Sea is for Cookie: Sesame Street in Orlando, Florida

Sea is for Cookie, that's good enough for me.  Cookie, cookie, cookie starts with Sea!

In honor of the new Sesame Street opening at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, I decided to do a drawing in the spirit of Sesame Street parodies.  This one is based on Walt Disney World's Pandora: The World of Avatar attractions, AVATAR: Flight of Passage and Na'vi River Journey.  Grover and Big Bird and Little Bird star in Sesame Street: Height of Knowledge.  Cookie Monster and the Yip Yip Martians take visitors on a journey down a river of cookies and milk on Cookie Eater Thirsty.

Dizzy Mixer's Mewantcookie is inspired by Disney Pixar's Ratatouille.

It's pretty clear to me that Remy from Ratatouille takes some inspiration from Sesame Street's Grover.  The colors are very similar, as is the mouth.

Oscar the Grouch and Snuffy take on Universal Studios Grinchmas.

Oscar makes the perfect Grinch, and Snuffy is well cast as Max the dog.

Bert and Ernie take on E.T. with Er.Nie.

The E.T. Adventure is one of the last surviving elements of the original Universal Studios Florida.  Ironically, a Sesame Street dark ride exists in Universal Studios Singapore, replacing a planned version of the E.T. Adventure.

The opening of the new Sesame Street at SeaWorld has many on social media questioning its very existence, or shocked at the partnership.  But SeaWorld and Sesame go way back, starting with the opening of the very first Sesame Place park in Pennsylvania in 1980.  Sesame Place was operated by Busch Entertainment, the same company that operated Busch Gardens parks in Florida and Virginia.  Later, Busch bought SeaWorld parks.  Sesame Place has been featured on SeaWorld/Busch Gardens materials for many years.  Sesame Street characters eventually found their way into Busch Gardens and SeaWorld parks across America.  Orlando was the last to get a dedicated area for the characters.  The addition is quite possibly the smartest attraction ever created for SeaWorld.  I get the feeling that Shamu Stadium in Florida is ground zero for an eventual Sesame expansion.

Cuckoo For Coco Pups

As I write this, Disney Pixar's Coco hasn't been released in the United States, but it is a huge hit in Mexico.  I plan on seeing the movie on Thanksgiving.  Today I stopped by a Toys R Us and noticed a selection of Coco merchandise.  Of particular interest to me was the blind bag Mattel "Skullectables" toys, which were actually on sale if you got more than one.  While I haven't seen the film, I did spoil it by reading about the story in depth.  So, based on that, I had an idea of which characters I wanted to get.

Like the blind bag LEGO mini figure toys, the Coco Skullectables are snap-together pieces.  This can make finding what you want rather complicated.  The easiest one to find was Pepita, the flying leopard creature (you can feel the wing piece easily, and the creature has a large body).  I had to have Dante the dog, plus both versions of Miguel, and Hector the skeleton.  There are two versions of Ernesto (human and skeleton) and I lucked out getting the one I wanted.

This movie is of special interest to me, because I have been drawing my own comic called Formula Juan Racer, inspired by my friend, Juan.  Since Juan spent most of his life in Mexico, I was excited to ask him about Dia de los Muertos.  I had been hearing about the customs of the holiday, and wanted to get his take on it.  As it turns out, his family never really did much for it.  Funnily enough, his kid dressed up like a skeleton for Halloween this year.

Will Coco merchandise be popular in the United States?  My guess is that this will be a situation similar to Up, where the dog character is the most heavily monetized.

Disney's Toy Story At Burger King

In November of 1995, the groundbreaking PIXAR animated film Toy Story debuted.  Back then, it was known as Disney's Toy Story.  In the United States, Burger King promoted Disney's big animated films, starting with Beauty and the Beast in 1991 and ending with The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1996.  Outside of America, McDonald's promoted all these films, including Toy Story.

Burger King Kids Club Meals featured six different Toy Story toys.  Aside from the Burger King toys, Toy Story merchandise (especially anything related to Buzz Lightyear) was tough to find in stores in 1995.

With such a large cast, it is interesting to see which characters were chosen for the promotion.  The Army Recon Squad is a fun and different choice.  I remember thinking the Little Green Men aliens should have been represented.  The Woody premium is worth noting because the head and boots are plastic and the body is cloth (a similar toy was used for Clopin in Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame toys sold at Burger King in 1996).  I thought it was interesting that Hasbro's Mr. Potato Head was used rather than another Disney-owned Toy Story character.  Rex the dinosaur has wheels here for some reason.

In addition to the Kids Club Meal toys, Burger King sold Toy Story hand puppets for $1.99.

I think the Buzz Lightyear puppet was the toughest to get.  Burger King also sold character puppets for The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1996.

Computer animated movies are very common today, but in 1995, quite a few Toy Story viewers did not know what kind of film they were watching.

I can remember watching Toy Story in the movie theater, and seeing the trailer for Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  I do remember thinking that Toy Story was the beginning of the end for hand drawn films.

Naturally, a movie about toys has a good chance of being a big hit at Christmas.

Because Toy Story was such a different type of movie, there was uncertainty of how well it would be received.  At the time, Disney was trying to diversify their animated offerings.  That's why there was Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), A Goofy Movie (1995) and James and the Giant Peach (1996).

Kid Vid and his friends were the mascots for the Burger King Kids Club for many years.

Burger King discontinued Kid Vid and his pals years ago.  They should not feel too bad, because I haven't seen Grimace and the other classic McDonaldland characters at a McDonald's in years.

How ironic that the movie that seemingly ended hand drawn animated features used a hand drawn flip book as a Burger King promotional tool.

In the United States, Burger King had another set of Toy Story Kids Club Meal toys in October of 1996 to promote the home video release of the film.  When Disney's stateside partnership with Burger King ended in 1996, the Toy Story characters found a home at McDonald's.  In 1999, McDonald's promoted Toy Story 2 with a set of 20 different toys.  By the time Toy Story 3 debuted in 2010, marketing decisions had changed, and there weren't any fast food promotional toys for the film.

For more fun, check out Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame At Burger King And McDonald's.

Tigger And Pooh And Buzz And Woody, Too: A Stuffed Toy Story

Did you ever wonder what happened to Pooh and Tigger when Christopher Robin was sent away to Boarding School?  Well, wonder no more!  This Toy Story and Winnie the Pooh mash-up could be found years ago in the Disney Catalog and at The Disney Store.

Pooh is cast well as Buzz Lightyear ("Am I reallly that fat?").  He is joined by Tigger (Woody), Piglet (Little Green Man) and Eeyore (Bullseye).

It would have been funny to see Kanga as Jessie, thought it probably would have been difficult for her to squeeze into a pair of pants.  Kanga could have had Roo (dressed as Stinky Pete) in her pouch.

Re-imagined versions of Winnie the Pooh characters are nothing new.  In 2001, a new puppet series called The Book of Pooh debuted on The Disney Channel.  This show featured an older version of Christopher Robin.

The new look for the cast of the 100 Acre Wood for The Book of Pooh was created by Chris Renaud, who directed the 2010 film Despicable Me.

I bet someday we will see a live action Winnie the Pooh movie with computer animated plush toy characters (like Ted).  It could be an epic, multiple movie franchise like Lord of the Rings.  Just think: Daniel Radcliffe IS Christopher Robin!

Finding Nemo At McDonald's

Fish are friends, not food, even when they are found in McDonald's Happy Meals.

Nemo the clownfish is in good company with Ronald McDonald.

The eight Disney Pixar Finding Nemo McDonald's toys sold in the Summer of 2003 are something of an engineering marvel: they are plastic water squirt toys that have a sound or light feature.

Have you found a Finding Nemo Coloring Page?  No, it's the highly detailed, somewhat peculiar instructions for the Nemo Happy Meal toy.

The Nemo toy has a sound feature.  What line from the movie does talking Nemo say?  I'm guessing it is not "I hate you."

The Wonder Twins give each other an electric shock by touching fingers so they can show how to properly operate Nemo.

These directions are hilarious to me, and I can think of so many things to say that would get me in trouble.

When I got these toys, I was obsessed with keeping them "Mint In Package."

I finally opened the toys to write this story, and most of them don't work.

Pearl the octopus is Nemo's friend from school.  She is part of the gang that slips away from Mr. Ray's class, resulting in Nemo getting taken from the Great Barrier Reef by divers.

Pearl is a Flapjack Octopus.  The flapping "ears" on the top of the head (actually fins) inspired the name "Dumbo Octopus" for this type of octopus.

The directions for the Pearl the Octopus toy seem to have a Japanese Anime feel.

If you want to make your Pearl toy "ink" like she did in the movie, simply fill your bathtub with India Ink.

Pearl lights up.  I have a feeling many people have thought this toy is "Bad Squishy" the jellyfish and not an octopus.

This is one of the few toys in the set that I have that actually works.

A great deal of Pearl merchandise has been sold over the years, even though the character has very little screen time in Finding Nemo.

I'm guessing Pearl was popular with toy manufacturers because she is a cute pink octopus.

Nemo is taken to a dentist's office in Sydney, Australia.  There, he meets the Tank Gang, led by Gill (voiced by Willem Dafoe).

Willem Dafoe played the villain Green Goblin in the 2002 film version of Marvel's Spider-Man.

Gill's scar lights up.  The special feature may be odd, but this toy does function (Gill and Pearl are the only toys that can perform their special trick).

Gill tells Nemo that all drains lead to the ocean.  When Finding Nemo was in movie theaters, many kids decided to send their mom and dad's expensive aquarium fish back to the sea by flushing them down the toilet.

I would like to go on record and say that, in my experience, it is easier to take care of a dog or a cat than a small pet in a cage or an aquarium.  As a kid, I had fish that jumped out of the tank or got Ich.

I also had trouble taking care of a Guinea Pig.  You have to clean their cage ALL THE TIME.

Maintaining an aquarium was a nightmare for me.  Gill, I would gladly send you back to the ocean.

I really thought that Gill would have asked Nigel the Pelican to scoop up the Tank Gang in his mouth and take the fish back to the ocean.  But then the movie would have been way too short.

The Tank Gang is made up of some kooky characters that have been cooped up together too long.

Bloat the Pufferfish inflates when he gets agitated.

The Bloat toy lights up.  Well, it is supposed to.  The one I have does not.

Bloat was voiced by Brad Garrett (from Everybody Loves Raymond).

Brad Garrett is a big (tall) on-camera actor and an equally big voice-over actor.  For Pixar, he played Dim in A Bug's Life and Gusteau in Ratatouille.

It's worth noting that the inflated version of Bloat is typically used for Finding Nemo merchandise.

Like all the members of the Tank Gang, Bloat is an expert in the field of dentistry.

Dried Pufferfish with glued-on googly eyes and straw hats are frequently sold in gift shops near the beach.

You'd think that Nemo's dad could tell a good joke, but unfortunately Marlin the sad clownfish is not that funny.

Neurotic Marlin loses his wife and most of his children at the beginning of Finding Nemo.

Marlin must overcome his fears when his son Nemo is taken away.

The Marlin toy talks.  It would be funny if he said a line from the movie that was taken completely out of context, like "How do I taste, Moby?"

Albert Brooks, the voice of Marlin, is no stranger to the world of animation.  Brooks has voiced characters for The Simpsons and The Simpsons Movie.

I am a big fan of the movie Fargo (I have a Fargo snow globe!), so I flipped out when I learned that the original voice of Marlin was William H. Macy.

Because he looks so similar to Nemo, Marlin is often not used for Finding Nemo merchandise.

Luckily, the McDonald's promotion for Finding Nemo did not include a new menu item called Fish McSticks.  Unless it really did and I forgot.

Bruce the shark and his pals believe that "Fish are Friends, Not Food."

The mechanical shark used in the 1975 Steven Spielberg film Jaws was named Bruce.

Nothing makes bath time more fun than a ferocious shark with glowing red eyes.

Australian actor Barry Humphries (creator of the character Dame Edna) provided the voice of Bruce.

Bruce's Hammerhead friend, Anchor, was played by Eric Bana.

As a kid, I spent many summer vacations collecting prehistoric shark teeth on the beach in Venice, Florida ("The Shark Tooth Capital of the World").  We filled jars full of the teeth, which are very easy to find.

Bruce was featured prominently in the marketing campaign for Finding Nemo, though the character only appears in one major sequence, and then at the end of the film.

Bruce has been a popular merchandising character.  It's no secret that kids (and adults) love sharks.

Squirt the turtle helps Marlin reach Sydney via the East Australian Current.  Squirt lights the way with his glowing shell.  Wait, that does not happen in the movie.  Squirt's shell does glow for the McDonald's toy, though.

Squirt's surfer-dude father, Crush, stars in Turtle Talk With Crush, an interactive show at Disney theme parks.

Turtle Talk With Crush is at Epcot (Walt Disney World in Florida), Disney's California Adventure (Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California), and at Tokyo DisneySea (Tokyo Disney Resort in Japan).  A temporary version of the show also played at Hong Kong Disneyland.

Walt Disney World's The Living Seas at Epcot became The Seas With Nemo and Friends in 2007.

In France, Crush's Coaster (a spinning roller coaster) opened in 2007 at the Walt Disney Studios theme park at the Disneyland Paris Resort.

At Disneyland in California, the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage opened in 2007, upgrading the Submarine Voyage attraction that opened in 1959.

Finding Nemo: The Musical opened at Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida in 2007.  New songs were created for the show by Avenue Q and Frozen musicians Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.  Puppets for the production were developed by Michael Curry, who worked on the stage version of The Lion King.

At Walt Disney World in Florida, humans can "sleep with the fishes" in the Finding Nemo section of Disney's Art of Animation Resort hotel, which opened in 2012.

Forgetful, optimistic Dory helps Marlin find Nemo.

Voiced by Ellen DeGeneres, Dory has some of the best lines in Finding Nemo.

The Dory toy has a sound feature.  I think she should say "Careful of that hammer."  Or "Seamonkey has my money."  Or "Bad Squishy!"

Throughout the movie, Dory gets Nemo's name wrong.  She calls him Bingo, Harpo, Chico, Elmo and Fabio.

Dory is a Royal Blue Tang.  If you see this fish at an Aquarium and there are kids there, chances are you will hear "Dory! Dory! Dory!"  Of course if you see a Clownfish, you'll hear "Nemo!!"

Dory speaks Whale.  It would have been funny if this toy made all her whale sounds.

The Finding Nemo universe will expand with a new film called Finding Dory.

Among the new characters in Finding Dory are Dory's parents (played by Diane Keaton and American Pie patriarch Eugene Levy), Dory's adopted Killer Whale sister (voiced by Kaitlin Olson from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and a Beluga Whale (Modern Family star Ty Burrell).

I've always been interested in Australian animals, including Weedy and Leafy Sea Dragons (relatives of Seahorses).  I was surprised that these amazing creatures did not appear in Finding Nemo.  I'll never forget seeing them at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.

I came up with my own characters, Sea Dragons and the Yeti Crab.  Yes, a Yeti Crab is a real (fairly recently discovered) hairy crustacean that is also called a Bigfoot Lobster.  Crazy but true!

Sea Dragons and the Yeti Crab by Dan Alexander

Keep your eyes open for Weedy and Leafy Sea Dragons in a movie called Finding Sea Dragons.  The Yeti Crab will get a spin-off called Alaskan King Crab Kong.  Then the adventures continue with How To Train Your Sea Dragons and Sea Dragons: The Desolation of Smaug.

Disney's Monsters, Inc. Door Vault Roller Coaster: The Toy

The door vault sequence from PIXAR's 2001 film "Monsters, Inc." is just screaming to be made into a Disney theme park attraction.

When the movie debuted, Hasbro made an Electronic Monsters, Inc. Factory toy.

The Factory play set incorporates the door "roller coaster" and "show scenes" from the movie.

Hasbro did a nice job translating the basic idea of the Factory into a mass-market toy.

It probably would have been too expensive to make this a functioning multi-car coaster toy.

Disney hasn't built a Monsters, Inc. roller coaster yet, but it's no secret that one has been in the works for Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida (near Toy Story Midway Mania).

I'm sure many Walt Disney World visitors would welcome what would most likely be a tame, inverted coaster-style dark ride experience for Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Hopefully this ride would feature show scenes with animatronic monsters.

Yes, I bet it would be really popular if the characters interacted with riders in some way.

There are currently three Monsters, Inc. attractions at Disney theme parks, but none of them feature a ride on the door vault track.

At the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, the California Adventure Park features a dark ride called "Monsters, Inc.: Mike and Sulley to the Rescue!" This opened in 2006, and replaced the "Superstar Limo" Hollywood dark ride.

In 2007, the "Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor" Comedy Club opened in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida (replacing the theater that used to house the TimeKeeper attraction). The interactive stage show uses real-time digital animated characters.

In 2009, Tokyo Disneyland opened "Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek" in Tomorrowland (replacing the theater that housed a show called "Meet the World"). This ride is similar to the Monsters, Inc. attraction in California, but it is on a larger scale and incorporates an interactive game of flashlight tag.

With the upcoming Monsters, Inc. prequel, it seems like the Door Vault coaster has a good chance of getting built.

I have no doubt that a Door Vault ride could be one of the most popular attractions in Florida.

The Monsters, Inc. world features some great characters and settings.

In comparison to other PIXAR properties like Toy Story and Cars, Monsters Inc. has sort of been off of the radar for a while. Writing this made me remember how much fun these monsters are.

Hasbro also made some Monsters, Inc. toys with animatronic features.

Sulley's mouth moves! Not too shabby.

Remote control Mike has an animated mouth and eye.

If Hasbro could make a toy version of this, imagine what could be done with a Door Vault ride.

It's time to go back in time and see some more Monsters, Inc. stuff from when the movie debuted.

It's a one eyed monster. It requires a battery. There's a joke there somewhere. And it is a clock. Yes, I wrote "clock."

Before Hasbro launched its popular Disney Theme Park Collector Packs mini figures, they released a Monsters, Inc. set. I love this collection, because it features some very obscure characters, like Flint (voiced by Bonnie Hunt).

Note that the Newscaster figure only has arms. In the movie, the character was behind a desk, so the model did not have legs!

One of these things is not like the other.

The pillow eventually had the eyelash feature dropped. Maybe it just looked too creepy, even for a monster.

McDonald's did a Monsters, Inc. Happy Meal in 2001.

Some Happy Meals get boxes and some get bags. All feature games.

The large toys have glow in the dark features.

Boo's door lights up, too.

Hasbro also made a Play-Doh set.

Give George Sanderson some wild hair, then cut it all off.

Re-create the moment in the film when Mike swallowed a flashlight with this Paper Lamp.

Mike is used to having others walk all over him, so he doesn't mind being a Throw Rug.

Sid from Toy Story was consulted on some toy ideas for Monsters, Inc.

If the Door Vault ride happens at Walt Disney World, there should be a store nearby selling Build Your Own Monsters like these!

The Beanie craze was in full force in 2001.

I think these are the best plush toys I've seen of Mike and Sulley.

What would a snow globe of the Door Vault scene look like? This!

The snow globe "Plays If I Can't Have You." Is that the song by the Bee Gees, or the version of the song by Yvonne Elliman? I think somebody made a mistake, and it actually plays the song "If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters, Inc.

Hasbro and Disney joined forces for Disney's Wild Racers, a 2002 line of die cast cars sold in retail chains across the country. Mike and Sulley were featured in the second wave of the series.
Sulley's car is the "Scary Screamster" or the "Scary Screamer" (I guess they couldn't decide on one name). These cars were eventually re-launched as "Disney Racers" exclusively at the Disney theme parks (without Hasbro, and without names for the cars and without vanity plates).

Monsters, Inc. characters were often featured on merchandise as hand-drawn characters.

I love the 2D designs for the characters, and I always thought there should have been a Monsters, Inc. animated series.

The 2D designs were sometimes used for 3D products, too.

The Denim Plush Sulley is one of the most unique Monsters, Inc. items I've seen.

Kellogg's and Disney teamed up to promote Disney theme parks not long after Monsters, Inc. debuted.

These great Bendy figures of Mike (Billy Crystal), Celia (Jennifer Tilly), Sulley (John Goodman) and Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi) could be found in boxes of Kellogg's cereal.

Kellogg's also released a line of cloth plush toys.

Sulley was featured in a Disney Parks "What will you celebrate?" Kellogg's promotion.

Monsters, Inc. characters could be found at the Block Party Bash Parade at Disney's California Adventure, which was later relocated to Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida.

I got to see this fun Parade (with its animated doors) in November of 2009 at Walt Disney World.

This lively event featured animatronic props and characters.

This was also the place to see some seldom-seen monsters like George Sanderson and Needleman.

Mike and Sulley also made an appearance in PIXAR's Cars.

With a Cars land opening at California Adventure, I wonder if Mike and Sulley could appear there. Or, if Florida gets a version of Cars Land (maybe they could call it World of Cars in Florida) near the proposed Door Vault coaster, could the Monster Truck version of Sulley and Mike appear there?

The Yeti from Monsters, Inc. was also in Cars (as part of a joke about how actor John Ratzenberger voices a character in every PIXAR film). I love the snow cone Yeti logo seen here.

It would be pretty funny if the Yeti appeared in a Cars Land spoof of the Matterhorn at Disneyland or a World of Cars spoof of Expedition Everest at Walt Disney World.

There has to be a Yeti Snow Cone snack location!

*Update on September 7, 2013:

The rumor these days is that a Door Vault Roller Coaster could show up in a Monstropolis for Disney California Adventure in Anaheim, California.

The 2013 hit "Monsters University" prequel introduced a college campus full of new characters to the Monsters, Inc. world, including Greek Council President Claire Wheeler (voiced by Aubrey Plaza, from one of my favorite shows, "Parks and Recreation") and Chip Goff from Roar Omega Roar.

Assisting Claire is Greek Council Vice President Brock Pearson (voiced by Tyler Labine, from the TV show "Reaper").  Most of the monsters in the MU Fraternities and Sororities all look wildly different, with the exception of Britney Davis and the gals of Python Nu Kappa all looking essentially the same.

Did you know that MU has operated a campus in Atlanta, Georgia since 1981?  There, you'll find Brock's distant relative, Big Bertha (a Coach) and a couple cheerleaders who are no doubt Python Nu Kappas.

For some Southern Fried Fun, be sure to check out Monsters, M.I.A.: Six Flags Over Georgia's Monster Mansion And The Big Monster on Campus.

UPDATE:  On October 5, 2013 I finally saw Monsters University.  It was playing at the dollar movie theater, and every single seat was taken!  I was not too sure what I'd think about this being a sequel that is a prequel, but I was shocked at how much I enjoyed the film.  Monsters University is my favorite Pixar movie.

MU is my favorite because it is incredibly fun and well-written.

I love all the characters in Monsters University.  I thought the group of Oozma Kappa monsters (and Mrs. Squibbles) were especially funny.

I've had my eye on the Monster Minis by Spin Master (sold at Walmart) for a while now, and after finally seeing the movie, I had to get them!

I hope to see more of Mike and Sulley.  Maybe someday we'll see "Monsters High School," "Monsters Daycare", "Monsters Retirement Center" and "Monsters Rehab."