DisneyParks Blog - It’s almost here!
We’re just a few days away from the
premiere of “Mickey and the Magical
Map” in the newly refurbished
Fantasyland Theatre at Disneyland
park. Mickey Mouse and his friends
have been rehearsing their ears off
(see what I did?), and we’ve got the
first photos of the star of the show
along with some of his friends
onstage.
In these first shots, Mickey Mouse
and King Louie pose on the
Fantasyland Theatre stage with the
Mapmakers.
Here we see Mickey Mouse
interacting with a giant-sized Yen
Sid, thanks to the sorcerer’s
magical map.
Pocahontas leads Mulan and
Rapunzel, along with Flynn Rider, in
one of the show’s musical numbers.
King Louie joins the Mapmakers in
a new take on “I Wanna be Like You”
from “The Jungle Book.”
“Mickey and the Magical Map”
opens this Saturday, May 25, at
Disneyland park – so join us at the
Fantasyland Theatre for a journey to
imagination with Mickey Mouse, King
Louie and more of your Disney
friends.
WIRED - Designers love creating
homages to their favorite Disney
characters (e.g., turning the iconic
princesses into zombies and
hipsters), but if they ever tried to
sell those designs they would be
faced with a foe scarier than
Cruella de Vil — Disney’s legal
department.
The crowdsourced T-shirt
manufacturer Threadless is trying to
help both parties by hosting a
series of contests that allows their
army of 220,000 talented community
members to create shirt designs
using Disney’s treasure trove of IP,
but get formal recognition and cash
for their efforts.
Threadless started sponsoring
these competitions just three years
ago and have since held contests for
Disney brands like Iron Man
and The Muppets as well as
non-Disney characters like
SpongeBob SquarePants, and the
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Monsters U., Pixar’s newest
release, is the latest project to
get this treatment, and the winners
of the competition were announced
last week. The competition yielded
487 designs that earned 247,730
votes, leading to 16 Monsters U.
t-shirt designs in production (to go
with 40 Threadless Iron Man
contest design shirts, among
others).
It’s a win-win scenario. Media
brands get access to an outsourced
creative department of almost a
quarter million artists spread over
the globe, as well as exposure to
the Threadless community, who
provide feedback and a sense of
what’s hip. Artists get to combine
their love of superheroes and
Jackson Pollock and get paid for it.
Over the last 13 years, Threadless
has paid out $7,120,000 to their
community of designers, though the
grand prize winner of
this competition only pocketed
$2,500.
These competitions also help make
Disney’s characters, usually
reserved for the preschool set,
relevant with young urbanites who
have a touch of nostalgia and plenty
of disposable income. “Adult male
products sell best on Threadless,
but a lot of the licensed product
makes a strong showing in the
toddler and baby categories as
well,” says Wilson Fong, the Vice
President of Partnerships/Business
Development at Threadless. “Design
submissions can be cute, funny,
ironic, edgy, beautiful, intricate,
simplistic, or anything in between,
so there’s something for every fan
of a given property.”
Despite the positives, there is a
delicate balance to be struck.
Disney has become synonymous with
family friendly entertainment, but
Threadless is known to produce
shirts featuring fornicating
unicorns and a surprising amount of
zombies. “Brands evolve and weave in
and out of trends,” Says Fong. “By
connecting to Threadless’s massive
global artist community, Disney can
encourage artists to come up with
creative interpretations of beloved
characters that are culturally
relevant, fresh, and never before
thought of.” says Fong. To keep
things from getting out of hand,
editorial discretion is applied —
this Monsters U. inspired
design is a clear reference
to psychedelic poster art from the
60′s, but a more overt drug
reference would be banned.
In addition to accessing new
design talent, crowdsourcing is also
an emerging marketing channel.
Instead of relying on a highly
centralized team of “Imagineers” and
marketers, Disney ends up getting a
legion of designers to spread their
designs through social media
profiles and through the Threadless
network. “When our designers post a
design on their social pages asking
followers to vote, it builds amazing
organic connections with partner
brands,” says Fong.
So far these designs have only
been sold on Threadless.com, but
Fong is excited about seeing the
designs at traditional retailers,
and with a little luck, maybe the
next winner’s design will win a trip
to DisneyWorld.
ExtremeTech - Motion and gesture
control, the Kinect and PS Eye, and
the Oculus Rift have all joined
forces to create a tech industry
capable of a new level of immersion.
Despite the sophistication of new
inputs and displays, the industry is
still lagging behind in one area of
immersion: feel. With a new device,
Disney Research aims to add tactile
feedback to our gaming experiences
with something that’s much more than
another vibrating controller.
Called Aireal — the pun, and a
name that sounds very similar to
that of one of Disney’s most prized
characters, is not lost on us — the
device creates tactile feedback in
what is being referred to as the
“free air.” Every Disney theme park
has attractions that are shows
instead of rides. A large portion of
these shows are “interactive,” but
in the way where it interacts with
you while you passively sit there
and get poked, blasted, and hit by
things — like tubs of confetti,
streams of water, or even a little
prod that sticks your lower back to
simulate a bee sting.
Some of these attractions employ
the use of blasts of air — not just
directly to your body, but used to
create certain sensations. During
one point in the 3D Honey, I
Shrunk the Audience in Epcot,
the show simulates mice breaking
loose and running throughout the
auditorium. In order to simulate the
sensation of a pack of escaped mice,
air is pumped through a little
plastic tube causing it to wildly
flail and mimic the sensation of
mice tails brushing your legs.
Though simple, Disney has been in
the business of creating tactile
sensation with simple air rigs for
quite some time.
Aireal dispenses with the thin
tube being pumped full of air, but
ultimately provides a similar
sensation — air targeted to pinpoint
locations, creating the sensation of
feel at those locations.
Aireal will appear at SIGGRAPH
2013, along with the other projects
seen in the above video. We also see
a quick demonstration of someone
using Kinect to knock digital soccer
balls away from what seemed to be a
simulated goal — as each ball flies
at the goalie, air is blasted from
Disney Research’s device in the
direction it is flying. The device
can not only track the user with the
help of Kinect, but shoots out the
air in a vortex, which is a shape
that is able to travel longer
distances (than other air-blast
shapes) and keep the majority of its
force throughout its travel.
Currently, the most sophisticated
kind of physical feedback available
to the average consumer is a
rumbling controller. There have been
attempts at something more dynamic
in the past, such as the Aura
Interactor — basically a backpack
with speakers in it that rumbled
your back in tune with a video
game’s sound effects — but none
quite caught on. At fancy arcades
that have a virtual reality rig or
two, you might find sleeves or
gloves that poke or lightly shock
the user in tune with whatever
action is happening in-game, but
those devices generally aren’t
sitting on store shelves. Aireal
aims not only to bring more
sophisticated physical feedback to
the living room, but dispense with
having to put on specialized
clothing.
One thing I’d like to see as the
product develops is how forceful the
vortex of air will actually be. The
vortex losing force over distance
isn’t the only factor Disney
Research needs to take into account,
as thickness of clothing should
mitigate the force of impact. If
it’s cold and you’re wearing a
sweater over a t-shirt, will you
even notice the blast? Will Aireal
be a strictly shirtless affair,
making it the ultimate college party
game device?
Unfortunately, there are no
details as to whether or not Aireal
will hit the market, but Disney
Research says the device is not only
scalable, but inexpensive, which are
certainly two qualities a technology
should have before being designed
for consumers.
DisneyParks Blog - I love staying
at a Disney Resort hotel. I’ve
stayed at nearly all of them in Walt
Disney World and Disneyland Resorts.
The first Disney hotel my family
stayed at was Disney’s Grand
Floridian Resort & Spa in summer
1992. There is something magical
about staying at a Disney Resort (I
love that blast of cool air when
entering a hotel lobby). My favorite
place is Disney’s Polynesian Resort
as I like pretending I’m on a
tropical island somewhere in the
South Pacific (and they have a Dole
Whip machine!). New merchandise
featuring a few favorite Disney
Resort hotels is arriving this
summer. I recently gave you a sneak
preview of these new items in an
article about summer merchandise.
This time, I caught up with Disney
Design Group artist Tim Whalen who
created the artwork for this new
resort logo program.
“We wanted a different point of
view from the character artwork we
introduced in spring 2012,”
explained Tim. “Some time has passed
since we had non-character resort
themed merchandise for some of our
most popular hotels. For this new
program, I chose symbols or
architectural details that
represented each resort. In a way,
the details are like characters that
guests may immediately recognize
when staying at those specific
hotels.”
Those iconic details include a
lighthouse representing Disney’s Old
Key West Resort, a turtle for
Disney’s Vero Beach Resort, a beach
chair for Disney’s Hilton Head
Island Resort and racing horses for
Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort &
Spa. Tim told me that he added a
Hidden Mickey to each of the
designs.
The completed artwork was then
applied to a variety of new items
including apparel, drinkware,
magnets, key chains and window
decals.
I asked Tim about his favorite
design.
“I think I like the clean look of
the design for Disney’s Hilton Head
Island Resort,” answered Tim. “I
have stayed at the resort in South
Carolina. It’s such a relaxing place
to get away from it all.”
Bloomberg - Walt Disney Co. (DIS)’s
ESPN sports television division
fired several hundred workers today
as part of a companywide
cost-cutting effort.
The firings number fewer than 400
and include unfilled positions,
according to a person with knowledge
of the situation who wasn’t
authorized to speak publicly and
asked not to be named. ESPN, based
in Bristol, Connecticut, announced
the cuts in an e-mailed statement.
“We are implementing changes
across the company to enhance our
continued growth while smartly
managing costs,” ESPN said in the
statement. “While difficult, we are
confident that it will make us more
competitive, innovative and
productive.”
The cuts amount to less than 6
percent of ESPN’s 7,000 employees
worldwide. Disney, the world’s
largest entertainment company,
eliminated 150 jobs from its film
studio in April and shut down
video-game development in Austin,
Texas, and at the recently acquired
Lucasfilm Ltd., as part of broad
efficiency effort this year. The
company said May 7 that fiscal
second-quarter profit rose 32
percent to $1.51 billion.
The cuts were previously reported
by the sports news website
Deadspin.com.
Disney, based in Burbank,
California, fell 0.2 percent to
$66.02 as of 12:31 p.m. in New York.
The stock had risen 33 percent this
year as of yesterday.
Local 6 - More than two hours before
the Disney Dream left port here last
August, a Disney Cruise Line
crewmember was captured on ship
surveillance video molesting an
11-year-old girl in an elevator – a
crime Disney Cruise Line said it
believes it must by law report
immediately.
But a Local 6 investigation reveals
the incident was not reported until
the next day, long after the ship
had slipped out of port, enabling
the 33-year-old suspect to evade
investigation and prosecution by
Florida authorities.
Disney Cruise Line at first claimed
last week it did report the crime
while the ship was still in port on
Aug. 5. Then, after being told by
Local 6 and Port Canaveral police
that was not true, the cruise line
changed its account.
Company officials then claimed
employees did not know until the
next day that a crime was committed.
All they knew on Aug. 5, they claim,
was that the child was made to feel
“uncomfortable,” according to
statements by the cruise line to
both Local 6 and the Port Canaveral
police.
But, based on surveillance video and
a confidential Disney Cruise Line
security incident report obtained by
Local 6, that also appears to be
false.
The report reveals cruise line
security began its investigation of
the molestation – which it called an
“inappropriate sexual act” -- at
3:22 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 5.
The child promptly told security the
man had repeatedly grabbed her
breast through her clothes and
forcibly kissed her on the mouth as
he cornered her in an elevator on
the Disney Dream.
She “began to cry,” the report
stated, as she relayed how the crew
member “went like this,” grabbing
her breast, and “then went like
this,” demonstrating a second
groping before “he kiss me here and
he put mouth on my mouth.”
Such an attack, even through
clothing, is under Florida law a
lewd or lascivious molestation of a
child under 12, a felony punishable
by 25 years to life in prison.
Port Canaveral police chief Joseph
Hellebrand said his department can
investigate and refer for
prosecution such crimes on ships.
Anything that occurs within 1,000
feet of its shoreline, as this
incident did with the Dream tied to
dock, is at least in part port
jurisdiction, Hellebrand said.
But Port Canaveral police were
prevented from investigating because
Disney Cruise Line, or DCL, did not
report the crime immediately, as
Hellebrand said they should.
Had DCL done so, the chief said, “We
would have sent an officer aboard
the ship, we would have notified the
(on-call) detective, we would have
interviewed the family, the victim,
the suspect,” and, if warranted,
arrested the dining room server.
Disney Cruise Line’s actions
prevented that from happening,
though a DCL spokeswoman told Local
6 Monday it “took proper action” in
handling the case.
Again, they claim they did not know
a crime occurred until after the
ship left port.
But the company’s own confidential
incident report provides more
evidence that is not true.
Eight minutes after the molestation
-- and two hours before the ship
departed -- the victim and her
grandmother emerged from the
elevator at 3:03 p.m. and headed
toward the guest services counter,
where they reported the incident.
Security was contacted and initiated
the investigation at 3:22 p.m.,
followed promptly by the child
relaying the criminal allegations to
a cruise security officer.
At 3:57 p.m., the 11-year-old from
Brazil led the officer to the spot
where she encountered the suspect
and “appeared to be uncomfortable
when she walked me to the elevator
where (the crew member) touched and
kissed her,” the officer wrote in
her report.
The security officer then retrieved
and reviewed the video of the
elevator lobby outside the car where
the attack occurred and confirmed
the actions of a uniformed crew
member were consistent with the
11-year-old’s retelling of the
story.
At 4:48 p.m., the video was shown to
a dining manager, who identified the
suspect by name and position, a
dining room server from India.
At 5:02 p.m., the Disney Dream left
its berth at Port Canaveral, as if
nothing criminal had occurred.
The suspect continued to roam the
ship until 7:50 p.m., when he was
called to the security office and,
under questioning, denied molesting
the girl, according to the DCL
report. He was then “removed from
the floor” and, apparently, kept
from encountering children.
After another unsuccessful attempt
to get him to confess on Aug. 6, he
was questioned after the ship
arrived in Nassau on Aug. 7 by
Bahamian authorities, who assumed
jurisdiction of the investigation
because the Disney Dream is flagged
in the Bahamas.
In a statement to Bahamas Police,
the suspect, Milton Braganza,
finally admitted “I touched her on
her right breast with my left hand.”
But by then – two days into a
five-day Disney cruise – the
victim’s grandmother had decided she
did not want the crime investigated.
DCL would not say if it refunded any
or all of the family’s cruise
expenses.
Had Florida law enforcement
immediately been informed of the
potential life felony and found
probable cause, Hellebrand said the
suspect would have been arrested,
regardless of a victim’s
grandmother’s wishes.
But the rules are different in the
Bahamas.
The suspect was removed from the
ship and taken to an airport, where
Disney arranged for his passage back
to India, his home country. The
company said it paid his expenses,
honoring a standard contract
provision to cover transportation
costs of employees returned to their
home nations.
Federal law generally requires
cruise lines to report certain
crimes to the FBI “as soon as
possible.” Sexual contact with a
minor, even touching of breasts
through clothes, is one of those
crimes. But there are exceptions to
the law when neither the suspect nor
victim is a U.S. citizen, or when
the ship is in state waters. It
appears both exceptions applied in
this case.
There are also often overlapping
jurisdictional issues in cruise
crimes, depending on the
nationalities of the parties
involved, the location of the ship,
the ports its departs from and
arrives at, and the country whose
flag it sails under.
The Disney Dream is flagged in the
Bahamas, so that county can assert
jurisdiction even when the ship is
in an American port, according to
the Cruise Lines International
Association. But so can federal and
state or local authorities – again,
depending on the circumstances.
Regardless of the law, DCL said last
week its policy is to report all
crimes as soon as possible to
various authorities, including port
police.
When DCL did notify Port Canaveral
police of the crime, on Aug. 6,
chief Hellebrand said the department
assigned a detective to meet the
ship when it returned on Friday Aug.
10, assuming the victim and suspect
would be made available.
But Disney Cruise Line and Bahamian
authorities had other plans.
“We would want to investigate that
crime because it occurred here,
regardless of whether somebody else
took over that investigation,”
Hellebrand said.
Asked if he would have given the
suspect a ride to the airport and
put him on a plane to India, the
chief replied, “No. We would not
have.”
TV Line - If the Cineplex left you
wanting more Iron Man, if the teasey
trailer for ABC’s S.H.I.E.L.D.
series whet your appetite anew for
Captain America, Hulk and Thor, rest
assured there will be many
ways to tune into the new Disney XD
series
Marvel’s Avengers Assemble
— and TVLine has a first look at the
smashing action.
Marvel’s Avengers Assemble
— which features Iron Man (voiced by
Heroes‘ Adrian Pasdar),
Thor (Ultimate Spider-Man‘s
Travis Willingham), Captain America
(Wreck-It Ralph’s Roger
Craig Smith), Hulk (The
Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes‘
Fred Tatasciore), Hawkeye (Ultimate
Spider-Man‘s Troy Baker), Black
Widow (videogame vet Laura Bailey)
and newcomer Falcon (Transformers:
Animated‘s Bumper Robinson) —
will first get a one-hour preview on
Sunday, May 26 at 11 am ET, on
Marvel Universe on Disney XD. (In
“The Avengers Protocol: Part 1,”
when Captain America is apparently
destroyed by Red Skull, Iron Man
tries to reunite the Avengers to
avenge his friend; in Part 2,
M.O.D.O.K. and Red Skull steal Tony
Stark’s armor, forcing the team to
galvanize and stop the dastardly duo
from destroying New York City.
Concurrent with the May 26
preview, TVLine has learned that
DisneyXD.com/Marvel will launch
“Avengers Tower Assault,” a
side-scrolling game in which players
take on the role of Hawkeye to help
the Avengers defend Stark Tower.
Then on Monday, May 27, the
“Avengers Protocol” episodes become
available on iTunes.
On Friday, June 28, during Disney
Channel’s Jessie, there
will be a two-minute preview of the Marvel’s
Avengers Assemble premiere
episode, “Ghost of a Chance,” in
which Falcon stands alone to save
his new comrades after they fall
victim to body-swapping Space
Phantoms. (Also at this time, WATCH
Disney XD viewers can watch the
series premiere in full.)
Then, on Sunday, July 7 at 11 am,
Marvel’s Avengers Assemble officially
premieres, while a second companion
game is launched at DisneyXD.com/Marvel.
Gizmodo - In an effort to make how
robots move and interact with humans
feel less awkward and uncomfortable,
Disney Research, working with the
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in
Germany, are developing a more
natural approach to the problem by
thoroughly studying how humans
interact.
In fact, using motion capture suits,
the study was taken one step
further. The goal of this particular
research was to improve how a robot
gives, or takes something from a
human. So the researchers recorded
two humans going through the motions
of passing an object between them,
and this was then compiled into a
database that a robot can use to
recognize when it's being given
something, and automatically reach
out to receive it without delay.
There's still quite a bit of
finessing needed to make the actual
handoff seem far more lifelike, but
in addition to making the
animatronic inhabitants at the
Disney parks a little less creepy,
the research promises to improve how
our future robot maids and butlers
interact with us.
CBS - Outrage by some parents over
what they deem derogatory statements
about children who need gluten-free
diets that were made on the Disney
Channel show "Jessie" has led the
company to pull the episode off the
air.
"To our viewers, we received your
feedback about tonight's 'Jessie'
episode which some of you accessed
early on Video-on-Demand," Disney
said in a statement on its official
Facebook page. "We are removing this
particular episode from our regular
programming schedule and will
re-evaluate its references to gluten
restrictions in the character's
diet. Please accept our apologies
for the upset this episode caused
you and your family. We value your
feedback and thank you for watching
Disney Channel."
The "Jessie" episode, called
"Quitting Cold Koala," revolved
around a teen nanny who was tasked
with taking care of a child named
Stuart, who needs a gluten-free
diet. Several jokes are made about
his condition, including the main
character Jessie pointing out that
Stuart had a five-page list of his
dietary requirements.
"You call me sweetie again, and
you'll be eating some gluten-free
knuckles," one character says to
Stuart after he gets her a gift.
Another gag has a child throwing
pancakes at Stuart as he screams
"gluten!" and wipes his face.
"He makes me look macho," another
child who sees the incident, says.
Some viewers who have been
personally affected by celiac
disease, which requires patients to
be treated with a gluten-free diet,
were outraged about the show's
glibness towards the disorder.
"There were tears in my
daughter's eyes, and my son's fist
was clenched (when they were
watching the episode)," Amy
Raslevich told the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette.
Raslevich is the mother of two
children with celiac disease, which
is a digestive disease that causes
damage to the small intestine and
stops the body from absorbing
nutrients from food.
People with celiac disease can't
eat gluten, which is a protein found
in wheat, rye and barley. When
people with the disorder eat the
protein, their immune system
destroys tiny protrusions lining the
small intestine called villi, which
allow nutrients to be taken from
food. Without villi, people become
malnourished no matter how much food
they eat.
A July 2012 study estimates that
1.8 million Americans have celiac
disease, but only 1.4 million people
may not even know about it.
Gluten-free diets not always
necessary, study suggests
Modern wheat a "perfect,
chronic poison," doctor says
Gluten-free diets are necessary
for people with celiac disease, but
they have also become a fad diet for
some. About 1.6 million Americans
are on a gluten-free diet, whether
they need to be or not. People who
do not need to avoid gluten may
develop deficits in fiber, folate,
niacin and zinc by keeping the
strict diet.
"The first year (after diagnosis)
was literally like a death,"
Raslevich said. "That's the best way
for me to describe it. They went
through all of the stages of grief.
There's nothing else that they can
do, and they aren't going to outgrow
it. It was tough, and it still is."
Raslevich started an online
petition on Change.org to ask the
Disney Channel to stop airing
"Quitting Cold Koala"and to stop
using gluten-intolerance as a way to
harass children with a disability.
Several bloggers also explained
their disgust, and a thread on the
website Reddit was started on the
issue.
"Their condition is real, and
their feelings are real," Raslevich
wrote on the petition. "They are
ostracized for a condition for which
they did not ask, and because of
which they will spend their entire
lives having to make exceptions and
special requests, all to keep them
healthy and safe. They will often
feel excluded or different, because
they have to be to avoid serious
illness. Yet Disney gave children
permission, and an example, to
further isolate my children and
others like them because of their
medical conditions."
Reuters - "Star Wars Rebels," based
on George Lucas' multibillion dollar
film franchise, will be set in the
two decades between the events of
the third and fourth films, where
the Empire becomes a dominant force
in the galaxy, Disney said.
"I think 'Star Wars Rebels' will
capture the look, feel and fun that
both kids and their parents love
about 'Star Wars,'" Kathleen
Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm,
said in a statement.
The animated series, which will
premiere on the Disney Channel and
shown across Disney XD channels
around the world, will come before a
new "Star Wars" film in 2015.
"Star Wars: Episode VII," to be
directed by J.J. Abrams, is the
first of three new "Star Wars" films
announced by Disney in October 2012,
when it purchased George Lucas'
Lucasfilm company for $4.05 billion.
"Star Wars" has become a cultural
phenomenon since the first film was
released in 1977, making characters
such as Luke Skywalker, Princess
Leia and Darth Vader, and phrases
like "May the force be with you"
part of popular culture.
Anticipation is building among
the vast "Star Wars" community for
the new film, which will be filmed
in Britain. The six-film franchise
has grossed more than $4.4 billion
at the worldwide box office.
The Disney Channel, Disney XD and
Lucasfilm are units of the
Walt
Disney Co.
Orlando
Sentinel - Talk Like Yoda Day,
Tuesday is.
In Orlando, it seems like there's
always a reason to celebrate the
"Star Wars" films. Right now, we're
in between sessions of Star Wars
Weekends at Disney's Hollywood
Studios. Last summer, Celebration
VI, a convention of all things Star
Wars was the Orange County
Convention Center. And the purchase
of Lucasfilm by Walt Disney Co. last
year will probably only intensify
the local feelings for the
franchise, hmmmmmmm?
So, talk like yoda, the little
green Jedi who appeared in five of
the six original films, you should,
on May 21. It's the anniversary of
the release of "Star Wars: Episode V
— The Empire Strikes Back," the
first time mere mortals saw Yoda,
yes?
Here are a few tips to get your
Yoda on. It is hard not. (Some
analysts say he has
object-subject-verb issues. Judge
him by his syntax, do you?)
•Put the subject and verb
at the end of a sentence.
"Subject and verb at the end of a
sentence, you should put."
•Go oddly negative.
"It's a small world, not, it is?"
•Tack on a hmmmmm.
"It's a small world, not, it is,
hmmmmm?"
•Add a yes at the end of
a question. "Talk Like Yoda
Day is a lot like Talk Like a Pirate
Day … yes?"
•Higher and higher.
Pitching your voice up a notch and
using Valley Girl inflection at the
end helps.
In the movies, Yoda was voiced by
puppeteer Frank Oz, who is also the
man behind Muppets such as Cookie
Monster, Miss Piggy and Grover. He
has a voice role in the upcoming
Disney-Pixar "Monsters University."
(The synergy, you feel, yes?)
But wait, there's more. Actor
Warwick Davis, who walked for Yoda
in some scenes of "Star Wars:
Episode I — The Phantom Menace" will
be at Star Wars Weekend for the next
two weekends, and Tom Kane, who
voices Yoda for the animated TV
series "Star Wars: The Clone Wars,"
will be here June 7-9.
DisneyParks Blog - Our team of chefs
and beverage experts are cranking up
fast for the 2013 Epcot
International Food & Wine Festival,
with food, wine, beers and cocktails
taking center stage around the World
Showcase Promenade and all across
Walt Disney World Resort.
Look for classic Scottish dishes
that are still in the development
phase, but the cocktail of choice
will be a Rusty Nail, a popular
Scotch whisky martini that is simply
Scotch and Drambuie. Scotland is
just one of more than 25 ethnic and
specialized marketplaces – and we’re
happy that Brazil returns this year,
a crowd favorite that was missing in
2012.
Hawaii is back with the fab pork
slider, as well as the vegan Terra
Marketplace that debuted last year.
Favorite celeb chefs are back.
Look for Jamie Deen, Robert Irvine,
Gale Gand, Art Smith, Buddy Valastro,
Bryan Voltaggio, Warren Brown and
others to make appearances at
special events and on stage in the
Festival Center. Wine tastings,
mixology seminars, cheese seminars,
live entertainment and the engaging
Ocean Spray Cranberry Bog give
guests of all ages plenty to see and
do. More than 270 chefs and culinary
stars from the U.S. will be there.
The 46-day festival runs
September 27-November 11. You can
start making reservations in August
at 407-WDW-FEST (date to be
announced soon)! Keep an eye on
epcotfoodfestival.com for updates.
EurekAlert - Video compositing to
create special effects, replace
backgrounds or combine multiple
takes of an actor's performance is
an integral, but highly
labor-intensive, part of modern film
making. Researchers at Disney
Research, Zürich, however, have
found an innovative way to create
these composite videos that is
simple, fast, and easy to use.
Rather than perform a painstaking
segmentation of elements that are to
be added or subtracted from a video,
the Disney system, called DuctTake,
uses computer algorithms to find a
spatiotemporal "seam" through the
video frame that enables two or more
videos to be joined together.
These seams can be highly
irregular, following the contours of
people, furniture and other objects
that are common in each take of the
scene. Because it can only combine
scenes that have overlapping
content, DuctTake isn't useful for
combining arbitrary video clips. But
it works like a charm when combining
multiple takes of the same shot.
The Disney Research, Zürich
researchers showed the technique can
be used across a wide range of video
composites. For example, it can
combine the best performances by
actors from several different takes
into a single seamless output,
reducing the number of on-set takes
that are required to be filmed.
Furthermore, the same technique can
be used to make a cut seamless,
allowing the first half of one take
to be combined into a second take.
In another case, the researchers
eliminated unwanted cars from a
street scene by offsetting the
vehicle with empty street imagery
from the same video take.
Hard-to-shoot scenes involving
animals, they demonstrated, become a
bit easier when an animal trainer
can be easily removed from the shot,
or other actors can be added at the
moment of time when the animal does
the right thing.
"The most delicate component is
alignment," said Oliver Wang, post
doctoral researcher at Disney
Research, Zürich. "But given
properly aligned views, we can
almost always generate good
composites with minimal work."
The findings by Wang and his
Disney Research, Zürich team of Jan
Rüegg, Aljoscha Smolic and Markus
Gross were presented at Eurographics
2013, the European Association for
Computer Graphics conference. More
information and a video
demonstration is available online at
http://www.disneyresearch.com/project/ducttake/.
Most video compositing is
accomplished now by the digital
equivalent of "cut-and-paste."
Rotoscoping is the process by which
elements can be added by drawing
segmentation outlines. Chroma-keying,
familiar to viewers of TV
weathercasts in which news
announcers appear to stand in front
of large, animated maps, separates
actors from backgrounds based on
color hues; it's cheap and robust,
but restricts filming to studio
environments, and can require
challenging color balancing in
post-production.
"Our approach solves a simpler
problem," Gross acknowledged, "but
as a result it is robust, fast to
compute and easy for artists to use,
enabling compositing techniques to
be used on lower budget shots and
productions."
A DuctTake user can combine two
videos by making a few quick brush
strokes to indicate which parts of
the video to keep in each take. An
algorithm developed by the Disney
Research, Zürich team then computes
an optimal seam and merges the two
videos together.
DuctTake also includes a number
of tools necessary to create a
composite that looks realistic, such
as adjusting the seam between frames
to compensate for camera movement or
content movement. Other tools adjust
for differences in brightness,
contrast and hue between takes,
blend images along seams that are
visible in a common background, and
increase the blurriness in some
video to match blurring that occurs
in the video with which it is being
combined.
DisneyParks Blog - We’re gearing up
for some “monstrous” fun on May 24,
when both Disneyland and Disney
California Adventure parks (in
addition to Magic Kingdom Park at
Walt Disney World Resort) will stay
open from 6 a.m. on Friday, May 24,
until 6 a.m. on Saturday, May 25,
2013. If you’re planning to visit
the Disneyland Resort during this
special event, I’ve got some
important information you should
know.
Park Hours and
Attraction Information
Disneyland and Disney
California Adventure parks will
open at 6 a.m. on Friday, May
24, and select attractions,
entertainment and services will
remain open until 6 a.m. on
Saturday, May 25, with the
following exceptions:
Cars Land, Paradise
Pier, Pacific Wharf and
Twilight Zone Tower of
Terror will be available
exclusively to Grad Nite
guests from as early as
10:15 p.m. (May 24) until
3:30 a.m. (May 25).
Radiator Springs Racers
will be available to Disney
California Adventure park
guests from 9 a.m. – 10:15
p.m. on May 24. FASTPASS
Service distribution will
begin at 6 a.m. for this
attraction.
“a bug’s land” will be
available to Disney
California Adventure park
guests from 6 a.m. – 10:15
p.m. on May 24.
Big Thunder Mountain
Railroad will be closed for
refurbishment.
Other attractions may
close early due to
maintenance or other
reasons. Please check the
Entertainment Times Guide on
the day of the event for a
more complete listing of
scheduled closures.
Queue Instructions for
Park Opening on May 24
The early arrival queue will
open to guests on Disneyland
Resort property at 10 p.m. on
May 23. Cast members will be
available in the Disneyland
Resort Esplanade to direct
guests to queue location upon
arrival.
Parking will initially be
available in the Anaheim
GardenWalk parking area with
overflow parking at the Pumbaa
Parking Lot, if necessary, and
standard parking rates will
apply. Please be aware that no
shuttle service will be offered
from the Anaheim GardenWalk or
Pumbaa Parking areas prior to 8
a.m. on May 24.
All guests in line will be
able to temporarily leave the
line to use the restroom,
purchase food or beverages, and
return or retrieve items from
their vehicles/hotel rooms.
Portions of the early
arrival queue will be located
beyond the guest screening
checkpoints, beyond which
certain items will not be
permitted. Be sure to check the
list of prohibited items.
Exceptions will be made for
items such as large blankets and
pillows, but all items must be
able to be stored in a locker
prior to entering either park.
No tents, inflatable mattresses,
coolers or heating equipment
will be permitted in the queue.
Restrooms will be available
to guests in the queue, and
ticket purchases will be
available beginning at 3:05 a.m.
the morning of May 24.
Disneyland Resort Hotel
guests who wish to enter either
park at 6 a.m. on May 24 will be
directed to the main queue in
the Central Esplanade. Disney’s
Grand Californian Hotel gate
into Disney California Adventure
park will open to Disneyland
Resort Hotel guests at 7 a.m. on
May 24.
Annual Passholder
Information
SoCal Select Annual
Passports will not be valid for
admission on May 24.
SoCal or Deluxe Annual
Passports will be valid for
admission during the entire
24-hour period.
Annual Passholders and their
guests who carpool to the
Monstrous Summer All-Nighter at
the Disneyland Resort can
receive a special button, while
supplies last. Here are the
details:
There must be at least
three (3) people in the
vehicle and at least one (1)
person must be a valid
Annual Passholder. Valid
Passport must be presented
upon entry to the
participating parking area.
Photo ID may be required.
One (1) button will be
given to each person who is
legally seated in the
qualifying vehicle. Supplies
are limited and are not
guaranteed.
Buttons will be
available at the Mickey &
Friends, Pumbaa, Simba, Toy
Story, and Anaheim
Convention Center parking
areas. Buttons will not be
available at the Anaheim
GardenWalk parking location.
This special offer will
be available from 5 a.m. on
May 24 to 6 a.m. on May 25,
or while supplies last.
More information can be
found at: disneyland.com/apmagic
Stay Connected
Be sure to follow
@Disneyland, @DisneylandToday
and @DCAToday on Twitter to stay
connected and receive the latest
updates during your visit to the
Disneyland Resort. We will also
have live updates throughout the
day here.
ComicBookMovie -Those who have been
looking forward to Disney's remake
of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
will be disappointed to hear the
following news. According to The
Sydney Morning Herald, the David
Fincher-directed adaptation of the
excellent Jules Verne novel will no
longer begin production this summer
in Sydney, Australia. Instead, the
film is said to be "on the
backburner" and that filming won't
start until next year. The reason
for this delay is casting issues
following frequent Fincher
collaborator Brad Pitt's passing on
the role of Ned Land. Channing Tatum
has since come up as a rumored
contender for the film (presumably
as Land), but we haven't heard
anything since. If all goes
according to plan, 20,000 Leagues
Under The Sea could now be
released sometime in 2015 or 2016.
Fox -
Walt Disney’s (DIS)
ABC is set to become the first
broadcast network to provide live
online streaming of its shows.
Disney said live streaming, both
online and on a corresponding WATCH
ABC mobile app, will be available to
viewers of ABC’s New York and
Philadelphia networks from May 14
until the end of June. WATCH ABC
will then go live for all networks
by the end of the summer.
On July 1, the WATCH ABC service
will only be open to subscribers of
cable, satellite and other
television subscription services
that have agreements with ABC to
allow live streaming for the New
York and Philadelphia networks.
Later in the summer, Disney plans
to allow authenticated subscribers
in the Los Angeles, Chicago, San
Francisco, Houston, Raleigh-Durham
and Fresno, Calif., markets to
access live streaming.
Disney also came to an agreement
with Hearst Television, which owns
13 ABC affiliates such as Boston,
Kansas City and Pittsburgh. The two
companies said WATCH ABC will be
made available for those networks
“in the coming months.”
The app will initially be
available for the Amazon.com (AMZN)
Kindle Fire and Apple’s (AAPL)
iPhone and iPad devices, while
Samsung Galaxy tablets will be added
later this summer.
Online and mobile users will have
access to on-demand programs in
addition to live shows.
Competing networks may soon
follow Disney, which already has
similar offerings such as WATCH ESPN
and WATCH Disney Channel, as viewers
increasingly turn to the Web and
mobile devices to watch TV programs.
CBS (CBS)
in April made an investment in
Syncbak, a company that provides
online streaming capabilities for
local television stations.
Shares of Disney were down 9
cents at $67.11 in early morning
trading Monday.
Mercury News - Marin filmmaker
Brenda Chapman, who won an Oscar for
writing and co-directing the
animated feature "Brave," blasted
Disney's sexy makeover of her
movie's feisty heroine, Merida, as
"a blatantly sexist marketing move
based on money."
Chapman, a Mill Valley resident,
modeled the headstrong Merida on her
13-year-old daughter, Emma, creating
her as a role model for little
girls.
In an email to the Independent
Journal on Saturday, she said she
has given Bob Iger, president of
Walt Disney International, "a piece
of my mind" for the entertainment
giant's decision to glamorize the
tomboy character she envisioned.
"There is an irresponsibility to
this decision that is appalling for
women and young girls," she said,
writing from Chile, where she has
been on business. "Disney marketing
and the powers that be that allow
them to do such things should be
ashamed of themselves."
Disney crowned Merida its 11th
princess on Saturday, but ignited a
firestorm of protest with a
corporate makeover of Chapman's
original rendering of the character,
giving her a Barbie doll waist,
sultry eyes and transforming her
wild red locks into glamorous
flowing tresses. The new image takes
away Merida's trusty bow and arrow,
a symbol of her strength and
independence, and turns her from a
girl to a young woman dressed in an
off-the-shoulder version of the
provocative, glitzy gown she hated
in the movie.
"I think it's atrocious what they
have done to Merida,"
Chapman fumed. "When little girls
say they like it because it's more
sparkly, that's all fine and good
but, subconsciously, they are
soaking in the sexy 'come hither'
look and the skinny aspect of the
new version. It's horrible! Merida
was created to break that mold -- to
give young girls a better, stronger
role model, a more attainable role
model, something of substance, not
just a pretty face that waits around
for romance."
Chapman, the first woman to win
an Academy Award for an animated
feature, said she has added her name
to a petition with more than 50,000
signatures that has gone viral on
the female empowerment website "A
Mighty Girl," joining other mothers
outraged by Disney's sexualization
of her headstrong young Scottish
heroine, an expert archer with a
head of wild, curly red hair and a
mind of her own.
Signers variously described the
new Merida as "vapid," "arm candy,"
"unrealistic" and "vacant looking."
In an official statement to
Yahoo! Shine, a Disney spokesperson
said, "Merida exemplifies what it
means to be a Disney Princess
through being brave, passionate, and
confident and she remains the same
strong and determined Merida from
the movie whose inner qualities have
inspired moms and daughters around
the world."
Chapman begs to differ. In basing
Merida on her teenage daughter, then
a student at Mill Valley Middle
School, she said she wanted the
movie to be "a contemporary fairy
tale" that resonates with today's
working mothers and daughters. Her
character's image as a different
kind of princess turned out to be
hugely successful, grossing more
than $550 million, winning an Oscar,
a Golden Globe and the Bafta Award
from the British Academy of Film and
Television Arts.
"They have been handed an
opportunity on a silver platter to
give their consumers something of
more substance and quality -- THAT
WILL STILL SELL -- and they have a
total disregard for it in the name
of their narrow minded view of what
will make money," Chapman wrote. "I
forget that Disney's goal is to make
money without concern for integrity.
Silly me."
Orlando Sentinel - Barbara Walters
says her retirement next summer is
her decision, and she is "perfectly
healthy."
The pioneering
newswoman, who is 83, played
highlights of her career on Monday's
edition of "The View." Then she
said: "It has been an absolutely
joyful, rewarding, challenging,
fascinating and occasionally bumpy
ride. I wouldn’t change a thing."
Walters seemed
stunned to realize that she has been
on television for more than 50
years, from "Today" to ABC's evening
news to "20/20," specials and "The
View." After she retires, she said
she will continue to produce "The
View" and return for what she called
"special occasions."
Robert Iger,
chairman of the Walt Disney Co., was
in the audience for the
announcement. Disney owns ABC.
Iger recalled
that he and Walters first met in
1976, when he was a production
assistant and he delivered something
to her dressing room.
"From then on, you called me Jim.
My name is Bob," he said.
Walters noted
that Iger will retire in 2015 and
asked what they would do. He
suggested they go on ABC's "Dancing
With the Stars."
Then Iger
briefly took over the conversation.
"If I can say one thing," he
started. "I run the company. I guess
I can."
He applauded
Walters' "singular" success in
television and said that no one has
come close to the volume, breadth
and quality of her work.
"Thank you,
Jim," Walters replied with a
comedian's skill.
New York Mayor
Michael Bloomberg was a surprise
guest on "The View" and called
Walters his idol.
But Walters
resisted getting swept up in the
emotion. "I'm not gone yet. I still
have another year to go," she said.
Artist Kathyrn Hudson imagines what
it would be like if some of your
favorite Disney characters went to
the high school dance.
Belle and The Beast are the most
adorable; Tiana and Prince Naveen
from The Princess and the Frog
are the best looking and most
romantic; Alice has the coolest
dress; and Snow White — with
seven dates — is the most
scandalous.
DisneyParks Blog - Hundreds of
rubber ducks raced around the world
for a cause at the 5th annual “it’s
a small world” duck race! Cast
members sponsored and decorated the
ducks to raise more than $1,800 for
Make-A-Wish Orange County and the
Inland Empire before Disneyland park
opened for the day.
The cast
fundraiser carries forward the
attraction’s legacy of supporting
children, dating back to the
1964-1965 New York World’s Fair when
it was created in honor of the
United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF).
While cast members waited
anxiously to see which rubber duck
would race through “it’s a small
world” fastest, we sent along our
camera to capture the journey and
winners!
DisneyParks Blog - This week, The
Force is indeed strong at Tokyo
Disneyland with the opening of the
updated Star Tours: The Adventures
Continue. The attraction had been
closed for more than a year while
Imagineers were busy adding new
stories and adventures. Like the
attractions at Disneyland park and
Disney’s Hollywood Studios, guests
now have the opportunity to
experience more than 50 different
story combinations and experience
these adventures in dazzling 3D.
The biggest changes between the U.S.
and Tokyo attractions are in the
queue areas themselves. In the Droid
Room of the Tokyo Disneyland
attraction, if you look carefully,
you may discover a reference to a
classic Disney Parks attraction. Any
guesses as to what this attraction
pays homage to?
I’d also like to share a video
from our friends at Walt Disney
Imagineering, who updated the Tokyo
Disneyland Star Tours attraction, so
you can see what other changes they
made to the Arrival Hall – a room we
don’t have in either Anaheim or
Orlando.
USA Today - Walt Disney said Tuesday
its quarterly profit soared 32% on
improving movie studio finances,
higher advertising rates at ESPN and
longer stays at its theme park
resorts.
The Burbank, Calif.-based media
giant said Tuesday its net income
for the fiscal second quarter rose
32% from a year ago to $1.51 billion
as customer demand grew for nearly
all of its various business lines.
Earnings per share for the
quarter were 83 cents for the three
months ending March 30 vs. 63 cents
in the year-ago period. Its adjusted
earnings per share of 79 cents — up
36%, excluding special items — beat
Wall Street expectations of 77
cents, according to Thomson Reuters.
Revenue for the quarter rose 10%
to $10.55 billion.
"Our results reflect our
successful strategy, the strength of
our brands and the value of our
high-quality creative content," CEO
Robert Iger said in a statement.
All of Disney's operating units,
except Interactive, reported
year-over-year profit gains. But the
Interactive unit, which runs gaming
and digital properties, did see its
operating loss narrow 23% to $54
million on revenue of $194 million.
Disney said Monday that it has
agreed to develop new Star Wars
video games with Electronic Arts.
Disney's theme parks and resorts
unit reported the biggest profit
growth. With tourists staying more
nights at its Disney resorts and the
addition of the Disney Fantasy
cruise ship, which launched in March
2012, the unit's profit rose 73% to
$383 million. A jump in prices for
food and drinks and entrance tickets
also pushed average guest spending
higher, resulting in a 14% increase
in the unit's revenue to $3.3
billion.
Disney's cable and broadcast
networks — including ABC and ESPN —
remain its largest revenue
generators. The unit's earnings were
up 8% to $1.86 billion, as revenue
rose 6% to $4.96 billion.
Advertising-rate increases at
ESPN helped offset a 40% drop in the
operating income of its broadcasting
business, which includes ABC. Higher
prime-time programming costs and a
drop in advertising revenue at ABC
contributed to the decline.
Disney's movie studio business
returned to profitability on the
strong performance of recently
released movies Oz the Great and
Powerful and Wreck-it Ralph.
The studio's tidings of good
fortune could continue into the
current quarter. Iron Man 3,
from Disney's Marvel Studios,
grossed $174.1 million in the U.S.
in its first weekend of release. The
movie, starring Robert Downey Jr.,
has brought in $678.9 million
worldwide in just 10 days, according
to Hollywood.com.
Last year's big-name release —
John Carter, a sci-fi movie set
on Mars — lost $200 million and cost
then-studio chief Rich Ross his job.
"The Disney machine is churning
out the benefits which come from
courageous capital investments in
the difficult stretch from 2008 to
2011," William Smead, CEO of Smead
Capital Management, a shareholder in
Seattle, told Bloomberg News
DisneyParks Blog - Here’s a list of
scheduled celebrities for this
year’s Force-filled fan fest:
Weekend I (May 17–19)
Ray Park (Darth Maul – Star Wars:
Episode I The Phantom Menace)
Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett – Star
Wars: Episode V The Empire
Strikes Back and Star Wars:
Episode VI Return of the Jedi)
Dee Bradley Baker (voice of Captain
Rex – Star Wars: The Clone Wars)
Weekend II (May 24-26)
Ray Park (Darth Maul – Star Wars:
Episode I The Phantom Menace)
Warwick Davis (Wicket the Ewok –
Star Wars: Episode VI
Return of the Jedi)
Jim Cummings (voice of Hondo Ohnaka
– Star Wars: The Clone Wars)
Weekend III (May 31 –
June 2)
Warwick Davis (Wicket the Ewok –
Star Wars: Episode VI
Return of the Jedi)
Tim Rose (Admiral Ackbar – Star
Wars: Episode VI Return of
the Jedi)
Sam Witwer (voice of Darth Maul –
Star Wars: The Clone Wars)
Weekend IV(June 7-9)
Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian
– Star Wars: Episode V
The Empire Strikes Back and
Star Wars: Episode VI
Return of the Jedi)
Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca – Star
Wars: Episode IV A New Hope,
Star Wars: Episode V
The Empire Strikes Back,
Star Wars: Episode VI
Return of the Jedi and Star
Wars: Episode III Revenge
of the Sith
Tom Kane (voice of Yoda – Star
Wars: The Clone Wars)
Also new this year is a photo
opportunity with a “life-size”
rancor. The giant beast, which was
Jabba the Hutt’s prized pet in
Star Wars: Episode VI
Return of the Jedi, will be on
display during the event. The
handcrafted replica is 17 feet long
and weighs more than 700 pounds. The
reptomammal sculpture is
well-traveled — it’s a popular piece
at Star Wars events around
the globe and will make its way to
our park for Star Wars
Weekends.
A trio of specialty “one-man
shows” will be presented this year,
giving guests a peek into the on-
and off-screen worlds of three
Star Wars celebrities — James
Arnold Taylor, Ray Park and Warwick
Davis.
“Obi-Wan & Beyond” (each
event day) stars James Arnold
Taylor. James takes audiences on
a journey into his wonderful
world of voice acting.
“Visit to the Maul”
(Weekends I and II) features Ray
Park. Guests can see a
demonstration of amazing martial
arts skills by the actor who
portrayed Darth Maul on the
silver screen.
“An Ewok’s Tale – my short
story” (Weekends II and III)
stars Warwick Davis. Guests get
a unique look into the
fascinating world of this
Star Wars legend.
As you plan your visit to
Star Wars Weekends, be aware
that many of the behind-the-scenes
shows reach capacity quickly, so
arrive early. Also, you’ll want to
arrive early to the park if you
would like to get a celebrity
autograph.
LA Times - If the dead could speak,
they probably wouldn't have been
heard over the burst of virtual
shouting and howling Walt Disney Co.
drew for attempting to trademark "Dia
de los Muertos" -- a bid it has
since dropped.
The company filed 10
applications with the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office for
“Dia de los Muertos,” including
applications pertaining to toys,
cereals and jewelry. The May 1
filings came in anticipation of
an untitled movie about the
Mexican holiday, known in
English as Day of the Dead.
“As we have previously
announced, Disney-Pixar is
developing an animated feature
inspired by the Mexican holiday
Día de los Muertos,” a studio
spokesperson said in a
statement.
“Disney’s trademark filing
was intended to protect any
potential title for our film and
related activities. It has since
been determined that the title
of the film will change and
therefore we are withdrawing our
trademark filing.”
The centuries-old holiday,
with roots in indigenous Aztec
culture, honors the dead by
building altars, decorating
gravesites and holding
processions. The Day of the Dead
is not just observed in Mexico,
but other parts of Latin
America, Europe and the United
States.
A petition to stop Walt
Disney Co. from trademarking
“Dia de los Muertos” went up on
change.org Tuesday, a day
after the news reported the
filings. As of Wednesday morning
it had 19,500 signatures.
“Our spiritual traditions are
for everyone, not for companies
like Walt Disney to trademark
and exploit,” wrote Grace Sesma,
the petition’s creator. “I am
deeply offended and dismayed
that a family-oriented company
like Walt Disney would seek to
own the rights to something that
is the rightful heritage of the
people of Mexico.”
“This is a sacred tradition.
It's NOT FOR SALE,” wrote
Consuelo Alba, of Watsonville,
Calif.
The trademark application was
"odd" to Evonne Gallardo,
executive director of the Boyle
Heights art center Self Help
Graphics. The center puts on one
of the largest Day of the Dead
celebrations in Los Angeles and
has been sponsored by the Walt
Disney Co.
"The right thing to do is not
to attempt to trademark a
cultural and spiritual
celebration," Gallardo said. "I
have yet to see a trademark on
Christmas or Hanukkah."
It's not the first time Walt
Disney Co. drew criticism for a
trademark application. In 2011
it withdrew its application to
trademark "Seal Team 6," the
name of the military unit that
tracked and killed Osama bin
Laden. Less than a week after
the Navy SEAL team's successful
mission, Disney moved to patent
with plans to produce toys and
entertainment.
After the Navy filed its own
trademark claim, Disney bailed
out.
Yahoo - The world has given
corporate chiefs plenty of
excuses to stay cautious and
focus inward over the past
several years – and most CEOs
have used these excuses as
permission to do just that.
Most corporate leaders have
only held their jobs in times of
threat and turmoil, from credit
meltdown to severe global
recession to sovereign-debt
crises and radical technological
change.
As a result, despite stock
prices and profit margins at
record highs, CEOs as a group
have become conditioned to play
defense. They have hoarded cash,
using it mostly to buy back
shares or increase dividends,
while generally shunning bold
investments or expansionary deal
making.
Bob Iger also faced an
onslaught of worldwide economic
tumult and wrenching
technological threats to his
business since taking over as
CEO of Walt Disney Co. (DIS) in
late 2005.
Yet instead of treading
gingerly, Iger has aggressively
spent to expand Disney parks,
launched a cruise line and spent
heavily and opportunistically to
purchase three of the most
distinctive entertainment
franchises ever created: Pixar,
Marvel and Lucasfilm’s Star
Wars.
Meantime, Iger (who sits on
Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) board) has
been a media industry leader in
adapting to new
digital-distribution approaches
for Disney content, while
pragmatically managing the
secular decline in its ABC
broadcasting business.
There is a good deal of irony
in Iger’s expansionary tenure at
Disney. When he succeeded
Michael Eisner, the polarizing
Hollywood character, he was
considered a safe “Mr. Inside”
who was a competent operator and
an unobjectionable personality.
Yet Iger quickly refocused
the company on its core
“franchise” brands, those
identifiably, quintessentially
Disney-ish properties that
resonate with customers and can
be leveraged across multiple
product platforms. And when
one-of-a-kind intellectual
properties became available,
Iger had the resolve and risk
appetite to buy them, rather
than agonizing over whether they
would have pleased Uncle Walt.
He bought Pixar for $7.4
billion in 2006, gaining
unmatched creative resources as
well as the close counsel of
Pixar founder Steve Jobs (whose
estate is Disney’s single
largest shareholder). He
followed it in 2009 with the $4
billion Marvel deal. By last
year, Iger had clearly made
Disney the preferred home for
Star Wars, once creator George
Lucas was ready to cash out.
(Lucas agreed to sell his
Lucasfilm empire to Disney for
$4 billion last November).
With Pixar and Marvel,
critics were quick to call the
acquisitions expensive and
risky, with unclear financial
payoffs that would require many
future hit movies. Yet Pixar and
Marvel have paid off by most any
measure, most recently with last
weekend’s monster opening for
Marvel’s Iron Man 3.
Meantime, with ESPN’s
cable-fee machine humming along,
Iger gave the network a free
hand to invade the rest of the
TV dial with new channels and
spend aggressively for
sports-programming rights. He
led a controversial but
ultimately successful renovation
and expansion of the
once-disappointing California
Adventure theme park, launched
cruise lines to further capture
family loyalties and is
overseeing the development of
the five-year, 1,000-acre, $4
billion Shanghai Disneyland.
Under Iger, Disney’s
per-share dividend has nearly
quadrupled and the company has
bought back some $3 billion a
year or more in stock in recent
years. Disney's profitable core
media and theme-park operations
earn enough cash to allow Iger
to invest for the future and
share cash with investors.
And none of this has made
Iger immune from criticism or
stumbles. There was a botched
appointment of studio chief, the
expensive John Carter movie
debacle, complaints at times
about the subpar profitability
of the parks, some lousy
network-TV programming and dry
spells in Disney Channel show
development. Yet none of it has
deterred Iger from strengthening
the brands and investing in new
ones when opportunities arise.
The market approves: Since Iger
took over, Disney shares are up
180%, versus about 40% for the
Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
DisneyParks Blog - “So why do you
run?” That is the question most
often asked to runners by
non-runners. “Why do you get up
before dawn, oftentimes in miserable
weather, to go do something that
quite frankly does not look
enjoyable?”
This is a question that is not
lost on runners. In fact one of my
favorite running shirts has
emblazoned across the back, “My
Sport is Your Sport’s Punishment” –
a not so gentle nod to the bevy of
coaches who have ever uttered the
phrase “Gimme a lap!”
So why do we run? There are as
many reasons as runners – “So I can
eat what I want,” “To stay in
shape,” “To clear my mind” – but
there is one reason that seems to
rise to the top among all our
runDisney runners…”we run for
the bling!” You see, there is
nothing so rewarding as finishing a
race and having a volunteer drape a
beautifully crafted Disney medal
around your neck. For that moment
you feel as though you are an
Olympian, and regardless of what
place you’ve finished, you have
earned that gold.
So with that said, I am pleased
to reveal our latest entries into
the pantheon of runDisney
race medals: The 2013 Disneyland
Half Marathon, Disneyland 10K,
Disneyland Family Fun Run 5K and the
Dumbo Double Dare medals, all
beautifully designed to say, “Here’s
why I run.”
Orlando
Sentinel - Chris Dastou was playing
with his children in a swimming pool
on the Disney Fantasy cruise ship
when he felt something brush against
his feet.
Assuming it was his 6-year-old
son, Dastou hooked a foot around the
little body and lifted it out of the
5-foot-3-inch-deep water.
To his shock and horror, Dastou
found himself cradling a limp,
4-year-old stranger.
He carried Chase Lykken to the side
of the Donald family pool and laid
the boy on his back. The child's
skin was blue, waxy and pale. He
wasn't breathing.
"I started screaming for help,
and everybody rushed over and
grabbed him and started to help
out," recalled Dastou, 35, manager
of a car dealership near Atlanta.
Immediately, dozens of passengers
clustered around Chase, a Minnesota
boy who suffered severe brain damage
when he nearly drowned March 30 on
the ship docked at Port Canaveral, a
police report obtained by the
Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday shows.
Chase Christopher Lykken was
deprived of oxygen for up to six
minutes, Port Canaveral police
determined.
He was on life support at Arnold
Palmer Hospital for Children in
Orlando before being transferred
last month to Gillette Children's
Specialty Healthcare, a St. Paul
hospital for kids with disabilities.
His prognosis is "most likely poor,"
a doctor for a child-protection team
in Orlando concluded.
"Chase is described as being in a
vegetative state," the doctor wrote
April 9 in a report submitted to the
Florida Department of Children and
Families.
Investigators concluded Chase was
inadequately supervised, but there
was no criminal intent, police said.
They called the incident a "tragic
accident."
Police could not determine how
Chase slipped away and landed in the
pool. An 8-year-old South Carolina
girl told investigators she saw
Chase and another boy wrestle near
the pool and fall in, but neither
video nor other witnesses
corroborated her account.
Ship video shows the Lykken
(pronounced LICK-un) family on the
Mickey pool deck at 3:04 p.m. Seven
minutes later, parents Christopher
and Lisa Lykken appear to be looking
for someone, the report states.
At 3:12 p.m., Chase was pulled
from the Donald pool, where signs
warn passengers that no lifeguard is
on duty. The pools are next to each
other, a Disney spokeswoman said.
The parents told officers they
lost sight of Chase but assumed he
was at the pool with his 9-year-old
brother, Tanner, and 7-year-old
sister, Ava. Lisa Lykken, 43, looked
for Chase in the Mickey and Donald
pools, then heard Tanner yell and
saw someone performing
cardiopulmonary resuscitation on
Chase, according to the report.
Chase's parents, who live in
Prior Lake, about 25 miles south of
Minneapolis, have not granted media
interviews. They keep friends,
family and well-wishers apprised in
painstaking detail on a Facebook
page dedicated to Chase and on
caringbridge.org.
There, readers can see Chase in
happier times: on the first day of
preschool; catching a fish; posing
with his siblings and mugging for
the camera, his arms aloft and fists
clenched.
Despite the odds, the family
hopes for a miracle and expresses
gratitude for the smallest signs of
progress. Many of the posts end
with, "God is good."
The Lykkens have the support of
nearly 6,700 people who had liked
the Facebook page by Tuesday. Many
said they pray for his recovery.
Some have adopted the red, white and
blue Captain America shield logo as
their profile picture to show
solidarity with the blond,
brown-eyed boy who loved to dress as
the comic-book superhero.
A red, $5 "CHASE'S WARRIORS"
bracelet to raise money for his care
was so popular that the initial
shipment sold out.
The medical news is grim,
however. Chase is breathing on his
own but is being fed through a tube,
according to posts. The areas of his
brain that control motor skills,
basic functions such as heart and
respiratory rates, temperature, the
sleep-wake cycle and eyesight were
damaged.
"It's just a very sad situation,"
said Dastou, the man who pulled
Chase from the water. "It was
unbelievable what happened. Nobody
would think anything like that would
happen."
USA Today - Never underestimate the
power of the Force.
Disney has announced a multi-year
deal with Electronic Arts that
grants the video game publisher
rights to develop and publish video
games based on the classic
science-fiction franchise Star
Wars. Financial terms were not
disclosed.
EA would have rights to develop
Star Wars titles for a "core
gaming audience" across all
interactive platforms, says a joint
statement from both companies.
Disney would retain the right to
create certain games for mobile,
social, tablet and online.
"Every developer dreams of
creating games for the Star Wars
universe," says Frank Gibeau,
president of EA Labels, in a
statement.
Gibeau says studios DICE (Battlefield),
Visceral Games (Dead Space)
and BioWare (Mass Effect)
will all develop Star Wars
titles. BioWare already has
experience with the Star Wars
universe through massively
multiplayer online titles such as
Knights of the Old Republic and
The Old Republic.
"The new experiences we create
may borrow from films, but the games
will be entirely original with all
new stories and gameplay," says
Gibeau.
The announcement comes one month
after Disney shut down longtime
studio LucasArts in favor of a
licensing model involving Star Wars
and other properties.
Several projects, including the
action title Star Wars 1313,
had been halted, according to a
LucasFilm representative.
Yahoo - When Chief Executive Robert
Iger opens the Walt Disney Co. (DIS)
post-earnings conference call to
questions late Tuesday, he won’t be
asked again to justify the $4
billion he spent in 2009 to acquire
Marvel Entertainment. Or, at least,
he shouldn’t be.
The skyscraping $175 million
domestic box-office take for the
opening weekend of "Iron Man 3" was
exceeded only by the previous
Disney-Marvel release "The
Avengers," which went on to collect
$1.5 billion in ticket sales
globally.
The latest "Iron Man" installment
had already pulled in as much
overseas as it is estimated to have
grossed in its initial North
American weekend in theaters. At its
current trajectory, the latest
Robert Downey Jr.-Gwyneth Paltrow
save-the-world-through-cool-technology
movie should reach $1 billion in
global box office.
"Iron Man 3" is the final
Marvel-inspired film covered under a
pre-existing distribution agreement
with Viacom Inc.’s (VIAB) Paramount
Pictures – an arrangement that Iger
wanted to get past urgently enough
that he agreed to pay Paramount a
guaranteed fee in 2010 for "The
Avengers" and "Iron Man 3" so Disney
could take control of both films’
marketing.
A big payday
Paramount was in line to earn 8%
of worldwide gross for distributing"The Avengers"'and 9%
for "Iron Man 3." Disney
agreed to buy Paramount out of the
deal for $115 million, which was
cast as an advance on those
distribution fees, with Paramount
earning its full 8% and 9% fee if
box-office sales exceed threshold
levels. If"Iron Man 3"
does end upearning $1
billion, Paramount will get $90
million in total, or $32.5 million
more than the minimum guarantee
implied in the buyout deal, by one
analyst's estimate.
Disney is only too happy to pay
this fee, because it means "Iron Man
3" is a larger-than-anticipated
blockbuster and it gives the company
a head start in embedding Marvel
into its distribution platform. This
also hands Disney full marketing
control and potential cost synergies
with other releases.
Given the runaway success of the
"Iron Man" franchise – based on what
was once considered a marginal
comic-book hero – it’s remarkable
that Iger took a bit of heat from
Wall Street for the price he paid
for Marvel.
Because "Spider-Man" is
spoken-for under a long-term deal
with Sony Corp.'s (SNE) Sony
Pictures, analysts were unsure
Marvel promised enough bankable
characters around which to base
years-long slates of movies and
their attendant merchandise tie-ins.
"The Avengers" and "Iron Man" have
silenced the doubters. On the way
are another "Thor" picture and "The
Avengers 2," which will belong
entirely to Disney.
Farwell to the "boy
problem"
The Marvel deal – along with last
year’s $4 billion acquisition of
Star Wars creator Lucasfilm and the
endurance of the "Cars" franchise –
has also put to rest what used to be
considered Disney’s “boy problem.”
The enormous success beginning in
the 1990s of Disney’s Princesses
line of characters, along with
Disney Channel hits such as “Hannah
Montana,” left the company’s
business skewed in the direction of
young girls.
Iger, who is set to retire as CEO
in 2015, leaves the entertainment
divisions far more balanced by
customer gender, while its cable
business all but owns male eyeballs
through its ESPN networks.
All this, of course, is well
understood by the market, and Disney
faces a relatively high bar to clear
when reporting its fiscal
second-quarter results. The Wall
Street consensus for per-share
earnings is 77 cents a share, up
from 75 cents forecast for the
quarter at the start of the year.
Estimize.com, which crowd-sources
estimates from buy-side
professionals and other investors,
and has tended to be more accurate
than sell-side consensus, is showing
an 80-cent expectation.
Disney shares, meantime, are at
an all-time high. And at above
18-times anticipated 2013 profits,
shares are valued at a premium to
Disney's Big Media peers, which
themselves trade at rich multiples
of earnings after years of market
outperformance. Disney is probably
the highest-quality media giant
based on its cable-business mix and
the irreproducible nature of its
character set.
Along with peers such as Time
Warner Inc. (TWX), Disney is proving
the value of proprietary content,
showing an ability to get paid for
it in a digital world and pursuing
the disciplined use of capital. All
this is now taken for granted by
investors, who on Tuesday will no
doubt grasp for insights about ESPN
ad-pricing and revenue recognition
rates; the fate of streaming-service
Hulu.com (partly owned by Disney);
and the outlook for turning around
the video-game business.
Even if they won’t grill Iger on
the prudence of the Marvel deal,
investors will certainly need to
hear some details on Disney’s next
act in order for the stock to keep
working.
Bloomberg - “Iron Man 3” burst into
theaters with $175.3 million in U.S.
and Canadian ticket sales, giving
Walt
Disney Co. (DIS)’s Marvel
division its second straight
mega-hit to start a summer movie
season.
The opening-weekend haul for the
superhero film starring Robert
Downey Jr. was the second-biggest of
all time, behind “Marvel’s The
Avengers” in May 2012, the company
said yesterday in a statement. With
$504.8 million in international
receipts, “Iron Man 3” has collected
$680.1 million worldwide in 12 days
of release, more than either earlier
“Iron Man” generated in its entire
theater run.
The performance highlights
Disney’s multi-film, multi-prong
strategy for Marvel, acquired in
December 2009 for $4.2 billion,
according to David Hollis, executive
vice president for motion picture
distribution. He credited earlier
Marvel pictures that paved the way
with fans, characters interwoven
among movies and the marketing
muscle that Burbank,
California-based Disney, the world’s
largest entertainment company,
brings with its theme parks, TV
networks and retail stores.
“It was a very deliberate
strategy how they created the unique
overlaps and intertwined the
characters,” Hollis said in a
telephone interview. “The response
has been nothing short of
extraordinary.”
Disney’s approach has led
moviegoers to consider “Iron Man 3”
as a sequel to “The Avengers,” last
May’s superhero ensemble that took
in $1.51 billion at the global box
office, rather than as a follow-up
to “Iron Man” and “Iron Man 2,”
according to Phil Contrino, chief
analyst for BoxOffice.com.
Armored Suit
In the film, the ingenuity and
confidence of Downey’s billionaire
industrialist character, Tony Stark,
are tested after a surprise attack
destroys his laboratory and the
armored suits he uses to fight
villains. Ben Kingsley stars as The
Mandarin, an embittered genius who
gains access to advanced
technologies. Don Cheadle returns as
Stark’s friend, James Rhodes, and
Gwyneth Paltrow reprises her role as
Pepper Potts.
The success of “Iron Man 3”
should carry over to “Thor: The Dark
World,” set for release in November,
and the next “Avengers,” Hollis
said. He said the “branded
tent-pole” film strategy limits
Disney’s theatrical risk by focusing
on pictures the audience is familiar
with, and provides content for
Disney’s other divisions.
“Momentum begets momentum,”
Hollis said. “They’re all tied
together and they all will be
higher.”
In addition to “Thor” and the
planned 2015 sequel to “The
Avengers,” Disney’s Marvel slate
includes an April 2014 “Captain
America” sequel, and “Ant-Man” in
2015according to Box Office Mojo.
Summer Prospects
The strong debut for “Iron Man 3”
also gives a lift to Hollywood at
the start of summer, after an 11
percent decline in domestic ticket
sales and attendance so far this
year.
“If you can start off in May with
a gigantic film like this, you’ve
got tens of millions of people
exposed to trailers and other
materials for ‘‘World War Z,’’
‘‘After Earth’’ and so on,” said
Gitesh Pandya, chief executive
officer of Boxofficeguru.com. “It’s
a very positive indicator that we’re
going to have a very strong summer
season.’
More than 20 films are projected
to gross $100 million or more
domestically this summer, up from 12
a year earlier, according to
Bloomberg Industries research.
The lineup includes a new ‘‘Star
Trek” from
Viacom Inc. (VIAB)’s
Paramount Pictures, “Man of Steel”
and a third “Hangover” from
Time
Warner Inc. (TWX)’s Warner
Bros., and “The Wolverine,” part of
the “X-Men” series from News Corp.’s
Fox.
International Receipts
Pandya, who had expected “Iron
Man 3” to sell $165 million in
tickets this past weekend, is now
forecasting that the movie will
gross more than $400 million in
North America and $1.3 billion
worldwide, based on the opening and
favorable word of mouth. That would
put it in the top five of all time,
according to Box Office Mojo
rankings.
The movie, shot partially in
China, is on pace to do slightly
better than “The Avengers” outside
of North America, according to
Hollis. The opening day set records
in 10 countries, including Russia
and in China, where Disney and
partner DMG Entertainment released a
tailored version with more footage
with well-known local stars.
Some 55 percent of domestic “Iron
Man 3” theatergoers were over 25
years old and the single-biggest
group of attendees was couples,
according to Hollis. Family
attendance, at 27 percent, exceeded
that of “The Avengers” 24 percent,
indicating the picture had a broad
appeal, he said.
Showings at theaters that use
Imax Corp. (IMX)’s large-screen
technology have grossed almost $30
million worldwide, according to
Hollywood.com Box-Office. Optimism
for the film lifted stocks of Disney
and exhibitors last week.
Theater Spat
Imax, based in Mississauga,
Ontario, rose 1.2 percent to $27.82
on May 3 in New York.
Regal
Entertainment Group (RGC),
the largest U.S. theater operator,
slipped 0.1 percent to $18.72 after
climbing 3.5 percent on May 2.
Disney advanced 1.4 percent to
$64.80, an
all-time (DIS) high.
Expectations for “Iron Man 3”
were strong enough that Disney used
its debut to seek a bigger share of
the revenue from its movies,
prompting a public showdown that
ended just a week before the
opening. Hollis declined to discuss
details of the negotiations.
“The magnitude of a gross like
this is extraordinary for everyone’s
bottom line,” Hollis said.
Disney Chairman and CEO Robert
Iger has spent more than $15 billion
since 2006, purchasing animation
studio Pixar, comic book publisher
Marvel Entertainment, and Lucasfilm
Ltd., home of “Star Wars.”
The company has reduced the
number of movies it releases to
concentrate on well-known pictures
from those labels or familiar
content such as July’s “The Lone
Ranger,” starring Johnny Depp.
Disney Slate
The approach gives Disney the
chance to become the first studio to
generate more than $2 billion in
annual domestic ticket receipts in
2015, said Paul Sweeney, director of
North American Research at Bloomberg
Industries, citing “Star Wars” and
multiple Marvel films. The company
will also have a Pixar movie,
“Finding Dory,” and a “Pirates of
the Caribbean,” based on Box Office
Mojo’s list of upcoming releases.
“Historically, Disney’s live
action business has been a laggard,”
Sweeney said. “They chose to fix it
via acquisition. I think we are
really going to see the fruits of
this strategy in 2015.”
Weekend revenue for the top 12
films fell to $216.4 million from
$249.7 million a year earlier,
Hollywood.com said. Attendance is
down 11 percent year to date.
Forbes -
The halls in the House of Mouse, at
this point, must be paved in gold.
Walt Disney
DIS+0.63%
shares shot to still higher highs
this morning, after a blockbuster
opening weekend for the company’s
Iron Man 3 and anticipation
for quarterly figures due tomorrow.
Iron Man 3 reached truly
heroic heights at this weekend’s box
office, taking in a whopping $175.3
million. The film scored the
second-largest opening weekend ever,
behind only Disney’s other
mega-profitable comic-book movie:
last year’s The Avengers,
which took in $207.4 million during
its first weekend.
The house that Walt built is
truly a fully occupied structure
these days. There’s the cash-rich
cable business of ABC and ESPN, the
theme parks and the namesake movie
studio. In the film unit, Disney has
plans to release traditional
vehicles–Planes, coming in
August, is seen as a potential
contender to the hugely popular
Cars franchise–and to keep the
folks in spandex busy too. Disney
dubbed the next slate of superhero
features as Phase 2, with plans for
Thor: The Dark World,
Captain America: The Winter Soldier,
Guardians of the Galaxy,
The Avengers 2, Ant-Man
and possibly more.
As Phase 1 (Thor, Captain
America, Iron Man 1 and 2,
The Avengers) proved, these
films produce a meaningful result on
the company’s bottom-line. After
The Avengers hit theaters last
summer, Disney’s studio business
booked $313 million in
fiscal-third-quarter profit,
compared to just $49 million a year
earlier. (Avengers wound up
grossing more than $600 million.)
Company-wide profit increased 22.5%
to $1.84 billion, beating Wall
Street‘s forecast for $1.69 billion.
For now, investors are focused on
second-quarter results, which,
unfortunately for shareholders, will
not be buoyed by any great film.
Analysts still expect the company to
grow earnings by 22.5% to $1.4
billion. Revenue is seen rising 9%
to $10.5 billion.
Shares of Disney increased 0.7%
to $65.28 in pre-market trading. The
stock’s lengthy, lofty run–the stock
nearly doubled in three years– has
indeed pushed up its multiple.
Shares fetch 18.9 times forward
estimated earnings of $3.45 a share.
This a none-too-light premium over
media peers like Time Warner
TWX+0.71%
(16.4 times),
CBS-0.11%
(14.9) and Viacom (14.3).
Orlando Sentinel - The Disney rumor
mill was moving at hyperspeed
Saturday. The story, which got a big
push from Twitter, purported that
Walt Disney Co. CEO Robert Iger and
Lucasfilm mastermind George Lucas
would appear Saturday evening at
Disney's Hollywood Studios theme
park to make an unspecified
announcement.
OK, that could make sense on some
levels because Disney World had
designed Saturday as one of its
Limited Time Magic promotions at the
Studios, a day saluting "Star Wars"
in keeping with the growing trend
spawned from this Jedi-inspired pun:
May the Fourth Be With You. Among
the events planned were special,
end-of-night fireworks. The rumor
had Iger and Lucas speaking before
the pyrotechnics. It was a perfect
storm of Disney and "Star Wars"
enthusiasts.
Cue the speculation about the
topic: Star Wars Land at DHS?
Casting of the Episode VII movie?
Changes for the upcoming Star Wars
Weekends at the Studios? Along with
the hopes came Twitter jokes
involving Jar Jar Banks, Starbucks,
Avatarland and Duffy the Disney
Bear. Eventually, #igerwatch became
a top trending topic on Twitter.
And then what happened?
Fireworks. They lit up the sky but
(spoiler alert, spoiler alert) there
was no Iger announcement. If he was
there, he didn't address the masses.
After reality set in, most fans
took it well. "It was a trap!"
remarked several wags. That's how
2013 rumors roll, I guess.
DisneyParks Blog - I’m excited to
share that the Star Wars –
D-Tech Me experience will be
returning for Star Wars
Weekends at Disney’s Hollywood
Studios this year. The experience
will be located inside Darth’s Mall,
the highly themed merchandise
destination located in the courtyard
adjacent to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
Starring Aerosmith. You may recall
we first introduced the
Carbon-Freeze Me experience last
year during Star Wars Weekends. We
also introduced the experience at
Celebration VI, the ultimate
Star Wars fan event that was
held last August in Orlando,
Florida.
This year, we are bringing back
the popular “cast yourself in
Carbonite” option that was inspired
by a scene from Star Wars:
Episode V The Empire Strikes
Back. We are also delighted to
offer a new option featuring the
elite soldiers of the Galactic
Empire, the Stormtroopers.
The 10-minute experience uses the
world’s highest-resolution,
single-shot 3D face scanner created
by our Imagineering scientists with
Disney Research labs. That captured
image is later sent to a high
resolution 3D printer to create the
figurine. The completed figurine
will arrive within 7-8 weeks after
the experience if shipping
domestically (it takes a little
longer if shipping internationally).
Guests will also receive either a
Carbon-Freeze Me light-up band or a
collector button depending upon
which option they choose.
The Star Wars – D-Tech
Me experience is $99.95, plus
shipping and applicable sales tax.
To book your experience, please
call 407-WDW-TECH (407-939-8324) to
ask about availability. We will only
offer the experience during Star
Wars Weekends 2013 (May 17 –
19, May 24 – 26, May 31 – June 2,
and June 7 – 9).
Please note: Separate theme
park admission required for Disney’s
Hollywood Studios. No discounts
apply unless otherwise noted. Guests
must be at least three (3) years of
age to participate. A valid accepted
credit card number is required at
time of booking. No-shows or in the
event a reservation is cancelled
within 48 hours of scheduled
experience will result in such
credit card being charged a $25
cancellation fee. The experience,
due to its personalized nature, is
non-refundable and not eligible for
an exchange. Children must be
accompanied by an adult at least 18
years of age or older during the
entire experience. Certain
restrictions may apply. All prices,
components and information are
subject to change without notice.
Variety - European powerhouse
Studiocanal is joining forces with
Disney Nordic to roll out the
bigscreen adaptation of Jonas
Jonasson’s bestseller “The
Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out
the Window and Disappeared.”
Disney Nordic will release the
pic across Scandinavia Dec. 25,
while TeleMunchen will distribute it
in Germany and Austria, and Wild
Bunch in Benelux.
Meanwhile, Studiocanal will roll
out the pic in France, U.K. and
Australia, and will rep it in
international market, kicking off
sales at Cannes.
Swedish up-and-comer Felix
Herngren, creator of hit comedy
skein “Solsidan,” has assembled a
cast of Swedish thesps, including
Robert Gustafsson, Mia Skaringer and
Johan Rheborg, and English thesp
Alan Ford.
Described as “quirky and utterly
unique” by Studiocanal, pic turns on
a healthy 100-year-old man, Allan
Karlsson, who escapes his nursing
home to embark on an unplanned
journey, involving, among other
surprises, a suitcase stuffed with
cash and some unpleasant criminals.
“The book is already establishing
itself as a major brand around the
world. For us as theatrical
distributors, we think we have a
winner based on what we saw so far
of the powerful film adaptation the
producers and our partners at Disney
will be delivering at the end of the
year,” said Harold Van Lier, exec VP
international distribution at
Studiocanal. “It is an incredibly
cinematic story that is very warm
and filled with feel-good humor. It
will undoubtedly be one of the major
films coming out of Scandinavia at
the end of this year.”
Added Patrick Nebout, producer at
Nice FLX Pictures, “It’s a saga with
a universal theme, a big heart and a
sense of humor that travels
perfectly, moving millions of
readers all over the world.”
The book has been published in
more than 35 countries and sold more
than 5 million copies.
Pic is produced by Henrik
Jansson-Schweizer, Nebout, Herngren
and Malte Forssell for Nice FLX
Pictures.
