Saturday, January 22, 2011

Storybook Land

Today I have a few vintage photos from Storybook Land. Here's Monstro, in his original (pre-blue) incarnation. This is much closer to the movie Monstro than the cyanotic version you'll see there today.


This charming church is part of the village where Alice lived (when she wasn't cavorting around Wonderland). I like the detail of the tiny graveyard and tombstones; somehow it makes my brain think about the generations of people who lived in that village years before, and who (whom?) are now gone and buried. Even though it's just a model! Crazy.


And finally, a pre-Matterhorn look at Geppetto's village. There's his workshop, right by the water. In the movie, I think his shop was depicted as being at the end of a winding street, but this way you can see the tiny toys in the window.

8 comments:

Thufer said...

Thank you for these. Looks upon the banks of the 'Story Book Land Canal Boats' is always a joy.

Katella Gate said...

Bring back Black Monstro, Black is beautiful... I'm gonna tell Hooper X and he'll set The Man straight!

... and just so you feel better, "who" is probably the correct form since it's the subject of a clause that re-defines the main subject "people".

The crosses on the church always bothered me. Church of the Holy Donuts? Church of the Zero Deficit?

Connie Moreno said...

Those are neat views!

JG said...

What Everybody Said. These are great shots of some of my favorite parts of Story Book Land.

@KG, the cross is undoubtedly for the Church of England, of which Alice's uncle was the minister in that little church.

Major, what you say is true about the depth of history in the village life; of course, there are good points and bad points in that continuity.

A good novel bearing on the details of English village life is the "Nine Tailors" by Dorothy Sayers. It's a classic English murder mystery set in a remote village, the events revolve largely around the village church, and this little tableau reminds me of the scene of that story. Check it out if you are interested in a good mystery with a surprise ending. The title does not mean what it sounds like, nothing to do with clothing. Shows how events and relationships span generations and affect posterity in ways that cannot be imagined in the moment, only possible in a place where the population is static and everyone knows everyone.

Best Regards.

JG

Major Pepperidge said...

JG, I don't think I've ever read any Dorothy Sayers; I've been curious about the Lord Peter Wimsey stories. "Nine Taylors" sounds like a good place to start!

JG said...

Try it, you won't be disappointed.

JG

Chuck said...

Are there miniature coffins undr those headstones?

Anonymous said...

It's so hard to think that, when the time came to upgrade Monstro, that somehow there couldn't have been a happy medium between Monstro's original black (which always looked lifeless to me, in spite of its flimic origin) and the giant day-glo 3D blacklight poster the whale has become.

I mean, it's sort of fun, but come on - the first time I saw a pic of it (closeup), I thought it was from an attraction at a competing non-Disney park.

Maybe it isn't so hard to believe after all; it seems plausible that same governing body who are ultimately responsible for permantenly closing some of the more beloved attractions in Disney parks (Snow White, anyone?) is not going to be able to understand the concept of more Monstro-friendly color options like Prussian Blue, Oxford Blue, Federal Blue, Egyptian Blue, Yale Blue, Klein Blue, or even Navy Blue.