EDIT: Giving credit where credit is certainly due:

LOST_WFTB: I’m forever grateful to @EWDocJensen for being the FIRST to endorse it on twitter!!! (but we need’s an EW linkage baby!)

Yesterday this whole LOST Themed Disney Attraction petition thing went wild.  Surreal even.

As I wrote in the first post:

I made a off hand comment on Twitter to a friend:

@mfeige 1) never be sorry for Disneylan 2) I want pictures of when Tom Sawyer’s Island becomes LOST

Since then I’ve had two blogs at Examiner.com analyze the story.

• Proposed LOST-themed Disney attraction (pro)
• ABC ‘Lost’ TV show fans start petition to change Tom Sawyer Island at Disneyland (con)

Which has pretty much been the theme everywhere I’ve seen the petition mentioned, either a “Oh Hell YES!” or a “Oh Hell NO!”.

Then Monday, the OC Weekly Blog (Orange County also known as the home of Disneyland) Navelgazing picked up the story and posted this:

• Dishney: Fans Petition Tom Sawyer Island Change to LOST Theme

Their ‘Dishney’ isn’t a typo like the petition’s ‘Disnet’, its a portmanteau of the words “dish” and “disney”, as in the dish on disney. If only I had such an acceptable reason for all the typos and mistakes on the petition.

Reading through the comments, there is a link to this blog from June:

• Lost Island Coming to Walt Disney World

Which very well may have been the initiating mind worm that triggered my off-hand tweet.  Read that post, its a wonderful work of satire, even has some nifty cool acronyms to decode.  Apparently it even kicked off a thread at DarkUFO’s forums getting some fans hopes up for such a thing to happen.

Then yesterday, this tweet:

Damon Lindelof: @LOST_WFTB Consider the petition SIGNED!

(he’s #539 on the petition, btw)

Which made my day, week, month, year, decade, century.  Only to be followed in the evening by this tweet:

CarltonCuse: @LOST_WFTB. While I like the idea of Tom Sawyer’s island getting a LOST do-over, I’d rather see Disney make a big LOST E-ticket ride.

Whoa. Horse. Couldn’t wipe the goofy grin off my face for a long moment.  My son started following along and signed the petition, then later my wife did.  Just before I went to bed, I saw this article that was re-tweeted by a follower:

• Found: ‘Lost’ Petition for Disney Attraction (source: Yahoo! TV Blog)

And the little petition that could has been clicking along ever since, over 935 signatures yesterday alone, and stands at 1825 as I write this (it’ll change before I post).

Still hasn’t gotten the much sought after hype from Jeff “Doc” Jensen that he promised in this tweet almost a month ago:

EWDocJensen LOST_WFTB: Seriously, dude. Start a petition. I’ll help promote it. We’ll get this done. I have no doubt Mighty Disney will bow to our will.

C’mon Doc, I’m sure EW.com will give you some online space to continue to help promote it. time before it seems like you’re hitchin’ your wagon to a internet phenom. (my bad, Jeff’s been consistently promoting this on twitter from the start. – JS)

I do need to state that the limitations of PetitionOnline.com don’t allow me to edit the petition after it’s been posted. So were stuck with my shoddy work, sorry.  Another pal (Eddie Lloyd) sent me an email with a much better worded petition, if I could swap his work with mine I would.  But I’ll include it after the fold:

To:  Disney Corporation and its subsidiaries, ABC Television, et. al, Re; LOST Attraction

LOST is, to over Twelve Million faithful viewers weekly, the best television series to ever be broadcast. We, the undersigned, believe Disney should give this amazing show its due and create a “LOST Island Attraction” at one of its Disney theme parks.

Considering the great success of the series, we believe that this would not only be a great extension of what has turned out to be the first “cross-over” media television show, but it would also give a much-needed update to a flailing and out-of-date Tom Sawyer’s Island. There is also great potential to sell LOST-themed merchandise at one of the “DHARMA” barracks.

Some of the themes that could be implemented in such an attraction:

• Various DHARMA stations.
• Oceanic Flight 815 Wreckage.
• Time Travel “Flashes” through time.
• An introductory “training film” in the style of the DHARMA films in the series The Swan station.
• A re-creation of the Pala Ferry and Dock (or Submarine) to bring “Dharma Initiates” to the Island.
• Dharma-ville Barracks, complete with DHARMA Initiate “registration” and job assignment.
• Various Ruins.
• Jacob’s Cabin.
• The Egyptian Statue and Jacob’s home.
• A van-like conveyance to carry visitors through certain parts of the Attraction.
• A few appearances in the background of the famous “Smoke Monster”, including a final, exciting appearance in which it attacks the Initiates.

For the record, I’m just shaking my head and grinning, and laughing.  But if anyone at Walt Disney Imagineering wants to give me a call, my email’s at the bottom of the petition!

UPDATE: A couple more links to the news/petition

• Tom Sawyer Island at Disneyland changes name to Lost Island

• LOST Attraction At The Disney Parks