Recap/Video: The Fun Tidbits We Learned About Disney Legend X Atencio During Destination D23

During Destination D23 this weekend, a special panel was held celebrating the life and legacy of Disney Legend X Atencio. Moderated by acclaimed filmmaker and writer, Leslie Iwerks, the panel also included multiple generations of the Atencio family - his eldest daughter Tori Atencio McCullough, first grandchild Kelsey McCullough and grandchild in-law, Bobbie Lucas.

The trio had a lot to say on stage, but more can be found in their new book - Xavier "X" Atencio: The Legacy of An Artist, Imagineer, and Disney Legend, which is due out on November 4th, but was made available exclusively to guests at Destination D23 in the Mickey’s of Glendale retail location on-site.

While X Atencio is one of the most widely known figures in the company’s history for the fans and attendees who would go to something like Destination D23 - part of the fun of these events is what we get to learn from these discussions. Here are a few things that we learned from this very special panel celebrating X Atencio.

Artistic Espionage

The panel discussed that X originally wanted to go to school for journalism, but after preparing and getting ready and applying, he was never accepted. Worse, X didn’t have a plan b right away. Fortunately, as the panel kind of foreshadowed as they talked about his youth, X was a naturally gifted artist. Illustrations he crafted when he was 8 years old (that reeked of talent and were better than the average 8 year old’s drawings) were shown. This sort of led them into his journey into an artistic career path that led him to applying to the Chouinard Art Institute. There, he was accepted into the early animation program.

Fun fact, Chouinard went on to be transformed into what is now known as CalArts, but even before that Walt Disney had a strong relationship with the school. As such, the students in the program were given the opportunity to submit their art to the Disney studio for critique and constructive feedback.

However, in X’s case, this program was more of a front. The studio was fresh on the heels of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and needed to expand their animation staff. As such, the powers that be at the studio saw X’s art and called him to the studio where they offered him a job. I guess that’s enough feedback. The panel hosts shared that after that happened, he shared the happy news and left Chouinard to work with Disney.

A First Time for Everything

X had a unique style, and though he had long been at the studio, he was still an animation assistant. However, this put him in the prime position when Ward Kimball started experimenting with a new style, as Walt gave Kimball the authorization to start new shorts with that look, but he wasn’t allowed to take any feature animators with him. Knowing that X had a pointy style all his own, Kimball pulled him to his projects - what we know now as the animated short films Melody and Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom. It was Toot that scored X his first official on-screen credit. The short also won an Academy Award - an Oscar statue that X himself didn’t see until decades later when D23 brought it with them for an interview.

Stop-Motion Easter Eggs

While still doing animation work at the studio, X also started exploring with stop-motion animation alongside Bill Justice. While doing that, they created the title sequences of The Shaggy Dog and The Parent Trap, and later in Mary Poppins. However, the Toy Soldiers of Babes in Toyland were a favorite of his according to the trio on stage, and they explained that he left an easter egg of sorts on them. The now iconic look of those soldiers (who also appear each year in the Disney Parks Christmas Parades) has his own personal little tribute. The white straps across their chest and back make a signature “X."

Cheap Labor Tells All Tales

While many Disney fans know that X is responsible for the iconic song, “Yo Ho A Pirates Life For Me" from the landmark attraction, Pirates of the Caribbean. There is one spot in the original attraction at Disneyland that you can hear X himself. We’re not talking a quick little blurb or a cameo in a piece of dialogue somewhere in the chaos of the fire scene, no. X is the voice of one of the most signature moments of the original attraction.

According to our hosts, voice recording for all of the figures and the expanse of the attraction was complete when someone realized that they needed to have a safety spiel ahead of the (spoiler alert:) drop into the darkness on the attraction, asking guests to keep their hands and arms inside the boat. So instead of calling any of those actors back, they got X to do the job.

So yes, that classic moment where the skull above you tells you that exact information before taking the pitch-black plunge into pirate grottos - That’s X doing the narration.

One Little Sketch

The big bombshell in terms of fun X Atencio trivia came toward the end of the panel, when Iwerks (seemingly completely in the know but coaxing the information out of the group) asked them outside of the Mexico pavilion and other EPCOT contributions, if there is anything Disney fans would love to know about his contributions to the park. Oh yeah, X did the final design of Figment. The crowd gasped in excitement. Before anybody pointed their finger in a corrective manner, the trio went on to explain that yes, Tony Baxter came up with the name, the idea, and the concept, and other artists submitted other sketches - but it was X’s final design that gave Figment the look that he has today.

These are just a few of the tidbits we learned watching the Destination D23 panel. You can find out even more juicy nuggets in the new book, which you can find out more about at the official site here, and by watching our full panel video below.