To All Who Come To This Happy Place…Aaaarrrrggh!
Perhaps I’d been serenaded “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” once too often while still in the womb or a steady diet of Donald Duck brand orange juice made with fruit concentrate that did it to me....
View ArticleFOG Q&A With Me
Geek Profile: Mike Calahan Tell me about your column and your latest projects. My column is called The Mouse Trap. Growing up, I was mildly obsessed with Disney, so I decided to write the column as a...
View ArticleDisney’s Got Tat
Even back in the 1950’s, when the American youth culture first began to rebel against the mainstream society, Disney was on the cutting edge of what the kids wanted. Back when Disneyland first opened,...
View ArticleTrip to Copyright Disneyland with the Hornblowers
*A LOOK AT HOW EVEN MORE CORPORATE DISNEY WILL BECOME IN THE FUTURE* The Hornblowers had planned their family trip to Copyright Disneyland™ so that it fell on the first week of that July, 2029. Dad...
View ArticleDavy Crockett, More Than Just a Craze
For anyone under 60, the cultural impact known as the Davy Crockett craze of the 1950’s is hard to imagine–and may seem like a romanticized memory that adults keep alive for its representation of...
View ArticleCan’t We All Just Brer Along?
I finally got a chance to see Song of the South, the much-maligned, much-debated, rarely-seen in the US film that has generated so much rumor and hysteria that it borders on urban legend. The arguments...
View ArticleHigh Ferality – Disneyland’s Feral Cats
Disneyland is a place of imagination, of escapism, a place where the unimaginable is a reality and fantasy comes to life. So, it seemed funny to me that, during my last visit, I noticed almost everyone...
View ArticleSo…Are Goofy and Pluto Both Dogs?
There’s that great scene in Stand By Me where, sitting around a campfire, the boys pondered things that seemed important at the time. Among these talking points was Wil Wheaton’s question, “Mickey’s a...
View ArticleMickey Mouse Disco Is A Bad Mutha…
Originally broadcast Sept. 6, 1979 via radio station KSLL. (transcribed by Mike Calahan) The following is an excerpt from the mid-day show Funkatronics, co-hosted by Frenchy Kiss and Cashanova… (intro...
View ArticleWhen Licensing Goes Wrong
To this day, Disney continues to make billions from licensing, while other companies manufacture and sell. ...as Disney grew larger (the company, not the man), it was inevitable that some ideas that...
View ArticleBros Before Ghosts
Thanks to Netflix Instant Watch, I have found myself mildly fascinated by the show Ghost Adventures. While I would approach any similar phenomenon suspiciously and with an intention of explaining...
View ArticleThanks For All Your Hard Work…Now Get the Hell Outta Here
When I was a kid, I used to envy the child actors I would watch in the live-action Disney movies for getting paid to simply have fun at the Disney studios. What kid wouldn’t love that? That’s the kid...
View ArticleReal, Honest To Goodness Indian Chiefs…Or Were They?
One form of entertainment that is truly American is the Western. It portrays that wild, frontier attitude that drove Americans west in the 19th century. It is a genre that has been romanticized since...
View ArticleDisney Films For Snuffies
Walt Disney liked to appeal to the varying aspects of everyone’s internal self. Disneyland was built, for example, to appeal to the child in all of us. The Haunted Mansion was designed to captivate...
View ArticleIs There A Doctor Horrible In The House?
There was a time when hearing Neil Patrick Harris and the words “Dr. Horrible” meant only one thing: Doogie Howser reruns. That all changed in 2008. Due to the insensitive, callous (dare I say, money...
View ArticleNot Quite Davy Crockett
Walt Disney was unaware how his 3-part mini-series about the life and times of Davy Crockett would become a national sensation. Merchandise was rushed into manufacturing to capitalize on the craze:...
View ArticleIt’s A Brainwashed World After All
Boy, am I a sucker. All these years, I have been seeing Disneyland and many Disney films and television as charming entertainment made by someone who wanted to entertain. Recently, I discovered that,...
View ArticleMy Dinner With E.T.
My Force’s of Geek’s editor-in-chief and puppet master, Stefan Blitz, can pull some amazing strings when the situation is warranted. Need a few bootlegged dvd copies of a movies before they’re...
View ArticleThat Darn Hoover
The 1993 book Walt Disney: Hollywood’s Dark Prince was, at best, a borderline prosecuting attorney-style rant using hostility-fueled witnesses to paint a portrait of a Walt Disney who was a real...
View ArticleThe More The Merrier
Millions of filmgoers and aspiring dark lord conjurers worldwide anxiously await the release of the eighth and final Harry Potter film. While most will be saddened that their favorite film franchise...
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