D23 has just sent over some great news! Next year, 2020 will be a year to celebrate the Walt Disney Archives and its 50th anniversary. As you may know from my previous post “D23 and You (and Me!)” and our first Up the Waterfall podcast episode, the Walt Disney Archives are my favorite part of anything D23 related. This is the true reason we are Disney fans, and any and all info and treasures from the Archives are why we keep going back to D23 events and remaining members.
Destination D – Fantastic Worlds – Walt Disney World 2020
Along with some news about a traveling Archives exhibit, we also get some Destination D news, which will take place at Walt Disney World in the Fall of 2020. UPDATE: We now have an official date for Destination D – Fantastic Worlds in Walt Disney World – November 20-22, 2020! Destination D will honor Disney’s many magical places, from the extraordinary to the fantastical.The exhibit will include 50 iconic treasures, each representing a year that the Archives has been in existence. And Walt Disney Imagineering’s store, Mickey’s of Glendale, will once again open a pop-up shop featuring exclusive items, just for the weekend. Additional details, including special hotel rates and ticketing information, will be announced in late spring. I can’t wait to attend and peruse all of these bits of history. Keep reading below for the official press release from D23:
The Walt Disney Archives celebrates its 50th anniversary next year, and to kick off the festivities, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, Calif., will host Inside the Walt Disney Archives: 50 Years of Preserving the Magic, offering a rare look at some of the treasures from the Archives. The 10,000-square-foot traveling exhibit opens to the public on March 7, 2020.
Plus, on June 22, the actual anniversary of the founding of the Archives, D23 will hold a special “birthday party” at the Bowers Museum. And next year, D23 will offer two exclusive D23 Behind-the-Scenes Experiences: A Day at the Studio Lot, for an exciting look behind the incredible work that goes on every day at the Walt Disney Archives.
Guests are invited to step into the Walt Disney Archives as they walk through a dazzling display of more than 400 objects, including original artwork, costumes, and props that tell the story of the Archives, The Walt Disney Company, and Walt Disney himself. Artifacts include never-before-displayed production art from Fantasia, Walt Disney’s office set from Saving Mr. Banks, the original pitch portfolio used to secure investors for Disneyland, maquettes from animated films such as Peter Pan and Frozen, and much more.
Gold Members of D23: The Official Disney Fan Club will be invited to enjoy an exclusive look at the exhibit before it opens to the general public during a special preview night where they can chat with Disney archivists while exploring the exhibit, which runs through August 30, 2020, before heading to other locations around the country (to be revealed in 2020). D23 Gold Members will also receive a discount on tickets to the exhibit, as well as a discount on merchandise in the museum store. Bowers Museum is one of Southern California’s finest museums, showcasing exquisite examples of art and culture from around the world since 1936.
In addition to the exhibit, Disney fans will be able to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Archives throughout 2020:
The Archives will partner with the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood for special El Cap Throwback screenings during the year.
WALT’S MARCELINE: Walt frequently cited this charming Missouri town, where he spent his early childhood, as one of his greatest influences. In fact, its lovely main thoroughfare was an inspiration for Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A. D23 Members will have a chance to explore the Walt Disney Hometown Museum, enjoy local treats, and mingle with special guests during this full-day event.
D23’s Behind the Scenes Experience: A Day at the Studio Lot events in 2020, held exclusively for Gold Members of D23, will offer a rare glimpse into how the Archives preserves the magic of The Walt Disney Company.
All Official Walt Disney Studios Tours in 2020, presented by D23, will include a special gift for guests themed to the 50th anniversary.
For nearly five decades, the Walt Disney Archives has carefully safeguarded the most treasured items from The Walt Disney Company’s history, including original scripts, movie props and costumes, Walt Disney’s correspondence and script notes, theme park artifacts, merchandise, millions of archival photographs, and many of Walt’s personal effects. Founded by Disney Legend Dave Smith in 1970, the Walt Disney Archives is a vital resource for every part of Disney, as well as an important research center for Disney scholars, researchers, and writers. The Archives also shares its countless pieces with Disney fans everywhere through its exhibitions and close association with D23: The Official Disney Fan Club.
This week, Scott and I discuss everything Galaxy’s Edge. How fans first heard about it, what the subtle differences are on both coasts, what we love about the new land, and even how we both became Star Wars fans ourselves. What’s funny is I thought this would be a quick 30 minute discussion, but we actually spoke much longer this time, and even as I write this up, I’m remembering things we didn’t talk about that I wanted to mention. (But that’s okay because we will revisit this topic when Rise of the Resistance opens here on December 5th!)
We hope you’ll join us and listen in (or watch on YouTube and check out our new permanent Up the Waterfall set (things were a little cramped in my office with cameras and a good backdrop). If you enjoyed it, why not subscribe on iTunes, (it can take 24 hours for new episodes to show up on the Apple Podcast app) give us a rating so others can find us, share on facebook or twitter, and be sure to subscribe on YouTube too to see our latest vlogs, videos and podcasts there too!
We’d love to hear from you, what are your thoughts on Galaxy’s Edge? What would you like to hear us discuss next? Let us know here, on YouTube, or any of our social media hang-outs.
Hello! Well, it’s all finally happening. If you’ve been following along these recent Zannaland.com changes, we’ve been talking about all the things that were coming up. With the addition of our video producer-extraordinaire, Christian (my son, who’s basically grown up with Zannaland), we’ve added more videos, vlogs, and now, a project I’ve been wanting to do basically ever since getting married to @otisney and realizing the amount of Disney history we wanted to discuss and share, a podcast! Since podcasting has grown and changed and morphed over the last 15 years, we have decided to share ours as both an audio and video podcast. We aren’t doing any fancy effects at this point, but if you want to follow along and see our faces while we talk and any props we may use as an example along the way, feel free to watch vs. just listen.
I explain this in our first episode, but we will go into it more in the future too, but the name, “Up the Waterfall” comes from Walt Disney’s Tencennial show for Disneyland’s 10th birthday. And seeing him explaining things to Julie Reihm, the first Disneyland Ambassador, just always made me instantly smile…even just watching the clip at the end of our first show put a smile on my face again. So that’s the sort of feel I wanted to have with our podcast. It’s not just a historical podcast, it’s not a news podcast, it’s a combination of all of our experiences, thoughts, and yes, knowledge (which I will admit is mostly on Scott’s side of the desk!) about Disney parks and all the made them what they were and are today. We hope you’ll listen in on our journey as we explore this podcasting path.
We’re no podcasting or even broadcasting experts, so keep that in mind as I say “um” 27 times 😛 But we’ll keep figuring things out and hopefully make a great show that keeps you wanting more.
You can listen to the podcast right here on Zannaland, there is a Podcast tab at the top of the site now, or you can (eventually, it’s not quite searchable there yet but it is there!) search “Up the Waterfall” on iTunes, or you can watch on Zannaland’s YouTube channel. You can also visit UpTheWaterfall.com for the latest show too, but everything will be shared here as well. Thank you so much for supporting all of these updates and new ventures that we’ve wanted to do for so long, and a HUGE thanks to Christian for making it all happen and pushing us to just do it, and of course Scott for his patience when it took me 5 years to get it going. 🙂
It’s finally here! Up the Waterfall is a Disney podcast I’ve wanted to do for about 5 years now and it’s finally happening! Up the Waterfall is weekly podcast hosted by Zanna (me!) and Scott Otis. Discussions range from Disney history, to theorizing on what Disney’s future holds! Anything is possible in Disneyland! Thanks to Christian, we are also uploading the podcasts as video, in case anyone wants to watch as well as listen. 🙂
Up the Waterfall, Season One Episode 1
“D23 Expo, A 10 Year Retrospective”
A look back at the past decade of D23 fan events, remembering what some of the biggest hits or biggest misses were. Listen and then let us know your thoughts!
This episode is also available in audio-only format.
