Family Circle Magazine December 1956

 Here is the Family Circle magazine from December 1956. It has a very nice Christmas story by Pearl S. Buck and visualized by Walt Disney and staff.

Walt Disney's The Adventures of Mr. Toad

I picked up this book recently at a thrift shop. I love the artwork inside and decided to scan a few of my favourites including the inside front cover (also inside back cover) two page spread of a map of Toads adventures, and also the title page with a great image of Toad Hall. Enjoy!

Hitchhiking Ghosts in 3D... Kinda

I have been playing with the DittoPro 3D printer we have at work. When I noticed one of the colours of filament we had was a semi transparent aqua, it immediately made me think of a ghost, and of course that lead me to looking for a Haunted Mansion ghost that I could print. I found was this Hitchhiking Ghosts silhouette file which I printed out and it now lives in my collection along with my faux Sleeping Beauty animation cell and Tinkerbell in a lantern.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Special Edition 2007

Back in my post on June 6, 2009, I showed two photos of Oswald items created by Kevin Kidney, and said how much I wanted both! Last month, I was finally able to add this amazing 2007 Disney Store exclusive Oswald the Lucky Rabbit hand finished soft microfiber figure to my collection. The box is 17 inches tall and Oswald's ears stick out of the top of the box, so this is a fairly large figure. Part of me wants to pull him out of the box and display him, but the box is really cool, and I love that his ears stick out the top, so he will probably stay in the box. I love the look of the Oswald, but its a bit distracting that there is a line just above his nose and below his eyes where the top and bottom part of his face is joined. It would have been so much better if they could have done it without this right thought the centre of his face. But, other than that, he looks awesome! 

There was a mini big fig (is that a thing?) for sale at Disneyland back on my last trip in 2015 that I didn't buy because I didn't have room to bring it home in my luggage. Been kicking myself ever since. But that one was more similar to the image that Disney is using for Oswald now, and I much prefer the vintage looking one that Kevin created. so, I'll keep my fingers crossed for an Oswald big fig based on the sculpt Kevin did back in early 2000. 

Pluto and the 37th Recon Co.

I saw this logo online featuring Pluto for the 37th Recon Co. created by the Walt Disney Company during World War II. I really liked the logo but wished there was a better version online. After looking around, I didn't find any that looked much better, so I decided to make one myself which now pops up every now and again in my iMac's screen saver. Along with the logo I made, I decided to make a second one that looks older and distressed as if it was actually used. The bottom logo is the original and the other two are the ones I created in Photoshop.

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!

KING-TVs famed mascot designed by Walt Disney studios

I recently saw a picture of Walt Disney with a drawing of KING TVs mascot King Mike, and it reminded me that in 1998 when KING TV celebrated their 50th anniversary, I wrote to the station asking for anything with King Mike on it. I don't remember if I actually new at the time that it was designed by Disney, I think I just thought it was a rally cool retro looking character. They were nice enough to send me a 50th Anniversary mouse pad with King Mike on it. More recently I found that he was actually created by Disney.
King Mike, the first KING-TV employee and mascot, was created by Walt Disney's studios in 1951. When Dorothy Bullitt created Channel 5 in 1948, she changed the call letters to KING. And soon after, she reached out to her good friend Walt Disney who lent his artistic flair to help her get the station off the ground by created King Mike.
The Disney company confirms, although Walt Disney himself was involved in the design, that it was one of his artists who actually made the rendering. The cost of the design and work: $75.
It's believed that King Mike is the only word that Walt Disney commissioned outside of the Disney studios.
To this day, KING Mike has been used in promotions and logos.

Mickey Mouse and th Perilous Jungle Cruise

Recently while visiting one of my favourite Disney sites, I saw some great faux Disney movie posters that are displayed at the character meet and greet at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida. They were all really cool, but I especially liked the one for "Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse in The Jungle Cruise". A day or two later I saw the cover of a 1947 comic book, "Mickey Mouse and the Submarine Pirates", and immediately imagined it as a Jungle Cruise themed picture. So, a little bit of Photoshop magic and, voila, it's Mickey Mouse and the Perilous Jungle Cruise.

Little Golden Book Monday #181

While at the thrift store the other day I found two copies of the Little Golden Book, Donald Duck's Toy Sailboat. Once I had both in hand, I realized the covers were actually slightly different. I prefer the Donald on the newer edition, but think the chipmunks on the older one are much better. What do you think?

Here are scans of the covers as well as the inside page from both versions.
The first one is the Fourteenth Printing from 1975. The second one is from 1990.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in Banjo Blues

Back in June I came across the Heritage Auctions site which was auctioning off a huge lot of Disney animation artwork, production cells etc. I downloaded a bunch of the amazing artwork, including this great background painting from The Black Cauldron. On the same site were some great images of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. I have scanned and printed a few of the old Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon movie posters which are hanging on my wall. I decided to make one more to add to my collection of Oswald movie posters. Above is the poster I made for my faux Oswald cartoon titled "Banjo Blues". Below you can see the original background painting from the Black Cauldron, a second version shows the Oswald drawing I used. While I was at it, I also made a "Banjo Blues" desktop wallpaper for my iMac.

 The last picture is a faux title card I made a long time ago, for the Oswald cartoon "Cats Me'Ow" which you won't find in a history book because I made it up!

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Club Membership Card

Sometimes I find myself obsessed with the idea of something or other. Recently I was thinking about Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and how interesting it would have been if Walt Disney had not lost the rights to this character and had built his media empire on the back of Oswald instead of Mickey.
In the 2005 Disney Editions book "The Disney Keepsakes" by Robert Tieman, there is a replica of a Mickey Mouse Club membership card from 1929. The front of the card shows a smiling Mickey Mouse and lists the club chapter number and name, and has a space for the members name to be written along with a membership number. There is also a place for "Chief Mickey Mouse" to sign the card. The back of the card has the Mickey Mouse Club Creed:
I will be a square shooter in my home, in school, on the playgrounds, where-ever I may be.
I will be truthful and honorable and strive, always, to make myself a better and more useful little citizen.
I will respect my elders and help the aged, the helpless and children smaller than myself.
In short, I will be a good American!
After seeing this, I started thinking about what it would have looked like if there was no Mickey Mouse and instead we had an Oswald Club. I took a photo I found online of a Mickey Mouse Membership Card and turned it into an Oswald Club Membership Card which now has a spot in my collection! It makes me smile every time I see it there displayed amongst my other official Disney collectables.

Disney on TCM - December 20, 2017

Its Times for Disney on TCM once again on September 11, 2017. Here is what is scheduled to be shown:
Brave Little Taylor (1938)
The Story of Robin Hood and His Merry Men (1952)
The Sign of Zorro (1960)
Tricks of our Trade (1957)
Pete's Dragon (1977)
Fuzzbucket (1986)
I've got my PVR all set to record the entire evening, how about you?

Disney on TCM - Sept 11, 2017

Its Times for Disney on TCM once again on September 11, 2017. I've got my PVR all set to record the entire evening, how about you?

Hollywod Tower Hotel Evicted from DCA

The Awesome Hollywood Tower Hotel at Disney's DCA

Like something from a schlocky Saturday afternoon horror movie, Disney announced at the San Diego Comic Con that they were removing the best ride in Disney's California Adventure to replace it with a ride based on that Guardians of the Galaxy movie from a few years ago.
At DCA many of their attractions are close to off the shelve rides with little to no real theming. But there is the Radiator Springs Racers and the Hollywood Tower of Terror attractions which have some of the best immersive theming Disney has ever done. The theming, the build up and the actual ride for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is spot on perfect. How you could decide to give it an unnecessary make over which most likely will not live up to what we currently have makes no sense. Whats next, change the Radiator Springs Racers into the Marvel Iron Man Road Rally once the next Iron Man movie does really well?
I don't mind if they want to add Guardians into the park, but removing something amazing just to shoehorn in some recent IP you hope to shove down peoples throats is not the way to do it.
Could they not just add this new attraction to Star Wars land and say they are expanding the world of Star Wars to include the Guardians of the Galaxy. Or, once Star Wars land opens, why not stuff the Guardians into the space (haha, that's funny) where Star Tours is now.
A HUGE BOO to Disney for this one!

The very silly looking, out of place thing to replace Tower of Terror

Head on over to Save the Tower! and sign the petition against the removal of the Tower of Terror. Not that Disney will change their mind, but as of writing this post they have 29,717 supporters.

Disneyland Atlantean Encounter Sub Voyage

Back in 2008 I posted a faux poster I created in photoshop for Atlantis Expedition an attraction I dearly wanted to see at Disneyland in the submarine lagoon where the original sub attraction had been closed since 1998. Some time later I came across a blog Disneyland Nomenclature where they posted a great story about Atlantean Encounter, a proposed attraction that some Imagineers at Disney were working on. If you have any interest in seeing what we could have gotten instead of the Finding Nemo Submarine Ride, check out their post. In that post they showed an proposed attraction poster for the Atlantean Encounter. My head still spins thinking about how incredible a sub attraction themed to Atlantis could have been. Sadly the movie sank at the box office and the Atlantean Encounter never came to be.

Disney on TCM Time Again

March 9, 2016 Turner Classic Movies is once again hosting an evening of Disney material from the Disney vaults, hosted by Leonard Maltin. Be sure to set your DVR for all 7 hours of Disney fun.

Disney on TCM this October

Here is the line up for the upcoming Halloween edition of Disney on TCM on October 28th, 2015.