Blog

Fly With “Airship Shamu” Blimp In 1992

by

A while back we acquired this set of slides taken by a crew member or passenger aboard Sea World’s promotional blimp the Airship Shamu. Included with the set was a December 30, 1993 article from the Orlando Sentinel about the omnipresence of blimps in the Orlando area. The slides are from a specific flight in March 1992. Airship Shamu soared over EPCOT, Disney-MGM Studios, Lake Buena Vista, Kissimmee, and other local sites including Interstate 4 looking...Read More...

Lake Buena Vista Townhomes Brochure (1972)

by

A few weeks ago our friend Dr. Alan Bowers shared some scans of a brochure promoting townhome ownership in the Lake Buena Vista planned residential community for Walt Disney World.  The brochure is dated 1972 and outlines the community details, floor plans available and costs associated with buying into the new community. We could write a long article about Lake Buena Vista and its many phases of life before becoming, today, Disney Springs and Saratoga Springs...Read More...

Horizons: Revisited – Teaser Trailer

by

Coming in March 2020! The attraction ride-through you’ve always dreamed about! AI Interpolated HD Video Wide Angle Lens All New Remastered Audio Track Attraction Still Photos Queue Walk Through Comparison Photos (Left Original, Right Enhanced)Read More...

What 16mm WDW Films are we raising money to restore? All is revealed

by

If you’ve been following us, you know that we are working on a special project to restore two 16mm WDW films. These are not home movies, but professional productions that we would like to restore and share with the world. Together they have a runtime of over one hour, include sound and from our research there are no existing High-Definition digital prints of either of these films anywhere. We have seen a few horrid grainy VHS...Read More...

Help @RetroWDW restore two rare 16mm WDW films in High Definition

by

By now you are probably familiar with what we have been doing here at RetroDisneyWorld.com – aside from the podcast, the t-shirts and photos….Todd has been busy restoring a variety of 8mm WDW home movies  – Some of these are his own personal home movies and others were eBay finds. Additionally Brian has been scouring local flea markets and garage sales and the hunt has paid off, a number of fantastic films were purchased, digitally transferred...Read More...

Remastering Our Restorations – 2 completed

by

We have restored many films over the past year however I was never satisfied with the end result on a few of them. I've been continually tweaking the process and in recent days I have gone back and remastered the color and sharpness on two of the films. The pictures of the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Subs show the color difference between the old and new restoration processes....and the photo of yours truly below shows…Read More...

Behind the Scenes – Before & After Restoration Comparison ’75 WDW Press Film

by

We’re humbled by the overwhelming response to our recently posted restoration of a 1975 WDW press film. Many of you shared our pages and rewteeted us thousands of times – we thank you for the wonderful exposure! There were many questions about the process, color, etc. We decided to show a complete side-by-side comparison of the Before and After restoration (see bottom of this page). Enjoy! Why no sound? With that said, many people questioned why...Read More...

Some films came in from transfer today…A quick preview!

by

Things have been quiet with the holidays and a storm that knocked out power/internet to RetroWDW’s home office for a few days. Fear not, we are back, and today a package arrived with our latest home movie transfesr. Here are a few frame caputures of un-restored footage. This is the raw footage before any processing… Contemporary resort? Check… Home of Future Lriving? Got it!  Ft Wilderness Railroad.. Yes of course!  Horizons under construction? What is that...Read More...

We are back on the @INTERCOT podcast this week for more old school WDW!

by

We are back this week on Episode 69 of the Intercot Insider Live Podcost – The entire crew goes over a bit of the Norway overlay with Frozen and then on to alot of attractions that have had replacements and discuss “Which is better, the original or the replacement?!”  Listen to actual ride audio segments from The Living Seas, Universe of Energy and El Rio Del Tiempo and learn about the trippy nature of Magic Journeys!...Read More...

You voted for it: 1975 Lake Buena Vista Restored Home Film!

by

A few weeks back we presented some home movies filmed by David Coolidge. David was impressed with our restoration work and as a result submitted an additional few films for us to restore. David and his family stayed at the Lake Buena Vista town homes - personally I remember staying in these in 1986. The film is short, but there are some great views of the pool area, architecture and the waterways around.Read More...