Hey all, old Jean Laffite here. Dallin told me to tell you all that the audio hiccups you hear in this video will be fixed going foreword. This is the last time. Also, he's wrong, the Sun Statue was the best icon.
Quick comment on the Earful tower, if you ride slinky dog dash in toy story Land, right when you get to the loading dock if you look on the back wall there is a map of the ride layout with all the little set pieces and whatnot. In the top right hand corner, there’s a tower with a mickey-shaped cloud on top of it, looking very similar to the water tower. I’ve heard it said that the location on the map on the wall places the tower in the same spot that it used to stand on the land before it was taken down. So there actually is an Easter egg for the tower, just not in galaxy’s edge!
Yup, Toy Story Land is now where the Earffel Tower part of the backlot was, not Galaxy's Edge, which is where Catastrophe Canyon was. And I do believe that the reference is pretty much in the exact spot where the tower was (or at least as close as the Imagineers could get it). Been a while since I've compared maps though. Still think they should have moved it to what is now Disney Springs though, instead of just demolishing it.
It would be kinda interesting to talk about the icons of the lesser known parts of various Disney Parks. Each themed hotel and water park has it's own icons/weenies. They all have a ton of thought put into them, even if they're not the same caliber as Snow White's Castle or Spaceship Earth.
Although I think Grizzly Peak is a better park icon for DCA, I consider the Ferris wheel to be the main icon of DCA since that's what I always see used to represent the park in photos and stuff. Great Video!
Here’s a few facts that you all probably know about the international icons but imma write some down anyways: Cinderella Castle at Tokyo Disneyland is of course a replica of the castle at the same name found at the Magic Kingdom, just with a different color scheme painted in 2006 to differentiate it from its MK counterpart. It also doesn’t have a stage in front of it, but contains a walkthrough attraction. Meanwhile at Paris, although it is also named Sleeping Beauty Castle it is in fact not a replica of the one in Anaheim, but designed based off the film. The idea behind it is that real life castles are very common in Europe, so they just build a fairytale one instead. Also it has a dragon underneath it. Mount Prometheus, the volcano at Tokyo DisneySea, is part of Mysterious Island, which gets its name from one of the Jules Verne books. It contains the attraction “Journey to the Center of the Earth” based on another Jules Verne book. It regularly erupts because after designing it, the Japanese engineers asks what the volcano actually does, so they added rocket boosters to simulate the volcano erupting. The earful tower is still found at Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris, unlike the one that used to be in Orlando, this is near the entrance of the park. As Dallin said in the video it is a replica of the earful tower that was in Hollywood Studios besides the name on the front. Hong Kong Disneyland used to have a replica of the Sleeping Beauty Castle in Anaheim, but it was recently changed and turned into the Castle of Magical Dreams. It features a tower for every official Disney princess + Frozen. But now with Raya and presumably more Disney princesses coming they kinda dug themselves into a hole. Its expansion was partly done during operating hours, with the parts being brought in at night since it sat in the middle of the park with guests walking all around it during the day. The Enchanted Storybook Castle at Shanghai Disneyland is of course “Authentically Disney, and Distinctly Chinese.” It is the first Disney castle to not use forced perspective. It houses a Snow White walkthrough attraction and part of the boat ride “Voyage to the Crystal Grotto”, which is basically Jungle Cruise but fantasyland and no jokes.
11:42 A quick fact about the hand and/or foot print slabs outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre replica in Hollywood Studios: It has the only hand prints of Audrey Hepburn in the world. Not even in Hollywood does another pair exist.
10:04 Toy Story Land technically was built on the location of the Earful Tower and you can see an easter egg for it in the load station to Slinky Dog Dash. There's a picture of a watch tower drawn with crayons on the wall that's supposedly the exact location the tower stood until it was demolished.
The Great Movie Ride should never have been scrapped and there would have been room for both. It makes me so sad to go near that building and know that it's not inside there anymore
@@bdchiaccio Definitely! If it was Disneyland where there's such limited square footage I could understand it. WDW has no excuse though, they have basically unlimited space to expand! I'm a west coast person and the Great Movie Ride was one of the few rides that made me want to visit WDW someday. It's so sad that it's gone and I'll never get to experience it.
@@bdchiaccio They certainly could have just taken the time to update the movies inside. Even classic movies have different periods of popularity. It was peak late 80s Imagineering.
The Great Movie Ride will rise again one day like a phoenix from the ashes and there will be a duplicate version in DCA one day, too with different movies.
At Magic Kingdom, Space Mountain and Splash Mountain effectively function as weenies as well, drawing you further into Tomorrowland and Frontierland respectively. And, as you mentioned, the various Epcot World Showcase pavilions are mostly built with some kind of representative icon as the centerpiece or backdrop.
When I was little the Matterhorn could be seen from the freeway when you were driving to Disneyland, these days the hotels hide it but back then it was the first thing you could see.
Yes! I grew up a 4 hour drive from Disneyland, which as a kid felt like an eternity. There was nothing more exciting than spotting Matterhorn from a distance and realizing we were finally there, the drive was over and we had days of fun ahead of us. To me it will always be the true park icon, it was the first part of Disneyland we ever saw and it inspired so much joy spotting it from the car.
Web search says that that pole on top of Spaceship Earth is a camera installed in August of 2021. Nobody knows if it's temporary or permanent, so maybe it's just there to film 50th Anniversary celebrations, or maybe it's a permanent security cam.
@@lutherheggs451 If it was meant to be a lightning rod or an air signal or anything like that, it would have been installed LONG ago. Multiple blogs have clear photographs: there is a camera attached to that pole. EDIT: I went to find those blog posts again, but guess what: as of September 12 2021, that pole was already taken down!
The first geodesic dome in the U.S. was a civic center in Virginia Beach Virginia (there was another in Hawaii but it wasn't a state yet). The city tore it down in 1994. It's a parking lot now. Brilliant.
The rod on top of Spaceship Earth is removable and it used as a tie-off railing for climbing/repelling. I used to work overnight custodial at Epcot and it’s basically only used for maintenance and pressure washers during their annual cleaning of the outside of that building. Obviously either they left it there for the week (usually about how long it takes to complete the project) or they forgot about it at the end of their shift. I’ve am one of the few that’s ever been up there when I was trained but I merely peeked outside.
I love that the Disneyland Hotel has a small sorcerers hat still. It had the cute charm without being huge and tacky, it definitely feels more fitting as a small prop at a hotel!
How do they get the water INTO those water towers, anyway? Is it some kind of artesian-well-like mechanism or something? Also, I always thought Grizzly Peak was a wolf, not a bear. Granted, I didn't know the name of it at the time...but it still looks more like a howling wolf to me.
Cinderella's Castle has been thru some... permutations... that I'm able to say "yeah, I saw that, and no I don't need therapy because of it." I think you'd have a blast doing going thru some of its cringy photo-albums.
The Perisphere from the 1939 New York World's Fair is likely another source of inspiration for Spaceship Earth. The Perisphere contained an attraction, a model of a futuristic city not unlike the original plans for EPCOT. These two spheres were also nearly identical in size.
Honey, 🍯 🐻 It’s a water tower. I had one above my parent’s single wide trailer… in the trailer park, as a child. Woohoo 🎉 🥳 🙌🏼 I never knew they were so glamorous, until now. Thank you kindly sir. You have yet again elevated my humble beginnings and fortified my belief in humanity. My hero! 🦸🏼♂️ 💯
Yes, I know what "Footlight Parade" is; and it is worth a watch. Classic Busby Berkley! I also know, "42nd Street", "Gold Diggers of 1933", "Dames", and "Gold Diggers of 1935"
Would Love to see a Deeper dive on Spaceship Earth, maybe even a poll on which version on the ride is the Favorite. My personal preference is the Jeremy Irons version.
Also Hollywood studios has had 4 icons,2 that are still in the park and 2 defunct(as far a i know) I overthinking it is a symbolic metaphor on the idendity problem that the park has having since it open First as a real studio, the transition of the transformation of rea studio, And now being inside the movies and ips.
The Great Movie Ride aged VERY well, because it was the history of movies. My kids and i made it a point to watch each and every movie referenced in it. (Yes, Including Footlights Parade)
Chinese Theatre is and always will be the Hollywood Studios icon to me. When I think Disney MGM/DHS, that’s what I think of. Definitely agree that Spaceship Earth is the best icon though!
I always consider Mickey’s Funwheel the icon for California Adventure. I know it’s all the way at the back but for a number of lands it really does help you situate where you are, like the castle
7:41 I wonder if that rod was put there for that commercial where Mickey was standing on top of Spaceship Earth. Or maybe just a lightning rod. I'm the same age as Epcot lol
i saw in an older video that you said you do not have part 1 of the haunted mansion comic? let me know if this is still the case and id be happy to send that to you. thanks for the always great content!
I love your videos but I’m dyslexic and I find it hard to enjoy videos when things on screen with words on it like the headline for the article or the menu for the price of the duck are flashed so quickly that I and I’m sure others can’t read them. I know it’s a joke and you make it fast on purpose to make the joke hit differently but it sure does take me out of the moment. I just thought you would be interested in knowing it make watching videos for me and others frustrated to have to rewind and pause it to get the joke or point your trying to make. Change it or not I’ll keep watching.
7:42 ive been to disney many many times and just got back last week. I also realized about the rod just this year and I have never seen it before. strange
I was disappointed that you didn't talked about the Sorcerer's Hat. I always saw that as the icon for Hollywood Studios and was really disappointed when to tore it down.
I'd love to have a video series going over every weenie from every park Each lands too maybe, rather than just the central one (maybe a 2 parter tackling the world showcase if there's not enough to talk about on each), could be neat As for my favourite, nostalgia wise I'd give it to the hat, it's the first one I really remember (although I've seen a fair few in my early days xD man that makes me sound old, I'm only 20, first trip to the US parks was 2005), but design wise, I think France's Castle is my favourite. They have a dragon!
The water Tower in DCA Hollywood studios backlot also has a stupid Hollywood Studios water tower story as they attempted to decorate it for the holidays lol
Favorite icon: (from favorite park) The Tree of Life. I had to warn my best bud last year on his first trip to WDW that I would likely weep (I’m a crier) at its reveal (so artfully done in the path placement through the entry plaza and Oasis)…Not only did I shed tears…but, he stopped, stunned, impressed, and overwhelmed.
I sort of do too. As an adult I can recognize the changes they made to DCA made it much better. But I grew up with the original DCA, it was such a pivotal time in my life, when we got our first annual passes, when Disneyland came to be a formative experience for me that inspired a life long love of Disney. I love the new DCA but I also miss taking pictures in the letter, smelling burnt coffee beans as I walk in, and seeing the sun sculpture.
This isn't the first time you've seemed dismissive of Footlight Parade's representation in The Great Movie Ride. It's something that most cinemaphiles and definitely every cinema student should know. Footlight Parade is a 1930s (obviously black and white) musical about a Broadway director that leaves the theatre to produce musical shorts that preceded the main feature film in cinemas. These musical shorts fulfilled the same role as a Mickey Mouse or Loony Toons cartoon short or a news reel (which was a short documentary about current affairs around the world). Footlight Parade derives its name from "footlights," the lights that are mounted along the front of a stage for its main illumination. "On parade" is a bit of cinematic lingo of the time. "News on Parade" would be a typical sort of title for a newsreel in that era. While The Great Movie Ride only features some models on a carousel from the end of the scene, "The Human Waterfall" sequence is one of cinema's greatest choreographed musical numbers. It features dozens of synchronized swimmers forming a number of different designs in the water before culminating in the Human Waterfall on the carousel which is featured in the ride. The Human Waterfall was one of several prominent musical numbers in the film. But, this one especially, was considered a spectacle. It paved the way for this type of choreography in film, long before the likes of Gene Kelly in Singing in the Rain. It's also the grandfather of the musical number found in so many Disney feature films. The "Be Our Guest" sequence is a direct homage to this scene you seem to be dismissing as irrelevant. If you're at all curious, The Warner Archives RU-vid channels has a clip of Footlight Parade's Human Waterfall.
mount prometheus is personally one of my favorite park icons. The theming is amazing. Each side of it changes effortlessly with the environment. It's just beautiful! And of course who doesn't love fire! P.S. I'M ALSO GOING TO DISNEYLAND TOMMOROW. I hope I see the one and only offhanddisney lol.
@@alphazion4354 YES! I just got back a few hours ago. I saw the small 20th Anniversary Greeting they did in the harbor. and a special version of Big Band Beat. The attractions I rode today were Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, Journey to the Center of the Earth and Soaring: Fantastic Flight. The park was only opened for 9 hours today, but I was able to do a lot.
@@alphazion4354 Thanks. I'm a lucky guy I know. Hehehe. Actually, I was born and raised in the LA area but have been working in Tokyo for almost 30 years now.
Montreal worlds fair is like the last time any thing major happened in Canada!! Still hoping for Disney land Canada one day... Even a pop up park would be nice!! At least there is a Disney Store in town!!
OMG! I was born the year Expo 67 opened. Love BuckyShere 3/4 dome. In reality (Space Ship Earth is same building) It sits atop a table 15 feet above ground. It's a Disney "illusion" Do'nt get me wrong. I was obsessed by it's beauty! I finally saw this jewel with mine own eyes 20 yrs. ago in Nov. 2001. Tree of Life (again, an OMG! monument) Took older sister to see it in 2008. I did do GMR. Wonderful AA figures. Back to SSE... aluciBond panels glistening day/night in Florida.....Priceless!!!!
The best icons are always the Park centerpieces, not only are they iconic and can be seen from anywhere in the park, most of them have rides or shows inside making them multi purpose! The Epcot globe (Spaceship Earth), Grammans Theater (The Great Movie Ride), Tree of Life (Tough to be a Bug) Grizzly Peak (Grizzly River Run) and Sleeping Beauty Castle (Walkthrough with dioramas). Sadly, Cinderella Castle has an expensive restaurant instead of an attraction. Also, I guarantee that the rod on top of Spaceship Earth is very likely a lightning rod. Every single tall structure in Disney World (and Universal) has one.
@OffhandDisney my friends and I created a Disney appreciation club called Oozma Kappa at the University of Kansas a year and a half ago. We’ve grown it to over 100 members, and I wanted to talk to you about maybe giving a talk to our club members. Let me know if this is something night interest you! Keep up the great work, I love watching your videos!
When you said “Twenty-O-Four” I realized in the future everyone will call it that like we call it “Nineteen-O-Four”. Do you think they called it “Nineteen Thousand and Four” when they were living? Genuinely curious. I know it’s the wrong takeaway from the video but still
Just watched the video OD. Towards the middle I had to take my headphones off because I was hearing a metallic clank every time you spoke. Just fyi check the equipment to make sure it's not peaking. Other than that, good job as always...
