Magic Kingdom Tencennial – 1981 – Restored Home Movie

We visit the Magic Kingdom during 1981's Tencennial celebration, marking the resort's first decade in business. Our film opens with traffic along World Drive before we pass the Polynesian en route to the Contemporary Resort where a monorail glides seamlessly into the Grand Canyon Concourse. Our guests head into the Magic Kingdom where they meet Mickey and Pooh in Town Square before boarding the Tomorrowland Skyway for a bird's eye preview of a fun day ahead.Read More...

Podcast Episode 19: The Deluge

For this month, we take you back to Epcot Center. It's been awhile since our last stop in Future World, so we thought it was time to discuss The Living Seas. We learn about some of the early origins and history of the sponsorship. The pre-show is discussed along with the famous Hydrolators. Throughout the show, we discuss what has changed and what has stuck around in the new version of the attraction. Finally, we look…Read More...

Vintage Walt Disney World 16mm 1975 Press Film – Restored in HD

It's very rare to find any 16mm films of Disney World, but when you come across one that the Disney Company produced you put your cards on the table and make a move to secure it. We stumbled upon this one on eBay and it was worth the purchase and digital transfer. Think back 40 years ago, these press films would be distributed to newspapers for in-house screening or television studios for use in newsreels and…Read More...

Podcast Episode 1 – Planning for Tomorrow

Welcome to the First Episode of the Retro Disney World Podcast.  We have had lots of great feedback thus far, we hope you enjoy the first official episode!.   Introductions The regular crew is all here, Todd, Brian, How & JT are all present and accounted for. Comments & Corrections Apologize for the sound quality of the last podcast, they are trying a new system to improve the audio. Roy’s Cabin – WDW has confirmed there...Read More...

1976 Magic Kingdom Swan Boats and More – Restored Film

Sometimes things on eBay pop up that are worth spending a few dollars on. Sometimes you know whats on there, and sometimes you are purely taking a chance. With the help of a friend we were able to secure a few reels of Magic Kingdom footage from 1976. With a total running time of of nearly 5 minutes we are first treated to ride on the Peoplemover - oh how I long for the days of…Read More...

1975 Super8 Magic Kingdom – Restored in HD – Tomorrowland Bliss & Swan Boats

This particular piece of film had some nasty issues I had to deal with. For one, there was a massive amount of film grain; this caused compression artifacts in motion areas after the film was scanned and compressed. As a result, I'm sending the reels off to be re-scanned and this time the files sent back to me will be uncompressed, allowing for a much cleaner restoration. The film also did not hold its color as…Read More...

1972 Super8 WDW Home Movie restored in HD – Final Film Released!

In 1972 my grandparents took a road trip from New Jersey to Florida...armed with AAA highlighted maps of the I-95 east coast corridor they stopped at South of the Border, Marineland, Busch Gardens, Walt Disney World and a host of other attractions. To this day I still have the 3-ring binder that contains the handwritten account of their entire itinerary; mileage logs, fuel stops, and notes. For many years I've had in my possession 700 feet…Read More...