Movie Surfers

As long as there’s been a Disney Channel, there has been the simple fact that Disney properties don’t fit neatly into a traditional TV format. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is 83 minutes. Treasure Island is an even more challenging 96 minutes. Even if you’re playing The Wonderful World of Disney, if you’re playing it without commercials, you’ve got to fill the time that used to be taken up by the commercials. IMDb lists Zorro as being thirty minutes, but it’s 22-24 minutes depending on the episode, apparently. That’s a lot of spare minutes to fill up here and there if you don’t want things starting at an inconvenient 8:37 PM or what have you.

Now, many of the shows that Disney has used as bumpers have also been used as half-hour shows. Movie Surfers is one of them. Half-hour episodes were made featuring a group of kids talking about movies or else talking to people involved in it. Obviously, it was exclusively Disney properties; whether it was animated or live-action, it was a promotion for Disney’s movies. Some of the kids have gone on to other things, but none of them became breakout stars. The show is apparently still running, though the cast has turned over repeatedly in the last three decades.

It’s a good idea. In theory, it’s a way to actually interest your viewers in how movies really work. Granted, I can’t imagine the most in-depth exploration of movie magic would create a lifelong fan of The Country Bears, except perhaps ironically. However, one of the movies covered was Lilo and Stitch. I don’t know about kids—my thirteen-year-old is home sick and is being adolescent about the whole thing, and his sister isn’t home—but I’d love to see an examination of making some of those watercolor backgrounds.

I’ve long felt that one of Disney’s biggest failings is in not encouraging interest in how their movies really work in their younger viewers. I grew up on The Reluctant Dragon, and my son does enjoy it, but he’s only seen it because sometimes I’m in a mood. And that’s an extremely fictionalized portrayal behind-the-scenes of the Disney studio, though it’s true you can learn a decent amount from watching it. There’s more to nostalgia than just liking old stuff.

Granted, I intensely dislike the term “Disney adult,” but I think the way to create a real Disney connoisseur—a term I like better despite never being sure I’ve spelled it right—is to teach. I grew up watching Walt. Ward Kimball would show up on my screen sometimes. Disney animators who died before I was born would appear now and again. Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston were almost as familiar to me as Steven Spielberg, admittedly more familiar to me than to most kids. If I were doing a Movie Surfers, I’d include the older releases in what I analyzed. It can’t be worse than Jungle 2 Jungle.