Hello, Old Friend

[ShrunkenNed]

From Walt Disney World's News release: "During ‘Long Lost Friends Week,’ lesser-known Disney characters will step into the spotlight Jan. 21-27, 2013 for meet and greets at Town Square in Magic Kingdom park at Walt Disney World Resort. Fans will have the unique chance to get up-close and personal and enjoy photo opportunities with characters that could include Clarabelle Cow, Robin Hood or The Three Little Pigs.



I've read countless stories of people, especially young adults, who have rediscovered their love for Disney after going through that adolescent phase of "Disney is not cool." Be it the influence of peers, the loss of innocence, or just an attribute of growing up, it seems to occur for many. While I never went through a true "dislike" of Disney, I definitely did try to distance myself from it. It just wasn't the "cool thing" to like, and as most boys around the junior high age, I just wanted to fit in. Do I look back at those years without professing my mouse fandom with regret? No, I don't. I don't think I would appreciate Disney as much without the opportunity to rediscover it.


The summer before I started high school, I walked down to my local Blockbuster with a friend to rent a movie - Back to the Future 2, if I remember correctly. While in the store, browsing movies I saw The Little Mermaid on the shelf. Remembering my sister had mentioned wanting to watch it sometime, and in a rare instance of being a good little brother, I picked it up and brought it home as well. Not for me, but for her. Nonetheless, I put it in when I was home by myself, and became entranced; more than I would admit for a long time. The animation was great, the music by Ashman and Menken was just plain fun, and the story was enough to keep me interested. Buddy Hackett's voicing of Scuttle was perfect, and still cracks me up to this day.

My Favorite Poster From The Movie

Of course, as much as I loved it, I wasn't about to admit it to the rest of the world, much less tell the guys that I hung out with, "Hey, you really need to check out The Little Mermaid!" It still wasn't the "cool" thing to do. So, as much as I was re-embracing the magic, it was a slow process I wasn't sure I wanted to share with others.
Being a part of performing arts in high school was a life changing experience for me. It taught me a lot about individuality. For anyone that's been part of a group such as choir, band, drama, dance... I'm sure you get it. There are a slew of personalities, and in the confines of those hallways, they truly emerged. It was there I learned to be willing to share my appreciation for Disney, including, yes, The Little Mermaid. Along with one other particular experience chronicled in an earlier entry, "A Thank You Note," high school was a critical time in rediscovering my love of Disney.


Then there was the beauty of being able to go to Disneyland as a choir member. Having not been in a few years, that was an amazingly magical trip. Although it was only a day, and a day interrupted by "having" to perform, it was a day of firsts. My first time on Space Mountain, my first time on Splash Mountain (complete with a two hour wait in line), the time I truly was able to really appreciate the details in rides like Pirates of the Caribbean, and my first...churro. Oh, crispy, yet soft tasty churro. How many we ate while waiting in that two hour Splash Mountain line, I'm not sure.
Between rediscovering movies like The Little Mermaid and going back to Disneyland that year, it really was like Disney was a long lost friend, but somehow I was truly meeting them for the first time.

In many ways, every trip back to Disneyland and many of the movies I see are like seeing those old friends for the first time yet again. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Horbigast]

Great article ShrunkenNed!

I went through something very similar during adolescence, figuring I had "outgrown" Disney movies, especially after the Little Mermaid. I was at that age when a movie about a teenage mermaid and her love for a prince was too "girly" for me. And yet, something kept me watching it again. We had it on VHS and I secretly started watching it after school before anyone else was home. Whether it was the delightful cast of characters, the wonderful animation, or (more likely), Jodi Benson's sublime voice, TLM inspired emotions in me that I couldn't fully comprehend as a teenager. It led me to ride the wave of the Disney Renaissance of the 90s, and I rushed to every animated feature that came out in that decade.

But that would soon not be anough for me. As I started seriously looking at a career as an animator, I went back and rediscovered all the Disney films and media I had grown up on. In turn, I became nostalgic for my childhood earlier than I think I would have organically. I was raised on the 70s Disney animation, so the likes of Robin Hood, the Jungle Book, and the Rescuers brought back chilhood memories that I had forgotten. I daresay that this nostalgia has led to a stronger relationship with my parents as an adult, since revisiting my childhood made me value their presence in my life. I shudder to think of all the wonderful times we've had as peers over the past ten years or so that I might have missed if I hadn't come to appreciate my childhood so early.

The years have passed, and that connection of Disney to my childhood has only strengthened. Not just that, but it has been reinforced, grown and blossomed with memories of my twenties and thirties spent revisiting the old and discovering the new magic that Disney has provided, and with the people with whom I've shared those experiences. Whether it's the parks or the films, Disney is woven into the fabric of my life, much like the friendships we make as we travel along the paths of life. And to know that those friends are still out there and can be visited when we most need them is one of the most compelling parts of the Disney experience.

[Executioner]

As much as I wanted to fit in or be cool with any crowd during my teens and such, it never was to be nor ever came about and I knew that. So I never left my affinity for Disney or cartoons and even my way of life behind to move in a different direction with the herd. I would race home from school just to watch the Disney Afternoon on TV then do or not do homework LOL. Albeit I never professed my Disney addiction to people at school, my close friends knew. I saw TLM in Jr. High at the theater with my mom and little brother. I remember not wanting to be seen going in to it but thoroughly enjoyed the movie and it was something my mom really enjoyed. She is the reason I am a big Disneyphile. She made sure we would go to the parks as a family nearly 7 times a year and if we couldn't, we would make it for Christmas time the day before school break. I knew my dad hated spending the money and secretly loathed doing it, but he had fun riding the rides. Sometime in elementary school I found out I shared Walt's birthday. That sealed the coffin (while burying me in it) of my Disney addiction early on LOL.
Thanks Craig for sharing these stories. I don't get online very much lately. Awesome stuff as always!

[Disneyland_DHI]

I guess, in some weird way, I "rediscovered" my love for Disney. Like any child, my parents used to play the VHS tapes for me and everything, but I have such vague memory of it. I was definitely not a Disneyphile, but I'd watch new Disney movies when they came out and I probably had a few Mickey Mouse T-shirts and whatnot.

It wasn't until the summer of first grade to second grade for me when my cousins were all going to spend a day in a theme park, and my family wasn't. Some of them were at Knott's Berry Farm, and the others had planned a Disney trip for weeks. So my mom saw how sad I was and called her brother, who was taking my cousins to Disneyland that day, and asked if they would like to meet us at the park. And safe to say, it all went downhill (or uphill) from there. Stepping into the park, I fell in love almost instantly. Right as my cousins, my sister, my mom, my uncle, and I stepped into the park, the first thing we saw was some sort of rolling stage show that traveled the parade route. It had a bunch of Disney characters, a few human hosts, and they were dancing to Disney songs. I don't quite remember the name of this show, and I'm not sure if it's on Yesterland. Somehow by the end of the trip, my uncle convinced my mom to get Annual Passes.

And whenever I look back on what I've done because of Disney... It's incredible. Yes, I go and have fun and ride rides and watch movies because they're Disney. But when I share the magic with someone who has never been to the parks or is watching the movies for the first time, it increases the magic by so much. I can't imagine what my life would be like if I followed society into thinking Disney wasn't "cool." Who needs "cool" when you have magic?

Yes, the vision all started with a mouse... But my large Disney collection, my (long-expired) D23 Membership, and my seemingly never-ending childlike imagination? It all started with one trip, and I will never lose sight of that.