Category — A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

CAMP MINNIE-MICKEY

By Jim Korkis

Although Camp Minnie-Mickey in Disney’s Animal Kingdom was meant to be a temporary placeholder, it lasted from 1998 to 2014, almost 16 years, when it was replaced by Pandora: The World of Avatar.

During final planning and construction, Disney’s Animal Kingdom faced unexpected budget overruns, so cuts had to be made including an entire land called Beastly Kingdom. Realizing there would be not enough shows and attractions on opening day, CEO Michael Eisner recalled Mickey’s Birthdayland, a temporary location built in only ninety days in 1988 at the Magic Kingdom. Eisner felt that something similar devoted to Disney characters could mimic that success.

The Disney’s Animal Kingdom design team was appalled that the Beastly Kingdom had been cut and told Eisner they were too busy with the other areas of the park to work on the placeholder, so Entertainment and some outside developers took over the assignment. There was no time or money to build attractions, so they concentrated on shows and meet-and-greet opportunities.

It was hoped that once the new park was a success that there would be an influx of revenue to build Beastly Kingdom and Camp Minnie-Mickey would disappear. That didn’t happen.

Camp Minnie-Mickey was themed to be a rural summer fishing camp in the woodlands of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, where the characters were on vacation. This theme was echoed in the landscape, architecture, and street furniture that provided a homemade feeling.

At the Greeting Trails guests could usually find Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy. In random places throughout the land other characters like Chip, Dale, Koda, Pocahontas, Meeko, Baloo, an King Louie, among others, appeared.

(c) Disney

Along the river were three-dimensional fiberglass figures of Donald Duck fishing and catching a rubber boot; Mickey, Pluto and Goofy fishing; and Huey, Dewey, and Louie hiking with Daisy Duck.

The camp’s assembly hall seating 1,375 guests was the original home for the half hour The Festival of the Lion King musicial show. This show did not tell an abbreviated version of the famous animated feature’s plot, but rather was a tune-filled tribal celebration with audience participation and some unexpected surprises.

Hosted by four human performers with Swahili names and attired as traditional African tribal leaders, they prompted the guests on how to participate with the performers several times during the show.

The impressive floats that served as intriguing set pieces were actually recycled and modified from The Lion King Celebration parade that ran at Disneyland from 1994-1997.

The other show in Camp Minnie-Mickey was the twelve minute Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends, in Grandma Willow’s Grove. The genesis of the show came from the animal education cast at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It was meant to be similar to animal meet-and-greet shows at zoos and other animal parks, where a trainer or two brings out one animal at a time and talks about the animal’s characteristics to the audience.

In the Disney’s Animal Kingdom version, Pocahontas is worried that the forest is being cut down indiscriminately and runs to Grandma Willow for advice. She reminds Pocahontas of a prophecy that one creature has a special gift to protect the forest but that Pocahontas herself must discover the identity of that creature giving her the opportunity to interact with several different animals including a raccoon, a snake, rabbits, opossums, a skunk, and a porcupine–and in the process educate the audience about them.

This show was the only part of Disney’s Animal Kingdom that showcased animals from North America.

While there was no restaurant in the land, guests could get cookies and ice cream sandwiches at Camp Soft Serve (also known as Chip and Dale’s Cookie Cabin) and at Campfire Treats (also known as Campside Funnel Cakes) get funnel cakes, corn dogs and beverages.

The main reminder of Camp Minnie-Mickey is Festival of the Lion King, now in its own space in Africa.

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Disney Never Lands, and about planned but unbuilt concepts, and Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

THE FORMER SHOWS OF THEATER IN THE WILD

By Jim Korkis

Imagineer Alex Wright said, “Theater in the Wild is not really part of the lands of Animal Kingdom. Even its name is intended to reflect the idea that it’s an entity unto itself. It offers a performance space that can be used for shows that might not fit very well into any of the established storylines.”

The 1,500 seat Theater in the Wild in the Dinoland USA area of Disney’s Animal Kingdom has featured three stage shows: Journey into the Jungle Book (1998-1999), Tarzan Rocks! (1999-2006), and Finding Nemo – The Musical (2007-Present).

Journey Into the Jungle Book was a roughly twenty-five minute show that condensed the story of Mowgli and his animal encounters in the jungles of India from Disney’s animated feature film The Jungle Book (1967), featuring the popular songs from the movie including Bare Necessities and I Wanna Be Like You.

It featured costumed characters, human performers and innovative puppetry. During cast previews, the masks for characters had not been finished so audiences could see the performers’ faces and loved it.

Later, when the show debuted and the masks had arrived, it seemed to lose its connection with the audience. Some of the costumes looked like bushes and trees that when positioned differently became animals.

Show Director Fran Soeder said, “I am best known as the man who brought puppetry to Walt Disney World. Over my decade in residence as a Show Director, I created The Legend of the Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Journey Into Jungle Book and The Voyage of The Little Mermaid.

“Most of our Puppeteers were untrained but in less than five years, I created one of the largest groups of professional puppeteers in the country. Over those years there were successful collaborations with puppet designer Chuck Fawcet (ANIMAX) as well as Structural Engineer, Michael Curry (Michael Curry Design) as well as a team of New York designers which included Scenic Designer James Leonard Joy and Lighting Designer Natasha Katz.”

After a year, Journey Into the Jungle Book was replaced with the high-energy half-hour Tarzan Rocks show directed by Reed Jones which didn’t retell the story of the animated feature, but rather was more of a rock concert experience revue that focused on the relationship between Tarzan and Jane.

The audience was told that it was the “Two Worlds Concert Tour”. The show was to help promote the release of the animated feature a few weeks earlier, and obviously the story of Tarzan’s jungle world was a good fit for Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

At one point, Imagineers pitched the idea of an inverted roller coaster that would have guests mimic swinging on vines like Tarzan through the jungle, but it was eventually determined to be cost prohibitive and take too long to build. In contrast, the live show could be put together quickly to leverage interest in the release of the film.

The show included gymnasts, singers, dancers, aerialists, roller-blading monkeys who went into the audience like in the play Starlight Express, in addition to a scene where Tarzan and Jane swirled on rope vines in an aerial ballet dance high above the stage like at Cirque de Soleil. During the run of the show there was a pin and a medallion coin available for sale.

The songs performed by a live band were all from the film and included You’ll Be in My Heart, Son of Man, Trashin’ the Camp (with Terk and a dancing back-up group), and Two Worlds.

The show ended when a musical show devoted to the animated feature film opened on Broadway in 2006 and the theater was slated for construction work so that it could be enclosed.

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Disney Never Lands, and about planned but unbuilt concepts, and Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

THE DISCOVERY RIVER BOATS

By Jim Korkis

Things at Walt Disney World sometimes disappear quickly like Here Come the Muppets at Disney’s MGM Studios, the Astuter Computer Revue at Epcot and The Journey Into the Jungle Book live action show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, all of which lasted just a year.

Also at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the infamous Discovery River Boats that was an opening day attraction in April 1998 were gone by August 1999 making it officially the first DAK attraction to close.

The Discovery River Boats was originally intended to be a much more ambitious experience, with previews of the planned-to-be-upcoming Beastly Kingdom along its watery journey, including encounters with a unicorn, a kraken that would attack the boat (only one boat was fitted with the necessary mechanics for that experience), and the head of a fire-breathing dragon inspired by the one at Disneyland Paris.

Remnants from that concept that were seen on the final version included a statue of a twelve foot tall white unicorn rearing up on its two rear legs, and the infamous Dragon Rocks, a structure of rocks that looked vaguely like a dragon streaming water out of its mouth. Located a little further north of the old Camp Minnie-Mickey bridge was a large area of volcanic rocks on the left bank of the river that looked like a cave entrance.

As the boat approached, smoke billowed from the cave, thunderous roars were heard, and massive flames shot out from inside the cave suggesting it was the lair of a dragon. Sensors along the bank triggered by the boat enabled those show effects.

Budget cuts resulted in the ride becoming more of just a one-way transportation system between the dock at Safari Village near Dinoland U.S.A. and the Upcountry Landings dock in Asia. The trip took approximately seven to ten minutes and was similar to the Friendships at the World Showcase Lagoon, a leisurely cruise that was an alternative to, but took longer than just walking.

Since there was a skipper telling bad jokes and sharing information about the park, guests expected it would be something more like the Jungle Cruise, especially since the boats looked similar in design. Guests were very disappointed that it wasn’t such an experience, especially when long boarding lines originally resulted because of the misunderstanding.

There were seven boats that were named Manatee Maiden, Leaping Lizard, Scarlet Flamingo, Otter Nonsense, Hasty Hippo, Crocodile Belle, and Darting Dragonfly.

Jack Plettinck was in charge of taking the shiny new boats from a manufacturer in Seattle and making them seem well-worn. It had to seem that they had survived dings and dents from moorings, docks, submerged logs and angry animals. He even applied acrylic rust to add to the illusion.

Guests did see a few things on the voyage around the Tree of Life, including a series of hot springs geysers along the shores of Africa, animal water sculptures at the Discovery Lagoon, and a large audio-animatronics Iguanodon playing in the water near DinoLand U.S.A. that foreshadowed the Countodwn to Extinction attraction where that dinosaur plays a key role in the story.

The Iguanodon animatronic was later stripped of its skin and sent to Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris as a prop in the boneyard of the Studio Tram Tour. The unicorn statue was sold to a private collector.

The attraction was renamed in November 1998 to the Discovery River Taxi to emphasize it was just transportation. Animal handlers with small animals who answered questions were added on the boat as part of the park’s animal education initiative but it did not prove to be a guest satisfier.

In March 1999, the attraction was once again renamed and was called Radio Disney River Cruise playing commentary from Radio Disney disc jockeys Just Plain Mark and Zippy with music that the guests were told was being broadcast from the top of the Tree of Life. It wasn’t.

When the attraction finally closed, the boats were stored in a backstage marina and the docks used occasionally for character meet-and-greet opportunities or additional seating. Two of the boats were later relocated to Magic Kingdom’s Contemporary Resort where they were re-purposed for a Pirates & Pals fireworks voyage on Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon.

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Disney Never Lands, and about planned but unbuilt concepts, and Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

WONDERS OF CHINA AT EPCOT

By Jim Korkis

When Epcot’s China Pavilion opened in 1982, it featured a Circle-Vision 360 degree movie called Wonders of China: Land of Beauty, Land of Time.

Wonders of China gave non-nationals a glimpse of areas of China that had rarely been seen before by outsiders. This film closed in March 2002 and was replaced in May 2003 with a new movie called Reflections of China.

The Disney crew that created Wonders of China was the first Western film group to be allowed to film certain sites. During early negotiations, the Chinese government denied permission to film any locations considered “strategic,” such as bridges, tunnels, and trains, or filming anywhere near an military base.

By the end of production, the crew had proven to be cooperative, and the footage shot was so impressive that the government gave permission for a shot of train coming out of a tunnel and across a river bridge, as well as another shot that was made of peasants and water buffaloes on the property of an Army base.

(c) Disney

The final nineteen minute presentation featured such landmarks as Beijing’s Forbidden City; vast, wide-open Mongolia and its stern-faced tribesmen; the 2,400-year-old Great Wall; the eight-centuries-old Great Buddha of Leshan; the muddy Yangtze River; and the 3,000-year-old city of Suzhou, whose location on the Grand Canal, which is generally believed to be the largest man-made waterway in the world, encouraged Marco Polo to call it the Venice of the East.

In addition, there were shots of Hangzhou, where a handful of Chinese are shown doing their morning exercises along the river’s edge. Also shown are Huangshan Mountain, wreathed in fog; the Shilin Stone Forest of jagged rock outcroppings in Yunnan Province; Urumqi, whose distance from the sea in Xinjiang Province earned it the title of the most inland city on earth; Lahsa, in Tibet, and its Potala Palace, boasting a thousand rooms and ten times that many altars.

Also shown were the Reed Flute Cave and the bizarrely shaped hills of Kweilin above, to say nothing of the very European-looking city of Shanghai. To complete the picture, there are fields of snow and of wheat, high meadows and beaches dotted with tropical palms, harbors and rice terraces, calligraphers, checkers and Ping-Pong players, lightning-fast acrobats, championship horseback riders, camels and a panda bear, glittering ice sculptures, and millions of bicycles.

The Birnbaum guide stated, “Every step of the way, the film crews were besieged by curious Chinese, even in empty Mongolia. For the Huangshan Mountain sequence, which lasts only seconds, the crew and about three dozen hired laborers had to carry the 600-pound camera uphill for nearly a mile. The Chinese government would not permit Disney cameramen to shoot aerial footage in some areas, so Chinese crews were sent aloft to record the required scenes, first on videotape and later—after approval from the Disney director in charge of the project—on film.”

The narrator and host of Wonders of China was the character of Li Bai, one of the greatest of Chinese poets from the 8th Century Tang Dynasty who spent much of his life traveling. Using this character helped to unify the many disparate sequences. In the film the voice of the character is portrayed by Keye Luke, an artist and film actor best known for being the “Number One Son” in many Charlie Chan films and as the Chinatown shopkeeper Mr. Wing in Gremlins (1984).

Wonders of China also played in the World Premiere Circle-Vision theater in Tomorrowland at Disneyland from 1984 to 1996.

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Disney Never Lands, and about planned but unbuilt concepts, and Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

WORLD OF MOTION AT EPCOT

By Jim Korkis

The World of Motion, sponsored by General Motors. was an opening day attraction in the Future World section of Epcot, and continued to operate until January 1996. It was replaced by Test Track, also sponsored by GM.

GM had signed a commitment to a transportation pavilion in 1977, making it the first official Epcot pavilion participant.

World of Motion, a dark ride omnimover vehicle attraction, was designed by Imagineer Mark David, with significant contributions from Disney Legends Marc Davis and later Ward Kimball in staging the various tableaus.

It was a whimsical look at the history of transportation, from caveman’s “foot power” to the first traffic jam (of a motor car smashing into a horse-drawn produce cart), to the modern day, with thirty-one amusing scenes featuring approximately 140 comically exaggerated audio-animatronics figures as well as projection effects.

(c) Disney

The exterior of the pavilion showed the blue Omnimover vehicles slowly spiraling clockwise from the ground floor up to the second level before entering a contoured hole in a red wall.

The narrator of the attraction was radio personality Gary Owens, who told guests, “General Motors now invites you to travel the open road – to discover that when it comes to transportation, it’s always fun to be free! Throughout the ages, we have searched for freedom to move from one place to another.”

The theme song, It’s Fun To Be Free, composed by Buddy Baker with lyrics by Xavier “X” Atencio was repeated during the experience in a variety of styles from ragtime, Dixieland jazz, Broadway show tune, symphonic, Copland-esque western, kazoo and more. The two song writers had previously collaborated on Grim Grinning Ghosts for the Haunted Mansion.

The journey on 1,730 feet of track ended after a trip through a “speed tunnel” at the sixty foot high CenterCore, a city of tomorrow in perpetual motion that included a Pepper’s Ghost illusion to put guests into futuristic bubble cars.

The narration intoned: “Yes, our world has indeed become a world of motion.  We have engineered marvels that take us swiftly over land and sea, through the air and into space itself.  And still bolder and better ideas are yet to come, ideas that will fulfill our age-old dream to be free; free in mind, free in spirit, free to follow the distant star of our ancestors to a brighter tomorrow.”*

Guests then disembarked into the Transcenter, designed by Bob Rogers and his BRC Imagination Arts studio, that featured several hands-on experiences that showcased what the engineers at GM were developing for future transportation.

A GM promotional brochure stated, “The GM Transcenter is an open invitation to visit a world rarely seen. The Trancenter showcases candid, behind the scenes views of what it takes to design, engineer, and manufacture cars and trucks with the highest order of quality and imagination.

“But satisfying today’s personal travel requirements is only part of the ongoing creative process.  Anticipating what lies ahead is another story that comes to life in the GM Transcenter.  Clearly, The Future of Transportation is Here…and on full display!”

Guests could design a car through computer modeling, view an animated film about different types of engines, visit a display of options for the interior of a future car, or be entertained by The Bird and the Robot show where an audio-animatronics toucan interacted with “Tiger,” an assembly-line robot arm.

While the attraction served approximately 20,000 guests a day who enjoyed the experience, GM wanted something more of a thrill attraction that focused solely on automobiles, which resulted in the development of Test Track in the same location.

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Disney Never Lands, and about planned but unbuilt concepts, and Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!

Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.

HORIZONS AT EPCOT

By Jim Korkis

Horizons was an omnimover dark ride in the Future World section of Epcot that focused on the future, and specifically how families might live in the 21st Century on desert farms, in outer space, and under the sea, and how advances in technology could make all that possible.

(C) Disney

It opened in October 1983, temporarily closed in 1994 after General Electric dropped its sponsorship of the attraction, briefly reopened periodically and permanently closed in January 1999. It was replaced by Mission: SPACE.

Mission: SPACE includes tributes to the Horizons attraction that preceded it, including the center of the gravity wheel in the queue having the attraction logo, and a stylized version appearing on the front of the checkout counter in the Cargo Bay gift shop at the exit to the attraction.

The official description for Horizons included that it was “dedicated to humanity’s future. It is a careful synthesis of all the wonders within Epcot, and applies the elements of communication, energy, transportation, creativity, and technology to a better life-style for the family of the future.”

Because of the sponsorship of GE and its emphasis on families, it was generally considered a spiritual sequel to the Carousel of Progress attraction. Horizons featured all the key elements associated with the original Epcot: communication, community interaction, energy, transportation, anatomy, physiology, and imagination, along with man’s relationship to the sea, land, air, and space.

The attraction was developed by Imagineer George McGinnis, who at one point considered calling it New Horizons. That became the name of the attraction’s theme song written by George Wilkins. The message of the pavilion that “If you can dream it, then you can do it” is often falsely attributed to Walt Disney.

Imagineering Show Writer Tom Fitzgerald said, “I am very familiar with that line because I wrote it!  It was written specifically for the Horizons attraction at Epcot and used in numerous ways, from dialogue in the ride to graphics.”

At the exit of the attraction was a large wall painting done by famed space artist Bob McCall entitled “The Prologue and the Promise”. It was a gorgeous image of a family standing on a mountaintop facing a bright future with famous monuments of the past and future. It was later covered up and replaced.

The attraction began with a look back at how the future was perceived and transitioned into modern technologies that might be used in the world of tomorrow. The main portion of the ride focused on life in the future in different habitats.

The end of the ride allowed guests to select one of three different routes to return to FuturePort: from the space station Brava Centauri, the desert farm of Mesa Verde or the Sea Castle research base.

These thirty-one second video sequences featured a video fly-through of elaborate scale models. The model for the desert route was 32 by 75 feet long. All the models were filmed at a hangar at the Burbank airport. It took a year to build and shoot the three segments.

Orange Fragrance Scent R-2534, dispersed by air cannon during the attraction, was produced by Felton International Inc. in Los Angeles, California, and is still available. Many of the props from the attraction were sent to Tokyo DisneySea and Disneyland Paris (Solo Sub and hovercraft). Others were auctioned off to private collectors.

*  *  *  *  *

Thanks, Jim! And come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!

In the meantime, check out his books, including his latest, Disney Never Lands, and about planned but unbuilt concepts, and Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew, which reprints much material first written for this site, all published by Theme Park Press.

Follow yourfirstvisit.net on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest!!