The life of a documentarian can be a risky one. But filmmaker Joshua Bailey faced the surprising possibility of going to jail while making a movie about The Most Magical Place on Earth.
This isn’t a case of overreach by the Walt Disney Company. Indeed, the House of Mouse has allowed a whole ecosystem of Disney streamers, YouTubers, and documentarians to flourish over the last few years. Bailey’s worry was because he had been interviewing someone who was suspected of pulling off one of the most surprising, audacious, and unexpected crimes in Disney World history: stealing a whole animatronic prop.
Indeed, there’s a key scene in Bailey’s new documentary, Stolen Kingdom, with the police wrestling with the suspect as he tries to grab his phone and delete incriminating photos. “I texted that phone that day,” Bailey said.
The Florida native was actually living in Austin during production of Stolen Kingdom, and after a successful festival run he now gets to bring it back to town for a special screening this Wednesday, Feb. 11 at Hyperreal Film Club.
The documentary features both sides of the Disney YouTuber phenomenon. On the wholly legit side are familiar faces like Dan Becker (aka “Disney Dan”), while behind the camera is writer/editor Matthew Serano, part of the Peabody-nominated Defunctland team. But then there are also more controversial figures like urban explorer Matt Sonswa and former Disney World cast member Patrick Spikes, the prime suspect in the crime at the heart of Stolen Kingdom.
The missing mechanical marvel in question is Buzzy from the Cranium Command ride in EPCOT’s Wonders of Life pavilion. He was the central character of the ride when it opened in 1989, a chirpy, bespectacled guide to how the brain works, clad in old-fashioned aviation gear and with more than a passing resemblance to young Carl in Up. When the ride closed in 2007, the whole space was merely sealed up and basically forgotten about. “That’s the hook of the film,” Bailey said. “You tell people and they lean in and go, ‘What?’”
As with every kid growing up in central Florida, the Disney parks were always part of Bailey’s life. (“I have a Pirates of the Caribbean tattoo on my arm,” he beamed.) But it’s not just the thrill of the rides. As a filmmaker, Bailey said he’s always been drawn to attractions with a narrative element, like Pirates and The Haunted Mansion. “All the implied storytelling there is really interesting. There’s no clear plot that they’ve ever defined or that they outline flat-out in the ride. It’s more Lynchian.”
However, as a teenager he found a new obsession: urban explorer videos. This was central Florida in the 2010s, when urban exploring was a huge craze. Kids were breaking in and recording their discoveries at bizarre locations like Khalil bin Laden’s mansion in Oakland, or the Nike Missile Site HM-69 silo in Homestead. But the ultimate destination was Disney World, especially since there were these near-mythical vacant stretches of the park.
The first big destination for urban explorers in the Disney parks was Discovery Island, a former wildlife park in the middle of Bay Lake that closed in 1999 and has since been reclaimed by nature. Bailey said, “The idea that there’s this island in the middle of a lake in the middle of a 43-square-mile property owned by Disney was really enticing, and it felt like it was taunting urban explorers. … It was like, ‘You can’t get to the island. It’s opposite Magic Kingdom, boats go in the channel between land and the island,’ and people were like, ‘Ah, well. Watch me.’ Literally. Doing it on YouTube. Subscribe and you’ll see it.”
The subject matter combined two of Bailey’s biggest fascinations, and he’d long considered making a movie about Disney urban explorers. The idea coalesced into action in 2017, which is when footage started spreading from inside Cranium Command: First Buzzy’s clothing was gone, and then the entire figure, all 400 pounds of it, had been crudely cut out and hauled away. Bailey said, “There was some journalistic drive in me to learn about these people and get boots on the ground with them, and then the Buzzy thing happened.”
If this sounds crazy, it’s important to remember that Disney World is not simply a theme park but effectively an independent county covering 25,000 acres, much of which is undeveloped. While most urban explorers live by the “leave nothing but footprints, take nothing but memories” mantra, they are still committing a crime. Some are simply politely escorted from the parks, some face a lifetime ban, and some get into real trouble. Stolen Kingdom includes footage from Richard McGuire, aka Southern Pirate Outdoors, who lived on the island for a week before being arrested. “If he wasn’t in federal prison, I think I would follow him around with the camera,” Bailey said.
But it’s not just trespass. There’s also a huge market for genuine theme park props, and while most are sold by legitimate dealers, there’s a significant black market. When Buzzy disappeared, the urban explorer community was top of the list of suspects.
This fascination with the parks all speaks to the universality of Disney, and why some people are prepared to risk criminal prosecution to feel like a part of it. Audiences across generations feel a connection to the House of Mouse unlike any other pop culture entity. Bailey said, “Disney established themselves as a brand early on, led by Uncle Walt, this person that everyone liked. … Everyone knew what they were in for with these Disney films, and it just became such a part of American culture.”
So: If Bailey could have anything from the parks, a piece of that history for himself, what would it be? “At this point,” he said, “it would be Buzzy.” Before making the film, he’d probably have gone for something like a Doom Buggy from the Haunted Mansion, “but this whole experience has been life-changing, so I would love to have Buzzy. Honestly, I’d pay money to see it. I’d be like, ‘I will pay you a thousand dollars just to stand there and stare at it and then put it back in the Indiana Jones warehouse.’”
Stolen Kingdom screens at Hyperreal Film Club, Wednesday, Feb. 11, accompanied by Wes Ellis’ “Neuro.” Tickets and info at hyperrealfilmclub.com.