One of my all time favorite children’s films is Walt Disney's, Bedknobs & Broomsticks. I was most probably 8 or 9 when the film was released, so I was the target audience. I was hooked immediately. The songs were terrific, the story was, well, enthralling & the cast were perfect in their roles.
Over the years I’ve revisited the movie a number of times and still think it’s an enjoyable piece of art. Originally Walt Disney had planned to do this movie as early as 1964 (the film wasn’t made until 1971. Author, P. L. Travers was proving difficult during pre-production of Mary Poppins so Walt quietly was planning Bedknobs should Mary Poppins fall through.
Occasionally, out of the blue something will catch my attention…I discovered that the Walt Disney Studios Archives occasionally display a number of movie props at the offices. I was surprised to see the actual bedknob and book, The Isle of Naboombu (vital to the movies plot).
A few years ago the movie was restored to its original running length with many deleted sequences restored for the first time since the movies original preview. If your looking for some light weight entertainment…revisit Disney’s, Bedknobs & Broomsticks.
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Thursday, 25 December 2008
Dreaming of Jeannie No Longer!
Santa was spot on this year! Santa arrived (dressed suspiciously like a person working at FedEx) with the complete series of I Dream of Jeannie. So what!? The packaging from Sony is the famous genie bottle. I’ve been toying of buying a replica bottle for years – but I’m glad I held out. The US packaging is so well designed and thought out it was hard to refuse. The episode guide is clever as it’s all printed on special trivia cards, again with rare photos. Should I lift the cork and see if Santa gave me Barbara Eden as well? It’s all too much!
Monday, 22 December 2008
my work gets creative
Every year at work I seem to assume the role of “person in charge of Christmas festivities”. I don’t mind. It’s fun to keep coming up with creative ways to keep the staff amused and merry. Last year I initiated a Christmas Coloring Competition. It was to help celebrate our Christmas Pageant’s 75th anniversary. They were giving an outline of one of the Pageant horses to colour, or, to be as creative as they like. One lady had clipped her dog and glued dog hair all over the horse. She didn’t win but won something special for being so creative! Skip forward one year…staff approached me with the question, “what are we coloring this year?”…somehow I think I seem to have started a tradition. Bearing in mind that these people are adults, I was more than shocked (and secrtetly delighted!). I decided this year would be a choice of colouring a tree, an elf or a goofy Santa hat. Nearly everyone participated, and again, brightened up our work environment with some great artwork.
Being that my work is incredibly tight with money, we needed a fresh approach to decorating the office. I found some small DIY cardboard trees for $2.00. I gave the staff the concept that it could be decorated “in a creative style of your choice”. They were perfect to decorate the office with. Surprisingly, some of the trees found their way into the boardroom for the AGM. The board had no idea the staff had created them. Once they knew, the board took a walk around admiring the other staff made trees.
I was pretty impressed with their talents. I wonder what I’ll have them do next year?
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