While preparing for this week’s podcast, I happened to come across something of interest…
What is it? That’s a good question. If you look closely, you’ll see some recognizable characters. Starting on the left, you’ll see what we think is “Lambert the Sheepish Lion” standing on a pile of other lions. The photo to the right of that has the seal from “Mickey and the Seal” blowing horns next to buckets of fish. The next photo features the penguins from Mary Poppins forming a pyramid and twirling plates. The next picture has what looks like the Big Bad Wolf blowing up Mickey balloons (Get it? He huffs, and he puffs, and he blows up balloons!). The final photo is hard to make out, but it’s like Bongo the Bear from “Fun and Fancy Free” on a unicycle. There’s another photo towards the top of the image that shows either Mickey Mouse or Oswald the Lucky Rabbit practicing the death-defying feat of sticking a limb in the mouth of a lion, but it’s too small and we can’t see enough of it to be sure.
What are these? We think these are concept art for Pete’s Silly Sideshow coming to Storybook Circus as part of the Fantasyland Expansion. The banners above each set of characters are similar to those that would label each act in a circus or carnival sideshow. Where these will be located in Storybook Circus and exactly what they are (moving dioramas or an animatronic show) remains a mystery. For that matter, these could be rejected concepts from the project. Regardless, it’s an interesting teaser for what might be on the way to the Magic Kingdom, so stay tuned…
Heres wishing for a new animatronic show!
I'd love to see an animatronic show in the style of the old Meet the World from Japan, a kind of inverted Carousel of Progress where the sets are on the outside and the audience revolves in the center instead of around the sets. Could be really cool and really help capacity.
Personally, I think Pete's Silly Sideshow is going to be a character meet-and-greet area.
Could the animal on the unicycle be Bongo from Fun and Fancy Free? He was a circus bear, so it fits! This would be kind of cool!
Could the animal on the unicycle be Bongo from Fun and Fancy Free? He was a circus bear, so it fits! This would be kind of cool!
Perhaps those figures will be displays inside the Big Top Souvenirs gift shop.
Note the pixar ball in the second picture…
It's probably going to be some kind of continuous film.