Evening Entertainment: Heather O'Rourke and Morey Amsterdam promote Disneyland renovations in "Believe You Can... And You Can!"

You didn't think playing a virus was the only way I'd celebrate Morey Amsterdam's birthday, did you?  In this 1983 TV special, made as a thinly-veiled promotion for the new renovations at the "Fantasyland" part of Disneyland, Amsterdam plays "J. Fauntenoy Chiffenrobe," a strange sprite creature who helps a young girl upset that she has to move by, er, showing her how cool Fantasyland is going to be.  The girl is Heather O'Rourke, POLTERGEIST's Carol Anne, whose tragic death in 1988 lends the cheery promotional vehicle an accidentally morose tone.  It would honestly be pretty creepy anyway, what with a really random morality about wishing and dreams and being penalized for not dreaming enough.

Journey to the Disney Vault on Walt's birthday!

But don't open that door.  Robert Smigel's TV Funhouse cartoon from 2006 is one of the series' best, encompassing every Disney joke imaginable into a three minute masterpiece.  Happy birthday, Walt!



JOURNEY TO THE DISNEY VAULT from glen steinmacher on Vimeo.

Watch This Thing - A 1981 Disney animated short about smoking

Disney is certainly not an uncommon company when it comes to social interest films (just look up THE STORY OF MENSTRUATION) but this 1981 animated short about a dude ranch employee who tries cigarettes to impress a girl doesn't seem to have emerged on any of their compilations, even as a random bonus feature. Shame, as the animation style is pretty nifty, and the 16mm transfer here doesn't really do the colors any favors.  Director John Ewing was the layout artist on the Ralph Bakshi-animated "Spider-Man" animated series.