Today, I return to the Fastpass To History link-up hosted by Kimberly at The Frontierland Station. This link-up allows bloggers to go back into Disney’s past. I like to use this link-up to explore the movies of Disney. I’m going to take a look at Dumbo – the elephant who saved the Disney empire. Disney was in rough shape after Pinocchio and Fantasia both failed at the box office. It wasn’t because they were bad movies but it was because of World War II.
photo courtesy of filmexperience
Disney needed a movie that was inexpensive to make and be successful so they could balance the books. Insert the story of a big-eared elephant who had a dream that he could fly. Dumbo was a children’s story that was written by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Pearl in a format called a Roll-A-Book. Disney bought the film rights to this story and gave the animators the direction to make the film short and make it inexpensively. The studio needed revenue.
photo courtesy of scienceblogs
The animators originally wanted to make a series of shorts involving Dumbo. They decided to make one of Disney’s shortest movies instead. Dumbo is only 64 minutes long. The movie was made for only $950,000 and made $1.6 million dollars in its first run through the box office. That $650,000 helped save Walt Disney Studios from going under and allowed it took make and distribute future films.
The empire may have started with a mouse but it was saved by an elephant.
There are currently 11 countries in the World Showcase at EPCOT. There is reportedly room for more countries to be added. The last country to be added to the World Showcase loop was Norway back in 1988. Like I discussed earlier this week, countries pay for the right to have a pavilion built and then support the pavilion with people from their country working at the pavilion on J-1 Visas.
So, with more room for countries to move into the World Showcase…what countries should be added? There are some glaring omissions from the World Showcase which could be easily filled. In this article, I’m assuming that the country’s government is going to be willing to spend the money to fund the pavilion.
I listen to a bunch of podcasts while I write my articles. Sometimes listening to this podcasts give me ideas for future articles. That is the case with this article. I was listening to the Por Favor Podcast and they were discussing their dream jobs at Disney. It got me to thinking what my Disney Dream jobs would be and I’ve come up with my top five Disney jobs at Walt Disney World. I’m sure some of these I would be facing some competition from my readers to get these jobs. Continue reading Disney Dream Jobs→
It’s another Wordless Wednesday link-up hosted by Deb at Focused on the Magic. This link-up gives bloggers a chance to share their Disney photos. There is a different theme each week. This week’s theme is Attractions. The first ride that my daughter and I go to start our Disney vacation is the Mad Tea Party. My wife does her best to get a picture of us spinning on the ride. Let’s take a look at our journey on the Mad Tea Party through the years.
One of my favorite pavilions at EPCOT is the Mexico Pavilion. It has a lot to offer a guest if they take the time to explore the pavilion. There is something to do here for people of all ages. Some people just walk past it to get to some of the other “more popular” pavilions deeper in the World Showcase. I hope to sway you and take some time and stop and take a closer look at our neighbors to the south.
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