Morning, geeks. Have I got a rad story for you!
Almost missed this one, but it’s just too awesome to not talk about!
I’ve always loved the idea that Walt Disney possibly had his body cryogenically frozen somewhere. It’s unclear exactly how that conspiracy got started. Disney died in 1966, and only a year later, Dr. James Hiram Bedford, a psychology professor from the University California-Berkeley was the first body was cryogenically frozen, in hopes of someday having the technology to revive him someday. Dr. Bedford died of renal cancer. The rumor about Disney being frozen was started perhaps because of the timing of this technological advancement, and the fact that he held an obsession with death.
According to USA Today (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/06/07/ozy-walt-disney-fascination-with-death/28552745/), when Disney was a mere child at the age of 7, he noticed a big brown owl in an orchard near his family’s farm out in Missouri. He stealthily approached the creature, and grabbed it with his hands. The frightened owl scratched and fought him, and in a panic, young Disney threw it on the ground and stomped the life out of it. Holy shit.
That experience haunted him for years, and even showed up in some of his work. After the success of the iconic “Steamboat Willie” starring Mickey Mouse, Disney followed it up with “The Skeleton Dance”, which opened with a terrified owl in a tree.
Anyways, a rising director/writer/actor by the name of Benjamin Lancaster was inspired by those rumors about a frozen Walt Disney, and produced a film with the help of their Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1001125519/the-further-adventures-of-walts-frozen-head-post-p/description) titled “ THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF WALT’S FROZEN HEAD”. Many of the scenes were shot in Disney World, proudly without permission.
Here’s the synopsis:
“‘THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF WALT’S FROZEN HEAD’ is a quirky comedy about the unlikely friendship between the frozen head of Walt and Peter, a low level theme park employee. During his yearly thaw to oversee the direction of his company and guard his creative legacy, Walt demands to be finally allowed up to see his park, Walt Disney World. When management scoffs, he recruits Peter to kidnap him for a day in the Magic Kingdom.”
How did they pull off shooting this movie? They had a six man crew with Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Cameras on the inside of the Magic Kingdom, who were light on their feet, and could disappear into the crowd on a moment’s notice. They came close to getting kicked out once when the main actor’s (Daniel Cooksley) ticket wasn’t working at the turnstiles. It was a shot that they could get away with getting twice at most, before becoming suspicious.
Check out the trailer!
This movie is low budget as heck, but I wanna see it!
~Big Eyes
