The Little-known Story Behind One Of Disneyland's Most Recognizable Ride Songs - Beritaja

When Xavier “X” Atencio was plucked by Walt Disney successful 1965 to beryllium 1 of his early taxable parkland designers, he was slotted connected a number of projects that placed him retired of his comfortableness zone.

Atencio, for instance, ne'er would person envisioned himself a songwriter.

One of Atencio’s first awesome projects pinch Walt Disney Imagineering — WED Enterprises (for Walter Elias Disney), arsenic it was known astatine the clip — was Pirates of the Caribbean. In the mid-’60s erstwhile Atencio joined the Pirates team, the attraction was good underway, pinch the likes of chap animators-turned-theme parkland designers Marc Davis and Claude Coats crafting galore of its exaggerated characters and enveloping environments. Atencio’s job? Make it each make consciousness by giving it a cohesive story. While Atencio had erstwhile dreamed of being a journalist, his activity arsenic an animator had led him astray of a writer’s path.

Atencio would not only fig it retired but extremity up arsenic the draftman of 1 of Disneyland’s about recognizable songs, “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me).” In the process, he was cardinal successful creating the template for the modern taxable parkland acheronian ride, a word often applied to slow-moving indoor attractions. Such profession twists and turns are elaborate successful a caller book about Atencio, who died successful 2017. “Xavier ‘X’ Atencio: The Legacy of an Artist, Imagineer, and Disney Legend” (Disney Editions), written by 3 of his family members, follows Atencio’s unexpected trajectory, starting from his roots successful animation (his resume includes “Fantasia,” the Oscar-winning short “Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom” and moreover stop-motion activity successful “Mary Poppins”).

For Pirates of the Caribbean, Atencio is said to person received small guidance from Disney, only that the park’s patriarch was unhappy pinch erstwhile stabs astatine a narration and dialogue, uncovering them leaning a spot stodgy. So he knew, essentially, what not to do. Atencio, according to the book, immersed himself successful films for illustration Disney’s ain “Treasure Island” and pop-cultural interpretations of pirates, striving for thing that felt borderline caricature alternatively than ripped from the history books.

Xavier “X” Atencio sewage his commencement successful animation. Here, he is seen drafting dinosaurs for a series successful “Fantasia.”

(Reprinted from “Xavier ‘X’ Atencio: The Legacy of An Artist, Imagineer, and Disney Legend” / Disney Enterprises Inc. / Disney Editions)

Indeed, Atencio’s words — immoderate of those quoted successful the book, specified arsenic “Avast there! Ye travel seeking escapade and salty aged pirates, aye?” — person go shorthand for really to speak for illustration a pirate. The first segment written for the attraction was the mid-point auction sequence, a conception of the thrust that was changed successful 2017 owed to its outdated taste implications. In the original, a proud redheaded pirate is the lead captive successful a bridal auction, but coming the “wench” has graduated to pirate position of her ain and is helping to auction disconnected stolen goods.

At first, Atencio thought he had over-written the scene, noticing that speech overlapped pinch 1 another. In a now-famous taxable parkland moment, and 1 retold successful the book, Atencio apologized to Disney, who shrugged disconnected Atencio’s insecurity.

“Hey, X, erstwhile you spell to a cocktail party, you prime up a small speech here, different speech there,” Disney told the animator. “Each clip group will spell through, they’ll find thing new.”

This was the greenish ray that Atencio, Davis and Coats needed to proceed processing their attraction arsenic 1 that would beryllium a tableau of scenes alternatively than a strict plot.

Tying it each together, Atencio thought, should beryllium a song. Not a songwriter himself, of course, Atencio sketched retired a fewer lyrics and a elemental melody. As the authors write, he turned to the thesaurus and made lists of accepted “pirating” words. He presented it to Disney and, to Atencio’s surprise, the institution laminitis promptly gave him the motion off.

“Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me),” Atencio would relay, was a situation arsenic the thrust doesn’t person a emblematic opening and ending, meaning the tune needed to activity pinch immoderate pirate vignette we were sailing by. Ultimately, the song, pinch euphony by George Bruns, underlines the ride’s humorous feel, allowing the looting, the pillaging and the chasing of women, different segment that has been altered complete the years, to beryllium delivered pinch a playful bent.

The opus “altered the trajectory” of Atencio’s career. While Atencio was not considered a philharmonic personification — “No, not astatine all,” says his girl Tori Atencio McCullough, 1 of the book’s co-authors — the curriculum vitae reveals really euphony became a signature facet of his work. The short “Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom,” for instance, is simply a humorous communicative about the find of music. And elsewhere successful Atencio’s profession he worked connected the band-focused opening animations for “Mickey Mouse Club.”

“That 1 has a beautiful cool benignant of modern instrumentality medley successful the middle,” Kelsey McCullough, Atencio’s granddaughter and different 1 of the book’s authors, says of “Mickey Mouse Club.” “It was interesting, because erstwhile we lined everything up, it was like, ‘Of people he felt for illustration the thrust needed a song.’ Everything he had been doing up to that constituent had a opus successful it. Once we looked it astatine from that perspective, it was benignant of unsurprising to us. He was doing a batch about music.”

Xavier “X” Atencio contributed concepts to Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, including its celebrated one-eyed cat.

(Reprinted from “Xavier ‘X’ Atencio: The Legacy of An Artist, Imagineer, and Disney Legend” / Disney Enterprises Inc. / Disney Editions)

Atencio would spell connected to constitute lyrics for the Country Bear Jamboree and the Haunted Mansion. While the Haunted Mansion vacillates betwixt spooky and lighthearted imagery, it’s Atencio’s “Grim Grinning Ghosts” that telegraphs the ride’s reside and makes it clear it’s a celebratory attraction, 1 successful which galore of those successful the afterlife for illustration to unrecorded it up alternatively than haunt.

Despite his newfound euphony career, Atencio ne'er gave up drafting and contributing concepts to Disney taxable parkland attractions. Two of my favorites are captured successful the book — his absurd flights done molecular lights for the defunct Adventure Thru Inner Space and his one-eyed achromatic feline for the Haunted Mansion. The second has go a fabled Mansion characteristic complete the years. Atencio’s fiendish feline would person followed guests passim the ride, a animal said to despise surviving humans and pinch predatory, jealous instincts.

In Atencio’s conception art, the feline featured elongated, vampire-like fangs and a piercing reddish eye. In a motion to Edgar Allan Poe’s communicative “The Black Cat,” it had conscionable 1 eyeball, which sat successful its socket pinch each the subtlety of a occurrence alarm. Discarded yet — a raven fundamentally fills a akin domiciled — the feline coming has been resurrected for the Mansion, about notably in a revised attic scene wherever the kitty is spotted adjacent a mournful bride.

Xavier “X” Atencio retired from Disney successful 1984 aft four-plus decades pinch the company. He drew his ain status announcement.

(Reprinted from “Xavier ‘X’ Atencio: The Legacy of An Artist, Imagineer, and Disney Legend” / Disney Enterprises Inc. / Disney Editions)

Co-author Bobbie Lucas, a comparative of Atencio’s colloquially referred to by the family arsenic his “grandchild-in-law,” was asked what ties each of Atencio’s activity together.

“No matter the different style aliases nary matter the era, there’s specified a consciousness of life and humanity,” Lucas says. “There’s a consciousness of play.”

Play is simply a fitting measurement to picture Atencio’s contributions to 2 of Disneyland’s about beloved attractions, wherever pirates and ghosts are captured astatine their about frivolous and jovial.

“I for illustration that,” Lucas adds. “I for illustration personification who will put their bosom connected their sleeve and show you that successful their art.”