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Best Special Effects at Disney – Up the Waterfall

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Season 2 – Episode 9 (Episode 24) of Up the Waterfall

One of the things that makes us love Disney so much is the ability to transport us. Whether it’s visually or through sounds, smells and movement, Disney parks have some of the Best Special Effects around. We’ve discussed some of the Biggest Hits (and Misses) of Disney parks, and among that list were things like animatronics. Jumping off from that point, this week on Up the Waterfall, Scott and I each share our picks for the best special effects used by Disney Imagineers that really “changed the game” so to speak as far as attractions go. And as always, we know that attractions doesn’t necessarily mean rides.

With all of the amazing ride and Imagineering technologies available today, one of the things we explore is that it can sometimes be the simplest of effects that have the biggest impact. For example, growing up, for both Scott and I, the effect of “fire” in Pirates of the Caribbean burning village scene. Another of Scott’s favorites (and mine once I finally got to Disneyland) was the “lava” in the Primeval World diorama on the Disneyland Railroad. Simple rolling logs covered in foil, with lighting, has the uncanny appearance of flowing lava.

Pirates of the Caribbean village fire scene
photo credit: Disney

Effects like this laid the groundwork for today’s Na’vi River Journey‘s Shaman of Songs animatronic, or the newest attractions of Rise of the Resistance and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway (which we don’t discuss too much to be completely spoiler-free).

Get comfy and listen along or watch below and see if our list matches yours – OR – if we left one of your favorite Disney special effects out of this episode! Feel free to comment below with your picks, or if you disagree with our choices. If you enjoy our show, we’d love you to subscribe to Up the Waterfall podcast, either on your podcast app of choice, or on Zannaland’s YouTube channel, to see all of the fun as well as hear it. Keep reading below for all the places to find and listen or watch.

Thank you for reading, watching, and listening as we go Up the Waterfall!

You can watch this Best Special Effects at Disney episode here:

 

We hope you enjoy this week’s episode of Up the Waterfall!

How to Listen to Up the Waterfall

You can listen anywhere you download and listen to podcasts, including: 

(If there’s a podcast service where you can’t find our show, let us know and we’ll get it added there!)

How to Watch Up the Waterfall

Head to our Up the Waterfall YouTube Playlist – where you can see our opening sequence and see some unique images during some episodes.

Feel free to comment below with your opinions on ANY of these hot button topics, any questions or info you’d like to add, or if it’s easier, head to the Zannaland Facebook page and join the discussion there with fellow Disney Parks fans!

Zannaland and Up the Waterfall Community – Let’s Connect!

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Disney on Broadway – Up the Waterfall Episode 17

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With the 4th annual Epcot Festival of the Arts underway, we thought it would be great to discuss one of our loves, which is showcased at the Festival – Disney on Broadway! It’s hard to imagine a time before Disney had a presence on the Broadway scene, but they just celebrated 25 years last year. We head all the way back to the Disney Theatre Group and Disney Theatre Productions origins and discuss how they came to be, and how far they’ve come since inception.

Disney on Broadway 25 years

In this episode of Up the Waterfall, Zanna and Scott share their own experiences with attending musical theatre and how they first enjoyed Disney on Broadway, as well as the storied history of Disney theatrical productions and how different each show has been.

Have you been to a Disney show on Broadway or a national tour? What about a show on a Disney Cruise Line ship? Let us know in the comments below what your favorite(s) were or what you hope to see in the future. What Disney story would you like to see brought to the stage? Scroll to the bottom to watch the show on video!

Also discussed at the end of episode are some wonderful books showcasing the Disney Broadway productions, as well as the New Amsterdam Theatre, which Disney completely restored for the opening of The Lion King on Broadway. We’ve collected the list of books below in case you want to keep an eye out for one, or add it to your collection! Know of a book we’ve missed? Let us know!

A Day at the New Amsterdam Theatre (Disney) Hardcover – August 31, 2004 by Dana Amendola and Gino Domenico

 

The New Amsterdam: The Biography of a Broadway Theater (A Disney Theatrical Souvenir Book) Hardcover – October 11, 1997 by Mary Henderson 

 

The Lion King: Pride Rock on Broadway Hardcover – November 7, 2017 by Julie Taymor

 

Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida: The Making of the Broadway Musical Hardcover – November 2, 2000 by Michael Lassell

 

Practically Poppins in Every Way: A Magical Carpetbag of Countless Wonders (Disney Editions Deluxe (Film)) Hardcover – November 6, 2018 by Jeff Kurtti

Tarzan: The Broadway Adventure Hardcover – March 16, 2007 by Michael Lassell

The Little Mermaid: A Broadway Musical: From the Deep Blue Sea to the Great White Way (A Disney Theatrical Souvenir Book) Hardcover – May 12, 2009  by Michael Lassell

Disney Aladdin: A Whole New World: The Road to Broadway and Beyond Hardcover – March 21, 2017 by Michael Lassell

How Does the Show Go On The Frozen Edition: An Introduction to the Theater (A Disney Theatrical Souvenir Book) Hardcover – November 5, 2019 by Thomas Schumacher, Jeff Kurtti (Updated 2019 edition)

 

We thank you again for listening and watching! Have an idea for a new episode? Let us know below! And tell your friends! 

 

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What We Miss Most About Disney-MGM Studios – Up The Waterfall Episodes 14 and 15

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Vintage Disney-MGM Studios Disney-MGM Studios past, and what we miss, is the topic for this week and last, and what we miss about the Disney-MGM Studios. The hey day of its original opening and the years that followed. We discuss what it was like visiting the park back then and reminisce about our favorites. In this first part, we go over the original Animation Tour, the Backlot Tour (walking and tram), Superstar Television and Monster Sound Show. We also dip a little bit into the Great Movie Ride, in part 1 which we all miss greatly. As you can see below, this turned into a two part series, so we hope you’ll listen or watch to both and take a stroll down Hollywood Blvd or the Streets of America with us as we say, “ACTION!” to episodes 14 and 15 of Up the Waterfall podcast.

The Rocketeer's Bulldog Cafe
The Rocketeer’s Bulldog Cafe on the Backlot Tour

We hope you enjoy the show, and share with us what YOU miss the most about Disney-MGM Studios, what your favorite parts were and what you think we’ll cover in part 2! As always, we thank you so much for listening, watching, and spreading the word to your friends and family. I’ve recently personally gotten some feedback from folks who discovered Up the Waterfall, and I can’t tell you how much it means to hear that people actually listened AND liked it! But no one will know we exist if they don’t hear from our listeners that they recommend Up the Waterfall. We need your help! If you can spread the word, but liking our videos, rating us 5-stars on Apple Podcasts, Google, or wherever you listen, or share this post so others can discover us, we would be eternally grateful. This is a family passion project, and we consider our listeners family too. Thank you for your support!

I’m going to add Part 2 here as well – where we finish up our nostalgic but historic look at the Disney-MGM Studios of yesteryear. In Part 2, we go over the shows at the Premier Theatre – (Hunchback anyone?) as well as the many parades and entertainment spectaculars such as the Rocketeer live every night, Sorcery in the Sky fireworks and more! We hope you enjoy – and let us know your favorites!

 

Here are some of the blog posts I’ve written on Disney’s Hollywood Studios (or MGM) past:

You Can Leave Your Hat Off

First Impressions of the Disney Studios-Why I Fell in Love

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Up the Waterfall Podcast – Episode 13 – Disney Plus Hits and Misses

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The past few weeks have been full of buzz and activity (watching activity that is) stemming from the launch of Disney’s streaming service – Disney+ (or Disney Plus). We first mentioned this new service back in episode 1, where we discussed the 10 year history of D23 Expo conventions. In the latest D23 Expo held this past August, the Disney+ presence was great, and there was even a special Expo promotion going on, to get 3 years of service for what amounted to slightly under $4/month. We signed up then, and anxiously awaited the launch date of November 12. Now that that day has come and gone, and we’ve been watching some old favorites and new original content, we thought we’d devote an episode to just exactly what makes us love (and not love) the Disney Plus service.

Disney Plus

Within this latest episode of Up the Waterfall, Scott and Zanna each go over their favorites and what they are most excited about being able to watch any time on Disney+. Additionally, they (ok mostly me, Zanna) go over some misses and what they think needs to change about the Disney Plus experience. Will you agree or disagree with our thoughts? Only one way to find out! You can download and listen anywhere you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, and many more places. Or you can watch on YouTube.com/zannaland, and SEE what we’re talking about as well. Our producer, Christian usually adds in a lot of fun visuals to illustrate what we are mentioning, and in this case, he’ll be showing a few clips as we discuss.

Disney Plus screen

We hope you’ll give us a listen, or a watch, and please take a moment to like, subscribe, turn on notifications, and even comment with your thoughts, favorites, or opinions. We’d love to hear from you! Additionally, if you could share with a friend, we’d be forever grateful as we try to get the word out and spread the Disney history (and present, and future) love! Thank you as always for listening, watching, and joining us, “Up the Waterfall”

 

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The History of Holidays at Disneyland – Up the Waterfall Episode 12

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Since the Christmas holiday season really starts at 12:01 on November 1st, we thought we’d jump right in and share the history of celebrating the Holidays at Disneyland on our latest Up the Waterfall podcast. There is SO much happening in all the Disney parks during the holidays these days, we wanted to take a look at how it all began and see how far the California parks have come in the last 64 years.

Disneyland Christmas birthday

In this episode we’ll discuss the very first Christmas at Disneyland and what that meant for the park. We’ll see how that’s changed over the years, and even touch on New Years Eve history in Disneyland. Since the Disneyland Resort isn’t just one park anymore, we’ll showcase Disney California Adventure‘s holiday fun, and the resorts as well.

Viva Navidad

You can listen to the Up the Waterfall podcast (that link will show you many options or you can search wherever you listen), but as always, we encourage you to watch the YouTube video version as well for some fun visuals of what we’re discussing.

If you enjoyed the podcast, we’d love you to subscribe, give us a thumbs up or rate us on your podcasting platform of choice, click the notifications button so you know when a new episode or video has been uploaded, and as always, we’d love you to share us with a friend.

The more the merrier and we want to hear what your favorite holiday memories of Disneyland are, or if you haven’t been, what do you most want to experience over there? I’m sure we’ll cover other parks for the holidays in the future, but until then, thank you for joining us Up the Waterfall!

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Up the Waterfall Podcast Episode 11 – The History of Space Mountain

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This week we take a stroll back in time…and space. Space Mountain that is. Pull back on your safety bar and sit back as we explore the history of this beloved attraction, from concept art to present day, and everything in between.

Space Mountain concept art
Space Mountain concept art by John Hench from the Top of the World lounge at Bay Lake Tower

Scott takes us on a journey through the years and the historic milestones of the Space Mountain attraction in Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and beyond. Believe it or not, I only rode Space Mountain at age 31. Crazy, right? Anyway, we hope you enjoy our chat and stories along the way as we share some fun facts and history of this iconic attraction that is the cornerstone of Tomorrowland (or Discoveryland) in every Disney park.

 

Disneyland Paris Space Mountain
Disneyland Paris Space Mountain in Discoveryland

 

For this episode, we highly recommend you watch the video version as well, Christian has added some great images of the topics we bring up, from the many books Scott brought out for this episode. We will link to those books on amazon below, some of which may be through 3rd party Marketplace Sellers on Amazon, or you may find them on ebay as well:

 

We hope you enjoyed this episode, if you did, please share with a friend so they can discover us too. What are your favorite memories of Space Mountain? We’d love to hear about it either in a comment below or on social media. Feel free to comment wherever is easiest for you with the hashtag #UpTheWaterfallPodcast. We thank you for listening and for your support of our passion project – Up the Waterfall.

 

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Up the Waterfall – Episode 10 – TOP 10 Disney Attraction Queues

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Enchanted Tiki Room QueueWe are not only finally through our epic EPCOT series, where we fondly remember all of the original EPCOT Center, but also discuss the future of the park, we have made it to our TENTH EPISODE! Hooray! We thank you for listening and hope you’ve had as much fun as we have recording these episodes. This week we thought a Top 10 list would be a great way to mark our 10 episode milestone.

Part of what makes us love Disney parks and the attractions within are the many details and interactive waiting areas, lines, or queues, within the different parks. As we discuss, some draw you in to the environment you are about to enter with the attraction, while others tell a story all their own. Join us as we list OUR top 10, from all the parks we’ve been to, including Walt Disney World and Disneyland’s parks, as well as the international locations in Asia and Europe.

Will your list align with ours? Did we miss any of your favorites or do you completely disagree with one of our choices? Let us know by commenting below, or at our YouTube channel for the episode, or on any of our social channels listed below – we’d love to hear from you!

If you haven’t already, we would be so grateful if you could subscribe to our YouTube channel and like the video for each episode, or subscribe wherever you download and listen to podcasts, and give us a rating there too. We are a new podcast, and hope to soon be celebrating our 100th episode, and we can’t do that without spreading the word so more people can listen and enjoy and share in the discussion. If you could take a moment to share the podcast, videos, or even just this blog post, we’d be eternally appreciative of your support.

Thank you for joining us Up the Waterfall!

Roger Rabbit CARtoon Spin

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Up the Waterfall – The Future of EPCOT

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We are finally wrapping up our EPCOT series with an episode all about the news, predictions, and possibilities of the future of EPCOT, as well as our opinions on these changes. I think it’s a nice way to finish out our 4 part series on the original EPCOT Center and our memories, with a peek into the future of EPCOT.

The EPCOT Experience

In this episode we run down the announced changes coming to EPCOT and World Showcase, including the new “neighborhood designations” vs. Future World, the water experience, Play pavilion, Guardian’s of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, the Celebration Point/Dreamer’s Point area, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Mary Poppins attraction, as well as the new movies in the Canada and China pavilions in World Showcase. We also go over the EPCOT Experience itself, currently going on in the Odyssey building.

The EPCOT Experience

After we go over all these changes, we each share our personal thoughts on where the future is taking EPCOT, good and bad. Do you agree with our opinions or have completely different views of the park’s future?

EPCOT model in the EPCOT Experience
Remy attraction preview
Play pavilion preview
EPCOT water attraction preview
Mexico pavilion – is Coco coming soon?
Celebration Point model
new EPCOT attraction posters

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hope you enjoyed our series and this episode too. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the podcast, what do you think the unconfirmed changes will be? What are your predictions for the Mary Poppins attraction? Let us know in the comments below, or at any of the social media channels listed below! Thank you so much for listening or watching, we’d love you to share the love and spread the word on our little podcast passion project! Thank you!

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Up the Waterfall The EPCOT Center Episodes – Part 4

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Happy Sunday! Another Up the Waterfall episode is up to listen to or watch! We are wrapping up our EPCOT Center series with the remainder of the World Showcase countries, and some nighttime entertainment options as well.

If you haven’t been following along, be sure to listen to/watch the Up the Waterfall

EPCOT Episode Part 1: we discussed the original Future World east, including Spaceship Earth, Universe of Energy, World of Motion, and Horizons, along with a bit of CommuniCore East.

EPCOT Part 2: we share our thoughts and memories of The Land, The Living Seas, and of course Journey into Imagination. We also head back over to the east side and bring up the Wonders of Life pavilion.

EPCOT Part 3: we finish up Future World with CommuniCore discussion, and make it from Mexico to Equatorial Africa.

The EPCOT Center Series Part 4: we finish our loop around World Showcase, including a round up of all the nighttime shows as well. In next week’s episode, we’ll round out what has turned into EPCOT Month with our thoughts on the future of EPCOT, and a bonus episode with our promised Show and Tell from Scott showcasing all of his original EPCOT Center books and ephemera. Whew!

World Showcase Dancers Me with a World Showcase Dancer back in 1983, before the American Gardens Theatre had a roof!

 

Whether you are an original EPCOT Center visitor like us, or a fan, or new to Disney parks, we hope you’ll listen in and get a feel for what it was like Growing Up EPCOT. We thank you for listening in or watching, and hope you enjoy our little corner of the Disney podcasting world. As always, we encourage you to subscribe to our podcast wherever you normally listen, rate us (5 stars would be amazing!) and even comment so hopefully more people can discover us too.

You can also watch us on YouTube to see all of our silly facial expressions, and the books we reference in each episode. We’d love to hear from you, let us know what you think of the podcast, your favorite EPCOT Center memories, what you want to hear us discuss, just say hi, we welcome all feedback!

Up the Waterfall podcast

For these episodes, we wanted to give a guide of sorts to where you can learn more about the original EPCOT Center we describe, if you didn’t get a chance to experience it yourself, or if you’d just like to take a stroll down memory lane.

Zannaland’s Love Letter to EPCOT

Zannaland’s 1983 EPCOT Trip Diary

ProgressCityUSA’s Examining Epcot: The Germany Showcase

Martin’s Vids – Martin Smith has been chronicling Disney parks for decades, and compiling incredibly detailed complete history tributes to extinct attractions. We’re linking to his entire EPCOT Future World playlist, where you can experience EPCOT Center as it once was.

Here are some of the books we discussed, since they are out of print, these are all from 3rd party Marketplace sellers on amazon, but still, some good options and prices are out there. I’m just linking one of the Pictorial Souvenirs, but all of the ones from the 80’s are great fun to flip through. We’ll be doing a little EPCOT Books guide soon, so stay tuned for that as well. Click the photos below to get to the amazon* page for these books.

 

EPCOT James Beard BookWDW Pictorial Souvenir

 

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Up the Waterfall – The EPCOT Center Episodes Part 3

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It’s Sunday, so another Up the Waterfall episode is up to listen to or watch. We hope you listened to/watched the Up the Waterfall EPCOT Episode Part 1 and EPCOT Part 2. In Part 1 we discussed the original Future World east, including Spaceship Earth, Universe of Energy, World of Motion, and Horizons, along with a bit of Communicore East. In Part 2, we share our thoughts and memories of The Land, The Living Seas, and of course Journey into Imagination. We also head back over to the east side and bring up the Wonders of Life pavilion.

This brings us to Part 3 (video version at bottom of post), where we thought we’d finish up Future World and make it at least halfway round the World Showcase, but alas, we made it to Equatorial Africa, and had to stop there. But never fear, Part 4 will wrap up World Showcase, including a round up of all the World Showcase nighttime shows as well. We’ll then round out what has turned into EPCOT Month with our thoughts on the future of EPCOT, and a bonus episode with our promised Show and Tell from Scott showcasing all of his original EPCOT Center books and ephemera. Whew!

 

zanna Mexico EPCOT 1984
My sister, me, and my brother in the Mexico pavilion, in I believe 1984.

 

Whether you are an original EPCOT visitor like us, or a fan, or new to Disney parks, we hope you’ll listen in and get a feel for what it was like Growing Up EPCOT. We thank you for listening in or watching, and hope you enjoy our little corner of the Disney podcasting world. As always, we encourage you to subscribe to our podcast wherever you normally listen, rate us (5 stars would be amazing!) and even comment so hopefully more people can discover us too. You can also watch us on YouTube to see all of our silly facial expressions, and the books we reference in each episode. We’d love to hear from you, let us know what you think of the podcast, your favorite EPCOT Center memories, what you want to hear us discuss, just say hi, we welcome all feedback!

Up the Waterfall podcast

For these episodes, we wanted to give a guide of sorts to where you can learn more about the original EPCOT Center we describe, if you didn’t get a chance to experience it yourself, or if you’d just like to take a stroll down memory lane.

Zannaland’s Love Letter to EPCOT

Zannaland’s 1983 EPCOT Trip Diary

We didn’t mention this by name, but LostEpcot.com is a great place to see some original photos and details about the original EPCOT Center as well.

Martin’s Vids – Martin Smith has been chronicling Disney parks for decades, and compiling incredibly detailed complete history tributes to extinct attractions. We’re linking to his entire EPCOT Future World playlist, where you can experience EPCOT Center as it once was.

Here are some of the books we discussed, since they are out of print, these are all from 3rd party Marketplace sellers on amazon, but still, some good options and prices are out there. I’m just linking one of the Pictorial Souvenirs, but all of the ones from the 80’s are great fun to flip through. We’ll be doing a little EPCOT Books guide soon, so stay tuned for that as well. Click the photos below to get to the amazon* page for these books.

 

EPCOT James Beard BookWDW Pictorial Souvenir

 

FOLLOW THE ZANNALAND TEAM ON SOCIAL MEDIA, WATCH OUR VIDEOS, VLOGS AND PODCAST TOO: 

We thank you for your support and for sharing the love! 

 

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

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