If I lived anywhere near Burbank, I would love this. Check it out, from the Disney website:
http://blogs.disney.com/insider/articles/2013/11/14/saving-mr-banks-special-event/?cmp=SYNsmballDCOMsepromo111413synMovInTheatMSynergyStudio
(Pic above is the set recreating Walt Disney's office for Saving Mr. Banks.)
I don't know about the rest of you, I would love it just for the tour of the real studio. It is not normally open for regular tours, and so this is a unique experience.
I do feel privileged, though, that one day in the '90s I did get to walk around it. I had saved up money and flown out to L.A. to visit a colllege friend and do some sightseeing, including Disneyland and Hollywood. While I was there I saw an ad in the Los Angeles Times for an accountant (which I am at work) at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. So, I gathered up the nerve to call and ask about an interview while I was in town. The lady in the department granted my request and set up an interview, along with the requisite parking pass and gate pass with a two hour window. So, I called back to a friend in my office at home, had him overnight a copy of my resume (no internet in the '90s!), and off to the studio I went with it. I did the interview (in the main administration building, the one with the seven dwarfs holding it up), and had an hour to spare; so I walked around and just absorbed the atmosphere.
There was the famous "Dopey Dr." and other places I had seen on TV or in Leornard Maltin's intros on so many DVDs! I passed so many soundstages. One was open and I could peek in. It was the set of "Home Improvement." I saw the fence and yard where the neighbor peeked over the fence.
They had a studio store, with souvenirs that were unique to the studio, and tagged as such. Even the garment label said it (not "Disney Parks," or "Disneyland," or "Disney" -- it said "The Walt Disney Studios"). I bought a T-shirt that I have to this day, with all the characters gathered around the studio. The attendant asked me for my ID for a cast member discount, and I said that I was a guest. (So, no discount.)
The coolest part to me, at the time, was the commissary. I went there and ate, but also absorbed the atmosphere. It was just like in the movies: Even though it was the '90s, and most regular people did not have cell phones yet, there were many people around with them, apparently agents and other industry folks, making and talking about deals. And the food, despite what Johnny Carson used to say about his commissary at NBC, was actually good and kind of fancy for something akin to a cafeteria. It was kind of surreal for a regular guy like me in my mid-twenties at the time.
Anyhow, I would love to do this special tour, but 3000 miles is a long way to travel for it. But I would love it.
