D23’s Disney Fanniversary 2012 Celebration kicked off its cross country tour on Friday night (April 27th) with two events at Disney’s historic Burbank Studio. Hosted by Jeffrey Epstein, D23 representative, and Steven Vagnini, Disney Archivist, the event was billed as a fan celebration for Disney movies, parks, and attractions celebrating an anniversary in 2012 “D23 will lead guests on a journey through dozens of unforgettable Disney moments that have delighted generations of Disney fans.”
After introductions by Jeffrey and Steven the presentation began. Pictures and short clips were shown on the theater screen and then Jeff and Steven would interject with additional comments and anecdotes. Guests were encouraged to clap, cheer, and wave their pennant throughout the presentation.
I won’t go into a detail of every segment here; instead I’ll try to recap interesting information or sections that were particularly fun, noteworthy, or poignant.
Starting off the presentation was the 85th Anniversary of the creation of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Highlighting this portion was a story about the trade of sportscaster Al Michaels to Universal in exchange for the rights to Oswald. Apparently Al thought it was funny that not much was made about his trade but there was huge press about Oswald returning to Disney. The Disney Archives recently uncovered some original sketches of an unreleased Oswald cartoon featuring Oswald riding and subsequently getting in a fight with, a camel. The artwork was put together like a flip book to showcase how the sequence would have looked when animated.
The last attraction Walt Disney personally supervised was Pirates of the Caribbean, celebrating its 45th Anniversary this year. We were shown never before seen footage of the first ever ride through of the attraction while it was still half completed, including footage of some fire effects in locations that were removed before the ride was opened to the public. We were treated to several still photos showcasing a cocktail party for Disney executives held inside the attraction in the auction scene, before the set was flooded with water. One of the highlights of this section was some never before seen footage of the press event held on Pirates opening day. Before being walked over to the attraction the press was treated to a ride on the Columbia which was suddenly taken over by a pirate captain and his crew, including some pirates fighting with the local wenches! Once they landed on shore the pirates got into a skirmish with some local infantry, one of whom was shot and left for dead on the sidewalk outside the attraction doors. It was hilarious to see press and guests just stepping over the poor ‘dead’ actor to get to the ride. Of course, in true Disney fashion, the infantryman was revived and was shown mixing with guests outside the attraction later.
Also celebrating a 45th Anniversary is The Jungle Book, which was the last animated film produced by Walt Disney. The original version of the film had a much darker feel and was reworked which included scratching most of the films original songs to be replaced with songs written by the Sherman brothers. Richard Sherman described the evolution of the song I Wanna Be Like You. Mr. Sherman tells us how Louis Prima , who voiced King Louie, brought his band in for a recording session with the Sherman brothers and proceeded to improve the speaking parts in the song as well as all of the scatting. The Sherman brothers loved the fun feel Louis and his band brought to the song so they left those unscripted portions in the soundtrack.
For the 20th Anniversary of Fantasmic concept art was shown and there was an interview with its creator, Barnette Ricci. Ms. Ricci talked about her concept for the show and explained that it’s original title was Imagination!. Folks at Disney thought Imagination! was overplayed in the Disney lexicon and that they needed something more dynamic and exciting to describe the new show. Thus a new word – Fantasmic!- was created. She described watching the show on its opening night and when she described the roar and applause of the crowd she got a little teary eyed. Which of course made all of us get a little teary eyed too.
Of course there was a segment about the upcoming Epcot 30th Anniversary. We were treated to several never publicly seen photos of the park while it was still in construction as well as photos of the grand opening ceremony which remains to this day the largest grand opening of any theme park in Disney history. Also, Jeffrey announced an upcoming D23 event to be held in the park itself to celebrate the Ecot’s 30th.
The Main Street Electrical Parade’s 40th Anniversary was highlighted, and we learned how its concept was inspired by the Electrical Water Pageant created for Bay Lake in WDW. Footage was shown of its early days in the park and Steven brought our attention to the fact that in the early days of the MSEP most of the floats were flat much like the Water Pageant floats. For the opening of Hercules, Disney staged a Hercules parade in New York City and many MSEP floats were featured, including, oddly enough for a parade about Hercules, Pete from Pete’s Dragon.
There were several segments that surprisingly got a lot more cheers and applause than I think even Steven and Jeffrey expected. One was the 15th Anniversary of the Duck Tales television show. Being a ‘child of the 80s’ it was so fun to watch the opening of the show again. Jeffrey and Steven encouraged everyone to sing along if they knew the words, and the whole audience joined in on every Whoo Whoo! Several attractions were mentioned as part of the opening of New Tomrrowland in 1967, celebrating its 45th Anniversary. Getting a lot of applause were Carousel of Progress and Adventure Through Inner Space. Our emcees and the crowd joined together to recite some of the narration of Adventure and later Jeffrey lead fans in a rousing sing along of There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow.
Finishing off the evening was a segment on the 75th Anniversary of Snow White. Early concept art was displayed as well as merchandise created for sale after the release of the feature. Did you know there was a line of ladies hats for sale that were inspired by the film? One particularly interesting one was fashioned after the Huntsman’s hat and included a jaunty feather. In advertisements it was modeled by a young Lucille Ball! Also shown was a list of the names of the Seven Dwarfs and some possible alternate names for them. Interestingly there originally was no Sneezy. Instead there was Deafy the dwarf! Never before seen footage of the premier at the Carthay Circle Theater as well as audio of Walt Disney describing the opening were highlights of the segment.
The Fanniversary event is scheduled to make stops in San Francisco, Boston, New York, Orlando, and Chicago. At this time, all locations are sold out. We got the impression that D23 is planning to hold Fanniversary events next year for the parks, rides, and movies celebrating anniversaries in 2013. The cost was $18 per ticket. D23 members received a felt pennant (like the one seen in the picture above and everyone who walked through the door received a Fanniversary button featuring Chip and Dale. If you couldn’t attend Fanniversary this year keep your eyes open for 2013!