SNOW WHITE’S WISHING WELL/ARIEL’S GROTTO
(1961—Present) BACK STORY: A number of large crates were delivered to Disney in Burbank in the early 1960’s and when they were opened, 8 beautiful marble sculptures were unveiled. The sculptor was licensed by Disney in Italy to sculpt the molds for Snow White soaps and he had used the molds to create these marble sculptures, sending them as a gift. Since the soaps were all the same height, Snow White in the statues was also the same height as the dwarves. The studio “fixed” this error by using forced perspective to make the statues appear to be in the correct proportion. John Hench was in charge of the design for this area. The studio created the woodland animals.
Snow White’s voice was re-recorded in 1987 for a clearer crisper sound, and an interesting tale has circulated about that recording. Until her last days, Adriana Caselotti (the original voice of Snow White) was supposedly still able to sound just like she did when she originally made the recordings back in the 1930’s. The song “I'm Wishing” requires a solid almost operatic voice. Over the years, Adriana had been increasingly replaced by several other actresses who were a little bit more reliable whenever it came time to do the more difficult parts of Snow’s voice. For the wishing well gig, the studio thought it would be nice to give her a shot to digitally record and replace the patched together film soundtrack they were using at the grotto since installation. Adriana was unable to reach the high notes during recording. Knowing that the session was almost over (and that she would have to replaced), she asked if she could go ahead and ask someone for help. A strange request, since she was alone in the studio, however the engineer and producer went ahead and gave her the ok. Now here’s where it gets sappy...she turned away from the mike, looked up, and whispered, “Mr. Disney, if you are up there—please help me find Snow White’s voice.” She returned and asked for one last take, during which she hit every note on the money. True or not, who knows, but it sure makes a great story.
Ariel’s Grotto is in the location that the House of the Future used to be.
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True Love at The Well with Mike & Juli: “I knew Mike in High school. I dated someone else for most of high school. But that didn’t stop Mike from letting me know how he felt about me. He was always telling me he loved me. I would respond with an “I know.” He must have known my class schedule because as I was walking along between classes he would appear out of nowhere next to me...as we were walking he would tell pretty much anyone that might listen that I was his “future wife.” After my boyfriend and I broke up, Mike and I had only one what you might call “date” together. We went to a fancy romantic restaurant…you may know it…McDonald’s. We went through the drive-thru and ate in the car. Afterwards, he took me home and walked me up to my parent’s front porch. He tried to kiss me, but I declined the offer. He stormed off and “burned rubber” in the street with his car. Why do you think that was? Did he have an urgent over-due library book or something? Anyway, shortly after that we graduated and went our separate ways.
Five years later, Mike tried to call me. The person who answered said “Who is this? What do you want?” It wasn’t me; I’d already gotten married and moved out. It was my little sister. All these years, Mike thought it was me…and that I was still mad at him. I contacted him through classmates.com 28 years later and the race was on after that; we just knew it was right. When he came to my parents house on Thanksgiving Day of 2006, I had my little sister answer the door repeating “Who is this? What do you want?" And now for the proposal…
Mike is a Disney/Disneyland fanatic. I'm a Disneyland fanatic. Yep...we’re both nuts and children at heart. Anyway…the day after Thanksgiving, Mike asked me to go to Disneyland. Let me back up here. In an email to Mike, I once asked him if he ever had a secret wish that he never told anyone about. He told me what it was and asked what mine was. It’s not fair for me to tell you what his was, but I’ll tell you mine. It was to go to Disneyland with someone I truly cared about. Sounds simple and silly, doesn't it? The true meaning of that was that I didn’t want to go anywhere with anyone (love interest) unless they really meant something to me; especially places I loved. So we went to Disneyland and it was very crowded; I think we only went on 3 rides the whole day. Still, I had the best time ever just being there with Mike and being silly. Whenever I had gone to Disneyland in the past with my son, we always stopped by Snow White’s Wishing Well, where you can hear Snow White singing, “I'm wishing...for the one I love....to find me...today.” I always sing along with it. Anyway, Mike knew this. It was getting late and he took me over to the wishing well. I figured he knew this was kind of a tradition for me and wanted to make sure I went there before we left. We both threw coins in and made wishes. Then I bent over with my head inside (this is where the sound comes from) the wishing well singing along with Snow White...little did I know of what was to come. I looked up from my antics and Mike proposed. Being the smart woman that I am, I said yes. I will tell you what our wishes were for. Mine was to be with Mike forever; Mike’s was that I would say yes. When I told my little sister of our engagement, she congratulated me and told me to tell Mike “Who is this? What do you want?”
Mike & Juli
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