Drunk couple at Disney dangle their baby over the side of the ride vehicle

Posted on by Mathew Corn Animal Kingdom, Disney Parks, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, Uncategorized

Via DisDining.com

Just when we thought we had heard it all, we learn about a couple who visited the parks and endangered the life of their baby, and all in the name of . . . nostalgia?

Millions and millions of Guests make their way through the gates at the theme parks at the Walt Disney World Resort and the Disneyland Resort in California each and every day of the year. Some are old Guests, some are young Guests, some are in-between Guests. There are short Guests, tall Guests, and . . . the list goes on.

And because so many people visit the Disney Parks every year, it’s not uncommon to hear of some less-than-mature, less-than-appropriate behavior. Despite rules developed by the Walt Disney Company for Guests visiting a Disney property, there seems to be no shortage of Guests whose behaviors at Disney Parks would likely bring shame and embarrassment to their mothers.

We’ve even reported on some of the most dangerous Guest behavior at Disney. Some Guests have tried to bring toy guns into the parks. That may sound harmless to some, but to Disney Security, it’s a problem. There have been incidences of Guests fighting with other Guests, Guests wearing inappropriate clothing in the parks, and Guests arguing with Cast Members who touch their baby’s strollers.

A so-called “urban explorer” was caught by Disney Security and Orange County Sheriff’s Deputies as he was trespassing on the abandoned Discovery Island near Magic Kingdom. (Sadly, it didn’t stop him from continuing to breach the gates at the Walt Disney World Resort and enter backstage areas where no Disney Guest is permitted.)

We’ve even seen and heard reports of Guests base-jumping off of moving ride vehicles to retrieve cell phones near dangerous animals at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Guests inappropriately touching character Cast Members, and more.

A young Disney Guest once climbed out of the boat at the Splash Mountain attraction at Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort when the boat stopped mid-way through the ride and refused to get back into the boat for an extended period of time.

boy jumps out of splash mountain boat disney

When it comes to the Disney Guest behavior, sometimes we think we’ve heard it all.

But this may be the first report we’ve heard–at least in a while–of Guests misbehaving and endangering the safety and well-being of their own child.

People Magazine published an article titled, “Disney World and Disneyland Employees Share the Craziest Things They’ve Ever Seen at Work,” and the Cast Member communal confessional of things they’ve witnessed while working at the U. S. Disney Parks is astounding. This particular story was terrifying.

Dumbo The Flying Elephant | Walt Disney World Resort

A Cast Member working at the Dumbo the Flying Elephant Attraction shared the experience of witnessing a couple putting the life of their baby in danger. A group of Guests boarded the ride vehicles at the attraction, and it was obvious to Cast Members that they were inebriated. Two of the Guests who were drunk got into the ride vehicle with their infant and buckled their safety belts.

Soon, Dumbo took flight as Cast Members put the ride into operation. Once the couple with the baby was soaring 18 feet off the ground, they unbuckled the safety restraint and suspended the baby mid-air, as though they were re-enacting the first scene from Disney’s The Lion King in which Baby Simba is held up by Rafiki so all at Pride Rock could see him.

Photographer Gets Pic Of Baboon Holding Baby Just Like In The Lion King | iHeart

“While I was working on Dumbo,” the Cast Member explained, “these drunk people removed their infant from the seat belt and held the baby like Simba outside of the carriage while the ride was up 18 feet in the air, so their other drunk friends could take pictures of them doing it. We had to emergency stop the ride. They were escorted away and arrested once outside the park gates. It was very scary to witness.”

Thankfully, Cast Members were extremely attentive, saw the dangerous situation unfolding before them, and immediately stopped the ride before anyone was hurt.

PHOTOS: Storybook Circus 'soft-opens' at Magic Kingdom Park | Disney Parks Blog

The couple was escorted to the front of the park and arrested outside the gates. Thankfully, the baby was unharmed, but it’s truly terrifying to realize what might have happened had the less-than-aware, less-than-responsible Guests been any less aware and less responsible.

Disney+ Removes “The Aristocats”, “Peter Pan”, “Dumbo”, and “Swiss Family Robinson” Movies From Children’s Profiles

Posted on by Mathew Corn Disney+

Via wdwnt.com

In their continued effort to promote diversity and inclusion, Disney has made select films unavailable on children’s Disney+ profiles due to negative cultural depictions, particularly racist stereotypes. The films are still available on standard Disney+ profiles with a content advisory warning directing viewers to www.disney.com/StoriesMatter.

The films now unavailable on children’s profiles are The Aristocats, Dumbo, Peter Pan, and Swiss Family Robinson. The films have been moved to a 6+ rating and are not the only movies unavailable to children as PG-rated Disney films are also unavailable.

The Aristocats

The cat is depicted as a racist caricature of East Asian peoples with exaggerated stereotypical traits such as slanted eyes and buck teeth. He sings in poorly accented English voiced by a white actor and plays the piano with chopsticks. This portrayal reinforces the “perpetual foreigner” stereotype, while the film also features lyrics that mock the Chinese language and culture such as “Shanghai, Hong Kong, Egg Foo Young. Fortune cookie always wrong.”

Dumbo

The crows and musical number pay homage to racist minstrel shows, where white performers with blackened faces and tattered clothing imitated and ridiculed enslaved Africans on Southern plantations. The leader of the group in Dumbo is Jim Crow, which shares the name of laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. In “The Song of the Roustabouts,” faceless Black workers toil away to offensive lyrics like “When we get our pay, we throw our money all away.”

Peter Pan

The film portrays Native people in a stereotypical manner that reflects neither the diversity of Native peoples nor their authentic cultural traditions. It shows them speaking in an unintelligible language and repeatedly refers to them as “redskins,” an offensive term. Peter and the Lost Boys engage in dancing, wearing headdresses and other exaggerated tropes, a form of mockery and appropriation of Native peoples’ culture and imagery.

Swiss Family Robinson

The pirates who antagonize the Robinson family are portrayed as a stereotypical foreign menace. Many appear in “yellow face” or “brown face” and are costumed in an exaggerated and inaccurate manner with top knot hairstyles, queues, robes and overdone facial make-up and jewelry, reinforcing their barbarism and “otherness.” They speak in an indecipherable language, presenting a singular and racist representation of Asian and Middle Eastern peoples.

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A Swiss Family Robinson remake is currently in the works for Disney+, as well as a live-action Peter Pan & Wendy, both of which we can expect to handle race much better than the original films. There has already been a live-action Dumbo remake which cut much of the problematic elements from the animated film.

National Museum of American History Shares How The Smithsonian Acquired Dumbo the Flying Elephant and Mad Tea Party Ride Vehicles from Disneyland

Posted on by Mathew Corn Disney Parks

For 65 years, Disneyland has been a part of America’s culture and history. That status was officially sealed fifteen years ago when ride vehicles from two beloved attractions were acquired by the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

The museum, part of the famed Smithsonian Institution, recently shared how those attractions were chosen and how they moved across the United States from Anaheim to the nation’s capital in a blog post from museum specialist Bethanee Bemis.

According to Bemis, the Smithsonian and The Walt Disney Company were collaborating on some kind of donation from the park to mark its 50th anniversary in 2005. Then-curators Dwight Bowers and Ellen Hughes traveled to the Disneyland Resort to meet with Disney’s team in charge of the anniversary festivities. Tim O’Day, who was in charge of Disney’s creative publicity department for the celebration, recalled that he, Bowers, and Hughes “scoured every inch of Disneyland for several days” to determine what best defined the park in the American consciousness.

One member of the group proposed that a ride vehicle would be the best representation. The trio quickly decided that to best mark 50 years, they would only consider attractions from Disneyland’s opening day on July 17th, 1955. Apparently, a horse from King Arthur Carrousel was considered, but was ultimately rejected over concerns that once removed from the attraction, it could be mistaken for a horse from any carousel.

mad tea party

They continued their search for something “Disneyland enough,” and decided on a teacup from the Mad Tea Party for its unique design. Not long after, Bowers proposed a vehicle from Dumbo the Flying Elephant, an attraction he was fond of. As they made their final decision, it became clear that he had hit on a strong idea, as O’Day described: “We sat and watched people get on Dumbo. And we watched people watch Dumbo. And everybody was smiling. And as we sat there, we kind of looked at each other and went yep, this is it.”

Once the teacup and elephant were decided on, then came the more difficult task on how to move them cross-country. The vehicles were shipped to Washington, D.C., where they were then moved onto a flatbed truck and given a police escort to move them to the museum’s loading dock, which was designed with large objects in mind.

They were then moved carefully through the museum by staff and placed in a special limited-time display for the 50th anniversary, where the donation was made official on June 8th, 2005. Then-Disney Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner spoke at the ceremony about the donation:

“From Main Street U.S.A. to the futuristic vision of Tomorrowland, Disneyland has always incorporated the cultural fabric of America and these two items—Dumbo and the Tea Cup—have become incredibly familiar in the lexicon of popular culture…During the park’s 50th anniversary, it seemed a perfect time for Disneyland to officially join hands across the continent with the Smithsonian and bring these two great American institutions together.”

New Limited Edition “WALL-E” Earth Day and “Dumbo” Mother’s Day MagicBands Finally Arrive at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Posted on by Mathew Corn Animal Kingdom, Disney Parks

Now that Walt Disney World’s theme parks are finally reopening to guests, now available is the merchandise that was created for events that were supposed to happen during the shutdown.

At Disney’s Animal Kingdom is a display of the limited edition MagicBands that are finally on sale.

Included were the Mulan “Strong Chi” and Father’s Day 2020 MagicBands…

And the Knowsmore Graduation MagicBand, are a pair of MagicBands for Earth Day and Mother’s Day!

Earth Day 2020’s MagicBand features a robot with a very eco-friendly directive, EVE! The top of the box features the robot with the fateful plant that would change her existance.

Meanwhile, one of the most tender scenes in Disney animation history appears on the Mother’s Day 2020 MagicBand.

The MagicBands retail for $34.99 each and can be found at Discovery Trading Company.