Disneyland History
by Robert Niles

Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955 and instantly became the world's most recognizable and popular theme park. This was the only Disney theme park visited by Walt Disney, who died in 1966 and, contrary to popular legend, is *not* cryogenically frozen under Sleeping Beauty's Castle. (In fact, he was cremated -- quite the opposite of being frozen, when you think about it -- and his ashes laid at Forest Lawn in Glendale, Calif.)

Walt's original park has set many industry standards over the years, with the world's first steel-track, multi-train roller coaster (Matterhorn) and other ground-breaking rides, including Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Tours and the Indiana Jones Adventure. In 2001, Disney opened a second Anaheim theme park, Disney's California Adventure, on the site of Disneyland's old parking lot.

How do you get to Disneyland?

Disneyland is located one hour south of Los Angeles, in Anaheim, California. Orange County's John Wayne is the closest airport to the park. By car, take the Disneyland Drive exit off Interstate 5 and follow the signs to the resort's parking structure.

When is the best time to visit?

Unlike Florida's Walt Disney World, Disneyland draws most of its visitors from locals. So avoid weekends and school vacations to get the shortest waits. (Most Southern California schools let out in mid-June and return after Labor Day, with Spring Break falling around Easter.) The period between Christmas Day and the Rose Bowl game (usually on New Year's Day) is the busiest of the year, with the park often closing to additional guests each midday.

Whenever you visit, arrive early -- about an hour before the posted opening time -- to get on popular attractions before crowds build.

How do I get tickets to Disneyland?

Disneyland sells tickets online, but does not allow you to print them at home. So you'll have to order far enough in advance for them to arrive by mail. Tickets may also be available through your local auto club, Disney Store or your school or work activities office.

Note that, unlike at Disney World, most multi-day Disneyland passes expire within 13 days of first use, so no saving unused days for a future trip. Use 'em now, or lose 'em.

What's new at Disneyland?

Space Mountain reopened in early July, 2005 after a two-year rehab to rebuild the track and improve show effects. Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, a dark ride shoot-'em-up is also new in Tomorrowland.

Plan your day at Disneyland

If you are travelling with toddlers, you'll want to visit Fantasyland first thing in the morning, as several popular kids' rides in that area, especially Dumbo and Peter Pan, have low capacities and built long waits early in the day. If not, head west to Adventureland and New Orleans Square when the park opens, visiting the Indiana Jones Adventure and Splash Mountain, then doubling back to the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Ride and restaurant reservations at Disneyland
You can call 714-781-DINE up to 30 days in advance for dining reservations.

What's coming next to Disneyland?

Pirates of the Caribbean will redebut in late June with the addition of animatronic Jack Sparrow and other characters from the Pirates films.
 

Rockit Mountain, a night-time overlay for Space Mountain, will debut in May 2006, with a new Finding Nemo attraction in the old Submarine Lagoon to follow later in the year.

Rumors have a new play structure coming to Toontown sometime in 2006.

Walt Disney Studios

A certain famous mouse may live in the Magic Kingdom, but he works in Hollywood. The Walt Disney Studios, the motion picture arm of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world's largest film production businesses. Its live-action titles, including National Treasure and Herbie: Fully Loaded are produced and distributed through the Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone, and Hollywood banners. Miramax Film Corp. acquires, produces, and distributes independent movies, and Disney Studios co-finances and distributes animated movies made by Pixar (which Disney bought in 2006). The firm also runs Walt Disney Feature Animation. Disney Studios' other divisions are devoted to home entertainment, music, and live stage plays.
 

Epcot Center

The name Epcot derives from the acronym EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow), a utopian city of the future planned by Walt Disney. (He sometimes used the word "City" instead of "Community" when expanding the acronym). In Walt Disney's words: "EPCOT ... will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed, but will always be introducing and testing and demonstrating new materials and systems. And EPCOT will always be a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise."

Walt Disney's original vision of EPCOT was for a model community, home to twenty thousand residents, which would be a test bed for city planning and organization. The community was to have been built in the shape of a circle, with businesses and commercial areas at its center, community buildings and schools and recreational complexes around it, and residential neighborhoods along the perimeter. Transportation would have been provided by monorails and PeopleMovers (like the one in the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland). Automobile traffic would be kept underground, leaving pedestrians safe above-ground. Walt Disney said, "It will be a planned, controlled community, a showcase for American industry and research, schools, cultural and educational opportunities. In EPCOT there will be no slum areas because we won't let them develop. There will be no landowners and therefore no voting control. People will rent houses instead of buying them, and at modest rentals. There will be no retirees; everyone must be employed." The original model of this original vision of EPCOT can still be seen by passengers riding the Tomorrowland Transit Authority attraction in the Magic Kingdom park; when the PeopleMover enters the showhouse for Stitch's Great Escape, the model is visible on the left (when facing forward) behind glass.

Toy Story II
by James Berardinelli

Four years ago, the release of Toy Story forever changed the face of animated motion pictures. The astonishing, three-dimensional quality of John Lasseter's work amazed both average movie-goers and hard-to-impress critics. Now, in 1999, the toys are back. While not as innovative as the original Toy Story, Toy Story 2 is a worthy successor. The sequel picks up where the landmark original left off, and tells an enjoyable story without retreading everything that has gone before. Those who appreciated the first movie are virtually guaranteed to like the second, which represents family filmmaking at its best. All the elements that made Toy Story popular are present in this installment. Toy Story 2 makes Pixar three-for-three in the feature film arena and is sure to continue Disney's string of animated hits.

One would have to be a hopeless curmudgeon not to be entertained by Toy Story 2's remarkable visual style, quick-moving storyline, endearing characters, and witty dialogue. The balance between what has been included for kids and what's there for adults is almost perfect. There are things that children will appreciate more than their parents, but other elements will go over the heads of shorter viewers. However, the majority of what Toy Story 2 offers will delight everyone in the audience, regardless of their physical or mental age.

Reportedly, Toy Story 2 was originally slated for a direct-to-video release, but Disney eventually opted for theatrical distribution instead (all of The Magic Kingdom's recent animated sequels, including further chapters in the Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Lion King sagas, have bypassed theaters). After viewing the final product, it's difficult for me to believe that this movie was ever intended for the ignominy of a Blockbuster premiere. Like Toy Story and A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2 has a richness of texture and detail that will be lost on smaller screens. Only in a theater is it possible to fully appreciate the benefits of computer animation, where every blade of grass, mote of dust, and hair on a dog's body has its own identity, and where the branches of a tree sway to the prompting of a gentle breeze. And, while computer animation has drawbacks (for example, the humans are saddled with an artificial appearance), those are significantly outweighed by the benefits.

This film begins an unspecified time following the happily-ever-after conclusion to Toy Story. In the aftermath of their earlier adventures, Buzz (voice of Tim Allen) and Woody (voice of Tom Hanks) are now fast friends. One day, Andy's mother decides to have a yard sale, and she collects a few old toys from her son's room. Since one of these discards is a member of the moving toy gang, Woody goes to the rescue, leaving the safety of the house for the uncertainty of the front lawn in order to bring the toy back. Although his mission is successful, he is placed in a serious predicament when a toy collector named Al (voice of Wayne Knight) spies Woody while hunting through the wares available at the sale. The cowboy toy represents the final collectible needed to complete his collection of merchandise from the old TV series, "Woody's Roundup." If he can acquire Woody, Al can ship everything to a toy museum in Japan for a huge profit. So, after Andy's mother refuses to sell the wooden cowboy, Al steals him, and it's up to the other toys, led by Buzz, to go into the city to save their friend. Meanwhile, as Buzz, Rex (voice of Wallace Shawn), Hamm (voice of John Ratzenberger), Mr. Potatohead (voice of Don Rickles), and Slinky (voice of Jim Varney), find themselves confronting things like busy streets and other Buzz Lightyear toys, Woody learns that he was once a TV celebrity and has a family - a cowgirl named Jessie (voice of Joan Cusack), a horse named Bullseye, and a father figure called the Prospector (voice of Kelsey Grammar), none of whom wants Woody to go back to Andy. The problem is, if Woody escapes from Al's clutches and returns home, they will end up back in the lonely darkness of storage.

Toy Story 2 contains some great moments. From a purely visual standpoint, few are better than the opening scenes, which show Buzz Lightyear zipping around the galaxy, ready to do battle with his Darth Vader-like nemesis, Zurg. With its ever-changing camera angles and intricately rendered detail, the sequence cannot fail to dazzle. Equally impressive are scenes where the toys attempt a "safe" crossing of a busy street (using red cones) and Buzz's visit to the "Buzz Lightyear" aisle in a Toys 'R Us-type toy store. Parodies are kept to a minimum, although there's a funny takeoff on a key element of the Star Wars series in addition to a quick, throw-away moment lifted from Jurassic Park. The movie also pokes fun at its own merchandising, even going so far as to offer a blueprint for a possible Toy Story video game.

The camerawork is more interesting here than in either Toy Story or A Bug's Life. A real effort is made to duplicate the kinds of shots obtained though live-action cinematography. The camera moves around. There are distant shots and close ups. Lighting and filters are used to establish a mood (as in Jessie's remembrance of her days when she was a beloved toy). And there are times when techniques are employed to suggest a depth of field (such as making background objects slightly blurry).

Voice casting is as good the second time around as it was the first. The principals are all back - Tom Hanks as the irrepressible Woody; Tim Allen as the heroic Buzz; Don Rickles as Mr. Potatohead; John Ratzenberger as Hamm, the piggy bank who keeps losing his change; Jim Varney as the stretchable slinky dog; and Annie Potts as Woody's flame, Bo Peep. New additions include Joan Cusack as Jessie the Cowgirl; Kelsey Grammar (who has one of the most versatile voices in the business) as Stinky Pete the Prospector; Wayne Knight as the unscrupulous toy salesman Al; and The Little Mermaid herself, Jodi Benson, as Tour Guide Barbie.

With all the elements working in perfect concert, Toy Story 2 is a lot of fun. Viewers can expect a healthy dose of fast-moving action and broadly amusing comedy. And, although the primary thrust of the narrative is not drama, there is a moment of surprisingly affecting pathos where Jessie contemplates the pain of being outgrown by her child. It's a testimony to the skill of directors John Lasseter (who went solo on the original Toy Story), Lee Unkrich, and Ash Brannon that we develop such a strong bond with a group of computer generated toys. And, while Toy Story 2 isn't quite the achievement that its predecessor represented, it is nevertheless one of the best examples of family entertainment that 1999 has offered.