Chapter 21: Disney-MGM Studios, Part II – Animation Courtyard
After leaving the Soundstage Restaurant, the families decided to explore the Animation Courtyard section of the park, where the restaurant was located.
They started with Voyage of the Little Mermaid, which Sarah and Ginny were looking forward to, for rather obvious reasons. If you've seen how Sarah looks in the cover photos on my other stories, you'll notice her hair is completely red, very much like Ariel's.
Ginny's, on the other hand, looks much more orange, like the rest of the Weasleys. In every other FanFiction, she and the other Weasleys nitpick at how red hair usually isn't that red, but if you really think about it, Ginny identifies with Ariel more than you'd think. She's the youngest of seven children and her parents are more protective of her than any of her elder siblings, all blissfully unaware that she can take care of herself.
Usually I don't care for these comparisons, as they usually turn out sounding very geeky and childish. Take a look at character pages on the Disney Wiki if you know what I'm talking about.
But I digress.
Anyways, if you know Voyage of the Little Mermaid, then I should tell you that Legend of the Lion King at the Magic Kingdom played out similarly. So many of you reading this are too young to remember such a loved attraction.
I can't talk too much about the show for one reason, other than the fact that most people seem to know it well. It's because… frankly it was noticeably shorter than many of the other shows at Disney World. Most of those shows went for thirty minutes, whereas this one only went for seventeen.
I can talk about the experiences in the connecting gift shop called In Character, which sold items related to all the Disney Princesses, not just Ariel, even though the franchise wasn't formally established yet and wouldn't be for another six years.
But, I digress.
Sarah and Ginny spent some time looking through the shop, looking at all the merchandise, and Ginny ended up getting a stuffed Flounder, while Sarah picked up a stuffed Max and an Ariel tiara. She already had the TYCO dolls of Ariel and Eric, and when she looked at the rest of the costume, she decided it wouldn't really fit.
Rachel and Hermione were scouting for Beauty and the Beast stuff, well, mostly Hermione was, it seemed to me that Rachel had more Beauty and the Beast stuff than she really needed. I could have just wrote them seeing the Beauty and the Beast show and then going to a little cart on the side which sold stuff, but I figured getting it out of this store would be funnier.
Most of what Hermione saw were either t-shirts, plastic figures like the ones Rachel had gotten her in Florida before, plush toys, and a costume. She ended up getting a stuffed Beast like the one Rachel let her sleep with, along with a t-shirt with the logo for the Beauty and the Beast show, and a Belle tiara. The costume, she knew wouldn't fit her.
Rachel ended up getting a Belle tiara also, to further signify her friendship with Hermione.
"I also had a Belle costume," she explained. "It doesn't really fit anymore."
"I could say the same thing about my Aladdin costume," Danny added, "It wasn't one of the ones they have here, though. Those were all made for a bunch of three to five year olds."
Afterwards, the group headed over to the Magic of Disney Animation attraction. For those of you too young to remember, this started out as a working animation studio. Here, they animated several minutes of all their films from The Little Mermaid to The Lion King. Some of the animation for Ariel and Belle was done here, as was all the animation for Jasmine, as well as twenty minutes of The Lion King, including the I Just Can't Wait to Be King song. They'd go on to animate whole films here later.
It started as they were seating in a theater, where they were shown a film called Back to Neverland, where Robin Williams and Walter Cronkite showed how an animated film was created. To do that, they animated Robin Williams as one of the Lost Boys from Peter Pan and had him face off against Captain Hook. This made the attraction enjoyable for both Ron and Sirius, especially since Robin Williams wore the same outfit that the Genie wore at the end of Aladdin, including the Goofy hat and yellow Hawaiian shirt.
If I had half a mind, I'd write Ron into the film in Robin Williams' place, but if I did, I'd just end up filling the whole chapter.
"I need to get me-self that outfit," Sirius muttered to himself.
After seeing the film, they headed to see where the magic happened. There were tons of people drawing each scene, frame by frame and hand painting each individual background. The studio was bigger than how a Wizarding animation studio looked…
That's right, in my universe, the Wizarding World has cartoons too. But here, the characters could just jump off the page and come alive…
… Literally.
Once they're colored and taken off the page, they're taken to a hospital-like machine where the voice is inserted "surgically". From there, they can just jump into flat background paintings and just film themselves acting in them, I got the idea to do that from Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
But… I digress. This story is about Disney, and I'm already making fun of another Warner Bros. property.
Afterwards, they headed off to the Backstage Tour, where the tram shuttle entrance was right next door. In those days, the tour showed you other things, like costumes and sets being made, and the houses used for exterior shots in movies and TV shows, like Ernest Saves Christmas and Golden Girls.
But who am I kidding? Most of you are too young to remember these movies and shows, anyway.
The Catastrophe Canyon with the earthquakes, and the Water Effects section with the boat were still there. The Streets of America section was part of the tour also, and it was even used for filming, only then, it was called New York Street. It had the Washington Square Arch, police lines, and even real cars used in it. If you were lucky enough, you might even see a movie or show being filmed there.
I'd be lucky if I could find out what movies were filmed there and when.
But most important of all, it was on this tour that they passed the Earful Tower, the park's water tower with Mickey Mouse ears. This was the park's symbol, as it was back before the giant Sorcerer Hat existed.
If I've bored you with all these attraction-type details, I'll give your this; when the park opened, the tour was longer, and the tram shuttles stopped so people could walk around and see what there was to see. This made the tour go for two whole hours. If I thought it were that funny, I'd have Mr. Weasley running around in his curiosity like a kid at Christmas, with Ron following him.
"That'd be something to see," Harry remarked.
You're probably wondering why I'm going into too much detail about some of the attractions here, and not talking enough the characters.
Well, get this, may of you reading this are too young to remember these attractions, so how can I come up with jokes for every single one?
Anyways, when the tour was over, the group headed over to The Great Movie Ride, to do something more people would remember, and would sound slightly less boring.
But keep in mind, though, many of the movies shown in this ride are movies you've never seen, apart from Mary Poppins, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and The Wizard of Oz. For some of you, maybe even Fantasia.
I was having some trouble thinking up a way to throw the characters into this ride, but I just came up with something at the last minute; to unsuspectingly throw Danny into the driver's seat and have him narrate the whole attraction… except for the parts where he didn't.
The musical films only got interesting when they were all glitzy and showy, like in Footlight Parade, the first movie on the ride. They only got the concept of Singin' in the Rain from the trailer they'd watched while waiting for the ride. Mary Poppins brought memories back for Lily and Jane, but the Weasleys just looked as if they hadn't seen it. If I had the right mind, I'd have them watch the movie in a forced sitting.
When they got to the Gangster films, it got kind of scary, not because of the gang warfare, but because Danny seemed to leave the ride vehicle. He gave them a "comforting" look.
"It's all part of the act," he promised.
This was an act that Mrs. Weasley wasn't too sure about, even if she was learning to enjoy herself here.
When they got to the Westerns, though, it got confusing, as those were never quite as big over in the UK.
When they passed through the Alien section of the ride, it got interesting and Rachel, Harry, and Hermione made note to show this to the Weasleys. This was a film that Mrs. Weasley wasn't willing to sit through.
After they passed the scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, it was time for the gangster that raided the ride vehicle to make his dramatic exit, after trying to steal a precious jewel from the alter of Anubis. When Danny took off the cloak he was wearing while standing there, it led everyone else badgering him with questions.
"Like I said," he explained "It's all part of the act."
After passing through the snake-guarded mummies' crypt, and ignoring a pale-faced Mrs. Weasley, they passed through scenes from Tarzan the Ape-Man and Casablanca before being whisked away to the Land of Oz by the Sorcerer Mickey from Fantasia.
After a close encounter with the Wicked Witch of the West, the group made their way out as the Munchkins started singing, and Sirius swore he'd never get their song out of his head. After passing the famous scene of the Oz quartet reaching the Emerald City, they were brought before a screen which showed a montage clips from other films, not seen in the ride.
Danny, Harry, and Bill got excited when they saw clips of their favorite Disney films in the montage. Aladdin may or may not have actually been in the montage, I just read that off Wikipedia years ago and thought it had to be in the montage sometime, so naturally I just threw it in.
But… … I digress.
As they walked out, they were discussing their fascination with some of those movies, and their confusion with others, particularly the Westerns,
"To tell you the truth," Danny commented, "I never understood them, myself."
And that concludes Part II of their day at the Disney-MGM Studios. Next time, they'll be experiencing all the wonders on the other side of the park.
So stay tuned…