ISSUE 14 MARCH 2009
ONCE UPON A STAGE
A Tales from the Laughing Place Exclusive: Coverage of the one night only BBC Radio 2 “The Music of Disney” concert featuring rehearsal photography and interviews with performers including Heather Headley, Kerry Butler and Ashley Brown.
MAKING A SONG & DANCE OUT OF IT
A look behind the scenes of the Disney Cruise Line show Toy Story - The Musical with show producer Matt Almos.
RE-MADE IN JAPAN
An extensive and rarely told story about the development of Tokyo Disneyland by Imagineers who “cut their teeth” on the first international Disney park featuring unseen art from the Imagineering archives. The article also focuses on the future direction of the Tokyo Disney Resort with the Creative Lead for Imagineeering, Joe Lanzisero.
TALES FROM THE LAUGHING PLACE
WHY? BECAUSE WE LIKE YOU! A Mickey & Me story FELIXCIOUS CLAY WANTS TO BE A ROCK STAR & OTHER WHATNOT STORIES The development of the Muppet Whatnot Workshop in New York ONCE UPON A STAGE Exclusive coverage of BBC Radio 2’s Music of Disney Concert MAKING A SONG & DANCE OUT OF IT Toy Story - The Musical on the Disney Cruise Line RE-MADE IN JAPAN The story of Tokyo Disneyland told by Imagineers who built and opened the park “THE FIRST STAR I SEE TONIGHT...” - The American Idol Experience World Premiere event at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
the tales of Issue 14:
“Tokyo Disneyland is an incredibly successful Disney theme park with hundreds of millions of guests passing through its turnstiles over the past twenty six years but the majority of Tales readers will never visit this international outpost,” Tales publisher Lee MacDonald notes. “We hope that we are able to bring a small piece of this incredible theme park to our readers and explain the uniqueness of this theme park that looks superficially similar to Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom but has a different execution targeted specifically at the local guests. We are delighted that we have once again partnered with our friends at Walt Disney Imagineering to share some of the extraordinary stories and images from the development of Tokyo Disneyland between 1977 and 1983. Much of the artwork is exclusive to Tales and continues our long-standing tradition of presenting rare and never-before-seen artwork to our readers.”
Despite the Tokyo Disneyland story dominating this issue - Mickey Mouse claims his first Tales cover (though with a TDL connection!) in a personal story about enduring popularity. Other stories feature World Exclusive coverage of The Music of Disney Concert held in London, the story of Toy Story - The Musical and the Muppets taking New York with the Whatnot Workshop.
Craig Russell,
Executive Vice-President, Chief Design
and Project Delivery Executive
- Walt Disney Imagineering
WHY? BECAUSE WE LIKE YOU!
A Mickey & Me Story
“We were sent over there with the message that only we would defend Disney quality... We learnt quickly that the Japanese culture speaks to a level of quality that is hard to comprehend. They were all unbelievably skilled and willing to do the right thing. They had no idea what a theme park was from the outset but when we told them to do it differently they just marched along and did it.”
