Steven Spielberg is a plagiarist! Clearly owes it all to Disney That’s right, the acclaimed wunderkind director/producer/writer/gaffer/best boy has been blatantly stealing from Disney for years. First he steals Robert A. Mattey, the special effects supervisor who created the giant squid effects for Disney’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”, to create the […]
Epcot
The Four Dragon Kings of the Theme Parks
When it comes to mythical beasts, dragons are royalty. Unicorns are upper class, a little bit snooty, sort of pampered. Griffins are middle class, your sort of everyday run-of-the-mill hybrid creatures, and jackalopes are like the serfs tending to the fields and making jokes about the unicorns behind their backs. The other mythical beasts fall […]
As the World Turns
It’s not as obvious with the most recent changes, but one of Epcot’s classic attractions has always employed a little bit of musical steroids to pump up one of the emotional punches of the ride. It’s a sneaky bit of subterfuge, injected from hidden speakers as you reach the top, and even though I stole […]
Bad at Geography
…or maybe good at it, depending on how you look at it. Yes, we’re back in France. Again. At this point, it’s almost like a game, seeing how many consecutive posts about Epcot’s France Pavilion I can string together. Don’t worry, I’m running out. Speaking of Rome, how about Italy, huh? As you may remember […]
Autograph Poodles
French Heritage Week continues here at parkeology.com (now dragging on into its third actual week, with no sign of letting up). You might think that we have now beat this dead horse into the ground, but we’re only just getting started. Like James Bond, I prefer my metaphors shaken, not stirred. Today we uncover a […]
In Case of Fire, Please Use Stairs
I am on a mission to recover lost elevators, since Disney parks have a propensity for losing them. Or for not adding them in the first place. Remember when they re-opened the Sleeping Beauty Diorama at Disneyland? And then instead of making it handicap-accessible, they simply added a TV waiting room, like at the dentist. […]
Lost Epcot Restaurant Discovered Inside Chefs de France
One of the great things – possibly the best thing – about living in Walt Disney World is that you can look sneeringly at random vacation photos and haughtily announce that you know exactly where that picture was taken. For instance, a close-up of a duck’s head with a smidgen of white rock visible in […]
Shoving Complaints Down Your Throat
Go to Walt Disney World enough times and you’re bound to be accosted at some point by Disney survey takers, usually right when you’re leaving the park. The questions they ask are usually pretty innocuous for most guests (“Did you visit American Idol Experience?” “Did you take advantage of our picnic lunch program?” “If Ariel […]
Just Us Chickens
Today I’d like you to meet the only animatronics in Toontown. These lovely ladies may not look like much, but when it comes to three-dimensional moving figures, they’re all you’re gonna get. Everything else is either a statue, a painting, or some college kid in a foam rubber suit. These gals aren’t that hard to […]
