Disney Afternoon and Gummi Glen at Disneyland!

From 1990 to 1997, The Disney Channel aired a two-hour block that featured animated programming aimed at children. Yeah, you got it... it was called the Disney Afternoon!  This defunct television event has become somewhat of a fascination for me. Although any nineties child (and their parents, I'm sure!) could pick a title from the line up and accurately sing the hook, the shows' relative obscurity to most have rendered them irrelevant to Disney as it exists today.

Of those that constituted the Disney Afternoon, of particular interest to me is The Gummi Bears. Although I can't remember specifics from the show, I DO being enamored by the extended fantastical world, now I see that it was like Lord of the Rings for children! I'm making it a personal goal to get hold of the DVDs.

All of this, however, serves as background for the REAL subject of today's post. A while back, I became aware that in 1991, the Motor Boat Cruise at Disneyland got a Gummi Bears themed overlay as part of Disney Afternoon Avenue (which eventually became Mickey's Toontown fair). Since the show is a source of interest to me, I've wanted to have a look at what photos exist of it. Unfortunately, since the overlay was short-lived and this was an age before camera phones, precious little exists. Here is what I was able to find:

The motor boats floated past cardboard cutouts of Gummi Glen, the hollow tree the Gummi bears lived in and the location where they made Gummiberry juice (I'm really trying to type this with a straight face). It's some classic Eisner-era ramshackle non-sense, but an interesting (if somewhat insignificant) piece of Disneyland history nonetheless.

Given that vinylmations have been released of some of the Gummis, there seems to be some kind of niche market for these characters. I think it'd be a hoot if some of the classic Disney characters were brought back as walk arounds. Heck, I'd make a special trip to get my photo taken with Darkwing Duck!

Vinylmations of Cubbi Gummi and Gruffi Gummi.