Pink Monorail Manufacturing the Magic Ep 19: Drawing up plans for Disneyland

Heya friends, I spent the summer of 2025 recharging my creative batteries, and working on side projects. One of which was to continue the podcast series featuring the missus. This podcast is designed for Disney fans, amusement park visitors, and history buffs. You’ll learn the roots of the multi-billion dollar theme park industry from ancient history all the way to today. The missus, and I worked hard putting these episodes together through 2024, until we had a family emergency and had to stop working on it for 7 months. We are back on it through 2025. Click on the picture or link to visit our streaming page hosted on Jim Hill Media. I hope you get a chance to listen, subscribe, and leave a review so we can climb the theme park podcast rankings!

The Pink Monorail Podcast Manufacturing the Magic Ep 19: Drawing up plans for Disneyland 

In the 19th installment of this educational series, Shelly & Noe Valladolid talk about what happened in September of 1953 prior to Roy O. Disney’s fateful flight out to NYC. They also talk about how the material that Walt’s brother showed to executives at CBS, NBC & ABC to sell them on Disneyland was created. Throughout this episode, listeners will learn about: 

• How did Herbie Ryman’s “Lost Weekend” with Walt REALLY go down?
• Which “Lands” were initially proposed for Walt’s family fun park?
• How did Walt go about securing all of the funding that was needed to build Disneyland?
• Who were the Park’s original sponsors?
• How did C.V. Wood go about recruiting Disneyland’s participants?

Are there any current or former theme parks, or attractions that you love? I’d like to hear about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Pink Monorail Manufacturing the Magic Ep 18: How Walt riding the rails led to rides at Disneyland

Heya friends, I spent the summer of 2025 recharging my creative batteries, and working on side projects. One of which was to continue the podcast series featuring the missus. This podcast is designed for Disney fans, amusement park visitors, and history buffs. You’ll learn the roots of the multi-billion dollar theme park industry from ancient history all the way to today. The missus, and I worked hard putting these episodes together through 2024, until we had a family emergency and had to stop working on it for 7 months. We are back on it through 2025. Click on the picture or link to visit our streaming page hosted on Jim Hill Media. I hope you get a chance to listen, subscribe, and leave a review so we can climb the theme park podcast rankings!

The Pink Monorail Podcast Manufacturing the Magic Ep 18: How Walt riding the rails led to rides at Disneyland 

In the 18th installment of this educational series, Shelly & Noe Valladolid explore how Walt Disney’s lifelong fascination with trains impacted the development of his family fun park. Special guest Roger Colton sheds light on this specific aspect of Disneyland history. Throughout this episode, listeners will learn about:

• Why is Walt’s visit to the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1948 considered such an important moment in the development history of Disneyland?
• Which specific Disneyland attraction was inspired by Walt & Ward Kimball’s stop at Greenfield Village?
• How the miniature steam train Walt had set up in the backyard of his Holmby Hills home influenced the design of Disneyland?
• Which lands at Disneyland Park were directly influenced by what Walt & Ward saw at the Chicago Railroad Fair?
• How many steam trains did Disneyland Park have in its fleet?

Are there any current or former theme parks, or attractions that you love? I’d like to hear about it in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The horse jumped over the moon, the story of Namco, part 9

Over the course of this series I talked about the importance that play had with the early success of Namco. President, and founder Masaya Nakamura saw opportunities in the changing economy decades before most of his peers. The company extended this philosophy of “creating play” to their arcades. Unlike other Japanese arcades which were referred to as “Game Centers” Namco called their sites “Play Centers” like Milaiya, Plabo, and Carrot. Each had their own look, their own theme, and branding. These were places where casual, or hardcore gamers could escape the pressures of the world by engaging in play in the truest sense of the word. They could enjoy any number of sports, fantasy, science fiction, or other unique experiences that Namco had created. The way Namco approached each arcade title was akin to the way The Walt Disney Company approached each attraction. All of these wonderful experience were contained within a larger themed environment.

Namco purchased, and operated play centers all around the world. They learned about what different countries enjoyed in gaming, and catered to them. In the United States they worked with the Universal group to put classic style arcades in their Florida park. Their arcades had a vintage feel but featured the latest games. The company had become a major player in the amusement industry in both Japan, and the US. They learned the importance of creating, and maintaining a themed environment. Any mall, any park could have rides, and attractions, but the ability for the park to create a storytelling narrative through the use of detailed themed locations elevated the experience. Walt Disney wanted to create a special place for families to enjoy. He took the best elements of amusement parks, boardwalks, World’s Expos, and pleasure gardens. His imagineers cleaned them up, made them family friendly, and created a superior experience with Disneyland in 1955. It set a standard that was copied the world over. The question was if Namco could follow in Disney’s footsteps? Moreover, could they create what would possibly be the first urban theme park? After all there was a big difference between setting up a few play centers in a themed building, and creating an entire theme park around gaming in the heart of a big city. How would the studio accomplish this?

Before Disneyland opened Walt Disney had already established a series of cartoon, and comic book hits. These characters were destined to become mascots in the young park. Walt’s name was synonymous with pop culture going back to the 1920’s. By the time Disneyland opened 32 years after the founding of the Disney Bros. Studio there was an entire generation that had been raised on his IP. They had Mickey Mouse toys in their crib, wore clothes, and sneakers featuring the iconic mouse, followed along with his antics in movie theaters, comic books, and radio serials. When they were adults, and had children of their own they were eager to share the magic of the Disney brand with a new type of park. Masaya Nakamura, and Namco walked a similar path. The company had launched in 1955, and by 1994 they were ready to open their own theme park as well. There was a generation that had been raised on their rides, and games. There was a generation that celebrated Pac-Man, and Mappy with the same amount of love that the previous generation had for Mickey, and Minnie. These fans were getting older, their tastes were becoming more sophisticated, they were eager to experience the next evolution in play.

Namco had a deep library from which to pull new experiences from. The studio had teased the idea of creating a park with multiple themed areas, such as a labyrinth area inspired by Pac-Man, a race car track inspired by Pole Position, a fantasy area inspired by the Babylonian castle series, a horror themed area inspired by Golly Ghost!, and a science fiction area inspired by the UGSF universe. Drawing concept pieces in their self published NG magazine was one thing, but building an actual park was going to take considerably more time, and money. The good news for them that they had already built two theme park attractions for the World Expo ’90. They had disassembled them, but didn’t destroy them. They would be able to relocate, and build around them. Of course they needed to figure out where they would move the Tower of Druaga, and Galaxian³ “Hyper Entertainment” attractions. Real estate was at a premium in Japan, especially in the most populated cities. It would be less expensive to build any sort of business, or center if there was prepared land available for lease or purchase. 

Namco didn’t want to build too far from a major city, or train station. Parks that were difficult to reach didn’t last very long in the amusement industry. There was a reason why Tokyo Disneyland, and Tokyo DisneySea were built on reclaimed land from Tokyo Bay, it was far less expensive to purchase, and develop than anywhere near central Tokyo. At the same time both parks, and the surrounding hotels were easily accessible by light rail for tourists, and families. In the early ‘90s Namco discovered a perfect place to build their own park, Futakotamagawa Garden in the southern Tokyo ward of Setagaya-ku. It was colloquially referred to as “Futako” or “Nikotama,” the latter coming from an alternate reading of the first three kanji characters in the name. I think this location was selected thanks to Shigeki Toyama. It was the park that he used to work at when he was younger, and that featured a roller coaster designed by his grandfather Tokio. Namco would build in roughly in the same place of the amusement park, which was in operation from 1922 to 1985. The coaster, and various attractions had long since been torn down by the time Namco got their hands on the property.

The company had a name for their massive undertaking. They called their urban theme park Wonder Eggs. It was proposed to be unlike any other theme park before, and would challenge the other arcade titans to step up. I would argue that the work Namco put into Wonder Eggs would make Sega pursue their own Joypolis amusement centers. Wonder Eggs was designed to be a temporary urban theme park. Namco would build, run, and disassemble the park within a few years. I do not know whether this was an arrangement with the lease, or a business decision from the top. In either case it was meant to be a unique experience for visitors. The Disney parks domestically, and overseas were in a constant struggle to keep themselves fresh for visitors. Walt would say he was “plussing” the park by reinvesting in the individual attractions, and themed areas of Disneyland. These sometimes minor additions in the queues, restaurants, rides, and staff left visitors with a favorable impression. They could see, and feel that the park was not becoming stale or outdated. It was the gold standard that all other parks would be measured against. Namco did not have ambitions to challenge Disney, or Universal in the theme park arena. The company did however want to show that they could create something equally memorable in a short span of time. They would be willing to redo two of their standout attractions, and turn the temporary structures from the expo into more permanent buildings.

Namco challenged their staff to go far beyond the work that they had put into the World’s Expo. They saw first hand how quickly the entertainment industry evolved between Expo ’85, and Expo ’90. The technology used with their own video games jumped exponentially in that time. They had moved from 2D sprite art into 3D polygons within their arcade hits. The company knew that unless their attractions kept pace with these changes then they would become stagnant within a few years. Setting an end date for Wonder Eggs would prevent them from hemorrhaging money on upkeep, “plussing” or developing new rides. The initial goal was for Wonder Eggs to run for about four years. Similar to an Olympics, or World Cup. What happened instead was the park ran for eight years, and brought in almost 15 million visitors. To be fair Tokyo Disneyland had about 16 million visitors a year in the early ‘90s, however that park was massive by comparison, and had been in operation since 1983. I would argue that Namco managed to do much more with less, and in a shorter amount of time. In fact Wonder Eggs was so successful that it ended up having a sister park built right next door within two years. To put it in context Disney California Adventure opened in 2001 across from Disneyland. This was 46 years after Disneyland began operations. Tokyo Disney Sea also debuted in 2001, some 18 years after Tokyo Disneyland opened their gates.

Namco certainly had a hit on their hands, but it was much more than being in the right place, at the right time. The philosophy of play that Masaya Nakamura cultivated had a lot to do with it. It was embraced by his company, and allowed his staff to reach into the psyche of visitors, and give them experiences they never knew were possible. In fact some of the attractions were never equalled, and others are barely being matched by the titans of theme parks some 30 years later. We will look at the phases of the urban theme park in the next blog. Were there any unique theme parks, or amusement parks that you visited as a kid? Are there any around these days that you still visit? Please tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Wonder Eggs, and Egg Empire research collected from: Wonder Eggs Guide Map, Namco Graffiti magazine, the book “All About Namco II", NOURS magazine, The Namco Museum, Namco Wiki, Ge-Yume Area 51 Shigeki Toyama Collection, mcSister magazine, first person attraction details from Yoshiki. Event details from Hole in the Socks

The horse jumped over the moon, The story of Namco, part 8

The bookkeepers at Namco were not thrilled that so many resources had been put into Expo ’90. No matter how much money visitors spent at the midway, or how they reacted to Galaxian³, or the Tower of Druaga active simulators, they saw little value in creating temporary rides for the World’s Expo. They asked Shigeki Toyama, and the other designers at the company to never spend that much money creating one-off attractions ever again. I think their showing had the opposite effect on the team, and especially the president of the company. After all it was putting their chips into play that shaped Namco. The founder, and President Masaya Nakamura believed in the power of play. He created a business that ran contrary to what other Japanese studios were doing at the time. He didn’t want to pursue what other corporations were doing, and just stick with manufacturing like his father before. Instead of hiring the top graduates at local universities Mr. Nakamura was hiring creative thinkers, artists, and composers that had no formal gaming education.

Mr. Nakamura's company found the right roles for them. They learned as they went along, created their own tools when none existed, and found new ways to create play. Mr. Nakamura used their contrasting personalities to create hit, after hit in the arcade. It was not unlike the way Walt Disney used the contrasting personalities of his “Nine Old Men” (who didn’t always get along) to revolutionize animation, live action film, and theme park design. Namco was founded by selling small kiddie rides to malls in 1955. That was the same year that Disneyland opened its doors. It didn’t take long for Namco to move from single person rides, to running entire amusement parks on the roofs of Japanese department stores. It wasn’t just a handful of locations, but instead in every major city in Japan. This lead to them developing their own ride technology, robots, and animatronics as well. When it came to entertainment Mr. Nakamura knew that it was going to become a major part of the Japanese, and global economy. He saw the importance of investing in R&D at every chance.

Namco launched a robotics department, whose mandate was on entertainment rather than manufacturing. This sounded absurd to any Japanese business. Automation was already revolutionizing the auto industry. Robots were predicted to take over all of the jobs in the next few decades, and Namco was making them play music, and do dances. The company was among the first to make the leap from electromechanical to video games. The entire time he, and his team were aware of the lessons the Walt Disney Company was teaching the industry. They were fans of the things coming from the west. They were finding out ways to make the art, design, and approach from Disney work for Japanese audiences. One of the things they did was heavily theme their own arcades. They wanted guests to be completely immersed in a world of play that they created. That was especially true with the Milaiya arcade, and its anime spaceship design.

The ability to synthesize, and remix western culture with a unique Japanese aesthetic was one of Namco’s strengths. They were able to create titles, and especially art that worked in just about any market. Yet it wasn’t the only thing that the company was working towards that would be universally appealing. Everything they did was in service of play. The company did not want to get stuck repeating themselves. They had seen how Atari, Kee Games, and other studios in the USA rose, and fell because they stopped innovating. They did everything they could to push the concept of play forward. For example every space game from Namco broke new ground. Namco’s first big hit Galaxian was a superior version of Taito’s Space Invaders, but they knew that a follow-up had to go in a different direction. They would add scrolling to space adventures in Xevious, and later build a 3D masterpiece with Starblade. The alien action game Baraduke predated Nintendo’s classic Metroid. Even the tank combat game Grobda was a revolutionary sci-fi title that remixed the Atari mechanics found in Missile Command, and Combat. Best of all the Namco hits were set within a shared UGSF continuity. The studio built a brand that audiences could become familiar with on every new release.

In addition to innovating rides, video games, and robotics the studio was very smart with their IP. Instead of selling games to the international market, they licensed the IP, and allowed games, and merchandise to be produced locally. The royalties they collected helped the company grow rapidly. Unfortunately they didn’t learn that it was bad to remake the same game over and over. Pac-Man (1980) was their biggest star, and highest-earning character. He launched the maze game revolution. Any other company would have been quick to bring sequels to market. Namco tried it, and their sequel flopped with audiences. International players didn’t quite understand the rules, or mechanics behind Super Pac-Man (1982). Collecting keys, flipping cards, and more with two versions of the titular character didn’t seem as intuitive as the first game.

Namco went back to the drawing board. The Pac team needed to figure out what else they could do with the character before he fell out of favor with the public. They saw how popular he was in the US, and how outside companies were making variations of the original, but with the members of his family. A number of the popular “sequels” that you might remember were not designed by Namco at all. Ms. Pac-Man (1982), and Junior Pac-Man (1983) were designed by General Computer Corporation. Baby Pac-Man (1982) was designed by Midway. It could be argued that Namco didn’t even consider that a video game mascot could have a family until the IP was licensed to the US. In the west Pac-Man had a family, and they were featured in the Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon series.

Namco would learn some of the nuances of localization. The version of Pac-Man in the cartoon looked slightly different from the version on the original Japanese marquee art. He wore a fedora, his nose was shorter, he had white eyes, and black pupils like classic US cartoon characters rather than anime designs. Namco wanted to take their version in a bold new direction after the failure of Super Pac-Man. Perhaps he should go on some sort of adventure? His town would be the backdrop for a platform game. The studio would make sure to create sprites that were slightly different for US, and Japanese audiences. This was how Pac-Land came to be, one of the first platform hits from 1984. From that point on the designers at Namco made sure to sprinkle in relationships between the main characters of their various titles. For example Taizo Hori, the star of Dig Dug (1982), was the husband of Masuyo “Kissy” Toby, the hero of Baraduke (1985). They would have a few kids, and one of the more famous was Susumu Hori aka Mr. Driller (1999). This tradition would help their IP grow organically in comics, and cartoons not unlike Disney through their comics, and cartoons as well.

Pac-Land was created by Namco Research and Development 1 programmer Yoshihiro Kishimoto. His job was to make an arcade game based on the American Pac-Man cartoon. The characters were no longer yellow circles on the screen, but rather large sprites with arms, and legs just like in the show. The backgrounds were made to be vibrant and colorful. The music was composed by Yuriko Keino, and she was able to create variations of the catchy cartoon theme despite memory restrictions. Pac-Man was no longer stuck in a single screen maze but could instead travel to a destination across a long course. It was considered an important milestone in the platform genre. It set the stage for Capcom’s Ghosts'n Goblins (1985), Sega’s Alex Kidd (1986), and Wonder Boy (1986). Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani called it his favorite Pac-Man sequel for its interesting concept and gameplay. He said Shigeru Miyamoto told him it had a profound influence on the creation of Super Mario Bros (1985). Miyamoto said that while he was in Tokyo he saw Namco had developed a platforming game he decided that he should follow suit. The only feature of Pac-Land Miyamoto cited as a direct inspiration was the blue background of the game as opposed to the black skies he typically would put in his games like Donkey Kong and the original Mario Bros.

Instead of a joystick the game used buttons to control the left, right, and jump actions. The reason the studio did this was because Konami’s Track and Field from the year before was a breakout hit. They decided to make Pac-Man control through button presses as well. Many arcade visitors, myself included, didn’t care much for it. I wished that his first platform game had a joystick instead. Pac-Land was not only a response to the popularity of the US cartoon series, but also a way for Namco to share their affinity for all things Disney. The plot of the game involved Pac-Man taking some fairies that were lost all the way back to Fairyland, which was on the opposite side of Pac-Land. These characters had never been featured in the cartoons (to the best of my recollection). The fairies were inspired by Tinker Bell, as well as the Blue Fairy from the film Pinocchio. They were closely associated with the Disney brand, and specifically theme parks. The studio didn’t have to change the fedora from the US version, but they needed something that Japanese players could identify. This detail could help tie their mascot in a fantasy setting. I would argue that the feathered cap in the Japanese release was based on the Peter Pan cap sold at Disneyland, and specifically Tokyo Disneyland. Each of the areas in the game had distinct environments, or themed lands if you will.

Namco was approaching 35 years in business when they introduced a hybrid amusement ride, and video game which they called Hyper Entertainment. The technology for the Tower of Druaga, and Galaxian³ would debut in the 1990 Flower Expo in Osaka. Namco could tell where the entertainment industry was headed decades before any other company. They accomplished this because they mirrored the rise of Disney Studios. Namco had a leader that saw things that none of his business contemporaries could. He took chances in an industry that was either young, or yet to live up to its potential. He surrounded himself with creative minds that were able to make the impossible happen. Walt Disney did the same thing for film, and animation. He also surrounded himself with brilliant minds. They created an entertainment revolution. Eventually leading to the birth of theme parks.

At every instance Walt knew the power of storytelling as a form of entertainment. It was the backbone of most of his greatest works. By comparison Masaya Nakamura the founder of Namco focused on play. The importance of play shaped the creation of their kiddy rides, electromechanical games, video games, and eventually simulator attractions. The pursuit of play, and different forms of play inspired some of the best creative minds in his studio to build entirely new avenues of entertainment. The clues for where Namco was headed were sprinkled through every game, arcade, and concept illustration in the ‘80s. As technology grew so did the ability to create titles with bigger, more complex, and immersive worlds. The studio was putting us in the ancient past, on alien planets, the Wild West, high fantasy, a coaster kingdom, and eventually virtual theme parks in their various games. The titles were wrapped in arcade cabinets that were becoming bigger, and better themed as well. Eventually some of their best arcade titles were simulation experiences.

The question was whether they could be able to do these themed titles on a larger scale. After two successive Worlds Expo showings Namco was ready to commit to the next evolution in play. They would create a fully-realized video game theme park. They accomplished this by doing a lot of homework, pursuing revolutionary design, and a little bit of magic. We will start a deep dive in the next blog. Until then I would like to know if you were a fan of the Pac-Man titles, or any of the older Namco titles. Did you have a favorite Pac sequel? Please tell me about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Wonder Eggs, and Egg Empire research collected from: Wonder Eggs Guide Map, Namco Graffiti magazine, the book “All About Namco II", NOURS magazine, The Namco Museum, Namco Wiki, Ge-Yume Area 51 Shigeki Toyama Collection, mcSister magazine, first person attraction details from Yoshiki. Event details from Hole in the Socks

Pink Monorail Manufacturing the Magic Ep 6: The White City – Part Two

Heya friends, here is the link to the next episode of the Pink Monorail Podcast. This podcast is designed for Disney fans, amusement park visitors, and history buffs. You’ll learn the roots of the multi-billion dollar theme park industry from ancient history all the way to today. The missus, and I worked hard putting these episodes together through 2024, and we’re growing it through 2025. Click on the picture or link to visit our streaming page hosted on Jim Hill Media. I hope you get a chance to listen, subscribe, and leave a review so we can climb the theme park podcast rankings!

The Pink Monorail Podcast: Manufacturing the Magic Episode 6 In the second installment of this particular chapter in their ongoing series, Noe & Shelly continue their exploration of the Columbian Exposition of 1893, with a specific emphasis on how the White City directly influenced Disneyland. Over the course of this episode, listeners will learn about: 

• What it was like to stroll down the Exposition’s Midway Pleasance 
• Why the White City’s planned Bazaar of Nations turned into an entertainment free-for-all 
• How the Exposition’s “Streets of Cairo” area became associated with a certain tune 
• What Elias Disney did at the Fair (And how that then went on to influence Elias’s son Walt) 
• How exhibits at the Exposition like the Kilauea volcano cyclorama worked 

There's a reason the White City is a place the missus wishes she could have seen in person. Did you realize that so much pop culture could be traced back to this world's expo? Have you visited the former site? I’d like to hear about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Freeze frame, my poster collection, part 15…

As a big fan of theme parks, and animation I have a lot of posters from Disney. Sadly I don’t have any of those massive ride posters from Disneyland, but perhaps someday I might. Some posters were easy gets. Such as being a member of D23, the Disney Fan Community.

Some sketches we got from Disney artists were thanks to the San Diego Comic Con where the company hosted a special event for D23 members.

I still haven’t seen Strange World but the poster is gorgeous.

The missus is a huge fan of Walt Disney World, and specifically the EPCOT Center. I should get this poster restored, and framed for her.

I don’t remember where we got the Walt and El Groupo poster from. It’s a great documentary if you haven’t seen it.

The where’s my Mickey print is on canvas, and was given to press members when they visited the gaming studio. I miss covering those events.

It wasn't the oldest Disney game poster in my collection. That honor would belong to Mickey Mania from 1994. It was funny that the Mad Doctor would turn up again in game form for Epic Mickey 2 in 2012.

Are there any Disney posters, or prints in your collection? I’d like to read about them in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The evolution of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, final part...

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit had a number of makeovers over the span of 80 years. From a black and white "rubber hose" style character to an anthropomorphic rabbit. The cartoon icon never stayed the same for long. The majority of these changes were done in the first decade and last decade that Universal owned the character.

The Disney company made a few further changes once regaining the rights to Oswald in 2006. What the company focused on was getting audiences interested in the character once more. The company had long abandoned having mascot characters in animated shorts at the front of their feature films as well as on television. They had to find other formats in which to get Oswald to the fans. For fans in Europe that still had Disney comics in print the studio published a one-shot Christmas story featuring the rabbit. It would be a teaser of the bigger project planned in store for Oswald. Not to be outdone the Japanese had a short holiday cartoon online courtesy of the Tokyo Disney Parks. These things were minor appearances in comparison to what the Disney Company had in store. After several years it was time to take the wraps off of Epic Mickey. The game was a love letter to the Disney Parks and was created as the launchpad for Oswald. Director Warren Spector filled the game with tremendous insight into the characters and classic universe that created the Disney empire.

The game was in 3D but had traditionally animated 2D cut scenes. This gave audiences a good look at Oswald and his love Ortensia using the latest animation techniques. The characters had a timeless quality and made the transition to the modern world fairly well. In order to help get more people behind the game Disney released a graphic novel through the iTunes Store and then a series of short stories known as the Tales of the Wasteland. Seasoned comic book writer Peter David wrote the story and prequel to Epic Mickey. The difficult part for Disney was that it didn't have a team of comic artists working in the US at the time. The studio had closed down its comic strip wing decades earlier and had licensed out the comic rights to Gladstone / Gemstone in the '90s. Unfortunately the studio pulled the license so there hadn't been a new comic book created and written by Disney artists in years. However in Italy the artists and writers of Topolino magazine hadn't stopped in over 60 years. In Italy the Disney company had a great relationship with the Milano Design College. They offered a program that was called the Disney Academy. Artists were trained in the proper ways to illustrate the characters from the Disney Library, these included some very rare figures some of which appeared only once in animated form more than 80 years ago! The comic artists working on Topolino were just some of the many illustrators produced by the Academy and featured in the Epic Mickey comics. There were also artists responsible for creating the character art that would appear in advertising and logos used in the parks, hotels and cruise lines.

 

Four different artists were put on the Epic Mickey comics including Claudio Sciarrone, Fabrizio Petrossi, Fabio Celoni and Paolo Mottura. Each artist had their own style but tried to stay on model when working with Oswald. He was the rarest of the rare characters after all. Topolino magazine was published weekly so the artists had to be very productive. The editors would allow artists to spend more time inking and coloring some of the bigger story arcs, they would introduce these special stories with some fanfare, and even a trailer or toy announcement. For the most part the art was usually very simple and colors flat on the majority of the stories. The Epic Mickey graphic novel had a lot more time put into the art and it showed. Visually it was a stunning collection of comic and cartoon panels. The artists had enough leeway to shout-out some of their biggest influences such as the legendary Frank Frazetta.

The art suffered slightly for the Tales of the Wasteland issues, it was on par to the weekly Topolino issues. Those comics featured characters rendered with less detail. Yet that was the price that the Disney company was willing to pay in order to make sure that the e-comics were ready in time for the launch of Epic Mickey. Meanwhile the developers in the US were trying to figure out a way to frame Oswald that would endear him to audiences. They did this by creating an entire mythos around Oswald for Epic Mickey. He was one of the "forgotten" characters created by Yen Sid the Sorcerer. Mickey Mouse had accidentally destroyed a portion of a concept theme park when he spilled ink and thinner onto a map. The classic cartoon characters that called that place home were devastated. Oswald helped keep those characters together and turned himself into a hero in the process.

In the canon of Epic Mickey Oswald turned the Wasteland into an homage to Walt and himself. It was like an alternate universe where Mickey had never existed. The designers working at Disney Interactive and Junction Point studio had created multiple interpretations of the character. Some for the level details, cut scenes and even environmental art. The most important thing that the company did was recreate the classic Ub Iwerks character in 3D. Oswald had been out of the loop for more than half a century yet rather than try to make a contemporary version of the rabbit, or try to update his designs in order to match the current Mickey Mouse the artists focused on all the classic elements. Oswald retained his round eyes, shorts and squared-off proportions from 1927-1928. Very little was done to him in the Epic Mickey sequel. Players could dress the rabbit in different costumes but he essentially remained the same as he was all those years earlier. He had a strong personality, was mischievous but brave at the same time. He worked alongside Mickey Mouse to help save the Wasteland and see Walt Disney's vision become whole.

 

It was great to see Oswald's design come full circle. He changed tremendously after he was introduced to audiences. His anthropomorphic makeover may have been a response to Warner Bros introduction of Bugs Bunny. Several of Walter Lantz' animators, including Tex Avery, also worked for Warner Bros and helped create the library of characters for the studio. Whatever the reason for Oswald's radical makeover he predated the appearance of Bre'r Rabbit from Song of the South (1946) and even Thumper from Bambi (1942). The one person who didn't try and track all the changes that Oswald went through was Walt Disney. After losing Oswald to Universal he never spoke about the character again publicly or even privately. He never even mentioned Oswald to his daughters while they were growing up. When Bob Iger took over as CEO of Disney from Michael Eisner he was interested in the character and wanted to return the Lucky Rabbit to the Disney library. He saw an opportunity when NBC / Universal were in talks to get sports commentator Al Michaels from ABC / ESPN which Disney owned. When the news hit the family that the company had gotten the rights back to Oswald they didn't realize right away that it was a lost character created by Walt himself. Thankfully Iger and the art teams, in animation and product design, working at the company knew to restore the look and feel of the classic Oswald and not try to modernize him. Of course part of that credit also goes to Warren Spector and his team at Junction Point and Disney Interactive studios. They were able to take an 80-year-old celluloid rabbit and create a lifelike 3D version for audiences to follow.

Walt did not live long enough to see his character returned but he would have undoubtedly loved it. Oswald would be embraced by an entirely new generation and no cartoon mascot was ever luckier. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The evolution of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, part 2...

Many Disney fans are familiar with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit these days but not long ago he was an obscure trivia answer. The most recognizable version of Oswald the Rabbit was actually created by Ub Iwerks. His proportions, scale and size were standardized within a year.

What the current-generation of Disney fans might not realize was how much Oswald changed in the span of a few years. In the original poster art and designs for Oswald Ub had planned a taller, lankier character. His head was more egg-shaped and often featured whiskers on his face and claws on his feet.

Oswald was visualized as having suspenders in some early pieces. These elements were paired down and Oswald became shorter and rounder in the process. The whiskers eventually went away. By the end of 1927 and the start of 1928 the look that most fans are familiar with finally took shape. Yet it was also about then that Disney had lost the rights to the character. Lantz took over and spared no time in remaking the character.

The post-Disney Oswald cartoons were notable for the lack of consistency. The quality of the animation suffered greatly. Animator Bill Nolan had worked for Disney and was one of the artists that left. He was a very prolific artist as well and was capable of producing almost as many frames of art as Ub Iwerks. Yet the one thing he lacked was the visual consistency of Ub. The lines for Oswald were sloppy, his movement lacked fluidity. Nolan was nowhere near the draftsman that Ub was. Nolan worked with Walter Lantz and helped redesign Oswald over the years. The shape of the head and eyes changed again. The costume did as well. The runaway success of Mickey Mouse meant that all of the following characters had to poach many of Mickey's design elements. Oswald soon found himself wearing shoes and sporting a shirt and even buttons on his shorts.

Despite the visual makeover fans were not flocking to Oswald as they once were. The cartoons lacked the creative spark that Disney had. They also lacked the quality and consistency that Ub offered. Oswald spoke in the Universal films but his voice changed from picture to picture because different animators took turns recording the character. Even Pinto Colving (the eventual voice for Goofy) did some voice work for the character. Oswald was losing ground to Mickey Mouse and his friends. Lantz would continue changing the character to try and fit the times. All of the lessons that Ub discovered while creating a cartoon rabbit would have to be relearned by Waner Bros. a decade later when they created a character called Bugs Bunny.

Realistic animal shapes did not lend themselves easily to animation. The artists had to take a lot of liberties in order to make the characters work in the medium of film. Luckily for Warner Bros. some of the animators working on Bugs had first cut their teeth animating Oswald. These artists learned very quickly not get too used to one school of design. Lantz was not finished changing the look of Oswald. In the next blog we will look at how far the character had changed from his first appearance. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!