Dispatches from the Scamp #1: Allen, Janna and Libby Go to the Movies

The Scamp has spent a lot of time at Ft. Wilderness Resort and Campground at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.  We race quite a bit at Disney, and we use it as our home base; we also like to celebrate any and all birthdays there.  Most of the time, we don’t even bother going to the Theme Parks—we just hang out down by Bay Lake and watch the fireworks and the Water Parade, eat like pigs at the Trail’s End Buffet, and spend hours in the Meadows Swimming Hole, sliding down the water slide and making like lobsters in the hot tub.

I think that the absolute best thing to do at Ft. Wilderness is to attend the nightly Campfire Sing-a-long and Movie in the outdoor movie theater at the Meadows Recreation Area.  You spend the first half hour singing corny songs and roasting marshmallows with Chip and Dale in the open-air theater.  When the fire dies down, they put on the Disney movie for the evening.  In the pre- “now available on DVD for a short time before it is returned to the vault” days, I got to see Cinderella  in that theater for the first time; watching Cinderella turn into a princess on the screen, on a cool summer night when I was a kid, was magic.

I still love the experience as a grown-up, and drag the family there every chance that I get—although we scared the pants off ourselves when we watched Meet the Robinsons out there- that scene in the future with all of the Bowler Hats and the world in shambles- very creepy watching outside in the dark.

I went with Allen and Libby to the movie when we stayed there last month.  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the featured presentation.  I hadn’t seen the film in years, so I was excited.

It had been raining on and off that evening so, by the time we arrived, very few people were left in the amphitheater. Both Allen and Libby enjoy creating a running commentary to any movie they attend; I usually try vainly to ‘shush’ them.  That night watching Snow White, they were both in rare form.  Even though I’m usually the designated movie shusher, I joined in—there was no one close enough to hear us, so I only felt slightly guilty talking through a movie.  If you were within earshot, this is what you would have heard:

(Libby):  Ok, so what’s the deal?  The Seven Dwarfs look all cute and cartoony, but Snow White?  She just looks… bizarre….

(Allen):  Ok, now remind me:  what’s with the old lady with the apple?

(Me):  She’s the evil stepmother/queen and she hates Snow White’s guts because she’s way prettier. You know: ‘Mirror, mirror/on the wall/ who’s the fairest/of them all?’

(Allen): I get it.  She’s pretty scary all huge like that.

(Libby): Right?  I’m 14, and she scares the crap out of me!

(Libby, Me and Allen):  No!  Snow White, don’t do it!

(Me):  Don’t you know that you’re not supposed to talk to strangers? Geez, how stupid do you get?  Snow White:  sorry.  You deserve what you’re about to get.

(Me):  They kept a dead girl in a glass coffin because she was ‘too pretty to bury?’

(Allen and Libby): GROSS!

(Me): And, really, pathologically, that’s not really gonna work out to well, because….

(Libby): Mother! Really??  Allen, this is the exact reason she’s not allowed to watch medical shows with us anymore.

(Allen):  The LIPS?! He kissed the dead girl on the LIPS?!  Ewww!!!!!

(Me): Awwww…. They’re off to live Happily Ever After in the Castle….

(Libby):  Is that the Castle at Walt Disney World?

(Me):  No, that’s Cinderella’s Castle.  I think Snow White’s Castle is at Disneyland.

(Libby):  I thought that was Sleeping Beauty’s Castle?

(Me):  Isn’t that in France?

(Libby):  Sleeping Beauty isn’t French….

(Allen):  Oh no!  There’s a big red shiny apple back in the camper!  Don’t anyone touch it!!!

(Me):  I’m gonna have nightmares about that witch.  Do you know how scary she is when she’s huge like that…?

(Ok:  it’s not Mystery Science Theater 3000, but we thought  we were funny…)