Since November 2019, Disney+ has been constantly evolving by producing and introducing the world to great new content. The streaming service is full of exciting, family friendly, and innovative original series. Recently, Disney+ added some more reality TV content. Prop Culture is one Disney Plus original making fans take notice.
Dan Lanigan hosts Prop Culture, a series that focuses each episode on a different famous movie. In season 1, Prop Culture tackles eight films, including Mary Poppins, The Muppet Movie, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and The Chronicles of Narnia. The series highlights how the costumes, set, and props all helped elevate these films to iconic pop culture status. Prop Culture features many props that are rare to find and help tell the history of these films.
To help bring the picture of these movies into focus, Prop Culture includes many legendary former and current Disney employees who worked on the film. The show also has a lot of surprise cameos by people who appeared in these movies, and some celebrities who are just huge Disney fans.
There were many huge names included in Prop Culture season 1, that if we added and mentioned them all, this post would be 17 pages long. So instead, we’ll look at some of the celebrity appearances that made us the most excited to watch.
It’s very rare to see Rick Moranis on-screen nowadays. The Honey I Shrunk the Kids star was in so many iconic films, everything from Ghostbusters to Little Shop of Horrors, so many Moranis and Honey I Shrunk the Kids fans may have gasped in delight when he popped up on screen. Of course, on the episode he talked about Honey I Shrunk The Kids and how some of the props, like his glasses, played a major part in the role. The episode also featured appearances by three of the kids in the film: Thomas Wilson Brown (Russ), Jared Rushton (Ron), and Amy O’Neill (Amy).
Doc Brown graced us all when he popped up on the Who Framed Roger Rabbit episode. He gave us a lot of insight into the role and his iconic baddie Judge Doom. The Who Framed Roger Rabbit episode of Prop Culture was full of thrilling cameos, including one by Jessica Rabbit herself Kathleen Turner. She even gave details on how she developed Jessica’s voice. If Kathleen and Christopher aren’t exciting enough, Roger Rabbit appeared, also known as Charles Fleischer. All the stars and crew involved brought a lot of energy to make this one of our favorite episodes. It was a great reminder of why Who Framed Roger Rabbit has become such a classic.
The music genius Danny Elfman made an appearance on The Nightmare Before Christmas episode to talk about his involvement in the film, both with the music and voicing Jack Skellington. He also talked about his personal connection with the character. This episode of Prop Culture also featured the other Jack Skellington: Chris Sarandon.
All the Muppets are great, but there is something so special about Gonzo. Seeing Dan interact with the puppet and man behind Gonzo, Dave Goelz, was such a treat for Muppet and Disney fans. The Muppet Movie episode featured many great behind the scenes stories about the movie, and about Jim Henson and his team.
William Moseley (Peter), Anna Popplewell (Susan), and Georgie Henley (Lucy) appeared together to discuss their costumes and time in the first Chronicles of Narnia movie. It was precious to see most of the main cast together again as adults. They all genuinely seemed happy to be there and reunited. Their reunion was a very heartwarming moment for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe episode of Prop Culture.
Disney+ blessed us all with a rare appearance from Karen Dotrice, who played Jane Banks in Mary Poppins. The actress had such an endearing and sincere reaction to seeing her old costume put back together. The Mary Poppins episode of Prop Culture featured many behind the scenes visionaries, like Dee Dee Woods and Tony Walton.
Disney+'s Prop Culture combines rare finds, star power, and Disney history into an easy to digest, exciting, and endearing series that hopefully returns for another season.
