When Xavier \u201cX\u201d Atencio was plucked by Walt Disney in 1965 to be one of his early theme park designers, he was slotted on a number of projects that placed him out of his comfort zone. <\/p>\n
Atencio, for instance, never would have envisioned himself a songwriter. <\/p>\n
One of Atencio\u2019s first major projects with Walt Disney Imagineering \u2014 WED Enterprises (for Walter Elias Disney), as it was known at the time \u2014 was Pirates of the Caribbean. In the mid-\u201960s when Atencio joined the Pirates team, the attraction was well underway, with the likes of fellow animators-turned-theme park designers Marc Davis and Claude Coats crafting many of its exaggerated characters and enveloping environments. Atencio\u2019s job? Make it all make sense by giving it a cohesive story. While Atencio had once dreamed of being a journalist, his work as an animator had led him astray of a writer\u2019s path.<\/p>\n
Atencio would not only figure it out but end up as the draftman of one of Disneyland\u2019s most recognizable songs, \u201cYo Ho (A Pirate\u2019s Life for Me).\u201d In the process, he was key in creating the template for the modern theme park dark ride, a term often applied to slow-moving indoor attractions. Such career twists and turns are detailed in a new book about Atencio, who died in 2017. \u201cXavier \u2018X\u2019 Atencio: The Legacy of an Artist, Imagineer, and Disney Legend\u201d (Disney Editions), written by three of his family members, follows Atencio\u2019s unexpected trajectory, starting from his roots in animation (his resume includes \u201cFantasia,\u201d the Oscar-winning short \u201cToot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom\u201d and even stop-motion work in \u201cMary Poppins\u201d). <\/p>\n
For Pirates of the Caribbean, Atencio is said to have received little direction from Disney, only that the park\u2019s patriarch was unhappy with previous stabs at a narration and dialogue, finding them leaning a bit stodgy. So he knew, essentially, what not to do. Atencio, according to the book, immersed himself in films like Disney\u2019s own \u201cTreasure Island\u201d and pop-cultural interpretations of pirates, striving for something that felt borderline caricature rather than ripped from the history books. <\/p>\n
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Xavier \u201cX\u201d Atencio got his start in animation. Here, he is seen drawing dinosaurs for a sequence in \u201cFantasia.\u201d <\/p>\n
(Reprinted from \u201cXavier \u2018X\u2019 Atencio: The Legacy of An Artist, Imagineer, and Disney Legend\u201d \/ Disney Enterprises Inc. \/ Disney Editions)<\/p>\n
Indeed, Atencio\u2019s words \u2014 some of those quoted in the book, such as \u201cAvast there! Ye come seeking adventure and salty old pirates, aye?\u201d \u2014 have become shorthand for how to speak like a pirate. The first scene written for the attraction was the mid-point auction sequence, a section of the ride that was changed in 2017 due to its outdated cultural implications<\/a>. In the original, a proud redheaded pirate is the lead prisoner in a bridal auction, but today the \u201cwench\u201d has graduated to pirate status of her own and is helping to auction off stolen goods. <\/p>\n At first, Atencio thought he had over-written the scene, noticing that dialogue overlapped with one another. In a now-famous theme park moment, and one retold in the book, Atencio apologized to Disney, who shrugged off Atencio\u2019s insecurity.<\/p>\n \u201cHey, X, when you go to a cocktail party, you pick up a little conversation here, another conversation there,\u201d Disney told the animator. \u201cEach time people will go through, they\u2019ll find something new.\u201d<\/p>\n This was the green light that Atencio, Davis and Coats needed to continue developing their attraction as one that would be a tableau of scenes rather than a strict plot.<\/p>\n Tying it all together, Atencio thought, should be a song. Not a songwriter himself, of course, Atencio sketched out a few lyrics and a simple melody. As the authors write, he turned to the thesaurus and made lists of traditional \u201cpirating\u201d words. He presented it to Disney and, to Atencio\u2019s surprise, the company founder promptly gave him the sign off.<\/p>\n \u201cYo Ho (A Pirate\u2019s Life for Me),\u201d Atencio would relay, was a challenge as the ride doesn\u2019t have a typical beginning and ending, meaning the tune needed to work with whatever pirate vignette we were sailing by. Ultimately, the song, with music by George Bruns, underlines the ride\u2019s humorous feel, allowing the looting, the pillaging and the chasing of women, another scene that has been altered over the years, to be delivered with a playful bent. <\/p>\n The song \u201caltered the trajectory\u201d of Atencio\u2019s career. While Atencio was not considered a musical person \u2014 \u201cNo, not at all,\u201d says his daughter Tori Atencio McCullough, one of the book\u2019s co-authors \u2014 the biography reveals how music became a signature aspect of his work. The short \u201cToot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom,\u201d for instance, is a humorous tale about the discovery of music. And elsewhere in Atencio\u2019s career he worked on the band-focused opening animations for \u201cMickey Mouse Club.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat one has a pretty cool kind of modern instrument medley in the middle,\u201d Kelsey McCullough, Atencio\u2019s granddaughter and another one of the book\u2019s authors, says of \u201cMickey Mouse Club.\u201d \u201cIt was interesting, because when we lined everything up, it was like, \u2018Of course he felt like the ride needed a song.\u2019 Everything he had been doing up to that point had a song in it. Once we looked it at from that perspective, it was sort of unsurprising to us. He was doing a lot around music.\u201d<\/p>\n Xavier \u201cX\u201d Atencio contributed concepts to Disneyland\u2019s Haunted Mansion, including its famous one-eyed cat. <\/p>\n (Reprinted from \u201cXavier \u2018X\u2019 Atencio: The Legacy of An Artist, Imagineer, and Disney Legend\u201d \/ Disney Enterprises Inc. \/ Disney Editions)<\/p>\n Atencio would go on to write lyrics for the Country Bear Jamboree and the Haunted Mansion. While the Haunted Mansion vacillates between spooky and lighthearted imagery, it\u2019s Atencio\u2019s \u201cGrim Grinning Ghosts\u201d that telegraphs the ride\u2019s tone and makes it clear it\u2019s a celebratory attraction, one in which many of those in the afterlife prefer to live it up rather than haunt.<\/p>\n Despite his newfound music career, Atencio never gave up drawing and contributing concepts to Disney theme park attractions. Two of my favorites are captured in the book \u2014 his abstract flights through molecular lights for the defunct Adventure Thru Inner Space and his one-eyed black cat for the Haunted Mansion. The latter has become a fabled Mansion character over the years. Atencio\u2019s fiendish feline would have followed guests throughout the ride, a creature said to despise living humans and with predatory, possessive instincts.<\/p>\n In Atencio\u2019s concept art, the cat featured elongated, vampire-like fangs and a piercing red eye. In a nod to Edgar Allan Poe\u2019s story \u201cThe Black Cat,\u201d it had just one eyeball, which sat in its socket with all the subtlety of a fire alarm. Discarded eventually \u2014 a raven essentially fills a similar role \u2014 the cat today has been resurrected for the Mansion, most notably in a revised attic scene<\/a> where the kitty is spotted near a mournful bride. <\/p>\n Xavier \u201cX\u201d Atencio retired from Disney in 1984 after four-plus decades with the company. He drew his own retirement announcement.<\/p>\n (Reprinted from \u201cXavier \u2018X\u2019 Atencio: The Legacy of An Artist, Imagineer, and Disney Legend\u201d \/ Disney Enterprises Inc. \/ Disney Editions)<\/p>\n Co-author Bobbie Lucas, a relative of Atencio\u2019s colloquially referred to by the family as his \u201cgrandchild-in-law,\u201d was asked what ties all of Atencio\u2019s work together. <\/p>\n \u201cNo matter the different style or no matter the era, there\u2019s such a sense of life and humanity,\u201d Lucas says. \u201cThere\u2019s a sense of play.\u201d <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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