Extra Secret Stories of Walt Disney World Read online

  The transformation into a physical reality was the task of world-famed mosaicist Hanns-Joachim Scharff with his daughter-in-law, Monika. Scharff studied art history at the University of Leipzig and was inspired and drawn to mosaics as a youth during a visit to Italy. He was also an S.S. interrogator for the Nazis during World War II.

  In 1966, he did mosaic work for New Orleans Square in Disneyland. In 1970, he and his wife and daughter-in-law did the impressive mural inside the breezeway of Cinderella Castle which was one of the reasons he was asked to do this mosaic.

  The Land mosaic has approximately 150,000 individually cut and shaped pieces in 131 different colors. The pieces are made of marble, granite, slate, Byzantine glass, Venetian glass, real gold, mirror, ceramic, and pebbles.

  The mural is supposed to be a mirror image, but there is one tile different in each side. One side has a ruby-colored tile while the other has an emerald-colored tile. Hanns-Joachim worked on one side of the mural and Monika on the other. The different stones represent their birth stones.

  Epcot

  Turtle Talk

  Turtle Talk with Crush is a popular theater show that is part of Disney’s Living Character Initiative program.

  Bruce Vaughn, vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering’s research and development division, said:

  This is an incredibly compelling and powerful way to experience the characters. They are fully aware of the people in their presence and can call you by name. It is a 100-percent live experience.

  Crush is a laid-back green sea turtle over 150 years old who loves riding the ocean currents and talks with the stereotypical attitude and vocabulary of a California surfer. He first appeared in the Disney-Pixar animated feature film Finding Nemo (2003) where he helped Dory and Marlin on their quest.

  According to Crush himself, his father is named Mr. Turtle, so that would make Crush’s full name Crush Turtle, or C. Turtle (sea turtle) for short.

  In the film, his voice is supplied by Nemo writer-director Andrew Stanton who recorded all of Crush’s dialog while lying on his couch in his office.

  The show is a mix of technologies including computer graphic techniques, image projection, digital puppetry, and improvisation. Some of the action is pre-created animated sequences that can be cued up when needed; some is done in real time.

  Crush is controlled on-screen in real time by a puppeteer who uses a telemetric input device similar to a keyboard so that the puppet appears seamlessly in a virtual environment. The X-Y-Z axis movement of the input device causes the digital puppet to move correspondingly.

  A talented performer behind the massive rear-projection screen area that looks like a window on the Pacific Ocean underwater environment speaks in an approximation of Crush’s familiar voice and it is transferred to the speakers in the small theater.

  The avatar image is projected at 60 frames per second so that the turtle’s mouth is perfectly sychronized with the performer’s words. The performance is a mixture of pre-scripted material and improvisational responses. Cameras mounted on either side of the screen allow the performer to see the audience and to make specific references.

  The same type of technology has been used in the Monsters Laugh Floor attraction in the Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland since 2007.

  Originally, the Crush attraction opened on November 16, 2004, at The Living Seas pavilion at Epcot (later renamed The Seas with Nemo and Friends). Another version opened at Disney California Adventure in July 2005. It was open briefly at Hong Kong Disneyland from May 24 to August 10, 2008. The attraction opened in Tokyo DisneySea on October 1, 2009.

  A similar experience is included in the Disney Cruise Line Animator’s Palate restaurants on the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy ships. Uniquely, a Turtle Talk with Crush unit was donated by Walt Disney Imagineering to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (Bill Holmes Hospital) in early 2013 to entertain children and their siblings. It is operated twice a day by volunteering Disney cast members.

  In May 2016 the theme park attraction added the characters of Dory, Destiny the whale shark, Bailey the beluga whale, and Hank the “septopus” (a seven-legged octopus), along with Crush’s son, Squirt.

  The addition of Turtle Talk with Crush to Disney TokyoSea cost a minimum of $13.1 million but does not include the “Dude speak” because the Imagineers felt that type of persona would not be completely understood by a Japanese audience. So, Crush is just an overly friendly turtle.

  Epcot

  World Showcase Trees

  Trees serve many purposes at Walt Disney World. Some trees play the traditional role of decoration. Other trees like the Swiss Family Treehouse and the Tree of Life, are attractions. Some artificial tree stumps like those on Tom Sawyer Island hide speakers that provide authentic forest sounds.

  For decades the back of Sunshine Tree Terrace featured the Florida Sunshine Tree—a large replica of a citrus tree with artificial fruit, blossoms, and leaves—created by Disney technicians who studied Florida citrus trees a long time before putting the tree together limb by limb in a combination of reality and fantasy.

  The World Showcase is home to a variety of trees not normally seen in Florida. Dawn redwoods are in Canada. Linden trees reminiscent of Parisian parks shade the walkways in France, English hawthornes are in the gardens of the United Kingdom.

  The yucca tree to the right side of the Cantina de San Angel in Mexico is over 250 years old. It was transplanted from the Chilhuahuan desert on the border between Texas and Mexico. The weeping mulberry tree found near the Nine Dragons Restaurant in the China pavilion came from an estate in New Jersey.

  The gnarled olive trees in Italy are over a hundred years old. These trees were brought from Sacramento, California. While olive tree seedlings can mature in Florida, it was discovered that trees grown in Florida never take on the size and twisted shape of Italian olive trees. However, trees grown in California can look identical to their Italian counterparts.

  The olive trees arrived at Walt Disney World on flatbed trucks. It was not necessarily a smooth journey. Arizona law required trees to be trimmed to a ten-foot width. Looking at the trees, darker bark is the original tree while lighter bark is new growth. In addition, cypress trees were in the pavilion, and for decades were also in front of the casting building on Buena Vista Drive because the structure was reminiscent of the Doge’s Palace in Italy.

  One of the oak trees in front of the American Adventure pavilion to the far right was originally planted in the late 1960s where Disney Springs is today. It was “harvested” from that location and moved to the Walt Disney World tree farm and kept there until its final move to Epcot for the 1982 opening.

  Disney trees accomplish three things:

  Provide shade, shelter, and beauty for guests visiting the park.

  Conceal visual intrusions, whether it was using the berm in Disneyland to hide the outside world or using horticulture to hide show buildings and backstage areas.

  Support the storytelling by creating the right look for the setting, from the exotic jungles of the Jungle Cruise to the Wild West cacti of Frontierland.

  In 1985, I interviewed Bill Evans, the director of Disney Landscape Design, and he told me:

  Fortunately for us, [Walt Disney] wanted a lot of green plant stuff. That was one of the elements Walt felt would separate his park from the Coney Island format. Walt wanted that landscaping to be as close to full scale and mature as possible. He didn’t want to wait five or ten years for young trees to grow up and produce shape.

  For Walt Disney World, the tree farm was the first place built and in operation so we could acclimate the many different trees to Florida and get as much full growth as possible before the park opened.

  Epcot

  The Royal Sommerhus

  The Royal Sommerhus refers to a summer house for the royal family to temporarily retreat from the business of the kingdom. It was meant to tie-in with the storyline of the Norway pavilion attraction, Frozen Ever After, where Queen Elsa emb
races her magical icy powers to create a beautiful “winter-in-summer” day for the entire kingdom, a “summer snow day.”

  Queen Elsa and Princess Anna are characters from the popular animated feature film Frozen (2013). The classic Snow Queen story originated in Denmark, but the kingdom of Arendelle in the film was inspired by Norway, which is why the characters and the new attraction were incorporated into that pavilion.

  The wait time to meet these two popular Disney princesses when they first appeared in the pavilion soared to several hours, so it was necessary to create a meet-and-greet location to better manage the horde of guests. The Royal Sommerhus opened June 21, 2016.

  The quaint meet-and-greet location is a combination of rustic wood, ornate paintings, and carvings to give the impression of a “homey” inviting residence that would make guests feel comfortable, especially with all the authentic details like childhood toys.

  Lauren Niederhier, an assistant project manager for WDI, told the Orlando Sentinel:

  So everything in the cabin is really harkening back to when Anna and Elsa were younger. You see family heirlooms, traditional artifacts, Norwegian styles of folk art. The whole house is really filled with all of those types of touches that really kind of show you what their family life was like as young girls.

  The queue through the house is filled with examples of rosemaling, a traditional Norwegian decorative painting where everything became a canvas for the ornamentation and flowery designs.

  Niederhier continued:

  We made sure that all of the details are really specific to Norway but that they also tell the story of Anna and Elsa as young girls.

  The story of the cabin is that this is where they came to be with their families in the summer and this was kind of their relaxation place, so you’ll see that everything about the cabin kind of tells that story and shows their family heritage.

  This character greeting area didn’t go into an already existing structure like the new attraction. This is a completely new area. We created this space to extend the architectural story of Norway so it is a new place for Anna and Elsa but steeped in their family history.

  The cabin is actually based on a real one in Trondheim. The Imagineering creative team traveled to Norway to get a first-hand look at the areas the cabin is based on, to get an idea of folk art styles, the paintings, the architecture, and to really bring that to life in Epcot.

  Some of the tapestries we have are very specific to Norway and if you look closely, you’ll see some of them are actually related to Maelstrom, the attraction that was here previously.

  One tapestry depicts the three-headed troll that used to send guests over the falls in Maelstrom.

  Imagineer Wyatt Winter said that the Sommerhus design was inspired by an 1817 cabin that is situated outside of Trondheim, Norway, that is a part of the Sarpsborg Open Air Museum:

  When we opened it and we started training our cast members and bringing people in, some of our Norwegian cast came in and said, “This is just like my grandparents’ house!” We even have a couple that are from Trondheim. They’ve been to that house and can vouch for it.

  Epcot

  Mariachi Cobre

  For the October 1, 2017, event marking the 35th anniversary of Epcot, George A. Kalogridis, president of Walt Disney World Resort, was joined on stage by the patriotic Voices of Liberty ensemble and the Mariachi Cobre from the Mexico pavilion—two acts that debuted when that theme park originally opened in 1982.

  Mariachi Cobre is a band of internationally acclaimed mariachi musicians. The group was formed in 1971 by Randy Carillo on guitar, his brother Stephen on trumpet, Mack Ruiz on violin, and Francisco Grijalva as the arranger who also played in the group.

  Over the years the company of players has expanded to include Chris Figueroa (violin), Pablo Hector Gama (violin), Miguel Angel Molina (trumpet), Israel Galvez Molina (violin), Roberto Juan Martinez (vihuela), Antonio Hernandez Ruiz (violin and viola), Javier Trujillo (guitarra de Golpe), Mario Trujillo (violin), and Adolfo Roman Garcia. Many of the members have played together since they were teenagers in Arizona.

  Mariachi Cobre was founded in Tucson, Arizona, and evolved out of the mariachi youth group Mariachi Juvenil Los Chanquitos Feos De Tucson, which was formed in 1964. It was the first youth mariachi group to be formed in the United States.

  Randy admitted he wasn’t very excited when his parents suggested he try out as a guitarist for the group. At the time, he was more interested in rock ‘n’ roll. But once he was introduced to the mariachi sound, he said he was hooked:

  At fifteen years old, to be playing in Anaheim at Disneyland for Cinco de Mayo, I would have never thought that at 63 I would still be so invested in the Walt Disney Company.

  Eventually, he and some of the members of the group formed Mariachi Cobre, taking their name from the Spanish word for “copper.” Randy explained that Arizona is known as the Copper State and that copper was a semi-precious metal to Mexican Indians:

  When we arrived here before the opening of Epcot, I couldn’t believe it. It was like a fairy tale land. The architecture, the lighting, the detail, it was incredible.

  Since opening Epcot in 1982, Mariachi Cobre still performs seven shows a day, five days a week.

  Randy said:

  It’s not the easiest job, but it’s a lot of fun. You have to develop a certain discipline to accomplish all of those sets and to keep a good attitude and to keep yourself physically and musically healthy.

  In addition to that schedule, the Disney company allows the group to take breaks over the years to perform with more than 44 orchestras in the United States and Mexico, including the Boston Pops and the major orchestras of Minnesota, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Utah, Houston, and Guadalajara, as well as record CDs.

  Mariachi Cobre’s recordings include Mariachi Cobre, Este es Mi Mariachi, XV Anniversary, and The Latin Album with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops. The group has accompanied a wide range of mariachi and non-mariachi artists including Linda Ronstadt, Lucha Villa, Lola Betran, Ana Gabriel, Guadalupe Pineda, Carlos Santana, Julio Iglesias, and Vikki Carr.

  Since their founding in 1971, Mariachi Cobre has played a major role in the preservation and appreciation of one of the most respected cultural music folk forms of Mexico and delighted millions of guests, often giving them their first taste of this type of music. The mariachi musicians speak in both English and Spanish and encourage the audience to relax and have fun by clapping and cheering.

  Randy’s brother, Stephen Carillo, said:

  We are all like brothers and we are all a family. Day in and day out we get to meet people from all over the world and we get to share our culture and our music with them. It’s truly special and I really enjoy that.

  Epcot

  Italy

  The Imagineers decided to theme the Italy pavilion to the city of Venice because they felt it would be the most readily recognizable Italian location to guests since that city has so many famous architectural icons.

  The Isola del Lago (Isle of the Lake) afforded guests the opportunity to see the pavilion from one of the over 120 islands connected by canals, rather than streets, that make up the city of Venice. It includes several pedestrian bridges, a common sight in Venice that gives it an aura of authenticity.

  The Isola would also offer the opportunity to have gondolas moored at the distinctive poles. Gondolas are the main method of transportation in Venice. Different types of watercraft were originally meant to distinguish the various pavilions for guests viewing the area from across the World Showcase Lagoon or from the Friendship boats.

  Standing 83 feet tall, the campanile, or bell tower, resembles the one in Piazza di San Marco (St. Mark’s Square) in Venice. Just like the original, it is located adjacent to the Doge’s Palace.

  However, to balance the skyline by giving it greater symmetry and not to give the pavilion more acreage than the other pavilions, it is placed on the opposite side. It was built to one-fifth the scale of the original.


  On top of the campanile is the archangel Gabriel. This exact replica of the original was painstakingly covered in gold leaf. That detail was done for practical reasons since it would not tarnish and eliminate the need of frequent refurbishment. An unadorned replica of the statue was placed in the garden to the right for guests to get a better view of it.

  The pink and white Doge’s Palace is a reproduction of the residence for the dukes who ruled Venice for seven centuries. The palace façade is lavishly adorned with ornamentation and statuary. At the very top is the statue of Justice that stands guard over the building. The building is a blend of Gothic and Renaissance styles.

  The Doge’s Palace is schematically correct in its delicate and profuse ornamentation, columns, colonnades, and distinctive design pattern. Working from photographs and on-site visits, the Imagineers made a remarkably convincing facsimile right down to the elaborate door handles.

  Unlike the original, this version was made from fiberglass and plaster, although it was made to look like the original marble and stone. The marble on the façade is actually brick which has been treated with fiberglass. Underneath the columns and arches are steel girders and beams providing support for the building unlike the columns in the original one in Venice.

  The statues seem to be made of solid stone but are actually hollow. They are lightweight and could easily blow away. To prevent this from happening, they are held in place with rods which run from their base through the hollow center.

  The interior does not duplicate the interior of the original. Imagineers adapted architectural elements from the periods during which the palace was built and so it is an accurate representation of the styles from the 9th through the 16th centuries.

  At the far end and around the corner of Disney’s Doge’s Palace is a carving of a grotesque face. Citizens could anonymously and often hidden in the darkness of night drop slips of paper into the open mouths of these types of faces and report their neighbors for crimes or voice complaints about government actions. The face located at the Doge’s Palace was specifically intended to be used to report financial crimes including tax fraud.