Sunday, August 18, 2013

Skull Rock & Falls, August 1963

Wind, water, and aliens have shaped a natural stone feature into the amazing shape of a human skull! Zowie! The Imagineers did a pretty good job, but I think it would have been awesome to add some hilarious googly eyes. Also, why not cover it with orange "fun fur"? And the skull should have talked too; "People love to take pictures of me because of my chiseled good looks" or "I wish my brother Yorik was here", and "Somebody get this pigeon off of my zygomatic bone!". I have  big ideas, homies.


Here's an odd angle with one of the skull's waterfalls in the foreground, with that additional rocky outcropping near it.


11 comments:

Nanook said...

Hmmmm - Skull Rock with "fun fur". It could work - especially, as you suggest - it was orange. Yes, make that "Day-Glo Orange"; that's the ticket-!

Thanks,Major.

Nancy said...

Did Skull Rock glow some color inside at night?

I tried to look at images online but the only one I found showing green eyes was the same image in all cases, wasnt sure if it was "real" or someone doctored it up.

I also imagined it was bigger than it really was; this picture shows how close to the ground level it actually was. He could have played checkers with Monstro to pass the time overnight :-)

MRaymond said...

I always likes the path that ran behind it. Always a cool place to kick back for a time.

Chiana_Chat said...

Nancy, yes I remember it did glow a teal-ish green at night. It looked great! Cooler at night than in the day and better in person night or day than in photos. The rockwork looked more convincingly textured and colored (in a lava rock sort of way) and the lagoon in general seemed more immersive in person. There's a "step back with a harsh eye" effect to pics one doesn't get in person.

"Wind, water, and aliens have shaped a natural stone feature into the amazing shape of a human skull! Zowie!"

^ Skullians. Definitely. They did it. Always getting into skullduggery.

The upper waterfall closest to us in the top pic isn't working. Maybe when they start recirculating the water and try to make it into a waterfall, it's trickier to get it to fall for it...

2nd pic has you-are-there points to it. :)

K. Martinez said...

Scully needs a sombrero.

Melissa said...

From this angle, the vegetation makes it look like Agent Skully is sporting Mickey ears and muttonchop sideburns. And Disneyland is such a trompe l'oeil; when you’re there you* just don’t realize how close things are, but you see it in pictures. It looks like if Skull Rock had hands, he could just reach over and pat the Prince of Whales on the head. I mean, I’d advise against it, but he could if he wanted to.

*And by “you,” I mean “me.”

---------------

“So, how’s the kid-swallowin’ whale game treating you, neightbor Monstro?”

“I can't complain, my cranial colleague. Some yokel tried to grab one of my teeth as a souvenir, but he sprained his finger and his wife read him the riot act all the way to First Aid. I love karma.”

“Tourists! Can’t live with ‘em, can’t pay the rent without ‘em. But, hey, at least you get to look at all them pretty tour guides in them cute little aprons and straw hats all day.youknow what I'm sayin'?”

“What do think I am, some sort of sexual deviant? I am attracted strictly to female whales, you bonehead, so until Mr. Disney starts hiring tour guides with triangular flukes and S-shaped blowholes, our relationship is strictly professional. You don’t see me making insinuations about you and the tuna-slingers on that chow-barge of yours.”

“Pfft, like I’d care. I am open-minded.”

“You certainly are. Your entire brain-pan is hollow and exposed to the elements. It all blows in one lack of ear and out the other like an ocean breeze. 'Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow! You cataracts and hurricanes, spout till you have drenched our teeples!'“

“Well, don’t that just beat all. Sittin’ here at the end of a long day in a pond fulla tuna sammich crusts, no feet to put up, and a fiberglass whale puttin’ me down by way of spoutin’ Shakespeare like it was blowhole juice. You know, your cheeks would crack, too, if the men in jumpsuits didn’t come out and slap a coat of marine sealant on them at night.”

“I’m sorry, my friend. You’re quite right, of course. And the tour guides are quite pretty, in a completely artistic way, like flowers or a nice drum solo. It's just, you know, I’ve been wondering lately... which of us do you suppose will last longer?”

“What do you mean? Like, fall apart or somethin’? Don’t be stupid, mammal! Hey, I may look all crumbly and dead and stuff, but that’s just for show! I’m as solid as a rock! You can't see 'em from over there, but I even got outcroppin's! Wait, wait, you ain't sayin'you think they’d tear one of us down?”

“Why not? You remember the Phantom Boats? And the Bathroom of Tomorrow? Well, it’s tomorrow, matey my pal, and that attraction is down the drain like a dead goldfish. For all we know, this time next year I’ll be a car wash in Niagara Falls and you’ll just be a fond memory and a lingering smell of hot tuna pie.”

“Monstro, Monstro, buddy! You just can’t think like that! Sure, we could all go at any minute, but that’s life! If you dwell on it you’ll go crazy and scare off all them fresh-faced kids with your unholy howls of mad laughter. I mean, after all, life's but a walkin’ shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage an’ then is heard no more. It’s a tale told by an idiot, full of sound an’ fury, signifying nothin’.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“What do I know? I’m just a skull. ‘I ain’t got no boooooody...’”




Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, I figured it was a "given" that orange fun fur would be day-glo!

Nancy, you can see a photo of the Skull's glowing green eyes in this nice night photo.

MRaymond, I wish I could personally remember that little path and grotto area... but I don't.

Chiana, like so many things, Skull Rock took on a special ambiance at night. That's how I remember it from my childhood! Did Skullians get their names from Agent Skully? (I know, wrong spelling).

K. Martinez, what about one of those hats with the big dyed ostrich feather?

Melissa, I hope that you are a professional writer of some sort! I need to figure out how to do an animation of the Skull and Monstro talking to each other. Adobe Flash or something. It will also give me a chance to do my amazing impressions of Jimmy Stewart and Edward G. Robinson, two voices that are so relevant today (and the only ones I can do).

Melissa said...

Nancy, the little tables and chairs around the ship's lagoon would make cute checkers!

Nancy said...

Thanks, David. That is the very photo I found but it looks so "perfect" to me, almost like a diorama, and I just wasnt sure since I never got to see Skull Rock in person. :-)

Alonzo P Hawk said...

Ladies and gentleman, the back side of drool. (Nice angle).

Anonymous said...

What Alonzo said.

Skull drool, my day is complete.

JG