Pinocchio is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children’s novel The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883), by the Italian writer Carlo Collodi. Carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a small Italian village, Pinocchio was created as a wooden puppet, but dreamed of becoming a real boy. He has also been used as a character who is prone to telling lies and fabricating stories. Pinocchio has been called an icon of modern culture, and is one of the most reimagined characters in the pantheon of children’s literature. A well-known adaptation is the Walt Disney film Pinocchio (1940).
Walt Disney – No. 294
Walt Disney is an American film producer, animator, entrepreneur and international icon, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. He co-founded The Walt Disney Company, which has become one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world. He died on this day in 1966.
Peter Pan – No. 208
A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, created in 1902 by Scottish author J. M. Barrie. Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the island of Neverland as the leader of the Lost Boys, interacting with mermaids, Indians, fairies and pirates. The most famous Peter Pan adaptation is the 1953 animated Disney film.
Captain Hook – No. 207
The antagonist of J. M. Barrie’s play Peter Pan and its various adaptations. Hook is the villainous pirate captain of the Jolly Roger brig. It is said that he was Blackbeard’s boatswain, and that he was the only man Long John Silver ever feared. He most famously appears in the 1953 animated film adaptation produced by Walt Disney.
Note: This character is in honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, which was created in 1995 by two guys from Albany, Oregon. Avast, there!
Tinker Bell – No. 126
A fairy character from J. M. Barrie’s 1904 play and 1911 novel Peter and Wendy. Tinker Bell has appeared in multiple film and television adaptations of the Peter Pan stories, including the 1953 animated Walt Disney picture Peter Pan. She is one of Disney’s most important branding icons.
Donald Duck – No. 125
A cartoon character created in 1934 by Walt Disney and Dick Lundy. He is an anthropomorphic Pekin duck and temperamental friend of Mickey Mouse. Creator Walt Disney is from Chicago, Illinois.
Note: Donald Duck and the Oregon Duck college mascot are one and the same character. They just wear different clothes. The University of Oregon licenses Donald from Disney.
Mickey Mouse – No. 124
An American cartoon character created in 1928 who has become an icon for the Walt Disney Company. The Mickey ears, they’re everywhere! Creator Walt Disney is from Chicago, Illinois.
Disney was referenced multiple times at the HOW Design Conference 2011 in Chicago during the past week. And I have finally returned to Oregon.
V.I.N.CENT. L.F. 396 (The Black Hole) – No. 92
I loved this floating, sharpshooting robot from the 1979 Disney film The Black Hole when I was a kid. In the year 2130, V.I.N.CENT. is aboard an exploratory spaceship, the USS Palomino, when the crew discovers a black hole with a lost ship just outside its event horizon.
This is my third and last day at WebVisions 2011 in Portland, Oregon.
Oregon Duck – No. 3
The Oregon Ducks mascot, Donald Duck wearing University of Oregon colors, is NCAA Division I pixel mascot #2 of 347. Pac-10 mascot #2 of 10. (View reference images.)
Winnie-the-Pooh – No. 911
Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear, is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh (1926). This was followed by The House at Pooh Corner (1928) and two children’s verse books. All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard. In the 1940s, Agnes Brush created the first plush dolls with Pooh in his red shirt. Rights to Winnie-the-Pooh were first licensed to Walt Disney in 1961. Disney has released numerous animated productions starring Pooh and related characters, including theatrical featurettes, television series, and direct-to-video films, as well as theatrical feature-length films.
A stuffed Pooh Bear from my 1980s childhood is one of my daughter’s favorite toys. She also believes that old Pooh and Baby Margot are some kind of inseparable team. It’s sweet. I am often reminded of the final passage of On the Road by Jack Kerouac: “So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, and all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, and tonight the stars’ll be out, and don’t you know that God is Pooh Bear? the evening star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all the rivers, cups the peaks and folds the final shore in, and nobody, nobody knows what’s going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Dean Moriarty, I even think of Old Dean Moriarty the father we never found, I think of Dean Moriarty.”