Mickey and the Gang Pay Homage to The Beatles at Walt Disney World Resort

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From the Disney Parks Blog...

A Golden Anniversary, from Abbey Road to Main Street, U.S.A.: Mickey and the Gang Pay Homage to The Beatles at Walt Disney World Resort

posted on June 26th, 2012 by Gary Buchanan, Social Media Managing Editor

Fifty years ago this year, a quartet of moptop lads from Liverpool recorded their first single, “Love Me Do.” When they entered Abbey Road Studios for that historic recording session in 1962, little did the world know that The Beatles were destined to become the most popular musical group in history. Selling more than 600 million albums worldwide — with 71 singles hitting the Billboard “Hot 100” chart — they’ve influenced music like few artists have.

One of the most iconic photos of The Beatles was taken in 1969 for the group’s “Abbey Road” LP. The album cover showed John, Ringo, Paul and George (walking in that order) in mid-stride on an Abbey Road crosswalk in London.

To honor the band’s 50th anniversary, we asked Mickey, Pluto, Donald and Goofy to recreate the photo on Main Street, U.S.A., at Magic Kingdom Park.

Today, we’re pleased to offer it to you, not only as a photo to view (in the same square format as the studio album), but also in additional, high-resolution sizes you can download for digital wallpaper use. After all, since the characters pictured are known unofficially as the “Fab Five” (minus Minnie, who was on hand to help direct this shot), it seems like an appropriate homage to the supergroup known worldwide as the “Fab Four.”

(Click on the photo above in this post to take you to the wallpaper download page, and be sure to check out the terms of use for using the wallpapers before you download.)

As we teased yesterday with our photo of Herbie, we hinted the answer had a lot to do with “love.” And it does — Herbie the Love Bug and “Love Me Do.” (We think Herbie does a terrific job portraying the Volkswagen Beetle partially parked on the Abbey Road curb in the original photo.)

Yellow Shoes Creative Group once again lived up to its name, with Disney Parks Blog Author and Photographer Matt Stroshane taking this picture at Magic Kingdom Park. (A trivia tidbit — Matt actually shot this photo on Paul McCartney’s birthday last week.) The Yellow Shoes production team secured props and other elements to make the scene as detailed as possible. All of the elements in the image are authentic and were on Main Street as they are seen here. The only photo enhancement by the Yellow Shoes production team is a “grainy” hint created in the final image to look more like a photo taken in 1969. Even the crosswalk and street lines are the real deal. Professional-grade thermoplastic, the thick, non-slip and reflective material used on actual streets and sidewalks everywhere, was placed on Main Street, U.S.A., for the temporary crosswalk and street lines that run down the middle of Main Street toward the trolley.

See if you can spot other similarities in this photo, and let us know any other details in the comments section.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/06/a-golden-anniversary-from-abbey-road-to-main-street-u-s-a-mickey-and-the-gang-pay-homage-to-the-beatles-at-walt-disney-world-resort/