What "hooked" you on Disney and your favorites?

[jiggerj]

We all have A favorite film, animated feature, short that hooked you on to Disney. What was it and the story to go with it...?

Me first...my thread! :)

Snow White at the MOVIES! My dad woke me up when I was really, really little and brought me. I remember getting in the car with my parents in the dark and we went to the local theatre to see it. I was hardly tall enough to see over the seat in front of me. I was hooked!

Favorites...Jungle Book, Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan and Robin Hood can watch over and over and over again-

It was magic then and its still magical now!:dust

[dvcconvert]

Back in the early to late '60's, TWDC put out a series of 33 and 45's LP's that came with picture story books of the then 'Disney Classics' -- I used to play them over and over and over again...loving them. Then of course, there was my weekly visits with Uncle Walt, and a spellbinding hour that each week was burned into my memory and fired my imagination...It was 'over' when my parents brought me to WDW in 1973. I was hopelessly hooked! :)

Great question! :) :goodvibes

[cobbler]

Well what hooked me on Disney as a Theme park and destination was going all the time. I know this will probably sound snobbish or something but when I was young I remember how everyone was jealous we went to Disney every year. I kind of liked that feeling.

As an adult I want to give the same thing to my kids.

But as for films, the first one I remember is Robin Hood. Loved that movie, have it memorized. I liked it because I had a pet fox when I was younger, although I named him Copper after Fox and the Hound (liked the name Copper better than Todd). But I didn't like that movie as well as Robin Hood so Robin Hood became my favorite. Holds a special place in my heart :)

[kathyseb]

TV. The original Mickey Mouse Club.

My Dad promised us that we would go to DL but we never made it.

Thank God I married YENSID1901, who is more of a Disney freak that I am.
:bouncingm :cool: :clappingh

[gopherit]

Hmmm. My Pooh Bear, and WOnderful World of Disney.

I remember when Sears had the Pooh area of their store and I desperately wanted a Pooh Bear for xmas - it's one of my very earliest recollections (I was almost 3 at the time). After I got my Pooh that xmas, I would sit in my little red wooden rocker at night, clutching my Pooh, and watch Wonderful World of Disney. I remember the intro for the Pooh episodes, with Christopher Robin's "room" and the stuffed Pooh... and how it would "wink" at you at the end! And I also recall the old episode of the chipmunks, running across Walt's desk and riding that stamp thing like a rocking horse singing "I'm Chip, I'm Dale..." I bought the Chip/Dale classics and my kids love 'em, too!

My first trip to WDW wasn't until I was 18, and first trip with DH was in '94. I think it was after our trip in '98, though, with our two boys aged 3 and 2, that the "magic" of WDW really sunk in... we had really looked at it from more "adult" eyes all that time, and seeing them, watching THEIR reaction to the World -- took us back to being kids again and let us experience it on a much wider plane.

[bavaria]

Great question! In Germany, I would buy Mickey Maus comic book weekly, which includes a free item every week (stickers, 3D glasses, etc). They still sell them... I used to love Duckburg, Super Goof, etc. I would sometimes buy the much larger (100 pages or so) Lustige Taschenbucher - funny pocketbooks - which featured longer Mickey comics.

My mother would also order 'Disneyland' magazine from the UK, which is a large format (about 12 inches by 12 inches) comic but focussed on lesser known characters such as Hiawatha, the characters from the Island of Naboombu and Bongo the Bear. (They would have new stories about these characters). They also serialized classic children's novels.

The CBC showed The Wonderful World of Disney (or whatever name it was running under!) on Sunday nights - I remember watching by myself. Somehow my sister never became a Disney freak.

I also had a HUGE collection of Disney records, including some inherited from older friends and start in the early 1960's.

[chimera]

Wow...that's a tough question!

I guess for me, Disney's always been there. First trip was 1972 when I was 4, not too long after opening. As a kid, the place where my mom worked would have special days at the parks with discount tickets and passes that you wore on your clothes so you didn't have to buy the ABCDE tickets. We went every year.

Went to EPCOT in '82 or '83, but then didn't go much again until '88 when I was an undergrad in Orlando. Went on all the FL residents days when you could get tickets for $20.

I think I didn't really get absorbed into Disney until I met DH 9 years ago. I hadn't been in years at that point, but he had a seasonal pass. It's now become our happy place...for the whole family!

[jiggerj]

It was all started by a hug! This was taken in the early 70's... :)

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a390/jiggerj/mickeyhug.jpg

[mamaprincess]

That is precious jiggerj.

As a destination I was hooked before I ever went. My sister sent me a vacation video while i was pregnant and terribly sick with my youngest. All I could do to make myself feel better was watch the video. The twins would come down to my sick couch and we'd watch and dream of the day we'd be able to go. We bought DVC before we went. Disney World lived up to the dream.

[dianeschlicht]

Well, it started with the Mickey Mouse Club (the original), and a trip to Disneyland in 1961 sealed it!

[DSNY FN]

My first movie that got me into Disney was Robin Hood I saw it at teh theatre when I was a kid and I have loved Disney movies ever since. My trip in 96 got me into the parks and loving all the things that go along with WDW. Great thread thanks for posting it.

[UsedtobeSmith]

I spent my childhood in Disneyland. Any school vacation longer than 4 days we were ordered by the court to go visit my mom. She would drop us off at DL and wait for us at the Monorail Bar, where a new Uncle would happen to run into her by park closing.... (I know... TMI)

Anyway we didnt mind (we I guess we did, but that is another story) and I learned to apprieate the small things at Disneyland at an early age. Little things make life great.

SO I grew up hooked... 1968 I was 5
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid33/p401eccb588985daddeba4c079a827fa7/fd39bf23.jpg

DH became hooked when he walked into the two bedroom at OKW. We both beleive the 2 bedroom villas at WDW make vacationing with our faimly wonderful. Over the top good. WDW is the bonus. He prefers the coasters at IOA, but loves the DVC villas a lot.


And unlike my Mis emotion Disneyland visits, our WDW trips are filled with family fun... and lots of love and harmony (thanks to the two bedrom villas! LOL_)

[PoohsPal]

:beaniepro jiggerj! That is too precious! Need Kleenex.

gopherit - Sears was teh ONLY place to get Pooh. I had a bear anda beach towel. There wasn't much else you could get then. Guess that's why I go so nuts over it now.

I used to live for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh as a child. My luck that we were usually visiting my grandma (who lived with my aunt) when it was on. Seems like it was always around Easter. Anyway, I was so bummed that I could not be home, but Grandma always let me use her room to watch it.

I loved Wonderful World of Disney. I htink that's how I developed my love for teh Mouse. It was kind of just born in me, though.

[jiggerj]

Shameless bump of my own thread for all the newbies!! Come on we want to hear all about it! :)

[dizhoni]

Well, I was already a grown up :) and we were stationed in Italy---had just given birth to daughter no. 4. This was in late September 1971, just before WDW opened. DH's uncle lived in Florida and he sent us all the newspapers, so exciting! We didn't get back home until 1974, but were in WDW that summer and many times since. honi :goodvibes

[PoohsPal]

Are Disney lovers really ever grown up? ;) (Not tha twe don't do grown up stuff or that we don't have to ct grown up most of the time, but I think in our hearts we are always kids!)

Cool stories everyone!

[AFMom]

We went to DL in CA about every other year when I was little - started out when I was too little to remember. What I do remember is that it is the one vacation destination my family always seemed to enjoy each other at. No one fought, everyone had smiles on, that was where the magic started when I was about 4 - just seeing the parental types so happy somewhere! We only went for 1 day at the parks. The first time I went for more than 1 day was with DH for 3 days at DL - had a wonderful time and I've somewhat converted him to the Disney thing - although he'll never be the true nut I am about it!
My parents are both gone - but everytime we walk down Main St I can somehow still feel them with me with big kid-like grins on thier faces - my dad making a mad dash for the Matterhorn, or the Jungle Cruise! :goodvibes