directoroffantasies

The most successful travel programs are those which inspire the audience actually to visit the locations filmed. This (welcome) sit-down presentation at Disney World, housed in a replica of the Versailles theater, did the trick for me. Over the years, I've tried to visit as many of the shooting locations as possible.

There is minimal offscreen narration, in French-accented English, with a continuous music track of 19th century French chestnuts linked together by Disney's music man, the late Buddy Baker.

This is a half-circle film, extending beyond peripheral vision but not behind. Disney had pioneered the nine-camera Circle Vision process for a Disneyland ride in the late 50s and eventually rang several changes on the original.

For Disneyland, when it was new, Imagineers created a film projected on nine screens completely surrounding the audience. I saw this original version in 1970 and can still remember a firetruck ride through the nighttime streets of Los Angeles, the cameras riding atop the vehicle.

In 1973, the original Circle-Vision presentation was replaced by "Magic Carpet Round the World", a slightly less interesting travelogue of foreign lands. The camera crew hid behind the protective burladero in Madrid's Las Ventas bullring during a corrida. Outraged members of the audience threw coins at them.

Just in time for the 1984 Olympics, which I attended, Disneyland premiered a third generation of Circle Vision, "American Journeys". Fellow standees included Thai boxers, if memory serves. (The film also was shown at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Florida). This cross-country travel film included an outrigger ride off Waikiki, a buggy ride through a covered bridge during fall foliage, a tailhook landing on a carrier deck, an on-the-field look at baseball in Dodger Stadium and many other clever slices of American life. Someone came up with a memorable score, blended with (I think) Peter Coyote's spare narration.

Circle Vision has the limitation that one must stand throughout. If sore feet allow, it works beautifully.

Emile Radok, the distinguished Czech director/cinematographer who inspired much of the experimental filmwork at Expo 67 in Montreal, was commissioned by the Disney people to make, of all things, a pre-show waiting area presentation for one of its theme park rides. Like cooking at the airport, this isn't the fulfillment of lifelong ambitions, but Radok made it work splendidly. (As did the chefs who each earned a Michelin star for their restaurants at Charles de Gaulle and Orly).

Radok's specialty is split screen work. Here, presentday cityscapes and historical re-creations are flashed onto a series of screens which actually move, kaleidoscope fashion, creating split images out of one single projection. This lively visual and mechanical spectacle far outshines the "Universe of Energy" ride-thru to come.