My Close Encounter with the King of Pop

Without realizing it at the time, I almost tripped over Michael Jackson.

On a trip to Universal Studios Orlando in 2003, I was stumbling back to my room at the Royal Pacific after a late night at CityWalk. It was about 1:00 a.m. as I turned a corner and walked up a sidewalk leading into the back of the hotel. Sitting on the ground, legs outstretched, was a very familiar looking guy with dark hair and a pale complexion, wearing a white shirt and dark pants. He was slumped against a wall next to the doorway of a video arcade. In what little light there was, he appeared to be reading a paperback book. There wasn't anyone else around who I could see.

I had to maneuver carefully to avoid stepping on him. As I passed, we glanced at each other and smiled. We may have said hello.

In my slightly inebriated state, I thought, "A Michael Jackson impersonator at Universal. Cool." And up to my room I went.

That was no impersonator.

The next day, my friends were abuzz about news that the actual King of Pop had brought a group of kids to Universal Studios and had taken over an entire floor of our hotel.

"Why didn't someone tell me?" I whined. "I saw him last night. I could've at least said something intelligent to him."

Or not, considering the number of beers I'd had.

As today's sudden passing of Jackson rages over the news networks, blogosphere and Twittersphere, I keep replaying that very brief encounter in my head. Then, he would've been a year beyond the baby dangling incident in Berlin, but two years away from the media circus child molestation trial that would move him from "strangely eccentric" status to "full freak" in the court of public opinion. At that single moment in Florida, though, he was just a guy--no bodyguards, no entourage, no glove, no mask, no dark shades--enjoying some late night quiet time to himself while some of the kids traveling with him played in the arcade.

I don't expect he got a lot of quiet time in his life. Maybe it was better I didn't realize it was actually him.

Love him or hate him, you probably have a strong opinion about Michael Jackson. Maybe more than one. He was a ridiculously gifted entertainer known equally for his off-the-chart bizarre behavior. Still, if you grew up in the '70s or '80s, at least one of his songs is in your life's soundtrack ("Off the Wall" is in mine). If you're a Disney fan from a slightly later time, say around 1986, you know Jackson as Captain EO, leader of a misfit gaggle of alien creatures on a mission to bring music to a mysterious planet ruled by Angelica Huston (in her best Wicked-Witch-Meets-Queen-Alien mode).

That eponymous 3-D film was a major coup for Disney, considering the talent involved. Produced by George Lucas and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, "Captain EO" showcased the era's biggest musical superstar at the absolute height of his popularity--was there ever a better fit for Disneyland than the perpetual man-child Jackson? Despite looking a bit goofy when he wasn't performing his signature dance moves onscreen--a rough and tumble leading man he wasn't--Jackson was clearly having the time of his life, making the 17-minute flick an entertaining hoot with theater-filling special effects. It would play for a dozen years at at least one Disney park or another. You can still enjoy it on YouTube, even if that format doesn't really do the film justice.

"Captain EO" was the subject of the cover story for the Fall 1986 issue of "Disney News." In the article, producer Rusty Lemorande didn't hesitate to single out Jackson: "He was a composer, a co-choreographer, a dancer, a singer, an actor, a collaborator on every level, and it each case, he collaborated with an amount of passion unequaled by anyone else in the show."

Time and circumstance have clouded Jackson's legacy. We sometimes lose sight that at his peak, there was nothing the man couldn't do.

For me, I'll always remember him as the guy I recognized right away, but didn't.

Rest in peace Michael. I hope you enjoy your book.

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Experiencing Bob Gurr and Fifty Years of the Matterhorn, Monorail and Subs

Called upon by Walt Disney to design the Matterhorn Bobsleds, imagineer Bob Gurr wasn't sure if he was the right guy for the job.

"I never designed roller coasters," he says. "I hate 'em."

For someone who's never been a fan of thrill rides, apparently he did alright as the Matterhorn, along with the Monorail and the Submarine Voyage (with and without Nemo), mark their 50th anniversary at Disneyland today.

Gurr was the guest of honor last weekend at a dinner reception in Anaheim hosted by Ape Pen Publishing and the 1313 Club. Joining him were fellow Disney Legend Ron Dominguez, audio-animatronics whiz Garner Holt and former Anaheim city manager Keith Murdoch. It was an evening of nostalgia and fond recollections with the man who often says, "If it moves on wheels at Disneyland, I probably designed it."

Bob Gurr

That's no exaggeration. Gurr's credits include the Autopia, the vehicles on Main Street and the Haunted Mansion's omnimover system, among many others. He also helped design the inner workings of Abraham Lincoln for Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. In fact, Gurr recently donated the upper torso of the original Lincoln animatronic to Walt Disney's daughter Diane Disney Miller for display in the Walt Disney Family Museum, opening in San Francisco this fall.

There were a number of challenges to designing and building the Matterhorn. The mountain shell was easy enough, as were the very first tubular steel roller coaster tracks. The problem was making one fit inside the other. During one period, Gurr says, he hand drew a different track a day for two weeks to come up with a design that would work. Once accomplished, the actual construction went much smoother. "We just shut up and did the work," he says. "It was so absolutely simple." Simple maybe, but still tricky to get past building inspectors. Rather than get design sketches approved prior to construction, as was the norm, Gurr and his crew submitted the final certified drawings immediately after each component was built. Somehow it worked. Barely a year after their mutual groundbreakings, the Matterhorn, Monorail and Subs were completed--and Bob Gurr was the design master behind each of them.

Not that he always gets the credit. Shown a copy of a U.S. Patent Office filing with Joseph Fowler named as the designer of the sub ride vehicles, Gurr smiles, prints his name next to Admiral Joe's, then signs it.

Hey, if it moves on wheels at Disneyland . . .

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'Up' Full of Laughter, Tears and 20,000 Balloons

Disney/Pixar guru John Lasseter says, "Along with the humor, you have to have heart. Walt Disney always said, 'For every laugh, there should be a tear.' I believe in that."

If ever there was a movie that captured that mantra, it's Pixar's tenth animated feature "Up," opening nationwide today.

"Up" introduces us to Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner, perfectly grouchy), an elderly curmudgeon who sets his home aloft with thousands of balloons to escape a dreaded future in a retirement community and to fulfill a lifelong promise to his late wife. He's unexpectedly joined on his adventure by Russell (Jordan Nagai), an 8-year old Junior Wilderness Explorer with dozens of merit badges, but not a whole lot of skill. Their travels take them to the jungles of South America where they encounter a long lost fellow adventurer, a pack of talking dogs and a rare exotic bird named Kevin. It's a funny and whimsical flight of fancy, full of action and derring-do, but it's also a touching look at human ambitions and relationships that proves life's destinations are never as important as its journeys.

Borrowing a page from "Wall-E," "Up" establishes this theme early in a sequence where not a word is spoken. It's a beautiful montage of Carl's romance with Ellie, the love of his life (and another spunky Pixar redhead in the mold of cowgirl Jessie and Mrs. Incredible). We learn their hopes and dreams, and experience the triumphs and tragedies of their lifetimes in a few brief minutes. Sentimental, but never saccharin, it showcases Pixar's and director Pete Docter's ("Monsters Inc.) gifts for conveying deep emotion in the simplest human terms. It makes Carl less a grumpy old man that annoys you and more a misunderstood hero you root for. By the time Carl launches himself skyward and gives the raspberry to a community ready to push him aside, you want him to get back his spirit of adventure and realize the dreams he didn't even know he had.

Once again, Pixar's animation is a sight to behold, even as they move away from the photo realistic styles of "Ratatouille" and "Wall-E" and embrace a more simplistic, cartoony look. Carl is a collection of boxy shapes that suggests an older Spencer Tracy, while Russell is pretty much an egg with short, stumpy legs wrapped in a scout uniform. The South American jungles and mesas they visit are lusciously rendered, but unlike "Ratatouille" and "Cars," they never overpower "Up's" fun and tender story.

And then there's the balloons. How many do you think it would actually take to carry a house to South America?

Steve May, supervising technical director figures, well, a lot. "We're not physicists," he says. "But one of our technical directors calculated that it would take on the order of 20 to 30 million balloons to actually lift Carl's house. We ended up using 10,297 for most of the floating scenes, and 20,622 when it actually lifts off."

That's 20,622 balloons, each with their own strings that react to the external forces in the movie (wind, gravity) and to each other. It's a credit to the animators that as unlikely as it is for a house to be carried off by a massive number of balloons, it somehow looks real and totally natural. We should all own that many helium tanks.

But, that's just the technical approach to the movie. As the best of Disney and Pixar have always shown, it's that delicate balance of laughter and tears that truly makes the film. Docter understood that, even in "Up's" early development: "We came up with this image of a floating house held aloft by balloons, and it just seemed to capture what we were after in terms of escaping the world. We quickly realized that the world is really about relationships, and that's what Carl comes to discover."

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