Category Archives: Main Street

Mr. Lincoln, the Aftershow

4 Comments Posted by on November 18, 2011

So once you’re done being either inspired or creeped out by Mr. Lincoln, you go through a couple of rooms I like to call the aftershow. Artwork adorns the walls with plaques reading “Spirit of [admirable quality]”

Henry Ford and some other guys

The most odd and definitely egregious was the “Spirit of Celebration”

Celebration?

Yes Ladies and Gentlemice, that’s Elvis, Michael Jackson, and Hanna Montana. I mean I know Hannah Montana is a very popular and successful Disney product, but SERIOUSLY??? You can’t think of some other musician or musical group to celebrate? Like The Beatles? Or something?

Their candidate selection was clearly a little baffling.

Achievement

Spirit of Achievement: Einstein, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, and Sonya Sotomayor.

Over in the Spirit of Giving side I realized I took a picture of the wrong thing. Here’s what I took a picture of:

Bob Hope

But in that picture on the upper right, it’s a school in Africa and Oprah Winfrey is there. Now I know that Oprah gives to a lot of charities, but whenever I think about Oprah giving something away, I just think “EVERYBODY GETS A CAR! EVERYBODY GETS A CAR!!!!!”

Nobody got a car here.

Over in the Spirit of Perseverance, you have Jackie Robinson, Michelle Kwan, and Bruce Lee

All three are people of color, but only one is actually IN color

And I was very happy to see Michelle Kwan in there because honestly, I think she was robbed of the Olympic gold metal in 1998. Totally robbed.

Over on the Spirit of Tolerance side,

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Helen Keller

And not that Helen Keller was intolerant or something, but I think I might have put her over in the Spirit of Perseverance or the Spirit of Inspiration section.

Or the Spirit of Celebration. To replace Hannah Montana.

Speaking of the Spirit of Inspiration, there’s Rosa Parks, Amelia Earhart, and some guy on top of a mountain.

Rosa, Amelia, and ???

I’m sure someone out there knows who that guy is, but I honestly can’t remember. Guess I didn’t find him very inspiring.

On the Spirit of Something I Didn’t Write Down wall, you have two true geniuses, Jim Henson and Mary Blair.

GENIUS

And of course, the man and the mouse behind it all

Spirit of Awesome

Main Street

Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln

2 Comments Posted by on November 16, 2011

So talk about an attraction I haven’t done in the last 3 decades, it’s Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.

And I mean GREAT moments!

To be fair, this particular incarnation has only been around since 2009. Immediately prior to that was “Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years,” a movie made for the 50th anniversary staring Steve Martin and Donald, the duck who wears no pants.

Apparently Walt just loved Lincoln and this was created for a World’s Fair before being built at Disneyland. The audio-animatronic human was the first of its kind.

But before you get to see Mr. Lincoln, you start by checking out Great Moments in Disneyland. It’s a whole display of things like scale versions and pictures and a ticket book collection.

Splash Mountain

You’re treated to picture collages, a tribute to Imagineers past

The originals

and present

Imagineers: The Next Generation

And exciting

I AM AN AWESOME PHOTOGRAPHER!!!

You entertain yourself there for a few minutes before the next showing of Great Moments.

There’s this entrance to the stage doorway area

In case you forgot why you were there

There’s also a completely scale model of the Capitol

It's very white

I think it’s made out of marble or something but I didn’t get a closeup of the plaque and I can’t remember now. At any rate, it’s a little weird since Mr. Lincoln himself didn’t see this version of the Capitol. But it’s there.

Behind the Capitol is a screen that shows both an explanation of the Disney version of Mr. Lincoln along with some footage of the Disney version of Mr. Lincoln.

Kind of weird

There’s even a whole thing about the actor who played Mr. Lincoln and why he was a perfect Mr. Lincoln, and also a bit about the creation of the fake Mr. Lincoln from a mold of the real Mr. Lincoln’s face. Which is a little unsettling, in my opinion.

Finally the theater doors open and you are all ushered in in a “grab any seat” fashion. I suspect at one point all seats were filled, but there were only about 10 of us there.

It's the image of Mr. Lincoln

And that’s where they tell you to put the cameras away. I don’t know why–is animated Mr. Lincoln some kind of trade secret they’re trying to protect? First off you get a movie screen and it shows this rather extensive history lesson of Mr. Lincoln (who apparently had about 1 year of formal school before he went to law school) and the civil war. This gets kind of boring but just when you’re ready to bug out, the crimson curtains rise and there’s Mr. Lincoln himself, sitting on a chair.

I think it’s supposed to look like Mr. Lincoln is alive, but that’s not really the effect. One the not-quite-Mr. Lincoln sits there for a minute or so, he stands up. Except he doesn’t stand up like a real person would. It looks like he kind of levitates on two very, very skinny legs. Then he gives this speech that’s apparently an amalgam of several speeches. His face is supposed to reflect emotion but it just ends up looking flat.

I mean basically my friend summed it up at the end when she turned to me and said, “that was kind of creepy.”

Main Street ,

Disney Showcase

4 Comments Posted by on October 28, 2011

Over on Main Street there’s the Emporium on the left if you’re standing in Town Square and looking at the castle. Over on the right, across the street, is a store called the Disney Showcase.

It's All American or something

However, The Disney Showcase is not marked with BIG GIANT LETTERS if you’re actually ON Main Street:

It's sort of unassuming and big at the same time

The part on Town Square is where you’ll find the Straw Hatters when they’re doing their whole show with Donald, Pluto, Mickey, and Minnie.

And also a great place to look for characters

The Disney Showcase contains clothes and some Disney knick knacks

Shirts, knick knacks

If you look up, you’ll see some very cute above-shelf decorations

Like these

There are also a couple of hat writing machines.

Oh yeah, and hats

Now let me take a moment to bid a fond farewell to the old hat writing machines. The old machines were sewing machines that only sewed in two directions–I believe down and to the left. The hat writer was a cast member who had to flip the hat inside out, fit it into the machine backwards, and then write the name on the hat by moving the hat around by hand. And also do it in the correct handwriting-look font. I mean seriously, that was a SKILL. Now hat writing is done by automatic machine. The advantage is that you have more options–the traditional font or a couple of others if you want to pay more, different thread colors, and more room for two lines with one font. The downside of all of these choices is that hat writing now takes for.ev.er. Especially if you get a backup of several people. Oh my gosh, for realz, you could go get a churro and come back for your hat. And I do recommend the churros you know.

Anyway, the Disney Showcase also includes one of Kevin’s least favorite merchandise items: Duffy the Disney Bear.

And his various outfits

As the story goes, Minnie Mouse gave Duffy to Mickey as Mickey traveled the globe so…he wouldn’t forget her? Something like that. Duffy actually has a Mickey Mouse shape on his face–a fact I just now noticed. Anyway, you’re supposed to take Duffy on all of your travels and take pictures of him in various places like a gnome. Duffy also show up at the Mouse-Next-Door for a meet and greet. It does seem weird that out of all of the characters Disney has in their cartoons and movies, they had to invent a new one for this purpose, but there ya go.

And that’s the Disney Showcase! My final piece of advice is don’t wait until the end of the night to get your name on your hat.

 

 

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Main Street Vehicles: Omnibus

2 Comments Posted by on October 23, 2011

When I think about the word Omnibus, I think about Charles Dickens. No joke. I took this class in college called “Dickens and London” and it was an entire class about Charles Dickens and once we started to read fascinating classics like “Bleak House” I knew I was in the wrong class but it was too late to transfer to something more exciting. Which would have been pretty much anything. The only thing “Bleak House” has going for it is that one character dies of spontaneous human combustion, which is actually kind of cool. What’s there not to love about spontaneous human combustion?

And what does that have to do with Disneyland? I’m getting there. In Charles Dickens  the characters would often ride in omnibuses. They were new-fangled double-decker vehicles that in Dickens’ time were pulled by horses. You can read about characters who take an Omnibus to work or sometimes someone will get run over by an omnibus and that’s a hint to the reader that the character is totally toast, because while someone might survive getting run over by a carriage, nobody survives an omnibus. It’s like shorthand for “too bad we don’t have 911.”

Well Main Street, U.S.A. represents the turn of the century and by that time, omnibuses were no longer pulled by horses and–AND–you can ride one. Yes! That’s right! You can hearken back to the days of Dickens riding an omnibus minus the horse!

This has absolutely nothing to do with Charles Dickens AT ALL

The Disneyland Omnibus is one of the Main Street Vehicles that I have never ridden before. That’s right–a first time here on MYWTM! The omnibus offers a one way trip from Town Square to Central Plaza, or strangely enough, from Central Plaza to Town Square.

And did you know that all of the Main Street Vehicles are sponsored by National Car Rental? I didn’t know that until just right now! Go figure!

Anyway, the omnibus has two levels so obviously I rode on top.

A spiral-type staircase

According to Disneyland.com:

Get a vintage vantage point from this Omnibus as it tools gently on a one-way trip down Main Street, U.S.A. Modeled after a 1920 New York City double-decker, this 45-passenger bus stops in Town Square and near Sleeping Beauty Castle in Central Plaza.

This is only slightly problematic because Main Street, U.S.A. is supposed to be the early 1900’s, so if the omnibus is modeled after an 1920 bus, shouldn’t it belong in Tomorrowland?

Looking out the front

Another thing with the omnibus is that the foot space is very odd. I’m going to post a picture here that will seem like some kind of bizarre angle and be completely meaningless:

Weird angle. Meaningless?

But the black rubber is the ground and the wood is a panel right beneath the seat. My heel, which is clearly seen is being blocked by the wood panel, shown in the bottom of the picture. And hey, nice shoes!

Which is a very long and bizarre way of saying that when you sit down, your heel has nowhere to go since the panel blocks under the seat.

Let’s just move along, shall we?

The omnibus gives you a bird’s-eye view of Main Street, if you were a very low-flying bird.

Ah-ooo-ga! Ah-ooo-ga!

You’re roughly on the same level as the top of the Emporium, which includes jack o’lanterns in almost every window.

How cute!

As you drive along your driver gives you a little history lesson about Main Street and omnibuses, although glosses over the little part about how the omnibus is modeled after a 1920 vehicle (they do tell you that) and Main Street itself is turn of the century. Oh, it’s the little things that trip you up.

However, you do get an awesome view of the castle as you travel down Main Street.

It's very cool to see it from a height

I actually really enjoyed my omnibus ride! And I recommend the Town Square to Central Plaza route because of the castle.

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