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🎄 It’s mime time at the Most Magical Place on Earth in 1978’s “Christmas at Walt Disney World.”  🎙️ Drew Crowley and John Dedeke from The Hourchive drop in to watch Shields and Yarnell as the most 1978 couple imaginable, Pablo Cruise and their indifference to help a screaming woman escape from pirates, Phyllis Diller in the world’s poofiest princess dress, the Doritos guy as a wildly off-model Geppetto, Dee from “What’s Happening?” as an ungrateful passenger in a magical pumpkin coach, and Broadway’s original Annie singing Christmas carols with surprisingly reverent Disney villains.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Map of what Walt Disney World looked like in 1978.  Vault Disney.  How “My Favorite Things” became a Christmas song.  The opening music, “The Great Gate of Kiev” from Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” or as I know it best, Jerry “The King” Lawler’s theme music.  Shields and Yarnell on “American Bandstand” (1976)  Drew eating a gigantic spoonful of mashed potatoes at the Liberty Tree Tavern.  Photos from the long-abandoned Discovery Island in 2009.  Disney’s short-lived plans of reopening Discovery Island as an attraction based on Myst.  One-day admission to the Magic Kingdom plus a book of attraction tickets in 1978 cost $13, according to this Ticket Price Guide.  “Ernest Goes to Splash Mountain.”  Winnie-the-Pooh wearing a honey pot on his head.  Giant, smoking cigars in a theme park parade for children.  The (1970s) “Mouseketeers at Walt Disney World.”  “Kraft Salutes Walt Disney World’s 10th Anniversary” (1981)  The Hourchive on Walt Disney World: Part 1 and Part 2.  ****  “Christmas at Walt Disney World” © 1978 Walt Disney Productions.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s2 #1970s #disney

🎄 Part 2 of our Christmas donkey double feature presents a completely different origin story of the donkey who carried Mary to Bethlehem.  🎙️ Lindy Kempe and Brandon Medley return to talk “The Small One,” Don Bluth’s last Disney project, released in front of the 1978 re-release of “Pinocchio.”  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  The original book, “The Small One: A Story for Those Who Like Christmas and Small Donkeys.”  “Dragon’s Lair.”  The Land Before Time toys from Pizza Hut.  Mouse in Transition: When Everyone Left Disney (Cartoon Brew, 2014)  Don Bluth visited Walt Disney Animation Studios 40 years later.  Assistant director Richard Rich went on to direct all 8 Swan Princess movies. (I’m sorry if you just learned there are 8 Swan Princess movies.)  One piece of silver, adjusted for inflation.  Edits for home video include the Merchants’ song, and the Star of Bethlehem getting extra rays of light to look less cross-shaped. To avoid too much foreshadowing, I guess.  Gordon Jump, the voice of Joseph, was on a very special episode of “Diff’rent Strokes.” Yeah. Sorry.  ****  “The Small One” © 1978 Walt Disney Productions.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s2 #1970s #disney #nativity

🎄 Live from the Turducken Hunger Games comes Part 1 of a Disney Christmas double feature featuring Mickey Mouse and his pals.  🎙️ Drew Crowley and John Dedeke from The Hourchive help me attempt to make sense of time, space, and the Disney fowl food chain as we watch Disney’s 1999 direct to video Christmas special.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Donald Duck’s comically enormous, fanmade family tree.  Happy Duck to the Future Day!  The “Quack Pack” intro will tell you everything you need to know about “Quack Pack.”  Donald Jr., a tiny, semi-realistic duck introduced in “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.”  The Fab Five supposedly live in the fictional U.S. state of Calisota, on the Pacific coast.  Pete has been a cat this entire time!  Pete smokes a cigar, something since reportedly banned from Disney movies, despite still showing up in Disney movies.  Recycled animation alert: Mickey’s wacky, tongue-waggling dance first appeared in 1942’s “Mickey’s Birthday Party.”  ****  “Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas” © 1999 Disney Enterprises, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s2 #1990s #disney #christmaseveryday #giftofthemagi

🎄 In Part 2 of our Disney Christmas double feature, Mickey and the rest of the Fab Five — and Daisy, who’s somehow less important than the dog — enter the third-dimension.  🎙️ Drew Crowley and John Dedeke from The Hourchive return for “Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas,” the main mouse’s first 3D-animated special.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  If you haven’t been to a Disney theme park in the last year or two, Mickey has a different face now.  The hippo and crocodile from “Fantasia” have names.  Chuck McCann (Santa) was the Dreamfinder in the original Journey Into Imagination.  The grumpy dog who keeps showing up only to get beverages spilled on him is the Stan Lee of the Mickey Mouse universe, which I only mention because we recorded this the day after Stan died.  Between the Goofys and the Plutos of this universe, there are talking reindeer who can own pets.  The Hidden Mickeys Podcast.  ****  “Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas” © 2004 Disney Enterprises, Inc.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s2 #2000s #disney

🎄 Season 3 of the Advent Calendar House kicks off with a new regular feature: Scrooge Sunday, celebrating the many adaptations of “A Christmas Carol.”  🎙 Lizzie Twachtman and Adam Pope drop in as we begin with Disney’s 1983 featurette marking the big-screen debut of Scrooge McDuck playing his namesake.  📺 You can watch “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” on Disney+.  ****  💬 Topics & Tangents:  Before Disney+, almost all of this film was hiding on Netflix at the end of “Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse.  Adam’s well-preserved VHS copy.  A 1974 Disneyland Records LP called “Dickens’ Christmas Carol,” Alan Young’s first recording as the voice of Scrooge.  Mickey Mouse’s very detailed, fanmade family tree.  Siskel and Ebert’s 2 Thumbs Down review.  Goofy as Marley’s ghost at Disneyland.  Mickey’s Christmas Carol animatronic window displays in the Magic Kingdom.  We identify every Disney background character at Fezziwig’s party and lament the absence of Pluto from this entire thing.  Quick shout-outs to Totally Minnie and “Disney’s DTV Romancin’” Valentine special.  Willie the Giant as the Ghost of Christmas Present carefully wandering through the tiny streets of London calls back to the ending of “Fun and Fancy Free,” Disney’s 1947 package film featuring “Mickey and the Beanstalk,” which is also on Disney+.  Your now-annual reminder that Pete has been a cat this entire time.  ****  Mickey’s Christmas Carol ©1983 Disney.  Opening Music: “Christmas Was Better in the ’80s,” by The Futureheads, ©2010 Nul Records.  Find us at adventcalendar.house.  #s3 #1980s #scroogesunday #disney