Monterey Bay Aquarium
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JBB: An Artblog!
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@theartofmadeline
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Mike Driver
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Cosmic Funnies
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祝日 / Permanent Vacation
noise dept.
hello vonnie
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Sade Olutola
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Not today Justin
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todays bird
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@laffiteslanding
Honestly there’s something I find kinda melancholy about certain theme parks - they’re just so full of beauty and optimism and like the good parts of humanity and then you look at the rest of the world and it hits that there’s no reason the whole world shouldn’t be like that.
Thanks for the Tower/SEA info! Do you happen to have pictures of the SEA easter eggs in the Hollywood Tower Hotel? Also yeah you're right about the mummy being the most egregious, other SEA members went plundering too but this dude was stealing whole entire people
The most recent, actually-confirmed-by-CMs, actually-in-the-ride reference is this monkey by the photo counter in Florida. It's supposed to be the Mystic Manor monkey, and was added in 2024 (after my most recent visit in 2023), so the photo is by @chunkecheeks
As for other SEA references,
This now-removed newspaper prop contains what I'm fairly certain is a canceled SEA character, Pete Corrigan, manager of the Hollywood Tower. The article muddies the waters on what version of the Hollywood Tower is canon, as the photo shows DCA (and this newspaper was in California Adventure) but the detail about mahjong at the hotel is Florida-exclusive. It also gets other points of lore, like the hotel's opening date, wrong. The transcript of the article (since the photo isn't the easiest to read) is in my post here: https://a-land-of-shadow-and-substance.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-tower-and-buena-vista-street-hidden.html This newspaper was in place until 2018, when I took these pictures. It disappeared about two weeks later.
Then, there's this photo from Shanghai Disneyland (which I haven't personally been to), taken by @laffiteslanding
The main headline and photo clearly shows/references the Temple of the Crystal Skull from DisneySea, although it oddly calls the group the League of Adventurers/LoA rather than the Society of Explorers and Adventurers/SEA. HOWEVER, as can be seen at the left, it has an article about the Hollywood Tower Hotel incident! So Hollywood Tower = same universe as Temple of the Crystal Skull, which is in-ride observably in the same universe as Hotel Hightower! Also interesting is, based on what's readable of the Hollywood Tower article, we have another new set of Tower OCs in play: the elite Herman family, who seem to be the Elevator Five, completely overriding the TV movie names and relationships for those characters as well.
And while we're on the subject of SEA... are there any confirmed Pirates of the Caribbean characters in there? Another pet theory of mine, ever since Curse of the Black Pearl, is that the Pirates movies take place in the same universe as Indiana Jones.
I don't think any Pirates characters are directly involved but it seems there are some artifacts from the movies among Mary Oceaneer's collections on the various Disney cruise ships! I couldn't find any photos because the kids who go into the Oceaneer Club would rather play in the Toy Story area than catalog theme park lore for some weird reason.
Interesting that Pirates isn't directly connected, since Disney Parks' earlier attempt at a mega-theme was going to be the Pirates-Mansion connected universe, and Pirates is sort of their pride and joy both in terms of rides and film franchises. Also of *course* they hide lore in the kid's area lol. Surprised a lore enthusiast hasn't sent their kid in asking them to report back 😆
Oddly, the League of Adventurers is its own organization unique to Shanghai’s Adventure Isle! I speculated on some narrative reasons for this in an article a few years back, which I’ll link if I can find it. But otherwise you’re spot on, and they seem to be contemporaries (and possibly rivals?) of SEA. Interestingly, Temple of Crystal Skull is directly referenced in both Adventure Isle and the Tokyo Tower itself, making this a very direct connection despite the lack of SEA mentions elsewhere in Adventure Isle. There was another bulletin board in the Challenge Trail queue where phones are banned that also directly ties Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion into the same lore. They’re all in the same wider SEA-verse, which means all Towers bar Guardians exist in the same lore.
Regarding pirates, the closest connection I can think of is that Mary Oceaneer has a talking parrot sidekick who may trace its lineage back to the Barker Bird or Rummy at the new Beak & Barrel Bar. There may be some pirates Easter eggs in Skipper Canteen as well, but nothing tying them directly to the society. Would be curious if there’s some missing evidence out there!
So I was doing random research on voodoo stuff when I came across Nkondi; mystical statuettes made by Kongo people from the Congo region that were created to hunt down and harm others with agressiveness, often giving them weapons and activating them with agressive acts such as banging them together or sealing the spell with nails hammered into them.
Sound like a certain Tower Of Terror antagonist?
Nkondi - Wikipedia
Oh wow, reading through the article--yep that's Shiriki Utundu all right! It's cool to know he's actually a surprisingly accurate depiction of a cultural art/belief/mythology. Even the description of how they're supposed to be holding a weapon! I admit I was kind of worried that he fell into the "foreign art is ~scary~" pulp novel horror tradition. Clearly someone on the team did their research! This is a really cool find!
So it occurred to me, if Universal Orlando wanted to do 1) a roller coaster that uses drifting vehicles to stimulate erratic driving 2) not theme that ride to Back to the Future or Ghostbusters but still make it unique to Florida and 3) pay tribute to Rip Ride Rockit by having a prominent music element...
THE BLUES BROTHERS ARE RIGHT THERE
Having rewatched the movie: these guys NEED a roller coaster already
I need this to happen now.
Countdown to Extinction, November 2013. (I won’t call it the other name, because it’s stupid.)
It’s early in the year for an update, but @chunkecheeks just sent me some really cool new developments at Florida Tower! First of all: DCA
California Adventure Tower Easter Eggs ARE BACK! Plus, there's some mysterious possible references I could use some help solving. Thanks to @chunkecheeks, here's an update on some really cool new additions to Florida Tower.
Finally fixed the typos, whoops
I was lucky enough to do a backstage tour of the Florida Tower last year. The guide mentioned that the porcelain note is something of an in-joke, as some porcelain they ordered as props was broken during the shipping process. Thus, the in-story explanation of the earthquake was invented and the note created for nosy guests who look for continuity errors. Nothing Twilight Zone-related, but still fun!
Also, I can’t believe I’ve never seen the Mystic Seer slip! Is that in the library somewhere? Really fascinating stuff in this post. Thanks to you and @chunkecheeks!
The Mystic Seer slip is on the desk in the right side library! That sounds like a really cool tour-- did they happen to mention anything about plants? Because the only other note besides the porcelain one where I couldn't figure out a reference/connection was about plants. Every other note on that stationery references an episode, even hidden ones inaccessible to guests on the lobby tables-- except the porcelain one and the plants one.
@chunkecheeks here's an answer about the porcelain!
I don’t recall them saying anything about the plants or the plant note, sadly.
Poképark Kanto, 2026-01-26
It’s early in the year for an update, but @chunkecheeks just sent me some really cool new developments at Florida Tower! First of all: DCA
California Adventure Tower Easter Eggs ARE BACK! Plus, there's some mysterious possible references I could use some help solving. Thanks to @chunkecheeks, here's an update on some really cool new additions to Florida Tower.
Finally fixed the typos, whoops
I was lucky enough to do a backstage tour of the Florida Tower last year. The guide mentioned that the porcelain note is something of an in-joke, as some porcelain they ordered as props was broken during the shipping process. Thus, the in-story explanation of the earthquake was invented and the note created for nosy guests who look for continuity errors. Nothing Twilight Zone-related, but still fun!
Also, I can’t believe I’ve never seen the Mystic Seer slip! Is that in the library somewhere? Really fascinating stuff in this post. Thanks to you and @chunkecheeks!
I love the fact that the Monsters Unchained gift shop exists diagetically because all of that merchandise is stuff Victoria personally had made to sell. And the fact that it sells so much merchandise with the monsters' faces on it means that she captured not only the monsters but also the licensing rights to their images. Just the thought of Dracula escaping and finding out that his captor was making thousands of dollars by selling Christmas ornaments and action figures of him.
The Frankenstein legal department must be WILD
Edit: also I'm now considering which other rides have diagetic gift shops, to the merch level.
Animal Kingdom has some good ones with Pandora and Everest. The latter especially delivers on the merch level.
Two versions of Tower of Terror have prominent dragon motifs, but only one provides an in-universe version for it.
Florida Tower, the original, has dragons on its unique crest, which find their way into curtain embroidery in the lobby and libraries. It looks super cool, and oddly was never repeated for any of the other Twilight Zone towers. Bizarrely even Florida's merch department forgot about the dragon crest for a while and kept using the Paris/California shield crest for even Florida specific merch.
DisneySea Tower, the last (depending on how/if you count Mission Breakout), has dragons in wallpaper, in architectural details, in furniture... and it's obviously symbolic of Harrison Hightower's greed, since dragons hoard wealth and treasure the same way he does.
I have no idea if this has any meaning, it's just odd that there is a sort of theme between the two.
I would argue the Hightower dragons are more a symbol of corruption than greed, as Japanese culture suggests dragons are often benevolent protectors (against disasters and misfortune on occasion), but ironically the dragons offer no protection to him due to his transgressions. While Hightower might view dragons as a symbol of power and wealth, there’s an additional irony in that this is a perversion of Japanese dragons guests may be familiar with, and as such read as Hightower’s corrupt influence spreading through the hotel.
I just rewatched the original Lilo and Stitch movie and honestly was not expecting to find out that Stitch has to be one of the biggest victims of a decade long flanderization.
I also forgot, and honestly I think most people, that stitch has so much character like he’s not just a ball of chaos, he's also very much a smart ass and makes jokes. And is angry and curious and a little bit of an asshole. You just don’t really get that in the live action or really most iterations of him. He’s reverted back to one.
Like Stitch in the movie is really smart. And he doesn’t just make noises as they will have you believe it’s actually pretty implied that he’s bilingual and was actively learning English (and not talking because Dog cover) and that’s why it was all stilted and kind of broken and unsure. He sounds much smoother and natural speaking in his alien language that Jumba understands. I don’t think the live action movie really got this.
And through out the movie he is not unstoppably causing chaos he’s just angry, confused, and curious and not gentle with things and so things just go wrong around him. The only thing he actively destroys out of a want to destroy is the mini San Fransisco he built and that was copying a movie scene he saw. Stitch destroys things because it’s how he knows to interact with the world around him by the end of the movie he does very little destruction and more just general goofing off (granted with a true lack of understanding on like property damage)
Hell Jumba goes good because he’s been observing Stitch and his struggles to become more than he was made to be. How stitch reacts in a situation where he can no longer perform his primary objective. Jumba pities him like a robot without a job but Stitch evolves to more than he was meant to be and it’s that evolution that flaw in his programming that allows Jumba to switch sides (even if it is played for laughs and never mind that despite his creations Jumba honestly was never even that bad a guy to begin with I mean obviously it’s a kids show but when Jumba lists Stitches objectives they are are inconveniences at best frustrating and mild property damage at worst)
But like the idea that like Stitch is actually just another burden that Nani would need to take care of is laughable when by the end of the movie it is explicitly shown him doing household chores. He makes their lunches escorts Lilo to the bus, bakes her birthday cake, does the laundry and does it well. Hell he practically even has a job. Never mind that Jumba and Pleakly are also there and also pitch in. Plus Cobra. Nani had so much support by the end of the movie that ofcourse she could continue to raise Lilo she wasn’t doing it alone.
The new ending just feels like the makers didn’t have faith in the original concept like they didn’t believe that anyone would believe that Lilo would be okay in the care of aliens we have to replace them with people or else it doesn’t make sense. It’s just weird like they didn’t trust the audience to garps that these silly little aliens are not in fact children that also need supervision but beings capable of taking care of lilo and contributing to the family. And honestly I don’t blame them because people did accept it. And it’s so fucking sad.
We’ve talked a lot about Nani, Lilo and Jumba and their blatant mischaracterization . But not enough about the flanderization of stitch and it’s just sad honestly.
I have returned from my trip to Epic bearing Darkmoor lore trivia
If this seems like a long list, know that interacting with the characters is my favorite thing to do. Also I usually think of questions beforehand because that’s normal 👍
Needless to say, I don’t think all of this is canon, per se, but it’s really neat regardless. I'll definitely be incorporating some of it into my fanfics
This is cool! I assumed the blood spatter was from the exploded vampire, not Griffin getting caught in the splash zone...
This is all really good stuff! Re: Victoria being a Frankenstein, the family tree is likely referencing the fact that Victoria’s photo has been tacked onto the tree in the queue after the fact, so it could really go either way as evidence.
From what I’ve heard, the other major possibility for Victoria’s lineage is that she’s a Van Helsing masquerading as a Frankenstein (or maybe has amnesia or something). There’s a fair bit of evidence, with her being more of a monster hunter with an affinity for the crossbow, as well as her archenemy being Dracula. Even her desire to control all monsters feels a bit more Van Helsing-ish than Frankenstein, with Henry giving up control over his creature almost immediately. Plus there’s the fun meta-storytelling that Van Helsing was going to be the original use case for the Kuka Arm vehicles. In the end it’s just a possibility, but I love the different approaches the characters have to the lore here and Victoria is very emblematic of that.
Some people think Walt's original plan for Epcot City would have been like a corporate feudal town, does that make any sense to you?
The company owns everything in the town and everyone who lives there works for the company and rents their housing from it. Sounds pretty feudal to me!
So you think it's good that they just made it a theme park instead?
In the same way I think it's good that McDonald's hamburger patties are made of cheap beef instead of trafficked orphans.
Original Epcot and Disney's America are two projects I'm very, very grateful weren't built
Epcot the city gets built up a lot because it was Walt’s last big thing, but the reality is it never got much past the initial concept, hence the post-Walt company being all “what the fuck do we do with this”. Had it come to pass, I believe it would have struggled greatly and ultimately failed. Given the state of the post-Walt company in the 70s and 80s, Epcot city might very well have killed the company outright. All that on top of having an incredibly dubious power structure.
Instead we got a legacy of classic Epcot (the theme park) and plenty more second gates, so I’d say we definitely got the better option of the two Epcot possibilities.
I like the posters in the tower of terror gift shop but they always stand out to me as very modern art styles so i wanted to try my hand at making a poster that's based in 1930s art! I also wanted to have carolyn in a pretty red dress like the posters but since strapless dresses weren't super popular yet i went for this halter gown based on one seen in The Women (1939)
plus a changing portrait variety because haunted mansion shouldn't get all the fun
The Twilight Zone The Invaders | 2.15
@idreamofthemeparks regarding your question of where this episode is referenced on Tower of Terror:
-The little astronaut guys appear on various shelves in the libraries (in Florida, Paris, and California)
-A UFO that might be their ship appears hidden in the "junk storage" alongside the ventriloquist dummy and slot machine as the car pulls into unload (Florida)
-A UFO that is DEFINITELY their ship is hidden in the photo viewing area on the way to the gift shop (Florida). It is so INSANELY hidden though that there's basically no way to spot it without somebody pointing it out to you, as it's only visible by someone shining a flashlight on it or by taking a properly angled flash photo. I haven't even technically seen it in person, despite being mere feet away from it many times. @chunkecheeks had to tell me it existed, and I combed through my photos to find I'd accidentally caught a pic of it in 2017.
Here's a flash photo she sent that shows it in better detail:
For years I thought it was just a burned out lamp in the corner!
It's interesting because a lot of Tower of Terror references try to blend with the hotel setting, i.e. characters from the show who were traveling, or were entertainers, or wealthy, or otherwise might theoretically pass through an old hotel. But then there's the Invaders, where yeah, there's aliens and UFOs in this 30s hotel now.
Knowing the twist of the episode, their inclusion in the hotel raises a LOT of weird questions…
My favorite ride is the one where you go into some lady's house and she introduces you to her kid before she shows you around her basement
My favorite ride is the one where you take an abandoned elevator for... reasons, and the building commandeers the voice of a dead man to narrate exactly how stupid you are for doing that
my favorite ride is where you get on a sightseeing vacation flight and accidentally get wrapped up in an international conflict because your flight happened to be harboring a member of a rebellious militia.
My favorite (extant) ride is the one where the grade-school model UN cheerfully begs the actual UN for nuclear disarmament, and meanwhile the ride facade makes the world's biggest production of the fact that 15 minutes have passed.
My favorite ride is the one where you're taking a boat tour through a swamp, around a restaurant, and then maybe you're listening to an old guy talk about his past or maybe you've gone to sleep and are dreaming it or maybe you've gone back in time yourself, but either way there's a lot of skeletons and a sea battle and also everything is on fire, good luck!
My favorite ride is the one where you’re invited to a party where the host offers you a choice of gifts, then promptly decides to murder you because staring contests are really rude.
Man Rides Disneyland Attraction 15,000 Times
A Disney superfan celebrated his 15,000th ride on the Cars-themed Radiator Springs Racers at Disney California Adventure, having documented every go-around since 2012. What do you think?
