MousePlanet staff writer Jeff Kober responds to questions on his recent columns “Leading Disney on Parade” (January 22, 2009) and “So You Want To Be On American Idol at Walt Disney World?” (January 23, 2009).
Dianne S. writes:
I remember taking my daughters, nieces, nephews, sister and cousins to see Disney on Parade at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute field house in Troy, New York. The show came once a year for several years, then all of a sudden it stopped. Can you tell me if it is still in production and where they are touring? By the way my daughters are 39 and 41 so you know how long ago that was. The shows were great.
No, unfortunately, it is not still in production. It only ran for four seasons, mostly in the 1970s. Of course, there is so much coming to your home town or nearby than ever before. That currently includes:
Disney Live:
- Disney Live: Winnie the Pooh
- Disney Live: Mickey’s Magic Show
- Playhouse Disney: Live on Tour
Disney on Ice:
- Disney on Ice: Worlds of Fantasy
- Disney on Ice: Disneyland Adventures
- Disney on Ice: 100 Years of Magic
- Disney on Ice: Mickey & Minnie’s Magical Journey
On Tour:
- The Lion King on Tour
- Mary Poppins soon on Tour
So while there will never be another Disney on Parade quite like that show, we are fortunate to have many other Disney events coming to our home town. And that’s fortunate, since not all of us can get out to a Disney park so often.
Cathy S. writes:
Hope things are going well post-MouseFest. It really was fun to meet you!
I had a “full disclosure” type question for you on the article about the American Idol Show. Are you a fan of the TV show, and how big of a fan?
Personally, I can take or leave the show, and usually leave it, and I just don’t see myself sitting through a show. You said it would be enjoyable for audience members, but even audience members who aren’t a fan of the show?
I’m sure I’ll go at least once to get my own opinion, but my expectation will be somewhat like the New Tiki Room—I had to see it to see what it was like, and will see it every 2 – 3 years to verify that I still don’t like it, but not every trip. I anticipate I’ll spend my ‘watching singers’ time allotment on another set of Voices of Liberty.
Well, Voices of Liberty is a great performance any day of the week. I’ll grant you that!
I watched a considerable amount of the first couple of shows. After that I really didn’t care. And I couldn’t name more than 2-3 singers on the show. That was not a draw for me.
I think what makes this work is that they are real people–no Disney people. And assuming that they really can get some great talent to audition, it should be a fairly great show. The problem I had was not with the talent, but with the “stuff” that went on with the show, like music videos of American Idol singers and so forth. Plus the banter of the judges was a real turn off. But the performances made me really want to go back and see the show again.
It’s interesting, because the Studios have been about “shows” for some time. I remember when you could go see Beauty and the Beast, Doug Live, The Little Mermaid, and Hunchback of Notre Dame (the best show of any of them in my mind). But it was a bit much. I think this is actually a little bit more like SuperStar Television. Only this time, people on stage have some actual talent. The other show just showcased really confused tourists on stage. But this show offers something real–real talented people. And like the Voices of Liberty, you may be somewhat inspired the experience.
The next group of letters are to contributing writer Chris Barry, in response to his Disney Stuff column that discusses Disney collectibles.
Barry Allender writes:
Hello, it’s Barry Allender from Tomart’s Disneyana Update Magazine. I was wondering if you collect anything Vintage Disney 1960s or earlier, I would love to read about some thing other than today’s collectibles. I specialize in vintage. That’s mostly what I have collected for the last 40 years.
I don’t have too much vintage, a few odds and ends, but I do want to start delving into that in future articles, so I definitely want to read your stuff and talk to you about some vintage collectibles. There’s a great store here on Long Island that’s going out of business, and it’s loaded with vintage stuff. I want to do a piece on the owner and his business and some of his favorite collectibles, so that should be coming up.
Thanks for reading Barry. It means a lot from one writer to another. I still love the magazine and hope to cross paths with you someday.
Tarja H. writes:
We are collecting “Disney 100 years of magic figures” here in Finland, Scandinavia, too! It is very difficult, because most sellers in eBay do not ship worldwide. We have bought 45 figures from Sweden. We would like to find eight favourites (Donald, Daisy, Uncle Mc Scrooge, Panchito, Penguin, Robin Hood, Chip and Dale). But it seems impossible at the moment. Our little Laura (2.5 years) is a fan of these figures. She was operated last year because of her difficult epilepsy and is now getting better. Also her brother Ilari (5.5 years) likes Disney figures.
I would love to help you out. If you respond with your address, I can see if some of the vendors I have used would ship to you. My ten-year-old daughter, Samantha, especially wants to help Laura add to her collection, from one collector to another.
I think it’s awesome that I have a reader in Finland!
MousePlanet CEO Adrienne Vincent -Phoenix answer’s reader Jim H.‘s question about Disneyland music:
Do you know the name of the person (a woman) that sings the song Two Brothers? I believe the song is (was) also used in the American Adventure in Epcot. Thanks in advance for your help.
Back in 2001, contributing writer Jason Schultz wrote an article about Disneyland Music for MousePlanet, and these were his notes about the song:
The song “Two Brothers” was originally used in America Adventure in Epcot at Walt Disney World. When the Lincoln show was refurbished, “Two Brothers” and another song from American Adventure (“Golden Dream”) were worked into the show. The version used in the Disney Parks is sung by Colombian folksinger Alicia Almo. The song existed well before it was used for American Adventure, however. It was written by Irving Gordon (more famous for the “Who’s on First” routine he wrote for Abbott and Costello) and is also known as “One Wore Blue and One Wore Gray.”
Staff writer Andrew Rich responds to reader Pamela, who wonders about the new monorails:
My hubby and I are Annual Passholders and we went to Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure on Sunday, January 18th. It was a warm day with temperatures in the mid-80s. We were disappointed to find out the Monorail closed down shortly after noon and we were told that “…due to the heat…” the Monorail would be closed until “…it cools down some.” Are the new Monorails that delicate? I can only imagine what summer will be like.
Also, last year we went on the Sunday of Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and it was pretty empty. This time definitely more people and the lines were long whereas they were not last year. I believe this “What Will You Celebrate” theme will make this year pretty much busy any time. We saw countless birthday buttons combined with FIrst Visit buttons on people and others in their party.
It’s not that the new Monorails are delicate, it’s that the flawed window design and lack of air conditioning makes the interiors uninhabitable if the outside temperature gets too high. Imagineers are working on solutions; temporarily, Monorail Red will have sliding windows installed. Unfortunately it appears that air conditioning cannot be added to the Monorails for various technical reasons. There’s an active discussion on this topic in the Disneyland section of MousePlanet’s MousePad discussion boards.
Thanks for the crowd level information–our readers always like to know how busy the parks are on any given day.
Finally, reader Betsy O. adds to the above report with her own information on crowd levels over Martin Luther King weekend:
I noticed that you mentioned it was crowded at the park over Martin Luther King weekend. Did you know that at roughly 3:30 pm on Saturday they closed the Mickey and Friends parking structure? Or that the last spots in the structure were along the lanes in front of/next to the ticket booths? Just thought you might find that interesting.
