Rare behind the scenes footage of Walt Disney's 1946 film Song of the South. This was the first technicolor feature film made that blended live action with animation throughout. Music is the popular 1946 recording of the Oscar award winning song Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah performed by Johnny Mercer & the Pied Pipers. Actor James Baskett is the first black actor to win an Oscar and it was for this film! Actor Nick Stewart played Br'er Bear, started the Ebony Showcase Theater with the earnings from this film. He returned to play Br'er Bear again in Splash Mountain and remodeled the theater. Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel plays a major character in this film, first black actress to win an Oscar for Gone with the Wind. Don't let Woke Disney erase important black history! Please nominate this historic film on the National Film Registry as Woke Disney purges every aspect of this special film from pop culture. The form is below. https://www.research.net/r/national-fim-registry-nomination-form Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

This Disney Channel documentary tied in with the book The Official Mickey Mouse Club Book by Lorraine Santoli. It's narrated by Annette Funicello's Beach film co-star Frankie Avalon and features interviews with many former Mouseketeers and other Disney figures on the original show and its impact on American culture. It's mostly accurate but there's a few details that are incorrect. The highlight are the interviews with the grown up Mouseketeers. Not only is this valuable Walt Disney history testimony, but also about what it was like growing up in American culture in the 1950's. This is one of the final interviews with Annette Funicello and there's a nice tribute to Jimmie Dodd. Original airdate October 22, 1995 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

Pitch Trailer for the 1974 action adventure film based on the novel The Lost Ones by Ian Cameron Plot: A group of explorers head to the arctic where the whales go to die in order to find a philanthropist's missing son. Starring Donald Sinden – Sir Anthony Ross David Hartman – Prof. Ivarsson Jacques Marin – Captain Brieux Mako – Oomiak David Gwillim – Donald Ross Agneta Eckemyr – Freyja Gunnar Öhlund – The Godi Lasse Kolstad – Erik Erik Silju – Torvald Rolf Søder – The Lawspeaker Torsten Wahlund – Sven Sverre Anker Ousdal – Gunnar Niels Hinrichsen – Sigurd Denny Miller – Town Guard Brendan Dillon – The Factor James Almanzar as French Engineer Ivor Barry as The Butler Lee Paul as Chief of Boat Archers Screenplay by John Whedon Directed by Robert Stevenson Release date December 20, 1974 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

Making of Trailer for the 1974 action adventure film based on the novel The Lost Ones by Ian Cameron Plot: A group of explorers head to the arctic where the whales go to die in order to find a philanthropist's missing son. Starring Donald Sinden – Sir Anthony Ross David Hartman – Prof. Ivarsson Jacques Marin – Captain Brieux Mako – Oomiak David Gwillim – Donald Ross Agneta Eckemyr – Freyja Gunnar Öhlund – The Godi Lasse Kolstad – Erik Erik Silju – Torvald Rolf Søder – The Lawspeaker Torsten Wahlund – Sven Sverre Anker Ousdal – Gunnar Niels Hinrichsen – Sigurd Denny Miller – Town Guard Brendan Dillon – The Factor James Almanzar as French Engineer Ivor Barry as The Butler Lee Paul as Chief of Boat Archers Screenplay by John Whedon Directed by Robert Stevenson Release date December 20, 1974 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

This episode of Walt's TV show was produced to advertise the then new release of Walt Disney Productions' big budget film The Black Hole. Hopes were high that this film would be the Disney answer to Star Wars but it tanked at the box office. Very few new episodes of Walt's TV show were being produced after Walt had passed away and of those new episodes that were made, virtually none went behind the scenes of the filmmaking process as Walt so often did and few were this ambitious. Major Effects follows the template of Captain Marvel (who was later renamed Shazam) where many of the same trappings were there. At the time a Saturday Morning live action TV series based on Shazam was airing and the Christopher Reeve Superman films were immensely popular. The premise of the episode follows a superhero learning about special effects from the wizards who make them happen. The result is a celebration of Walt Disney special effects. Cast members of note include the Barnstable Twins who were well known personalities at the time having appeared in sitcoms and TV commercials. Mike Jittlov appears as the Camera Wizard and was a stop motion superstar. At the time he was making short subjects for Disney animating Disney merchandise items and always appearing in these shorts in stop motion acting roles himself. Major Effects also includes a short he would later expand into the feature film The Wizard of Speed and Time utilizing many of the tricks he'd developed. He also co-directed this episode. Animation voice Lennie Weinrib provides several voices through this episode. The most notable of all the cast is Hans Conried in his final Walt Disney role; Bigger Than Life. He passed away a few years later. The end result of this production is something fondly remembered by those who grew up with it made on a shoestring budget that outshines the film it was trying to promote. It's a unique piece of Walt Disney history and enjoyed a few airings on The Disney Channel when they would air vintage content. Original airdate December 16, 1979 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

The Walt Disney Studio Showcase was one of the original TV series on the newly launched Disney Channel. It was a monthly anthology series that sometimes included behind the scenes sequences or presented obscure films to American audiences as Disney discoveries. Like most of the early Disney Channel content, it went away when the Eisner regime took over the company. In this super rare documentary, author, researcher, reporter, and publicist John Culhane takes you on a tour of what the Walt Disney Studios was like before the Eisner regime took over. That makes this film a tremendous time capsule of this turbulent time in Walt Disney history. Culhane was an entertainment writer who actually got to interview Walt Disney as a teenager in the 1950's. He later wrote several books on the film industry with a few focusing on Disney. His nickname around the studio was "Snoops" because he was always digging into everything. In his honor, Madame Medusa's henchman was named Mr Snoops. and made to be a caricature of him in The Rescuers. Culhane was also later caricatured as Flying John in the Rhapsody in Blue sequence of Fantasia 2000. This was a time of transition at the Walt Disney Studios so we get a glimpse at the productions of many of the darker films being produced at that time. On this tour we see how sound effects are added to the live action horror film Something Wicked This Way Comes. Later we return to this film and witness some of the film score being recorded with James Horner. Horner was one of the most prolific film composers of the latter half of the 20th century. His score was actually the second version written and recorded for the film when the original score by Georges Delere was deemed too dark. Ray Bradybury is also seen present in this footage as it was his book and screenplay the film was based on. We are introduced to a young Tim Burton who's developing the stop motion film Vincent and the live action Disney Channel Halloween special Hansel & Gretel. It would air as the Halloween Studio Showcase episode later that year. These were Burton's very first directorial debuts and for years rarely seen. Hansel & Gretel only aired once it alarmed the studio brass so much. He was forced out of the studio after making a featurette film for the reissue of Pinocchio, Frankenweenie, when it garnered a PG rating for the atmosphere of it. That film later led to Burton directing Peeweee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, and Batman. There's also behind the scenes segments on other films being produced by Walt Disney Productions at the time such as Tron, Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend, Never Cry Wolf, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. We also get to see some material on the short lived network TV series Zorro & Son and the upcoming animated feature The Black Cauldron. In each of these segments we see interviews with the creative people who were developing these projects. The Roger Rabbit segment, in particular, is fascinating because this was the version of the film that didn't get made. Even though this Roger Rabbit design (voiced by Peewee Herman star Paul Reubens) wasn't the version in the final film, that character design had a cameo in the audience of the Sports Goofy featurette Soccermania. We also drop by to see how the animatronic dinosaur for Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend was being developed. Originally a Walt Disney Productions film, this became a Touchstone Pictures release when more mature undertones were added hoping to make the film more mainstream. Later, it was edited into a more family friend version that aired on TV under the Wonderful World of Disney banner. Matte painting is covered with Harrison Ellenshaw. His father was the famous Walt Disney matte painter Peter Ellenshaw who worked on every Walt Disney live action film for decades. Harrison learned at his father's knee and he went on to do the matte paintings on the original Star Wars trilogy himself. He later returned to Disney to work on The Black Hole and other films. We also get to see some of what the backlot looked like before Eisner demolished it for a parking lot. In all, this is a remarkable glimpse into the Walt Disney Studio just before things changed forever. Original airdate June 23, 1983 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

This PBS documentary hosted by Mason Adams aired in 1985 to coincide with the release of Walt Disney productions' Return to Oz. Return to Oz was one of the most ambitious films ever made with many of the who's who of Hollywood working on it behind the scenes. Because more people knew Oz from the MGM film and not the Oz books, the film didn't find an audience and bombed. It was still a well-produced film inspired by the books even going a little bit darker with some of the concepts in them. The behind the scenes material in this obscure documentary is rare and well worth seeing. The documentary covers the entire Oz phenomenon up to that time. Like Walt Disney, L. Frank Baum is a figure the militant left and revised the history of and perverted his works. Most people are only aware of the 1939 MGM film but Oz was so much more. Oz was the first successful fantasy novel and the most successful fictional book series of all times spanning over 70 years of official volumes and nearly 60 books. There were also multiple Oz silent films, 2 competing coming strips, storybooks, stage plays, animated cartoons, and tons of merchandise. Walt Disney grew up alongside the releases of the original Baum Oz stories and actively pursued making a film adaptation of his own. The rainbow jihad co-opted the Oz stories and characters and many of their trappings originate from them. Activists claim they use the rainbow because of drag queens and Judy Garland who sang the famous song standard from the film, Somewhere Over the Rainbow. "Friend of Dorothy" became code for members of the gay community to recognize and acknowledge each other. Many hardcore Oz fans despise America as founded, Christianity, heterosexual relationships and more. Many of the pop culture appropriation going on today originated with Oz. It's important that we rediscover how Oz is America's forgotten fantasy land and should be reclaimed from the revisionists who've defiled it. This documentary is a good place to start. Like Walt Disney, L Frank Baum would be disgusted by what's been done to his creations. Original air date June 1985 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is credited as the film that made cartoons fun again. It was an ambitious production mixing live action with animation and the only time characters from competing studios appeared together in the same film. Building upon this films release suddenly animation was cool again with Disney launching successful animated features and other studios getting into the game. This making of special aired on CBS and is a celebration of golden age cartoons just like the film is a love letter to that period in animation. Original air date September 13, 1988 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

Honey I Shrunk the Kids was a surprise hit in 1989. the film was in the tradition of the family films Walt Disney used to make updated to the 1980’s. This making of special aired frequently on the Disney Channel advertising the film and hasn’t been seen in over thirty years. The production was filmed in Mexico City because the world’s largest blue screen on earth was there. There had never been this type of film produced on this scale before. The heart of the story, however, is about the broken family coming together. Honey I Shrunk the Kids launched a franchise that included two sequels, a TV series and theme park attractions. Rumor has it another sequel is in the works but on hold. Original air date June 14, 1989 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

Dick Tracy is an innovative film that was a spectacular box office bomb because the film had cost so much to make. Based on the long running Chester Gould comic strip, Disney was hoping to capitalize on the popularity of the previous year’s summer blockbuster Batman. They used state of the art special effects, elaborate makeup, over the top art direction, big stars, and the same composer. The film was a disappointment. For years afterward Disney was in a dispute with the films actor/director Warren Beatty who wanted to make sequels. The film also marked the last time Walt Disney legend Peter Ellenshaw worked on a matte painting in a film. This making of special aired that summer. Original air date June 13, 1990 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

The Rocketeer was meant to be Disney's own Indiana Jones style franchise. It was based on the cult favorite comic book by Dave Stevens and featured an all star cast and used many of the top behind the scenes people of the day. The result wasn't bad but it was believed that because this was marketed as a Walt Disney Pictures release the film bombed. In truth, the summer of 1991 was a very competitive summer with the surprise hit being Robing Hood: Prince of Thieves. The film is much better than the comic book that inspired it and became more than the source material. Director Joe Johnson was later given the job to direct Captain America: The First Avenger because of his success with the end result of this film. This making of special aired in the summer of 1991 tying in with the film's release. Original air date June 19, 1991 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.

Movie Magic was a Discovery Channel TV series that ran from 1993-1997. It showcased how special effects in film were achieved in both classic and then contemporary films by all film studios. This entire episode is about how the flying effects were achieved in the Walt Disney Pictures film Hocus Pocus. We also get to see a few examples from other Disney films such as The Absent Minded Professor, Mary Poppins, Bedknobs & Broomsticks, and Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken. This documentary explores the different flying rig techniques as well as the use of puppets to create the illusion of flight in the analog days of film and it's fascinating. Most Disney alum have said that across the board the year 1993 is when things at the company began the shift away from Walt Disney's values to the more PC culture. This was the year everything from traditional Independence Day celebrations and Nativity Christmas observances were removed as well as the insertion of political correctness, micro-managing, and other layers of bureaucracy throughout the company. Hocus Pocus was part of this shift. 1993 saw the release of two Halloween theme films from Walt Disney Pictures, Hocus Pocus and The Nightmare Before Christmas. While both are now considered classics, both films were overwhelmingly rejected by audiences at the time and bombed at the box office. While originally intended to be a Walt Disney Pictures release, The Nightmare Before Christmas wasn't even originally released under the Walt Disney Pictures label due to backlash but was a Touchstone Pictures release. It only because a Walt Disney Picture decades later after it was "safe." Hocus Pocus began as a proposed film in the 1980's called The Halloween House conceived by David Kirschner, creator of the Childs Play horror franchise series. At the time, Walt Disney Productions was making a series of darker films that included titles like Watcher in the Wood, The Black Cauldron, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. These films were not a successful market for Disney and The Halloween House was shelved. (The Nightmare Before Christmas began around this time as well.) It kicked around the Walt Disney Studios for nearly a decade until Bette Midler, who was under contract to the studio, took interest in it. The film was then fast tracked into production. In the original script, which was shot, there were several darker elements that were removed from the film in the editing. In one example, the reason the witch played by Kathy Najimy is able to sniff out children is because her biological father is a dog and she's the product of beastiality. This is why her nose resembles a dog's snout and she barks like a dog throughout the film. Similar occult elements were also removed as well as some of the sacred. The reason the witches could transform the boy into a cat in the prologue was because the crucifix around his neck fell off when he tumbled down a hill. This footage was shot but also removed. Like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Hocus Pocus lost money for the Walt Disney Company upon its initial release but both films became cult classics through decades of perennial Halloween airings. This later resulted in a sequel in 2022 where more woke elements were explored and Christians were made into a mockery. The witches who were villains in the original film were now also treated as heroes. Occult items tying in with the film such as tarot cards and ouiji boards have also been marketed as merchandise. While the original film is a great example of building a mythology, let's make no mistake on what this film has become; a bridge to the very real occult and to mock traditional values. That's why this film is an important part of Walt Disney history. It not only demonstrates how things shifted at the Walt Disney Company but it also provides an example on how this has been built on to further move away from the ideals Walt had when he founded and built his company. Original airdate 1993 Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.