Here's a look at the top of Tiana’s Palace, featuring the restaurant’s completed marquee and riverboat-inspired smokestacks and wheelhouse.
Did you know that Walt nearly missed the opening ceremonies of Disneyland?
He was in his special apartment above the fire station, preparing for opening, when the time came that he needed to leave. However, when he went to open the door, it wouldn’t budge. The door frames had just been painted that morning and as luck would have it, they dried while Walt was in his apartment, sealing him inside. After numerous attempts ramming the door, he finally got it open and made it with only moments to spare for Disneyland’s opening ceremonies. The Madame Leota costume designed by Jeffrey Kurland and worn by Jamie Lee Curtis in “Haunted Mansion,” as well as the medium’s crystal ball and concept art for the film are now on display in the Disney Gallery at Disneyland.
Disney didn’t mess around when it came to their villains — and especially the demise of many of them. The same holds true for Gaston in Disney’s 1991 masterpiece, Beauty and the Beast.
When Gaston and the Beast are locked in combat upon the ramparts of the castle, they hung on the edge of a turret. But just as the wounded Beast made his final attempt to save Belle, Gaston could hold no longer and fell down, down, down into the misty darkness. Disney animators wanted to make sure that every detail spoke of this villain’s demise, and therefore added tiny skulls into Gaston’s pupils as he is falling. The moment is incredibly quick, so much so that unless you pause the film at just the right moment, you will most likely miss it. All the same, animators have used this subtle detail in response to fans theorizing that Gaston did not die in the fall, by stating that those skulls are confirmation in and of itself that there was only one outcome for him. What’s a Warner Brothers character doing in a Disney movie? In 1964, Warner Brothers released “The Incredible Mr. Limpet,” staring the hilariously talented (and future Disney veteran) Don Knotts. The story, partly animated and partly live-action, follows the story of one Mr. Limpet and how, after falling into the ocean, he is magically changed into a fish and becomes a WWII hero, using natural sonar to aid allied ships in the war effort. The film was a hit, but what does Disney have to do with all of this? Mr. Limpet’s character designer and animation director was Disney veteran Vladimir “Bill” Tytla, well-renowned for bringing to life such Disney legends as the demon Chernaborg in Fantasia, the puppeteer/villain Stromboli in Pinocchio, and even when baby Dumbo takes a bath in Dumbo! Later on, in the late 1980s, when Disney was hard at work on the Little Mermaid, animators working on the film couldn’t help but pay homage to a legendary artist who helped inspire them to carry on the legacy of animated excellence. Thus, at the end of the “Under the Sea” number, when all the fish are in their frozen pose, one can spot the incredible Mr. Limpet among the school of fish. But Mr. Limpet’s story doesn’t end there! Later on, when imagineers were building “The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure” attraction at Disney’s California Adventure, a Mr. Limpet animatronic gets to play his part as well!
In the “Under the Sea” scene, just after you past Ariel, behind and to the right, hidden behind a clamshell and seaweed is the indelible Mr. Limpet, watching with his iconic Don Knott’s grin as Flounder dances with the Carmen Miranda fish. Disney believes in its past and is optimistic for its future. It remembers those who played a role, even if they have gone on to other things, and continues again and again to pay homage to the people who laid the groundwork for what they are accomplishing today! |
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