Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Apr 29: Something frightening. Something strange. Something different.

On this day in 1983, the Disney live-action feature Something Wicked This Way Comes was released.
Based on a 1962 novel by Ray Bradbury, the movie tells the story of two thirteen-year-old boys who have a harrowing experience with a nightmarish carnival that comes to their hometown.
Directed by Jack Clayton, Bradbury also wrote the screenplay. The film starred Jason Robards (as Charles Holloway - the father of one of the boys), Jonathan Pryce (as the sinister Mr. Dark), and Vidal Peterson & Shawn Carson as the two young teens.
Something Wicked This Way Comes was foreign territory for Disney at the time, as they had never made a dark film like it before. But it was well received by critics and won the 1984 Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film.
In the original version of Epcot's Journey Into Imagination attraction, the words "Something Wicked" are printed on the spine of one of the large books in the literature scene. This is a reference to both the film and an ode to author Ray Bradbury ... who had a helping hand in designing Epcot!

Click HERE for more April 29 Disney history.

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