If You Live in South Cal Don't Miss the Great Herb Ryman Arts Charity Gala this coming Sunday, February 23rd !

Our good friends at MiceChat are organizing a big Herb Ryman Arts Charity Gala this coming Sunday (February 23rd). Herb Ryman was a genius painter, Disney animator and WDI Imagineer - above, one of his famous inspirational artwork for Tokyo Disneyland - It's going to be a fantastic event and, on top of everything, Diane Disney Miller's daughters are flying down from San Francisco and will be there with family! I'm sure that some of you living in South Cal might be interested to attend the event which will offer a cocktail reception with delicious hors d'oeuvres and a silent auction, followed by gourmet dinner, Disney on Broadway cabaret-style production (with Michael-Leon Wooley - Louis the Alligator from Princess and the Frog), a tribute to Diane Disney Miller (in which we will award her the very first MiceChat Ryman Legend Award), and it'll finish up with an auction of some very unique items.  

At the moment, they are expecting the following auction items among others:

- Mike Peraza (Art Director for Disney's The Little Mermaid) has painted a one of a kind full color pastel of Ariel (see attached).  

- Bob Gurr will auction himself off for a private tour of Disneyland

- Margaret "Tinker Bell" Kerry will auction herself off to give a tour of the Walt Disney Studios

- We'll have signed attraction posters and movie posters

- We will have signed bottles of wine from Silverado Winery (Ron and Diane Disney Miller's winery)

- There will be some hand drawn sketches by artists such as Disney Legend Floyd Norman

- We have two hand signed Herb Ryman prints!

- Plus lots more

If you wish to attend the event make sure to reserve your seat as soon as possible on Mice Chat HERE 

Picture: copyright Disney

Herb Ryman's Disneyland Map Artwork

I've got something great for you today. We all know the first and famous Disneyland artwork done by Herb Ryman for Walt in 1954. I've found it for you in a mega-file which is no less than 1,23 meter large! Although the definition is in 72 dpi only, as it is difficult to find this legendary artwork in a size as large as this one so you should enjoy it anyway.

And, in addition to this great black and white file of Ryman's artwork here is also a rare color version of the Disneyland map, not as large as the one above but in pretty good size too.

Talking about Disneyland if you haven't read yet Al Lutz update this week, you should read it as Al reveals that for the first time since Disneyland's opening big changes are coming to Main Street U.S.A with nothing less than the addition of new streets! Go ahead and have a read on Mice Chat HERE.

Artwork: copyright Disney

D&M Archives : When WDI Legendary Imagineers designed Landmark Entertainment projects

This article have some good surprises for you with never seen before artwork created not for WDI but for Landmark Entertainment projects by former Disney Imagineers like Herb Ryman, Marc Davis, Jim Michaelson and many others! And it's not everyday that we can discover new Herb Ryman or Marc Davis artwork, so click on each to see them in big size!

Let's begin by this painting above from legendary Imagineer Herb Ryman showing a “Boat Overview Exterior” of the "S.S ADMIRAL", the "largest inland steamer ever built in America". Located in St. Louis, it once toured the Mississippi daily.

Back twenty four years ago, Landmark Entertainment worked on a Six Flags theme park project called "Phineas T. Flagg's Power Plant", located at Baltimore, Maryland. It was called Phineas T. Flagg's Power Plant as the theme park location was a historic power plant, near the the waterfront. Marc Davis - who retired from Walt Disney Imagineering in 1978 - and Herb Ryman worked on the project design. The main character, Phineas T. Flagg, was a fictitious magician and Herb Ryman did his design, the one you can see below.



Marc Davis worked on different attraction projects for this Phineas T. Flagg's Power Plant. Among them a great "Home of the Future Show""...



...including the design of a great spinning robot...




...a Power House show "tribute to the all american girl"...



...and a great Toy Circus Parade also planned for the same Power Plant park.





As told you the main character of this park, Phineas T. Flagg, was a magician and the park had a "magic" show. The artist who did this next rendering is unknown but i add it as this Crystal Ball "magic" Show concept looks interesting. I only wish i could tell you more about it...



Herb Ryman worked also on other Landmark Entertainment concepts. He did this bird's eye view painting below for what was - believe it or not - a "Monopoly" theme park project!



Marc Davis too worked on another Landmark concept. This "Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" project was supposed to be build at Valencia, California, near the Six Flags park but unfortunately the project was never realised. The model below still exist and who knows, may be it will be realised one day...



The "Jumping Frog" designed by Marc Davis would have been the main "character" of the park and Disney fans will recognize in the drawings below Marc's distinctive style.




Another artist - who did beautiful renderings for DLP Main Stret U.S.A - and also worked on a Landmark project is Jim Michaelson. Jim did this artwork for the "Dixie Landings" project, "the good time of the riverboat showplace" and below you will see his exterior view and the theatre entrance concepts.




Dan Goozee another artist who did some spectacular artwork for WDI - like the first and famous Expedition Everest official rendering - did this Sands hotel "Casino Lodge interior" artwork. Hmmm, it reminds be a bit of the Wilderness Lodge lobby at WDW, but it's true that the Wilderness Lodge was itself inspired by the Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone Park, Wyoming as we saw in a previous Disney and more article.



Dan worked also a long time ago on "Dream Home" a Science Fiction Fantasy simulator attraction for an Asian theme park...



Good ideas may never die at WDI, but also may inspire other projects...This last artwork by Claudio Mazzoli was done in 1981 for the Haunted Graveyard of Niagara attraction at Niagara Falls and is called "Spirits Emerge From Crystal Ball in Haunted Mansion"!



All artwork: copyright Landmark Entertainment. Many thanks to Landmark for the high-res files of the artwork you saw in this article.

" Walt and El Grupo " Dvd released ! Walt Disney and Animation Artists in South America - 1941

The awaited Dvd of "Walt and El Grupo" is released today and for those of you who didn't had the luck to see it - i.e, basically everybody living outside the U.S - it will be a fantastic opportunity to discover this rare footage of Walt Disney and Disney Studios animators filmed in 1941 during their legendary trip in South America.

You can order the Dvd directly on the Disney and more Amazon Emporium HERE at special price of $19.99 (instead than $29.99). And below you'll find the movie trailer and rare pictures from a LIFE magazine photographer who joined "El Grupo" during their trip, it should give you a better idea of what this historical movie is about.



In early 1941, before U.S. entry into World War II, the United States Department of State commissioned both a Disney goodwill tour of South America, intended to lead to a movie to be shown in Central and South America as part of the Good Neighbor Policy. The tour took during ten weeks Walt Disney, his wife Lilly and a group of sixteen great artists from Walt Disney Animation as well as composers from the Walt Disney Studios to South America, mainly to Brazil and Argentina, but also to Chile and Peru. The movie, of course, now known as "Saludos Amigos" was made up of four different segments. Donald Duck stars in two of them and Goofy stars in one. It also features the first appearance of the character José Carioca.



But the Disney group was not alone, as LIFE photographer Hart Preston was there too and did a fantastic photographic report for LIFE magazine. It is these very rare pictures that you will see today, probably for the first time.

We will begin by Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. On the top, Walt and Lilian Disney going for a tandem bike ride in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, June 1941. Below Frank Thomas, on the left, is standing with Walt Disney on a beach of Rio de Janeiro.



Precisely, in the next pictures we'll see Disney and his group going on a Brazilian beach...




Where Walt with his camera filmed some young cariocas...





Another great picture of Walt filming on a beach of Rio de Janeiro.



Meanwhile, Disney artists like Lee and Mary Blair created great watercolours that will serve as inspiration for the future movie.






They've also study the brazilian vegetation in botanical gardens...









And even waterfalls...



..And animals like this parrot - who knows, may be his painting by Lee Blair was the one who inspired the character of Jose Carioca?




Or may be it was this parrot?




Near a beach of Rio, Lee and Mary Blair meet and greet young cariocas...







...while on the other side of the road Disney artist Herb Ryman was doing sketches of animals.





The group went also in mountain villages...



...where Herb Ryman did some interesting paintings.




Here are two sketches of Frank Thomas, in the first one Pluto meet an armadillo...



And this one shows Dopey with a Brazilian monkey.



After the work the Disney group is relaxing...




...and for Walt, it's lunch time!...



...before some party later in the evening.



The Brazilian premiere of Fantasia also happened when they were in Rio de Janeiro.



And Walt Disney gave a presentation about animation with the help of three of his animators.



In a Brazilian nightclub performers entertained an audience which included Walt Disney.



And in the Urca Casino nightclub, dancers put on a floor show for the benefit of Walt Disney and his movie crew.



The group then moved to other countries, in Argentina to see the famous "gauchos"...



Or in Peru to see peruvians villagers...



While in Peru, they went also on Lake Titicaca to film sequences that will serve as inspiration for the Donald segment in Saludos Amigos. On the pictures, Walt is the one who holds the camera.








Hope you enjoyed this pictorial article with these rare LIFE pictures of the Disney South-American tour. All of them are coming from the fantastic LIFE photographic archives which are now avalaible to anyone in a special section of Google Images HERE.

To order the Walt and El Grupo Dvd directly on Amazon just go on the Disney and more Amazon store HERE



Pictures: copyright Disney and Time-Life - All rights reserved