Disney Magazine

By Justin Smith

Today I thought I'd give you a little history about the defunct Disney Magazine.

Disney Magazine first appeared as Disney News in 1965. Eventually changing its name to Disney Magazine in 1994, Disney Magazine would update Disney fans seasonally about the new things that would come out at Disney. But Disney Magazine didn't just update us with news. The magazine also gave us treasures such as the "Ask Dave" a column run by Disney Legend Dave Smith in which he would respond to questions by Disney fans across the globe (as well as challenge other Disney fans with trivia questions of his own).

It gave us interviews of various Disney legends.

Showed us Hidden Mickeys.

And had fans give us their own personal insights and stories about why Disney is so great.

It even had some unexpected surprises in it. For example, one of my favorite memories about the magazine was an article explaining "Disneyland's Mysteries, Myths, and Legends" tour that they had at Disneyland. These tours guides would give guests creepy behind-the-scenes stories within the parks. For example. one of these stories was that the reason the Yeti from the Matterhorn was hiding in that icy mountain was because the local villagers chased him up there, believing that he had taken their children. Little did they know that another evil spirit had lured their children away to a beautiful white palace. When the villagers found out where their children were, they tried to go save them, but the yeti came down from the Matterhorn to scare them all the way. So the children are cursed to forever sing the same song, over and over again.(For them, it will always be a small world.) On these tours, these guests would also get to ride the creepier rides like Tower of Terror and Haunted Mansion in ways other theme park guests wouldn't get to experience.

I remember reading these magazines at my old dentist's office. I came late into subscribing however. By the time I subscribed, the magazine was approaching its end. By summer of 2005, Disney Magazine sadly released its last magazine.

Disney would release no new magazine until in 2009, D23 released a magazine specifically for the fans that missed Disney Magazine called Disney Twenty Three.

While the magazines themselves are quite lovely with great pictures, they sadly aren't anywhere near as exciting or up to the quality of Disney Magazine. The big problem being they don't announce anything big throughout the magazine that we didn't already know for weeks(if not months) thanks in large part to the internet, which is a big reason why Disney Magazine got canceled. They also don't have as much input from Disney fans, or have many of the cool little articles that made Disney Magazine so great. It would probably be more worthwhile if they were a little cheaper. Still, it is great that Disney is still in the print industry and at least has a running magazine again. And those of us fortunate enough to have had subscribed to Disney Magazine will still have our memories of its greatness.