'I never get to do anything!' That's a phrase you're
likely to hear from a child in pretty much any given scenario. Well,
when you're dealing with a manchild such as myself who happens to be
an extreme Disney nerd, you'll find that exclamation quite common.
You see, despite such an esteemed title, this Disney nerd hasn't had
a great many opportunities to experience the magic of Walt Disney
World ' at least, not in the way he (aka I) prefer. Usually when I
visit a Disney park, I tend to take on the persona of a ragdoll. I'm
thrown about from attraction to attraction with nary a moment's rest
and with little say in the matter. My friends are so determined to
blitz to the most popular rides that not only do we often neglect my
more charming favorites (pretty much anything in Fantasyland), but I
don't have the opportunity to really take in what Disney has to
offer. That changed this year.
I got to visit Walt Disney World not once, not
twice, but thrice this year (and for those of you who wonder who the
heck says 'thrice' nowadays, I believe I just did). I'm not here to
tell you about those other two trips, however. My third trip is the
one this story is about and the one you're likely to find the most
interesting. It was my 10th visit to the 'most magical
place on earth,' and in a fitting way to commemorate that, it so
happened to become my first D23 event: Magic and Merriment.
The Magic and Merriment event began the morning of
December 9 when my friend Reuben and I made our way to the World
Showplace pavilion in Epcot. After standing in a line that moved as
quickly as an Ang Lee film, we finally made it inside and registered
for the proceedings. Waiting for us inside the large,
Christmas-decorated room were buffet tables hosting various
breakfast foods. Reuben, I'm sure, will discuss those in detail at a
later time (yes, Kids: he's THAT Reuben from our very own Sunday
Brunch articles). While he can surely do a thorough analysis of our
morning's content, all I can say is, 'Mmm, tasty colors.'
Sitting down at a table with four other D23 members,
we made some small talk before the presentations began. The theme of
the presentation was 'Sense of the Holidays,' and each panel was
associated with one of the five senses. As they didn't really tell
us which panel was associated with each sense, I'll do my best to
match them up. The first was 'Holiday D'cor' with Imagineer Alex
Caruthers and Holiday D'cor Manager Lisa Borotkanics, which I
suppose falls under 'sight.' The pair got up on the stage our tables
were surrounding and discussed the Christmas decorations you see in
various Disney parks and resort.
The most interesting story for me was the drama
caused by ABC's annual telecast of Mickey's Very Merry Christmas
Parade some years back. ABC decided they wanted a great money shot
of Main Street filmed up where the train station is. Unfortunately,
the American flag was in their way. They casually told the
Imagineers to relocate it, not realizing what an effort that
actually was. The flagpole wasn't designed to be mobile, so after
considerable effort in removing it, they ran into the challenge of
just where to place it. It was thought the area by City Hall would
be ideal'except there was the famous 'Sharing the Magic' statue of
Roy Disney and Minnie Mouse in the way. So it was decided the statue
would be moved towards the center of the street while the flagpole
(now designed to be mobile) would be moved to the statue's area by
City Hall, leaving the area wide open for the ABC crew. That wasn't
the end of the Imagineers' woes, though, as drama erupted over which
way the eagle on the top of the pole was to be facing (for those who
don't know, it's supposed to be point towards Washington D.C.). This
was just one of several anecdotes shared that made me appreciate the
hard work Disney cast members put into creating holiday festivities.
Following this, we were each given a different ornament replica of
the ones found on the Main Street tree.
The next panel was 'History of the Candlelight
Processional' with Disney Archivist Steven Vagnini (the 'sound'
aspect of the senses, I presume). While the previous presentation
mostly had the participants talking on stage, Vagnini was
accompanied by a slideshow that was projected onto two screens on
either side of the stage. He told us how the Candlelight
Processional actually started off in Disneyland with local high
school students making up a living Christmas tree. This continued
for several years before Disney's own cast members got involved and
turned the presentation into a caroling procession that finally
became the official Candlelight Processional in 1958. Many
fascinating photos from both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World
versions over the years were shown and accompanied by various trivia
facts such as Cary Grant holding the record for the most appearances
in the show. To go along with the 'sound' motif, we were given one
of two Disney Christmas CDs that featured early 90s read-alongs
accompanied with songs. Reuben and I received 'Ariel's Christmas
Under the Sea' while others got 'Mickey's Christmas Around the
World.' The CD actually brought back great memories for me as I used
to own the read-along book and cassette when I was a child (a real
child, mind you, not a manchild).
Following this was 'Creation of the Cinderella
Castle Dream Suite' (which I believe is the 'touch' panel).
Imagineer Gary Landrum, like the presenter before him, had a
slideshow to work with throughout the whole presentation. He pointed
how much he and his team studied the artwork for Cinderella, not
just in the final film but also Mary Blair's concept art. In fact,
they decided that since royalty often would commission a particular
artist to be official one for the royal family, that Mary Blair
would have that honor by having her concept pieces displayed
throughout the suite. Many design choices from both her and from
Dorothea Redmond's artwork used for the castle mosaic murals
downstairs were implemented into room. Unbelievably, the imagineers
only had about one year to complete the project, and Disney actually
announced the suite in a press release before even telling their own
staff. Other topics such as the challenge to embed modern technology
in a sort of Victorian style were also touched upon. As our 'touch'
gifts, we got a red scarf with the Magic and Merriment logo on it
along with a commemorative patch.

Then came the part of the presentation lineup I had
been looking forward to the most: 'The Walt Disney Christmas Show'
with Kathryn Beaumont. To make this the 'taste' aspect of the
presentations, we were given sugar cookies with green frosting and
sprinkles cut in the shape of Christmas trees. I inhaled mine and
bounced repeatedly in my seat, eager for the show to start. The
program had not been seen by the general public since its original
airdate of December 25, 1951 on CBS. For those who've seen Disney's
first television special, 'One Hour in Wonderland' found on the
Alice in Wonderland DVD and Blu-ray, will find 'The Walt Disney
Christmas Show' familiar. It starts with the same party room from
that special with the same sort of jovial atmosphere. This time,
though, we see Walt in front of an easel that's holding oversized
sketches of different Peter Pan characters. He's surrounded
by eager children wishing to know more, and they're joined by
Kathryn Beaumont dressed as her character of Wendy Moira Angela
Darling (though Wendy's enough), Paul Collins as John Darling, and
Tommy Luske as Michael. Appearing with a crow comes Peter Pan
himself, Bobby Driscoll.
Kathryn approaches the Magic Mirror (played once
again by her co-star Hans Conried, the voice of Captain Hook) and
asks him to present a clip for the attendees. He starts with the
classic Mickey Mouse short 'The Band Concert' from 1935. Following
this, the children at the party eagerly give suggestions to the
Mirror as to what he should play next. He's obviously proud of the
Disney film he co-starred in, for he chooses to play 'Whistle While
You Work' from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Because there are so
many international children at the party, they request him to play
the clip in their own native tongue. This proves to be a challenge
for the befuddled Mirror, but after some goading from Bobby/Peter,
he rises to the occasion and plays the scene in 10 different
languages. The children become so excited after seeing the clip that
they request to see the entire film, and the Mirror is just about to
oblige until a stern look from Walt reminds him to inform audiences
of Snow White's forthcoming re-issue in theaters. The group remains
satisfied regardless save for one little girl from India whose
language had been snubbed. Unable to resist her sad puppy eyes, the
Mirror relents and presents a clip from Bambi in Hindi. The scene,
showing Bambi's exploration of the forest for the first time, is
bizarre because unlike the usual Disney dub, the score has been
completely repurposed to the style of music found in India. It is
unclear whether this is indicative of the actual Hindi mix or
whether it was done just for the show.
While the Indian girl is appreciative of the
gesture, the rest of the children still want more. Walt informs them
all that the Mirror has been working hard all evening and that he
could use a break. The Mirror uses this window of opportunity to
bemoan how overworked and underpaid he is and that he has but one
request. Indicating a mysterious box lying on the table, he has Walt
open it to reveal a small hand mirror inside. It is explained that
this mirror is the Mirror's nephew, Willoughby, who's trying to
break into show business. The nephew is played by none other than
Bill Thompson, the voice of Smee. Walt wryly decides to give him an
audition right there on the spot, but the spluttering Willoughby has
difficulty performing. A coaching session follows where the Magic
Mirror sharply instructs him on how to summon the powers that be,
and while Willoughby's version of storm clouds sounds more like Mr.
Toad's motorcar engine, he manages to conjure up the 1936 short
'Donald and Pluto.' It is with this that the special ends, though
not before we reminded of two things: 1) that Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs is being re-released to theaters in the coming months,
and 2) that this special has been brought to you by Johnson &
Johnson, the leading brand in baby skincare. While I enjoyed the
special and was ecstatic to see something so rare (at least until it
inevitably shows up on the Peter Pan Blu-ray), I was a bit shocked
at how short it was. I honestly don't think it ran very much over 30
minutes, 40 tops. This is odd considering 'One Hour in Wonderland'
was about 55 minutes, and the closing remarks announcer on 'The Walt
Disney Christmas Show' makes reference to 'the past hour.' I suppose
in the year between both specials, commercial breaks significantly
increased.
With the close of the special came the real treat:
the Q&A discussion with Kathryn Beaumont. She sat on stage with the
host who asked her about her work on both Alice in Wonderland and
Peter Pan. Beaumont reminisced about the first time she ever met
Walt Disney. She was 10 and was invited to meet him in his office.
The whole thing was treated as a publicity event as several
photographers were there to snap photos. Walt ignored them and
invited Kathryn to sit with him on his couch. He pulled out a single
volume that held both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through
the Looking Glass, proceeding to go through each chapter and
explaining what he intended on keeping and what he was throwing out.
Beaumont recalls feeling very at ease at that point because he made
her feel like she was a part of the creative process since the
beginning.
She went on to discuss the crazy contraptions used
on her while she was filming the live-action reference footage. One
time, they fully constructed a model of the White Rabbit's house for
her to get inside of for the scene where Alice grows inside his
home. The animators argued that the model was useless because all
they could see were Kathy's arms and legs. They needed to be able to
see her torso and waist so they could fully understand how contorted
it would be inside the house. So the props department fashioned a
bare wooden frame in the shape of the house and slipped it over
Kathy. This made it easier for the animators to determine how Alice
would move.
Beaumont didn't really have time to let the weight
of the Alice publicity sink in. After the Friday premiere of the
film, she went back to the studio the following Monday to record as
Wendy for Peter Pan. She was terrified about working with Hans
Conried because she was a fan of his radio work for years. He was,
perhaps, the only voice artist she worked with whom she had a great
familiarity with beforehand. Luckily for her, Conried was very
accommodating and always worked closely with her during the
recording sessions.
In regards to the two Christmas specials, Beaumont
revealed that they were both filmed in the summer of their
respective years. Because of that, she was able to spend a lot of
time with the children who played extras in each, perhaps moreso
than with co-stars like Bobby Driscoll with whom she could only
spend a short while with before each of them was whisked away to
school each day. After filming 'The Walt Disney Christmas Show,' she
went back to the soundstage to get another look at the decorations.
She was disappointed to see that the decorations were already in the
process of being stored away. One of the crew members there noticed
this and asked her if she'd like to take some of the ornaments since
there were no future plans for them, anyway. She was delighted at
the opportunity and took several which she still has to this day.
Afterwards, she accepted questions from the
audience. At hearing this, my heart stopped, and my mind went racing
trying to think of something, anything just for the sake of
speaking with her. It seems my mind works faster when my heart fails
me, for I ended up being the first person to raise my hand with a
question. In my excitement to get the microphone handed to me, I
spoke too closely into it, resulting in a rather loud and echoey,
'Hi, Kathryn.' Ignoring the few background chuckles, I spoke far
enough from the mic to ask her if she remembers recording any scenes
or songs for either Alice or Peter than didn't make it into either
film. The same people who were snickering a few seconds earlier were
now going, 'Oooh' at my question, something no one else apparently
thought about. Kathy told me that she recorded a ton of material
that ended up not getting used, but that they weren't scenes so much
as lines. She said the reason for this was because unlike today
where actors are recorded separately, all the actors in a given
scene shared a booth with separate microphones. Because of this, a
lot of improvising went on, especially on Alice in Wonderland,
and the screenplays were flexible enough that almost every take
yielded something different.
Once the 'Sense of the Holidays' presentation ended,
we were told we could get a photo with Kathryn. This was the biggest
reason I attended this event since, as many of you reading this are
probably aware, I'm an obsessive Alice in Wonderland fan.
While she attends Disney events all the time, she rarely does so in
Florida, so the chance to meet her on what would be my 10th
Disney trip, my first D23 event, and the year of her film's 60th
anniversary was too perfect to pass up. I had bought myself a litho
of Alice falling down the rabbit hole for her to sign. I decided on
that particular one because I wanted her to sign an actual still
from the film, not an artist's interpretation of a scene. The rabbit
hole scene was ideal because not only is it iconic, but it was an
image that allowed Alice to be in the spotlight without dozens of
Wonderland denizens overshadowing her.
As I made my way in line, the photographer, Heather,
said that Kathryn wouldn't be able to sign autographs as it would
hold up the line. I understood and put my litho away. After several
people came and went, it was my turn. Here I was, meeting my first
Disney legend, and it was someone who has had a massive influence on
me for as long as I could remember. Kathryn smiled and greeted me as
I approached her. I told her what a huge fan I was and showed her
the Mad Hatter artwork on my t-shirt that has been obscured by my
event pass. She chuckled as she noted how cute she thought the shirt
was and how it needed to be seen for the photo. I swung my pass
around my neck and posed for the photo. As I thanked her, I told her
what an honor it was for me to finally meet her. She thanked me very
much for the compliment, and as Reuben went up to her to take his
photo, I thought to myself that if I couldn't get her autograph, at
least I got a photo.
We wandered around the room for a bit and took some
snapshots before we noticed two girls were waiting by the Kathryn
Beaumont line some ways off, and one of them had a massive poster of
Alice sleeping under the tree. We realized that they were going to
dare to ask for Kathryn's autograph once the line died down, so
Reuben and I decided to take the risk and wait next to the girls. We
figured we'd let them be guinea pigs and go first that way they
could be turned down instead of us. As the last person posed for a
photo and left, the girls approached the photographers and asked
about the autograph. I could tell by the look of unease on cast
members' faces that they weren't too crazy about the idea, and they
admitted that Kathryn needed to leave for lunch (as if someone as
superhuman as Kathryn Beaumont really needed nourishment). They
asked her, and to our relief, Kathryn said she'd gladly sign some
autographs. She made her way to one of the tables, and after
chatting a bit with the girls, invited Reuben and me over.
I felt rather guilty standing there as I knew I was
holding her up from lunch, and I apologized for imposing. She then
said, 'Don't worry about it' with an expression that seemed to
suggest that it was the Disney cast members who were making the big
deal about it and not her. I told her how much both Alice in
Wonderland and Peter Pan meant to me, Alice especially,
which I told her was my favorite Disney film. She looked up in
surprise and said, 'Really? Now that's interesting because most boys
I talk to tend to prefer Peter Pan.' 'Because of the
adventure and piracy,' I answered. She nodded, and I said that while
Peter Pan was up there on my favorite Disney film list,
Alice appealed to me more because of its surrealism and wit. 'It
is really witty, isn't it?' she replied with a twinkle in her
eye. She then asked if I wanted her to write anything in particular
on the litho. I was tempted to give her my name to personalize it,
but I felt as though I was already becoming the annoying fanboy who
wouldn't go away, so I told her to sign it however she preferred.
She signed her name and put 'Alice' beneath in a loopy signature
that was actually rather similar to the way the character signs it
in the parks. I walked away with my signed litho in hand unsure of
whether to bounce off the walls or collapse on the spot, so I just
sort of walked away in a contented daze.
For the next few hours, we had free time to explore
Epcot. While there was a lounge just for us on the second story of
Norway's Maelstrom building, we missed it while checking out
attractions. Well, I should say we half missed it. We figured we
missed the period to enjoy the refreshments up in the lounge based
on the time schedule we were given, but Reuben and I decided to give
it a shot, regardless. We asked a cast member about it, but they
stared at us blankly before asking another cast member. A few
minutes went by, and suddenly they were pointing us where to go. The
two of us went up a hidden elevator located near the gift shop and
found ourselves facing a very elegant and expansive ballroom-looking
locale. Unfortunately, all of the people and refreshments were gone,
but Reuben and I felt privileged just to be up there. It was a bit
surprising how easy it was for them to let us up there unescorted.
While we felt special for getting to explore the area on our own, we
didn't realize just how special we really were. After we came back
down, the cast member we had asked earlier asked us how was it up
there. She had never seen it, and apparently no one has recently.
The lounge used to be open for cast members to enjoy during their
breaks, but a few of them abused the privilege via horseplay, and
now the area is shut off to pretty much anyone. Reuben and I looked
at each stunned at just how exclusive that area truly was.
Later that evening, we headed to the Magic Kingdom
for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. Anyone who's been to this
event knows what to expect: free hot chocolate and cookies,
'Celebrate the Season' castle show, Mickey's Once Upon a
Christmastime Parade, and special Christmas versions of 'The Magic,
the Memories, and You' and 'Wishes!' fireworks spectacular. So what
was different about it for people attending D23's Magic and
Merriment event? We got a reserved area for us in Liberty Square by
Sleepy Hollow that gave us a great view of the parade. They also
brought the cookies to us instead of us having to go get them as the
designated sections. We ran into Heather, the photographer from
earlier, again. She had us take a picture as if we were crazy
excited to be there. We were, of course, but walking around a Disney
park all day can make you look a bit ragged, hence the instructions.
The photo ended up on the official D23 website, so either Disney
found the two of us a glamorous representation of their fanbase, or
they were so horrified by what they had seen that they figured
someone could use it for one of those prank videos where you stare a
still image for a while before something terrifying jumps at you.
I'm inclined to think the former, and that's what I'm sticking to.
We later caught an enjoyably campy show in
Tomorrowland called 'A Totally Tomorrowland Christmas' in which
Stitch attempts a Lock-Shock-and-Barrel by kidnapping Santa Claus
(Buzz Lightyear and Mike Wazowski also made appearances). While
enjoying it all amidst a cool evening breeze, I got to meet my two
favorite princesses (Cinderella and Belle) and their beaus (Prince
Charming and the Beast). Cinderella pointed out to me the fact that
we're technically neighbors since I live in Florida, and Belle
invited me over to her library to share a book sometime. Character
meeting is one of those things I usually don't get to do while
visiting the parks since the people I go with don't care for it
much. That made the two meetings very memorable.
Since this was my first time at a Disney park at
Christmas time, what was common place for many people was new and
special for me. Seeing the dream lights on Cinderella castle gave me
chills, and the numerous decorations on Main Street were almost
overwhelming. It's an overused adjective by Disney's marketing team,
but Walt Disney World is a magical place. I always thought it felt
even more magical at night for some reason, and seeing it at night
with all of the holiday splendor increased the magic quotient by
several notches. As snow fell on me while walking down Main Street,
I reflected upon my day and decided that this was one of the best
trips to Walt Disney World I had ever made, and it was only halfway
over'