Laughin' Place: Redefining Disney

[HeX]

@HeX Who's in the voice cast of the film? Are there any songs?

I'm not well-versed in the world of voice acting, so I'd be willing to take suggestions on that.

As for songs, there are quite a few. This movie is the transition between the Silver Age of Disney animated features and the Disney Renaissance (the Bronze Age is very short, and usually is lumped in with the Renaissance, mainly featuring only the pre-Beauty Aristocats, which was met with middling reviews and led to the restructuring of the Disney movie), meaning it's almost a musical in the vein of OTL Little Mermaid, but not quite there yet.

 

[Pokemon Master]

I'm not well-versed in the world of voice acting, so I'd be willing to take suggestions on that.

As for songs, there are quite a few. This movie is the transition between the Silver Age of Disney animated features and the Disney Renaissance (the Bronze Age is very short, and usually is lumped in with the Renaissance, mainly featuring only the pre-Beauty Aristocats, which was met with middling reviews and led to the restructuring of the Disney movie), meaning it's almost a musical in the vein of OTL Little Mermaid, but not quite there yet.

gotcha, but I doubt any of the songs from the OTL movie exist here

 

[HeX]

gotcha, but I doubt any of the songs from the OTL movie exist here

You would be correct in that statement.

 

[HeX]

(Edit: This post is no longer canonical to the greater timeline of Laughin' Place)

Mickey Mouse in his first well-known appearance, as the captain in Steamboat Willie

The only drawing ever made by Walt Disney himself with both Mickey Mouse (left) and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (right)​

It was 1928. Walt Disney had just lost the rights to his character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Stories differ on how the event went down, but the most popular legend is that on the long train ride home from New York to LA, Walt picked up his pen, and drew Mickey Mouse for the very first time. After a rough start with Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho, the mouse really took off with Steamboat Willie, the first synchronized sound cartoon. Throughout the 1930s, he took the world by storm, the Mickey Mouse Club fanclub swelling by a million members. In 1935 what many consider to be the greatest cartoon ever made, The Band Concert, debuted, pitting mouse and Donald Duck head to head. While this marked a turning point in Disney history (Donald quickly became more popular as a temperamental guy who never thought things through and didn't play by the rules), Mickey stayed the flagship of Walt Disney Studios. He dwindled in fame, however, until 1940's Fantasia, where he appeared in perhaps the most popular segment of the film, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," attempting (and failing) to control a bunch of enchanted brooms hauling water.

Mickey front-and-center on the original movie poster for Fantasia (1940), dressed in his garb from the "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment​

In 1942, Mickey won an Oscar for his appearance in the Pluto cartoon Lend a Paw. Other than that, though, he almost disappeared for a while. Donald, Goofy, and Pluto had usurped him in popularity. It seemed the Age of the Mouse had ended.

Mickey pulling a frozen Pluto out of a well in the Academy Award-winning short Lend a Paw (1941)
​

Come 1955, Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California. Mickey, Minnie, and all their pals were represented in nightmare-fuel costumes worn by Cast Members. Over time these costumes were improved upon, so that kids who meet Mickey aren't scarred for life. In 1970, Mickey's Revue opened with the Magic Kingdom in Fantasyland. It was the first attraction to star the mouse, as an Audio-Animatronic musical show with Mickey as the conductor. Mickey's Revue was the last major appearance of Mickey Mouse in any real sense until 1990.

Would you leave your kids with these monstrosities? I mean, who thought these things were a good idea?​

That year marked the first real appearance of Mickey on the big screen in forty years, in the full-length animated feature film Mouse in the House. While full-color, it was drawn and made in the style of the 1930s classic Mickey cartoons, and featured long-forgotten characters (Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow) alongside newer ones (Goofy, Donald). In the movie, Minnie is kidnapped by Pegleg Pete and Sylvester Shyster (a villain of the Floyd Gottfredson comic strips[1]). The ensuing plot takes Mickey all across the world, from Mouseton to Duckburg, New York to Paris, the American West to the jungles of the Congo, by planes, trains, and automobiles. The final battle somewhat resembles the classic short Shanghaied (1934), with Mickey dueling Pete in the rigging of his pirate ship, while the mouse's pals took on Shyster and the crew on the deck below.

The world hit a vein of Mickey-mania unseen since his heyday from that point forward. The mouse was back on top, his merchandise outselling all of the Disney Princesses combined. He now has three attractions based around him at the Disney Parks (Mickey Mousecapade [at Disneyland, Disney World, EuroDisney, Disneyland Rio, Disneyland Sydney, and Disneytropolis], The Rivers of Time [at Disneyland, EuroDisney, and Disneytropolis], and Into the Inkwell [at Disney World, Disneyland Hong Kong, Disneyland Singapore, and coming soon to Disneyland Cairo]). A hit video game debuted in 2015, the sixtieth anniversary of Disneyland, named The Epic of Mickey[2], following Mickey Mouse and his brother Oswald through a world of forgotten things of Disney's rich past. Today, on November 18, 2018, it is the ninetieth anniversary of the debut of Steamboat Willie. A special show in honor of the event, Mickey's Philharmagic, is being shown in every Disney Park and in select theaters worldwide, along with birthday celebrations and decorations at all the Parks and even the studio in Burbank.

The House of Mouse is here, going strong, for now and forever.

---------------------------​

[1]: As a kid, I stumbled across a compendium of Floyd Gottfredson comic strips in the library that I proceeded to read several hundred times. His classics from the Thirties are what got me into Carl Barks' Donald Duck as well.

[2]: ATL version of my favorite video game of all time, Epic Mickey. It's literally the reason I'm here writing this right now, because if my second grade self hadn't picked the game off the shelf at Target, then I wouldn't have chosen to do a biography on Walt Disney in the third grade right before I went to WDW for the second time... really, it was a perfect storm of Disney that knocked my socks off and now I'm obsessed, and have been for upwards of seven years now. So I just had to put in a version of it. I recommend checking it out if you're as much of a Disney nerd as I am, but keep in mind OTL it's a Wii exclusive.

And... that's that. Happy birthday, Mickey!

 

[HeX]

And... that's that. Happy birthday, Mickey!

And, uh, ignore those attached files at the bottom there. I had a few technical difficulties.

 

[HeX]

Roy O. Disney's Office, Burbank, CA
July 8, 1972

"I honestly can't believe how well Beauty is doing," muttered Roy Disney, sifting through a pile of the latest box office and critical reviews of the most recent film of the studio's.

Walt cracked a smile. "I told you it'd all go well. Money's never an issue, not with Disneyland and Disney World doing so well."

"Money's never an issue because I'm always the one handling it. Without me, you'd never have gotten Snow White off the ground."

"C'mon, the crowds can't get enough of us! I've heard kids at Disney World who wish they could live there forever. No school, no work, just magic. It's great we get to make that dream a reality with E.P.C.O.T." exclaimed Walt.

Silence. The living legend spun around, hoping to hear the reassuring "That's right!" from his older brother, but instead found Roy avoiding eye contact and twiddling his thumbs.

"Uh..." he cleared his throat. "About that..."

Walt's eyes narrowed. "You don't think I can do it."

"Well, no, I just--"

"Really? After all this? After Mickey and Donald and Snow White and Disneyland and Beauty? If we can dream it, we can do it, that's what I always say. It's in our grasp! The world of tomorrow--today!"

"Yes, but that's the problem. Tomorrow always reaches today far too quickly. E.P.C.O.T. will be outdated within the decade, and technology corporations haven't exactly been cooperative as of late. Just look at what happened to the House of the Future in Disneyland. It was revolutionary at the time--everything all made of plastic, the microwave inside a bragging point. And now look! Every house has a microwave, two TVs and a top-notch refrigerator! What if what happened to the House happens to E.P.C.O.T.? Are we just going to leave an entire city and several million dollars to rot in a Floridian swamp?"

Roy realized he was standing, and almost yelling at the top of his lungs. As much as Walt wanted to disagree, stand up and say no, he knew he was right. His vision entailed too much. High Florida water tables meant that the entire project would have to be built above ground level, in order to incorporate the traffic tunnels he so desired under the city, then the dirt would have to be raised to street level. It was the Utilidor at the Magic Kingdom, but on steroids, and it cost a lot. That didn't even include all the issues with getting in new prototype technologies annually from potentially aloof companies... it would be a total nightmare. And then there was the fact that his utopia could flop. Failure had never been something he feared, but this wasn't a movie or even a theme park. People were entrusting their livelihoods to him, in hopes of a grand city to reside in.

"You're right."

Roy was taken aback.

"I'm what?"

"You're right," Walt repeated. "...What do we do now?"

"Look, why don't you go home, collect your thoughts, and you can get together with WED to think something else up. Another theme park, perhaps."

Another theme park... thought Walt.

-------------------------------------​

At one in the morning, Walt Disney woke up with a start. Had this been one of his cartoons, a massive light bulb would've appared over his head. Careful not to disturb Lilly, the seventy-one year old Walt slid out of bed and dashed downstairs with the vigor of a man half his age.

All through the night, Walt toiled away at his desk. Ideas flashed through his mind, taking hold then quickly slapped away by newer, fresher ones. Better ones.

The World's Fair... A great big beautiful tomorrow... If we can dream it, we can do it... There's always something over the horizon...

Come morning, Walt admired his handiwork. From the ground up, he had redesigned his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow into the EPCOT Center, a brand-new theme park unlike anything else ever seen before, based less in lands and more in ideas, in what humanity has done, is doing, can do, and how they're doing it differently.

He quickly slung on some work clothes and sprinted out the door. Walt Disney had work to do.

 

[HeX]

Hi. I just figured I'd let you guys know that the way I'm doing posts will be a little bit different from now on. I'd been attempting to go in chronological order for this whole thing, but my maps of the parks take a very, very long time, especially considering how little free time I have at the moment.

So, I'll be putting up text-only posts for the time being, still in chronological order. All the maps will come whenever they're finished. So, for instance, my map of MK might be out when I've hit the late 70s even though it opened in 1970.

That being said, this means far shorter "dry periods" of content as well.

 

[Seandineen]

How would Walt relate to our personal computer world?

 

[HeX]

How would Walt relate to our personal computer world?

I think he'd love it. He was always looking forwards to the next big thing in technology (during the 1950s, Walt was the only of the big Hollywood movie moguls to embrace TV, rather than see it as a foe, and it really helped hype up Disneyland with a show on ABC of the same name), so a personal computer would be a dream come true for him.

 

[Seandineen]

I am glad to hear you say that. I had a crazy dream about a refugee center-theme park sort of an Asian Epcot in a surviving non communist Laos.

 

[HeX]

I am glad to hear you say that. I had a crazy dream about a refugee center-theme park sort of an Asian Epcot in a surviving non communist Laos.

Excuse me?

That's the greatest thing I've ever heard.

 

[Seandineen]

As a chair user, I’ve always felt good at doing these experts said not to.
Walt is like that, innovative

 

[HeX]

Yep. And that plays a very large role in this timeline, sooner rather than later, hopefully.

 

[Seandineen]

Knowing how anti communist he was, I can picture a joint project. Disney, Louis Meyer, Pepsi tycoon Donald Kendall, to name just a few. Designing a recreation reorientation project in vienitine Laos.

 

[OldNavy1988]

How much longer does Walt live ITTL?

I'm curious to learn how he'll react to Ren and Stimpy.

 

[Seandineen]

Hope I didn’t offend.

 

[OldNavy1988]

@Seandineen

None taken.

 

[HeX]

He lives until somewhere between 1998 and 2001. Lilly didn't die until 1997 IOTL (something I was very surprised about when I found out), so Walt, who was two years younger than her, could easily live to 1999. I think him getting to see the new millenium would be a fitting end to his life, the future horizon he always dreamed of finally reaching him, but the image of Walt on a float in a parade through Disneyland on his 100th birthday might be too good to pass up.

 

[Seandineen]

The idea came from the designation of Vietnam military headquarters as Disneyland east.
Laotian warlord Vang pao, once told cia Chief Bill Colby I want to make my homeland into an Asian Disney. The very sharp pro western folk, desired a taste of bliss, for the lost and broken.

 

[HeX]

The idea came from the designation of Vietnam military headquarters as Disneyland east.
Laotian warlord Vang pao, once told cia Chief Bill Colby I want to make my homeland into an Asian Disney. The very sharp pro western folk, desired a taste of bliss, for the lost and broken.

Interesting. If you're good at making maps, I'd recommend you make one and put it in the Map Thread. It's such a cool idea that it deserves something like that.