only runs 14 minutes. But everyone was just very attentive and it was very interesting to watch the reaction when it ended because the audience there was a very definite pause. It had to sink in and then everybody started to applaud.