Top 15 Wooden Coasters I've Ridden - Part 1

Top 15 Wooden Coasters I've Ridden - Part 1

     In the early part of the 1900s, wooden rollercoasters could be found everywhere if you lived between Virginia, Missouri, Illinois, and Maine.  In this general circle, it's still where you can find most of the wooden coasters in the United States.  Most were left to rot or were removed by the time World War II ended.  Some from those days survive.  In fact, the oldest surviving roller coaster, Leap-The-Dips (1902) still carries riders at Lakemont Park in Altoona, Pennsylvania.  (I have yet to go ride that one.)  Contrary to some less informed people, wooden coasters are still made and most were made since 1970.  They generally are not old and rickety.  They tend to have less accidents than the more popular steel coasters too.  The biggest problem with wooden coasters are their need for constant upkeep.  Without re-tracking and putting in new wood every few years, they tend to get very rough and painful.  The track of each wooden coaster must also be walked completely each day by the park's carpenter/mechanics to hammer back in any nails that come loose and to make sure the track is a-okay.  Today there are 115 wooden coasters in the United States.  In the world, there are only 174, so we have most of the ones out there.  Wooden coasters are very different from steel coasters.  They tend to be more rough and tumble, which some people don't like, but others like me really do enjoy.  They don't go as high as the tallest steel coasters, nor do they go as fast usually.  They tend to produce more laterals and have better airtime.  They don't have over-the-shoulder restraints.  Without further chit-chat, here's the list....  Please note that even considering the amount of parks I've visted, I've only ridden 49 wooden coasters.

1.  Roar at Six Flags America (Largo, Maryland) - near Washington DC

     In 1996, Great Coasters International brought back the long dormant twister-style wooden coaster with Wildcat at Hersheypark in Pennsylvania.  It was a big hit with it's sweeping turning drops and large amount of times the track criss-crossed under and over itself.  These coasters were popular in the 1920s, but frequently caused spinal injuries and indeed even deaths back then due to no restraints and badly designed layouts with huge g-forces.  Now with new technologies, these rides could be made safe.  The second coaster designed in this style by GCI was Roar.  It's smaller and more compact than Wildcat, but it has withstood the years better.  It's not butter smooth, by any means, but in the right seat you not only get the strong lateral forces these twister coasters give you, but you actually get some pretty decent airtime as well.  Now, I can't really recommend the park if you want a great theme park experience, the place is a dump with no trees and a horrible layout, but it does have a few good coasters, and if you just want to ride rides, there are worse places.

14.  Grizzly at Kings Dominion (Doswell, VA) - near Richmond, VA

     The early 1980s weren't as big for wooden coasters as the early 1970s were.  The new steel looping coasters introduced in the late 1970s were what everyone wanted.  However, Kings Dominion already had one of those when they opened the first shuttle loop coaster, King Kobra in 1977.  In 1982, they decided to build a wooden coaster deep in the woods, giving an enhanced sense of speed and isolation.  Taft Broadcasting, who opened Kings Island in 1972, and this park in 1975, had already done this one a bigger scale in 1979 with the opening of The Beast, the longest, tallest, fastest wooden coaster in the world at the time.  It's still there and takes up 35 acres of forest land.  Sadly, that ride has been neutered quite a bit since it opened with the addition of quite a few trim brakes along it's route, the addition of individual lap bars to replace the original single buzz-bar, seat dividers, and head rests.  It's still the best night-time ride in the world, due to the absence of lights on the route, but in the daytime it's kind of boring now.  (That's why I didn't put it on the list.)  The Grizzly is much shorter, smaller, and and doesn't go as fast.  It's modeled on Coney Island's Wildcat.  (Not the New York Coney Island, the Ohio one that was flooded and the reason Kings Island was built.)  Over the years, this one has been neutered too with the addition of seat dividers, headrests, the demolition of most of the forest it was in, and individual lap bars.  However, there are no trim brakes to cut the speed, and the ride still has very strong lateral g-forces.  It's still great at night too.

13.  The Boss at Six Flags St. Louis (Eureka, MO) - near St. Louis, MO

      Opened in 2000, this coaster has four drops greater than 100 feet.  It's one of the largest wooden coasters in the world, as well as one of the longest.  It's the fourth fastest wooden coaster on the planet, the eighth longest, and has the 7th highest drop.   Designed by the now defunct Custom Coasters International, it is a terrain twister coaster, which means that it uses the area's topography to it's advantage.  For example, the lift hill is only 122 feet, but the first drop is 150 feet.  It also criss crosses itself quite a few times and has strong laterals like a twister coaster does.  When I rode this in 2012 it became one of my favorite coasters of that trip.  The rest of the people with me thought it was too rough.  (The trains it uses are made by a company known for horrible wood coaster trains that vibrate very badly.)  I thought it was amazing.  Just by watching the video, you can tell it's a very fast, very fun coaster.  I do recommend the park use Topper Track, which is where they replace the top few layers (there's usually 8) of wood used for the track with steel.  (All wood coasters have a steel track.  The reason it's called a wooden coaster is that it doesn't use tubular steel track and uses at least some layers of wood for the train to traverse.)  The coaster is pretty rough, and Topper Track will preserve smoothness.  However, I think this coaster may be the next in the Six Flags chain to get a makeover by the same company; turning the wood track into steel/wood hybrid and adding inversions. 

12.  Georgia Cyclone at Six Flags Over Georgia (Austell, GA) - near Atlanta, GA

     I think we've all heard of the legendary Cyclone at Coney Island in New York.  It's a classic.  But many don't know that the coaster has been copied many times since the 1970s.  In 1975, Six Flags tried to save Cyclone from being demolished and were going to try and buy the coaster and move it to their Six Flags Astroworld park in Houston, TX.  However, thanks to loyal New Yorkers, the coaster was fixed up and put back in operation.  So Six Flags built a copy of the ride (only taller, faster, etc) at Astroworld in 1976.  (The coaster and park were both demolished in 2006 when Six Flags shut down the park due to bankruptcy reorganizing.)  Since then, the ride has been copied for Six Flags Magic Mountain in California (ride since demolished), Six Flags Great American in Illinois, two in Japan, one in Germany, and this one.  This one is considered the best replica.  It's a bit taller than the original, but 10 MPH slower somehow.  It was built back in 1990 by the Dinn Corporation, which doesn't have the best track-record for coasters.  Most of their coasters are rough and have not aged well.  However, thanks to Topper Track replacing most of the bad spots on this ride, it's great.  There's wonderful airtime to be had here, as well as a very good track layout.  It is a mirror image of the original Cyclone.  It stands 95 feet and is the first coaster you see as you enter the park.  Generally, the park's other wood coaster, The Great American Scream Machine, built in 1973 is considered better, but when I rode it, it was rough, airtime-less, and boring.  

11.  Wild One at Six Flags America (Largo, MD) - outside Washington DC

     Six Flags America is very lucky to have both of it's wooden coasters on this list.  This coaster is actually one of the oldest existing coasters out there.  It started life as the Giant Coaster at Paragon Park in Massachusetts in 1917.  When it opened, it was the tallest coaster in the world at 98 feet.  That record would not be surpassed until 1925.  It was reprofiled many times in it's original location due to fire and neglect.  When Paragon Park closed in 1985, everyone thought the Giant Coaster would be gone for good.  Then Wild World, a small park in Pennsylvania bought the coaster at the last minute at auction and moved it there.  They completely refurbished the coaster and reprofiled the ride so that it was like it was when it first opened, including adding back in two bunny hills and a unbanked helix at the end of the ride.  The park is now known as Six Flags America and the coaster is still considered a classic that is quite smooth and provides good airtime and laterals.  A true treasure.

10.  The Raven at Holiday World (Santa Claus, IN)

      Out in the middle of nowhere (about an hour from Louisville, KY) in Indiana is a park called Holiday World & Splashin' Safari.  It's a theme park with areas themed after the holidays of Christmas, Halloween, 4th of July, and Thanksgiving.  Splashin' Safari is one of the largest and best waterparks in existence.  The park is home to three wooden coasters and a kiddy steel coaster.  The three wooden coasters are considered three of the best ones in the world.  And I would agree with that.  Actually this one, which is only number 10 on this list, is usually considered the best one.  It was built in 1995 by Custom Coasters International, the same company that built The Boss at Six Flags St. Louis.  Back then, Holiday World had no adult coasters and wanted a wooden coaster that could be enjoyed by the whole family.  What they got was exactly that.  It's got some good airtime, a wide turn over the park's lake, it's in the woods giving an out of control feel to it and a feeling of surprise as you don't know what's coming.  It's also a relatively short coaster at 2,800 feet long.  It has an 85 foot first drop and a top speed of 48 MPH, which feels a lot faster going through those woods.  It won first place in the Top Wooden Coaster category of the Golden Ticket Awards (theme park awards) since it opened in 1995, and has only left the top 10 a few times since then as well.

9.  Prowler at Worlds of Fun (Kansas City, MO)

     One of the newer coasters on the list, this one opened in 2009.  It was designed by Great Coasters International, the makers of Roar at Six Flags America.  You may have noticed that I really love coasters that use the terrain to their advantage, and this one does that as well.  It's built in an isolated part of the park, meaning you get great rides on this at night.  Again, it's not the tallest, fastest, or the longest coaster.  In fact, the park's other wooden coaster Timber Wolf, beats this one in all those catagories, and is about 20 years older.  It also is not that great and is considered one of the worst wooden coasters out there.  Prowler is considered one of the best.  It simulates a creature running through the forest, and it does it quite well, as most of the ride is close to the ground and the ride doesn't really slow down until the end of the ride.  It's still in the top 15 of Best Wooden Coasters in the Golden Ticket Awards and was awarded Best New Ride in 2009 from the same body.   The use of Millennium Flyer trains, which I wish more parks would use,  makes the ride very smooth. 

8.  Lightning Racer at Hersheypark (Hershey, PA)

     This one is technically two coasters.  The coaster is made up of two tracks which not only race each other and are mirror images of one another, but include quite a few near misses with the other train.  It's located in a section of Hersheypark meant to evoke the feel of an early 1900s boardwalk, and this coaster just fits right in.  This is yet another coaster made by Great Coasters International, which made Prowler and Roar as well.  It opened in 2000, taking up pretty much the last large parcel of land that Hersheypark owned at the time.  Yet again, this another coaster that's normally in The Golden Ticket Awards list of Top Wooden Coasters in the top 10.  At night, the coaster is beautiful, as it has yellow chaser-lights along it's whole course.  This coaster too uses the comfy, well padded Millennium Flyer trains.  Both tracks on the ride have a high point of 92 feet, a first drop of 90 feet, a top speed of 51 MPH, and 3,393 feet of track.  If you haven't gone to Hersheypark before, go there.  It's got a great lineup of rides, coasters, shows, and food.  Truly one of the best parks out there.

Part 2 to be posted on Saturday night.

Many Days of Friday the 13th - Jason X

Jason X (2002)

     When we last left Jason, he was... well... He wasn't there anymore.  His mask had been taken down to the depths of hell by Freddy Kreuger.   Obviously, this was to set up for Freddy Vs. Jason, which was possible now that New Line Cinema owned the rights to both characters.  Sadly, it was not meant to be.  The film was stuck in development hell until it was eventually released in the summer of 2003.   That's ten years after Jason Goes To Hell was released.  By the time the late 1990s rolled around, Sean Cunningham, creator of the Friday the 13th franchise and producer of Jason Goes To Hell decided that a film would need to be released to keep audiences interested in Jason.  New Line was game, so they came up with the idea to set the film in the future so that the continuity would not be messed up.  They still planned to do Freddy vs. Jason.   Their ultimate idea was basically to rip off Aliens, Leprechaun 4: In Space (I shit you not.), and Alien: Resurrection.  I can get behind ripping off Aliens.  It's a great film.  However, the other two suck.  I mean, I haven't even seen Leprechaun 4 and can tell you it sucks.  (Though the premise does have my interest piqued.  I mean, it's a leprechaun... In space!!)  

    So should I give you what small amount of plot is in this great experiment?  Okay.  So it starts out in 2010, which was the future when the film came out, but is now the past.  Got it?  Good.  Jason is captured in 2008 and scientists attempt to kill him for two years before giving up and deciding to cryogenically freeze him.  However, the head doctor of the project and the military have decided that Jason is too valuable in the research of cellular regeneration, and decide to take Jason to another facility for more testing.  (The doctor is played by Canadian director David Cronenberg, oddly enough.  The filmmakers used his crew to make the film.)  Of course, Jason kills everyone (Cronenberg included) and attempts to take down the female doctor that wanted to put him on ice forever.  She tricks him into the cryo chamber and closes the door.  As he's being frozen though, he jams his machete through the door of the chamber into the doctor and the whole room gets frozen.  I'm sure this is scientifically impossible, but if people can believe the earth is flat, we can believe this in a movie.  400 years later, salvagers come along (sound like another movie to you?) and revive the doctor with their new nanotechnology healing her damaged tissue.  The arrogant, money obsessed professor on the expedition recognizes Jason and of course thaws him out too.  He thinks scientific research on Jason to produce medicines and weapons is important... Plus the money he'll get for it.  (This really sounds familiar.)  Of course, Jason senses gross stupidity and must wipe it out person.  Actually, the way he wakes up is kind of funny.  The people on the space ship, (Oh, I forgot to tell you.  We're on one of those.), they got bored waiting for the new doctor lady to wake up and looking at Jason's nasty rotting corpse and all go have sex with each other.  (I'm not exaggerating here.  They all go have sex.)  And as the orgasms happen in the other rooms, Jason comes alive.  It's quite hilarious watching it.  And the researcher who is studying Jason has one of the best deaths in the series.  

    And Jason goes on killing the occupants of the spacecraft one by one, a la Alien without the suspense.  However, and this is one thing a lot of Friday fans hate about this movie, it is pretty darn funny.  It doesn't take itself seriously at all.  You've got Jason in virtual reality holodecks, there's a sexy woman cyborg, Jason gets killed only to have the nanites bring him back as Cyberjason...  It's beautiful.  There's even some explosions in space and Jason flying through space for a bit.  It's utterly ridiculous.  I feel, however, that this should be embraced, not shunned as most people feel the film should have done to it.  If you can't have fun with a Jason film, you probably shouldn't be watching them.  As I've said before, do we really need 13 films of Jason killing off campers?  I mean, out of 13 installments, that happens in...  9 of them.  Only 8, 9, 11, and this one don't do that.  They change the formula for basically the 1990s and early 2000s, and though the hardcore fans hated it, I thought it was a good idea.  Surprisingly no one noticed that there were no campers in Freddy Vs. Jason either.  Everyone loved that one, and yet it didn't stick to formula either.  And besides, how can you not love the super cheesy, cringeworthyness of the following scene?

     Best of all, I'm not hoping for every single person to die in this film.  Sure, most of them I wanted to die, but not all of them as in The New Blood or Jason Takes Manhattan.  Maybe it's because their all Canadians in this one.  (No, I'm sure that's not it, but it's the only segueway I could think of.)   This was filmed in Canada, guys.  And most of the actors, if not all of them, are Canadian.  I mean, it even feels Canadian when you watch it.  It feels like a Syfy Original Movie, and Syfy films all their stuff in Canada.  In fact, two of the main actresses here were in Andromeda at the time.  (And that show sucks pretty bad, by the way.)  

    Now let me address the silliness of the film a bit more.  The script was written after Scream and Scream 2 had come out.  The studio would not agree to the film unless the script was given a rewrite to make it more self-referential like those films were.  It needed to be postmodern and hip.  So the script had self-referential humor and stupidity added to it.  Before that, it was a pretty straightforward Friday film.  However, the film does have the highest body count in the series at 28 on-screen deaths.  (There's a space station that inadvertantly is blown up that probably killed thousands of people, too.  And the characters in the film don't seem to really give a shit.)  My one beef with the film is that digital effects are used for gore and death scenes too much, and they look really really fake.  The movie was filmed in 1999/2000 and good digital effects could not be had for the budget of this film... and it shows.   Also it rips off Alien way too much.  There's even characters named Dallas and a woman has blood splurt right in her face like during the chestburster scene in Alien.  (And just like then, the actress wasn't expecting it, and unlike during the filming of Alien, she was screaming because the stuff got in her eyes and was burning really badly.)

    You may have noticed that I said the film was shot in 1999/2000 but that I said it was released in 2002.  That's because there was a shake-up at New Line right after the film was shot.  The new head of production hated the film.  Therefore the movie was shelved for almost two years before quietly being released in theaters.  (So quietly that I don't remember hearing about it, and I was 17 at the time and loved horror.  I thought it was direct-to-video for years.)  The movie was a flop and critics and many fans hated it.  Even as a placeholder, they hated it.  Filmed for 14 million bucks, the film made 16 million worldwide.  But really.... you need to see this one if you haven't.  It's great fun.  It knows it's stupid.  It knows that it won't be taken seriously.  However, like Mars Attacks!, some people just really don't get the joke.

Top 15 Steel Coasters I've Ridden - part 2

Top 15 Steel Coasters - part 2

8.  Batman: The Ride at Six Flags Great America (Gurnee, Il) - near Chicago

    This was the first inverted coaster ever built.  It opened way back in 1992.  It's not that high (100 feet), and it's not terribly fast (50 MPH).  However, the compact design means it takes it's inversions basically one after the other with no down time.  It's pretty darn intense, probably still the most intense inverted coaster out there, as the Bolliger and Mabillard designed coasters have gotten larger, but less intense since the mid-1990s.  This ride was so successful that clones of it were placed in 7 Six Flags theme parks.  (The one in Six Flags New Orleans was moved to Six Flags Fiesta Texas years later and renamed Goliath after the New Orleans park was flooded during Hurricane Katrina, never to reopen.)  Even other parks have ordered the same coaster, but used a different name.  The coaster is at two different parks in San Antonio.  (Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Sea World San Antonio under the name Great White)  There's one in Kuwait, one in Montreal (in park owned by Six Flags, but not a Six Flags park), one in Spain, and one in Japan.  It's one of the most cloned rides out there, and for good reason.  Recently, some of the Six Flags parks have begun facing the train backwards for a few weeks at a time.  I'm sure it's quite sickening.  Six Flags Great America has the best version though, due to the upkeep of it's themeing on the ride and in the queue line. 

7.  Raptor at Cedar Point (Sandusky, OH)

     From the first inverted coaster to the third one.  This one was built in 1994, and was the fifth inverted coaster built altogether.  1993 had seen the opening of Top Gun at California's Great America (then called Paramount's Great America) and the opening of the first Batman clone at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey.  Raptor opened just after Nemesis, B&M's 3rd invert, was opened at Alton Towers in England.  At the time, it was the largest, tallest, fastest inverted coaster in the world.  Unlike most think, it's not themed to the dinosaur (Jurassic Park had just come out the summer before.), but to present day birds of prey.  The ride is 137 feet tall with a 119 foot drop.  It goes 57 MPH and has 6 inversions.  It's a very different experience from Batman, as  it focuses less on close to the ground movements and more on interacting with the midway.  

6.  Maverick at Cedar Point (Sandusky, OH)

     At the same park as Raptor, but built 13 years later and located on the other side of the park is Maverick.  It's one of only two coasters at the park that's got themeing.  (The other being their mine train.)  The coaster is themed to the old west, and surprisingly the themeing is kind of well done.  Cedar Point is an amusement park, not a theme park.  They do have two old west themed areas in the back of the park, however, where this coaster and the aforementioned mine train reside.  This coaster also has a different manufacturer than Raptor.  This ride was made by Intamin, who made Millenium Force earlier on the list.  Unlike the other two coasters, this one broke no records.  It's just a really fun ride.  It's also one of the longer coasters at the park.  It's got two inversions, two launch sections, plenty of airtime (which can be slightly painful as it has shoulder harnesses), and goes 70 MPH at the height of the second launch.  

5.  Intimidator 305 at Kings Dominion (Doswell, VA) - outside of Richmond

     This is the only coaster on this list from my home park.  This is the sister coaster to Millennium Force at Cedar Point.  This one is 5 feet smaller at 305 feet, has a 85 degree first drop as opposed to an 80 degree one, is 3 MPH slower at 90 MPH, and is about 1,400 feet shorter.  However, most agree it's the better ride.  Whereas Millennium Force tried to give the feeling of smooth, graceful flight, this coaster is themed to Dale Earnhardt and NASCAR racing.  So it focuses more on an out-of-control feel with a lot of sudden changes in direction.  It's a very twisty, curve based layout, but still has some pretty good airtime on it's 3 hills.   It had modifications done to it after it's first year open, as people were blacking out during the first curve.  They made it so the end of that curve starts an uphill climb instead of waiting until after the curve is over to trim speed.  It opened in 2010, sadly in the Congo section of Kings Dominion, which doesn't make sense.  However, neither did placing the Italian Job coaster there or Flight of Fear, which is themed to aliens...

4.  Magnum XL-200 at Cedar Point (Sandusky, OH)

    This is the last Cedar Point coaster on this list, I swear.  If you've ever rode a steel coaster that was just turns and a bunch of airtime filled hills, you have this coaster to thank.  Those coasters that are over 200 feet tall, but under 300 and don't go upside down are referred to as hyper coasters.  And this one was the first.  It opened in 1989 and was the first coaster to break the 200 foot barrier.  It's 205 feet tall with a 195 foot drop.  It's just hills a pretzel turnaround, and more hills.  May not sound like much, but the airtime on this one is very very powerful.  And it's really really fun.  It's not too intense, so families can ride together.  There's great views of Lake Erie from the top of the first hill as well.  Night rides are a must.  It's over 5,000 feet long and reaches a speed of 72 MPH.  It was designed by Arrow Dynamics, a now defunct coaster company.  (They built most looping coasters until B&M came on the scene in the early 1990s.)

3.  Storm Runner at Hersheypark (Hershey, PA)

    Well, here's yet another western themed coaster.  And it's by the same company that did Maverick.  (Intamin)  This one too is launched, but other than that is a very different experience.  This is a one of a kind coaster.  It's short, but it packs a punch.  The ride is less than a minute long, but has 3 inversions (but no regular loops), some great airtime, and a very forceful launch to 72 MPH in 2 seconds.  It is 150 feet tall with a 180 foot drop thanks to Hersheypark's hilly topography.  It opened in 2004, the third of Intamin's accelerator coasters, and the first with inversions.  It's also the first one that wasn't essentially a one trick pony that just launched you up a really high hill, then down again.  (May I state that Hersheypark is one of the best parks in America?  Great well rounded selection of rides and coasters.)

    

2.  Mind Bender at Six Flags Over Georgia (Austell, GA)  - outside Atlanta

     Anton Schwartzkopf made the best steel coasters ever made.  Forceful, no shoulder harnesses despite the loops (he designed his coasters to utilize centripetal force to keep people forced into the seats), and very very smooth.  Also, they look great and have low height restrictions so kids can ride.  This coaster opened way back in 1978 as one of the first few looping coasters made.  The first coaster with a standard loop (corkscrews started in 1975) was opened in 1976 in California (also a Schwartzkopf) and parks rushed to put looping coasters in.  This coaster, like most Schwartzkopf ones, uses the terrain of the area it's in.  It's located in and around a small valley.  The ride technically only has two loops, but is advertised as having 3 due to having what we call an inclined loop.  It doesn't take you upside down, but it is shaped like a loop and overbanked.  The ride is one of the most fun forceful rides I've been on... and it's only 80 feet tall and only goes 50 MPH.  Height and speed aren't everything.  I can't wait to ride this again about 10 times this summer.

1.  Skyrush at Hersheypark (Hershey, PA)

     Here we are, the newest coaster on the list.  Opened in 2012, the coaster may not look that intense, but it's the most terrifying, thrilling coaster I've been on.  I couldn't put my hands up on this one for fear of my shirt flying right off my back and the feel of danger.  There's no real danger involved, but the airtime is so forceful that you feel as if you'll be tossed dozens of yards out of the coaster seat.  The trains have a unique design.  The two interior seats are above the train with a floor there and everything.  The two on the sides are above and to the sides of the track and there's no floor.  Here's a picture of what I'm describing.

   Pretty coaster, ain't it?  The coaster is basically a hyper coaster.  It's 212 feet high with a 200 foot drop.  There's no inversions, but there's lots of hills and curves.  Made by Intamin, it's sort of like a smaller, more intense version of Intimidator 305, but with the new seat styles and less spread out.  I'm serious folks, the airtime on this one I don't think has been surpassed.  Definitely the most intense coaster in North America (I've had this confirmed by quite a few other enthusiasts who have been to the parks I have not.)  Do not hesitate.  Take a trip to Hersheypark and ride this.  (And expect no circulation in your legs by the end of the ride due to how the restraints push down on you due to the G-forces.)  

Top 15 Steel Coasters I've Ridden - part 1

Top 15 Steel Coasters - part 1

    It is best to view this article on a device that allows embedded youtube videos to show.

     So as most of you probably know, I love theme/amusement parks.  I have since I was around 8 or so.  To date, I've been to 27 parks and ridden 185 coasters.  I hope to get that number up to 200 this year.  I've even been to one park (considered the best in the world by many) in Europe.  Now, some go to theme parks just for roller coasters.  That's not really why I go, but for conversation sake, that's what most want to know about.  I will admit that coasters are generally the big draw at parks, as they aren't usually the same rides you can find at a fair.  And a lot of people would assume that the bigger or faster coasters are the best.  Any coaster enthusiast would tell you that's false.  I've been on the tallest coaster in the world, and it doesn't do much.  It's at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey.  It launches you to 128 MPH, shoots you straight up a 456 foot tall hill and you come back straight down, and the ride is over.  They spent 25 million bucks on that one-trick pony.  Fun?  Yes.  Frightening?  No.  Worth the usual 2 hour wait?  Absolutely not.  No.  There are much better coasters out there worth a wait like that.  A 12 second ride is not.  Rides are good for different reasons.  Today I focus on the best steel coasters that I've ridden.  Please note that I've only been to 2 parks west of the Mississippi.  However, I've been to most parks east of there.  (Just a few left for me to visit, mostly small parks and the non-Disney parks in Florida.)  So without further ado, here's the countdown. 

15.  Afterburn at Carowinds  (Charlotte, NC)

     So this coaster opened in 1999.  It may be 15 now, but it's one of the best inverted coasters out there.  In fact, most of the best inverted coasters (where you hang below the track) were made before the year 2000.  The newer ones are bigger and faster, but they are more spread out, have less g-forces, and are generally kind of boring.  This one is only 113 ft tall, goes 62 MPH, has 6 inversions, and is less than 3000 feet long.  Originally named Top Gun: The Jet Coaster when Paramount owned the park.  Like the best inverts, the elements come quickly one after the other with little time to catch your breath.  Carowinds is located on the NC/SC state line, and this coaster is on the South Carolina side.

14.  Mr. Freeze: Reverse Blast at Six Flags St. Louis (Eureka, MO)

     Opened in 1998 to celebrate the horrible Batman & Robin film, this coaster has a twin at Six Flags Over Texas that opened the same year.  This is a launched coaster  (70 MPH) made by the same company that made Flight of Fear at Kings Dominion.  It is also what is called a shuttle coaster.  That means it isn't a complete circuit.  It goes up a large steep hill at the end of it's course and then does the whole course again back to the station.  You used to be launched forward then do the whole thing backwards, but in 2012 (when I rode it), the cars were reversed to launch you backwards.  That means halfway through the ride, you get to stare straight down 175 feet feeling weightless for a second.  And there's LIMs near the top of that hill that make sure you go all the way to the top of it.  Really odd feeling. The ride has one strange inversion that you go through twice.  It's called a top-hat, and I can't really explain it.  Just watch the video.

13.  Millennium Force at Cedar Point (Sandusky, OH)

     Cedar Point is known as the roller coaster capital of the world.  (Although Six Flags Magic Mountain in California has more coasters these days.)  It's located on a peninsula in Lake Erie, and the park has 16 coasters.  The second most in the world.  They tend to like to break records with the coasters they build too.  This one was no exception.  Opened in 2000, it was the tallest and fastest coaster when it was built.  It's since been eclipsed, even in the park it dwells in.  However, it's still a rush of a ride.  It goes 93 MPH, with a 300 foot drop at an 80 degree angle, and it's one of the longest coasters (in track length, not time) out there at over 6500 feet long.  Plus you get a great view of Lake Erie as you climb the 310 foot hill.  It was made by a popular ride/coaster company called Intamin, who builds all those huge drop tower rides that opened in the late 90s/early 2000s and also build the very popular Intimidator 305 at Kings Dominion.  In fact, that coaster is this ride's sister coaster.  Different track layout, but the same designer/model.  This was also one of the first coasters to use the cable lift system instead of the chain lift.  You'll notice it goes up much faster and quieter.

12.  Mystery Mine  at Dollywood (Pigeon Forge, TN)

     Dollywood is a great example of a theme park.  And one that's kept up it's themeing very well over the years.  It's got a downhome country charm to it, and the rides are themed well too, which is something modern parks outside of Disney and Universal don't really get into.  It's costly and most parks would rather just spend more money on a bigger coaster than have a good coaster with themeing.  Dollywood rejects that, and they are all the better for it.  Mystery Mine is themed to a cursed mine.  Something about a deadly vulture that caws when disaster is about to strike.  The coaster didn't break any records (besides being the first Euro-fighter style coaster in America).  It's only 1800 feet long, it's only got an 85 foot drop, only goes 46 MPH, and only has 3 inversions.  However, the great themeing makes the ride worthy of this list, and the darkness a lot of the ride is in makes for a few jolting surprises.  This video is hard to make out at times, but everything important is shown.

11.  Phantom's Revenge at Kennywood (West Mifflin, PA) - that's outside of Pittsburgh

     This ride actually started out as one called The Steel Phantom, which was the fastest coaster and had  the steepest drop when it opened in 1991.  It also had four inversions and was painful as all getout due to the headbanging the shoulder restraints caused.  In 2000, it was announced that coaster would close due to complaints about neck injuries and pain.  After emails and phone calls complaining about the closing of the coaster (you just can't please some people), the decision was made to modify they ride instead.  They would take out the loops, and change the course the ride took after it's second hill (the former record-breaking one, as the second hill goes into Kennywood's ravine) to include fast curves and airtime hills to replace the loops.  Once the work was done, the coaster had a drop that was 3 feet longer, it went 85 MPH instead of 80, it was no longer painful because the shoulder harnesses were replaced by lap bars, and the track was 200 feet longer.  Oh, and it's apparently one hell of a better ride.  (I never rode Steel Phantom.)  See for yourself.

10.  Bizarro at Six Flags Great Adventure (Jackson, NJ)

     Okay, so at least there's one good reason to go to Jersey, and I'm sure it's the only one.  Six Flags Great Adventure is considered one of the best Six Flags parks, and for good reason.  It's got a great selection of coasters.  This coaster actually opened in 1999 as Medusa, the world's first floorless coaster.  Made by the ever popular coaster firm of Bolliger and Mabillard, it featured 7 inversions, a 132 foot drop, and a almost 4000 foot long course, with a top speed of 61 MPH.  Most prototype coasters tend to have just a few inversions and be pretty short, so this was actually quite surprising for a new type of coaster.  On a floorless coaster, there is no floor between your feet and the track.  The station has a portable floor that lowers and goes off to the side once the ride is about to start.  It's a gimmick that doesn't really work unless you're in the front seat in my opinion.  I didn't pick this coaster because it was floorless, but simply because it's got a great track layout and obstacles.  The obstacles were added in 2009 when the coaster was rethemed to Bizarro, which is sort of an alternate universe negative, stupid version of Superman.  The track was repainted and on-board audio was added, which made the ride cooler.  Sadly the audio is now gone, but this video was taken when the audio (which is a collection of film quotes) was still running.

9.  Blue Fire at Europa Park (Rust, Germany)

    Europa Park is what you get when you combine Disney World with Busch Gardens.  It's beautiful, very well themed, has great coasters, lots of rides for families and kids, and has great food too.  It's owned by Mack Rides, which is a ride and coaster company (they made Avalanche and Ricochet at Kings Dominion among other rides), and was built to showcase their custom rides and coasters.  This particular coaster was their first to include any loops (which is amazing as it was their 10th coaster).  It was opened in 2009, and it includes a launch to 62 MPH in 2.5 seconds, 4 inversions, and only lap bars.  It broke no records, but it's one hell of a great ride.  Unlike most American coasters, it's themed.  It starts with a small dark ride portion and is themed to energy.  It's supposed to be like a test of a new clean energy type.  The lap bars make it so the loops give great hang-time, which means you feel as if you would fall out if it wasn't there.  (Most coasters actually have great centripetal force in loops, so even without harnesses, you'd not fall out.)

Part 2 coming up tomorrow!

Many Days of Friday the 13th - Part VIII and Jason Takes Manhattan

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

Okay, so when we last left off, (which was sadly over four months ago), I talked about Part VI: Jason Lives, which was one of the better installments in the series.  I also talked about Part VII: The New Blood, which was one of the worst in the series.  Well, my friends, things are about to get even worse than Part VII.  We're now up to the film that got Paramount so ashamed they sold the franchise.  The one that everyone makes fun of.  The one has about 1 1/2 minutes of footage actually shot in Manhattan even though Manhattan is in the friggin' title.  That's right.  It's pretty universally considered the worst in the series.  It's Jason Takes Manhattan.  I mean, can you even take it semi-seriously with a title like that?  It's almost as bad as Leprechaun In Space.  But at least no one could ever take Leprechaun even remotely serious.  I'll give it this though, the trailer was... interesting.

Isn't it kind of funny that the crime situation in New York City was so bad in 1989 that the movie's slogan was "Now New York has a new problem!"?  Seriously though, what difference was one more murderer going to make?  Let's get to the story.  The movie starts on Crystal Lake (where else?) as Jason is again revived (This time by an underwater electric line that hits his body.  Yeah, I don't get it either.).  Well, the day after he's revived, some graduating teens from the local high school are taking a trip from Crystal Lake to New York City on the SS Lazarus (get it?).  How the lake that through all the other films seems to be self-contained all of a sudden ends up leading to the Atlantic Ocean is never explained and is just one of the many inconsistencies in the film.  As the ship heads to New York, Jason slowly kills of the drug-addicted cast that are dressed like they're from Saved By The Bell.  I almost expected the main guy in the picture to start talking to the camera and get Jason involved in a get-rich-quick scheme.  Now, of course, about 3/4 of the way through the film, those living start to discover dead bodies and abandon ship.  Strangely enough, they were right outside of New York City when they did that, though no one saw the lights.  They get to New York City and Jason follows.  Chaos ensues.  Doesn't sound too bad right?  I mean, not what you were hoping for with the title, but no worse than the other films, right?

Well, here's why this film is a chore to watch.  Despite the bad acting, flimsy plot, and the fact that it doesn't take place in Crystal Lake so it feels different, it's also got many other problems.  The acting is VERY bad.  I mean afternoon special bad.  It does have two good actors in it.  Kane Hodder is an okay Jason.  He's a lot of peoples favorite one.  Not mine, but he's okay.  He does good stunt work here.  Then there's Peter Mark Richman, who is one of the last people you'd expect to see in a slasher film.  He was mainly known for his TV work as a main character on Dynasty and the one I know him for, his recurring role as Chrissy Snow's (Suzanne Sommers) father, who was a priest, on Three's Company.  Here he plays a tyrannical teacher chaperoning the kids on the trip.  He brings along his niece, who he is the guardian of, and who he's very overprotective of.  Besides those two actors, the work here is shoddy at best.  Still, we expect that in these films, right?  

   Well, there's also the fact that this is pretty much a bloodless film.  Remember how the MPAA caused so many cuts on Part VII: The New Blood that it was pretty much bloodless and you didn't see a lot of the kills?  Well, the same thing applies here.  I think there were two deaths here that had some blood in them.  There's one involving a harpoon gun and one involving a girl being smashed in the face by a Flying V guitar.  (which we see from her point of view, so it's not gory or anything). Seriously, even when Jason cuts a guy's throat, it doesn't bleed.  Paramount and the director, Ron Hedden, knew the MPAA were going to force a lot of cuts, so they didn't film much bloody stuff.  And sadly only about 4 of the deaths in the film are really memorable.  There's the Flying V I mentioned above, a guy being drowned in a barrel of toxic waste, and two great ones.  There's a scene where Jason  allows himself to be punched 60something times by the token black dude, and then when the guy is tired out, literally punches the guy's head off.  Not joking.

   I'm sure it got a lot of applause or hollers from the audience.  Sadly, it was hokey back then, and it's hokey now.  Not even any blood, and very much a plastic head.  Still, kudos for originality I guess.  Then there's my favorite death in the film.  It's pretty painful looking and the guy didn't even see it coming.  Jason puts a hot sauna rock through a guy's chest.

Oh, and have you noticed how horrible the music is?  Once Harry Manfredini stopped doing the scores after Part VI, the music never was as good.  And it's darned awful here.  So we have bad music, bloodless deaths, bad acting...  Seriously, what's left to watch?  Well, there's a tiny bit of side and rear female nudity, so there's that I suppose.  (If you like girls with big 80s hair.  It's not my thing.)  There's a lot of drug use in this one too.  Cocaine, heroin...  Not the small time weed that was in some of the earlier films.  In fact, our heroine forcefully gets shot up by some New York junkies with heroin.  (And then the rest of the crew lets her drive, oddly enough.)  So basically you watch the film for two nude scenes of girls that aren't really that attractive and to watch people shoot up.  

   Well, what about New York?  That has to be cool right?  Well yeah, the one and a half minute they actually shot in New York (Times Square to be exact) is okay.  And Jason doesn't kill anyone in that scene either.  He just kicks a boombox and shows his face to some punks.  Most of the film was shot on sets to look like a boat interior.  The New York scenes besides the one mentioned before were shot in Vancouver, Canada.  Now, Vancouver looks nothing like New York.  It looks about as much like NYC as LA looked like The Bronx in Rumble in The Bronx.  (Remember the desert-looking mountains in the background in that one?)  Now they got the feel of 1980s New York right in some ways though.  The place was nasty and a hellhole.  But I don't believe the sewers and alleyways had barrels or millions of gallons of toxic waste in them as the film concludes.  (That's how Jason's killed here.  Toxic waste... And he reverts back to his child form in death, apparently, which even the director doesn't understand anymore.)  

   The film got the worst critical reviews in the series (never that great to begin with) at the time.  It also got the lowest box office returns for the series at that time.  (Releasing the film in late July probably wasn't a good idea, either, as 1989 was a huge year for summer blockbusters.  It opened the same week as Turner & Hooch, the week after UHF, and the week before Parenthood in the same summer as Last Crucade, Batman, Star Trek V, Ghostbusters II, Lethal Weapon II, The Abyss, Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Licence to Kill, When Harry Met Sally, etc.  Huge summer.)  Paramount decided that it was time to stop the Friday films and sold the franchise rights to New Line, who already had the, now more popular than Jason, Nightmare on Elm Street films.  (Those would quickly go away too, soon.)  And it would be another four years before Jason came back to the big screen... sort of.

Jason Goes to Hell:  The Final Friday (1993)

   So, this film splits fans of the series.  It's so different from any film in the series.  Jason isn't actually physically in this one other than for a few minutes.  For the second time in a row the film isn't set at Camp Crystal Lake either.  It's got a lower IMDB score than even Jason Takes Manhattan does.  In a way, it's the Halloween VI: Curse of Michael Myers of the series.  It brings in this whole new mythology that a lot of fans absolutely hate.  There's this new idea that Jason is a supernatural force that can take over peoples bodies if they eat his heart, and the heart basically compels them to do so.  Sounds kind of stupid, and I guess it is, but I unlike the bulk of diehard Friday fans, I actually really like this film.  It's got pretty good production values, it's genuinely funny in parts but takes itself seriously, the acting is a lot better, and I like that they moved the film in a different direction.  

   The film was supposed to be the last film, yet again...  They should know by now that doesn't work.  Although I guess this was a different production company so maybe they didn't know.  (They had just killed off Freddy as well in Freddy's Dead.)  They even brought back Sean Cunningham (creator of the franchise and director of the first film) back as director.  You may also notice that Friday the 13th isn't in the title of this film.  Paramount kept the rights to the title.  New Line had brought the rights to Jason Vorhees.  That's why until the 2009 remake, Friday the 13th was not used.  And Sean Cunningham hated the hockey mask brought in during Friday Part III.  He was not a huge fan of the sequels and wanted something different.  Remember, the first film wasn't about Jason at all.  He didn't do the killings.  The story here has Jason being killed in the first five minutes.  He's literally exploded apart.  But his heart is eaten in a moment of weakness by the coroner and the coroner possessed by Jason and now Jason has to find a new-born relative to get into, as it's a rule that he can only be reborn that way.  The bodies he gets regurgitated into (literally) tend to decay and get shot up, etc as he tries to get to his niece's daughter to possess it.  (Yeah, this means Jason had a sister that was never mentioned until now.  Go figure!)    Pretty crazy, pretty out there.  But at this point, if you're looking for a clear plot that makes sense out of this series, you're out of your mind.

     Now, this movie was released in theaters with a lot cut to be an R rating.  However, most copies available from the day it came out on VHS and laserdisc back in 1993/1994 have the unrated cut.  And this is the only version I've seen.  They went into the film knowing a unrated version would be released, so they filmed all the gore they wanted.  And boy in this one you get it too.  It's the goriest film up to this point in the series.  It's quite violent.  It's great fun.  Broken bones coming through the skin, a guy's head shoved in a fry vat, people coughing up blood when they die, lots of nice gooey brainsplattering, and probably the most graphic sex scene outside of porn ending in one of the most graphic deaths in the series.  And look what happens to the people that Jason possesses after he leaves their bodies....

    Think of it as Hellraiser as a Jason film.    And it's over the top too.  There's this redneck family that owns the town diner in the film.  The mother is a loudmouth bad-tempered cursing-every-word chunky woman, and hilarious.  The father is a really short guy who is controlled by his wife.  The son is actually quite sweet-natured and a perfect mix of the other two.  They all of course die, and it's amusing seeing it happen.  During the premier of the film, the woman's death got a loud cheer from the audience partially for the way she died (she gets her jaw bashed in) and the message it sent that she finally shut up.  Also, it seems everyone in this film has a gun.  There's a ginormous amount of shooting in this film.  I guess squibs were inexpensive, so that was the way to go since there were also so many creature effects (Jason transfers as a creature between peoples mouths) and some early digital effects. 

   One of the best aspects of the film is the fact that Steven Williams is a main character in it.  He was the black cop in The Blues Brothers, he was Mr. X in The X-Files, he was Captain Fuller in the TV show 21 Jump Street.  He was Rufus in Supernatural, and he's always amusing.  This film is no exception.  Besides Jason, he makes this movie.  He's funny, he's cool, he breaks the hero's fingers just for fun... (And he's also a good guy, surprisingly.)  He plays a guy that's been hunting Jason for many years (though where he was when Jason was continuously in Crystal Lake, who knows...) and is here to finish him off.  The movie also has Erin Gray, who's known for playing Colonel Deering in Buck Rogers in the early 1980s.  One shot of the Jason-worm entering her body through her vagina after she dies in the film was shot after her shooting days were over and no one told her about it.  She found out seeing the film in theaters and thought it was distasteful and found it violating.  I kind of have to agree with her.  They should have asked first.  It's kind of like the tree rape scene in The Evil Dead.  (which Sam Raimi regrets)  

   Now, the film made more money than Part VIII did.  It made back five times its budget.  With four years since the last film, people weren't as burnt out on the franchise.  The MPAA was back to allowing more gore in films.  (They were more focused on nudity and drug use now, and there's no drug use in the film really.)  There were also very few horror films coming out at the time.  The slasher film effectively died back in the late 80s.  This isn't a slasher film, but more of a creature feature.  There's little stabbing here.  There's a lot of other types of death though, and I like that aspect of the film.  In fact, there's very little to this film that I don't like.  It's one of my favorites in the series because unlike VII and VIII, it's not a chore to watch.  It's great fun, which is what the first six films were.  And the fun quota won't go away with the next installment, another one hated by a lot of Friday fans.  It's not the film everyone wanted that came next.  Everyone wanted what was teased at the end of this film.

They wouldn't get that film for another 10 years due to rights issues.  What they got was another 9 years of no more Jason films and a whole lot of unfounded rumors and development hell.  Stay tuned...

The Genius of Walt Disney part 3

The Genius of Walt Disney - part 3

      So we've gotten through Disney's death now.  His death was mourned throughout the world, his movies and TV shows being popular all over the civilized world.  And no one really saw it coming.  Imagine working at the Disney animation studios or developing stuff for Disneyland or the new Florida project, and all of a sudden the guy you took orders from, the guy that gave the go-ahead, the guy who's name was attached all of this... was suddenly gone.  Jungle Book wasn't finished yet.  Groundwork had not yet begun on the Florida project.  Heck, even the primarily finished new attraction at Disneyland, Pirates of the Caribbean wasn't ready to open yet!  Thankfully, Walt worked on a far in the horizon fashion.  In other words, he planned things years in advance.  This meant that Disney could keep working on ideas that Walt had had for another ten years or so.  With this plan, the Disney company would develop things for the two theme parks that Walt had talked about wanting to do for the next many years.  Things like Space Mountain, which opened in Disney World first in 1975, and later in Disneyland in 1977, were planned by Walt in the early 60s, but put off due to new ideas or being too busy.  Same with the Haunted Mansion, which ended up opening in 1969 in Disneyland, 1971 in Disney World.  (The Disneyland facade was actually finished in 1963, 3 years before Walt died, and 6 before the attraction opened!)  It wasn't only Disney's death that postponed these attractions though.  For two years, 1964-1965, Walt had been heavily involved in the 1964 New York World's Fair.  It was here that he and his Imagineers perfected "audio animatronics".  It's A Small World was originally built for the New York World's Fair.  (The original is now housed at Disneyland.)  The Carousel of Progress debuted here and was then moved to Disneyland, and is now at Walt Disney World.  Also the animatronic show Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln debuted, and is still at Disneyland.  (It was basically an animatronic Lincoln doing a speech, and even standing up from a sitting position!)  

     The same considerations were made in regards to film-making.  When Disney had problems with P. L. Travers allowing him to make Mary Poppins, he bought the rights to the lesser known Bed-Knob and Broomstick, which was written by Mary Norton, author of The Borrowers book series.  Well, Mary Poppins happened, and did very well despite P. L. Travers hating it.  After Walt died, the same production crew and one of the main actors from that film got back together to have another go at a magical musical with animated parts to it.  The film did okay, but it's never been considered on the same level as Mary Poppins by most.  (I truly love Bedknobs and Broomsticks.)  The Aristocats, which premiered in 1971, was the last animated film to be approved to be made by Disney himself.  It's not held in such high regard today, and I think that's due to the animation on it.  They tried a new style that was just so garish and ugly...  The film's plotline is okay, even if it is just Lady and the Tramp meets The Jungle Book.  Sadly, Disney's animated films would go downhill from The Jungle Book and wouldn't get their stature back until 1989's The Little Mermaid, though if you ask me, The Rescuers (1977) is one of the best animated films they ever did.  That's right folks, Robin Hood (1973), Oliver & Co. (1988), The Fox and The Hound (1981),  and The Great Mouse Detective (1986) are not considered classics by critics.  Heck, 1985's The Black Cauldron was even disavowed by the company itself from 1985 until 2000!  It took that long for it to be even put on video or even discussed by anyone at Disney, as they considered it their worst mistake.  (It's not that bad, just their first PG rated cartoon.)  In fact, the Disney animation studios almost closed in the 1980s.  They weren't making much money anymore and were doing better with live action films, which were cheaper.  The theme parks were the big money makers during the 1980s, especially with the opening of Tokyo Disneyland in 1983 and EPCOT in Florida in 1982.  The theme park division brought in 70% of the company's profits at that time.  It didn't help the animation department when, in 1979, Don Bluth, one of their big animators, took half the staff with him to form another studio; a studio that would compete with Disney (and win) for much of the 1980s.  Disney almost died in the 1980s.  It's hard to think of, but they did.  If Michael Eisner hadn't have come in in 1984 and busted heads trying to get people to stop thinking "What would Walt have done?", Disney most likely wouldn't be a film company anymore.

    I guess the main thing to think about here is what would Walt think of today's Disney Company?  Well, I think there are things he'd love, and things he'd hate.  This brings me to Walt's shortcomings.  Let's face it.  Walt Disney, despite being a great innovator and seeing the inherent goodness in humanity, was a very socially conservative guy.  Men with long hair or beards couldn't get into Disneyland until the late 60s after Disney himself had died.  And oddly enough, once the ban was relaxed, the "Yippie Invasion of October 6" happened.  Basically a bunch of miscreants decided to go claim Tom Sawyer's Island in Frontierland as their own country and have a smoke-in.  Everyone knew they were coming though, and Disneyland had thousands of police ready if things got out of hand... which they did.   Here's a good article if you'd like to know more.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-hill/yippies-disneyland_b_919271.html

   Anywho, yes, Disney thought Disneyland was for a traditional Norman Rockwell family crowd.  Even the workers at Disneyland back then could have no facial hair and men had to have short hair.  (It was only a few years ago when they began to allow workers to have neatly trimmed mustaches.)  Walt was also big on anti-communism as I stated in the last installment, naming people he had grudges with to get them out of the business.  He was involved in the right wing MPAPAI, which was antisemitic as well.  (Most agree that Disney only found this out later, and that's when he left the group.)   Two early cartoons, the 3 Little Pigs and The Opry House include characters dressing and acting as Jewish pedlars and Hasidic Jews.  Mickey Mouse did blackface in one of his early cartoons as well.  Still, while these are racially insensitive, they were normal back in the 1930s.  Ever seen the natives in King Kong?  Ever seen 1927's The Jazz Singer?!   The hero of the story makes his living doing shows in blackface, and it was one of the most successful movies ever! 

     Okay, so maybe that wasn't one kids would see...  Okay, let's compare Disney's animated output with the ever popular Warner Bros. cartoons.  The worst Disney got?  A few blackface caricatures and mild Jewish jokes.  That's not great, but America was heavily anti-semitic before and even during WWII.  Let me show you some of the stuff Warner Bros (who no one really boycotts, unlike Disney) got into.  How about All This And Rabbit Stew from 1941?  If this isn't overbearingly racist, then what is?  And unlike Disney, which holds or redoes its mess-ups from those bygone days, WB let this fall in the public domain, which means back in the early days of video cassettes, you could get this cartoon and other embarrassing things on cheapo cartoon collections.

    Disney did have some bad relationships with some Jewish people, it's true.  However, even people like Art Babbitt who was fired by Disney during the Animators' Strike, sued Disney and won, and was forcefully rehired then quite, didn't consider Disney a racist.  There are some out there who will take a person's minority status and give that as a reason someone is disliked.  However, that's not always the case.  Some say Disney hated blacks.  There's no evidence of that.  He did use the "n word" on some occasions back in the 30s and 40s, this is true.  However, sadly, that word was widespread back then, especially among people that came from places in the south (Disney lived in Asheville, NC for a while) and the rural midwest (he lived in rural Missouri too.).  In fact, Disney campaigned very hard to get the man who played Uncle Remus in Song of the South, James Baskett, a Honorary Academy Award.  This is the movie the Disney Company refuses to release in America due to threats from the NAACP to publicize the fact that the movie is about happy slaves.  (The film is set, as is the book actually after the Civil War, but few people have seen the film or actually read the Uncle Remus stories to know that, but just want publicity.)  

    The thing about Walt that saddens me the most though is how he treated his young actors.  Bobby Driscoll (that's his picture just above) is the saddest one.  He played the main kid in Song of the South, So Dear To My Heart, and Treasure Island.  He also did the voice of Peter Pan.  His likeness was used as the visage of Peter Pan.  Sadly, after that film, Disney dumped him.  He'd gotten acne and Disney thought he looked more like an actor to play the part of a bully now.  Other studios wouldn't give him a chance as he was seen as "Disney's kid" and not a serious actor.  His parents were forced to remove him from a school just for actors and put him in public school where he was teased for being in Disney films.  His grades plummeted and he started using drugs, mostly heroin, which he could afford from back in his Disney days.  He got a few TV appearances, but that was all.  He moved to New York in the 1960s, still on drugs, and started to do artwork with Andy Warhol.  He disappeared in New York, and almost a year later, his mother contacted Disney to help find him.  Well, two young boys had found his dead body about 9 months ago.  No one knew who the body was until fingerprint matches were found by the NYPD.  The public didn't learn about his death until 1971 and Driscoll's body is still in a pauper's grave on Hart Island.  Then there's Tommy Kirk.  He played the older brother in Old Yeller, The Shaggy Dog, Swiss Family Robinson, etc.  Another one of Disney's favorite child stars.  Thankfully, he still lives to tell his tale.  And Disney may have had good cause to fire him when he did.  See, Tommy Kirk is gay.  That in and of itself in the 1960s was enough to get you fired on the spot.  However, this relationship he started when he was 23 was with a 15 year old.  And the mother found out and told Disney himself.  I can see how that could get one fired even today.  Back then the age difference wasn't a big deal like it is today, so it was probably just the gay thing and Disney wanting to keep the wholesome image of his company.  And to a Disney apologetic, he did keep it private.  He gave him one more movie part too, as The Misadventures of Merlin Jones was a huge hit.  And Tommy Kirk found success at American International Pictures doing beach party movies with Annette Funicello.  Around 1964, he too began using drugs.  So much so he doesn't really remember much of the 1960s.  And to be truthful, Kirk blames mainly himself for his career downfall.  "I don't blame anybody but myself and my drug abuse for my career going haywire. I'm not ashamed of being gay, never have been, and never will be. For that I make no apologies. I have no animosity toward anybody because the truth is, I wrecked my own career."

    So is Disney a bad guy?  No.  Not in the least.  I think he had some racially insensitive humor at times, as do I and many other people.  He treated child actors like all studios do.  Like cattle.  And it's a shame.  He had some dubious connections at times, but got out of them fairly quickly.  No, I think he's disliked by some these days just for being successful, for the path his company has taken since his death (all the litigation and stuff), etc.  No, in my opinion, Disney was one of the many great personalities we lost during the 1960s.   I think he'd love today's Pixar films...  They embody all that he strived for in his early animated films with great characters and storylines that the whole family can enjoy.  As an innovator, he'd have loved computer animation as well.  I'm not sure he'd like the modern day Disney Channel.  (Who does?)  I'm also sure he'd hate that Disney owns Marvel comics, as he probably would have thought them too violent and mean-spirited.  And besides, he didn't create them.  I'm sure he was rolling in his grave when Disney released the horrible animated films they did from 1997-2006 too.  We'll never know, I guess.