Youtube Disney Gold: Walt Disney Product Placement...even in 1936?

I am really happy to be doing a Youtube Disney Gold post again.  It's been such a long time, but people keep feeding Youtube videos.  I wanted to talk about a clip I came across the other day.  I was randomly flipping around the TV and came across Buddy Ebson dancing in an old movie and he was wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt.  This was a movie from 1936 called Broadway Melody.  If the name sounds familiar, you might remember it as the movie that Gene Kelly sang Dancing in the Rain in, but you would be wrong.  If you go into IMDB there are a number of listings for Broadway Melody.  Each title supplemented by the date.  There is a movie named Broadway Melody for the years 1929, 1936, 1940 and 1952(This was the Gene Kelly version).  The one I am talking about is the 1936 version of Broadway Melody with the very young song and dance man, Buddy Ebson.  I was lucky enough to find the exact clip I needed on Youtube.  Thanks to GABRIEL ANTINOUS for this Youtube Gold.

The dance scene above is really well done and each of the actors are very good dancers and singers.  This being a Disney Blog however, we need that Disney hook and if you watched the above I'm sure you saw it.  Buddy Ebson is wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt or sweater and for some reason that really caught my eye the first time I watched this.  In three seconds as many thoughts went through my head.  My first thought was how could they have gotten what looks like a modern t-shirt back into a movie like that.  The Mickey pose and artwork is a dead ringer for shirts today.

My second thought was well, Buddy worked with Walt on the Dancing Man animatronic, was that before this movie and Buddy had a souvenir from working with Walt. My final thought in that couple second burst was that maybe Mickey was just that famous in 1936 that they were selling shirts or sweaters even then.  As far as the movie went it was normal in 1936 to see a young man wearing a Mickey shirt.  Hmmm. 

After some light research I think thought number three might be right.  By 1936, Mickey had appeared in over 90 shorts, not too shabby.  You should see the Vintage Disney section of Ebay there are a lot of items that are there and of them about 90 are from the 1930's.  A lot of different items that shows how popular Mickey was.  The items vary from figurines to brushes, from silverware with a mickey them to cereal boxes.  Take a look at this cereal box from 1936.  It's the back of a Post Toasties box with Mickey and the gang in full glory.  Note the figure at the bottom of the box.  It's a cut out figure that you can collect.  They advertise that there were different characters to cut out.  Is this perhaps where the mad dash to the Cereal Aisle at the supermarket started? 
So it really looks like the only reason the Buddy is wearing that shirt is that Mickey was so popular at the time and it was what the common thing for the lounging young guy to be wearing.  This was a nice little trip through some great Vintage Mickey stuff.  I still think there might be more to this, so I'll keep my eyes open and update this down the road if necessary.

Walt Disney World Face Characters

The last time we were in Walt Disney World I was very impressed with how the Face Character Cast Members presented themselves.  For those that don’t know, there are two type of Disney dress up characters that walk around the parks or resorts.  The first type is the most famous and they are the characters that wear a full head mask to portray their character.  They're known as "Fur" Characters.  The Fab 5 are perfect examples of this type of character.  Mickey, Donald, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto.  They have made some great progress in the last couple of years and now Mickey and a couple of select characters can actually talk.  And by talk I mean that now their mask mouth, eyes, and other parts of their face move.  It is very impressive to watch.

The other type of Disney Character, the one I am referring to here is the Face Character.  So called because they wear no mask and present their own faces as that of he character they are playing.  Some examples of this are Peter Pan and Alice and all of the princesses and their princes and so many others.  These cast members that play the face roles are for the most part, established actors and actresses. 

I’ve seen how these cast members interact with the kids and it’s always great, happy and true to the character.  It’s not until you see these characters with an older child or an adult to see some real creativity.  First off, it is my understanding that they go through a very thorough training course.  After that they work on learning all about the character they are to play.  They go through this for about 3-4 weeks and then must pass a test.  We’ve been to many character meals and have full autograph books from various trips to the parks, but the character experience that prompted this post was meeting the girl pirate from the last Pirates movie.  She was doing a meet and greet in Adventureland last year and Hope wanted and autograph.  While waiting in line we got to watch the absolute grilling of this poor girl by the guy in front of us.  He was asking about her family, about her and Jack and a lot of things that was probably not taught in the information classes I mentioned above.  But to her credit, she answered every question he asked with what I thought were probably the right answers.  It all made sense.  And I actually learned something about her character. 

With the addition of the informal meet and greet areas in the parks, it's even easier to see your favorites.  In Epcot there is the Character Spot near the fountain.  For DHS you have the Magic of Disney Animation building.  In the Animal Kingdom it's Camp Minnie Mickey and in the Magic Kingdom there will be the New Princess area in the old Snow White attraction and Mickey and friends are at the Townsquare Theatre.

There is actually another type of Walt Disney World Character cast member and I call then the Atmosphere Characters.  Examples of these really good actors and actresses street performers would be the World Showcase Performers at Epcot, the Streetmosphere people in DHS and Main Street characters such as the Mayor and Fire Chief.

There are many, many, many videos on YouTube showing Disney Characters and they are fun to watch.  Some of my favorites are the Evil step-sisters of Cinderella, their a hoot.  Peter Pan is a really fun character to watch as well as his friend Tinker Bell.  The Mad Hatter another character that I’ve seen a lot of.  There are plenty out there.  I’d be interested to hear what characters you look for at the Disney Parks.

 Ask them any question you had about that character and you might get lucky.  There are certain things to say to any of the characters to get a rise out of them:

• Ask a princess where her prince is
• Ask Eeyore if he still has a tail
• Ask Donald Duck if he has been controlling his temper
• Tell Donald that you are # 1
• Ask Cruella how the coat is coming
• Scratch behind Pluto's ear and see what happens
• Ask Dale what is the difference between a chipmunk and a squirrel
• Ask Chip or Dale how to tell the difference between the two chipmunks
• Ask Mary Poppins to say hello to Burt for you
• Ask Pooh if he's had too much honey
• Say Aloha to Lilo
• Tell the Mad-Hatter its your Un-Birthday

Don't forget you don't need kids to interact with the characters.  Also, if you have any other things to say to the characters, leave a comment below or email us a wgtwdw@gmail.com

A Great new Experience at Disney Hollywood Studios; The Animation Academy

On this last trip to WDW we had one of the most fun, educational experiences and received one of the best souvenirs that I have taken away from WDW. We went to the Animation Academy. The Animation Academy can be found in the Magic of Animation attraction in the Disney Hollywood Studios. Once you watch Mushu tell you about about character creation, you exit out to a room that has really evolved from what it was originally. There is art work from the new Tangled movie, computer stations to color, add sounds or see what character you are most like. On top of that , there many meet and greet areas for the most current and some older characters. In among this multitude of animation experiences is, as mentioned above, one of the best half hours we have ever had at WDW. The Animation Academy. This is a side area in the room mentioned above that is right near the exit into the Disney Animation store. Here you queue up for a 15-20 minute lesson on how to draw a Disney Character. When the doors open up you walk into what can best be described as an Animation Classroom. At the front of the room is an artist desk with and large video screen hanging on the wall above it. An overhead projector shows you what the artist is doing. The Artist is a WDW Cast Member who was great. I believe his name was Rick. As we find a seat and sit, Rick tells us about the partnership of Disney and animation and how we were going to draw Mickey Mouse in this session. We were really excited to start. We all were sitting on the most ingenious swivel mounted stools and our desk was a well lit Mickey shaped drawing area with a piece of drawing paper. At the top of the lit part of the desk were a couple of raised pins. The paper had holes at top that fit over the pins as you draw. As you reach for the pencil you notice that there is no eraser. Uh-oh. But Rick assures us it will not be necessary. And we began to draw. Step by step we followed his instructions punctuated by historic facts about drawing Mickey over the years mixed with some humour. Our drawings progressed line by line and we all came out with pretty good Mickey Mouse portraits. This was so fun. This has just squeezed into my must-do's at DHS right after the top three; Toy Story Mania, Tower and RockNRoller Coaster. FYI, you can go through the store and past the Oscars exhibit and skip the Mushu show if you want.

This was great!!!