Underappreciated Disney Characters Part 2

Welcome back to our ongoing tribute to Disney's most overlooked supporting players. Last week, we focused on Col. Hathi and Alice's Horn Ducks. Today, we've got another unjustly ignored pair of troupers.

JOANNA

Bursting onto the scene in The Rescuers Down Under, Joanna the goanna (I used to think she was a komodo dragon) is the funniest villain sidekick in Disney history. She doesn't speak a word, but her brilliant animation will delight you--and make your skin crawl at the same time.

She's incredibly important to the film, because this movie's villain, McLeach, is one of Disney's most hateful and frightening scumbags. There's no way to lighten up an eagle-killing kidnapper who thinks nothing of tossing a human child to crocodiles. Enter Joanna, who--even though she's on McLeach's side--provides some welcome comedy during the film's darkest moments.

APPEARANCES OUTSIDE THE FILM: None

Joanna has pretty much vanished in the company's eye, and that's Disney's loss. Can you imagine how many Joanna plush or rubber lizards they could sell every day in Adventureland? How about a Joanna hat? And wouldn't she be a natural at Disney's Animal Kingdom? By the way, if you've never seen the excellent Rescuers Down Under, it's streaming on Netflix right now!

Next up, we've got man's--and woman's--best friend...

BRUNO

This image captures my favorite moment in Disney's Cinderella. Look at it from Bruno the dog's perspective:

1) He's just been through a humiliating night as a human.

2) He had to hike home after Cindy forgot the one thing the Fairy Godmother told her to remember.

3) His well-deserved slumber is now rudely interrupted by over-caffeinated birds who only serve to remind him that Cinderella never sewed any clothes for him, oh no sirree.
 
Everything--Cinderella's future, Gus-Gus's life, the fate of the Kingdom--depends on how quickly he can wake up. And, once he does snap out of dreamland, he delivers justice like only a true-blue dog can do. Bruno is the real hero of this film. Okay, the mice get some credit, too.

The moral of Disney's Cinderella has nothing to do with wishes or magic: If you're nice to people, you increase the odds that, someday, your friends just might come through for you when you need them most. All that's summed up perfectly in Bruno.

APPEARANCES OUTSIDE THE FILM: Rare

Bruno's gotten the occasional merchandising nod: I once owned a fun little PVC statuette of the ol' hound. Being a dog has its advantages when it comes to product potential. Of course, there's also the two video sequels, but the less said about them the better.

Join us next time for part 3. In the meantime, who are your favorite underappreciated Disney toons?

Remembering the Rocket Rods

From PeopleMover to Rocket Rods to...Pretty much nothin'....

The old tower loading platform has become the saddest sight in Disneyland. Many fans avert their eyes as they walk past it, and everyone hopes that maybe--just maybe--this will be the year that Disney announces a great new project that will finally take over the location and erase the memory of Rocket Rods.

But we shouldn't forget the ill-fated PeopleMover replacement, because--truth be told--the Rockets Rods were a lot of fun...while they lasted.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Disneyland has seven black-light dark rides (Alice, Snow White, Mr. Toad, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Roger Rabbit and Pooh), but only one of them turns its first moments into a kinetic bit of outdoor storytelling for non-riders to watch. The rabbit hole entrance to Alice in Wonderland has been swallowing up caterpillars ever since its debut in 1958.

Originally, the winding, slow motion "fall" took place in complete darkness, and that's the version I grew up with. When the ride got a massive redesign, the downhill tunnel was lightened and decorated to resemble the film scene. In the newer rabbit hole, you can plainly see you're only descending a few feet, but back when it was dark and I was five, I thought we were going waaaay underground. Disneyland is incredibly awesome when you're small and you believe everything. And it's awsome in a different way when you're grown up and still love the magic of good storytelling.

If you'd like to take a quick trip to Wonderland, Rocketsummer23 has posted one of the best videos of the entire ride I've ever seen--and taken before the upper safety fences were added! See if you can spot the caterpillar's slippers on top of the giant outdoor mushroom toward the end.

Ride Breakdown Fun: Stuck in Doc Hudson's Garage

On a complex ride such as Radiator Springs Racers, occasional stalls and shut-downs are inevitable -- particularly during the first year of operation. In the two dozen rides we've taken on Racers, we've experienced two temporary shut-downs. This time it happened in a favorite location, Doc Hudson's garage, where the delay helped us discover something new about the ride...

At this point of the adventure, the track has split into two lanes. We've just emerged from Ramone's House of Body Art while our opponents have come out of Luigi's Casa della Tires. We got our gruff pep talk from Doc, moved forward a few feet...and then we came to a halt for the unscheduled "intermission" alongside the town's respected judge/physician/retired racing champ.

Doc Hudson is one of the most amazing audioanimatronics on the ride. Until this moment, I'd never turned to look back from this angle.

Looking forward...

...the starting line waits just a few yards away! Here, I'd like to point out a wonderful detail of this ride: During these situations, your car continues to make idling and engine-revving sounds as if it's just as impatient to get underway as you are!

Looking back to the right, I noticed for the first time that the two halves of the garage are themed to whichever shop you've emerged from. We came from Ramone's, so this side is filled with paint samples, stencils and artwork. It's got the rough, hands-on look of someone who likes to create and experiment.

Looking across to the other side, we can see it's themed to Luigi's tire shop and is neat as a pin, in keeping with Luigi's personality.

Temporary Ride Shut-Downs Can Be Fun

Like most complex new rides, Radiator Springs Racers experiences occasional temporary shut-downs due to technical issues. When this happens, the cast members help riders step safely out of the vehicles and escort them to the nearest exit, issuing Fastpasses to each guest who did not receive a complete ride. The park's operators and technicians work swiftly to get the ride up and running again as quickly as possible, usually in less than half an hour.

My family experienced a ride shut-down only once in our eight trips on Radiator Springs Racers during a recent visit to Cars Land. And it was awesome. Why? Because we experienced the best of all possible scenarios: the ride stopped after our vehicle had completed 99% of the adventure; we were literally just a couple of car lengths from the unloading zone. After the friendly cast members helped us step from our vehicles and walk to the exit area, we received Fastpasses good for any DCA Fastpass ride (these special passes admit up to six people in a group).

So, we ended up with a basically complete ride-through, the novel experience of exiting the vehicle in an unusual spot, and a pass to re-ride the Racers again with very little wait once the attraction returned to normal operation (it was functioning perfectly within twenty minutes). As a bonus, the special pass allowed some of our group who hadn't yet ridden to join us.

Disneyland Resort fans tend to embrace the unexpected; sometimes ride shut-downs work to your advantage!