Sunday, January 03, 2021

Snoozer Sunday

How can it be January 3rd already? The year is just whooshing by. I'm already thinking about Christmas shopping.

Here's a rather gray but not terrible photo of the mighty Matterhorn, looking surprisingly massive. It's interesting to imagine what this attraction might have looked like if it had been built 20 or 30 years later. Would they have made the mountain even bigger? I'm not sure if they could have, since Disneyland's compact size would have made a larger "footprint" impractical. I think the one we got is JUST RIGHT.

I've mentioned it before, but the early Matterhorn seemed to have darker coloration in general, and I believe that at they lightened it after a few years to simulate "aerial perspective" - the effect that atmosphere has in making an object feel farther away. 


And here's a pretty unspectacular shot looking across the Submarine lagoon, but I am happy to see a few Motorboats and Autopia vehicles, and that nutty Richfield eagle.


 

19 comments:

"Lou and Sue" said...

Pic #1: Monorail Blue, too!

Pic #2: Major, why is he nutty??

TokyoMagic! said...

Is that a hole in the Matterhorn, behind the waterfall? Or is it just Fudgie The Wale, diving into the water below?

JC Shannon said...

Some cool pics here. Whenever I see the Matterhorn, I want to sing Riiicola! The photographer could have used a UV filter, that day at the lagoon. I bet Lou would have, and he would have waited for the Monorail to pass as well. Thanks Major.

Chuck said...

No mermaids today - just their dad.

TM!, that is an odd shape I've never noticed before, and since I can't seem to find another photo that shows it, your hypothesis is probably correct. And now I want chocolate cake for some reason.

JC, I'm not wearing my glasses and originally read that Lou was waiting for the Matterhorn to pass. Ahh, the legendary patience of photographers...

K. Martinez said...

I like pic #2 for a view showing the multi-level of the "Disneyland '59" expansion in Tomorrowland. Plus there's telephone poles too. It doesn't get better than that. Thanks, Major.

Andrew said...

Sue pointed it out in pic #1, but is that a sliver of Monorail Blue just above the beam in the left center of pic #2? Either way, that image is going in my "favorite GDB pictures" folder!

"Lou and Sue" said...

Andrew:

#2: Blue, too, TOO! Woo-hoo!!

Sue

Melissa said...

One man's "unspectacular" is another man's "soothing." I love this mellow view of the lagoon. Nice color.

Nanook said...

Major-
In image #2, I spy "the backside of the dark water system".

Thanks, Major.

Nanook said...

@ TM!-
HERE'S another view of 'Fudgie the Whale', thanks to Daveland. Depending on the lighting, that part of the mountain does take on strange shapes.

Major Pepperidge said...

Lou and Sue, too much sugary cereal! And yep, there’s Old Bluie.

TokyoMagic!, Oh. My. Gosh. It IS Fudgie! I only have one question: Where’s Cookie Puss??

Jonathan, I think you should sing “Ricola!” whenever you want! I will often burst out into “My Sharona” (loudly) in places you might not expect: elevators, hospitals, Trader Joe’s. “Oooo, my little pretty one, my pretty one…”. I get looks! A pro like Lou probably would have used a UV filter, but I didn’t even know about that trick until not that long ago, personally.

Chuck, “…just their dad”… it took me a second (“Triton”). “Does Chuck think that the Matterhorn is the father to the mermaids?” I whispered to my glass of Nesquick. And be honest - don’t you always want chocolate cake? I know I do. Maybe Jonathan meant that Lou would have captured that moment when the Matterhorn passed from Tomorrowland to Fantasyland.

K. Martinez, ha ha, “It doesn’t get better than that”! But what about all those photos of the Mark Twain that I still have to share? What about 10,000 more photos of the castle?

Andrew, my gosh, you guys must eat lots of carrots or something, I would have never noticed that sliver of Old Bluie. And I sure wouldn’t have guessed that photo #2 would go in anybody’s “favorite GDB pictures” folder - but I’m glad you like it!

Lou and Sue, wherever you are, I hope you yelled “Blue, too, TOO! Woo-hoo!!” out loud!

Melissa, “soothing” might be “damning with faint praise”, but hey, I’ll take it!

Nanook, it seems pretty audacious to put the “dark water” right up against the “clear water”, divided only by a thin sea wall. I wonder if they ever considered separating them with a landscaped spit of land to make the division less obvious? Or if there is a good reason to have them right next to each other?

Nanook, I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but my photo of Fudgie us much better! It's like the Patterson-Gimlin film. Proof that Fudgie is real.

"Lou and Sue" said...

Is that whale shape something that has been discussed before - sort of like the “nostrils” (and it’s only new to me because I’m slow) - or is this a brand-new topic for all? Just curious...

Fun Sunday post - thanks Major!

Chuck said...

Sue, this is a new sighting here, which is why we're all so excited. And it's not something that we've read about or vaguely remember like the Small World Stage or the migratory bandstand but something completely new that none of us ever noticed before, like the old Frontierland restrooms or that shack next to the pedestrian tunnel to the Indian Village from just a week or two ago. Just when you think you've seen it all...BAM! A whale drops out of the sky.

I wonder if this was an inspiration for Douglas Adams?

SunnieDaze21 said...

I love the tiny glimpse of the castle underneath the yellow Skyway bucket in the first picture.
Kind of a castle/Skyway shish kabob.

Major Pepperidge said...

Lou and Sue, all I know is that, from now on, I will ALWAYS be looking for Fudgie the Whale in future Matterhorn photos! Just look above that little stone bridge and cross your fingers. Fudgie is shy.

Chuck, I’m sure TokyoMagic! had no idea what he hath wrought. I did a quick look at some other Matterhorn scans that I already have, and the whale does not appear - the sunlight has to be just so, it seems. The little details that you mentioned are the sort of thing that keeps me fascinated! We’ll never know it all or see it all, because there’s always something else. Which is awesome. Douglas Adams was a genius, who knows what inspired him!

SunnieDaze, yes, it almost looks like the castle spire is part of the Matterhorn. Now I imagine a scraping sound as the Skyway bucket grinds past the spire!

DBenson said...

Something I'm still getting used to. For ages, the snow was mostly on the peak of the Matterhorn, suggesting an alpine altitude with year-round cold. Now there's snow scattered all over, as if it's wintertime all the way to ground level. More realistic, perhaps, but I liked how the old one evoked a sundae.

Chuck said...

Mmmm...Matterhorn sundae...

TokyoMagic! said...

Chuck, make that a chocolate ice cream cake (from Carvel)! And I'll have some with you!

Major, funny.....I was also going to mention Cookie Puss! I can still hear that announcer's voice, "The kids are gonna love Cookie Puss!" And don't forget, Fudgie the Whale ice cream cakes can double as Santa Claus ice cream cakes, just by rotating them 90 degrees and turning Fudgie's tail into Santa's hat!

Nanook, I think a good portion of Fudgie is hiding behind the rocks, in that pic you linked to. I do hope that we get to see him again, in the future. I know that I'll be looking out for him!

Sue, as Chuck said, it's a brand new discovery! But this pic might turn out to be just as rare as a photo of Sasquatch or ol' Nessie!

Anonymous said...

I love all of this so much.

I always thought the dark water wall being under the autopia highway bridge was to make it less obvious and so the motorboat and submarine lagoons would read as a single body of water. Just my thoughts.

I always thought the Matterhorn snow line varied with the weather, and now you are telling me that it is painted on. I am devastated.

I'm going back to look for the whale everywhere.

Thanks Major!

JG