- Have you ever flipped through a book of Disney trivia and
realized it was too easy (and apparently aimed only at casual visitors to Disney parks)?
- Do you ever wish the books published about Disney would move
beyond the same old re-hashed material?
- Do you ever find yourself struggling to make connections
between the various Disneyland attractions, projects, and personnel?
If so, then Magic Quizdom: Disneylandia Minutiae Semper
Absurda may be the book for you, and doubly so if you recognized the inspiration for the
book's subtitle (hint: it comes from Mr. Toad's Wild Ride).
Designed to appeal to both casual Disney lovers and
hardcore fanatics, the book features trivia questions with three levels of difficulty,
with the hardest questions left open-ended rather than multiple choice.
Best of all, the answers to the trivia questions, given
in their own sections, greatly expand upon the matter at hand. Paragraph-length answers
provide additional details, explicate the history behind the magic, and make connections
between the modern-day Disneyland and its past.
It's a book by the fans, for the fans - but one that
remains relevant and fun even for the casual Disney observer.
Here are a few samples from the Adventureland section of
the book:
EASY QUESTIONS
1. Who is the “father of all gods and goddesses?”
a. Rongo
b. Pele
c. Tangaroa-Ru
d. Tangaroa
2. What restaurant preceded Aladdin’s Oasis?
a. Tiki Terrace
b. Tahitian Terrace
c. Hawaiian Terrace
d. Adventureland Terrace
MEDIUM QUESTIONS
3. Which scene was added to the Jungle Cruise in 1962?
a. Elephant Bathing Pool
b. Water Buffalo
c. Trader Sam
d. Village of Natives
e. Hippo Pool
f. Schweitzer Falls
4. Where could one find a reference to the ship
“Titus” in Adventureland?
a. Indiana Jones Adventure
b. Swiss Family Treehouse
c. River Belle Terrace
d. Aladdin’s Oasis
e. Enchanted Tiki Room
f. Tropical Imports
DIFFICULT QUESTIONS
5. Which presidential press secretary used to work on the
Jungle Cruise?
6. Where did the “Little Man of Disneyland” live?
(Answers are shown below)
Magic Quizdom offers 360 such questions. With its unique
paragraph-length answers, the book encompasses 240 pages filled with such trivia, updated
to the present-day Disneyland.
One thing Magic Quizdom does not attempt to provide are
pictures from Disneyland - this is not a picture book.
Nevertheless, Magic Quizdom is difficult to beat for its
sheer reference value, not to mention such subtle effects as your increased enjoyment of
Disneyland after having learned and absorbed so many of its details and so much of its
history.
Answers
1. Who is the “father of all gods and
goddesses?”
D. Tangaroa, from whose limbs “new life shall fall,” is the
large (artificial) tree near the Enchanted Tiki Room entrance and the last of the
gods/goddesses to speak in the Tiki Room pre-show before Guests are allowed in the
theater. Tangaroa is the Polynesian god of the ocean, and as such is often associated with
fertility. Other Gods include Maui, who “roped the playful sun and gave his people
time”; Koro, the “Midnight Dancer”; Tangaroa-Ru, “Goddess of the East
Wind”; Hina Kuluna, “Goddess of the Rain”; Pele, “Goddess of Fire and
Volcano”; Negendei, “The Earth Balancer”; and Rongo, “God of
Agriculture.”
2. What restaurant preceded Aladdin’s Oasis?
B. Tahitian Terrace, a dinner theater that included a free show set in
the South Seas with each meal, featuring Polynesian-style entertainment. While the
Tahitian Terrace was popular with Guests, its dinner-show format and table service made it
less profitable than other locations, and the success of the movie Aladdin seemed to offer
a chance to infuse some positive change into the stale Adventureland in 1993. At first,
Aladdin’s Oasis attempted a similar style service with a stage show, but its
attendance and sales began slipping, and the show was abandoned for a pure table-service
restaurant. The new establishment featured, amusingly, servers with “exaggerated
personalities”: one might play forgetful, another might act like he is hard of
hearing, and so on. Alas, this too failed to excite the Guests, and the location fell into
disuse before being revived as a storytelling location.
3. Which scene was added to the Jungle Cruise in
1962?
A. Elephant Bathing Pool. A new loading structure was also created, and there was
new landscaping for the African Veldt area as well. Adventureland received a major
makeover in 1962 to prepare for both the opening of the Swiss Family Treehouse and the
Enchanted Tiki Room. (It was a slight embarrassment to Disneyland that the Tiki Room
wasn’t ready on time, and instead opened a year later.) The original two story
(basically one story with a lookout post on top) loading structure received a single story
replacement, which was in turn replaced in 1994 in another Adventureland refurbishment in
preparation for the opening of the Indiana Jones Adventure. While Imagineering’s
efforts in the years before 1964 were devoted to the New York World’s Fair, the
African Veldt and Elephant Bathing Pool areas were landscaped ahead of time in preparation
for the arrival of the figures (which were installed in 1964).
4. Where could one find a reference to the ship
“Titus” in Adventureland?
Swiss Family Treehouse. This was the name of the ship upon which the
family had been traveling when they were shipwrecked. Interestingly, at one time the sign
telling of the family’s troubles listed the ship name as that of the
“Recovery.” Apparently, the Robinsons couldn’t remember which ship they had
sailed on!
5. Which presidential press secretary used to work
on the Jungle Cruise?
Richard Nixon’s press secretary Ron Ziegler, who, on one visit to
Disneyland by then-president Nixon and his entourage, was given permission to take out one
of the boats and try to give the spiel himself many years later.
6. Where did the “Little Man of
Disneyland” live?
In a tree near the Jungle Cruise. The Little Man of Disneyland, a leprechaun
named Patrick Begorra, was an invention in 1955 by The Walt Disney Company to advertise
the new Park via the popular book series Little Golden Books, which continue to delight
children today. Supposedly this leprechaun lived on the land before Disneyland was even
built. A tree trunk in Adventureland was hollowed out partly, and Guests could peer into
it to see his home, complete with miniaturized furnishings. Because the public’s
memory is short, the hollowed trunk soon lost its meaning and the hole was filled up
— but the tree stayed in Disneyland until September 2001! If you looked closely at
the tree nearest the Jungle Cruise entrance, you found the cement-filled knot — maybe
six inches across — that was once the home of the Little Man of Disneyland.
