Just a short little post today. I'm hoping the next one will be the completed map of the Magic Kingdom (which, at the moment, I'm about 40% done with), but another text-based post might beat it out instead. I'm also attempting to branch out a little more from Disney right now, and I figured that M*A*S*H would be as good a place as any to really start.
Laughin' Place: Redefining Disney
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M*A*S*H ends earlier here because by 1981 ITTL, basically every actor on it that left IOTL is fed up with the show, and since the higher-ups are too afraid to cut anyone, it just ends.
The Island at the Top of the World
"The Island at the Top of the World was the beginning of the Live-Action Disney Renaissance. While the true renaissance of Disney animated films wouldn't begin until 1976's Snow Queen, this was the point where the live-action movies went from quick cash-grabs to well-defined, cohesive stories that hooked the watchers. It also marks the genesis of the entertainment industry's first-ever expanded universe that the new millenium would be so defined by, although they didn't know it yet..."
-- Excerpt from the post "The Island at the Top of the Box Office," from the blog The Mouseterpiece, January 16, 2017
"With the flick doing so well, there's no way Walt will ignore Discovery Bay after we're through with EPCOT."
-- Tony Baxter, Imagineer at WED in a discussion with mentor Claude Coats
"This ain't the first time the Hyperion's gone down. I'm pretty experienced with it, at this point, after she was shot to pieces over Discovery Bay."
-- Captain Brieux, observing the Hyperion going up in flames over Astragard
The movie opens in 1907 New York City, with protagonist Anthony Ross hearing word of his older brother Donald's disappearance on a whaling expedition in the Arctic. Refusing to believe that he is dead, Ross hastily arranges passage by way of steamer to London, where he meets Professor John Ivarsson (played by John Hurt) and the eccentric Frenchman Captain Brieux (Jaques Marin). Enlisting their help, the movie's trio is complete, consisting of the rags-to-riches tycoon who must rediscover his roots, a somewhat socially awkward archaeologist who seems more at home in his ancient ruins and tomes than modern Edwardian reality, and a Doc Brown-type wacky inventor. These three consistently bounce jokes off of each other throughout the story, and while they never really have a heart-to-heart moment, it's plain to see they still care for each other at least a little. Back in London, Ross and Ivarsson don't truly believe in the existence of his supposed airship until they lay their eyes upon it in the most iconic scene of the movie and the inspiration for the poster. The three of them pass before the setting sun in silhouette, looking out at the Hyperion airship, which hangs above the city and is tethered to Big Ben.
From there, a transition scene takes the dirigible across Scandinavia and Canada before arriving in the Arctic, working very similarly to the iconic map transitions of OTL Indiana Jones. Immediately after that scene, Ivarsson drops some exposition and describes the fabled island that whales go to die, apparently straight out of Norse mythology. It's named Astragard, and has been hidden from humanity's ever-widening reach since ancient times. This is where Ross believes his brother went, as he'd always been desperate to find the biggest and best whales to hunt (he'd grown up on Moby Dick) and would've dropped everything to seek out a place like that. At their final stop on the mainland, Ross and Brieux leave the ship in the hands of the professor to explore and get supplies from the frozen-over town of Frostbite. While in town, they trick a native Eskimo named Oomiak (played by Mako Iwamatsu), who somehow knows Donald well, to help them out in navigating by paying him off with worthless trinkets. He leads them to the uncharted island they seek, a place he's only ever observed from distant ice floes. Immediately upon landing, the group is attacked on all sides and dragged off to a hidden city built into the insides of a massive ice cavern.
Upon arrival to the city, Ross and Oomiak are thrown in prison while their attackers take away the captain and professor, the former kicking and screaming in a mixture of English and French. In prison, Ross and his brother Donald (Donald Sinden, minus a British accent) reunite, and the latter drops more exposition bombs as he tells the others about the natives, who are actually a group of Vikings separated from the mainland for eons. They're out of their collective minds, and led by the fanatical soothsayer/sorcerer Godi (Gunnar Öhlund). Godi orders the execution of his prisoners by being burned at the stake, and Ross, Donald, and Oomiak are saved at just the last minute by a brave and beautiful Viking girl named Freyja, also Donald's new fiancee, then run from the Vikings as fast as they can. The group is backed into a corner at the Whale Graveyard, the chanting Viking warriors and Godi in front of them and ravenous killer whales behind them. All hope seems lost until Captain Brieux and the professor reappear aboard the Hyperion, dropping a rope ladder for them to cling to as the airship flies away triumphantly... when it all comes crashing down. Godi grabs the bow of one of his archers and launches a flaming arrow at the Hyperion, causing the dirigible to explode and sending the whole cast of heroes back down to the island. As the others hold off the army, Ross faces down Godi man-to-man in a sword duel. It's by the villain's overconfidence that he manages to fall into the swirling, freezing rapids below after a harrowing sword fight up the side of a mountain. Godi's death breaks the spell of hypnosis the sorcerer had cast over the island, revealing the inhabitants to actually be quite peaceful. However, they still won't allow the expedition to leave unless they keep one of the members as hostage--an insurance, of sorts. Ivarsson immediately volunteers, seeing this as the chance to live out history. The film ends with the professor waving off Ross, Donald, Freyja, Brieux, and Oomiak, as they set sail from the island on Donald's ship and into the swirling fog, awaiting what new adventures could be out there...
The Island at the Top of the World outperformed Disney's internal expectations significantly. In the worldwide box office, it grossed almost $200 million with budget and expectations both set at a fifth of that. It made Disney seriously reconsider its approach to live-action as well, and began its shift towards the quality seen in their animated features. While no sequel was put into the works (Redford didn't want to make another movie), it did inspire a mildly successful comic book series named The Lost Ones, which followed the exploits of the main characters after the movie, and later The Explorer's Club, a comic series set in the late-Victorian era and following valiant adventurers all loosely connected by one thin strand...
-- Excerpt from the post "The Island at the Top of the Box Office," from the blog The Mouseterpiece, January 16, 2017
"With the flick doing so well, there's no way Walt will ignore Discovery Bay after we're through with EPCOT."
-- Tony Baxter, Imagineer at WED in a discussion with mentor Claude Coats
"This ain't the first time the Hyperion's gone down. I'm pretty experienced with it, at this point, after she was shot to pieces over Discovery Bay."
-- Captain Brieux, observing the Hyperion going up in flames over Astragard
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The Island at the Top of the World is very different from its OTL counterpart in sheer quality, but not so much its story. Some great liberties were taken with the source material, the novel The Lost Ones, but many would say for the better. Starring Robert Redford (at Walt's desire for more experienced actors to carry the film) straight off the heels of The Great Gatsby, the movie's hero is no longer a British aristocrat but an American adventurer who got rich off the Klondike Gold Rush.
The movie opens in 1907 New York City, with protagonist Anthony Ross hearing word of his older brother Donald's disappearance on a whaling expedition in the Arctic. Refusing to believe that he is dead, Ross hastily arranges passage by way of steamer to London, where he meets Professor John Ivarsson (played by John Hurt) and the eccentric Frenchman Captain Brieux (Jaques Marin). Enlisting their help, the movie's trio is complete, consisting of the rags-to-riches tycoon who must rediscover his roots, a somewhat socially awkward archaeologist who seems more at home in his ancient ruins and tomes than modern Edwardian reality, and a Doc Brown-type wacky inventor. These three consistently bounce jokes off of each other throughout the story, and while they never really have a heart-to-heart moment, it's plain to see they still care for each other at least a little. Back in London, Ross and Ivarsson don't truly believe in the existence of his supposed airship until they lay their eyes upon it in the most iconic scene of the movie and the inspiration for the poster. The three of them pass before the setting sun in silhouette, looking out at the Hyperion airship, which hangs above the city and is tethered to Big Ben.
From there, a transition scene takes the dirigible across Scandinavia and Canada before arriving in the Arctic, working very similarly to the iconic map transitions of OTL Indiana Jones. Immediately after that scene, Ivarsson drops some exposition and describes the fabled island that whales go to die, apparently straight out of Norse mythology. It's named Astragard, and has been hidden from humanity's ever-widening reach since ancient times. This is where Ross believes his brother went, as he'd always been desperate to find the biggest and best whales to hunt (he'd grown up on Moby Dick) and would've dropped everything to seek out a place like that. At their final stop on the mainland, Ross and Brieux leave the ship in the hands of the professor to explore and get supplies from the frozen-over town of Frostbite. While in town, they trick a native Eskimo named Oomiak (played by Mako Iwamatsu), who somehow knows Donald well, to help them out in navigating by paying him off with worthless trinkets. He leads them to the uncharted island they seek, a place he's only ever observed from distant ice floes. Immediately upon landing, the group is attacked on all sides and dragged off to a hidden city built into the insides of a massive ice cavern.
Upon arrival to the city, Ross and Oomiak are thrown in prison while their attackers take away the captain and professor, the former kicking and screaming in a mixture of English and French. In prison, Ross and his brother Donald (Donald Sinden, minus a British accent) reunite, and the latter drops more exposition bombs as he tells the others about the natives, who are actually a group of Vikings separated from the mainland for eons. They're out of their collective minds, and led by the fanatical soothsayer/sorcerer Godi (Gunnar Öhlund). Godi orders the execution of his prisoners by being burned at the stake, and Ross, Donald, and Oomiak are saved at just the last minute by a brave and beautiful Viking girl named Freyja, also Donald's new fiancee, then run from the Vikings as fast as they can. The group is backed into a corner at the Whale Graveyard, the chanting Viking warriors and Godi in front of them and ravenous killer whales behind them. All hope seems lost until Captain Brieux and the professor reappear aboard the Hyperion, dropping a rope ladder for them to cling to as the airship flies away triumphantly... when it all comes crashing down. Godi grabs the bow of one of his archers and launches a flaming arrow at the Hyperion, causing the dirigible to explode and sending the whole cast of heroes back down to the island. As the others hold off the army, Ross faces down Godi man-to-man in a sword duel. It's by the villain's overconfidence that he manages to fall into the swirling, freezing rapids below after a harrowing sword fight up the side of a mountain. Godi's death breaks the spell of hypnosis the sorcerer had cast over the island, revealing the inhabitants to actually be quite peaceful. However, they still won't allow the expedition to leave unless they keep one of the members as hostage--an insurance, of sorts. Ivarsson immediately volunteers, seeing this as the chance to live out history. The film ends with the professor waving off Ross, Donald, Freyja, Brieux, and Oomiak, as they set sail from the island on Donald's ship and into the swirling fog, awaiting what new adventures could be out there...
The Island at the Top of the World outperformed Disney's internal expectations significantly. In the worldwide box office, it grossed almost $200 million with budget and expectations both set at a fifth of that. It made Disney seriously reconsider its approach to live-action as well, and began its shift towards the quality seen in their animated features. While no sequel was put into the works (Redford didn't want to make another movie), it did inspire a mildly successful comic book series named The Lost Ones, which followed the exploits of the main characters after the movie, and later The Explorer's Club, a comic series set in the late-Victorian era and following valiant adventurers all loosely connected by one thin strand...
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You know, with a more conservative Disney animated scene, I hope some other company - like Warner Bros. - steps up their game to fill in the void.
It's fine. Errors happen. I wish you a happy new year.
You said earlier that they are only willing to draw on fairy tales rather than trying to branch out to more original ideas.
Admiral Halsey
Banned
Which I still say is a bad idea. Look at Disney OTL. Some of the most amazing stories they've made haven't been fairy tales at all.
Oh, I thought I'd clarified this earlier. What I meant was that, while they'll be focusing mostly on fairytales and legends ITTL (also like OTL, for the most part), they'll also be branching out into new, original IPs, if a bit less often. I mean, there are only so many legends to reimagine, so they'd have to eventually.
Also, Disney will be having more fun and creative license with these stories ITTL. Think more in the vein of the sorta-connected-to-its-source-material-but-not-really Lion King or Tangled as opposed to a basically straight up adaptation like Cinderella or Peter Pan.
Admiral Halsey
Banned
Ok that's more then fair. Also I know you said neither Treasure Planet, Atlantis or Lilo and Stich would come out of Disney but maybe have them be the major franchises to Disney's main rival TTL?
I may have reversed my verdict for butterflying one of those movies (but I won't say which has been saved). And just FYI, Disney's main rival won't be showing up TTL until the 1980s. The 1970s and even early 80s is their era of unrivaled dominance.
Admiral Halsey
Banned
If it isn't TP I really hope it's a PG-13 Atlantis. I remember reading how it was supposed to be Disney's first darker more adult movie then the guys upstairs got scared of it failing and ordered it to be made PG. Which ironically due to the butchering needed to make it that rating is what made it fail.
Ooh, I didn't know that. Interesting. I'd say it's still a pretty dark movie by Disney standards after the butchering anyways, especially some of the deaths of the villains in it.
Admiral Halsey
Banned
Yeah Atlantis was originally supposed to be PG-13 and was supposed to be a lot darker as well. But yeah the higher ups got scared ordered it to be made PG and what we got OTL is the result. Hell an example is the fight with Rourke at the end. His monster form was actually supposed to bleed and IIRC Helga was supposed to have killed him by shooting him in that form.
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