Hope this isn't too much of a disappointment for anyone, but I'm taking a little break from the Western River Expedition animation this week.
But in keeping with the western theme this month here's a brochure from the now defunct Stagecoach Stop USA in Irish Hills Michigan...
It's sad that this roadside attraction closed back in 2009. It was a fun place for a family to visit on a quick day trip. Along with the Prehistoric Forest this is another Irish Hills attraction that's a victim of the recent "economic downturn."
Last time I animated a Western River Expedition saloon singer, and this time I'm animating a horse on the saloon porch roof.
There's two variants of the "Horse on the Roof" art I've seen. Here's one that looks like it's at night and has three saloon girls in the foreground.
Mary Blair's interpretation of Marc Davis's "Horse on the Roof"
This version is reportedly done by Mary Blair who was valued by Walt Disney himself for her expert color styling.
Then there's the "daylight" version by Marc Davis, and instead of the saloon girls there's a drunk cowboy and dog.
Marc Davis's "Horse on the Roof" 1968
This above picture is from Jason Surrell's The Disney Mountains, and that is a book I happen own. This means I was able to get good scan of the art for once, and this makes animation a lot easier.
Now let's look at the animation...
Closing Comments...
It's been reported that the lighting in load area for Western River Expedition would make it appear as is if the sun was just setting, and so therefore the ride would take place at "night." This makes the coloring of Mary Blair's art much more appropriate. Although if it's night, what are the kid, "Ma" and "Grandma" doing still walking around town? Shouldn't they be getting ready for bed? Aren't there cows to be milked at dawn or something? Am I overthinking this?
Western River Expedition at Walt Disney World was planned to be a kind of sequel to the Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland. The building designed to house WRE was named Thunder Mesa, and themed to look like rocky cliffs and bluffs. Along with WRE, Thunder Mesa was reportedly going to be home to three other attractions - a runaway mine train ride (that idea would eventually become Big Thunder Mountain Railroad), and hiking and pack mule trails winding up the side of cliffs.
Thunder Mesa Art
To ride the Western River Expedition park guests would enter inside Thunder Mesa thru a cave-like passage, and board small boats much like Pirates of the Caribbean at the Disney parks. Part of the journey would take them through a western town called Dry Gulch. It's here the guests would witness all types of rowdy cowboy activity. Like a lively scene from the front porch of a saloon...
"Saloon Singer" by Marc Davis
... so now here's this concept art animated to look like audio-animatronics with simulated show lighting...
Closing Comments...
Long time Disney composer Buddy Baker (he did the music for the Haunted Mansion) was supposedly going to write the music for WRE. To the best of my knowledge no WRE music was ever recorded. So for my animation the saloon singer is Tammy Grimes from a 1963 episode of the TV western The Virginian entitled "The Exiles." Here's Tammy's performance if you wish to check it out...
I learned it's really hard to animate a piano player. If I was in charge of programming an animatronic piano man I'd be asking (more like begging) that we use some sort of motion capture to do the job.
Lastly if you want to learn more about Western River Expedition please visit Widen Your World. This was the first place on the internet to seriously document the history of WRE.
Well if you are reading this, and you enjoyed those Haunted Mansion concept art animations I did a few years ago I've got something else brewing. I'm animating Marc Davis's art from the never built Western River Expedition.
Marc Davis and a model of a Western River Expedition show scene.
For you people not up on Disney theme park history, Western River Expedition was a epic attraction designed by legendary Disney animator and Imagineer Marc Davis that was originally supposed to be built for the opening of Walt Disney World. Due to many factors the project got pushed back, and then back again, and was eventually abandoned.
That's only brief summery, and so if you want to learn more about the history of Western River Expedition check out this Wikipedia entry which also has a few great links to further WRE content from across the vast interweb.
So anyways to spark your interest for the new animations, here's a little tease of of what's coming in August...
Please leave a comment, and let me know how interested you are in this project. Encouragement can only help in getting these animations completed.
I think this summer I'll go underground, and by underground I mean as in posting numerous cave brochures (are you out there reading this Todd?).
I've mentioned previously I've collected a lot of cave brochures, and although they don't make for very popular posts I thought I might as well use them up.
So anyway for those that are still reading let's look at Howe Caverns brochure...
If you watched the video above (thanks NetGeo) you saw what the Howe Caverns tour guides wear today (which is basically a nylon windbreaker). But did you notice what the uniform looked like in this retro brochure? Here I'll help you out...
It reminds me of a doorman at some fancy apartment. This was a classic look, and I'm sorry to see it's gone.
I love those "cave models." They make it look like they are the only people in the cave, and they are free to roam as they please (and possibly get married too).
The authors of the book Roadside America (they also have a swell website too) described Penn's Cave as one of this country's "lazy-man's cave tours" since you ride in a boat throughout the tour.
So if Penn's Cave is "America's only all water cavern" that you "See it by boat" who are those people seen in some of the brochure pictures standing by the cave formations? Are they part of an exclusive unadvertised VIP tour? Or maybe that chick and dude are professional cave formation models who you actually see on the tour.
Penn's Cave has a spooky legend too (see above). If I was the owner I'd add a few special effects enhancements to capitalize on this. It's called showmanship people.
I wasn't going to bother to post this map portion of the brochure, but then I thought what the heck. Here you go all you smartphone users, if you find yourself in the vicinity of Penn's Cave maybe you'll find this map helpful.
