Disney on Display

The featured gallery exhibit during my recent visit to the Brandywine River Museum was titled “Cinderella & Co.—Three Fairy Tales Reimagined.” Exclusive to the Brandywine River Museum, it is an examination of illustrations for three fairy tales: Cinderella, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and The Three Little Pigs. It was one of those serendipitous occasions where I found an unexpected Disney connection!

Three pieces of art from Disney’s 1933 classic “Three Little Pigs” were on display, including this original cel:



a graphite study on paper:



and a cel with the watercolor background:



Storyboard art from Disney’s “Cinderella,” 1950:



Two pieces of Mary Blair concept art for “Cinderella”:





Most of the modern interpretations of the classic fairy tales were not to my taste; however, this 2013 illustration by Steven Guarnaccia was definitely an exception!



Also on display were an original Beatrix Potter illustration for Cinderella:



and a 1938 interpretation by Leonard Weisgard:



Better hurry if you want to catch it; this fantastic exhibit closes Sunday, January 5!

See more Brandywine River Museum photos at my main website.

Manic Mickey Monday

In this April 1960 image at the entrance to Disneyland, it's fairly safe to say that Scary Mickey is sucking the life force out of the little tot he is laying his hand on.

Even scarier is what this Little Pig could be whispering in the ear of this very attentive little girl. Whatever evil deed he is telling, you can be certain she carried it out.



See more vintage Disneyland photos at my main website.

Pigs on a Carrousel

In this 1950s shot we see the King Arthur Carrousel located near the entrance to Fantasyland. Two of the Three Pigs can be seen cavorting near this attraction. This was when the costumes were somewhat more scary than anything else.



Zooming in to another area of the image I believe I found another match to one of my construction photos.



Feast your eyes on Horse #56. While the colors here don't match what's on the horse in the previous photo, the shape does.



I have yet to find a contemporary shot of this horse. Another one for the proverbial photo checklist!

More King Arthur Carrousel photos at my main website.

Storyland in New Orleans

I still have a number of posts sitting in the queue from trips long ago, like this one about Storyland in New Orleans from over a year ago. I had never heard of this section of City Park until the Executive Director at UCDA clued me into it. What a kitschy gem this place turned out to be! At the entrance you find no less than Humpty Dumpty himself!



While it may lack the sophistication and polish of a Disney Park, it is every bit as charming, and judging by the plethora of happy squealing kids running through while I was there, it was just as entertaining. In fact, maybe even a little more so because of its simplicity and the ability to interact with fewer rules and regulations.



You can climb aboard Peter Pan/Captain Hook's pirate ship yourself, and see them forever frozen in a duel high up in the crow's nest:



This fortress/castle makes a beautiful centerpiece to the park:



Some of the characters in Storyland are patterned after the Disney interpretations; some are less obvious, like this tribute to the Little Mermaid:



The cottage of the Seven Dwarfs:



Snow White:



Her "makeup" has seen better days:



Inside this little structure, it would appear that the artists of Storyland are much less worried about the reach of the Mouse's attorneys. These paintings of the characters from Alice in Wonderland are spot-on to their Disney counterparts.





Rapunzel:



Cute to see Jack in the Beanstalk on an actual fence:



Grandma's House:



The frightful sight you see when you open her door!



This is the cow that stepped over the moon.



Loved this dragon slide; it took a long time to get this shot without the tiny little varmints who were gleefully playing here.



The permanent home of Three Little Pigs:



The pigs themselves:



The home of brick (complete with the Big Bad Wolf about to get burned up in the chimney!):



The house of wood:



and the house of straw:



Mother Goose watches over the proceedings from overhead:



Not too far from the old woman who lived in the shoe:



There's even a Monstro here:



Complete with Pinocchio (still in puppet form) sitting on top:



While this place may not exactly be compliant with all the rules that the Mouse House adheres too, it is still a very cool place for the young and young at heart.

More Storyland at my main website.

Walt Loves A Parade

I love it when I get a bargain on something with a detail that nobody notices but me. This strip of four vintage black and white negatives has a shot of Walt Disney and his granddaughters Tammy and Joanna Miller riding through Town Square for a parade in a horseless carriage. I am guessing that Lillian Disney's hand is the one in the background waving.



Wonder where the film footage is now that the gentleman on the left is shooting?



Image two shows…well, not quite sure what the flag carrying men are supposed to represent.



A detailed view:



Thanks to the third image, I am able to get a fairly good idea of what year these negatives are from; most likely 1959 or 1960 based on the Mickey, Minnie, and Three Little Pig costumed character styles.





I am also guessing that this must be a Christmas Parade, and that these three are supposed to represent the Three Wise Men.



You can see the face hole/mesh on this detailed view:



March over to my main website for more Disneyland Parade photos.