#defunct coasters

[hyper-coasters]

A beautiful day bringing out some of the best of a beautiful coaster. I had no idea back in December that Scorpion would close only 9 months later. Any guesses, or ideas, or hopes for whats coming next?

[tacoma-narrows]

Currently 1am and feeling sad abt wanting to get back on some coasters I haven't ridden in a rlly long time but can't bc they're now defunct </3

Shown here are some of my defunct credits - High Speed Thrill Coaster at Knoebels, closed in 2008 [image credit] - Volcano: The Blast Coaster at Kings Dominion, closed in 2019 [my photo] - Vortex at Kings Island, closed in 2019 [my photo] - Thunder Road at Carowinds, closed in 2015 [image credit]coaster

[amusementarchive]

Hard Rock Park was a $250 million, highly-licensed theme park located in Myrtle Beach, SC that opened in 2007. Notable rides included the B&M looper Led Zeppelin: The Ride and Nights in White Satin, a Sally dark ride themed to the Moody Blues song of the same name. Due mostly to the Great Recession, the park was an abysmal failure and consequentially lost the Hard Rock name and music licenses. The park reopened in 2008 as Freestyle Music Park, which bombed even harder and proved to be massively unpopular among parkgoers. The park went entirely defunct in 2009 and was abandoned. The rides were sold off or destroyed.

The facade of Nights in White Satin. There is a video on YouTube that shows the entire ride and it's worth a watch. This ride was considered to be one of the greatest dark rides ever made. When the park was returned and lost the music licenses, the ride was changed to the Monstars of Rock, which is considered to be one of the worst dark rides ever made.

The impressive station for Led Zeppelin: the Ride. For five years, the massive structure stood standing but not operating along the roadside. The coaster was sold to a Vietnamese park in 2014 where it still operates to this day.

[thelegendofmrrager]

Ngl I forgor you could just read about theme park accidents... so guess what I'm doing now 😎

That was like, top ten past times as a kid once I found out wikipedia existed. The world is your oyster.

[abraxo-official]

Companion rambles: could they operate a vehicle + other random assortment of headcannons

Curie:

Knows every single part of a car. Knows every driving safety rule. Do not let her near a vehicle. Her driving style is mad-max levels of fear. She will giggle and comment about how much fun she’s having, and how she wishes she did this sooner. Danger level: 9/10. You won’t die but you’ll never look at a corvega the same.

Cait:

In trying to hotwire it, will either blow it up or will turn it on for just enough time that the alarm goes off. If she did find a functioning one, it would probably end up in a ditch. Danger level: 7/10

Deacon:

He can drive, but in the same way that a elderly person would: you don’t know if he should be behind the wheel, but goddamn it if he’s not going to Tokyo drift into the last parking spot in front of the super-duper mart. Danger level: 5/10

Danse:

Why concern himself with pre-war ruins that aren’t even technologically interesting? He *technically* can fly vertibirds, but also…heights get to him sometimes. If he did have a car, he would dive super safe and basically act like a midwestern dad. Do NOT try and merge without signaling in front of him. Danger level: 2/10

Mac:

Really good at taking cars apart. Only knows about driving from comics. TBH I think he would be the type to only learn how to ride a bike at 10+ years old. He can’t even start the car. Danger level: 0/10

Hancock:

Would try to drive but would get either lost or just confused after about a half hour. Would probably try to add a bunch of stuff on top, like a missile launcher or a turret. It would be so decked out that it wouldn’t even be functional anymore. Would take joy in doing demolition derbies with Mac. Danger level: 3/10

Piper:

She knows how a car works, but like, only from reading 4 pages of a really old manual when she was board. She claims to defunct know how they work, but has no idea what to do when she lifts the hood. Either causes an explosion or ends up breaking at least one part. Never gets it moving. 6/10

Gage:

He can probably figure it out after about a day or two of trying to compare it to a coaster. When he does start it, I think he would actually hate driving. He’s the sole one in control, with his foot on the gas the whole time, and there is no way in hell he is ready for that. Would probably make up some excuse about how raiders don’t need to use cars to make their points. 2/10

Preston:

The safest driver in the world at first, but then he starts going after bigger things. Trucks would help with transporting supplies to settlements, he argues. If we had a garrison of tanks, imagine how many people we could protect, etc. He’s not wrong, and not bad at driving, but he really needs to stop adopting every bubble-top he comes across. 3/10

Nick:

Can drive. Will drive. Then will have to confront the reality of his muscle memory being from a person he never really was. He’ll still take a spin now and then, especially if going long distances, but he prefers to walk. It’s more….him. 1/10

Longfellow:

Cars, no. Boats? Hell yeah. He’s taught just about every sailor far harbor has. But try to get him to drive on land and he will straight out refuse. It’s not who he is. 0/10

Strong:

No. Car for throwing. Inside small, only for weak human. No need metal shell to go fast. 0/10

Dogmeat:

Sticks his head out the window. Can honk the horn. 0/10

Codsworth:

Listen, somewhere in his programming is knowing how to drive a car. Also how to assemble one from 4 cans and a high powered magnet. Can drive it either completely normal and safe or in a way that would make vin diesel scared. 7/10

X6:

Danger level: 10/10. He would succeed in the way Hancock could not. He turns it into a weapon. Stuff of nightmares. Avoid at all costs.

[eskiworks]

How did you end up becoming a freelance illustrator? How do you make a living? When did you feel your art was good enough to go into it full time? I want to be an artist so much but struggle so much making any money ever from it.

I hit the road running when I graduated from art school in the 2009 because there weren't really any other jobs available in the middle of that recession. I was SUPER lucky that I built an online presence since I was 15, on early deviantart and older now defunct furry galleries like VCL and Yerf. The audience was smaller, and there were fewer artists so it was easier to stand out and build connections. Since then it's been a huge financial roller coaster, a real feast or famine sort of lifestyle. I will not lie, it has not been easy for me and my household. Because I've been freelancing for so long my resume does not look good for non-art jobs, which has been a hindrance in getting part time work that would make things financially easier. Your survival is more important than anything. You can't make art if you can't feed yourself. I hate hate HATE giving this sort of advice because it can seem like I'm telling you to give up art (I'm not, I promise), but the best thing I can tell you is to put your survival first. If you aren't making any money from art right now, find work that pays your bills so that you can ease that burden. You are still an artist! You don't have to wait till you're "good" or put it off while working a non-art job. The best thing you can do past that is be part of your chosen art community! Talk to other artists about their work, share tips and critique, do art get-togethers and events, make friends and work to prop others up. In the art community, what goes around comes around. It's how we all get by. And lastly, please remember that art is supposed to be FUN. Don't let yourself get bogged down in social media numbers or other measurements of success. Make things because you like to make things. Enjoying it is such a big part of making it last!

[dapper-nahrwhale]

GUESS WHO HAS POLLS NOW >:))))) and just remembered this idea! And I believe this would be a more fun poll than a con artist bracket. Simply because that would be stressful and this would not be.

if I had polls I would ABSOLUTELY do a most cringe fail defunct rollercoasters bracket. You know I would. I want to but. :( I'm never getting polls at this fucking point. I cant even update my app :(((

[replicantgrl]

Pictures (propaganda) under the cut:

Nemesis Reborn

Gatekeeper

Iron Gwazi

Saw: The Ride

Expedition Everest

Griffon

Dueling Dragons (RIP)

Eejanaika

The Smiler

[secretmellowblog]

Okay, here are some random panels I’m personally looking forward to at the online Les mis convention Barricadescon starting tomorrow!! (note that this off the top of my head, and they’re in no particular order, and that I am excited for all of em.)

(Also note that it’s the last day to register, which you can do on their site here. You can also see the full program of all the panels/their descriptions here.)

1. I’ll say any of the Guests of Honor (Jean Baptiste Hugo, the descendant of Hugo will be talking about his project photographing his ancestor’s house; Christina Soontornvat, author of the award-winning Les Mis retelling “A Wish in the Dark;” and Luciano Muriel, playwright of a 2018 play about Grantaire.)

2. @psalm22-6 ‘s panel “Early Transformative Works,” which is about the earliest Les Mis retellings, parodies, and “fanfics” from the 1800s/early 20th century. They’ve shared deeply cursed sneak peeks with me. Apparently in 1863 a man wrote a “proper Christian” retelling of Les Mis where Javert is reimagined as a proper Christian woman following poor criminals around giving them charity while they keep rejecting her kindness. Powerful. Javert as Mary Sue. (Note that I may be explaining poorly because I haven’t seen the panel yet.

3. History podcaster David Montgomery’s panel “The Yellow Passport: Surveillance and Control in 19th Century France,” which dives into the role of the police and strategies of government surveillance at the time Les Mis is set!

4. My own panel “Why Is There a Roller Coaster in Les Mis,” which I shared the first five minutes of here. There’s an actual scene in Les Mis where Fantine rides a roller coaster so I made a full defunctland video on how that roller coaster got to Paris in 1817, the fascinating historical context behind early roller coasters, and why it became defunct.

5. @thecandlesticksfromlesmis ‘s panel “Beat for Beat,” analyzing the script of Les Mis 2012 and contrasting it with the book and musical. Discussion of 2012 is almost overwhelmingly always about its music or cinematography, and I’m fascinated to hear someone finally analyzing the screenplay/ structural changes.

6. Morbidly curious for “Lee’s Miserables,” the academic panel discussing the paradoxical popularity of a censored version Les Mis in the Confederate South (with all the references to the evils of slavery carefully removed of course)

7. “Barricades as a Tactic,” a panel discussing how barricades actually functioned as a tool of warfare historically and the echoes of them in the modern day.

8. All the little social meetups, including the Preliminary Gaieties drinking game!

9. I’m biased because I’m also helping present this one, but the @lesmisletters panel (on the Dracula-daily inspired Les Mis readalong happening now.)

10. “The Fallibility of History in Les Miserables,” by @syrupsyche. It’s a panel analyzing the way Hugo often treats Les mis as a story that he learned about through research/gossip, rather than a fictional narrative— analyzing where Hugo does that in the text and what it means thematically.

11. The Unknown Light Examined, by Madeleine— a panel analyzing the chapter where the Bishop confronts the elderly revolutionary, and is forced to re examine his political beliefs! An iconic chapter, and the abstract is very compelling.

But also a lot more, check out the exhaustive list here XD. And also register at this link!

[retrowave-racer]

Woooo more coaster critters! Still have a backlog to post and some suggestions on instagram for more designs, but needed a bit of a break from them! I hope to start up again soon, I also plan to do some clean digital art of some of these soon! This line up of coaster critters are based off of…

Sonic Spinball/Spinball Whizzer at Alton Towers

Thunderlooper (Defunct) Alton Towers

Hex Alton Towers (technically not a coaster but a flat ride friend!)

Voltron Nevera Europa Park

F.L.Y Phantasialand

Fireworks, the Gardens, and Skyride at Towers (again not coasters but fight me!)

And last two designs are both Colossus at Thorpe Park

[hyper-coasters]

Trainless Saturday.... Glad to see it was still up during my visit. Truly going to miss this ride. :(

[tacoma-narrows]

Thinking abt Daidarasaurus that used to be at Expoland in Japan. Apparently it was an absolutely ridiculous 7,677.2 ft (2340 m) long, making it the second longest non-alpine coaster ever built behind Steel Dragon 2000, and closed with the park in 2007. Also thinking abt how cool Daidarasaurus would be as a character name

[unholyverse]

waterparks // alternative press issue #341

(full article text under cut)

WATERPARKS

THESE POP-PUNK UPSTARTS HAVE CATCHY SONGS, AN ENDORSEMENT FROM THE MADDENS AND AN UNIRONIC LOVE FOR HAIR DYE AND FUNKY-COLORED JELL-O. THEY ALSO HAVE A LOT TO PROVE-AND THEY'RE READY TO GET TO WORK.

STORY: EVAN LUCY x PHOTOS: JONATHAN WEINER

Awsten Knight knows what you're thinking: This time last year, his band, Waterparks, were veritable nobodies. You'd probably not heard their two EPs (2012's Airplane Conversations and 2014's Black Light), and the band's SEO was likely so suspect, there's no way a Google search would place the Houston-based trio above their hometown Wet 'n' Wild.

What a difference a trip around the sun. makes. Since late last year, the group scored a record deal with Equal Vision, picked up Good Charlotte's Benji and Joel Madden as their managers, performed at the 2016 APMAS and even graced the cover of AP's Warped Tour issue-all before releasing their first album. Along the way, they've cultivated a passionate (and ever-growing) fanbase, thanks to an irreverent sense of humor, insatiable work ethic and saccharine-sweet pop-rock sound. But as their star has grown, so have the rumors and confusion about just how they ended up on a collision course with success.

"I saw somebody online say, 'Isn't this that industry-plant band? Like we were made by a label or something." Knight remarks from Los Angeles, where he and his bandmates are putting the finishing touches on bonus tracks for their debut full-length, Double Dare, and filming a video for the album's first single, "Stupid For You." "People are always like, "Where'd this band come from? This band blew up overnight! That's really not the case."

Indeed, it's been a grind for Waterparks, who formed back in 2011 and, after years of hustle and hard work, got signed last year after a demo serendipitously ended up in Equal Vision's online submission box. Even today, as Waterparks—Knight, guitarist/vocalist Geoff Wigington and drummer Otto Wood-seem to have an indefinite amount of momentum and a limitless future, there's always some humbling experience to remind them the big time is still a few steps away. Look no further than their method of transportation for this summer's Warped Tour: a modified Sprinter van handily equipped with sleeping quarters- but no air conditioning.

"The van didn't have A/C until we got to the North, Knight remembers. "We did Texas and Florida, the whole South, with no A/C. People thought we were in a bus. It'd be like, 'Oh yeah, when you guys go back to your bus…" He laughs. "How can you be egotistical when you're sitting there in a sweaty van going, 'Fucking kill me?'"

Lifestyles of the rich and famous it isn't, but that's fine with Waterparks. They're used to surprising people, whether it's with their origin story or their music. A testament to both their artistic vision and desire not to be pigeonholed as just another pop-punk band, Double Dare sounds like an album made by three men raised in iPod shuffle culture. The album opener "Hawaii (Stay Awake)" skews toward more standard pop-punk fare (a sound that definitely provides a backbone for the 12 tracks that follow), but the band are quick to add bits of pop, electronica and (surprisingly) hip- hop to the melting pot, leaving Double Dare feeling instantly reminiscent, yet wildly unpredictable. There's the unabashed pop charm of "Take Her To The Moon," a DeLorean ride back to the scene's neon days that's awash in glassy synths; the biting "Little Violence," which takes aim at "fake-ass band guys," along with the now-defunct site AbsolutePunk; "Stupid For You," a roller coaster of vocal runs mixed with razor-sharp hooks; and the jittery "Dizzy," which combines mile-a-minute rapped verses with a towering half-time chorus.

Knight, a textbook over-writer, wrote and demoed more than 40 songs for the album, which the group whittled down to the 17 or so they actually tracked in Los Angeles with producers Courtney Ballard and Benji Madden. What makes Double Dare such an engaging listen is not just the songwriting, but the way Waterparks dress it up. Throughout the album, Knight's voice serves almost as a third guitar, cutting in and out and swirling around the mix to give things added depth and a secret sonic weapon their peers lack.

"Listen to Kesha," Knight implores. "People have heard a lead guitar a billion times-no one gives a shit about a sick guitar lead. What's going to sound sonically cooler to the average human: a lead guitar- which people have been hearing for the longest time- or the literally unlimited sounds I can cut my voice up into and make it [serve the same purpose]? It just sounds cooler."

As a teenager, Knight studied raps by the likes of Busta Rhymes and Ludacris (he even performed a cover of Fergie's "Fergalicious" at an early show), and he thinks it would be "sweet" to be in a boy band. "You have to stand out, otherwise there's nothing interesting about what you're doing," he explains. "We've always tried to do different shit. A lot of our songs are a pop-driven thing, but it's a band. Girl-pop, to me, is the best genre [in music]. Even if you don't speak English and you hear a Kesha song or a Katy Perry song, it's going to sound so good. The melody is everything: It sounds so happy. Put those songs next to whatever progressive metal band and their fucking guitar sweeps. That's the difference between being a band people like and being a musician's band. [Adopts nerdy voice] 'Oh, that time signature change, blah blah! No one gives a shit except nerdy dudes, and nerdy dudes aren't going to buy your record, anyway. I want to make shit my little sister and her friends would be into."

If Knight is that unabashedly honest about his musical intentions, the words he writes take it a step further. At its core, Double Dare is the antithesis to the public image Waterparks have cultivated over the years. From their irreverent music videos to any number of off- the-rails interviews (including some from this summer's Warped Tour where Knight donned a wedding veil), the band's public persona is that of perpetual Peter Pans. While that might be true (Knight frequently drops words like "butthurt" in conversation), the open-book nature of his lyrics here reveals life isn't all fun and feces jokes.

As such, the songs on Double Dare read like pages ripped from a personal journal. Whether he's dealing with crippling insecurity ("I wish I was as brave as my last name"), self-doubt ("And I'm doing all right/ But is 'all right' enough?/Because I'm living my dreams, but I live at home") or true love ("If you died, I'd hope you'd haunt me"), Knight's words are blunt, painstakingly detailed and instantly relatable. He might project as a court jester, but he's deadly serious about his art.

"There's a time when Awsten can be serious, and that's when he's talking about his music, Benji Madden offers. "In order to sell records or magazines, people feel like they have to be sensational or play a funny game. If you talk to Awsten about anything other than music, you'll get totally jokey, bullshit answers-which I love. But if you talk to him about music, he's a really smart, intentional, thoughtful guy."

"Being honest about it is the best way to go about it," Knight says of his songs. "I've never liked the vague lyrics, like, [jokingly sings] "I've gotta find my way. I've gotta get out of this place! All my favorite lyricists are killer with metaphors or are able to uniquely describe things. I like getting into things and being specific." He references the acoustic ballad "21 Questions," easily one of the album's highlights, but a song slated for the cutting-room floor until Madden stepped in. ("I feel like that song could be one of those scene classics," the Good Charlotte guitarist offers.) It's hard to imagine the album without it.

Outside of being a steady hand in the studio, the Maddens are the perfect mentors for Knight, Wigington and Wood. After all, it was 15 years ago that Good Charlotte went through everything Waterparks are currently navigating, claims of being a test-tube band and all. They've learned everything is cyclical, and they're passing on the lessons they learned to the bands they manage.

"They're so wise," Wigington explains in a separate interview. "You shut up and listen. They've told us, 'Hey, things are going to start getting weird. There will be things you haven't been used to, especially if you're out on the road! But they've told us to look out for each other and have each other's back and helped instill a sense of camaraderie so we can deal with whatever weird shit comes our way."

If their current career trajectory continues, things will be getting weirder and weirder in the Waterparks camp soon. The band have secured the opening spot on Sleeping With Sirens' fall tour, and they're already making plans well into 2017. With a new album ready and the furthest reaches of the scene at their fingertips, it seems like there's really no limit to how big this thing can get. It's already surpassed their wildest dreams in the past year; imagine what one more could bring. Not that it would change their demeanor, of course.

"I'd like to be able to live comfortably to the point where I could ride a bike into a swimming pool filled with Jell-O and have it not be a big deal," Knight says unflinchingly, when asked what success would look like for him. "I was thinking blue or purple because I like cooler colors. Red seems messy. Not yellow or orange, because I don't like those flavors as much. I used to be allergic to blue dye when I was younger, so I'd probably pick that just so I could be like, 'Fuck you." alt

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

I want to expand a bit on my previous post on SHUT DOWN VOLUME 2 and WOODY WOODPECKER IN CRAZY CASTLE 5...

The CRAZY CASTLE game series, as noted in the post, has a history with WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT...

WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT almost got a follow-up movie, multiple times. It's bizarre to think that one of the blockbusters of the 1980s, and a film that helped restore Disney's magic in a time where they needed some, didn't ever get a sequel and likely won't ever get one. (Probably for the better right now, for the Disney company as it is would likely blow it.)

The original WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT was released by Walt Disney Pictures through their more adult-oriented Touchstone label in 1988, at the behest of Roy E. Disney and Michael Eisner, who felt the film was a bit too "risque" to be a Disney-branded picture.

The film started out as a Walt Disney Productions endeavor in 1981 after the enterprise got the rights to the original book by Gary K. Wolf, with animation direction to be done then-relatively new animator on the block, Darrell Van Citters, who had previously worked on THE FOX AND THE HOUND. This early version of the movie took a much more stylized, Tex Avery approach, with a Roger who looked like he could've stepped in from one of the legendary director's many cartoons:

That version was put on ice after Disney executive Thomas Wilhite, who wanted to shake things up in the dormant Disney domain by greenlighting more ambitious projects (such as TRON, which he gave the go-head in his first year in that position), left the studio by the middle of 1983.

Upon Michael Eisner's arrival to the enterprise, there was renewed interest in WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, and they got Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis on board. A huge freakin' deal for the Disney ship, who had previously passed on BACK ON THE FUTURE and an alien invasion movie Spielberg had pitched to them around 1979, that would later morph into E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL.

The thing was, Spielberg didn't feel that Walt Disney Feature Animation - as they were at the time, circa 1985 - were up to the task of creating the film's animation. Interestingly, the last time the animation wing had done any major hybrid live-action/animation work was PETE'S DRAGON, released in 1977... But this film needed to be unlike what had come before in the realm of hybrids, and Spielberg was far more impressed with what he saw of Richard Williams' resume... Thus, Richard Williams Animation Ltd. in London was assigned the film's animation, with some help from the Dale Baer studio on U.S. soil.

So, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT is not a Walt Disney Feature Animation picture, but it is a Disney movie under a different label with plenty of animation in it, including several Disney animated characters - from the Mickey Mouse gang to characters from feature films, like Dumbo - making cameo appearances. Many Disney animators worked on it, too, such as Eric Goldberg and Andreas Deja...

Disney Feature Animation took on the first short film made in the aftermath of the movie's runaway success, 1989's TUMMY TROUBLE. Richard Williams was not going to be back for more Roger Rabbit, he entered a deal with Warner Bros. to finish THE THIEF AND THE COBBLER, which sadly did not happen... And by 1989, the studio was more than fit to make a Roger Rabbit follow-up, as TUMMY TROUBLE would prove.

May 1, 1989, over a month before TUMMY TROUBLE screened in theaters with HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS, Disney opened the Disney-MGM Studios theme park outside of Orlando, Florida. And nestled in that park was the defunct Florida unit of Disney Feature Animation. The folks there were the ones tasked to make this sure-to-happen movie event. They were primed for it, they were handed the second short film starring Roger, Jessica Rabbit, Baby Herman, and Mrs. Herman, ROLLER COASTER RABBIT... As you could imagine, there were larger theme park plans for the characters as well, hence the new animated stuff being made within a literal theme park and the second short involving amusement rides!

But many things kept waylaying the prequel, which - after lots of development and changes - would've been titled WHO DISCOVERED ROGER RABBIT... Which meant that Disney Animation Florida had to find other things to work on, as the relationship between co-owner Spielberg and Disney was on shaky grounds, putting Roger Rabbit's future in limbo. Namely helping on the Burbank features, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and THE LION KING for example. They eventually got one more short, TRAIL MIX-UP, released in 1993.

Suppose we got WHO DISCOVERED ROGER RABBIT, or the scrapped live-action/CG hybrid film that was being planned around 1998, which Florida was also supposed to do... Let's go with the movie that was targeting a 1992-ish release, to make things easier.

WHO DISCOVERED ROGER RABBIT would've been a full-on Walt Disney Feature Animation movie, and would've been the first one - animation-wise - made entirely in Florida. MULAN ended up being WDFA-Florida's first in-house production, released in 1998. Rob Minkoff would've been the director for both the animation and the live-action on WHO DISCOVERED ROGER RABBIT, and in this timeline, I suppose THE LION KING still happens but it's with another director in place of Minkoff. That's a fun scenario to ponder, because Minkoff didn't direct LION KING alone, for he was paired with Roger Allers on that movie. In this alternate timeline, maybe LION KING is from Allers and someone else. Maybe former director George Scribner stays on the movie and works with Allers, who knows...

True, there would've been the live-action portions in this ROGER RABBIT prequel and it probably would've been an Amblin movie as well... But, would Disney have counted it as part of the "Disney Animated Features Canon"? Would this have been - had it debuted in mid-1992 - Feature #31 between BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and ALADDIN? A sequel to a movie WDFA had such little involvement with?

Hell, would this have been a Touchstone release? Or would Disney have eased up a little bit and made it a mainline Walt Disney Pictures release? Now that the characters were to have much more of a presence in the Disney theme parks? Complete with a Walt Disney Home Video clamshell VHS release as part of The Classics line? I think a Touchstone movie that's all animated by WDFA would've been unusual, to say the least!

It also would've been WDFA's first real hybrid, in a way. SONG OF THE SOUTH, SO DEAR TO MY HEART, MARY POPPINS, BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS, and PETE'S DRAGON are not really WDFA movies, but they have Disney animation in them, this would've been more of a half-and-half thing than those movies, but still not as all-animated as the 1940s package features that have a significant amount of live-action in them, like THE THREE CABALLEROS and FUN & FANCY FREE.

This makes it possible that the movie is not billed as a WDFA movie whatsoever, even if it all the animation in it would've been done by them. It'd probably be seen as a live-action movie, with lots of stuff provided by WDFA.

Definitely a bit of a conundrum if you think about it!

Then again, look at Amblimation, to tie this to Spielberg once more. Amblimation's first feature was AN AMERICAN TAIL II: FIEVEL GOES WEST. Don Bluth and his studio, the originators of AN AMERICAN TAIL, had no involvement in FIEVEL GOES WEST. The only major link is Spielberg.

MGM/United Artists went ahead with a sequel to ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN, without Don Bluth and his studio being involved. ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN 2 was produced by the very short-lived MGM Animation, most of the actual animation work being outsourced at that.

You also have the Disney animated sequels that went direct-to-video, made by Disney MovieToons/Disneytoon Studios, and had little to no involvement from Walt Disney Feature Animation, but sometimes they involved people from the original movies, such as Roger Allers having some say on THE LION KING 1 1/2 (or THE LION KING 3: HAKUNA MATATA, if you don't live in the U.S.). Sometimes, most of the original casts, even. Almost everyone was back for LION KING II: SIMBA'S PRIDE.

Disney would also use DisneyToon to make TINKER BELL movies, adjacent to the classic PETER PAN, and also spin-offs of Pixar's CARS in the form of the PLANES movies, and they had big plans for this extended CARS-verse. Lots of scrapped movies that would've involved spacecraft, boats, metro trains, etc. Disneytoon Studios was shut down in mid-2018 following the exit of John Lasseter.

The list goes on, even into today, such as the upcoming ICE AGE 6, which is the first theatrical movie in the series to be distributed by Disney, and the first to not be a Blue Sky production... Since Disney shut that studio down after acquiring 20th Century Fox and them, and I keep thinking how unusual - and sad- it's going to be to see an all-new ICE AGE movie in theaters without the Blue Sky logo, because that places does not exist anymore. And top that off, ICE AGE began life as a Don Bluth/Gary Goldman-directed Fox Animation Studios film in the late '90s...

Sometimes these things are like nomads, going from one studio to the next, sometimes having completely different filmmakers involved...