Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in "Ye Olden Days"

Here is another faux Oswald the Lucky Rabbit poster I made for myself. I always liked the poster for Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse in "Ye Olden Days", so I decided it would be fun to re imagine the image as an Oswald the Lucky Rabbit animated film. Here is my faux Oswald poster, along with the original poster. I hope you enjoy!

Little Golden Book Monday #112

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, The Kitten-Sitters from 1976. This book features a few of my favorite Disney characters; Pluto and Figaro the kitten. It also features two of my least favorite Disney characters; Mickey's nephews, Morty and Ferdie. To be fair, I also dislike Donald Duck's nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. There is just something unsettling about introducing 'cute' little characters alongside my favorite characters that has always urked me - need we go any farther than Scrappy-Doo!?
This book features typical '70's Disney illustrations, not really up to Disney's usual standards from previous decades. Here is one of the illustrations that happens to feature Pluto & Figaro.

Little Golden Book Monday #88

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's the Prince and the Pauper. This book is from 1990 and is based on the 1990 short feature that featured Mickey Mouse. The film was released to theaters with the feature film The Rescuers Down Under.
I didn't notice this until I was scanning in this book, but I purchased this book at Disneyland on one of our many trips, for the low price of just $1.29.
I was not yet a collector of Little Golden books back in 1990, but I had seen the Prince and the Pauper film along with the Rescuers Down Under in the theater, and I enjoyed the film so much that I wanted to add this book to my collection.

Moana Mickey's Arcade

My wife gave me a stack of stuff the other day that she had received from a friend who works at a travel agency. There was tons of Disney brochures, DVDs, posters etc. There were a few 11 x 14 inch cards with info on Adventures by Disney and a 2009 Wald Disney Word Product Reference Guide. These didn't interest me and I was going to toss them out, but I noticed this great picture on one of them for Moana Mickey's Arcade located at the Polynesian Resort in Walt Disney World. I decided to scan this image for myself before tossing out the cards, and I thought I would share it with you!

Little Golden Book Monday #84

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse and his Space Ship from 1952.
Text from the inside front page says; This is a brand-new story, written and illustrated especially for Golden Books. The Little Golden Books are prepared under the supervision of Mary Reed, Ph.D. formerly of Teachers College, Columbia University.
The Little Golden Books here bring you, in gay color, delightful stories and illustrations adapted from the world-famous Walt Disney Motion Pictures. In them you will find Pinocchio, The Three Little Pigs, Bambi, Dumbo, Uncle Remus, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and many other well-loved Disney characters.
Copyright 1952 by Wald Disney Productions. All rights reserved throughout the world by Walt Disney Productions. Designed and produced by The Sandpiper Press and Artists and Writers Guild, Inc. Printed in the United States of America by Western Printing and Lithographing Company. Published by Simon and Schuster, Inc., Rockefeller Center, New York 20, NY.
The artwork inside is great. I really wanted to scan a ton of pages, but as I tried to open the book enough to put it on the scanner I could see that the spine was pretty frail. I managed to scan two pages, but as you can see, I only managed to get 3/4 of the page, but this will give you an idea of how wonderful the drawings are throughout the book.

Little Golden Book Monday #81

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse and the Best-Neighbor Contest from 1977. This edition is the sixth edition from 1979. What really sticks out about this book for me is the artwork. It reminds me of all the 70's Disney books I remember from my childhood, when Disney seemed pretty relaxed when it came to the quality of their artwork in books such as this one. I much prefer the classic Disney art from the 30's through 50's and even enjoy the newer stuff which tends to have a very modernized style. The 70's artwork tends to look very amateurish, especially for Disney's standards.

A Disneyland Records Christmas

Here are four great Disneyland Records Christmas records I picked up recently in my thrift shop travels.
The first is Disney Christmas Favorites - The Mouse Concert plus other Yuletide Favorites. Check out this great album cover. I just love the artwork of the mice on the front and back covers of this album. I didn't photograph it, but the back cover has drawings of the various mice playing their different instruments. This copy is made in Canada, 1973, and distributed in Canada by Walt Disney Music of Canada Limited. Songs on the album are your typical Christmas fare. There are two tracks by Cliff Edwards, and one by Ludwig Mousensky and the All Mouse Symphony Orchestra & Chorus.
Second is Walt Disney's Christmas Favorites. This one is from 1958, and is a product of Pickwick International Inc (GB) Ltd, and distributed under licence from Walt Disney Productions Ltd.
The back of the album jacket has some info on Ludwig Mousensky: "This is a record that embodies all the spirits of St. Nicholas, Santa Claus and Father Christmas. In song and story, some old, some new, Mickey Mouse Record artists bring you many delightful moments on this long playing record.
Discovered under a stairway at the Disneyland Studio, the unique all-mouse symphony orchestra under the able baton of Ludwig Mousensky is undoubtedly the first and finest rodent ensemble in the world. And, we here at Disneyland records are proud to present their first recording, The Christmas Concert. Here are Christmas hymns, Hark The Herald Angels Sing, O Little Town of Bethlehem, O Come All Ye Faithful, Jingle Bells, and the popular Winter Wonderland. The Mousensky group's rendition of these songs is truly a delightful experience for all. Under the maestro, the orchestra, consisting of Skueeky, Zeke, Horace, Henrietta, Tubby, Tootie, Clarence, Pinky, Stuffy, Zooty, Hans, Fritz, Otto (these three were formerly with the Vienna's famed eutschMICEster Band), Pee Wee and Frenchy give a new dimension to these Christmas favourites. All proving that Christmas is a time for both mice and men.
Next up is Rankin/Bass presents Frosty's Winter Wonderland, Complete Story and Original Soundtrack from 1976. The complete story from the second (and not nearly as good) Frosty Christmas animated special, told and sung by Andy Griffith. Other guest voices are Shelley Winters as Mrs. Frosty, Dennis Day as the Parson, Jackie Vernon as Frosty, and Paul Frees as jack Frost. This one is also made and distributed in Canada by Walt Disney Music of Canada Limited.
Finally, we have Disney's Merry Christmas Carols, starting Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy & Chop 'n' Dale, with Larry Groce and the Disneyland Children's Sing-Along Chorus. This one also has the usual Christmas songs, including The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't be Late), I Wish it Could be Christmas All Year Yong, Here We Come A-Caroling, Sleigh Ride etc. The nice thing about the album is that the back cover has the lyrics for all eleven songs on the album so that everyone can sing along. The date on this one is 1980.

Little Golden Book Monday #23

Today's Little Golden book is a great Walt Disney World 25th Anniversary collectible. It's from 1997 and called Disney's Special Collectors Edition Mickey's Walt Disney Wold Adventure. I picked this book up this weekend at a local thrift shop. The strange thing is that I had never seen this book before, but ended up finding two copies at two separate thrift shops on the same day. I bought both.
The book shows Mickey and Minnie Mouse touring around WDW, and riding all the rides. At one point in the story when they are on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, Huey, Dewey and Louie show up in the boat with them. And at the end of the book, Goofy shows up to give Mickey his brand new drum major's hat that he had misplaced.

Little Golden Book Monday #3

Today's Little Golden Book is "Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse and the Missing Mouseketeers" from 1956 (my printing is from 1975). I was immediately drawn to the wonderful artwork on the cover of Mickey Mouse with his detective cap and magnifying glass.
The story takes place at Disneyland and has many wonderful drawings of Mickey and the gang at all the familiar spots in the park. I especially liked the opening paragraph "Disneyland was all agog. Main Street was hung with banners." Agog is a great word for a children's book don't you think?
And for any of you who are worried... Mickey dose find Minnie Mouse and the Mousketeers in the end!