hopemax
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Since things are slow, here's a few of the things that I picked up from the NFFC convention. Most of it is Disneyland stuff. If you don't know about the convention there are 4 days of seminars from various people. Some of this stuff may make good new topics, this is going to be a long post though!
Randy Thornton - Walt Disney Records
* He is working on CD's for Festival of the Lion King, and American Vibe to be released at WDW.
* The next WDW official album may be released in 2002, but Randy would like to hold off until Mission: Space opens
* He recently restored almost 20 hours of interviews Walt gave to Peter Martin in the early 60's. These will be available in the Archives for research, but will not be commercially released.
* Impressions de France is Buddy Baker's favorite piece of music, that's why Randy put it on the WDW official Album.
*Working on trying to have the soundtracks for Roger Rabbit and Rescuers Down Under rereleased.
Kaye Malins - Marceline, MO
Not a lot of scoop, she talked about the activities Marceline is holding in Sept to celebrate Walt. And she told stories of how when Marceline named an elementary school after Walt, and he came for the dedication, he slept in her bedroom. Her father was who Walt worked with when they tried to do the Marceline Project.
Robert Olszewski - Miniatures
This was a collectible seminar, but the reason I mention it is. Bob is basically to the world of miniatures what Walt was to theme parks. He owns his own studio and can do what he wants and is in it to expand the field as well as to earn a living. He's making a piece for the Disneyana convention and came up with a great idea. Problem was he would have to take a loss to produce it with the edition and price Disney was asking. He tried to come up with another idea, but he was drawn back to his first, so finally decided to make it anyway. Lucky for him Disney was so impressed they upped the edition size and price so Bob could actually make money on the piece. But if you see the Steamboat Willie Family Reunion piece at Disneyana, remember that the artist was willing to make it with the expectation he would be paying money to make it instead of earning money.
Dave Smith - Archives
Dave basically talked to us about the Disney family before Mickey Mouse. However one thing he did say was that when he was inventorying Walt's office he found the original Steamboat Willie script in Walt's desk. So in his mind, as much as people say Walt wasn't interested in history, and always looking ahead, if he would keep that script in his desk he must have had some sense of history.
Russi Taylor & Wayne Allwine - Voices of Minnie and Mickey
* Wayne recently signed a 3 year contract extension for his work on Fantasmic!
* Recorded voices for a House of Mouse Christmas, the new WDW MK parade, working on The Three Musketeers (but as Wayne said the way things are going now it may not be done for 12 years, yes it was a dig at the way things are being run).
*Russi said, "It's great to see the Electrical parade again, but it's in the wrong park." Wayne said, "What's wrong with tradition?"
The longer the presentation went on, the more freely the expressions of dissatisfaction of the way things are being run came out. Subtely and not so subtely. But what can they do, fire Mickey & Minnie?
Bill Cotter - spoke about Walt Disney: The Man Behind the Myth
This is the movie the Disney family made. It will be shown on ABC this Sept. It was originally 3 hours, but editted down to 2. It has aired in Japan. The version to be shown on ABC will be 86 min. The 2 hour version will be released on DVD
Disneyland panel - Milt Albright, Bob Gurr, Sam Mc Kim and Harriet Burns moderated by Dennis Taneida (former NFFC convention organizer, current Imagineer)
The purpose of the panel was supposed to be a compare/contrast of DL and DCA's opening and construction, but the DCA people didn't want to come, so it was talk about DL opening.
*Milt Albright (finance) talked about his biggest failure, Holidayland. Decided it didn't work because just because corporate picnic grounds worked at other parks didn't mean it would work on the door step of the greatest theme park in the world. Problems that might have been okay elsewhere, were amplified being so close to DL and people's expectations were so much higher. He also said that Walt would be disappointed about the overwhelming concentration on merchandise. He knew it was important, but it shouldn't be like it is now.
*Bob Gurr (things with wheels) talked about how he was excited about the project when he first saw the Peter Ellenshaw concept art in the LA Times, and how they all worked 6 days for 5 days pay, how they got Art Center's students to design and build the Autopia cars for free. And that there was a "group of trust" Walt would never question Roger Broggie or Joe Fowler. Walt would give signs if he was dissatisfied, and the people who never caught those signs were the ones who would be "picked on".,if you caught the signs and adapted Walt would never be a problem
*Sam McKim (master illustrator) talked about how when things were tight, Mrs. Chouinard used to give classes to the Disney people for free, and that's part of the reason why Walt was so involved with making CalArts successful in later years. And that when they were building the park, egos weren't trying to out-do your co-workers, the only thing was pleasing Walt
*Harriet Burns (model shop) talked about how Walt used to come and play with them in the model shop, and at night would go around to people's work stations to see what they were doing.
I've got to stop for a bit. There are still lots of presentations to cover, so I'll make another thread later today.
Randy Thornton - Walt Disney Records
* He is working on CD's for Festival of the Lion King, and American Vibe to be released at WDW.
* The next WDW official album may be released in 2002, but Randy would like to hold off until Mission: Space opens
* He recently restored almost 20 hours of interviews Walt gave to Peter Martin in the early 60's. These will be available in the Archives for research, but will not be commercially released.
* Impressions de France is Buddy Baker's favorite piece of music, that's why Randy put it on the WDW official Album.
*Working on trying to have the soundtracks for Roger Rabbit and Rescuers Down Under rereleased.
Kaye Malins - Marceline, MO
Not a lot of scoop, she talked about the activities Marceline is holding in Sept to celebrate Walt. And she told stories of how when Marceline named an elementary school after Walt, and he came for the dedication, he slept in her bedroom. Her father was who Walt worked with when they tried to do the Marceline Project.
Robert Olszewski - Miniatures
This was a collectible seminar, but the reason I mention it is. Bob is basically to the world of miniatures what Walt was to theme parks. He owns his own studio and can do what he wants and is in it to expand the field as well as to earn a living. He's making a piece for the Disneyana convention and came up with a great idea. Problem was he would have to take a loss to produce it with the edition and price Disney was asking. He tried to come up with another idea, but he was drawn back to his first, so finally decided to make it anyway. Lucky for him Disney was so impressed they upped the edition size and price so Bob could actually make money on the piece. But if you see the Steamboat Willie Family Reunion piece at Disneyana, remember that the artist was willing to make it with the expectation he would be paying money to make it instead of earning money.
Dave Smith - Archives
Dave basically talked to us about the Disney family before Mickey Mouse. However one thing he did say was that when he was inventorying Walt's office he found the original Steamboat Willie script in Walt's desk. So in his mind, as much as people say Walt wasn't interested in history, and always looking ahead, if he would keep that script in his desk he must have had some sense of history.
Russi Taylor & Wayne Allwine - Voices of Minnie and Mickey
* Wayne recently signed a 3 year contract extension for his work on Fantasmic!
* Recorded voices for a House of Mouse Christmas, the new WDW MK parade, working on The Three Musketeers (but as Wayne said the way things are going now it may not be done for 12 years, yes it was a dig at the way things are being run).
*Russi said, "It's great to see the Electrical parade again, but it's in the wrong park." Wayne said, "What's wrong with tradition?"
The longer the presentation went on, the more freely the expressions of dissatisfaction of the way things are being run came out. Subtely and not so subtely. But what can they do, fire Mickey & Minnie?
Bill Cotter - spoke about Walt Disney: The Man Behind the Myth
This is the movie the Disney family made. It will be shown on ABC this Sept. It was originally 3 hours, but editted down to 2. It has aired in Japan. The version to be shown on ABC will be 86 min. The 2 hour version will be released on DVD
Disneyland panel - Milt Albright, Bob Gurr, Sam Mc Kim and Harriet Burns moderated by Dennis Taneida (former NFFC convention organizer, current Imagineer)
The purpose of the panel was supposed to be a compare/contrast of DL and DCA's opening and construction, but the DCA people didn't want to come, so it was talk about DL opening.
*Milt Albright (finance) talked about his biggest failure, Holidayland. Decided it didn't work because just because corporate picnic grounds worked at other parks didn't mean it would work on the door step of the greatest theme park in the world. Problems that might have been okay elsewhere, were amplified being so close to DL and people's expectations were so much higher. He also said that Walt would be disappointed about the overwhelming concentration on merchandise. He knew it was important, but it shouldn't be like it is now.
*Bob Gurr (things with wheels) talked about how he was excited about the project when he first saw the Peter Ellenshaw concept art in the LA Times, and how they all worked 6 days for 5 days pay, how they got Art Center's students to design and build the Autopia cars for free. And that there was a "group of trust" Walt would never question Roger Broggie or Joe Fowler. Walt would give signs if he was dissatisfied, and the people who never caught those signs were the ones who would be "picked on".,if you caught the signs and adapted Walt would never be a problem
*Sam McKim (master illustrator) talked about how when things were tight, Mrs. Chouinard used to give classes to the Disney people for free, and that's part of the reason why Walt was so involved with making CalArts successful in later years. And that when they were building the park, egos weren't trying to out-do your co-workers, the only thing was pleasing Walt
*Harriet Burns (model shop) talked about how Walt used to come and play with them in the model shop, and at night would go around to people's work stations to see what they were doing.
I've got to stop for a bit. There are still lots of presentations to cover, so I'll make another thread later today.
