More Kid's Stuff



An indoor roller coaster with a space theme -- that would be Space Mountain, right? Wrong!

(Thanks, Boing Boing!)

I already sent this to Boing Boing, but here it is on my own blog.



It's a kid-made fan film of the Haunted Mansion ride. It's really long (23:35!) and full of "mistakes" -- like breaking the fourth wall by forgetting to edit out the part where the director and the star try to figure out why the image is pixelating. Still, it's loads of fun. It's so obsessively complete that it even has a hidden Mickey in the same scene as the real ride.

So Wrong, One Hardly Knows Where to Start to Argue With Him

I'm veering way the hell away from rides and into cartoons here, but stick with me. This popped up on an atheist discussion group on Orkut, and has been circulating around the blogosphere. If you know anything about animated film history, you know that this guy is so far off base it's like he's playing baseball on a soccer field. If you don't know animation history, you can just follow the links I've added...

Film Seminar on Iranian TV: Tom and Jerry - A Jewish Conspiracy to Improve the Image of Mice, because Jews Were Termed "Dirty Mice" in Europe

On February 19, 2006, Iranian TV channel 4 covered a film seminar that included a lecture by Professor Hasan Bolkhari. In addition to being a member of the Film Council of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Bolkhari is a cultural advisor to the Iranian Education Ministry,(2) and active on behalf of interfaith issues.

The following are excerpts from Bokhari's lecture.

Hasan Bolkhari: There is a cartoon that children like. They like it very much, and so do adults - Tom and Jerry.

[...]

Some say that this creation by Walt Disney will be remembered forever. The Jewish Walt Disney Company gained international fame with this cartoon. It is still shown throughout the world. This cartoon maintains its status because of the cute antics of the cat and mouse – especially the mouse.

Some say that the main reason for making this very appealing cartoon was to erase a certain derogatory term that was prevalent in Europe.

[...]

If you study European history, you will see who was the main power to hoard money and wealth, in the 19th century. In most cases, it is the Jews. Perhaps that was one of the reasons which caused Hitler to begin the anti-Semitic trend, and then the extensive propaganda about the crematoria began... Some of this is true. We do not deny all of it.

Watch Schindler's List. Every Jew was forced to wear a yellow star on his clothing. The Jews were degraded and termed "dirty mice." Tom and Jerry was made in order to change the Europeans' perception of mice. One of terms used was "dirty mice."

[...]

Read the history of the Jews in Europe. This ultimately led to Hitler's hatred and resentment. As it turns out, Hitler had behind-the-scene connections with the Protocols [of the Elders of Zion].

Tom and Jerry was made in order to display the exact opposite image. If you happen to watch this cartoon tomorrow, bear in mind the points I have just raised, and watch it from this perspective. The mouse is very clever and smart. Everything he does is so cute. He kicks the poor cat's ass. Yet this cruelty does not make you despise the mouse. He looks so nice, and he is so clever... This is exactly why some say it was meant to erase this image of mice from the minds of European children, and to show that the mouse is not dirty and has these traits.

I think Bolkhari got Tom & Jerry confused with an issue that Walt had with another "mouse" hater. And since Bolkhari seems to share that "mouse" hater's world view, I think it's fair to recount the incident, as presented here on Jim Hill Media:

As early as 1931, a Nazi newspaper condemned Mickey Mouse as "the most miserable ideal ever revealed ... the dirty and filth-covered vermin, the greatest bacteria carrier in the animal kingdom, cannot be the ideal type of animal ... Down with Mickey Mouse!" Adolf Hitler repeatedly denounced Mickey Mouse and in 1937 tried to ban Mickey completely from the cinemas in Germany. Walt's response in OVERLAND MONTHLY was to state that "Mr. A. Hitler, the nazi old thing, says that Mickey's silly. Imagine that! Well, Mickey's going to save Mr. A. Hitler from drowning or something some day ... then won't Mr. A. Hitler be ashamed ..." At best, Walt might have been worried about Hitler's effect on foreign market distribution of his animated product but certainly wasn't politically astute enough to determine how Hitler's political agenda had any impact on the American way of life.

So, Bolkhari got the sequence of events wrong (a cartoon wasn't created to dispel the "dirty mice" slur, the slur was applied to a cartoon), he got the cartoon series that the original story is about wrong, he got the producer wrong, he got that producer's religious affiliation wrong, and he writes favorably of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Nice work, Prof!

The Site of Reversible Destiny - Yoro Park is an "experience park" conceived on the theme of encountering the unexpected. By guiding visitors through various unexpected experiences as they walk through its component areas, the Site offers them opportunities to rethink their physical and spiritual orientation to the world.

Ride Theory Irony of the Day: The Bobsleigh Run at de Efteling park in the Netherlands is closed during the winter season.

In our Hunter S. Thompson meets Negativland story of the week: the Hell's Angels sue Disney for copyright infringement!