Small World: New Wine in an Old Bottle

(Disney/SFGate photo)

After 59 years Disneyland is adding a third verse to the "Small World" song:

Mother earth unites us in heart and mind
And the love we give makes us humankind
Through our vast wondrous land
When we stand hand in hand
It’s a small world after all.

Tomorrow is Disneyland's 70th birthday, and "It's a Small World" is far from its oldest ride. According to Grok the following rides were there at or near the opening on July 17, 1955 and are still operational:

Here’s a list of the other original rides at Disneyland, based on historical records and current operations:

Disneyland Railroad (Main Street, U.S.A.)

Jungle Cruise (Adventureland)

Mad Tea Party (Fantasyland)

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (Fantasyland)

Peter Pan's Flight (Fantasyland)

Snow White's Enchanted Wish (Fantasyland, originally "Snow White and Her Adventures")

Storybook Land Canal Boats (Fantasyland)

Autopia (Tomorrowland)

Mark Twain Riverboat (Frontierland)

Casey Jr. Circus Train (Fantasyland, opened July 31, 1955)

Dumbo the Flying Elephant (Fantasyland, opened August 16, 1955)

As a teenager and young adult I couldn't be bothered with the low-tech non-thrill exhibits, but now those, many of which are these 1955 originals, are my favorites. I've been away from Disneyland nine years, and, health permitting, I'd like to return.

Below is Disney's 3½-minute tribute to Small World, with the new verse beginning at the 2:40 mark.

It's a Look At Me World

"Small World" in 2016, my last time at Disneyland

Fellow patrons can ruin group experiences like movies in theaters and classical music concerts. The obnoxious behavior has even spread to Disneyland. [bold added]

As the lights dim in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, the famous Paul Frees narration begins.

“Welcome, foolish mortals, to the Haunted Mansion,” he intones. “I am your host — your ghost host. Kindly step all the way in please, and make room for everyone. There’s no turning back now.”

If you are lucky, you can listen to Frees’ chilling voice as it was intended. But nine times out of 10, someone talks along, mimicking Frees’ iconic cadence. This isn’t a new phenomenon — but we’re long past the point of calling out Disney guests who selfishly do this.

No one comes to Disneyland with a dream of hearing random strangers recite voice-overs. Just because you’ve been on a ride enough times to memorize the spiel doesn’t mean others have. It’s one thing to laugh, clap or otherwise quietly enjoy an attraction. It’s quite another to become a distraction.

For some, Disneyland could be a once-in-a-lifetime trip, so you may be tainting someone’s first and only opportunity to enjoy the theme park.

Talking on rides doesn’t just extend to mimicking voice-overs. It’s been years since I’ve enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean in silence. There’s always a party in one of the rows chatting about dinner plans or catching up on Sharon’s latest dating drama. First-timers are at the mercy of regulars who apparently view the experience as a moving park bench. If your conversation can’t wait 15 minutes, you shouldn’t be getting on a ride.

On a recent trip, the group behind me — full-grown adults who had met up after work — spent the bayou scene arguing about how loud they should scream on the ride’s upcoming drop. Later, on “it’s a small world,” a dad with his kids began aggressively shifting his weight back and forth to make the boat rock. Another adult in his party laughed along as he proceeded to ruin the ride for everyone else — and model terrible behavior for the next generation of Disney guests sitting beside him.

Look at me because I know the words to "small world" or what comes next on the ride. It only takes a few bad apples to spoil the barrel.

There will be no resurgence of humility and civility, as Pride, which is often regarded as the worst of the seven deadly sins, is not only accepted but celebrated in the month of June.

Lilo & Stitch (2025 Film) Critics are Misguided About the Ending

Actress Amy Hill (Tutu) has a lock on older-Hawaiian-lady roles

The Lilo & Stich live action remake has been criticized by some movie reviewers (but not the audience, with world-wide box office currently over $800 million). Some of the criticism has been directed at the ending. Caution: spoiler alert following.

Big sister Nani, who has looked after Lilo because their parents have died, will go to the Mainland for college, supposedly leaving Lilo in the hands of foster care. According to writer Christine Hitt, these critics don't understand the Hawaiian tradition of hānai.

At the end of the 2002 animated version, Lilo and Nani live happily ever after together with Stitch and their other alien friends. In the live-action remake, however, Nani agrees with the social worker, Mrs. Kekoa, that Lilo should live elsewhere. Then it’s revealed that Lilo will live with Tutu, a new character who is a longtime family friend and neighbor. Tutu and Lilo then tell Nani that she should follow her own dreams: going to college in California to study marine biology at UC San Diego.

“While the movie says that ‘Ohana’ means ‘nobody gets left behind,’ Lilo is literally left behind in Hawaii,” wrote Robert Pitman of ScreenRant. On social media, others agree. “The new lilo and stitch live action has rewritten the ending to showcase an indigenous hawaiian woman (the character, not the actor) giving up her indigenous hawaiian sister to the foster care system so that she can leave her homeland and go to school on the mainland. It’s a concerning display of imperialist ideology to say the very least,” wrote dorothyannedouglas on Threads.

However, these views fail to look at family through a Hawaiian lens.

Nani isn’t abandoning Lilo or giving her up. She’s not leaving Lilo behind, because Tutu is a part of their ohana too. At the end of the movie, the social worker Mrs. Kekoa facilitates a type of hanai relationship among Lilo, Nani and Tutu. “It is usually a much easier transition in these foster situations if the family, hanai or otherwise, are involved,” Mrs. Kekoa says, referring to Tutu as their hanai family. However, hanai is never explained in the movie. A Hawaiian tradition, hanai is a type of adoptive relationship, which really can’t be compared to the Western definition of adoption. Hanai is more complex and fluid, with many variations.

Disney’s definition of ohana throughout the film is heartwarming but incomplete. To understand hanai, one must first understand the concept of ohana from a Native Hawaiian perspective. The word ohana refers to the oha, or shoots, growing out of the taro plant — the same plant that is considered to be an ancient relative to all Native Hawaiians. The oha represent the many people who make a family, all tied together in this important bond.

In Hawaiian culture or otherwise, it isn’t uncommon for a grandparent or other relative to step in and help care for kids. The common phrase “It takes a village” comes to mind. Like a village, the Hawaiian family is shaped by many people who take on multiple roles.

“In Hawaiian, there is no word for aunt or uncle. They are all mothers and fathers. We have no word for cousins. They are brothers and sisters,” acclaimed Native Hawaiian scholar Mary Kawena Pukui once said in a 1971 article in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Similarly, in “Lilo & Stitch,” the character’s name Tutu is the Hawaiian word for grandparent but can also be used to refer to anyone of that generation. And in Hawaii, auntie and uncle are commonly used out of respect for elders, no matter if they are related by blood or not.

Hanai dives deeper into the makings of a family and expands upon it. In Hawaiian tradition, grandparents took first-born grandchildren, natural parents renounced all claims, and sometimes babies were given to other relatives who asked for them, according to a book that Pukui co-authored, “Nana I Ke Kumu (Look to the Source).” Hanai also applies to non-blood relationships.

The practice is well known in Hawaii. Pukui was hanai to her maternal grandmother and also later raised hanai children. Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani was hanai at birth and raised among royals. One of my uncles was hanai.

“In this traditional practice, there was no feeling of turning the child over to strangers as there is with present-day adoption,” the book continued. “The whole feeling was that the first grandchild belonged to the grandparents. … The baby remained within the all-important unit — in which his own parents held only junior rank — the family clan or ohana. However, the child knew and was usually visited by his natural parents.”

Hanai isn’t giving a child away; rather, it’s sharing a precious gift, strengthening bonds between people and extending what it means to be family. It can be done for different reasons, but this structure allowed for young parents to work and provide for the family while grandparents reared them, instilling cultural values in the kids and teaching them generational knowledge. It’s similar to what Tutu is doing now with Lilo for Nani.

When I was growing up, I often called older acquaintances "uncle" or "auntie." Not only did the word "friend" seem too distant, but because Oahu is a small island there were many people whom I knew but didn't find I was related to until years after I met them.

Unusual Sight, Even for San Francisco

Maybe this is a sign that Disney is getting back its movie mojo:

On Wednesday, April 24, actors in realistic-looking ape prosthetics were indeed trotting around the northern edge of the Presidio, making a journey back and forth along the pedestrian promenade with the Golden Gate Bridge serving as the backdrop while filming a commercial for the Wes Ball blockbuster ["Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes"], due in theaters May 8...

The unusual sight is part of an elaborate marketing stunt to promote “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” the fourth installment of the rebooted sci-fi action franchise. The film follows a young chimpanzee hunter named Noa (Owen Teague) and a human girl, Mae (Freya Allen), as they embark on a journey that could determine the future for both apes and humans.

Despite being surrounded by onlookers, the "apes" kept their stoic expression and maintained the tradition of Disney's "fur" characters not speaking.

Earlier this week the marketing team duplicated the stunt at Venice Beach, which is 20 miles from where the "twist" ending was filmed in Malibu in the original 1968 Planet of the Apes movie.

Let's hope this story turns out to be worthy of its buildup.

Elemental Thoughts

Last Saturday's water shutdown in our neighborhood caused us to repair to the Hillsdale shopping center.

Unlike the emptying Westfield in San Francisco, Hillsdale is one of the Bay Area suburban malls that is experiencing growth and attracting investment.

The mall is safe enough that parents are comfortable bringing their children. (San Mateo County has a homeless population of about 1,000, and the City and County have improved security recently.) Disney set up a colorful display next to Macy's to advertise the new animated film Elemental.

The film on the whole has garnered moderately favorable reviews (WSJ: "marvelous imagery"; SF Chronicle: "absolutely gorgeous rendering of a half-baked idea").

Good special effects, plus a new, creative world of "elemental" tribes: that's enough to make me want to check it out on the Disney+ streaming service when it arrives, perhaps in September.

Postscript: I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the movie when I was a kid. I liked to keep reality, e.g., real science, separate from fantasy, e.g., cartoons and fairy tales. When I learned that Aristotle, one of the greatest Greek philosophers, declared the basic elements to be fire, air, water, and earth, this fourth grader thought that was pretty dumb. Today I would be kinder--some of the greatest fiction has been spun from premises that are entirely false.

A Grand Time

Good old Disney days (2016): no masks, no social
distancing, and not having to break the bank.

It's cheaper to stay at Disneyland in Paris for a week, including plane fare, than Disneyland Anaheim.

a recent report from KTLA’s sister station shows that a trip to Disneyland in Anaheim is now nearly twice as expensive as traveling to Disney in Marne le Vallee, France.

This month, the outlet reported that...in June 2022, it costs a total of $4,571.50 for two people to stay at the Paradise Pier Hotel – the cheapest Disney [Anaheim] property resort available – for six nights with five days of park tickets included.

Meanwhile, at Disneyland Paris, the cheapest on-property hotel, the Hotel Santa Fe, was quoted at $2,173.66 for seven days of theme park tickets and a six-night stay (no meals were added on and no insurance was selected). Even with a $1,456.74 flight from Los Angeles to Paris included, the experience would still come out to a grand total of $3,676.06.

Overall, travelers in this scenario could save $895.44 by going to Disneyland in Paris instead of Anaheim.

The cost differential is even higher for Bay Area parkgoers, since we would have to drive to Anaheim. At current gas prices we would save at least a grand by going to Paris.

Talking About We Don't Talk About Bruno

Disney's 2021 animated feature, Encanto, has produced the international music hit We Don't Talk About Bruno:

“Bruno” recently became the first song from a Walt Disney Animation Studios film to hit the number one spot on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart. This week, it hit number four on Billboard’s Hot 100 to become the highest-charting song from a Disney animated film in over 26 years (since “Colors of the Wind” from “Pocahontas” in 1995) according to Billboard—and surpassing “Let It Go” from “Frozen,” which made it to number five in 2014.

I pulled up the YouTube video to see what the excitement was all about. Characters sing about a missing relative whose ability to prophesy negative events has made him unpopular. The lyrics are clever, Porter-esque even, and the Latin rhythms drive the song forward energetically.

IMHO, however, the melody is not very hummable. I like the piece but don't love it. The animation is attractive, so I would watch the video again but don't intend to listen to the audio stand-alone.

Thus it was, is, and shall be ever more. Generations are divided by their music.

Below is the video, which has garnered 109 million hits as of this writing.

Mickey Mouse Technology

They were cute and once upon a time ubiquitous and cheap. I even had one.

The old mechanical Mickey Mouse watches, which were on display in the Walt Disney Family Museum, are passé, superseded by high-tech wrist devices.

If the kids must wear watches with cartoon characters, they seem to favor ones that are popular from this century. Despite their current lack of popularity, I know several of the over-40 set who refuse to part with Mickey Mouse timepieces though they no longer wear them. Such is the powerful hold of nostalgia.

Another vestige of earlier days is our Mickey Mouse dial telephone, which I first mentioned in this journal in 2010. We keep it and our landline as insurance against natural disaster:

Mickey Mouse survives because it's our one phone that can operate if the power goes off say, during an earthquake. As long as our landline has tone, we can dial out ("dial" for once may be interpreted literally).

Many in the younger generation don't have landlines, because cell phones and router-plug-in phones are sufficient for their needs.

It's long been rumored that AT&T will abandon the pulse dialing technology that once powered everyone's phone. When it pulls the plug on that, I'll pull the plug on them.

"When I used to read fairy tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one!"

The 1945 musical Anchors Aweigh is famed for its dance sequence that merged live action with animation. Wikipedia:

The movie is remembered for the musical number in which Gene Kelly dances seamlessly with the animated Jerry Mouse (voiced by Sara Berner). Tom Cat appears briefly as a butler in the sequence supervised by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. The animation was entirely undertaken by Kenneth Muse, Ray Patterson and Ed Barge.

Originally, the producers wanted to use Mickey Mouse for this segment. Some sources claim Walt Disney initially agreed to loan out Mickey, but Roy Disney rejected the deal. According to Bob Thomas's book on Roy Disney, the studio was in debt after World War II and they were focusing on trying to release their own films out on time. According to Roy, they had no business making cartoons for other people. After Disney turned the offer down, Kelly went to Fred Quimby, the head of MGM's cartoon studio. Quimby was also not interested, but Kelly persisted, reportedly showing up at Hanna and Barbera's office to press the case. The dance sequence required meticulous storyboarding; after Kelly's dance was filmed, the animators used rotoscoping to painstakingly match the animated character's movement to Kelly's, even down to their shadows cast on the polished dance floor.

Gene Kelly's first choice as a dance partner was Mickey Mouse. Not only was Mickey the most famous cartoon character in the world, but Walt Disney had the expertise Gene Kelly was looking for: Walt was the first to mix live action and animation 20 years previously in the Alice Comedies.

Alice’s Wonderland—the last film Walt Disney made in Kansas City, Missouri—depicts the animated adventures of a true-to-life young girl in a make-believe world.

In the original 1923 short film, Alice arrives by train in “Cartoonland.” A large welcoming committee of animated animal characters greets her with excitement and adoration....Roy Disney was taught to hand-crank the movie camera...Walt directed the live-action and single-handedly created the animated drawings.

The Walt Disney Museum devotes an entire room to the Alice Comedies, which consist of 57 short films produced from 1923 to 1927. Walt tired of the effort required of this format and devoted himself to synchronizing sound in 100%-animated pictures. Steamboat Willie, which introduced Mickey and Minnie Mouse, was released in 1928.

Below--part of the Alice Comedies display in the museum:

Preternatural Positivity

Replica of the Model-T ambulance he drove in France.

We prepped for Saturday's expedition to San Francisco by packing water, jackets, masks, and hand-sanitizer.

The Walt Disney Family Museum still requires face coverings and social distancing; also, it distributes plastic-wrapped headphones and styluses to each patron for plugging into the audio jacks and for using the touchscreens.

We traveled up to the Presidio in our 17-year-old Camry, as we did on pre-pandemic trips to San Francisco.

Perhaps we were being overly cautious due to the regular reports of auto-smash-and-grabs. According to critics of the SF District Attorney these burglaries are not being prosecuted because his belief that lives are more important than property translates to not prosecuting property crimes at all.

(available on Amazon)

We had no trouble with our car, which was in a parking space clearly visible from the museum.

Speaking of cars, one of the great influences on Walt Disney's life was the year he spent in France as an ambulance driver just after World War I. So eager was he to volunteer, he adjusted the birth year on his passport from "1901" to "1900" so that he would meet the minimum age requirement; however, due to illness, he wasn't shipped out until after Armistice Day on November 11, 1918.

During his time in France Walt Disney honed his drawing skills and acquired material for his cartoons, as well as life experience:

Lesjack leaves us with a decent look at Walt’s life during the World War I years that foreshadow his choices later in life. The insight provided tells us about Walt’s thoughts before, during and after the war. In a few cases, Walt shows a preternatural positivity that would last throughout his life, even against hardships and loss.

That's what we all need--a little preternatural positivity. But I'm still driving the clunker to San Francisco.

Walt Disney Family Museum

DC and Marvel comics and MAD magazine were my
preference, but relatives kept giving me these.

On a cool, foggy Saturday we made our first visit to the Walt Disney Family Museum. It was also our first "fun" outing in 15 months.

The museum is in the Presidio, the former military base. Families were picnicking on the great lawn. Kids were throwing frisbees, and couples were walking their dogs.

We spent three hours looking at the displays. Ample space was devoted to the well-known chapters of Walt Disney's life--the animated shorts, the feature-length movies and Disneyland--but what I found most interesting were the building blocks that led up to the creation of Mickey Mouse, his family life, and Walt's vision for the "Florida Project." Walt died in 1966 at the age of 65 and didn't live to see the opening of Walt Disney World in 1971.

Like the late Steve Jobs who died too soon at the age of 56, Walt Disney never stopped working and dreaming of the next big thing. He kept pushing cartoon art until it became the basis for feature-length Oscar-winning movies; he cajoled recalcitrant bankers to fund an amusement park despite the industry's seedy history, and he laid plans for the City of Tomorrow in Florida's swamplands.

Both men's roadmaps were so powerfully drawn that their companies continue to prosper years after they died, not so much by embarking on new ventures but by expanding upon their original creations. (The only person alive today who could compare with them, IMHO, is Elon Musk.)

Like other mere mortals, we could only gawk at the talismans from Walt Disney's life.

The Golden Gate is visible from an upstairs window in the museum.

Killer Box Office Killer

Mulan Rouge (Disney publicity photo)

Movie companies (those who want their pictures to be profitable--a necessary qualifier when producers knowingly make money-losing "message" movies) aren't pleased when stars take a position on a controversial issue. It doesn't matter which side the actors take, there will be potential viewers who find the politics so repugnant that they will stay away from the film.

The phenomenon isn't confined to Americans. Liu Yifei, star of Disney's 2020 live-action remake of Mulan, has taken the side of the police (that is, mainland China) in the Hong Kong protests.

Liu unadorned; not unadored...yet

Liu, in her own post, added in Chinese, “I also support the Hong Kong police,” and included heart and strong-arm emojis. Liu has 65 million followers on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform. The original post received over 2 million likes and an outpouring of support, and Liu’s post was liked 81,000 times.

Liu Yifei, also known as Crystal Liu, was cast as Mulan in 2017 after Disney saw nearly 1,000 candidates for the role, according to the Hollywood Reporter...

Although her sentiment received an outpouring of support, Liu also quickly faced backlash from many across the world who support the protests, with the hashtag #BoycottMulan emerging on Twitter. “She could be a powerful voice for justice but instead, she supports this brutality,” one Tweet said of Liu.

If Liu Yifei's political stance gets no more publicity, there's a good chance it will be forgotten when the film is released. So Disney, stay on the good size of Donald Trump; the last thing you want is for him to tweet about Mulan, reviving the controversy and potentially killing the American audience.

Despite the cliché, not all publicity is good publicity.

Disneyland: Glad I Went

Slinky Dog from Toy Story

I expected Disneyland to be hot, crowded, and expensive, and indeed, the experience was worse in all those respects from my last trip 15 years ago. Going in with low expectations makes pleasant surprises more likely, however.

What I did enjoy: the cleanliness of the parks, the quality of the food, the civility of the staff and vast majority of visitors, the beauty of the parades, the use of technology when appropriate, and the meticulous attention to detail throughout.

The late Steve Jobs "even cared about the look of the parts you couldn’t see" and that ethic seems to be alive and well at Disneyland.

Hot, crowded, and expensive---and I was glad I went.

Where Ties are Not Required or Even Recommended

Using Yelp to find a good seafood place near Anaheim, we settled on the Boiling Crab (TBC), a favorite of over 2,000(!) reviewers.

The restaurant was in a slightly run-down suburban shopping center in Garden Grove, but the location didn't keep the weeknight crowd away. There were at least 20 people in line outside.

Let your fingers do the shelling

Seated in half an hour, we ordered quickly. My associate went right for the crab--boiled of course--while I, wanting to preserve my collared shirt, ordered shrimp that could be eaten diffidently with a fork and knife.

The server plopped down a bag of shrimp that was boiled in red spices. Where was the plate? Where were the utensils?

That's when I looked around at fellow diners who were attacking their shellfish with fingers and teeth. Now I understood why the waitresses set out a plastic table cover and gave all customers a bib when they sat down.

I stripped down to a T-shirt and tore at the shrimp with gusto. The crustacea were fresh and delicious and mildly spiced, as I had ordered.

The Boiling Crab experience is unique: diners are compelled to focus on the food and talk to their companions---who wants to get crab juice all over their smartphone?

In select parts of the country there is a renaissance in fine dining, and people are again dressing up when they go out to eat. A word to the wise: TBC does not cater to that demographic, so guys, you don't have to wear a tie.

Tower of Terror

Your humble blogger avoids drop tower rides at amusement parks. The wait times often exceed an hour, and the ride is over in a couple of seconds. Also, there's a problem that has increased with age: my digestive system has become more sensitive to rapid descents.

However, I did make an exception to stand in line for the Hollywood Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, which is quite a mouthful figuratively and not, it was hoped, literally.

The 199-foot "Hollywood Hotel" edifice is impressive. I did have to stand in line for an hour on Wednesday afternoon outside the structure, but the wait is tolerable if one has a smartphone with all its distractions.

Once inside the lobby, it was clear that the Disney imagineers had labored meticulously over the look of a stylish art deco structure that has gone to seed.

A black-and-white video with a Rod Serling look- and sound-alike explained that guests had been mysteriously disappearing when they stepped in the elevators.

Anticipation raised from the backstory, I found that the walk to the "elevators", and the ride itself, were anticlimactic. Twenty of us were strapped into chairs in an auditorium arrangement and shot to the top, where the wall opened to a view of Disneyland and Anaheim.

The elevator descended rapidly enough to impart the sensation of free-falling, and the process was repeated. Importantly, my gastrointestinal system experienced no ill effects.

Was the wait worthwhile? As with Radiator Springs Racers,

I was glad to have experienced it, but once is enough.

[Update: Disney will close the Tower of Terror in January and replace it with a ride related to one of its Marvel Comics properties.]

Corn Dog at the Little Red Wagon

We've always breezed by the drink and fast-food kiosks at Disneyland, but on this trip we made one of them our destination.

The Little Red Wagon, near the entrance to Tomorrowland, is rated 4½ stars on the Yelp 5-star scale. The "best corn dogs," the reviews claimed, so we sampled one à la carte for $6.50 (the meal was a couple of bucks more).

The normal-size hot dog was encased in a huge cornbread almost-loaf and deep-fried. The crust was excellent, but the cornbread was just a tad too dry and salty for my taste. Also, I prefer corn dogs to be more about the hot dog, but this one was dwarfed by the bread.

Having no need for food, I skipped lunch and had a light beer instead. Gotta watch the calories.

Radiator Springs Racers

California Adventure Magic Morning: Hurry in and wait.

My last trip to Disneyland having occurred over ten years ago, I was bound and determined to experience Radiator Springs Racers, the California Adventure ride that reportedly cost $200 million to build and opened in 2012.

[The wandering mind digresses: "bound and determined" may be too wordy in a 140-character reality, but who knows, in a 50 Shades world the expression may acquire a second life.]

Our three-day ticket allowed us to enter California Adventure an hour early ("Magic Morning"), but Radiator Springs Racers and the rest of Cars Land remained closed until the normal opening time of 8 a.m. "Magic Morning" didn't mean that the desirable rides started at 7 a.m., just that we had a 200-foot head start in the race to the Racers.

We speed-walked our way to the ride and were in our car by 8:10. Radiator Springs Racers was a unique combination of holography and audio-animatronics at the beginning, dioramas of circa-50's and 60's Southern California car culture in the middle, and a brief high-speed race through dry Southwestern hills at the end. I was glad to have experienced it, but once is enough.

Elegant Alternative

Nearly a hundred years ago the Anaheim citrus packing house hummed with the activity that gave Orange County its name.

Local farmers arrived to unload trucks of freshly picked citrus to begin the process of washing, grading and eventual packing into wooden crates. Once completed, the crated and labeled citrus would be loaded onto rail cars parked on the side of the building to be shipped nationwide.

When Walt Disney opened his theme park in 1955 on what had been a 160-acre orange grove, it marked the beginning of the end of agriculture in the county.

The packing house had been abandoned for decades until entrepreneur Shaheen Sadeghi restored it as an elegant dining hall with over 20 vendors, none of them chain outlets.

Short ribs, fried chicken, and seafood.

On our first trip it was tough making a decision. We settled on comfort food from the Kroft and fish from the Chippy. We were not disappointed.

Less than three miles from Disneyland, the packing house is a nearby alternative to fast food and pricey sit-down restaurants. We'll be back on our next trip.

Progress

The first time I drove a car at Disneyland was in the 1960's, long before I was eligible for a driver's license. The Autopia vehicles straddled a central rail so they couldn't veer off course, and the brake automatically activated when the foot came off the gas pedal; it was easy, safe, and to young eyes and ears quite realistic. Also, there were few rules: you couldn't overtly bash the car in front, but there was a lot of tapping going on.

50+ years later the cars are fancier, though the fundamental design and technology are the same. However, there are more rules (no hitting the car in front, keep one car length minimum distance), stricter enforcement, and ubiquitous monitoring of behavior. There are more cars, frequent stops, and lots of engines idling. Welcome to the 21st century, kids!

The Fantasy Lives

Not only is the house from a different time, so is the price ($535,000). To California house-hunters buffeted by seven-figure asking prices, the description seems unreal.

Amenities:

1,600 square feet

1 bedroom

2 bathrooms

2.79 acres

Walt Disney's Palm Desert, California, party house is for sale.

The home, owned by the Disney family in the 1950s and '60s, is where Disney hosted A-list stars including Humphrey Bogart, Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, offering trips on the zip line Disney had installed on the property. The home also still features the ceiling fan system in the main living area that was seen in the movie "Casablanca."

An historical celebrity home in a popular retirement spot for "only" $535,000.....either something about it is very wrong, or it's fantasy.