Disney Trivia Guy

There has been talking recently about the Energizer Bunny and the fact that everyone remembers the battery being on the bunny's back when in reality, the battery is on his legs. It is referred to as a Mandela Effect . Here, on this promotional poster, he can be found along the exit ramp for Disneyland's Star Tours . I took this photo in 2004. I think the fact that hundreds of thousands of people saw this poster while exiting the attraction helped to cement the idea that the battery was on his back. There have been a few appearances of the bunny that shows him donning the battery on his back. The majority of the time, he has the batteries on his legs. It can be seen on his back in this 1994 commercial with Darth Vader. Most of the footage was reused from the movie Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back because we can see actress  Marjorie Eaton as the Emperor. As a side fact, the Energizer Bunny was created in 1988 as a parody of the Duracell Bunny who first appeared...

Today is Allison Janney’s birthday. I heard her on the radio twice today. FUN FACT: Star Tours The Adventures Continue , the voice actress that portrays Aly San San, the android stewardess in the pre-boarding video, is none other than Allison Janney. She is known for her roles in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), American Beauty (1999), Nurse Betty (2000), Finding Nemo (2003), The West Wing (1999-2006), The Help (2011), and dozens more. The most commonplace to recognize her is in your car. She is the spokeswoman for Kaiser Permanente and can be heard frequently on the radio in their commercials. She is also Peach in Finding Nemo (2003) and Finding Dory (2016). She can also be heard in the new DuckTales (2017-present) reboot as Glittering Goldie. If you liked this fun fact, you should check out my book that has over 3,700 fun facts in it about Disneyland and Disney Movies. www.DisneyGuy.org

Today marks the anniversary  of one of the most popular attractions in Disneyland,  Star Tours . It opened on January 9, 1987.  In the beginning, this race through space attraction wasn’t what it turned out to be. Originally, Disney was making a ride simulator attraction based on their sci-fi film The Black Hole (1979). With an estimated cost of $50 million, Disney felt it was too high of a price for a film that was only so-so in popularity. Heck, the movie only cost $20 million to produce and it only made $35 million at the box office. Disney decided to go another route. They would capitalize on their partnership with Lucas. Lucas had just produced Captain EO which was going to open up in September 1986. After a deal was made, both projects were in production. George and his team at ILM started work on the film for the attraction while Disney bought four flight simulators from the military for $500,000 each. Disney gutted out the building that once housed ...