The second official Disneyana Convention in 1993

Collecting Dreams

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08.02.11 – Savvy Disneyana connoisseurs’ wishes came true when Disneyland Resort hosted the second official Disneyana Convention in 1993. 

Enthusiastic “Conventionears,” made up not only of collectors but also serious investors, could find every kind of Disney collectible imaginable—from T-shirts and buttons commemorating the convention itself to vintage produc­tion reels used to create Walt Disney’s animated classics such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; from original illustrations to a memo signed by Walt himself.

The event was an impressive collection of museum-quality art, Disney icons, entertainment her­itage, and personalities that make up what has come to be referred to as “Disneyesque.”

The event, which ran September 16-19, included a “fun­tastic” evening reception held in Mickey’s Toontown at Disneyland Park. The evening’s highlight was a sneak preview of Toontown’s newest attraction, a wacky ride on the wild side of town.

Many conventioneers opted for one or more of a variety of unique tours of Disneyland. One of these tours included a ride in the Lilly Belle car on the Disneyland Railroad, a tour of Walt’s apartment above the firehouse in Town Square, and a guided tour of the Disney Gallery above Pirates of the Caribbean (which had originally been slated to be Walt’s official apartment.

As important and exciting as the mesmerizing memorabilia and count­less collectibles at the show was the wealth of memorable and equally valuable information and history shared by an impressive collection of speakers. In his opening remarks, Judson Green, President of Walt Disney Attractions, welcomed the gathering by offering a look at some future plans. He modeled, then gave away a baseball hat from Alien Encounter, a white-knuckle thrill attraction to be built in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort.

President of Walt Disney Imagineering Marty Sklar took this opportunity to tell a few first-hand sto­ries about Walt Disney: The King of Disneyland and His Court. His favorite Walt story was the day science fiction writer Ray Bradbury visited Walt at the Studio to persuade Walt to run for mayor of Los Angeles. Walt’s response: Why should I want to be mayor when I’m king of Disneyland?”

Appropriate to Mickey’s 65th birth­day, Dave Smith, Director of the Walt Disney Archives, spoke about the gene­sis of Steamboat Willie. Quoting let­ters written by Walt during his three-month stay in New York City, he told the history-making story of putting sound to a cartoon (considered a novelty at the time) and getting a theater to show it. Walt was pretty sure he had a hit on his hands, and, in Mickey, a char­acter that would be “as well known as any cartoon…” When he showed his creation to the people at Paramount who were attempting to do the same thing, he was positive. “They laughed at it while it was being shown, and looked around amazed when it was over.” Walt wrote at the time.

Pam Haynes, Director of Disneyland Costuming, recounted the historic evolution of outfitting the Theme Park Casts through the years. She also described the monumental task of designing, maintaining, and replacing those costumes. Haynes explained that the job doesn’t stop with the human Cast. “The next time you sail through It’s a Small World or explore Pirates of the Caribbean,” she said, “remember that each of those perform­ers has had our special touch of magic.” She then presented a fash­ion show of Disney costumes, highlighted by the uniforms of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

On Friday, the col conventioneers attended an auction that offered the ultimate in Disney-oriented collectibles: animation cels featur­ing the likes of Snow White, Pinocchio, and Roger Rabbit; illus­trations used for advertising and merchandise: sculptures, dis­plays, and even a check and a copy of the origin book, Lady and the Tramp, signed by Walt himself. These last two extremely coveted items brought in winning bids of $4,250 each.

The auction was as Disneyesque as the items on the block. Introduced by Ariel and a few of her underwater friends, the terms and conditions of the auction were listed to the tune of “Under the Sea.” Then David Redden, Senior Vice President of Sotheby’s, con­ducted a lively and most unusual auc­tion. Imagine this dignified gentleman taking bids from a crowd waving mouse-ear placards to indicate their bids!

That same evening, hearty collectors, armed with pillows and lawn chairs, waited through the night to have first crack at the objects d’art, which had been created in very limited quantities to be on sale the next morning.

An Lladro Peter Pan figurine, a 14-inch Annette Funicello doll by Madame Alexander Dolls, and “The Disneyland Barbershop Quartet” lithograph by Disneyland Master Illustrator Charles Boyer were among the items offered. Other world-renowned artisans with limited edition pieces included Goebel, Gund and Arman. Adding to their value, most pieces were signed by the artists at the time of purchase.

During the course of the Convention a peerless collection of Disney talent was on hand to meet and greet their fans: Artists and animators like Carl Barks, Ward Kimball, Eyvind Earle, Marc Davis, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson. The Disney Trivia Book authors Dave Smith and Kevin Neary were on hand to answer questions and sign autographs, as was animator/illustrator David Pacheco, and many more.

And speaking of autographs, what true Disneyana collector could pass up the chance to add the signatures of original Mouseketeers like Cubby, Lonnie, Bobby and Karen to their collection?

Displays by the Disney Business Groups were designed to update passer-by on what’s going on in the Company’s many and diverse divisions.  Included in the assemblage were Disney Software, The Mighty Ducks, Disney Collectibles, The Disney Collector Society, Hyperion Press, the Magic Kingdom Club and Disney News, The Disney Store, Fairy Tale Weddings and Honeymoons, and more.

The trade show, comprised of independent collectors rounded out the entire affair with a myriad of vintage Disney collectibles of nearly every shape and size.

The Saturday night banquet featured keynote speaker Jack Linquist, President of Disneyland, and a finale that showcased a never-before-performed song called “Mickey, Donald Duck, Goofy and the Gang,” A joyful recounting of Walt’s cartoon contributions to the world, the song was written anonymously shortly after Walt’s death in 1966. This was the song’s public debut.

All in all, the experience enjoyed by this year’s “ConventionEars” was fun, entertaining, inspiring, informative- an experience of which dreams are made. Disneyesque.

From Disney News, Winter 1993.

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About 1982's TRON

The First Electronic Gunslinger

02.09.11 - Long a fan of the mythic heroes of the Old West, Bruce Boxleitner finds himself playing the hero in a different kind of mythology. He is a computer programmer fighting to save his electronic world in Walt Disney Productions' futuristic adventure, "TRON."

Powerful Programmer… Bruce Boxleitner stars as a computer expert whose alter-ego is the most powerful game warrior in an electronic universe in Walt Disney Productions' futuristic adventure, "TRON."

"TRON" combines state-of-the-art computer graphics with special techniques in live-action photography to create a fantasy world never before seen on a motion picture screen. It is a world where energy lives and breathes, where laws of logic are defied, where an electronic civilization thrives.

All of which is quite a departure for Boxleitner, a tall and athletic actor whose career is rooted in roles as rawboned types who helped tame the West. Collector of frontier art, reader of historical fiction, Boxleitner relished such vehicles as the television series "How the West Was Won" and the telefilm "I Married Wyatt Earp." "I loved the idea of reliving history," he says. "Playing a Western hero you sense how strong those people must have been. Let me tell you it's a thrill."

Expectedly, he was not enthralled with the notion of starring in an effects-laden picture like "TRON.' "I was really feeling my oats," he says today. "I had just finished doing a Western movie-of-the-week and was still thinking of myself as the gunfighter hero. When I got the script for "TRON" I rejected it. I didn't want to spend that time cooped up on sound stages.

"Then Kitty (his wife, actress Kathryn Holcomb) read the script and told me I'd better reconsider. She thought it was something special. When I reread it, I realized that Tron, my character in the film, was not so different from a traditional Western hero."

Boxleitner's Tron character is the only being who can save his electronic world from domination by a huge and despotic master computer program. Ironically, while the completed film portrays an epic battle set in a fantastic landscape of light and electricity, the actors performed against sets that were practically bare. The live-action was mated with computer-generated settings in post-production.

"We looked at storyboards (rough drawings of each shot in the movie) before each scene. Then it was up to the imagination. And when you realize that what we are seeing in 'TRON's' world can't possibly exist — then you know how difficult a job the actors had. 'TRON' is the most difficult movie I've ever done." Boxleitner may have had it a bit easier than the others, however. Faced with a duel on the video game grid, chased by a Recognizer or a data pirate, or confronted by any of the electronic world's myriad dangers, he could always ask himself, "What would Wyatt Earp do?" The settings may change but the heroes remain the same.

In color by Technicolor, "TRON" also stars Jeff Bridges, David Warner, Cindy Morgan and Barnard Hughes. The film was written and directed by Steven Lisberger for producer Donald Kushner and executive producer Ron Miller. Buena Vista releases. Filmed in Super Panavision ® 70.

From the original 1982 Tron press materials.

 

 

Lisberger Breaks with Convention

02.09.11 - In 1976 he stretched a $10,000 American Film Institute grant into a multi-million dollar animated film. Today, Steve Lisberger is the guiding creative force behind "TRON," a motion picture that is not only unconventional, but the first of its kind.

Writer-Director Steven Lisberger is the mastermind behind "TRON," Walt Disney Productions futuristic adventure about an electronic world in which video games come to life through state-of-the-art computer imaging.

Writer-director Steven Lisberger is not one to settle for the conventional. As a college student in Boston he formed his own film production company. In 1976 he stretched a $10,000 American Film Institute grant into a multi-million dollar animated film. Today, Lisberger is the guiding creative force behind "TRON," a motion picture that is not only unconventional, but the first of its kind.

"TRON" combines live action with computer-generated imagery to create a fantasy world where video games are arenas of life and death. Long a devotee of video games, the filmmaker first conceived the project in 1978.

"Everyone's looking for new fantasies in the movies," he says. "Outer space has been done to death. They've gone inside the body and under the sea. We've created this world in 'TRON' by taking video games and just blowing them out to the point where they are a reality. At the point where the games met computer graphics, something came alive that hadn't been alive before. Video games were the basis for the fantasy; the computer imagery was the means to create it."

Lisberger and his partner, producer Donald Kushner, brought their project to Disney in mid-1980 and a deal was quickly struck. "They first gave us money to do a demonstration, to prove that we could create the effects we claimed were possible," Lisberger says. "It's to Disney's credit that they didn't say, 'Call us when the computers can do a dog.' We were interested in creating objects and environments that couldn't exist in the physical world. That's something computer-generated images can do very well."

With the boundless enthusiasm of the first boy out to recess, Lisberger began, in early 1981, to choose his creative team for "TRON." French comics artist Moebius — one of the founders of Heavy Metal — was lured from his Pyrenees mountain home to work on character styling and storyboarding. Futurist Syd Mead was called to design vehicles that would later be computer-generated. High-tech artist Peter Lloyd was hired for color styling and background design. Richard Taylor, currently manager of the Movie Technology Division of Information International, Inc. (Triple-I) and an art director whose glowing designs gained him fame in the 1970s with his commercials for Levi and Seven-Up, joined the group to oversee the computer imaging and optical effects. Harrison Ellenshaw, matte painter for "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back," signed on as co-director (with Taylor) of special effects and associate producer.

The Mathematical Applications Group, Inc. (MAGI), Triple-I, Digital Effects Inc. and Robert Abel and Associates were hired to execute computer images choreographed by animators Bill Kroyer and Jerry Rees. Matched with the live action, those computer scenarios bring Lisberger's world to life.

"We're taking risks with this film," admits the director who spends his days buzzing through the production like a low-flying plane looking for fires to put out. "But that's what got this place (Disney) rolling in the first place. They broke with convention. Computer imagery is never going to replace actors. Actors are what I call the ultimate special effect. And it won't challenge the hand-crafted animation for which Disney is famous. But for this particular fantasy in "TRON" it's the perfect artists' tool."

In color by Technicolor, "TRON" stars Jeff Bridges, David Warner, Bruce Boxleitner, Cindy Morgan and Barnard Hughes. The film was written and directed by Steven Lisberger for producer Donald Kushner and executive producer Ron Miller. Buena Vista releases. Filmed in Super Panavision® 70.

From the original 1982 Tron press materials.