World Of Color

George Evans stands in back, watching a dozen young artists work in quiet concentration. They have embarked, he says, on an awakening, seamless and immeasurable, as they learn to see the world, paint it--and save themselves from it.

A Walt Disney Co. executive who worked his way up from busboy at a Walt Disney World hotel has been named the new president of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. George Kalogridis, a 38-year Disney veteran and former Disneyland executive, replaces Ed Grier, who retired last week. As president, Kalogridis, 55, will oversee about 20,000 employees at the 506-acre resort, including the Disneyland Park, Disney's California Adventure Park, Downtown Disney and three hotels. Since 2006 Kalogridis had held the post of chief operating officer for Disneyland Resort Paris, where he oversaw 9,000 employees, two theme parks, seven hotels and the Disney Village, a retail, entertainment and dining district adjacent to the resort.

The granddaddy of American theme parks changes little from year to year but seems to get better with age. Among my favorite Disneyland standbys: The Space Mountain indoor roller coaster, the Indiana Jones Adventure dark ride and the venerable Haunted Mansion. The Anaheim theme park recently brought back the 1980s-era "Captain EO" 3-D movie as a tribute to Michael Jackson (which is hopelessly dated or wistfully nostalgic, depending on your point of view). In 2011, Disneyland plans to reboot the Star Tours simulator ride with multiple story lines and unveil the music-themed Soundsational parade.

Kerwin Mathews, who earned a niche in film history as the handsome hero who battled a Cyclops, a dragon and a sword-wielding skeleton in the 1958 fantasy classic "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad," has died. He was 81. Mathews, who was best known for his fantasy and horror films, died in his sleep at his San Francisco home Wednesday night or Thursday morning, said Tom Nicoll, his partner of 46 years.

Harriet Burns, the first woman hired to work as a designer for Walt Disney Imagineering, who helped create and build prototypes for such Disneyland attractions as Sleeping Beauty Castle and the Pirates of the Caribbean, has died. She was 79. The Santa Barbara resident died of complications from a heart condition July 25 at USC University Hospital, said her daughter, Pam Burns-Clair. Burns joined Disney Studios as a set and prop painter for the "Mickey Mouse Club" television show in 1955.

After more than a decade in existence and $1.1 billion in renovations, Disney California Adventure still probably needs another billion dollars in improvements before it can be worthy of the Disney name. RELATED: Disney park braces for 'carmageddon' as Cars Land opens As the hoopla surrounding the grand reopening of the Anaheim theme park dies down, I thought it would be a good time to take a look back at what DCA was, has become and could be. REVIEWS:   Cars Land  |  Radiator Springs Racers  |  Mater's Junkyard Jamboree  |  Luigi's Flying Tires  | Buena Vista Street The story of DCA actually starts way back in 1991 when Disney announced plans to build the $3-billion Westcot in the old Disneyland parking lot. For myriad reasons, the West Coast version of Disney World's Epcot was eventually canceled and new plans were unveiled for an edgy and hip 55-acre theme park celebrating California pop culture.

Don't miss the Toontown roller coaster, somebody said. Don't bother with Toontown, somebody else said. Don't risk the Matterhorn with a first-grader, somebody said. Don't miss the Matterhorn with a first-grader, somebody else said. "Absolutely," I said. When you tell a Southern Californian that your 6-year-old is about to visit Disneyland for the first time ? and that you haven't been there since Captain EO was fresh from the academy ? the advice comes flowing like the whitewater that I imagine courses down Splash Mountain.

Pat Derby could coax Willie the bear with a handful of jelly beans, make Christopher the cougar twitch his tail on command, and even kissed Rijo the tiger. But when it came to Walt Disney, she had less patience. Derby, a Hollywood animal trainer turned animal rights activist, once walked out on him in the middle of filming for "Disney's Wonderful World of Color" after he subjected her bear cub to two hours of retakes under the hot studio lights. She always got along better with animals than people, anyway, she often said.

I was a star-struck 9-year-old when I saw Annette Funicello in person. Funicello, Frankie Avalon, Morey Amsterdam and Jody McCrea were promoting American International Pictures' sun-and-surf musical comedy “Muscle Beach Party” and had stopped by a parking structure at the Hillsdale shopping center in San Mateo, Calif., as part of their whirlwind publicity tour. Hundreds of teenagers, kids and their parents screamed as Funicello appeared wearing a full-length mink coat that the press said was given to her by her mentor, Walt Disney.

For more than a decade, Disney California Adventure Park has been putt-putting along in the slow lane, trailing its neighbor Disneyland in the race for big attendance numbers. A new 12-acre expansion called Cars Land, set to be unveiled June 15, is the latest and by far biggest attempt to get the laggard theme park up to speed. Based on the hit animated "Cars" movies made by Walt Disney Co.'s Pixar studio, Cars Land will include a racing convertible ride, square-dancing tractors and plenty of opportunities to buy themed merchandise.