One of the delightful finds on Disney Plus, nestled among the musical Hamilton and the Star Wars and Marvel films, is the wonderfully nerdy and entertaining show Prop Culture, hosted by movie prop collector Dan Lanigan. The show’s premise is simple: Lanigan spends each episode exploring the props and costumes from a Disney movie such as The Nightmare Before Christmas or Pirates Of The Caribbean: Curse Of The Black Pearl. He talks with the artists and designers who created them and the actors who used and wore them.
Part of the show’s appeal is that Lanigan represents all of us who are fans of Disney movies. In this interview on the I’m So Obsessed podcast, Lanigan explains how hosting the show allowed him to take his love of movie artifacts to another level.
“As we filmed every episode, I learned more and became more obsessed with those movies,” Lanigan says. “I’m fortunate because I can take a movie I already love and at the end of making an episode love it even more.”
The first season of Prop Culture covers eight films including Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, Tron, Mary Poppins and The Muppet Movie.
During our interview, Lanigan shared what it was like going into a Disney Archives prop warehouse, getting to see the amazing costumes and props from films like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He also talked about working with action star Dolph Lundgren on the reality show Race to the Scene, in which contestants went to the locations of famous films like the Terminator, E.T. and Pulp Fiction and recreated stunts from them.
Listen to my entire conversation with Lanigan and subscribe to I’m So Obsessed on your favorite podcast app. In each episode we catch up with an artist, actor or creator to learn about work, career and current obsessions.