Monday, March 13, 2023

Storybook Land Canals, November 1974

Good old Storybook Land, a classic Fantasyland ride if ever there was one. I have a trio of scans for you from this venerable attraction.

This first one might be my favorite, there's something about emerging from a darkened tunnel into a world of miniature fairy tale and fantasy scenes. Is this first one the view as you emerge from Monstro's... er... "tunnel"? Looking at a current video, I can say "yes". Immaculate little gardens, and tidy stone homes with slate roofs and multiple chimneys put us in the mood. What is that strange alien creature looming up above the trees?!


There's Cinderella's "dream castle" (as it is referred to on an old postcard). I build all of my castles atop rocky promontories to keep the peasants away. 


Geppetto's Village always looks great, but the late-afternoon sunlight makes it a little spooky as well, as if ghosts and undead things will wander the cobblestone streets when the clock strikes midnight. Lock your tiny doors!

23 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-
"... that strange alien creature looming up above the trees?!" Why, it's a lighting tower on the right side of the "iasw" 'promenade', close to its entrance. The juxtaposition of the 'miniature mountains' in Geppetto's Village with the 'downsized Matterhorn' never cease to amaze.

Thanks, Major.

JB said...

Major, your line about emerging from the dark tunnel into the fairytale world captures the essence of this ride, as does this photo. As for the alien creature, I knew it was a lighting tower. But I wasn't sure where it was until Nanook chimed in. Thanks, Nanook. It sorta deflates the magic of the scene, doesn't it. They need to place a big plywood Gummi Bear on top of that berm to hide the tower.

I'm pretty sure this is the 'wrong' side of Cinderella's Castle to see the little pumpkin coach... Oh well, life goes on [siiiigh]. A nice clear picture of the castle. And we get a close-up view of the stitching in the quilt.

Major, you set the scene perfectly for Chernabog to appear atop the Matterhorn at dusk, unfurl his leathery wings and summon the spirits of all the wooden puppets in Geppetto's Village. Most of them will be cast into the unholy pit of the basketball court deep within the mountain. A tragic end for Pinoke.

Thanks for the Storybook Land pics, Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

Nanook, and here I thought that was a time traveling drone! ;-)

Does anyone know what type of pine trees those are in the second pic? The street that I grew up on was lined with those trees on both sides. Our neighbor who was the original owner of her house, told us they were planted during World War II by the city, and then the residents were all sent a bill for them, after the fact. I've always loved those trees, but never known exactly what type of pine they are.

Bu said...

The old mystery: Story Book Land, StoryBook Land, Storybookland? The first time the word Storybook was used in 1711 and I will leave it there. Potato Patahto. Storybook Land (my choice) is lovely, and please do not even think about TRE as that would be very very very bad. I personally do not need million dollar animatronic figures, but I do need million dollar landscaping: which doesn't sound too off the map with this attraction. The alien I don't mind. I think it is akin to what I tell people when they start complaining about ceilings being painted in my business: "if people are looking up there, we have much bigger problems!" Same thing with the visible Skyway bucket. The Matterhorn makes sense behind Pinocchio's village, but what came first, the chicken or the egg? Do you really think the position of the Matterhorn would be changed to suit Storybook Land? Marinate on that. There are stories in the interspace that the quilt landscaping was originally planned as a giants sleeping quilt, with his head poking out at the top. That would be an interesting juxtaposition. I also like the ideas of boats going down waterfalls after the Monster thing...all $$$. The Matterhorn behind the alps reminds me of clear days in this part of the world...the Anaheim part of the world. You usually cannot see any mountains. On RARE occasions, on very very very clear days, not only can you see one range, you can see multiple ranges behind. If you ever see this: it's a big deal as usually the skys are filled with GKW (God knows what.) The recent storms have been more than problematic, but have left mountains as white as the Matterhorn. Thanks for the calmness of an enchanting ride Major. Venerable was the perfect word.

Stefano said...

Major, your Monstro's tunnel comment recalled to me an article I read in the National Enquirer way back in the 70s. A prominent psychologist inveighed against Disneyland as a seething cauldron of oral, anal, and castration themes--- this Storybook Monstro was used as one of his examples. Because of the time change, I will dredge up no further citations.

That first photo is a charmer, it looks like a 19th Century stage setting, complete with proscenium drapery. Maybe for the opera "La Sonnambula", in which the sleepwalking heroine crosses dangerously over a mill race; fortunately the ending is happy.

TokyoMagic!, those are Deodar Cedars, which name might have a pun in it somewhere. Listed in the book DISNEYLAND WORLD OF FLOWERS, a one -of-kind horticultural education.

JG said...

Storybook Land (also my preferred designation) is just my favorite, can’t help it.

JB, now I can’t stop thinking about Chernabog and the basketball court, too funny!

Major, that’s a Martian Fighting Machine, searching for Fight Club, which cannot be located because no one talks about it.

I’m convinced that the Matterhorn was at least partly conceived as a backdrop to the Alpine aspect of Fantasyland in general, if not SBL in particular. It’s too perfect not to be intentional, except for locating it in Tomorrowland at first. Fortunately the error was rectified with the gigantic hidden casters.

Stefano, that psychologist should go back to the source materials, as the issues, if any, reside there more than in any Disney re-telling. Growing up is messy business and resolving dark forces is the job of stories.

Tokyo, those trees are noted for their piny odor, from which “deodar”-rant was eventually derived.

Thanks Major, some of my favorite views today.

JG

Melissa said...

Those OG Imagineers really knew how to set a scene. The proscenium arch in the first picture and the forced perspective f the Matterhorn and the mountains behind Gepetto's workshop are just brilliant.

Anonymous said...

I know that we had to have gone on this attraction when I was a kid, but I remember it not. Perhaps my memory banks were overloaded with Pirates of the Caribbean wonders? THAT I remember quite well! Still, I would like to someday take in the wonderful canals again- even if it means going through the unsavory bits of a whale.

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, I actually did know what the alien creature was (is?). But I like to use dramatic effect! I’m a regular Orson Wells.

JB, I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to ride the canal boats the last time I was at the park - the line was long, and it moved very slowly. I finally decided that there could be better uses of my time. There is no way we would be able to see the little pumpkin coach from this angle, but that’s OK, it will be that much more fun when we finally DO see it. Geppetto’s Village really does look like the one in the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence, I’d love it if they made it even spookier!

TokyoMagic!, I will have to rely on some tree-minded Junior Gorilla to ID those examples in photo #2; I’d say that they are nice pine trees, and not MEAN pine trees, if that helps.

Bu, I can’t tell if you are serious about the word Storybook first being used in 1711. Seems like it would have been around before that, but who knows. Mike Cozart has dropped hints that some Imagineers have designs on that valuable Storybook Land real estate. Tear out that boring ride and let’s get some IP in there! How about a little roller coaster? You’ll wait in a one hour line, and the ride itself will last 30 seconds. I do wonder if the fact that the Matterhorn works so well with Geppetto’s VIllage was realized before the Swiss mountain was built, or if it was just a happy accident. I’ve seen concept art with the giant’s head, so that’s a true story. I simultaneously like the idea of the giant’s head, and am glad that it isn’t there. Not necessary. But it wouldn’t ruin anything. How about if the giant looked just like Bob Iger? It is sort of surprising to see photos of Disneyland and also see real mountains in the distance. I think it’s more likely to happen today, since the smog was so bad for the first few decades of Disneyland’s existence.

Stefano, I’m trying to think of other rides that have “oral, anal, and castration themes”. The prominent psychologist might be right, but it reminds me of the famous book “Seduction of the Innocent”, in which Frederic Wertham insisted that all of those tight superhero jumpsuits were turning kids into depraved weirdos. Whatever you say, Fred. We see what we want to see. An opera about a sleepwalking heroin? I can’t help thinking of the famous Popeye cartoon where Olive Oyl sleepwalks through a construction site! Deodars, my grandma had a very tall deodar in her front yard, and now that you mention it, it did look just like that!

JG, the fact that there are cretins who can’t appreciate Storybook Land’s many charms is both maddening and concerning. Talking about Martian fighting machines makes me think that a “War of the Worlds” ride could be very cool. Not in Disneyland, just in general. Only we’ll have to make the aliens cute. Fluffy, with big blue eyes and baby voices. I’m full of ideas! You might be right about the Matterhorn actually being considered as part of Storybook Land’s scenery, I honestly have no idea. Disney’s short cartoons were often criticized for having lots of “fanny humor”. All I know is that if I wanted to make my niece or nephew laugh, nothing worked better than bathroom jokes.

Melissa, I’ve always been fascinated by the idea (not sure if it originated with John Hench) that guests passing through dark tunnels would be put into a sort of waking dream-state. That’s why everyone hands over their wallets as they depart the canal boats!

Anonymous said...

Major, while it is entertaining in a "cub scout humor" kind of way to imagine the cinematic transition out of Monstro as emerging from the nether end of a whale's digestive tract, this passage can also be seen as a resurrection from the darkness of one's prior life into the sunlit paradise of Storybook Land where nothing ever goes wornnng.

For my part, psychologists who make comments like those are like the Yelp commenters who tell us more about themselves than the thing they are reviewing.

JG

Melissa said...

I think we should all just be thankful that our boats don't get shot up out of Monstro's blowhole.

Anonymous said...

As a psych major, my diagnosis is the poor fellow had "much too much Libido!" That's a formal term over the usual" too much Libido". There must be a chill pill for that now. KS

JB said...

Tokyo!, that one tree with the tiered clumps of needles is definitely a pine, but I don't know the variety. A couple of the other evergreens look like deodar cedars; the ones with the bendy, graceful branches. (Edit: Ah. Stefano concurs!)

Stefano, whoever wrote the National Enquirer story must've led a sad, angry life. That said, he/she may be right about the bodily themes; but so what? Life is messy, and scary, and all the other things that life is. Amusement/theme parks reflect life, in an exaggerated way. That's their purpose.

JG, I see that you agree that life is messy. The Chernabog/basketball court combo reminded me of "Bored of the Rings" (by the Harvard Lampoon). In which, the scene with Gandalf and the monstrous balrog becomes Goodgulf and the ballhog, with a basketball theme.

Major, that's what I was thinking, too. This photo looks like the scene where Chernabog's shadow creeps across the village.

JG some more, "where nothing ever goes wornnng". Ah, now we're back to the idea of putting animatronics in Storybook Land.

Melissa, I dunno. I think I would rather go through a blowhole than the 'other hole'.

TokyoMagic! said...

Stefano, JG, and JB, thanks for the info on the pine trees. I don't remember ours having a strong pine scent, but maybe that's just because I got used to it, since they were in front of every house on our street.

Do the Storybook Land hosts and hostesses still say the line about Monstro "sneezing his tail off"?

Awwwww, Rolly Crump passed away. He was 93. :-(

Anonymous said...

JB, I read Bored of the Rings, oh that was so long ago. Part of me wished that Peter Jackson had sneaked some of that dialog into the trilogy movies, especially the magic incantations composed of product names. "Hash, Boo, Valvoline". The book is on Internet Archive here:

https://archive.org/details/boredofringsparo00harv/mode/2up

I would strongly disapprove of animatronics in Storybook Land. A good part of the charm is that all of the occupants are elsewhere, no little figurines or even animals, etc.

RIP Rolly Crump, thanks for all the great stuff.

JG

Melissa said...

Just read the news about Rolly. :( Does that just leave Bob Gurr representing the original Imagineers?

Major Pepperidge said...

Stu29573, amazingly (to me), my family did not go on Storybook Land at ALL. You’d think that the giant whale would have piqued our curiosity. So I was an adult when I finally experienced it. It was still great! But I am sad that I didn’t have memories from childhood.

JG, I like it when nothing goes wornnng! Much better than things going wornnng like usual. I agree with you, the psychologist reveals a look into their own minds. Yikes.

Melissa, I forget, on the Nemo subs, are we shot out of a whale’s blowhole (like in the movie)? Gotta watch a YouTube video!

KS, it maybe have been a case of “too much libido”, or a weird form of Puritanism. Still… weird.

JB, the great deodar controversy that has been tearing this country apart is now over. Thank heavens. Like I said to Stefano, we see what we want to see. I can’t even necessarily say that the prominent psychologist is wrong, but I also think that one could choose to interpret rides in ways other than “bodily functions”. I know that there is a Chernabog figure in Disneyland Paris, but I don’t believe that it moves at all. Imagine if they had a cool, oversized animatronic, with those huge bat wings! In America it would be way too “Satanic” for some people, so it wouldn’t happen here.

TokyoMagic!, the pine scent you remember is from the little cardboard pine tree hanging from the rear view mirror. So refreshing! Like being in the Sierra Nevada mountains. DO they say that Monstro was “sneezing his tail off”??

JG, Until today I’d never heard of “Bored of the Rings”, I guess I need to check it out. Meanwhile, it amazes me to listen to podcasters who I like who say that they tried to read “Lord of the Rings”, but it was just too slow and boring. I think I first read it when I was 13 or 14, and I was not bored! And yes, RIP Rolly, one of the true greats.

Nanook said...

Thanks TM for note on Rolly.

Here's a rather nice article in the LATimes... https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-03-13/rolly-crump-dead-disneyland-designer

Anonymous said...

Major, the sneezing off of the tail comment was part of the Canal Boat script for a long time. It vaguely echoes the cartoon story where the heroes are sneezed up on shore after building a fire in the whale's stomach using scraps from wrecked ships Monstro had swallowed. I think Monstro recovers and vows to give up his life of crime and restrict his diet only to psychologists. He may have entered a monastery afterward.

I read Lord of the Rings first in maybe 6th or 7th grade, and Bored of the Rings shortly after. Bored was vulgar enough to not be age-appropriate for me, but there you go. I was allowed to buy it since the cover matched the LOTR covers. I was never bored by Tolkien, I even plowed through the Silmarillion in high school, but I never read it again until just recently when we spoke of it here, and then not all of it. I can understand how some people could be bored by LOTR, but i'm not sympathetic.

JG

Melissa said...

”He may have entered a monastery afterward.”

So he became a monkfish?

(I’ll show myself out.)

JB said...

Sounds like Melissa floundered around for a pun, and ended up skating past it.

(I too, shall show myself out.)

Dean Finder said...

Sad to hear about Rolly, but I can't deny he had a hell of a life entwined with Disneyland.

I have a set of repros of those "doper" posters when Bamboo Forest sold autographed ones. A few of them have fairly offensive images, so my wife doesn't like having them on the wlls.

TokyoMagic! said...

Major, yes....they said that line about Monstro "sneezing his tail off" for many years. I think it was followed by the line, "...that's how we enter Storybook Land." I'm not sure if they still use the line or if they give a different reason for how we are able to exit Monstro, after being swallowed whole. Now that I think of it, they should get Ex-Lax® to sponsor the attraction, then they could work the name of the product into the spiel. You know, product placement and all of that.

Thanks for that link, Nanook. That was a very nice article about Rolly. I like how in the middle of the article, there was a link to the 2018 interview he did with the L.A. Times...."Must Reads: An early Disneyland designer won over Walt Disney. Now he laments:'The park is gone!'" And he was so right! Rest in peace, Rolly.