Lesser Known Films Around the Parks Question

[NedLand]

Hiya! I'm new to posting here (though I lurked for a while) and I have a question. I have'nt been to WDW since the late 80's but I am going in September for my honeymoon. I was wondering if anyone could tell me if some of the less obvious Disney films are represented in some way anywhere in WDW. I'd love to see anything related to Tron, The Black Hole, Darby O'Gill and the Little People, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Watcher in the Woods, Flight of the Navigator...I could go on but you get what I'm looking for. Even if it's just a prop on display or something I'd love to see it. Thanks for any help!

 

[Chape19714]

The backlot at MGM has some displays from some less than famous films. Other than that, I don't really think there is much. There are tons of tributes to old rides, but as far as movies go, I don't think there's that much. I could be dead wrong.

Welcome to the Boards! :wave:

 

[metscool]

Hi and welcome to the boards. I have no clue what are you talking about:veryconfu . I have never heard of any of these movies that you are talking about. But if you are looking for some stuff look at the Backlot at MGM. Maybe you will find some things that you are looking for. Good luck and have fun.

 

[rbrower]

Welcome to the board and the Backlot Tour is the only place that I know of that might, just like the two above me.

 

[unkadug]

Hi and welcome to the boards. I have no clue what are you talking about:veryconfu . I have never heard of any of these movies that you are talking about. But if you are looking for some stuff look at the Backlot at MGM. Maybe you will find some things that you are looking for. Good luck and have fun.

Surely, you jest !


BTW - welcome Ned

 

[NedLand]

Thanks for the replies! I'll give the backlot tour a shot. I also read on Wikipedia (so I'm not sure it's accurate) that the prop for V.I.N.CENT from The Black Hole is on display at the Planet Hollywood in DTD. Is this true?

 

[Captain Hank]

There are a few Tron video games in Disneyquest. Also, there is a reference to "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" in Journey Into Imagination With Figment. Outside of the computer lab between the Sound and Sight labs, there is a sign that says "No Tennis Shoes Allowed." There is also a letter jacket from Medfield College hanging from a coat rack in that same lab. Medfield College was the fictional school used in many Disney movies, including "The Absent-Minded Professor." Other than that, I'm afraid there isn't too much that I know of.

 

[Mad Stitch]

The spaceship from Flight of the Navigator use to be on the backlot tour. I don’t remember seeing it on my last trip though.

Darby O'Gill and the Little People was one of my favorite movies when I was young. I should watch it again someday now that I am older. Wasn’t Sean Connery in it?

 

[NedLand]

Also, there is a reference to "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" in Journey Into Imagination With Figment.

That movie was cool. Except for the theme song!

 

[NedLand]

Darby O'Gill and the Little People was one of my favorite movies when I was young. I should watch it again someday now that I am older. Wasn’t Sean Connery in it?

Yep. It's funny when he sings. Just don't watch that movie in an "altered state" if ya know what I'm saying.

 

[raven]

Surely, you jest !

No I don't Jest and don't call me Surely! :lol:

 

[unkadug]

No I don't Jest and don't call me Surely! :lol:

Shirley

 

[Mad Stitch]

Yep. It's funny when he sings. Just don't watch that movie in an "altered state" if ya know what I'm saying.

Yah, that’s why I need to see it again. I was too young to truly appreciate the drunk-dancing leprechauns when I was young. “It’s the banshee!”

I just happened to think. There is a tree house in Adventure Land from a lesser-known Disney film. I don’t remember which one though.

 

[NedLand]

I just happened to think. There is a tree house in Adventure Land from a lesser-known Disney film. I don’t remember which one though.

Swiss Family Robinson. It was with that Hawaii Five-O guy and that hot Janet Munro who was in Darby O'Gill.

 

[Mad Stitch]

Swiss Family Robinson. It was with that Hawaii Five-O guy and that hot Janet Munro who was in Darby O'Gill.

I know, it was a joke. Janet Munro was hot.

 

[Mecha Figment]

well there is the casey's hotdog place which is in reference to the casey at bat short. there is also peco's bills which is another obvious one. Splash mountian although a major attraction is one that people don't relize is actulay based on a movie.

thats all i can think of now it's late for me. and i'm packing.

 

[Madison]

It's really too bad that the themes prevalent in Something Wicked This Way Comes are seemingly too intense and too sinister for the parks. It'd be amazing to see it adapted for a truly intense, bizarre sort of dark ride; the sort with no sense of humor about it. The message, in the end, is positive, but it tells that story in quite a different manner than almost anything else in the catalogue.

I remember seeing Max from Flight of the Navigator on the backlot tour at the Studios and if it's not there anymore, they had better be restoring it so that I can put it in my backyard.

Disneyland's Peoplemover had, in the 1980's, a section devoted to Tron.

It's sort of interesting to see that most of these 'lesser-known' films are from the early 1980's, a period from which the Walt Disney Co. nearly didn't emerge.

 

[CThaddeus]

The Spaceship from Flight of the Navigator is still on display in the boneyard of the Studios Tour, or at least it was two months ago. In addition, pay attention in the prop room you walk through as part of the queue to the Studios Tour. You'll see a lot of stuff from Disney movies. Last time I was there I saw the jetpack for The Rocketeer, the large turkey and the shrinking machine used in "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," a Binford Tools tractor, props from the old "Lottery Ticket" mini-movie originally played in the queue for the Backstage Tour, an audio-animatronic character in a balloon from World of Motion (I think), and at one time I saw the Hooter outfit from "Captain EO." Just take your time walking through that building, if they'll let you. It's amazing how much Disney history is in there.
The boneyard in the Tour also has a number of other vehicles from lesser known Disney/Touchstone movies like "Tin Men." If only the tour had more of this stuff and less figure-eighting to avoid that Lights, Motors, Action monstrosity...
Oh, yeah, and at the end of the Tour, the AFI Showcase usually has a lot of great movie memorabilia.
As for Journey Into Imagination with Figment, references to past Disney "inventors" abound. Ned Brainard ("Flubber"/"The Absent-Minded Professor") has an office, as does Dexter Riley. Weebo from "Flubber" is on display, there is a room marked "Flubber Storage," there are photos of Robin Williams as Ned Brainard and Rick Moranis as Wayne Szalinski, etc. Sadly, the queue is the most interesting part of the current incarnation of this attraction.
There are other references throughout the Parks. In Fantasyland, there is a shop called Sir Mickey's, which is based on "The Brave Little Tailor" and "Mickey and the Beanstalk" shorts (I've been told Willie the giant even looks in the shop from time to time). The Pecos Bill restaurant refers, to another Disney short about, naturally, Pecos Bill. And if you want to see a bit of "TRON," stop by Sounds Dangerous! in the Studios. After the show (which I like, thank you very much) you exit into an area that allows you to substitute your voice with the MCP, Mickey Mouse, Roger Rabbit, and a few others. It is very old and needing of updating, but it's probably the only place left I can think of that has anything "TRON" in it. I wish there were more.

 

[Rob562]

Backlot Express at the Studios has a few references in/around it. The Toon Patrol police car is parked outside. And inside and around to the left in a corner is parked the contraption that Bob Hoskins rode around in to make it look like he was in Benny the Cab. On the wall opposite this is a display case full of stuff regarding the Touchstone Pictures movie "Big Business". it's a few pages of script, call sheets, I think a few pages about the sets, etc.

-Rob

 

[a2grafix]

Of course i have not been to WDW or MGM in quite some time, but I would believe that there would be still vehicles from D!ck Tracy and "the dip" machine from Who Framed Roger Rabbit on the backlot tour.

Come to think of it, there are so many things Disney can do with so many movie props in the parks.

I also remember that plans were in works for a Tron-style arcade in Communicore East, or was it Communicore West? Dream never turned to reality. But in some ways it did with the creation of Disneyquest, I guess.