The Tower Hotel

This is The Tower Hotel as it appears in the hotel's basement shop. The Tower Hotel in Florida has many differences from its three younger siblings. One of these differences is the level of accuracy in the attraction's physical exterior. The Florida Tower is there to create a specific impression, not recreate a fictional hotel. The missing section of the Tower cannot easily be placed on the physical exterior, in fact, the hotel's broken, flickering sign sits rights where remnants of the missing wings would have been located.

Book Review - The Man Who Invented CHRISTMAS

The Man Who Invented CHRISTMAS: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits
by Les Standiford

Ebenezer Scrooge. Utter that name today and it will be difficult to find one who does not know of whom you speak. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, or as the wordy Dickens named it A Christmas Carol in Prose: A Ghost Story of Christmas, is a long standing staple of the Christmas season. As Standiford's somewhat verbose title suggests, this biography focuses on Dickens, his writing of A Christmas Carol and the greater cultural waves that resounded after its publication.

I went into The Man Who Invented CHRISTMAS with some rather high expectations, having read two of Standiford's other works, Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad That Crossed an Ocean and Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership That Changed America (long titles seem to be a staple of his).

Standiford's works are not complete biographies of Andrew Carnegie, Charles Dickens, Henry Flagler, or Henry Clay Frick. Instead, a rather brief recount of the subject's life is given, with the emphasis being on the other subject matter mentioned in the subtitled. This multi-focus is where I found The Man Who Invented CHRISTMAS to be a little lacking. The biographical aspects of Dickens is interesting but, especially after the publication of A Christmas Carol, is not much more than an abridgment of a Dickens biography. Any critical analysis of A Christmas Carol is cursory, with the reader being sent to look to works dedicated to that aim.

A Christmas Carol revived our holiday spirits, or so Standiford says in the subtitle. This is the aspect that I believe will draw most readers to this work. Before 1843 Christmas was a minor Christian holiday, nothing like the major one it is today, in the United Kingdom and the United States. Standiford outlines how it is Dickens who really codifies and popularizes the charitable, "Peace on earth and goodwill toward men" that have become paramount to the popular, secular meaning of Christmas and its surrounding season. While not as detailed as I would have hoped, the book serves as nice introduction to just how much Christmas has changed in the past two hundred years.

My final verdict on The Man Who Invented CHRISTMAS is that it is a nice little book worth picking up if one is looking for a nice, quick read. I still find Standiford enjoyable to read and look forward to one day picking up Washington Burning: How a Frenchman's Vision for Our Nation's Capital Survived Congress, the Founding Fathers, and the Invading British Army and would tell any to seriously consider reading Last Train to Paradise or Meet You in Hell.

Book Review - Drawing the Line

Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson
by Tom Sito

Written by animator and former president of The Animation Guild, I.A.T.S.E. Local 839. Drawing the Line presents a side of the story of animation that is seldom discussed at length. Like many industries animation, despite the often jovial output, is not a story of employer and employee skipping through meadows, hand in hand, whistling a tune. Sito chronicles the rise of unionism in animation studios from the first animation strike at Fleischer Studios to the Disney strike to outsourcing at Hanna-Barbera to the modern day.


As one might expect from a book written by a former union president, its pro union sentiments are incredibly clear. This may be off putting to some, but the book is not a lecture on the greatness of unions. Sito makes no attempts to cover up the darker sides of the animation unions, such as the rivalry between competing unions or the involvement of organized crime. While the dirt between studios and artists is discussed, what caused friction amongst the artists is mostly chalked up to a lack of solidarity brought about by executives manipulating employees, such as trying to make animators feel superior to other artists. While I am unaware of any particular details regarding these incidents, I would not help but feel as if there was a little more to the story.

The book also serves a nice general history of animation. The history of animation now covers a century of work, all of which Sito presents wonderfully to the reader. As one would expect from a union history book, the story is not the common one of studios and their moguls. Instead readers will find themselves reading of many famous animators such as Winsor McCay, Art Babbit, Bill Tytla, Ward Kimball, Chuck Jones, John Lassiter and many, many more.

Ultimately Drawing the Line is a great read that should interest any fan of animation or union activity in America.

The World Showcase - Alone at Night

The following images are from my annual spring break trip to Walt Disney World in March of 2008. They are the result of crowd clearing rains and Extra Magic Hours. There is something magical and eerily terrifying about being so utterly alone in such a large place that is usually bustling with crowds.

Learning to Soar

There is a lot of discussion that focus on what many contend makes Disney parks just so "Disney". Support is drawn from attractions and offerings past, present, and even future. In all of this, I have noticed one attraction that rarely comes to the forefront of discussion, an attraction that comes from, of all places, Disney's California Adventure. I am talking Soarin' Over California. In a park plagued with trials and tribulations, Soarin' Over California proved to an attraction so popular that the attraction was built at EPCOT Center and rumors persist of similar additions at Disney resorts throughout the world. I am of the opinion that Soarin' Over California, in a time when Disney parks must change in order to be "culturally relevant", proves that the "old" ways can, and do, still work.

Story
The Disney park experience has always been one of story. Most of the time today, the story of a Disney attraction is quite explicit. The "something goes horrible wrong" story has become somewhat cliche as the standard Disney attraction story. Such a story is not present in Soarin' Over California. Guests are left to merely experience scenes of the state of California.

Cultural Relevence
There is no synergy present at Soarin' Over California. No famous Disney animation characters. No Stitch. No Captain Jack Sparrow. No Disney Princesses. Nothing. The attraction stands entirely on its own. While Patrick Warburton appears in the preshow with a few announcements during the ends of the show, he does so as our flight attendant, Patrick. He does not appear as Krunk (Emperor's New Groove and related properties), Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger (Buzz Lightyear of Star Command) or Steve Barkin (Kim Possible). At the most, I imagine a few recognizing Elaine's on and off boyfriend, David Puddy.

Presentation
At its root, the attraction is a film. A film shown in a ridiculously complex and expensive manner. Disney could have presented the film is several different, and cheaper, manners, but the attraction is not.

Soarin' Over California is a recent attraction that is extremely popular. Popular despite being built in a time when it is said that a successful attraction needs a set story and recognizable characters. I believe Soarin' Over California is a success because it follows the classic Disney guidelines. The attraction allows guests to experience a pure experience in a manner that goes above and beyond expectations and what others are doing.

The Blue Line's Lost Tomorrowland

In 1994 the Imagineers redesigned Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom. Following in the footsteps of Discoveryland, The future that never was... [was] finally here! Sad to say, the ambitous project, years later looked upon as the proper rebuild in comparison to Disneyland's disasterous "Tomorrowland 98", was quick to become an example of poor showmanship.

The Avenue of Planets, the main walkway from Central Plaza, and Rocket Tower Plaza, the area around Astro Orbiter, were the only areas to receive serous reworking. These two areas provide a large portion of Tomorrowland, but left the remained of the land in stark contrast to the new future that never was. The WEDway People Mover, now known as the Tomorrowland Transit Authority Blue Line, received a brand new design in some places and remained unchanged in others.

The Tomorrowland Transit Authority Blue Line would in the end become a home for Tomorrowland's lost glory. The Blue Line continues to reference the Interplanetary Convention Center of the ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter (replaced by the Galactic Federation Prison of Stitch's Great Escape) and the Metropolis Science Center of The Timekeeper: From Time to Time (replaced by the Monster Inc. Laugh Floor's portal to Monstropolis).



Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom has become an entirely lost land. Gone is any notion of futurism. Tomorrowland does not even need to be entirely grounded in reality, as Future World can serve that unction. But the entire abandonment of anything futuristic, retro-futuristic, et cetera for "we need room for [x]" should be considered entirely unacceptable for the Vacation Kingdom of the World.

"Because we promised you a Mercedes-Benz."

Mercedes-Benz has started a new marketting campaign for its 2008 model year vehicles. The commercials are presented in the format of a series of questions asking "Why did we do [x]?" The questions cover the minutia of details. In the end, it all comes down to the point that somebody might notice these details and this was done, "Because we promised you a Mercedez-Benz."

The commercials are simple and quite powerful. They reflect upon the respect that the name "Mercedes-Benz" has earned in its over 100 year long history. Similarly Walt Disney set a precedent of going above and beyond, down to what somebody might notice. The attention to detail and craftmanship established the brand name of "Walt Disney" as something special and worthy of admiration, reepect and, most importantly, enjoyment.