Disneyland Mr. Lincoln

[dizneydomenic]

I finally got back to Disneyland after 9 months and got to see the "New" Mr Lincoln. Now maybe i missed a previous thread but i really enjoyed the use of bringing the older shows combined to make the new one... including a few surprises. The entrance lobby uses previous narration and music which was nice. Keeping some of the 50th displays and film in lobby also left a nice touch to new show. For me the big surprise was the opening of show using using the main theme music soundtrack of the circlevision film "America The Beautiful as both its intro... opening... and background portions. The incorporating of Two Brothers back into show. A slightly altered version of the original speech is heard and the return of Battle Hymn of the Republic as its ending (or so i thought) After The curtains closed a film appears shortly over the curtain then above the doors showing a flying eagle and "Golden Dreams (American Adventure version) plays as you exit theater and walk out exit lobby past portraits of famous Americans. This is essentially an altered way of presenting the "film" at American adventure and "film" ala Golden Dreams at DCA (meant to tug at the heart). Overall id say this is the better of the 3 versions previous (We can forget the 3D audio version... it was way to distracting and took away from the entire show. Show moved at a good pace and the opening film did not seem as long as older one.

 

[Club 33]

Indeed. I too was thrown for a loop by the inclusion of the material from America the Beautiful- it wasn't until I spent some time at home matching up score material to my recordings of the show that I realized that the audio wasn't from Lincoln. It certainly integrates well though, perhaps not a total surprise given that it was written by the same composer (Buddy Baker) and at around the same time.

Tony Baxter has been quoted as saying that they attempted with this version to incorporate the best elements of all of the patriotic attractions they've done over the years: Lincoln, Hall of Presidents, and The American Adventure.

It was certainly nice to hear the original version of Golden Dreams, which hasn't been heard at Epcot for nearly 20 years. It should be noted that the song has been edited; the second verse has been removed in order to shorten the song.

I've been working on editing together the various pieces of score music used in the show from the isolated score material included on the World's Fair set, though I'm still having trouble finding some pieces (they could be from America the Beautiful). It is really amazing how cohesive the show feels given what a massive editing job it is- different elements recorded at different times and for different purposes mashed up into one show. I can say that it is not possible to recreate the score to the new attraction from what audio has been released over the years without the isolated elements (the various instrument calls after the Civil War segment, the extended intro to Two Brothers, and the aforementioned edit to Golden Dreams come to mind).

 

[wedroy1923]

C33: I know this might come in a future blog entry, but based on your recordings, do you know how much of the Lincoln Lobby / Pre-Show Area uses the Great Moments score? I know when I saw the show, I recognized the music from the World's Fair set.

 

[Horizons]

I wonder if any of the NYWF recording sessions would be helpful. I'm not sure what I have from Lincoln, but I can check.

 

[dizneydomenic]

Much of the new show uses 1964 Worlds Fair audio material including the preshow material of Abraham Lincolns mini autobiography and Paul Frees original narration (albiet it appears to be a different "take")

 

[Horizons]

EDIT: I guess I never tried to track down the recording sessions for Lincoln. So I have nothing to add.

 

[Club 33]

I'm not aware of any recording sessions for Lincoln other than those that appeared on the leaked, unofficial version of the World's Fair set.

I am working on building a source/ALD/live mix of the attraction, though I haven't worked on it in a while. Indeed some of the Frees narration as well as the Lincoln speech are takes that have not previously been released or even used in an attraction. I'm also convinced that the "I know there is a God..." speech, based on the quality, is actually a clip taken from the Omnibus shows Dano did. I plan to go down to the Paley Center for Media and screen the shows at some point to find out.

All of the narration and Lincoln dialog for the pre-show and main show come through on the ALD system, without any music or lyric.

As to the pre-show music, I honestly don't know. You can definitely here some of the Illinois theme in there (which no longer appears in the show itself), however assuming that the music played in the lobby doesn't heavily overlap with the music used in the show, it would seem that the lobby loop includes more music than was released in the World's Fair set. I haven't done a complete recording to find out, though I do have pieces of it from the binaural recordings I've done.

 

[Horizons]

I'm not aware of any recording sessions for Lincoln other than those that appeared on the leaked, unofficial version of the World's Fair set.

This may be why I don't have anything. There are a lot of recording session tracks for Progressland and IASW that didn't make it to the unofficial or official release. In the past, I've specifically searched for these, but never did inquiry about Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln or Magic Skyway.

 

[Dr. Know]

I'm not aware of any recording sessions for Lincoln other than those that appeared on the leaked, unofficial version of the World's Fair set.

This may be why I don't have anything. There are a lot of recording session tracks for Progressland and IASW that didn't make it to the unofficial or official release. In the past, I've specifically searched for these, but never did inquiry about Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln or Magic Skyway.

I'm sorry to hear that Joel McNeely's wonderful score for "New Great Moments" has apparently been retired, though I do look forward to experiencing the new/old attraction on my next visit to DL. Still hoping to hear some of his score for the Hall of Presidents. Wondering, too, if WDW will ever issue a new Official Album.

 

[gmeader]

C33: I know this might come in a future blog entry, but based on your recordings, do you know how much of the Lincoln Lobby / Pre-Show Area uses the Great Moments score? I know when I saw the show, I recognized the music from the World's Fair set.

Just to confirm what has already been said, the Pre-Show music is a combination of 64 Worlds Fair music as well as some original 64 Lincoln music.

 

[Horizons]

Still hoping to hear some of his score for the Hall of Presidents. Wondering, too, if WDW will ever issue a new Official Album.

It's been reported there was a recent change, within the last month, to the Hall of Presidents show audio, compared to what was included when the attraction re-opened last July. The fool that I am, I never made any live recordings of the earlier show, so as to compare to what's used now. The load music plays in the lobby and the main theater, and it's a great piece of music. I wish Disney would release a CD with music from the Hall of Presidents and the American Adventure.

On a separate note, in case you haven't heard, the Liberty Square BGM has been changed to a faster tempo, all needle drop marching band pile of junk. It's not that I don't like the music, but it seems (really) out of place to me.

 

[Burnsland]

I'm also convinced that the "I know there is a God..." speech, based on the quality, is actually a clip taken from the Omnibus shows Dano did. I plan to go down to the Paley Center for Media and screen the shows at some point to find out.

I haven't seen the new Disneyland show, but the original Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World used a speech from Lincoln starting with "I know there is a God..." Perhaps this is the same speech. These lines are also used again in the new HoP show, by the way.

 

[Eric Paddon]

That "I know there is a God" speech is indeed from the original "Hall Of Presidents" program. And it was also being used I think in the last version of the original Great Moments program before the 2001 makeover.