MORE DISNEYLAND WEIRDNESS

Here's some more Disneyland walkaround costumes. I'll start with Captain Hook from...I'm guessing...the early 1970s. Yikes!

The park seems to have had trouble with this character. In the photos I've seen they never seem to get it right. Here (above) the character has a boxy face and shark eyes. I admit that it's kinda' funny, but....he's not the animated Disney Hook. No way.

Here's (above) a Disney redo of the costume and this time it is Hook, but it's a different Hook. It looks like Cyril Richard from the Mary Martin live action Peter Pan. Richard made a great Hook but so did Hans Conried. Why would Disney abandon its own character in favor of someone else's interpretation? Strange...very strange.

So far as I know, the Hook costume likeness that came closest to the one in the animated film was a Halloween mask by the famous mask maker, Don Post. I have one of those (above), and it looks great.

Another character the studio had trouble with seems to have been Minnie Mouse. Here she is looking like a dog (above). She's standing beside Pluto who actually is a dog but who looks more like a chicken here.

Actually these costumes are probably the Ice Capades costumes that Walt borrowed for the opening of Disneyland. Poor Walt. He doesn't look very happy with what he's seeing.

Here's Mickey and Minnie from an earlier Disney era, before Disneyland. It was common for licensed dolls and costumes of the day to look horrific and amateurish. That's odd because because that period coincided with the Golden Age of American illustration.

HAW! These costumes (above) are from 1931 and probably weren't designed by the studio. They look like some kind of bondage outfit filtered through a Silent Hill sensibility.

This story has a happy ending, though. Eventually most of the costumes (above) were done right.

Well, actually it doesn't have a happy ending, because during the hippy period the costume (above) designs started to degenerate again. What happened?

Maybe somebody thought the old costumes were too scary for kids. I doubt that kids felt that way. I'll bet they loved them.

DISNEYLAND CHARACTER COSTUMES

It's hard to imagine what a truly weird place Disneyland used to be. For a short time after Disneyland opened, the park was full of costumed demons like the one above. I think that's because the park didn't have many walkaround costumes of its own and had to borrow hideous ones from the Ice Capades.

It was decided that a new costume look was needed and photos from the period show some of the experiments.

Here's (above) The Three Little pigs again. This time they're buck naked below the waist. It's something you never notice in cartoons, but somehow the costumes bring it out.

Wow! Here's (above) a Mickey from the next costume era, which favored a cartoony look. This time they got it right. My guess is that Ward Kimball had something to do with it, but I could be wrong. Mickey looks great here!

So does Minnie (above)!

In our time the lumpy corporate Mickey (above) dominates. I can't believe that anyone actually preferred this.

Back to the classic, cartoony look: Haw! I love this picture. It looks like a little girl has stopped to talk to one lone pig and doesn't notice that other demented pigs have come in and surrounded her. Finally the Big, Bad Wolf comes in. Uh-oh! It's too late to run away now.

To judge from old photos it used to be common to see both villains and nice guy characters wandering around the park. Good! That's the way it should be.

The cartoony Grumpy (above) used to wander around.

So did the cartoony Mad Hatter (above). Disney should bring all these walkaround costumes back into everyday use.

I'm not a fan of the plush toy look of some of the newest costumes, but I have to admit that I'd like a picture of myself with this Pluto. That face is just made for photos.