Walt Disney Movies in Pacific Islands 1950s

Walt Disney (seen above clowning around on a beach in Hawaii with his older brother, Roy) was raised in the landlocked midwestern United States, but as soon as he left there for California, he fell in love with the Pacific Ocean and the many relaxing beaches within a few miles of his home.

Millions of Americans feel the same way. A day at the beach has become a summertime tradition. That's been reflected through the years by Disney in many of their cartoon shorts, movies, TV shows, attractions and resorts.

Here now are the top Ten Disney beach connections:

Alice and Oswald visited the beach in some of the earliest Disney cartoons

The animation innovation that started things off for Walt wasn't Mickey Mouse, it was Alice in Wonderland. No, not the 1951 movie, but rather a series of shorts from the 1920s featuring a live action Alice interacting with a cartoon world (prior to that, animators had done the reverse; cartoons jumping into our world.) They were produced by Joseph P. Kennedy, the father of future President John F. Kennedy.

Called The Alice Comedies, one of them – released in August 1927 – was titled Alice The Beach Nut. Young Lois Hardwick starred as Alice, who along with her animated cat, Julius (the first named Disney cartoon character) spends a day frolicking at the beach. Julius is a lifeguard, and saves Alice from a fish trying to pull her under. It was one of the last Alice films.

That same year, Oswald The Lucky Rabbit – the direct predecessor to Mickey – had his day at the beach, in a short directed by Walt himself and animated by Ub Iwerks. It was called All Wet and was released to theaters by Universal.

All Wet has a little more action, as Oswald tries to impress a fellow rabbit, Fanny Cottontail, by abandoning his beachside hot dog stand and pretending to be a lifeguard. When Fanny gets in trouble in the water, it's Oswald who has to play real lifeguard to save her and win her heart.

The Fab Five have all had their own beach movies

Disney's "Fab Five", Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto, each got their own cartoon shorts set at the beach (though Mickey and Minnie co-starred in theirs.)

The first, from 1931, was a black and white Mickey film called The Beach Party. Clarabell Cow, Horace Horsecollar and Pluto spend the day on the shore with Mickey and Minnie. They all have fun in the water until an octopus scares them away.

In 1939, Donald and Pluto took an inflatable horse to the ocean to relax in the sun in Beach Picnic. Pluto gets tangled up in the rubber horse, causing mayhem. On the sand, Donald brings a picnic basket, which is quickly overrun by ants.

On his third trip to the beach, Pluto went by himself, but wasn't alone. 1941's Pluto's Playmate sees him meeting a baby seal who interferes with Pluto's fun in the sun. At first, Pluto doesn't like the seal, but when it saves him from a squid attack, the two become fast friends.

In 1953, Goofy took his son, George Jr. (not Max, that name was given to his son in the 1990s. Originally, he was named after George Geef, Goofy's official name) to the beach in the short Father's Weekend. As is typical with Goofy, mayhem ensues.

The Wonderful World of Disney TV Show spent some time at the Beach

Sunday nights were special for kids in the 1960s and 70s, as The Wonderful World of Color (later The Wonderful World of Disney) on NBC was must-watch television before heading to bed to get ready for another school week.

Two of the most beloved episodes of that show were actually a TV movie broken into two parts. 1962's Sammy The Way Out Seal tells the story of two young brothers, Arthur and Peter Loomis (Michael McGreevey, Billy Mumy) who love spending their summer days at the beach. On one of those days, they find an injured seal, who they adopt and name Sammy.

The boys keep Sammy a secret from their parents and everyone else while they help him to heal. The secret catches up to them, and they are forced to make a decision, whether to try to keep Sammy as a pet or to release him back to the sea.

It's one of Disney's finest made for TV comedies.

Kurt Russell showed off his beach combing and surfing skills

Disney's biggest young star in the late 1960s and 70s was Kurt Russell. His Dexter Riley series of films (The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Now You See Him, Now You Don't and The Strongest Man In the World) were hits for the studio, so they were hoping for the same in 1973 when they cast him as Bart, a young surfer and leader of a group of beach denizens in SuperDad. Bob Crane (best known from TV's Hogan's Heroes) plays the father of Bart's fiancée. He tries in vain to connect with Bart, even by surfing himself. Eventually they connect.

Despite Disney's hopes, this movie (released during the Christmas season, not summer, where it would have made more sense) was a massive flop. It's rarely been seen since.

A group of kids headed to the beach on the hunt for a pirate's buried treasure (no, not The Goonies)

Ten years before The Goonies went on a search for One Eyed Willie's treasure in Steven Spielberg's 80s classic, Disney released their own film with a similar theme.

Set just after the Civil War, 1976's The Treasure of Matecumbe follows the adventures of a young boy (Johnny Doran) who inherits a treasure map from his deceased father and then sets out on a quest with some friends and helpers to head to the beach where the treasure is buried to find it before his father's nemesis finds it first, or worse, kills him for it.

Disney stalwart Peter Ustinov co-stars as one of the adults assisting Doran in his search. Vic Morrow plays the villain. The beach scenes were filmed on the shores of Bay Lake at Walt Disney World, within sight of the Magic Kingdom. (Though you don't actually see the modern day resort in any of the shots.)

Two young girls met on the beach and became lifelong best friends

A huge hit for Disney/Touchstone in 1988, Beaches is a tragi-comedy semi-musical that follows the fate of CC Bloom (Bette Midler) and Hillary Whitney (Barbara Hershey) who meet under the boardwalk as kids in Atlantic City, New Jersey and bond instantly. Their decades long friendship carries them through many ups and downs, and – occasionally – back to the beach.

Tears flowed among the laughs as audiences watched this film in theaters. It was also a big success on home video and cable. Even those who've never seen the movie know it from Bette Midler's stirring rendition of the song "The Wind Beneath My Wings." It got heavy radio play and won Grammy Awards for record of the year and song of the year.

Walt Disney World added a bunch of beach themed resorts and attractions

When Walt Disney World was under construction in the late 1960s, they had to dredge up a lot of swampland to put in the infrastructure for the parks and resorts.

After removing sludge and water from the site of what's now the Seven Seas Lagoon, they discovered pristine and beautiful white sand underneath. Before filling the lagoon back in, Disney took that sand and used it to line the front of the Polynesian and Contemporary Resorts, creating attractive beaches for guests to enjoy when the resort opened in 1971.

For a while, those were the only beach themed places on property. That all started changing in 1988, when the Grand Floridian Resort– with its homage to Victorian era Florida beach retreats – became the third property to open along the Seven Seas Lagoon and its white sand beach.

Shortly after that, other beach themed properties followed, from the Caribbean Beach Resort in 1988, to Disney's Boardwalk (modeled after Atlantic City of the 1920s) in 1996.

In 1990, a four diamond award winning resort, called the Beach Club, was opened near Epcot. It's meant to resemble a New England beach town. Much of the theming puts you in the mind of the Atlantic Ocean. It shares the property with a sister resort, The Yacht Club, is in sight of the Boardwalk and is also used for Disney Vacation Club homes and conventions.

In 1989, a beach themed water park, Typhoon Lagoon, was added to Walt Disney World. It's themed as if a storm hit central Florida and left debris everywhere, including a boat stuck on top of a hill, called Mount Mayday. It also has one of the largest artificial wave pools in the world.

Blizzard Beach, with its whimsical story of a snow capped mountain melting in the Florida heat and a mascot, "Ice Gator," opened in 1995. This one has a hill, too, called Mount Gushmore. Some of the water in the park is chilled to match the icy theme, which is a relief on hot Florida days.

Both Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach attract over two million people per year, ranking them second and third on the list of busiest water parks in the world.

Mickey and friends starred in a popular beach themed music video for kids

Beginning in 1986, Disney mined its vaults for old clips that they could compile and match with music for a series of direct to home video sing along films aimed at kids. Most were around thirty minutes, and they were instantly popular.

In all, over thirty of these sing along videos were released under a variety of titles.

By 1993, the videos had progressed beyond just showing clips to shooting new live action footage with young actors and Disney characters. Some of the themes were campouts, visits to a theme park (naturally) and a circus.

In 1995, Beach Party at Walt Disney World was released. It features Mickey and friends singing a variety of beach/summer songs like "Surfin' Safari", "Hot, Hot, Hot" and "Celebration." Captain Hook shows up to lead a band of pirates and kids in a chorus of "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirates Life for Me" and Ariel drops by to sing "Part of Your World."

For anyone who had kids in the 1990s, these videos are very familiar. The songs are still probably playing in their heads.

Disney bought their very own beach for guests

Disney's got beach resorts in places like Hawaii, Vero Beach and Hilton Head Island. None of those beaches, however, are entirely owned by them.

In 1997, the company fulfilled a long standing goal to solve that dilemma, by securing from the Bahamanian government a 99 year lease on a private island, called Castaway Cay.

First settled in 1783 and originally known as Garda Cay, Disney had been familiar with the private beach, since they filmed Splash there in 1983. It was also later used for the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. Disney now uses it as a place for their cruise line guests to enjoy a day at the beach in another country while still completely on Disney property.

The Disney Channel paid tribute to a Disney Legend with a movie in her honor

Annette Funicello was Disney's first television superstar. After her run as a Mouseketeer in the 1950s, she made a few more movies for Disney. She then branched out, making movies for other studios, including a series of wildly popular "at the beach" comedies in the 1960s, co-starring Frankie Avalon.

These films were innocent and fun. Annette was careful to protect her squeaky clean image by not doing anything in those films that Walt wouldn't approve of, even though he had no direct control of the series.

In 2013, the same year that Annette died at age 70 from complications of Multiple Sclerosis, The Disney Channel premiered a TV movie that was an homage to Annette's beach comedies, drawing inspiration from them. They also dedicated the film to her.

The fantasy plot of Teen Beach Movie has two young teens being swept by a big wave from the 21st Century back to the 1960s, right into one of the beach movies themselves. (Not the actual movies, a Disney copy of them) A clash of cultures ensues, and the teens also have to battle a villain before returning to the present day via another big wave.

The film was enough of a success to inspire a sequel. The soundtrack was also #4 on the charts for the year.

Annette would be proud.

Whichever beach you get to enjoy this summer, be sure to have fun and stay cool! Walt certainly did.

Walt Disney Movies in Pacific Islands 1950s

Source: https://topdisneyblog.com/the-top-ten-disney-beach-connections/