Disneyland

Guests will be asked to pick a side at Six Flags Magic Mountain’s “DC Heroes and Villains” fest.

(Six Flags Magic Mountain)

The Valencia coaster park this summer is leaning into superhero properties. The likes of Batman, Superman, Catwoman, the Joker and more are taking part in an evening show that marries dance parties, stunt shows and audience participation. Its “DC Heroes and Villains Fest” runs weekends throughout the summer beginning June 20, with festivities starting at 5 p.m.

There’s a plot each night, and it centers on villains trying to spoil a statue dedication to Batman. Audiences are said to be able to align with heroes or villains to see who has control of Gotham City each evening. Expect a stunt show finish and plenty of silliness, such as a dad joke or strength contests. Dance events will center on Catwoman, the Joker and Harley Quinn, nonheroes who will be trying to woo guests with family-friendly entertainment.

While “DC Heroes and Villains Fest” had yet to begin at the time of writing, Magic Mountain is hoping for a theater-heavy experience.

“A lot of my team comes from New York, the Broadway side,” Mike Ostrom, manager of entertainment and events for the park, told immersive podcast No Proscenium. “So we’re trying to bring a lot of theatrical elements and story arc and all those things that involve the crowd, the participants, to really get involved in what they’re seeing.”

A TOP European theme park is welcoming a new premium hotel that looks like it’s out of Wes Anderson’s world.

Dutch theme park Efteling will be opening a new hotel this summer called the Efteling Grand Hotel.

6

6

6

The theme park is already well known for its fairytale theme, with one TikToker – The Travel Mum – dubbing it “better and cheaper than Disneyland”.

The new addition to the attraction will be the first hotel located within the theme park itself and will open on August 1.

The hotel will be themed around a traditional grand dame hotel with stories woven into the design throughout, appearing like a Wes Anderson story.

There will be digital check-in, valet parking and luggage handling, upon arrival.

A bellhop and Efteling’s two princesses will guests in the lobby, where the air will also be infused with the hotel’s signature fragrance.

The hotel will be spread across seven floors offering 140 rooms and suites, with a total of 644 beds.

The biggest room will be able to host six people.

The hotel rooms will also overlook the park with different views of the Aquanura water show the House of the Dive Senses entrance, the Fairytale Forest or the Pardoes Promenade Lane.

All of the rooms include breakfast at Brasserie 7 and half an hour of early access to the park before it opens to the public.

Other features of the rooms include each one having an Efteling Grand Hotel fairytale book.

The lower ground floor of the hotel will have a swimming pool – availabel only to hotel guests – with spa facilities including a steam room, sauna and massage room.

There will also be a multifunctional serenity room where guests can unwind, pray or meditate.

The hotel will have two restaurants with Brasserie 7 located on the ground floor and Restaurant-Bar Mystique on the first floor.

While Brasserie 7 will serve up a range of classic dishes – which include seven ‘magical’ ingredients such as princess tears and snow from Mother Holle – Restaurant-Bar Mystique will offer a more premium dining experience.

6

6

Each table will be decorated with edible decorations and the restaurant will be open to the public, as well as park and hotel guests.

Café Biscuit will also be a part of the hotel, where baristas will serve coffee and the signature Grand Hotel biscuit.

Plans have also been revealed for incredible new 240-room hotel with huge swimming lake, golf and spa near to iconic racetrack.

Plus, a huge new Premier Inn will open near major airport and will be the largest of its kind in the north of UK.

6

A former cast member at a Disney theme park has said there’s one thing she wishes guests would stop doing while visiting, and it can ruin someone’s day if you break the unwritten rule

When you go to a Disney theme park like Disney World or Disneyland, there are some golden rules you should follow. For example, most people know that adults are banned from dressing up as Disney characters because they might confuse children into thinking they’re the real cast members, and there’s also a ban on bringing folding chairs and drones into the parks because of the disruption they might cause.

But did you know there are also rules about how to interact with cast members? Many of these are unspoken, but there are some things you should never do when you meet the actors and actresses who are dressed up as your favourite Disney characters.

Kayla Nicole, a former Disney cast member, shared a video on TikTok in which she highlighted the number one thing she wished people would stop doing when they line up to meet Disney princesses.

During her eight years as a cast member, the woman played a number of roles at the park, including Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Merida from Brave, and Cinderella. She said that if you’re ever meeting two characters at once, you should never ignore one in favour of the other.

She explained: “If you’re in a meet-and-greet location like the hall, where you have one princess on this carpet and a different princess on the other carpet, do not skip one to go to the other.

“Operationally, that tiny little area between princesses is getting clogged up. But beyond the operational aspect, there’s a humanity aspect. How would you feel getting consistently skipped over? With side eyes and smirks and backs turned, not even acknowledging you.

“Per our rules, we’re supposed to average around 70 seconds for each interaction to make it fair for every family. So if you’re skipping a princess, you are saving one minute of your time and potentially causing a world of hurt to that performer.”

Kayla said that despite the cast members doing everything in their power to embody the character they’re playing, they are still real people underneath the costume, and they have real feelings. She also said this can be even more difficult for people of colour playing princesses like Tiana from The Princess and the Frog or Elena from Elena of Avalor.

She added: “Imagine you’re a person of colour playing Elena or Tiana, the two characters that meet in the hall. In real life, you feel looked over, given fewer opportunities, etc, and then you come to your job and people are still looking over you.

“We’ve had to stop loading the rooms so many times throughout my Disney career because my Elena was crying at how she was being treated. I promise you, you’re still going to make that Space Mountain fast pass.

“If you’re a guest, just walk up, smile, and say hey. The performer should, in theory, take the reins and guide the entire interaction from there on. Just ‘yes and’ everything they say and it’ll be over before you know it.”

Several commenters on the video shared their own experiences with seeing Disney princesses skipped over, especially when it comes to lesser-known characters.

One person said: “Elena was my daughter’s favourite princess when we went. People kept skipping her over, and she spent extra time with my little, and we never knew of that princess before.”

Another added: “I never watched Elena’s show, but we had such a great interaction when I met her! I’m glad she took the reins because honestly, I was so nervous about what to say to her. Total sweetheart!”

Joanna Miller was 10 — no, “10 and three-quarters,” she clarifies — when she lost her grandfather. Even then, in December 1966, she shared him with the world.

For Miller’s grandad was Walt Disney, a name that would emblazen one of the largest entertainment conglomerates in the world, and come to signify uniquely American storytelling, family-friendly optimism and the creation of the modern theme park. Front-page stories across the globe announced his death, hailing him as a “world enchanter,” “amusement king” and “wizard of fantasy.”

But to Miller, he was just “grampa.”

She peppers stories about Disney in her conversations, often going down tangents as she recalls heartwarming moments. Such as the Christmas season when Disney, despite having access to Hollywood’s most renown artists, put Miller’s drawings on a holiday card. “The bad art we were doing when we were 6 years old? He treated them like they were great works,” she says.

She pauses, a tear forming in her eye. “He was just the greatest guy. The best guy.”

Jennifer Goff, from left, Tammy Miller, Joanna Miller, Walter Miller and Chris Miller speak onstage during the Walt Disney Family Museum’s second annual gala at Disney’s Grand Californian in November 2016 in Anaheim. Joanna has become vocal that her grandfather, Walt Disney, never wanted to be immortalized as a robotic figurine.

(Joe Scarnici / Getty Images for the Walt Disney Family Museum)

Miller is, to put it mildly, protective of Disney. So is the Walt Disney Co., and as Disneyland Resort’s 70th anniversary in July approaches, both share a goal — to remind audiences of the man behind the corporate name. Last fall the company announced that an audio-animatronic of Disney would grace the opera house on Main Street, U.S.A., long home to “Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln.” The new show, “Walt Disney — A Magical Life,” will give parkgoers a sense of “what it would have been like to be in Walt’s presence,” Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro explained at the announcement.

The way Miller sees it, it’s an abomination.

“Dehumanizing,” she wrote in a Facebook post that went viral among Disney’s vast fandom. Calling the figure a “robotic grampa,” she wrote, “People are not replaceable. You could never get the casualness of his talking.” She also argued staunchly that Disney was against such mechanical immortalization.

Interior of the Illinois Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair, May 15, 1964, where an animatronic of Abraham Lincoln was unveiled.

(Bob Goldberg / Associated Press)

She stands by the post — she’s one of the few, she says, to have seen the animatronic in the fake flesh — but also nervously laughs as she reflects on the attention it has brought her. Miller has long lived a private life, noting she considers herself shy — she declined to be photographed for this story — and says repeatedly it pains her to take a stand against the Walt Disney Co. She frets that the company will take away her access to the park, granted as part of an agreement when her father, the late Ron W. Miller, stepped down as CEO in 1984.

Roy Disney, left, and Ron Miller check over film strips in the editing room in 1967 at Disney’s film studio in Burbank. The family sold naming and portrait rights of Walt Disney in 1981 to the company.

(Associated Press)

But as Miller sees it, she has to speak up. “He’s ours,” Miller says of Disney. “We’re his family.”

Most robotic figures in Disney parks represent fictional characters or overly-saturated political personalities, such as those in Florida’s Hall of Presidents, which includes President Trump and living former presidents. Few speak and most are limited to statuesque movements. And unlike an attraction in which the company has full narrative control, such as a Pirates of the Caribbean, “Walt Disney — A Magical Life” represents real life and a person who happens to have living, vocal descendants.

And real life is complicated.

“When you get older,” Miller says, sometimes when things go wrong in life, “you just start to get pissed off. And you get tired of being quiet. So I spoke up on Facebook. Like that was going to do anything? The fact that it got back to the company is pretty funny.”

Get back to the company it did, as Miller soon found herself having an audience with Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger.

These days, Miller is in the midst of remodeling Disney’s first L.A. home in Los Feliz, a craftsman bungalow owned in the 1920s by his uncle Robert and aunt Charlotte, who let Disney stay with them when he came from the Midwest. Miller envisions the house hosting events, perhaps workshops and artist talks for arts education nonprofit Ryman Arts.

Its feel is of a mini museum. In the garage sits a Mercedes Benz, the last vehicle Disney owned. Black-and-white images of Disney furnish the walls, decorative “Fantasia” dishware shares space with vintage toys in a glass-doored cabinet, and animation artwork, waiting to be framed, is laid out on one of the beds.

“I have been thinking a lot about this house and what it means,” Miller says. “I wouldn’t be here. Grampa wouldn’t have met granny. This all started because people were helping out grampa. Aunt Charlotte was making peanut brittle in this house that they sold at Disneyland. So this house, there would not be Disney company if it weren’t for this house.”

Miller’s relationship with the company has wavered over the decades. She’s more excited to share memories of Disney than recall the tumultuous corporate period when her father oversaw the behemoth company. On Saturdays, Disney would often bring her and her siblings to the studio. There, they had the run of the place, cruising around the backlot in their very own mini-cars designed for Disneyland’s Autopia ride. Those visits largely ended when Disney died, as her father dedicated his weekends to golf.

Championing Disney, and preserving his legacy, runs in her family. Her mother, Diane, who died in 2013, was the guiding force behind the foundation of San Francisco’s Walt Disney Family Museum. Miller, who long sat on the board, said the idea of creating an animatronic of Disney is not new, and was once considered for the museum.

“When we started the museum, someone said, ‘Hey, let’s do Walt as an animatronic,’” Miller recalls. “And my mom: ‘No. No. No. No.’ Grampa deserves new technology for this museum, but not to be a robot himself.” Her mother, says Miller, “wanted to show him as a real human.”

As American film producer and studio executive Walt Disney talks on the telephone, his wife, Lillian,, plays with three of their grandchildren, Joanna, Tamara and Jennifer in January 1962 in Anaheim. The couple are in their apartment above the Disneyland fire station.

(Tom Nebbia / Corbis via Getty Images)

Miller says she first heard of Disneyland’s animatronic last summer, a few weeks before D’Amaro announced the attraction at the fan convention D23. The show will follow a similar format to the Lincoln attraction, in which a film plays before the animatronic is revealed. Lincoln, for instance, stands and gives highlight’s of the president’s speeches, doing so with subtle, realistic movements. Disney, promises the company, will be even more lifelike, with dialogue taken from his own speeches. D’Amaro said “A Magical Life” had the support of the Disney family, singling out Disney’s grandnephew Roy P. Disney, who was in the audience.

Miller stresses that she does not speak for her five siblings or other descendants, but as she wrote in a letter to Iger, “I do speak for my grandfather and my mother.” Shortly after her Facebook post, Miller was invited to see the figure and meet with Iger and members of Walt Disney Imagineering, the secretive creative team responsible for theme park experiences.

“He was very kind,” Miller says of Iger. “He let me do my spiel.”

But she wasn’t swayed. She says she asked him to create a set of guidelines on how the company would portray Disney, and Iger promised to protect his legacy. “But I don’t think he has. They’re different people. He’s a businessman, grampa was an artist.”

Imagineering and Disneyland discussed the project at a media event in April, but the animatronic was not shown, nor were pictures revealed. Imagineering did display an early sculpt used in modeling the robot to show the care taken in crafting Disney. The sculpt depicts Disney in 1963, when he was 62. One could detect age spots on Disney’s hands and weariness around his eyes.

Miller recalls her reaction when she saw the figure.

“I think I started crying,” Miller says. “It didn’t look like him, to me.”

There are at least two Walt Disneys. There’s the company founder, Mickey Mouse designer and Disneyland creator who, later in life, visited millions of Americans via their television sets on the weekly “Disneyland” show and became known as “Uncle Walt.” Then there’s the man Miller knew, a grandfather who exists to the rest of us only via stories.

Sometimes these public-private personalities overlapped, such as the moments Disney would be paraded down Disneyland’s Main Street with Miller and her siblings in tow. Miller pulls out a photo showing her face buried in her lap as she tried to hide from Disney’s adoring fans. Or the times fans caught Miller looking out from Disney’s Main Street apartment, a place where she spent many nights as a child and that still stands today.

She recalls Disney stopping to talk to people at the park. “It was the dearest thing,” she says. He would take photos with fans and sign autographs. “I never ever saw him not be less than tickled and honored that people loved him so much.”

Imagineers argue that the two Walt Disneys are being lost to history.

“Why are we doing this now?” said longtime Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald. He cited two reasons, the first being Disneyland’s 70th anniversary. “The other: I grew up watching Walt Disney on television. I guess I’m the old man. He came into our living room every week and chatted and it was very casual and you felt like you knew the man. But a lot of people today don’t know Walt Disney was an individual.” The company also says that animatronic technology has advanced to a point it can do Disney justice.

Miller is sympathetic to Imagineering’s arguments. It’s clear she holds tremendous respect for the division, believed to have been the aspect of the company Disney held dearest to his heart. She gushes about Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the most recent major addition to Disney’s original park. “It’s amazing,” Miller says.

Yet she doesn’t buy into the theory that the company is simply out to preserve Disney’s legacy. If that were the case, she argues, then episodes of his weekly “Disneyland” show would be available on streaming service Disney+.

Worse, she worries an animatronic will turn Disney into a caricature. The robotic Lincoln works, says Miller, because we lack filmed footage of him. She wishes the company had abandoned the animatronic and created an immersive exhibit that could have depicted Disney in his park.

“I strongly feel the last two minutes with the robot will do much more harm than good to Grampa’s legacy,” Miller wrote in her letter to Iger. “They will remember the robot, and not the man.”

Portrait of American movie producer, artist and animator Walt Disney as he sits on a bench in the 1950s in his Disneyland in Anaheim.

(Gene Lester / Getty Images)

Miller has a number of letters and emails of support, some from former Imagineers, but has crossed out their names before handing them to a journalist. Most contacted for this story didn’t return calls or emails, or declined to speak on the record, noting their current business relationships with the Walt Disney Co. The legacy of Disney is “precious yet vulnerable,” said one such source, refusing to give a name because they still work with the company. “Isn’t it honorable when a granddaughter defends her grandfather? There’s nothing in it for her.”

Miller says she simply wants the company to respect Disney’s wishes — that he never be turned into a robot.

“In all our research, we never found any documentation of Walt saying that,” Imagineer Jeff Shaver-Moskowitz said in April. “We know that it’s anecdotal and we can’t speak to what was told to people in private.”

And therein lies a major hurdle Miller faces. Those who Miller says knew of Disney’s preferences — her mother, her father and Imagineers he was closest to, including confidant and former Imagineering chief Marty Sklar — are all dead. That leaves, unless someone else comes forward, only her.

Miller, however, is realistic. Her family’s biggest mistake, she argues, was selling the rights to Disney’s name, likeness and portrait to the company in 1981 for $46.2 million in stock.

It leaves the family little to zero say in how Disney is preserved in the park, although Imagineering says it has worked closely with the Walt Disney Family Museum and those descendants who are currently on the museum board in constructing the animatronic show.

But there’s one thing the Walt Disney Co. can’t control, and that’s Miller’s voice — and her memories.

On their trips to Disneyland, Miller’s grandfather was happy to stop for autographs, but he also signed — in advance — the pages of an office pad. When the crowds became a bit much, he would hand a park-goer an inscribed piece of paper.

“After 10-15 minutes,” Miller recalls, “he would say, ‘Hey, I’m with the grandkids today, and we have things to do.’”

It’s not easy being a Democrat in these Trumpian times, as each day brings fresh tales of conquest and pillage.

Still, despite all that, 4,000 stiff-upper-lipped partisans showed up in Anaheim over the weekend, seeking solace, inspiration and a winning way forward.

As mouse-eared pilgrims plied the sidewalks outside, the party faithful — meeting several long blocks from Disneyland — engaged in their own bit of escapism and magical thinking.

“Joy is an act of resistance,” state party Chairman Rusty Hicks gamely suggested at a beer-and-wine reception, which opened the party’s annual three-day convention with as much conviviality as the downtrodden could muster.

That’s certainly one way to cope.

But the weekend gathering wasn’t all hand-wringing and liquid refreshment.

There were workshops on top of workshops, caucus meetings on top of caucus meetings, and speaker after speaker, wielding various iterations of the words “fight” and “resist” and dropping enough f-bombs to blow decorum and restraint clear to kingdom come.

President Trump — the devil himself, to those roiling inside the hall — was derided as a “punk,” “the orange oligarch,” a small-fisted bully, the “thing that sits in the White House” and assorted unprintable epithets.

“My fellow Golden State Democrats, we are the party of FDR and JFK, of Pat Brown and the incomparable Nancy Pelosi,” said a not-so-mild-mannered Sen. Adam Schiff. “We do not capitulate. We do not concede. California does not cower. Not now, not ever. We say to bullies, you can go f— yourself.”

The road from political exile, many Democrats seemed to feel, is richly paved with four-letter words.

Two of the party’s 2028 presidential prospects were on hand. (Another of those — Gov. Gavin Newsom — has fallen out of favor with many of his fellow California Democrats and found it best to stay away.)

A highly caffeinated New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, of 25-hour filibuster fame, summoned past glories and urged Democrats to find their way back to the party’s grounding principles, then fight from there.

“We are here because of people who stood up when they were told to sit down. We’re here because of people who spoke up when they were told to be silent. We’re here because of people who marched in front of fire hoses and dogs,” Booker hollered in his best preacherly cadence. “We are here because of people who faced outrageous obstacles and still banded together and said we shall overcome.”

Tim Walz, the party’s 2024 vice presidential nominee and the weekend’s keynote speaker, was on hand after jetting from a morning appearance in South Carolina. He delivered the most thorough and substantive remarks.

He began with a brief acknowledgment and thanks to his 2024 running mate, Kamala Harris. (She, too, stayed away from the convention while pondering her political future. The former vice president’s sole presence was a three-minute video most noteworthy for its drab production and Harris’ passion-free delivery.)

By contrast, Walz gleefully tore into Trump, saying his only animating impulses were corruption and greed. He noted the callous hard-heartedness the president and his allies displayed during California’s horrific January firestorm.

“They played a game, a blame game, and they put out misinformation about an incredibly tragic situation,” Minnesota’s governor said. “They didn’t have the backs of the firefighters. They didn’t hustle to get you the help you needed. They hung you out to dry.”

Keeping with the weekend’s expletive-laden spirit, Walz blasted Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bull—” legislation and mocked congressional Republicans as the “merry band of dips—” who lend him their undying support.

But much of his 30-minute speech was devoted to flaying his own party — “like a deer … in goddamned headlights” — saying Democrats can blame only themselves for being so feckless and off-putting they made the odious Trump seem preferable by comparison.

“There is an appetite out there across this country to govern with courage and competency, to call crap where it is, to not be afraid, to make a mistake about things, but to show people who you truly are and that they don’t have to wonder who the Democratic Party is,” Walz said to a roaring ovation.

“Are you going to go to a cocktail party with somebody who’s super rich and then pass a law that benefits them?” he demanded. “[Or] are you going to work your ass off and make sure our kids get a good education?”

And yet for all the cursing and swagger and bluster, there was an unmistakable air of anxiety pervading the glassy convention center. This is a party in need of repair and many, from the convention floor to the hospitality suites, acknowledged as much.

Alex Dersh, a 27-year-old first-time delegate from San Jose, said his young peers — “shocked by Trump’s election” — were especially eager for change. They just can’t agree, he said, on what that should be.

Indeed, there were seemingly as many prescriptions on offer in Anaheim as there were delegates. (More than 3,500 by official count.)

Anita Scuri, 75, a retired Sacramento attorney attending her third or fourth convention, suggested the party needs to get back to basics by speaking plainly — she said nothing about profanity — and focusing on people’s pocketbooks.

“It’s the economy, stupid,” she said, recycling the message of Bill Clinton’s winning 1992 campaign. “It’s focusing on the lives people are living.”

Gary Borsos said Democrats need to stop dumbing-down their message and also quit harping on the president.

“There’s a lot of ‘Trump is bad,’ ” said the 74-year-old retired software engineer, who rode eight hours by train from Arroyo Grande to attend his first convention.

“What we’re doing is coming up with a lot of Band-Aid solutions to problems of the day,” Borsos said. “We’re not thinking long-term enough.”

Neither, however, expressed great confidence in their party going forward.

“I’m hopeful,” Scuri said. “Not optimistic.”

MOLLY-MAE Hague is celebrating turning 26 in serious style – by jetting off to Disneyland Paris in a private plane.

The former Love Island star is pulling out all the stops for her big day, whisking herself away for a magical trip full of fairy-tale fun and first-class luxury.

7

7

Molly-Mae gave fans a glimpse into the lavish getaway – complete with champagne on board and a Mickey Mouse cake.

Wearing Minnie Mouse ears and a designer outfit, the star looked every inch the birthday princess as she soaked up the magic of Disney in VIP style.

The influencer shared snaps of the her and her daughter Bambi posing in the park, calling the trip “the most perfect birthday eve.”

It comes just days after she was rushed to hospital after returning from a Dubai holiday with Tommy Fury.

In a YouTube video, Molly-Mae described the ordeal as a “weird bad dream”  and how it was completely out of character for her to speak about it so candidly.

She also told how it came just hours after she’d been pictured rowing with fiancé Tommy, 26.

The former PrettyLittleThing creative director explained that after arriving back in the UK, she had very little movement for two days – first due to the long-haul flight, then sitting through a seven-hour hair appointment.

Along with dehydration and stress from travelling with her daughter Bambi, two, this led to severe pain in her left leg.

Molly-Mae said at the time: “Basically yesterday I thought I had a blood clot and half of today I thought I had a blood clot in my leg.

“Obviously flying home from Dubai I was on the plane for like nearly eight hours… I didn’t drink like hardly any water. You know when you’re in mum mode and you’re just not really thinking like you’re trying to tame your child.”

She began to panic after feeling excruciating pain in the back of her knee that moved into her calf and foot.

After turning to ChatGPT to query the symptoms only made her more anxious, she then phoned 111.

From there, Molly-Mae was then told by a doctor to go straight to A&E.

She continued: “I was in so much pain, like it was in the back of my knee, so so strong. Like it didn’t feel like a dead leg, it was like a sharp stabbing pain…

Molly-Mae Hague – Five Ways She Spends Her Wealth

MOLLY-MAE Hague has raked in a whopping £48K a week. Yet what five things has the mum of one spent out on?

“Then it’s moving down into my calf, into my ankle, into my foot, like my whole calf is just in so much pain.”

The reality star described the hospital as “absolutely packed” and “such a sad environment”, saying she waited four hours before being told it would be another hour for a blood test – and then three more hours to get results.

Despite being advised by staff to stay, Molly decided to leave, worried about getting home in time to look after Bambi.

She said: “I need to leave. Like I can’t stay here any longer… We had like nothing with us this morning.”

Molly-Mae admitted upon waking up the the next day, the pain had mostly subsided, and she tried to carry on as normal – until she was hit with a wave of dizziness, nausea, and shortness of breath later that afternoon.

She described: “I had this awful awful like dizzy spell where the room was spinning. I thought I was going to vomit… I had this really really funny time where I was like I couldn’t breathe properly… almost like a bit of a panic attack but like it was just horrible.”

The star went back to hospital and underwent a full round of tests, where, thankfully, everything came back clear.

7

7

7

7

7

The Disneyland Resort’s new “World of Color” show begins with some regal nostalgia. Standing before a lagoon in Disney California Adventure, we hear the voice of Walt Disney, and see a host of Disney’s animated classics — “The Little Mermaid,” “Pinocchio,” “The Lion King” and more — projected on fountains to a patient, stately interpretation of “Rainbow Connection” from Boyz II Men.

We are prepped for a show of romanticized remembrance while we hear Disney recite the original dedication speech for Disneyland. The park, he tells us, is hoped to be a “source of joy and inspiration,” only when he hits the word “joy,” the show suddenly switches direction. That’s when the character of Joy from the “Inside Out” films arrives on the scene, and quickly stamps out any looks back. “World of Color Happiness!” is then off and running, a brisk, music-focused show dedicated to all things “happiness.”

Disneyland this July is turning 70, but the festivities officially launch Friday. “World of Color Happiness!” is one of many entertainment offerings that the park will highlight over the coming year, but it’s designed to be arguably the showcase production, as many others, such as the nighttime parade “Paint the Night,” are returning shows. And “World of Color Happiness!” sets the tone of the 70th anniversary celebrations. Disneyland faithful who remember the 60th anniversary a decade ago will recall an anniversary year that dug deep into Disneyland history and lore.

“Paint the Night,” initially introduced for Disneyland’s 60th anniversary, is back for its 70th.

(Christian Thompson / Disneyland Resort)

For the 70th, Disney creatives spoke of wanting to create a party vibe. Even the logo jumps out like a birthday cake topper, with the number “70” alternately blocky and rounded as if constructed out of frosting. Those after some of that patented Disneyland nostalgia will find it in a short, five-minute projection show over on the facade of It’s a Small World, but even that production — “Tapestry of Happiness,” which ever-so-slightly glances at the artwork of key Small World designer Mary Blair — is a jovial affair.

Similarly, a projection show on California Adventure’s Carthay Circle — “Celebrate Happy: A Little Bit of Magic Every Night” — is a two-minute, energetic morsel, one featuring Tinker Bell turning the upscale lounge and restaurant into Sleeping Beauty Castle one moment, and a canvas for fireworks in the next. Consider it a mini street fest. Elsewhere, Disney has tastefully added “Coco’s” Miguel and Dante to It’s a Small World, and the video game attraction Toy Story Midway Mania has been outfitted with a host of new targets, some worth 700 or 7,000 points.

Still to come, of course, is “Walt Disney — A Magical Life,” set to open on Disneyland’s official anniversary date of July 17. The show will feature the debut of an audio-animatronic figure of Disney, and is expected to retell the Disneyland creation myth. No doubt “A Magical Life” will inject Disneyland’s 70th celebration, which is scheduled to last through next summer, a dose of history, but for now, the resort wants guests tapping and dancing. Even a new show for tots, “Disney Junior: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live!,” is framed around throwing a house party, complete with a booty-shaking Goofy.

A good time, no doubt, and yet I found myself missing a hint of sentimentality while watching “World of Color Happiness!” Ostensibly a clip show, any “World of Color” presents a challenge in trying to stitch together a theme out of sometimes dozens of films — some that soar by across a pond of cascading fountains, and others that float into the sky on cleverly crafted projected bubbles. Songs given centerpiece showings here include “I2I” from “A Goofy Movie” and “I’ve Got a Dream” from “Tangled.”

The new projection show “Celebrate Happy: A Little Bit of Magic Every Night” is a morsel of energy that illuminates the facade of restaurant and lounge Carthay Circle.

(Christian Thompson / Disneyland Resort)

The narrative throughline follows the characters of “Inside Out” as they circle in and around other Disney films, so much so that “Happiness!” at times feels like an “Inside Out” short. Joy’s quest is to discover what makes everyone happy and she struggles with some other emotions, such as Sadness and Anxiety, and “Encanto’s” “Surface Pressure” arrives to remind us that happiness isn’t always easy to come by. But that moment is fleeting. Joy has a mission.

I wish it dug a little deeper. Happiness, after all, isn’t always our goal, and Disney’s films feature a breath of emotions, including a number that focus on finding strength in adversity. “Happiness!” glances at them, with quick references to “The Lion King” or “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” but the focus is on having a blast — the boy band crushes of “Turning Red,” for instance, or platitudes such as focusing on a dream and making a wish (“This Wish”). Have we already forgotten the lessons of “The Princess and the Frog”?

Yet “Happiness!” is so steadfast — borderline oppressive, I’d argue — in its message that here, at Disneyland, with family or friends, we are happy, that it became the rare Disneyland show I actually felt slightly excluded from. Happiness is a luxury, and audiences will bring their own emotions to the show. I arrived in the midst of what’s been a difficult year, one that has me turning to Disneyland, yes, but for comfort rather than pure joy.

Disney’s full dedication speech notes it’s a place dedicated to “the ideals, the dreams and the hard facts” that have created America, and throughout the park we find idealized messages, but those that help us make sense of the world rather than wish it away. Whether exploring gluttony and sin (Pirates of the Caribbean), the impermanence of life (Haunted Mansion) or perseverance in hard work (Snow White’s Enchanted Wish), Disneyland finds delight in the messiness of life.

“World of Color Happiness!” centers on a quest from “Inside Out” character Joy to discover what makes each of us happy.

(Sean Teegarden / Disneyland Resort)

By the end of “World of Color Happiness!,” which concludes with an upbeat commercial jingle of a tune from Fitz of Fitz and the Tantrums, I found myself wanting to scream at Joy: Leave me alone and let me be down. For while that is totally OK, too, “Happiness!” doesn’t aim to be anything more than a marketing tag line — “celebrate happy” — for Disneyland’s 70th.

And yet I found myself charmed by the pre-show for “Happiness!” Here, we see the Muppets, also celebrating a 70th anniversary, try and fail to give a safety spiel. Gonzo wants to perform a stunt, Miss Piggy aims to steal the show, and Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem fail to get the band back together. Ultimately, the job gets done, but not without an assortment of comedic fits and starts. Here’s betting it brings a smile to your face, and does so without telling you to do so.

There’s an oft-repeated Disneyland creation myth: Artist and animation art director Herb Ryman was given 48 hours to draw an early, heavily detailed and romanticized map of the theme park, which would be used to help sell the project to investors. Although that’s all true, Ryman’s work — one of the most famous and important Disneyland drawings — was far from the first map of Disneyland, as it is often colloquially referred to.

Ryman’s work was in fact an iteration of sorts, based upon years of master planning from Walt Disney and early collaborator Marvin Davis, a cinematic art director responsible for much of Disneyland’s early designs. Some never-before-seen work of Davis and other Disneyland designers will be unearthed in the new book “The Happiest Place On Earth,” from animation producer Don Hahn and theme park designer Christopher Merritt. Both Hahn and Merritt have over the years morphed into theme-park historians, and the book is being released July 15 to coincide with Disneyland’s 70th anniversary.

“Marvin Davis claimed that, as he sat there, probably in a room by himself at the studio with Walt standing over him poking him in the shoulder, he did 133 revisions of these maps to get to the Disneyland layout by 1955,” Merritt says. “A few of these maps have been shown before but a lot of these have not been seen before.”

The archives at Walt Disney Imagineering, the secretive division of the company responsible for theme-park experiences. Found in the archives were multiple maps from Marvin Davis that explore Disneyland’s roots.

(Walt Disney Co.)

The book will trace the development of Disneyland, starting in the early ’50s when Disney flirted with the idea of placing the park next to the studio in Burbank — concepts drawn by Harper Goff — to many of Davis’ gradual advancements of the theme-park form. Study them, and they reveal how many of Disneyland’s core ideas were in place by the early 1950s, although they morphed. Alice in Wonderland, for instance, was once envisioned as a walk-through attraction, to be placed across the way from an archery in Fantasyland.

Hahn makes the case that many of the early seeds for Disneyland were planted during a 1948 trip that Disney and animator Ward Kimball took to Chicago. There, the two attended the Chicago Railroad Fair, which had, among its attractions, Abraham Lincoln reenactments and a re-creation of a frontier town.

“His first memo he did when he got home from the Chicago Railroad Fair was all about trying to create these certain regions,” Hahn says. “If you look at the early Burbank parks, there was a western village, there was a stagecoach, there was a railroad station, there was a Tom Sawyer-ish island. A lot of those things came from the Railroad Fair.”

And there was a lot of early experimentation and many a discarded idea. One of Merritt’s favorite rejected concepts was a Tomorrowland exhibition dedicated to hunting for uranium. The attraction has been referenced by Disney and others over the years as a “lost” attraction, but “The Happiest Place on Earth” will feature some never-before-seen concept art from Imagineer Claude Coats.

“Uranium Hunt was an attraction strangely enough to be placed in Tomorrowland, although Claude designed it with Southwestern rock work,” Merritt says. “It was kind of outside rock maze, and the idea was they would hand you Geiger counters, and there was going to be real radioactive uranium embedded in the rock work that you would measure. In the end, they would give you a souvenir uranium to take home with you, which is just crazy-pants.”

Not all of the early Disneyland ideas are as outlandish. What follows are a few of the maps — and some early designs — that led to what would become Disneyland as we know it today.

Early sketches reveal an opera house, general store and more

A Harper Goff-drawn concept for a Disney theme park in Burbank. This is believed to have been drawn in 1951.

(Walt Disney Co.)

An early 1950s sketch layout of Disneyland, focusing on merchandising outlets.

(Walt Disney Co.)

Disney first considered a theme park across from its studios in Burbank, land that is today occupied by Walt Disney Animation Studios and the West Coast headquarters of ABC. The idea, in its early conceptions, included much of what would later make its way to Disneyland — a train, a steamboat and less detailed versions of Main Street and a Frontierland.

Of particular note here is the second photo, unearthed in “The Happiest Place on Earth” for the first time. The focus is on merchandising locations, but those who study the image will spy an opera house and a general store, believed to be the first time such concepts appear. There’s also a spaceport, a haunted house and a re-creation of London’s Tower Bridge. Shops are said to be themed to properties such as “Cinderella” and “Pinocchio.”

“It shows the holistic thinking, too, of not just the attractions but commerce,” Hahn says. “Where the stores would be, where the cafes would be, and kind of a guest-experience mentality. That was a real theme-park innovation, where you’re transported in time to Frontierland but the food and the costumes add up to Frontierland as well. You see the beginnings of that in a map like this.”

The beginnings of Frontierland and the Storybook Land Canal Boats

An early Disneyland map drawn by Marvin Davis. This map was likely drawn around 1953.

(Walt Disney Co.)

These early Disneyland schematics from Davis begin to capture Disneyland’s “hub” idea, that is, a central area that leads to and from its themed spaces. There’s a large theater space, believed to be designed in the hopes of Disneyland becoming a television production locale, and a significant plot dedicated to a river with surrounding attractions — the map calls for a space for otters, as well as a swamp area.

The Frontierland concept is still present, complete with a pony ranch and a stagecoach, as is a haunted house and a land themed to miniatures, a concept that would ultimately become the Storybook Land Canal Boats. Merritt notes that this design is location-agnostic, as Anaheim had not yet been decided upon for Disneyland.

Of particular note here is an introductory land like a Main Street, U.S.A., leading to a central hub. “These maps are revelatory when you look at them all in sequence,” Merritt says.

Davis’ early maps also highlight a residential street with large Victorian homes. The second image, in particular, mentions a town hall and a church. Hahn and Merritt believe this land was heavily influenced by the look and tone of “Lady and the Tramp.”

Main Street starts to materialize

An early Harper Goff design that influenced the look of Frontierland.

(Walt Disney Co.)

Some early Harper Goff designs for what would become Disneyland.

(Walt Disney Co.)

Early Disneyland concept art from Harper Goff

(Walt Disney Co.)

These, says Merritt, are a selection 1951 drawings from Harper Goff. The work is exploratory, in that it could have been envisioned for multiple parts of the park. While Goff’s impact on Frontierland is well documented — and Hahn notes, perhaps, an influence from Knott’s Berry Farm’s Ghost Town in these images — it’s also believed some of these designs were kicked around as a potential Main Street, U.S.A., concept.

Main Street, says Hahn, is often noted as being largely influenced by Disney’s time as a child in Marceline, Mo. While that isn’t really doubted these days among Disney’s fan base, Hahn says that theory wasn’t arrived upon immediately. He notes that some of Goff’s early concept work has a slight Victorian bent, which Goff drew from both “Lady and the Tramp” and his own childhood.

“It’s really the childhood of nobody,” Hahn says of Main Street. “It’s an idealized America. Goff grew up in Colorado, and a lot of these are his Victorian memories of his Colorado hometown. These are set designers who were bringing their movie chops to Disneyland.”

Welcome to the park’s destination: Anaheim

A pivotal early Disneyland map drawn by Marvin Davis.

(Walt Disney Co. )

Merritt and Hahn believe this third early schematic of Disneyland from Davis — the drawing is undated — is perhaps the first to envision Anaheim as the park’s destination. The image needs only to be rotated and one can see many of the pieces that would comprise the park — a Main Street, a central hub and, for the first time since Goff’s drawings of the Burbank park, a train that encircles the grounds.

Zoom in, and one will see there’s a large “emporium” to greet guests — and shoppers — on Main Street, U.S.A., as well as a castle-like moat to mark the entrance to Fantasyland. Still present are TV production spaces at the front of the park, and the map lists a host of attractions, including a horse-drawn carriage, train rides and boat rides.

Maps begin to show the Disneyland attractions we know today

A fall 1953 map of Disneyland from Marvin Davis.

(Walt Disney Co.)

A September 1953 map of Disneyland from Marvin Davis.

(Walt Disney Co.)

A September 1953 map of Disneyland from Marvin Davis.

(Walt Disney Co.)

These three Davis maps are from September 1953, made just days apart. The bottom drawing is a bit more simplified, as it was designed to be shown to TV networks and financiers. One can see a ride inspired by Disney’s “True-Life Adventures” on the right side of the park. This would ultimately become the Jungle Cruise and be flipped to the left side of the park.

All three maps, however, were instrumental in the final design of Disneyland, envisioning Anaheim as the ultimate destination. Of note in the middle image is a Recreation Land, home to a ball field, a mini-golf course and a bandstand. At this time, Disneyland was still envisioned as housing a circus, a concept that was explored in the actual park after opening but soon discarded. Yet Fantasyland, a Land of Tomorrow, Frontierland and what would become Adventureland are all present.

Fantasyland is home in these drawings to attractions themed to “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Peter Pan,” “Alice in Wonderland,” Pinocchio” (denoted as Pleasure Island) and “Fantasia.” Also present is what would become Autopia, signifying that Disneyland in late 1953 had many of its early attractions solidified. Still, many, such as a Mother Goose area, would pop-up and then disappear from the maps.

Says Merritt, “You’re going to want to get your magnifying glass to look at some of this stuff.”