Creative Costuming: Discovery Island! +Finale

Ladies and gentlemen, it's here. The last costume set of this project.


FINALLY! *throws confetti!*
I've been working on these since...what, May? I can't remember. But whatever, this phase of the project is DONE! And now I can focus fully on the floats, which is actually a bit easier, believe it or not! I don't have to worry about anatomy with those, haha.

So here's the last of the Animal Kingdom sets, and the last set in the Creative Costuming series, Discovery Island/Oasis.

Not sure if I should consider this the Oasis or the Discovery Island... Clearly, the inspiration here is the centerpiece, the Tree of Life. It's always an amazing experience to head out of the Oasis and see the Tree, even when I know it's there.
The Oasis is noted for the various birds that populate it, like the macaws. I wanted to incorporate them somehow, so that's where those ropes and feathers come from.

Well, I hope you folks enjoyed watching this part of my project! Stay tuned for the floats!

________________
Costume Count: 28/28

Creative Costuming: Africa!

ALMOST DONE. ALMOST DONE. ALMOST DONE.

Here we have Africa!

Okay, this set was a little easier to design than Asia, but to color? A whole-day nightmare. I'm still not happy with it, and I doubt I ever will be. Don't be surprised if these colors change a bit.  
Also, please, nobody read too much into their skintone.

Like the Asia set, I wanted to use face-makeup to represent an animal. At first I wanted to do zebra stripes, but cheetah spots are closer to markings that are traditionally African.

ONE SET LEFT, FOLKS!!!!
____________
Costume Count: 26/28

Creative Costuming: Asia!

Alrighty, back on the trail with the Animal Kingdom costumes, now that MGM is done and outta the way.

Here we have Asia!

This one [along with Africa, which will be the next set] was a bit tricky to figure out. I mean, how do you come up with a design to represent a smaller version of a whole continent?!


I remembered the flags with the various animals on them being a consistent decoration in Anandapur (on the Trek, near Everest, etc.). So I definitely wanted to include those. The Yeti being a prominent icon of this area was another thing to consider. Thus, I used one of the masks you see while waiting in line to face off with the beasty. The tigers on the Trek were another 'icon' so I had them represented in the make-up of the performers.

The inspiration for the clothing was taken from statues and drum decorations found around Anandapur. The color scheme was a pain to figure out because I didn't want them to be too dull or too vibrant. For now, I'm okay with these colors. But who knows, I may go back and change them if I come up with something better!

_____________
Costume Count: 24/28

Creative Costuming: Pixar Place!

I really hate to admit creative defeat. But I'm afraid I've hit a rather large wall, and I cannot get around it.

That wall's name is MGM Studios/Disney's Hollywood Studios.

See, this park, with it's classic Hollywood charm, doesn't really have much to offer in terms of costume inspiration. They have the Citizens of Hollywood already populating the streets, and I really can't bring myself to design new characters like that. The only areas of the park that I was able to come up with sets for were Pixar Place [scroll down if you don't wanna read my creative woes] and the Animation Courtyard.

I thought about doing a set based on Tower of Terror (grayscale costumes), but again, what's so exciting about that? Nothing much. It also clashes with my goal to not design costumes based on any one particular ride. The downside to MGM is that they don't have really distinctive "lands", like MK or Epcot have.

Disney cuts corners with their parades all the time, and I'm afraid that's what I'm gonna have to do with mine. So the only costume set you'll see for MGM are Pixar Place and Animation Courtyard. The remaining two sets that would dance around the float would just be the Citizens of Hollywood pasted in there. Apologies to anybody who wanted to see what I could come up with for this park. But my creativity does have its limits...

With that said, here's the Pixar Place set!

While Pixar Place is mainly designed to shrink you down to toy-level, in promotion of the only attraction in the area, I didn't want to outright make these Toy Story-costumes. I used the bouncy ball from the Luxo, Jr. short as the main inspiration. Aside from Luxo, Jr., it's a well-known "logo" of Pixar. I did think of basing these costumes off Luxo, but they wouldn't be comfortable for the performers! There's a hint of Luxo on the guy's hat, tho.

Pixar films are known for being light-hearted (for the most part) so sticking with the primary color scheme that the bouncy ball has worked out!

So...yeah, that does it for MGM's costumes. Back to work on Animal Kingdom~!

____________
 Costume Count :  22/ 30  28

Creative Costuming: Animation Courtyard!

Again, I'm jumpin' around...To start off the MGM Studios set, we have my favorite area of the park- and home to the studio that made my favorite Disney film "Lilo & Stitch"-, The Animation Courtyard! I veered away from doing anything for this area at first, but after a chat with a good Disney pal o' mine, I decided to come back to the idea.

Animation, as you all may or may not know, is my passion, and is one of my favorite parts of Disney. It's a gorgeous and limitless medium and without it, I don't think Walt Disney Studios would be the same.

I prefer 2D/tradtional animation over 3D/CGI, so I wanted to pay tribute to that part of Disney history.

Really wish I could've worked at the Animation Courtyard as part of my internship, since it *is* my major. Oh well! I visited it enough to stalk characters, haha

The girl's skirt is composed of animation paper with Mickey sketches on it. The film strips have pencil-test animation of Mickey doing a running cycle and of various expressions. [I take no credit for drawing those! They're authentic pieces I pasted in].
The brushes and pencils on the costumes are taken from The Magic of Disney Animation sign, same with the film strip detailing. I went with the same color scheme, too. It screams, MICKEY MOUSE, so it all works together with the sketches.

Here's a bit of a close-up:

_______________
Costume Count :  20/32
COMPLETED COSTUME:

What WDW means to me...

I should've posted something yesterday, but I was so tired/busy/lazy....But I would like to take the time now to put in my personal thoughts on WDW in honor of the 40th.

Disney, Disney, Disney.....where do I even begin?


My first trip to WDW was in 1991 [I was three], so my first time there was when the 20th anniversary was going on. I really can't recall much of the trip because I was still too young to retain memories. But clearly, the vacation with my parents was memorable and meaningful enough that we had to come back next year. And then again. And again. And again. My sister Brooke was pretty much born into WDW, as my mom was pregnant with her and she was a baby on her first visit, if memory serves.


I can't place years to these, but here are some scattered memories from my trips when I was younger:
-burning my hand on a footlight in the Marketplace
-scaling the pile of Mickey and Minnie plushes in the Christmas Shoppe
-standing on a lightpost in Liberty Square, screaming, "MICKEY! MICKEY!" when he made the corner into the area during Spectromagic [we have video evidence of this]
-openly criticizing Fantasmic's dragon as nothing more than, and I quote, "A dragon's head on a stick with streamers" [video evidence of this as well]
-almost getting bit by a softshell turtle on one of the shores of Caribbean Beach Hotel
-the park about to close, mom and I trying to find dad  and Brooke(this was before cellphones), only to find that they were getting an ear-hat embroidered
-the Goosebumps Show at MGM Studios and getting freaked out by the giant hamster
-hammock fights with my sister on the shores of the Caribbean Beach

Man, there are too many memories attached to this place that I can't even remember all of them!

And rightfully so. I mean, how can you NOT have countless memories of WDW?!?!

We always stayed at the Caribbean Beach Hotel. We're not sure why, especially since there's so many other lovely hotels on the property. But I think we fell in love with it and didn't want to try anywhere else! To this day, it remains to be my favorite hotel. Oh sure, I've ventured into just about all of the other hotels, just to get a looksie. But it's the nostalgia that keeps me attached to CB. The rooms have a distinct smell to them. Heck, even the air feels different there. And for some reason, I actually welcomed rain while we stayed there. Not sure why.

I didn't think my love for this place could get any bigger, but that was before I participated in the Disney College Program from February to June '09. Prior to that, I had what my friends and I dubbed "Disney Con" in August '08 which was a BLAST! I had never been to the parks with friends before and it was a wonderfully fun experience! I love my folks, but it's nice to run around like, well, kids. Without adult supervision, haha.

But yes, the DCP was truly a life-changing experience for me.
I was lucky enough to be spared a position at floater carts at Downtown West Side [the least magical place on property, if you ask me...] and was instead asked if I wanted to be a 'Fairy Godmother In Training [FGIT]' at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in the Magic Kingdom.

You cannot get any more magical than that.

'course I said yes! And to this day, I am still grateful to that Cast Member that pulled me aside to ask if I wished to switch  roles. Because if that didn't happen, I probably never would've met the people I did and make lasting friendships with almost every one of them!
I also never would've been able to make lasting memories for so many guests if I remained at DTD. I mean....it didn't hit me until I got a little card from this 'princess' I worked on, saying, "Thank you for spreading Pixie Dust on our vacation! - love, the [insert family name here]" Like...wow. I was a part of family's Disney memories. Me. Some chick from Tinylittletowne, New Jersey. I even made it into somebody's Youtube video of their daughter's transformation.
It still blows my mind whenever I think about it. It feels surreal when I think back to what one of my managers said one day, before opening the castle-doors: "You guys are working in the most photographed building on the planet."


The whole duration of my internship, even when I wasn't on-stage, I made wonderful memories for myself. I had all the time I wanted to explore the parks. No family, no friends to say, "Let's go here!/I wanna go back to the room/I don't wanna eat there/I don't want photos with Mickey/etc." I think that was one of the highlights of this experience for me. I admittedly got used to everything so quickly. I'd put my iPod on while walking around World Showcase and make a beeline to the Funnel Cake stand for some fried-ice cream. And if I felt like it, hop in on a party of 9 and have some tasty Teppan Edo for dinner (got to the point where the cooks recognized me...). I developed a lot of routines like that that I probably never could've done if I had somebody else with me.

After my internship, I probably talked people's ears off for MONTHS about everything I did. Surprised nobody slapped a piece of duct-tape over my mouth after awhile. But that wouldn't have stopped me, oh no. I would've still told my stories, but in muffled form.

[Wow, have I really written all this stuff so far? Sorry, readers! Guess it's still true that I talk too much about this place, haha]

But anyway, in an effort to wrap this up...

The Walt Disney World Resort has touched a good majority of my life. I have people in my world that I never would've met if we didn't have WDW as a connecting bond. And the thing I've noticed about all these WDW-crazy people? They all have beautiful hearts and minds. They're genuine.

There's a reason why tears well up in my eyes whenever Wishes! or "The Magic, Memories, and You!" or some version of "When you wish upon a star" pop up on my ipod while I'm driving.  There are millions of memories attached to such beautifully simple notes and lyrics. People's smiling faces. Adventures that I would do again in a heartbeat. Pixie dust fights. The fireworks that look like shooting stars. It's such a rush of emotions and nostalgia that overcome me.

I'm forever grateful to Walt Disney and his Imagineers for their hard work and determination to make such a happy, wonderful, magical, amazing, [insert every other worthy adjective here] place. I wouldn't be the person I am today without it.