Disney Tidbits

[tiggerguy]

The new sit down restaurant, Yak & Yeti, which is set to open in Disney's Animal Kingdom has ties to the Rainforest Cafe. The developer of both venue is Steven Schussler. Schussler sold the Rainforest Cafe in 2000

[tiggerguy]

Elias Disney (Walt's dad) once worked as a mailman in
Kissimmee, Florida.

[tiggerguy]

During the parades in Disney World, the second story windows on Main Street open and close automatically just before and after the parade to reveal the speakers that play the parade music.

[tiggerguy]

The giant squid in Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea movie was constructed of rubber, steel spring, flexible tubing, glass cloth, lucite, and plastic. It had tentacles measuring 40 feet with two feelers of 50 feet and took a staff of 28 men to operate its intricate remote controls.

[tiggerguy]

Each Christmas season Walt Disney World Resort is decorated with more than 11 miles of garland, 3,000 wreaths and 1,500 Christmas trees!

[tiggerguy]

In 1987, The Disneyland Gallery opened its doors to visitors atop The Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland.

[tiggerguy]

Epcot's Leave A Legacy can accommodate 750,000 images!

[tiggerguy]

In Autumn of 1998, Cinderella Castle's lighting system was upgraded at Disney World. It now has the power to illuminate in some 16 million colors.

[tiggerguy]

Beginning in 1996, entry to all Walt Disney World parks required use of new, credit-card size tickets.

[tiggerguy]

The now extinct Epcot attraction Horizons was originally to be named Century 3 (or Century III), to recognize the third century of American existence (1976-2076). Then the name was changed to Futureprobe to help appeal the attraction toward international guests. In the end, the Futureprobe name was scrapped and after much debate, General Electric (the attraction's sponsor) and Disney officials settled on the name Horizons.

[tiggerguy]

"Mickey is the symbol of American hopefulness: We'll get through this, we'll whistle through bad times. Americans put their dreams into this little character. He never lost his cheerfulness,
never became a cynic. People identify with his personality,
his eternal optimism."
- Roy E. Disney (born on This Day in Disney History 1930)

[tiggerguy]

Did you catch the pun as to where Syndrome's secret base is? It is in the South Pacific and is on Nomanisan Island.

[tiggerguy]

As a younster A.A. Milne had a teacher named H.G. Wells (who went on to write such classics as The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine).

[tiggerguy]

The original 10-elephant Dumbo ride at Disney World was replaced with an improved 16-elephant version in 1993.

[tiggerguy]

Pixar was founded as the computer division of Lucasfilm. It was purchased in 1986 by Steve Jobs (of Apple Computer fame) for $5 million. At that time Pixar was a high-end hardware company whose core product was the Pixar Image Computer, a system which was primarily sold to government agencies and the medical community. Unfortunately the Image Computer never sold well. So in a bid to drive sales of the system, Pixar employee John Lasseter ... began creating animated shorts.