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June 15 - 21, 2008 |
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Saturday
June 21, 2008 |
ESPN, NFL
Network in partnership talks
Christie DLP Cinema Projectors to Be Used at the Star-Studded
World Premiere of Disney-Pixar's "WALL-E," June 21
Disney finds park
space for Pixar
McAleavey's childhood love of Disney leads to career
Disney-Pixar's WALL-E Limited Edition Concept Artwork
Fewer airplane seats may mean decrease in theme park visitors
Shy genius behind
Disney hits
Former Insurance Salesman Turns 'Lost' Obsession Into Online
Career |
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ESPN, NFL Network in partnership talks
Forbes - Walt Disney Co.-owned ESPN, the cable sports network,
and the National Football League's NFL Network are in
partnership talks, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web
site late Friday.
The NFL Network's chief
executive, Steven Bornstein, who was previously chairman of ESPN
and president of Disney (nyse: DIS)'s ABC network, has conducted
high-level talks with executives at Disney in recent weeks, the
Journal said, citing people familiar with the situation.
The NFL and cable providers
including ESPN have clashed over TV licensing packages for
football games, with some major providers refusing to offer
certain games to subscribers.
Disney shares closed the regular
session down 95 cents at $31.94. |
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Christie DLP Cinema Projectors to Be Used at the Star-Studded
World Premiere of Disney-Pixar's "WALL-E," June 21
AP - Christie, a global leader in visual solutions for
entertainment, business and industry, is proud to announce that
a pair of Christie CP2000-XB DLP Cinema projectors will be used
at the World Premiere of Disney/Pixar's WALL-E. The World
Premiere will take place outside under the stars at the Greek
Theatre and Griffith Observatory on Saturday, June 21st.
The event marks the latest
collaboration between Christie and Walt Disney Studios Motion
Pictures Special Events. Christie's projectors were most
recently used at the World Premiere events for "Cars" and
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End." The Christie
CP2000-XB is the most powerful in its class, and the projector
features the revolutionary split-body design that allows
flexible placement in almost any venue.
WALL•E, which opens in theatres
everywhere on June 27th, follows the animated adventure of a
determined and lovable robot. WALL•E (short for Waste Allocation
Load Lifter Earth-Class) discovers a new purpose in life when he
meets a sleek search robot named Eve, and together they take an
exciting journey across the galaxy.
"We are proud to be using
Christie's state-of-the-art projectors at the World Premiere of
WALL•E," said Lylle Breier, Senior Vice President , Worldwide
Special Events for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. "Our
guests will be able to enjoy all of the film's impressive
computer animation in razor sharp clarity, and see a faithful
reproduction of the filmmaker's vision."
"Disney and Pixar continue to
raise the bar for animation, bringing to the big screen some of
the most memorable and most entertaining characters in the
world," said Craig Sholder, vice president of Entertainment
Solutions, Christie. "We are pleased to be working with Disney
on the World Premiere of the latest Disney and Pixar adventure.
We believe Christie DLP Cinema projectors are the best choice to
bring this highly entertaining film to audiences everywhere."
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Disney finds park space for Pixar
Variety - They were once a contented couple, then they
threatened a divorce. Now they’re back together, happier than
ever, and the union is producing offspring. Theme park
offspring.
Disney has reaped hundreds of
millions of dollars of benefit out of Pixar, but theme parks
were the one area the Mouse House had yet to fully exploit.
But the Pixar-ization of
Disney’s parks in Anaheim, Orlando, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong
is under way, with the Mouse set to spend hundreds of millions
to turn the company’s characters into new rides, shows and other
attractions.
It’s about time.
One of Hollywood’s most bankable
partnerships, Disney distribbed Pixar’s seven consecutive
blockbusters, which earned on average $528 million worldwide,
before buying the toon shop outright for $7.4 billion in 2006.
Despite the repeat successes at
the multiplex, Pixar’s properties haven’t received the
high-profile treatment at Disney’s theme parks one might expect;
even licensed merchandise is hard to find in the many retail
outlets that dot the parks, except for the random Buzz Lightyear
doll or “Finding Nemo” and “Cars” plush toys.
“Toy Story” and its sequel, and
“Nemo” have proven the most park-friendly titles, with multiple
attractions set up at various parks. (“The Incredibles” and
“Ratatouille” have none yet.)
This week, Toy Story Mania!
opened at California Adventure in Anaheim, in which guests,
wearing 3-D glasses, are whisked through various midway games
where they shoot virtual projectiles to rack up points. The $80
million ride’s already up and running at the Disney Hollywood
Studios park in Orlando.
Disneyland recently revamped its
long-running submarine ride, giving it a
“Finding Nemo” makeover. The undersea pic, Pixar’s biggest hit
to date, also has a musical performing daily inside a new
permanent venue at Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World. There
are also Turtle Talk With Crush in Anaheim and Orlando, and the
Seas With Nemo & Friends aquarium ride at Disney World’s Epcot
in 2006, in addition to Crush’s Coaster that opened last summer
in Paris.
A “Toy Story”
musical just bowed on the Disney Cruise Line.
Disney World’s
Magic Kingdom raised the curtain on “Monsters, Inc.” Laugh Floor
comedy showcased last year, featuring the pic’s Mike and Sulley.
The California Adventure park,
next to Disneyland in Anaheim, is getting a massive Pixar-themed
overhaul, with hundreds of millions of dollars being spent to
build a 12-acre “Cars Land” alone, set to open by 2012, which
will consist of three separate attractions. Overall, Disney is
pumping $1 billion to revamp the park, which has been struggling
since opening in 2001.
Disney parks have been slowly adding
Pixar-based attractions in the last decade.
The first was
Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, which opened in 1998 at
Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, and has since been added to other
parks over the years.
It’s Tough to Be
a Bug! bowed with the opening of Animal Kingdom, also in 1998,
seven months before “A Bug’s Life” even crawled into theaters.
The “Monsters, Inc.” Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! ride took off
at California Adventure in 2006.
Pixar’s
involvement with the earlier rides had been limited, however,
execs say. It didn’t even create the animation for It’s Tough to
Be a Bug — Rhythm & Hues did.
After the
buyout, Pixar’s staffers became fully involved with the design
of each new attraction. Most of the newer attractions have
opened only in the past year or are just being constructed.
And Pixar’s
presence is expected to increase across the parks, as the
company plans to release six new Pixar toons through 2012. These
include a second installment of “Cars” and a third “Toy Story,”
as well as originals “Wall-E,” “Up,” “Newt” and “The Bear and
the Bow.”
The Mouse will
release 3-D versions of the first two “Toy Story” pics next
year.
“We love
bringing their stories to life,” says says Tom Fitzgerald,
senior creative executive for Walt Disney Imagineering, the unit
that creates Disney’s theme park attractions. “They have
wonderful characters, worlds, humor and great adventures you
want to live.”
While
Imagineering says there’s creative goodwill with Pixar,
corporate-wise, the toon shop and the Mouse weren’t always a
happy family — which partly explains the relative dearth of
Pixar fare at the parks.
Few attractions
were created while Disney merely distribbed Pixar’s pics. And
none were going to be created during the 2004-2006 period when
Pixar topper Steve Jobs was considering ankling to another
studio.
After Michael
Eisner left the studio, Robert Iger aggressively wooed Pixar,
with eventual success.
Disney declined
to comment on such discussions.
Both companies
have since given the greenlight to numerous new attractions,
which should enable Disney’s nearly $11 billion-a-year parks and
resorts biz to keep things humming along.
Disney stresses
that Pixar isn’t taking over Disney’s parks.
“Disneyland was
inspired by the types of shows that Walt was creating at the
time,” Fitzgerald says. “And today we get to draw on Walt Disney
Studios and the Disney Channel and Pixar Animation Studios, and
we create our own stories as well, like Soarin’ and Expedition
Everest. It’s a blend in the parks of timeless stories and
stories we invent.”
Still, spending
millions on new rides, and millions more to promote those
attractions, can attract guests to a park.
With Pixar’s
pics already crowdpleasers at the B.O., it’s likely that a
related attraction will get moviegoers to buy a theme park
ticket, as well.
At least that’s
what Disney hopes will happen.
The new
attractions couldn’t come at a better time, as Disney will be
competing with Universal and other rivals for business during a
recessionary period, with high gas prices that may force
tourists to stay home.
Disney’s theme
parks generated a surprising 33% boost in profits in the first
quarter despite the depressed economy.
The concepts for
new attractions — which typically take three to four years to
develop — are first created by Imagineering, then travel up the
exec ranks before ultimately being given the greenlight by Walt
Disney Co. prexy and CEO Bob Iger.
Says Fitzgerald:
“We’re always looking at what’s next. What are we missing? What
part of our audience are we trying to reach?”
To be fair, not
every Disney toon has gotten the high-profile theme park
treatment.
There’s very
little to be seen, if anything at all, for “The Emperor’s New
Groove” or “Hercules,” not massive hits, but still
well-performing pics.
But which
attractions are built isn’t based on box office, Imagineering
execs say.
“We tend to
watch the movies and ask, ‘What elements of this film or story
would translate best to our world?’ Sometimes a story like a
‘Toy Story’ gives you a lot of different ideas. We don’t do book
reports of the story. We look for the moment that would be most
fun to do in our world.” |
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McAleavey's childhood love of Disney leads to career

Orlando Business Journal - Shannon McAleavey seemed destined to
get a job at Walt Disney World Co.
The 37-year-old, now the
company's senior vice president of public affairs, got to know
Disney World well through frequent visits as a child with her
parents.
At age 2, she drew a passable
likeness of Mickey Mouse following a visit. Her mother kept it,
had it framed and gave it to her when she landed her job at
Disney three years ago.
At age 8, during one trip to the
park, she asked her mother if they could stay there forever. |
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Disney-Pixar's WALL-E Limited Edition Concept Artwork
PR Web
-
Sanders Art Studio.com in
Ogden, Utah, is pleased to announce seven limited edition
concept art pieces from Disney-Pixar's WALL-E Motion Picture.
What if Mankind had to leave Earth, and somebody forgot to turn
the last robot off?
After hundreds of lonely years
of doing what he was built for, WALL-E (short for Waste
Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) discovers a new purpose in
life (besides collecting knick-knacks) when he meets a sleek
search robot named EVE. EVE come to realize the WALL-E has
inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet's future, and
races back to space to report her findings to the humans (who
have been eagerly awaiting word that it is safe to return home).
Meanwhile, WALL-E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets into
motion one of the most exciting and imaginative comedy
adventures ever brought to the big screen.
Also introducing The "Pix-cel" a
proprietary technology to give a fully rendered continuous tone
3-D image directly from digital production files onto clear
acetate and positioned on a giclee background also from a
digital production file.
In addition, over 500
limited-edition Disney Fine Art Giclee's on canvases are
available for purchase on a website and virtual gallery at
Sanders Art Studio.com.
The website will be showcasing
work from the artists listed below:
John Alvin - Toby Bluth - Tricia Buchanan- Bensen
James Coleman - Dick Duerrstein - Harrison & Peter Ellenshaw
Michael & Inessa Garmash - Manny Hernandez - Mike Kungl
Mike Kupka - Allison Lefcort - Stephen Reis - Tim Rogerson
John Rowe - Jim Salvati - Jim Warren - Trevor Carlton
Quantities are limited.
Limited-Editions vary in size. Disney elements Disney-Pixar
*Quantities are limited. Offer
valid while supplies last. Subject to restrictions and change
without notice. Void where prohibited. |
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Fewer airplane seats may mean decrease in theme park visitors
Orlando Business Journal - The Walt Disney Co.'s Central Florida
theme parks could see sharp declines in attendance this fall as
airlines eliminate more than 5,700 seats per day on flights to
Orlando due to soaring fuel prices.
The reason: 35 percent of
visitors to Walt Disney World travel to Orlando on domestic
flights, says a report by Pali Capital Research Managing
Director Richard Greenfield.
By October, four airlines that
account for about 33 percent of the total passenger traffic to
Orlando -- Delta, American, Continental and Northwest -- will
have cut 18 percent of their seats to Central Florida compared
with seats available in October 2007.
Delta, for example, is
terminating nonstop routes from midsize cities, such as
Nashville and New Orleans, to Orlando.
All told, data collected by the
Official Airline Guide estimates that by October airlines will
provide 50,244 seats per day to Orlando International Airport, a
10.2 percent decline from the 55,950 available in October 2007.
That's the 10th largest decline in the country.
As the region's -- and the
world's -- most popular theme park, Walt Disney World will bear
the brunt of the cutbacks.
But the effects will reach far
beyond Disney. For instance, hotels and restaurants may see a
drop in business. In addition, Orange County's tourist
development tax collections -- used to fund things such as the
new basketball arena and to pay off debt on the county
convention center expansion -- may decline.
Greenfield also expects rising
gas prices -- which up until now have not affected attendance
figures -- will mean fewer visitors who drive to Disney from
out-of-state locations. Those visitors account for 30 percent of
Disney's attendance.
In general, Greenfield says,
"Travel trends are beginning to deteriorate" for Disney.
Disney declines to discuss
attendance figures. But in a May conference call with investment
analysts, Walt Disney Co. CEO Robert Iger said the company has
no plans to offer discounts. "We don't believe there's any
reason for us to consider any pricing strategies that are in any
way tied to gasoline price increases."
One reason Disney may be
reluctant to offer discounts is the fact that 75 percent of the
hotel rooms at Disney World are moderately priced, compared with
just 45 percent during the last significant recession in 1991.
Iger told analysts: "We believe
we're much better positioned in a difficult economic cycle than
we were in the past." |
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Shy genius behind Disney
hits
Blackpool Gazette - Everybody young or old, knows the famous
spaghetti scene from Disney's Lady and the Tramp. The iconic
moment when two love struck pooches suck on the same piece of
pasta and end up with their blushing faces inches apart is shown
over and over as a symbol of innocent first love.
What many Disney fans probably
don't realize however, is that the animator of that very
scene now lives on the Fylde coast.
John Wilson, 85 has travelled all over the globe with his
work, but put down roots in St Annes 10 years ago.
John has lived a kind of fairytale existence similar to
something Walt Disney might have dreamed up.
Born in Wimbledon, his talent with a pencil and sketch pad
soon earned him recognition and he had his first cartoon
published at the tender age of 17.
After the war, he landed a job in the art department of
London's Pinewood studios before upping sticks to the United
States in 1950 to take up a much-coveted role as an animator
with Disney.
Throughout his long career, he has built up an astonishing
portfolio.
From putting the sparkle into the wings of Tinker bell in
Peter Pan and somehow turning spaghetti into a canine
aphrodisiac in Lady and the Tramp, his work has thrilled
families for decades.
He worked on many of the Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Donald
Duck cartoons as well as Mr. Magoo and The Flintstones.
One of his biggest claims to fame is that he drew the
cartoon opening sequence for smash hit musical film Grease
and in 1960, he also created Journey to the Stars for the
NASA Space Pavilion at the Seattle World's Fair.
The film was seen by over seven million visitors and is
still being shown today.
You may think he had achieved enough in his life to want to
retire, but in fact he is still working from the comfort of
his own studio on Riley Avenue in St Annes where he lives
with his second wife, Fylde councilor Fabian Wilson.
He recently made a phone call to the HMV store in Blackpool
and asked if they would be interested in stocking some of
his DVDs.
On hearing Mr. Wilson's film credentials, the Bank Hey
Street store jumped at the chance. The staff were amazed at
how modest Mr. Wilson was about his career
The animator said: "I've been really lucky with my life. My
parents were always very supportive of me and let me make my
own choices about what I wanted to do.
"I suppose it's funny to think the spaghetti scene in Lady
and The Tramp has become so famous. I don't really think
about it.
"I've enjoyed every film I've ever worked on they are all so
different. As long as I'm satisfied with my work and feel I
have represented the characters properly, I am happy.
"I've put three of my films in HMV and it's nice to think
people might appreciate the local angle and buy one.
"I have never really been into self-promotion, it isn't
really my way."
HMV manager Neil Carpenter remembers the day when he first
took Mr. Wilson's phone call. He said: "To be perfectly
honest when I spoke to John and he told me about his work, I
assumed it was a joke.
"We get all sorts of people ringing claiming different
things up so you never know what or who to believe.
"You know the films and of course you know the famous scenes
but you never really think about the animators. They are
films' unsung heroes really.
"I was so impressed when he came in and I saw his work. He
gave me a DVD of Stanley The Ugly Duckling which is one of
his films. My two-year-old Kieran watches it constantly.
"I rang head office and asked them about the possibility of
stocking John's films and they said yes straightaway when I
told them about his past. He has got some incredible stories
to tell about his life."
HMV is stocking Stanley The ugly Duckling, Shinbone Alley,
which is based on the hit Broadway musical of the 1950s and
an animated version of Igor Stravinsky's ballet Petroushka.
The copies are nestled away in a corner upstairs in the
store but Neil is confident more people would take a second
look if they knew the story behind their creator.
John already has more projects in the pipeline. He is
currently working on a storyboard for Norwegian folklore
tale Peer Gynt which is keeping him busy.
He said: "It really varies with how long making a picture
can take. When the team of writers and animators all get
together and the excitement starts, it is just magic."
John's brand of magic will doubtless be keeping generations
of children spellbound for years to come. You can see his
work at www.fineartsfilms.com
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Former Insurance Salesman Turns 'Lost' Obsession Into Online
Career
Investors Business Daily - Cliff Ravenscraft worked for 11
years as an insurance agent in Hebron, Ky., before leaving
to become a full-time Internet podcaster in September.
Ravenscraft, 35, gave
himself a timeline of three months to get his podcast
business going. But as the year-end deadline approached, he
began to have second thoughts.
"In December,
things were looking pretty grim," he said. "I had one client
signed up, I had no sponsors, I had nothing except for a
dream. I thought I was going to die of a heart attack every
single night getting closer to Jan. 1."
Ravenscraft is one of a
growing number of ordinary folks who have jumped on the
podcasting bandwagon. The term podcasting draws its name
from Apple's (NasdaqGS) iPod, a popular vehicle for the
downloadable audio broadcasts.
Amateur podcasters produce
"shows" ranging from 20 minutes to 2 hours long. Many of the
programs feature one podcaster offering commentary on topics
running the gamut from politics to TV shows and sports. Most
of the podcasts are audio programs, though a growing number
include video.
Going Mainstream
Podcasting has become the
new version of blogging, where amateur writers publish
largely unedited commentary about hot topics, says analyst
Phil Leigh of Inside Digital Media, a research firm.
"Podcasting is now at the
stage where blogging was three years ago," Leigh said.
"People do it as a hobby because they like creating audio or
video, or they do it as a way to establish themselves as an
expert in a field."
Armed with little more than
a microphone and some recording equipment, a virtual nobody
can become an Internet celebrity.
Ravenscraft started
podcasting as a hobby in December 2005. His first podcast
was about ABC's "Lost," a prime-time serial drama.
Ravenscraft got the idea after finding only one other
podcast about the show.
"It wasn't too long after
that that I said I could probably do one of these, so I
spent some time learning how to do it and I started it," he
said.
Ravenscraft bought a
microphone and a small sound mixer and set up a Web site. In
his "Lost" podcast, Ravenscraft discusses things from plot
twists to props. No nuance goes unnoticed. A coffee cup held
by a character in one episode was purchased at a Target
store, he says.
Fans admired his dedication.
"Within a few weeks I had
several thousand listeners," he said.
Ravenscraft eventually added
his wife, Stephanie, another fan of the show, to the
podcast.
But that wasn't enough. Soon
after, Ravenscraft launched a second "Lost" podcast, another
to discuss faith and family issues, and then another about
his life.
"I wanted to start sharing
things that were on my mind," he said.
The latter show, "My Crazy
Life," has become popular, he says."It has become everything
you ever wanted to know about Cliff Ravenscraft and then
some," he said.
From Hobby To Career
Ravenscraft added more
shows. It was then that he realized he wanted out of the
insurance business.
"I enjoyed and loved my job
until I started podcasting as a hobby," he said.
Today, Ravenscraft's
company, the Generally Speaking Production Network (GSPN.tv)
produces 27 podcast shows. In one, he and his 8-year-old
daughter, Meagan, discuss episodes of the Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS)
show "Hannah Montana."
Most of the shows are audio
programs that run once a week. Many are for other
podcasters. The audience numbers about 35,000 worldwide.
In late December,
Ravenscraft decided to keep working rather than worry about
finances.
Slowly, the money began to
trickle in. Early on, some loyal listeners sent donations to
keep him on the "air."
Ravenscraft found other ways
to make the business pay.
For $95 an hour, he rents
himself out as a consultant to others looking to become
podcasters. For $3,500, he'll set up a Web site with all the
necessities for podcasting.
Ravenscraft also sells
podcast equipment online.
Limited Ads
So far, only two of
Ravenscraft's self-produced shows have ads.
But Ravenscraft blames his
strict requirements about ads rather than the fledgling
podcast ad market.
Ravenscraft will allow only
one prerecorded ad of up to 8 seconds to run before a show.
He and his wife will also talk about an advertiser in the
middle of a show. But those spots are completely informal,
says Ravenscraft.
"It's unscripted -- the
advertiser has no control over what we say," he said.
Listeners come first, even before sponsors.
"Our listeners connect with
us, so we have a certain approach on how we cover things,"
he said.
Ravenscraft is hoping to
attract advertisers for his "Lost" and "Montana" shows. But
his ad restrictions have hampered the effort.
To make up for the lack of
ad revenue, Ravenscraft launched his first subscription
service in late March. For $10 a month, subscribers can get
additional podcast material with no ads and also read a
daily blog. Paid members can also comment on individual
shows.
More than 80 fans signed up
in the first two weeks.
Ravenscraft's piecemeal
revenue approach isn't surprising, says Inside Digital
Media's Leigh.
"I compare (Ravenscraft) to
Tom Clancy, who became a popular novelist," Leigh said. "But
most podcasters are going to be like bloggers -- they are
not going to make a lot of money by relying (solely) on
advertising."
For Ravenscraft, who has
three young children, things are looking far less bleak than
in December.
"March was the first month I
kind of broke even with what I was making in the insurance
business," he said.
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Friday
June 20, 2008 |
Disneyland's new monorail remains sidetracked
NASA and Disney Invite Kids to Explore Space With Wall-E
Walt Disney Internet to
set sites on Australian market
Late
Summer Passholder Discounts Announced
Disney Channel Goes 3D With ‘Hannah’ Concert Film
Kanter
Promoted to Playhouse Disney Worldwide
Rock 'n' roll Cinderella story filmed in Ont. stars Jonas
Brothers
Chernin, Iger may
resume SAG roles
N.Y. mayor, Barbara Bush to speak on improving education at
Disney |
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Disneyland's new monorail remains sidetracked
LATimes - Every once in a while, visitors to the Magic Kingdom
might catch sight of the new, candy-red colored monorail cars
gliding overhead. But don't try and get on board. Several months
after they were to go into service, the custom-made Mark VII
monorail cars are still being tested to eliminate numerous
problems, reports the Daily Travel & Deal blog.
One issue, notable during our
current heat wave, is that the windows in the new trains do not
allow for enough air circulation, creating uncomfortably warm
conditions inside. The new trains, like their predecessors, are
NOT air conditioned for the most part.
Does this explain why Snow White
will be adding two new dwarfs: Sweaty and Stinky. |
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NASA and Disney Invite Kids to Explore Space With Wall-E
SpaceRef - An animated robot and his space faring companion are
leading a campaign by NASA and Walt Disney Studios Motion
Pictures to promote interest among schoolchildren in science and
technology.
NASA and Disney have signed a
Space Act Agreement for a series of educational and public
outreach activities related to Disney-Pixar's new movie, WALL-E,
opening in theaters nationwide on June 27, 2008.
This collaboration highlights
the similarities between the movie's storyline and NASA's
real-life work in robot technology, propulsion systems and
astrophysics. Disney-Pixar's WALL-E is set 700 years in the
future. The film's main character is the only rover-robot left
on Earth. He meets a new robot named Eve, and together they take
a journey through the universe.
"Great ideas for future
exploration of the universe start with the imagination," said
Robert Hopkins, chief of strategic communications at NASA
Headquarters in Washington. "We hope that with the help of our
new robot friend WALL-E, NASA can encourage young people to
learn about science and technology and become the explorers of
tomorrow."
Disney has designed a 30-second
public service announcement featuring WALL-E for NASA's
television channels and Web site. The video is designed to draw
students to NASA's Web site to explore the agency's missions.
The WALL-E character also will be featured on NASA's Kids' Club
page. In addition, Disney has designed a "movie surfer vignette"
about WALL-E that touches on science and technology that drives
NASA's programs, which began airing on the Disney Channel in
June.
For the World Premiere of
WALL-E, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.,
will be showcasing some of the latest in rover and lander
technology, highlighting the recent Phoenix mission, as well as
the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory mission, which is currently
scheduled for launch in the fall of 2009. Starting June 27 and
running through August 27, the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood
will host a special NASA space exploration display, including
imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope, which can be enjoyed by
all guests coming to see WALL-E there.
Commenting on the collaboration,
Mark Zoradi, president, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Group, said, "All of us at Disney are delighted to be working
with NASA in their educational and public outreach efforts to
teach schoolchildren about space exploration, robot technology,
and the universe they live in. WALL-E is one of the most lovable
and entertaining characters that Pixar ever has created, and he
is the perfect spokes-robot for this program. Disney-Pixar's
WALL-E takes moviegoers on a thrilling and imaginative journey
into outer space, and now the film's title character will be
able to stimulate imaginations further through these efforts."
To view the new WALL-E public
service announcement and learn more about NASA and agency
programs, visit: www.nasa.gov
For more information about
Disney-Pixar's WALL-E, visit: www.wall-e.com |
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Walt
Disney Internet to set sites on Australian market
Sydney
Morning Herald - The Walt Disney Internet Group has unveiled
ambitious plans to blitz the online market in Australia using
gaming and "virtual worlds" to increase its base of 1 million
users and challenge assumptions that people will not pay for
online content.Disney
attracts about 5 million users each month across the
Asia-Pacific region but has aggressive growth plans,
particularly for the Australian market.
The group's Asia-Pacific head,
Duncan Orrell-Jones, said at least one-third of Disney's online
revenues here could be derived from premium subscriptions to
children and parents, once it unveiled a string of new content
services later this year.
Mr Orrell-Jones said Australia
was one of the top three markets in the world for the Disney
brand behind North America and Japan, providing massive
potential to expand its presence to children and adults.
In the United States, Disney is
having success online attracting mothers via its family.com
website and Australia will ultimately follow suit. Already 50
per cent of Disney Internet users here are aged over 17.
"We have a brand here in
Australia that plans to have a very broad audience," Mr Orrell-Jones
said. "Over time we've got the ability to continue to broaden
the types of content and entertainment that will break into
families. We're puting entertainment front and centre of
everything and we're very aggressive about moving onto these new
platforms."
Since relaunching its
Disney.com.au website last December with new casual games and
other entertainment options, unique browsers have doubled. Mr
Orrell-Jones said the content alliance Disney struck with
Yahoo!7 this year has generated a quarter of its overall
audience growth.
He said the priority for the
Australian operation was to expand its "virtual worlds" program
using Disney franchises such as Cars, Pirates of the
Caribbean and Pixie Hollow as entertainment and
"edutainment" destinations.
He said Club Penguin, a premium
subscription service for children, which Disney has acquired in
the US, would begin in Australia this year.
"We are enormously encouraged by
what we've seen with Club Penguin already. There isn't a local
version but people are already on the US version and paying for
it in very significant numbers from Australia. If you get the
content right, parents are willing to pay for that online."
Premium subscription services
start at about $US5 ($5.30) a month for Club Penguin in North
America.
Mr Orrell-Jones said Disney was
experimenting with various online revenue models across the
region, ranging from advertising supported content to online
micro-payments for merchandise and subscription services.
When asked if subscriptions
could generate a third of Disney's online revenues in Australia,
he said: "It could represent more than that but it's too early.
We're very focused on delivering fantastic products that people
are willing to pay for but there will probably be other business
models that come along." |
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Late
Summer Passholder Discounts Announced
Disney News - Disney
has released
room-only discounts, at select resorts, for Annual Passholders
vacationing between August 3 - September 27, 2008. Discounts
include select Value Resorts for $64+, Moderate Resorts at $99+
and $144+ for Deluxe Resorts per night. The number of rooms
offered at these rates is limited. Ask for code FKH. |
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Disney Channel Goes 3D With ‘Hannah’ Concert Film
Multichannel News - The Disney Channel will roll the world TV
premiere of Walt Disney Pictures’ Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus:
Best of Both Worlds Concert in 3-D next month.
To support the film’s TV July 26
at 8 p.m. (ET/PT), Disney Channel will run a six-hour Hanna
Montana marathon leading into the movie that night. That week,
Disney Channel, beginning July 20, with a fresh Hannah Montana
episode, entitled “Hannah in the Street with Diamonds,” will run
a rock-themed show every night at 9 p.m.
Starting July 5, Wal-Mart will
be giving complimentary 3-D glasses in the “back to school”
displays at its outlets nationwide.
Cyrus, who raised eyebrows when
she appeared semi-nude in a Vanity Fair photo session, completed
a 70-dare concert tour, which is commemorated in Hannah
Montana/Miley Cyrus: the Best of Both Worlds Concert. The
Walt Disney Pictures film grossed over $65 million in the U.S.
during its limited theatrical run.
Meanwhile, the cast of the
series is currently filming the feature Hannah Montana: The
Movie in Nashville. It's due for release in summer 2009. |
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Kanter
Promoted to Playhouse Disney Worldwide
Animation Insider - As the Big Three children's cable networks
gear up for the official launch of the summer season, those in
the area of preschool television programming within this sector
are particularly to turn the corner. Disney's preschool kids
programming effort Playhouse Disney Worldwide similarly has
undergone the necessary preparations to absorb the massive
increase in viewership that traditionally accompanies the summer
months. Most recently, however, Playhouse Disney Worldwide has
taken in network veteran Nancy Kanter as its new Senior Vice
President, where she will provide creative guidance for the
Playhouse Disney effort on a global scale.
Kanter has been in charge of developing Playhouse Disney
programming with Playhouse Disney U.S. over the past few years.
Her experience with the brands grants her insight into the
greater, perhaps global perspective of what organizational needs
should be met. With the early education animation market
becoming increasingly important to parents and/or caretakers of
children, Kanter's duty to supervise the development of key
programs such as Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, My Friends
Tigger & Pooh and Handy Manny are now only a fraction
of responsibilities in her new position.
"Nancy's dedication to learning-focused stories for preschoolers
helped drive unprecedented success for our Playhouse Disney
programming," Gary Marsh, President of Entertainment for Disney
Channels Worldwide, stated.
"As we increase our programming development around the world,
this promotion recognizes her valued contribution to creative
excellence and will ensure a consistent vision for all Playhouse
Disney content."
Previously the svp of programming for Playhouse Disney U.S.
Nancy Kanter will now have a much farther reaching job by
overseeing the development and production of all long-form and
short-form programming initiatives, which includes both
live-action endeavors and animated series.'
Kanter's main obligation as new Senior Vice President of
Playhouse Disney Worldwide will be to "ensur[e] cohesiveness
between programming and promotion and all extensions of the
brand." As Marsh previously stated, she will additionally work
towards unifying the creative vision of Playhouse Disney's
programming, marketing and brand management teams.
In other roles with Disney, she was a key player in acquiring
children's programming such as The Wiggles, The Doodlebops
and charming animated series from Tiger Aspect Prods. Charlie
and Lola. Kanter joined Disney Channel in February 2001 as
Vice President, Original Programming and was promoted to Senior
Vice President, Original Programming, Playhouse Disney U.S., in
October 2004.
Prior to joining Disney Channel, she was President, Bluecow.com,
an internet site for children's entertainment. She was
previously an executive producer for Sesame Workshop (formerly
Children’s Television Workshop) where she supervised the
development and production of over 30 Sesame Street broadcast
specials and direct-to-video projects, including the Emmy
Award-winning "Elmo Saves Christmas."
on Disney Channels Worldwide: Disney Channels Worldwide
represents the most successful portfolio of kids' channels in
the world. It comprises 27 Disney Channels, ten Playhouse Disney
Channels, ten Toon Disney Channels and Walt Disney Television
Animation, the industry leader in the production of quality
animated properties for television. Disney Channel properties
continue to rapidly expand into new markets across the world,
playing a key role in introducing the Disney brand to new
consumers. |
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Rock 'n' roll Cinderella story filmed in Ont. stars Jonas
Brothers
The Canadian Press - If you thought the hype for the "High
School Musical" movies was huge, get set for "Camp Rock." The
song-and-dance-filled Disney Channel original movie premieres
Friday in Canada on Family Channel.
"High School Musical 2" drew the
kind of audience rarely found these days on broadcast
television, with 17.3 million American viewers tuning in to the
premiere - at the time, the highest-rated basic-cable broadcast
in U.S. history. Disney also raked in millions from the sale of
T-shirts, posters, CDs and other related goodies.
So expectations are high for
"Camp Rock," a made-in-Canada feature starring a school bus full
of Disney Channel series stars as well as the hottest act in
preteen pop rock, the Jonas Brothers.
All made the trek to camps
Wanakita and Kilcoo in Ontario's Haliburton cottage country
region last fall to shoot the musical.
"It was amazing," says Joe
Jonas, who stars in "Camp Rock" as a teen idol with ego problems
forced back to the summer resort by his fed-up bandmates (played
by brothers Kevin and Nick).
"I loved shooting up there,"
Jonas, 18, said last month at the annual Disney Channel Games in
Walt Disney World (airing on Family in August). "I fell in love
with Toronto, you know, and then Haliburton of course."
The Jonas Brothers return to
Toronto next month to kick off their "Burning Up" tour, playing
at the Molson Amphitheatre on July 4. "It's an American holiday
but we're going to be rockin' in Toronto," says oldest sibling
Kevin Jonas, 20.
"Camp Rock," a rock 'n' roll
Cinderella story, finds aspiring singer Mitchie Torres (Disney
up-and-comer Demi Lovato, touted as their next Miley Cyrus)
getting to attend the prestigious music camp when her working
class mom lands a job there as a cook. To save face, Mitchie
tells the camp cool girls her mom is a big noise in the music
biz. The lie catches up with her, just as romance blooms between
Mitchie and Jonas's too-cool-for-camp music dude, Shane.
Naturally, much singing and
dancing ensues. The musical numbers have an '80s feel, very
"Thriller"-era Michael Jackson. Some of the dialogue is pretty
corny ("That is rich but apparently you're not," says one of the
cool girls upon learning of Mitchie's deception), but it is hard
not to get caught up in the exuberance and good spirits of the
production.
Among the talented cast is
Jasmine Richards who hails from Oakville, Ont., and who plays
the lead in Disney Channel's "Naturally Sadie."
"It was a bonding experience, I
didn't know anybody," says Richards of shooting in the relative
isolation of Haliburton.
The 17-year-old, who plays
Peggy, one of the camp cool girls, got her start several years
ago when she auditioned for the Toronto stage production of "The
Lion King." She won the part of young Nala and has worked in
television ever since.
She insists there was no
star-tripping in cottage country from the red hot Jonas
Brothers. "They are awesome guys, such gentlemen," she says.
The cast bonded after suffering
through every teen's worst nightmare at the summer camp locale -
a pronounced lack of cellphone coverage.
"We built a lot more chemistry
than we ever thought we would because we didn't have our
cellphones to rely on," says Lovato, a Texas native who began
her career as a youngster on "Barney & Friends."
"We had a couple of run-ins with
raccoons and skunks but it was extremely beautiful. I know
people were taking pictures just for the heck of it, it was so
green."
Not everyone was charmed.
"It was horrible," says
self-described city kid Roshon Fegan. The L.A.-native plays one
of the camp's best dancers.
"It was just trees and raccoons
and mosquitoes and chipmunks, a really new experience for me."
It got so bad, says Fegan, "I
was walking around the whole camp trying to find one little
bar." That is, a cellphone power bar. This is, after all, a
Disney movie.
The lack of cellphone use didn't
seem to bother the one group you'd think it would affect the
most - the Jonas Brothers. "We played a lot of golf and kept the
phones off, actually," says Joe.
Bill Brioux is a freelance TV
columnist based in Brampton, Ont. He was a guest of Family
Channel while reporting from the Disney Channel Games in Walt
Disney World. |
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Chernin, Iger may resume SAG roles
Variety - With SAG contract talks going nowhere fast,
speculation's rising that Peter Chernin and Robert Iger will
resume their diplomatic mission with the guild
following a two-month hiatus.
No meetings have
been set yet, but hope's emerged that informal powwows between
the studio toppers and SAG brass could serve to break the logjam
that's been the dominant feature of the last three weeks of
negotiations -- even with the approach of the June 30 expiration
of the SAG feature-primetime deal.
Lack of
resolution of SAG's contract has led the congloms to put the
brakes on production starts for features and TV pilots. Talks
hit their 33rd day Wednesday at the Alliance of Motion Picture
and Television Producers' Sherman Oaks HQ, and they are expected
to resume tomorrow morning.
With frustration
mounting on the company side over the lack of movement in recent
days, the notion of Iger and Cherin attempting to salvage the
stalemate has been gaining traction. But with SAG leaders
apparently fixated on spending the next three weeks trying to
defeat the ratification of the AFTRA deal, there's no guarantee
the moguls will step forward.
As they had done
earlier with the directors and writers, News Corp. prexy Chernin
and Disney CEO Iger met with SAG prexy Alan Rosenberg and
national exec director Doug Allen in early April in an effort to
come to an agreement on the agenda for the formal bargaining
seshes.
That session was
cordial but not particularly substantive, with Chernin and Iger
making it clear to guild leaders that the AMPTP has no plans to
deviate significantly from the template established in the DGA
and WGA contracts reached earlier this year. At that point, the
moguls opted to back away and let the formal negotiations
processs play out (Daily Variety, April 10).
Reps for the
AMPTP declined comment Wednesday. Meanwhile, the SAG-AFTRA brawl
heated up thanks to the battle of the dueling robo-calls.
A week
after AFTRA members began receiving automated phone calls from
James Cromwell in support of ratifying AFTRA's primetime deal,
SAG struck back with calls from
Sandra Oh
urging the 44,000 dual cardholders to vote down the AFTRA
pact. Allen said that the SAG counteroffensive has been cooked
up in response to AFTRA's recent "fear campaign" to convince
dual-card members that a no vote is a vote for strike.
"This is wrong and is
fear-mongering," Allen said in a statement Wednesday. "A no vote
simply sends AFTRA back to the table with SAG to get a better
deal. The AMPTP will then be unable to pit one union against the
other, and actors can only benefit from that."
Allen didn't explain his
apparent assumption that AFTRA and SAG would go back to the
table together if the AFTRA deal's voted down. It's a
questionable scenario in the light of the toxic relations
between the two unions.
Allen also blasted AFTRA's
message as "extraordinarily deceptive and divisive" and added,
"We cannot allow their disinformation to go unchecked."
SAG notified board members
Wednesday morning of the Oh messages that would be going out to
members later in the day and told them that similar calls would
be placed to members over the next week or so.
Oh delivered a fiery speech in
support of striking writers at the conclusion of the WGA's march
on Hollywood Boulevard last November. SAG was the closest union
ally of the WGA during the work stoppage.
The AMPTP accused SAG last week
of lying and wasting the congloms' time by stalling the talks
until around July 8, when ratification ballots are due back and
results of voting are expected to be announced.
SAG's insisted that AFTRA's deal
falls short in a wide array of key areas, including salary
minimums, online clip consent, DVD residuals, new-media pay
rates and jurisdiction, force majeure and product integration
protections. Its leaders have asserted a no vote will force
AFTRA and the companies to make a better deal.
AFTRA continued to blast away at
SAG Wednesday, defending its deal and insisting a no vote will
lead to a strike instead.
"The no vote SAG Hollywood is
trying to foment on the Exhibit A contract is a strike vote for
the kind of industry chaos that has already shut down the movie
industry and would paralyze television," the union said. "Don't
underestimate what's at stake here. If your agreement is not
ratified, the employers can and probably will take back many of
the gains you've already won."
AFTRA, which reached its deal on
May 28 after splitting off from SAG in March, also accused SAG
of incompetence and cluelessness in the realities of negotiating
a deal.
"It's easy for the Screen Actors
Guild to claim that our deal isn't good enough and that it can
do better," AFTRA said. "But does anyone --including SAG's
Hollywood leadership -- have any idea of exactly how SAG intends
to get more from the studios than the Writers Guild, the
Directors Guild and AFTRA have all already achieved? The fact is
that actions speak louder than words. Don't be fooled by the
spin."
SAG hasn't yet set a strike
authorization vote, which would take about three weeks to
complete and require a 75% approval among those voting.
Besides the Cromwell calls, the
AFTRA pro-ratification campaign has included multiple emails,
video testimonials on the AFTRA website, set visits by staff,
local meetings and house parties hosted by negotiating committee
members, member-to-member phone calls, traditional mailings and
a pair of upcoming informational meetings in Los Angeles.
AFTRA also announced Wednesday a
statement of support from Maria Elena Durazo, exec
secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of
Labor.
"Your success at
the bargaining table is a testament to the leadership and hard
work of the men and women -- all working performers -- who
negotiated the new agreement," she said. "AFTRA members have won
the fight to ensure that jobs in the entertainment and media
industry remain good jobs with fair pay, good benefits and safe
working conditions. These are challenging times for working
people that require a strong voice to speak up and act to
support workers and their families."
DGA
president Michael Apted, IATSE topper
Tom Shot
and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had previously issued
statements congratulating AFTRA.
The AFTRA shows
covered by the deal include "Rules of Engagement," "Cashmere
Mafia," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Flight of the Conchords,"
"Dante's Cove," " 'Til Death," "Reaper," the new CBS programs
"Project Gary" and "Harper's Island" and the ABC comedy "Roman's
Empire."
The current AFTRA contract also
expires June 30. |
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N.Y. mayor, Barbara Bush to speak on improving education at
Disney
Orlando Sentinel - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Barbara
Bush will share their views on how to improve schools at an
education summit at Walt Disney World hosted by one of the
former first lady's sons.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has invited his mother, a longtime
literacy activist, and Bloomberg to speak Friday at the first of
what's planned as an annual event.
New York has made dramatic improvements in student achievement
since Bloomberg persuaded his state's legislature to give him
control of the nation's largest school district.
He made changes that included adopting a letter grading system
for schools similar to one Bush instituted in Florida. |
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Thursday
June 19, 2008 |
Disney Hotel Manager Accused Of Stealing From Guest
Disney banking
on a hit with "Camp Rock"
Disney Interactive Announces "Bolt" Games for PS3, Xbox 360
Hallmark Cards launches first ever Disney song cards
Walt Disney at
Comic-Con 2008
The World According to
Disney |
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Disney Hotel Manager Accused Of Stealing From Guest
Local 6 - A manager at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge hotel was
arrested Wednesday for charging $1,200 on a guests’ credit card.
Orange County Sheriff’s deputies
said 44 year old Patrick Noze stole a credit card out of a
guest’s wallet and charged the card for auto repairs.
The owner of the Orlando
mechanic shop Noze went to said he told them he had permission
to use the credit card.
Noze was charged with credit
card forgery, grand theft by hotel employee, fraudulent use of a
credit card, and dealing in stolen property.
A Disney Spokesperson said he
has been placed on unpaid administrative leave pending the
outcome of the charges.
Police are still investigating
at this time. |
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Disney banking
on a hit with "Camp Rock"
Reuters - It's a felony to print money, but Disney, for all
practical purposes, has found a way around that law. By adhering
closely to its "High School Musical" formula and stretching the
results over even more of its divisions, Disney has devised a
way to generate coin more efficiently than the U.S. Mint.
Whether "Camp Rock" actually
outperforms "High School Musical" remains to be seen. But if it
doesn't, it won't be for lack of corporate strategizing.
With "Camp Rock," Disney plucks
another fresh face off its deep bench of young talent. Demi
Lovato, a cast member on the Disney interstitial program "As the
Bell Rings," plays Mitchie Torres, an aspiring singer and timid
songwriter.
All that stands between Mitchie
and a fabulously successful career is attendance at fabulously
expensive Camp Rock, which her parents can't afford. Then
Mitchie's mom, a caterer, gets hired to do the cooking, which
allows Mitchie to attend at a discount (cue the family hug).
At the camp, we find a mean,
rich, snooty blonde (Meaghan Jette Martin steps in for Ashley
Tisdale), a smattering of minimorality lessons and a song-filled
happy ending. Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers is at camp, too,
serving as an instructor and a "really like" interest for
Mitchie. The whole enterprise is so precisely formulated, you
expect to see a final credit for quality control inspector.
Director Matthew Diamond gets a
solid enough performance and lots of toothy smiles from Lovato,
who should remain a bankable Disney property for as long as she
stays clothed on the Internet. Maybe even after that.
It takes nothing away from this
genuinely talented group of kids to express even greater
admiration for the promotion and marketing. Following Friday's
premiere (with an audio simulcast on Radio Disney and a video
simulcast on mobile devices), "Camp Rock" will be broadcast on
ABC on Saturday, on ABC Family on Sunday and on Disney.com on
Monday. From there, the ripple effect will carry merchandise and
more replays to shores near and far. |
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Disney Interactive Announces "Bolt" Games for PS3, Xbox 360
DailyGame - The next Disney animated film (the one after
WALL*E), will have a next-gen video game tie-in as well, Disney
Interactive Studios announced today. This November, the company
will release Bolt for the PS3 (PlayStation 3), Xbox 360, Wii,
DS, PS2 and Windows-based PC.
The movie "Bolt" tells the story
of a TV-star dog that's inadvertently shipped from Hollywood to
New York City, where he begins a cross-country adventure home.
The Bolt video game, however, won't follow the movie's plot, but
will instead take place in the fictional world of the in-movie
TV show, thus letting players travel worldwide.
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Hallmark Cards launches first ever Disney song cards
Talking Retail - Hallmark Cards and Disney have joined
forces to launch the first ever range of real song cards
featuring music and sound bites from Disney's most popular
characters and films.The
new range of cards will bring characters to life with songs and
sounds from some of the most popular Disney films including
Hannah Montana, High School Musical 2, Power Rangers, Toy Story,
Cars, Winnie the Pooh, Disney Princesses, Pirates of the
Caribbean and more.
The range consists of 31 cards
for all birthday occasions, including daughter, son,
granddaughter, grandson, sister and general Happy Birthday.
Cards will retail at around
£4.99 each and will be available from all good greeting card
retailers throughout the UK from July 2008.
To support the launch of the
cards in August, Hallmark is offering consumers the chance to
win a family holiday to Florida and two runner up breaks to
Paris with a special in-store competition.
Customers will get the chance to
take part in the competition by buying a card and picking up an
entry form in a Hallmark shop or other participating retailer
during August.
For further information please
visit
www.hallmark.co.uk |
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Walt Disney at Comic-Con
2008
Narnia Web - Comic-Con released a list of exhibitors for their
2008 convention and Walt Disney Studios is on the list. No word
yet on whether or not anything from Prince Caspian or
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be shown, but it's
probably a safe bet we'll see something Narnian.
Comic-Con 2008 takes place on July 23 – 27 at the San Diego
Convention Center. If you plan on attending this year, please
let us know! |
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The World According to
Disney
BusinessWeek - This morning a New York Times profile of Michelle
Obama contained something that truly shocked me. When she
entered Princeton University in 1981—a mere 27 years ago—as one
of 94 black freshmen in a class of 1,100, the mother of her
white roommate spent months pleading with college officials to
give her daughter a white roommate instead. “Mom just blew a
gasket when I described Michelle,” Catherine Donnelly, the
roommate, says today. “It was my secret shame.”
It’s hard for me to imagine that
happening today. I realize I live a somewhat sheltered life when
it comes to racism, given that my daughter attends a diverse
public school in Brooklyn. She would be mystified by raced-based
objections to any of her friends. But I think she’s not unusual.
Survey after survey has found that most members of the under-30
generation are virtually color-blind these days, no matter where
they live. And I have a feeling a lot of the credit for this
racial progress goes to Disney.
I know, I know, you’d rather not
give any credit to the saccharine-sweet world of Disney. But the
fact is, the Disney network is a racial nirvana, where children
and adults of all races, creeds and colors play, date, and work
together, without an eyebrow raised. Take the wildly popular
High School Musical : the romantic leads, Troy and Gabriela, are
a white jock and a Latina brain. Their best friends are both
black and the villain is a rich white girl adored by a black
basketball player who also loves to bake. Or how about Corey in
the House, a spin-off of the hit That’s So Raven.
African-American Corey moves into the White House when his dad
is named the head chef by a Hispanic president. His best friends
are a white surfer dude and a Middle East girl, who he secretly
has a crush on.
This color blind casting is no
accident. Disney Channel president of entertainment Rich Ross
told MultiChannel News four years ago that when he took over in
1996 he was determined to change the complexion of the network.
We felt [diversity] was missing from the channel at that point,
so it became mandatory to be inclusive if we were to march
forward as a kid-driven brand,” says Ross. “We also knew that if
you wanted to send a clear message about diversity [it should
include] different ethnic and religious diversities [as well as
subjects like] kids with disabilities.
Too bad the rest of Hollywood hasn’t followed suit. According to
an Entertainment Weekly study of casts for the fall 2008 season,
each of the five major broadcast networks is whiter than the
Caucasian percentage (66.2%) of the U.S. population. And all of
the networks are representing considerably lower than the Latino
population percentage of 15.2%. The one big exception to this
white-mostly casting is teen-focused programming:
Color-blind casting is something teen-focused networks seem to
have down pat: Nary has a show passed through ABC Family or The
N without an interracial coupling or a naturally integrated
cast. (ABC Family’s Greek even has an interracial gay couple.)
Those networks’ execs say it’s a simple matter of economics,
that their Gen-Y viewers accept — nay, expect and demand — such
a reflection of their multi-cultural lives. ”They’re completely
color-blind,” ABC Family president Paul Lee says of younger
viewers. ”We’ve done a lot of things wrong as a nation, but
we’ve clearly done something right here. They embrace other
cultures.”
The millennial generation’s attitude toward race was described
beautifully two years ago in a Washington Post outlook piece,
What’s Wrong With This Picture?, w by a member of that cohort,
Justin Brett-Gibson:
Ninety-five percent of 18-to-29 year olds have friends from
different racial backgrounds, according to a Washington
Post-Kaiser-Harvard poll. Many Millennials take it further: To
us, differences in skin color are largely irrelevant. That’s not
to say that young minorities never experience racial inequality.
Prejudices still exist, and serious economic gaps still yawn
between racial and cultural groups. But I feel fortunate to live
in an era when, in choosing friends or dates, race can be among
the least of my concerns. Essentially, it’s no big deal.
As we enter a campaign season featuring the nation’s first black
presidential candidate, let’s hope the children shall lead us,
and race will be a non-issue. I never want to go back to 1981. |
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Wednesday
June 18, 2008 |
Disney worker charged in child porn now free on bond
Walt Disney World employee arrested on child porn charges
Disney
names VP for planned Hawaii resort
Let's
celebrate -- new July 4th fireworks
Toy
Story Mania: How I beat Pixar's John Lasseter
Disney Inaugurates “Path to Pura Vida” Tours to Costa Rica
Test
Your Wonderful World of Disney Knowledge
The worst
Disneyland ride of all time
Fun and games serious business at Disney's Wide World of Sports
Selena
Gomez: No Feuding With Miley Cyrus
Walt Disney Internet to set sites on Australian market
Disney Artist Stores zeros down on LS Retail to sustain
international quality standards |
|
Disney worker charged in child porn now free on bond
Orlando Sentinel - A Walt Disney World employee who was arrested
yesterday for three counts of possessing child pornography is
now free on bond. Charles Hurrey, 29, posted $15,000 bond at
7:48 p.m. last night, according to the Lake County Jail.
Yesterday
morning, investigators served a search warrant at Hurrey's home
in Clermont and found three videos depicting children engaging
in sex acts with adults and each other on an external hard
drive, according to an arrest affidavit.
Hurrey admitted to downloading the videos and told investigators
that he is interested in child pornography because he is curious
why people would make them, according to the affidavit.
Hurrey denied ever sexually abusing a child, according to the
affidavit. Kim Prunty, a spokeswoman for Walt Disney World,
confirmed that Hurrey was employed at Disney's Hollywood
Studios, where he issued and repaired photography equipment and
deployed photographers to locations around the park.
"Obviously, we take these things very seriously," Prunty said.
"He has been placed on unpaid administrative leave pending the
outcome of these charges."
Investigators zeroed in on Hurrey during an ongoing undercover
investigation with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task
Force, according to Det. Chris Loyko of the Lake County
Sheriff's Office. |
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Walt Disney World employee arrested on child porn charges
Orlando Sentinel - A Walt Disney World employee was arrested
this morning on three counts of possessing child pornography.
Investigators
served a search warrant at the home of Charles Hurrey, 29, on
Cagan Crossing's Boulevard in Clermont this morning and found
three videos depicting children engaging in sex acts with adults
and each other on an external hard drive, according to an arrest
affidavit.
Hurrey admitted to downloading the videos and told
investigators that he is interested in child pornography because
he is curious why people would make them, according to the
affidavit.
Hurrey denied ever sexually abusing a child, according to the
affidavit.
Kim Prunty, a spokeswoman for Walt Disney World, confirmed
that Hurrey was employed at Disney's Hollywood Studios, where he
issued and repaired photography equipment and deployed
photographers to locations around the park.
"Obviously, we take these things very seriously," Prunty
said. "He has been placed on unpaid administrative leave pending
the outcome of these charges."
Investigators zeroed in on Hurrey during an ongoing
undercover investigation with the Internet Crimes Against
Children Task Force, according to Det. Chris Loyko of the Lake
County Sheriff's Office.
Hurrey is being held at the Lake County Jail in lieu of
$15,000 bond. |
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Disney names
VP for planned Hawaii resort
Pacific Business News - Walt Disney Parks and Resorts has
brought in a 20-year veteran to serve as vice president of the
club and resort to be built in Hawaii.
Djuan Rivers has been named vice president of Disney Vacation
Club and Resort, Hawaii.
Rivers, who has relocated to Hawaii, will work with the
community and business and government leaders as the 21-acre
oceanfront property is built at Ko Olina Resort.
Rivers has helped open nine resorts in Florida and Paris. He
has held various other leadership positions and most recently
served as vice president of new business development for Walt
Disney Parks and Resorts. |
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Let's
celebrate -- new July 4th fireworks
Theme
Park Rangers - It's official from the folks at Disney -- there
will be a new fireworks show in the Magic Kingdom for
July 4th. "Disney's Celebrate America!-A Fourth of July Concert
in the Sky" is scheduled for 9 p.m.Other parks will offer:
A holiday-inspired finale added to Epcot's nightly fireworks
extravaganza, "Illuminations: Reflections of Earth." The park's
American Adventure pavilion also will have extra entertainment
throughout the day.
A special July 4th fireworks show at 9 p.m. at Disney's
Hollywood Studios. "Fantasmic!" will be presented at 10:30 p.m.
that night. Downtown Disney will present patriotic fireworks at
10:30 p.m. |
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Toy
Story Mania: How I beat Pixar's John Lasseter
LATimes - I was resigned to a crushing and humiliating defeat
when I climbed aboard Toy Story Mania with
Pixar chief John Lasseter.
Lasseter had quite literally invented the new dark ride at
Disney’s California Adventure — shepherding the
interactive 3-D attraction from concept to reality. Played the
game hundreds of times. Held a top score in the 300,000-plus
range.
I’d heard tales of Lasseter’s legendary competitive streak.
Walt Disney Imagineers had forced the pugnacious Pixar pooh-bah
to sit on his hands during the ride to get his feedback on the
atmospheric theming, lest he feel compelled to blast off a few
shots.
The game is that addictive. You can’t not play. It’s
just not possible. But to learn, you must. And I did.
Before my showdown with Lasseter, my best score was 165,000
and change. So I sought guidance. And sat on my hands.
What I learned reinforced some of my initial instincts: 1) focus
on high-value targets around the corners and edges of the video
screen, 2) shoot continuously while moving from one bull’s eye
to another.
What I didn’t know also surprised me: triggering the many
hidden “Easter Eggs” that unlock the big bonus-point targets
requires teamwork and precision timing.
I was shown the secret to
unleashing a shower of 2,000-point balloons in the Bo Peep
dart-toss game. The trick: shoot four of the five balloons in
each of the hovering clouds before popping the fifth and final
balloons at the same time as your partner. Teamwork triggers
similar bonus-point deluges in the Green Army Men game and the
Saloon scene.
Kind and wise Imagineer Estefania Pickens taught me my most
valuable lesson: the proper shooting position. The keys: Arm
raised at a right angle to shoulder level, elbow literally in
your opponent’s face, drawstring bob squeezed between your index
and middle fingers, a delicate, almost imperceptible trigger
motion like the flutter of a butterfly’s wings.
By the time I met Lasseter, I was prepared but not
delusional. My two-fold goal was simple: learn from Obi-Wan and
take my punishment like a man.
Like any chief honcho of a creative company, Lasseter was
kind and gracious as well as goal- and results-oriented. His
game-playing advice throughout the ride wavered somewhere
between benevolence and expectation.
So as not to bore you with all the play-by-play details (he
took a Lakers-like early lead, I battled back a la the Celtics),
I’ll cut to the chase: When the final scores flashed up on the
big board, I was shocked to have outscored the legendary John
Lasseter 205,400 to 200,100.
Upon further reflection, I’ve come to realize that he
probably let me win. That he is so good as to be able to lose at
will by a few thousand points. To boost my ego. Inflate my
self-worth. And provide my happily ever after ending.
But I have no shame. A win is a win. I’ll take the W any way
I can get it. And proudly proclaim: I beat the master. |
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Disney Inaugurates “Path to Pura Vida” Tours to Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Travel News - The magical world of Disney has now expanded it’s
Magic Kingdom beyond U.S. boundaries. Disney now offers
all-inclusive vacations to Costa Rica. The new guided vacation
tour packages have been designed for families to take the hassle
out of planning a vacation that every member of the family will
enjoy. Adventure’s by Disney offers vacations all over the world
to countries such as China, Australia, England, Italy, Spain,
Ireland, Peru, Costa Rica and more. With Costa Rica tourism sky
rocketing it’s no wonder that the little Latin American gem was
Disney’s next choice in guided vacations.Disney decided to
expand to Costa Rica after watching the tourist industry rise in
the United States with special interest in the Latin America
region, in part thanks to its close proximity and eco-friendly
reputation. The region has gained around $63 million in tourism
and travel related revenues in the past year. The World Travel
and Tourism Council reports that a 7.9% growth in the Latin
American tourism industry in 2006 alone. About 6% of that growth
is thanks to Costa Rica travel, making it the entertainment
giant’s clear choice as its newest preferred destination.
About 5 to 10 families will visit Costa Rica at a time with
Disney and each tour will last 7 days 6 nights and 224 tours
will run over the course of the year. Only four and five star
hotels will be used and as of May 31st of this year the “Path to
Pura Vida” tours are open for business.
The detailed itinerary will begin at the San Jose airport
where each family is greeted by their adventure guide and taken
to the Real Intercontinental Hotel located in the upscale
capital city neighborhood of Escazu. This is one of the only
nights the family will have free time to eat in the restaurant
of their choice and explore the city on their own should they
choose to. Early the next morning families will meet for a large
breakfast on the outdoor terrace and have the opportunity to
meet the other families who will be traveling together
throughout the adventure. Breakfast is followed by a guided tour
of the La Paz Waterfall Gardens, a picnic lunch at the
waterfalls, and a private festive dinner and show in the luxury
Arenal Resort, Arenal Kioro.
Day three is even more action packed as breakfast is quickly
followed by an invigorating zip line tour in the jungle canopy,
a filling lunch, a local arts and crafts session and a private
hot spring visit and dinner at the base of the active Arenal
Volcano. Day four begins with an action packed river rafting
tour down the Sarapiqui River, followed by a picnic lunch on the
river bank. An informative pineapple plantation tour is followed
by a delicious dinner.
Day four begins with a scenic flight along the Pacific
coastline to Manuel Antonio where guests will enjoy a catered
picnic lunch in the sand. Later that evening parents and
children will branch off to enjoy their own private meals where
the junior adventurers can cut loose with their favorite foods
and mom and dad can toast to a stress free vacation followed by
a Disney Movie Night.
After breakfast on day six families will explore the Costa
Rican rain forest of Manuel Antonio National Park followed by an
afternoon of activities of their choice. A nice farewell dinner
wraps up the last night in paradise. The last day will begin
with a tropical breakfast before boarding the domestic flight to
San Jose and catching the international flight back home.
The perfectly planned itinerary might not be for all. In fact
some people cringe at the idea of Disney presenting gold stars
for participation and Disney created passports that are stamped
at every National Park or museum. However, many people enjoy the
idea that there are activities for all generations included in
the vacation. Children, teens, parents, and grandparents alike
can enjoy the carefree itinerary carefully created for each day
and all group members. Children can enjoy the Disney movie night
while parents enjoy a glass of wine by the pool.
All the details are taken care of by Disney including
luggage, hotel check in, and transportation. Worries such as
tipping, waiting for drivers or guides, or debates on when and
where to eat are all eliminated from the equation, but perhaps
the most reassuring aspect of the Disney Adventure Tour is its
dedication to safety.
Senior Vice President of Adventures by Disney, Ed Baklor says
that Disney performs ”detailed site inspections of all towns in
all countries to be visited, as well as in-depth, first-hand
research into the activities, dining venues, museums, parks,
etc.” You can rest assured that every guide, every driver, and
every zip line harness has been checked and double checked.
Disney would never risk ruining a family fun reputation that is
over 85 years in the making and don’t worry Mickey Mouse is NOT
one of the many members of the animal kingdom found in the Costa
Rican rain forest. |
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Test
Your Wonderful World of Disney Knowledge
Disney Insider -
Summer is here and with it, so is
the return of the beloved show, "The Wonderful World of Disney."
Remember those days of grabbing the entire family, with popcorn
in hand, and settling around the ol' TV, as Walt Disney himself
welcomed you to a night of Disney magic?
Well, Disney.com is taking things to a new level this year,
offering you a chance to watch each movie of the week after it
airs on Saturday night on ABC, all week, in full-screen. With
news as good as this, we at the Insider felt a Wonderful World
of Disney trivia challenge was in order. So, go on, impress us
with your Disney nostalgia knowledge. Just because school might
be out for a few of you, that doesn't mean you can't take a
little pop quiz, right? Once you've finished, scroll to the
bottom of the Whole Page story and see where you rank. Ready,
set, go.
1. "The Wonderful World of Disney" has had many theme songs
along the way, the first of which was "When You Wish Upon a
Star." What Disney movie is this song from?
a. Sleeping Beauty
b. Cinderella
c. Bambi
d. Pinocchio
2. What year did the show that would become "The Wonderful World
of Disney" premiere?
a. 1954
b. 1962
c. 1960
d. 1953
3. What was "The Wonderful World of Disney" called when it
debuted?
a. Walt's Disney World
b. Disneyland
c. Disneymania
d. Walt's Disney World
4. "The Wonderful World of Disney" has had many names -- which
of the following is not one of them?
a. Disney's Wonderful World
b. The Magical World of Disney
c. Disneyland
d. Disneyworld
5. What bumbling professor (and Donald Duck's uncle) presented
"An Adventure in Color," the first show of the series entitled
"Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color"?
a. Ludwig Von Drake
b. Don Donald
c. Scrooge McDuck
d. Dewey Duck
6. Who composed the theme song for the "Walt Disney's Wonderful
World of Color"?
a. George Bruns
b. Frank Churchill
c. Alan Menken
d. Richard and Robert Sherman
7. What frontier hero's saga debuted as a 3-part mini-series
during the first season?
a. Davy Crockett
b. Alamo Days
c. The Adventures of Kit Carson
d. Tom Sawyer
8. What beloved Disney character was used in the openings of all
of the early shows?
a. Jiminy Cricket
b. Mickey Mouse
c. Tinker Bell
d. Cinderella
9. On which network did "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color"
air?
a. ABC
b. NBC
c. CBS
10. Who introduced the shows each week for its first decade?
a. Mickey Mouse
b. Annette Funicello
c. Walt Disney
d. Michael Eisner
Answers for Multiple Choice Trivia
1. d
2. a
3. b
4. d
5. a
6. d
7. a
8. c
9. b
10. c
Rankings
0 - 3: Ooh, it looks like you're a World washout!
4 - 7: Getting close there, but it's not quite wonderful yet.
8 - 10: Good job! You've clearly got the whole World in your
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The worst Disneyland ride of all time
SF Gate - Our best Disneyland ride post got a nice response,
along with a gratuitous dissertation-quality analysis of guys
with moustaches who wear white tank tops and jeans shorts. Have
to say, that was a nice little detour ...
Today, let's talk about the worst Disneyland rides. For my
list, I'm not going to factor in the age of the ride, the
potential danger or the annoying souvenir stands at the end. I'm
also not going to penalize attractions that are fun for kids but
boring for adults. (Of course Sleeping Beauty's Castle is going
to be a drag for me -- I'm not a 6-year-old girl.) The
attractions on my list were despised by my child self just as
much as the adult.
Argue my picks or add your selections in the comments. All
Disneyland rides past and present are eligible. You can also
include anything at other parks including Epcot Center, although
that's kind of like putting Jessica Alba and Denise Richards on
your worst actress of all time list. It's a little too easy.
3. Hall of Presidents: I used to think this attraction was
just boring, not horrible. Mostly it seemed like a small waste
of time, when you could be in the park riding real rides. But
then I saw this. Imagine being the kid, sitting with your mom or
dad in the front row, and seeing Lincoln go into a
gibberish-speaking seizure. You would spend the rest of your
life afraid of $5 bills. I'm sure they've fixed Lincoln, but
best to not take the chance.
2. Country Bear Jamboree: I'm sorry, but these bears
(especially this one) always creeped me out, even when I was 7
years old. I hate the way they sing. I hate the way they move. I
hate that they have no pants. They made a horrible film based on
this ride, which thankfully I didn't have to review. Even
Christopher Walken couldn't make the Country Bear Jamboree look
cool.
1. It's a Small World: This is less of a ride and more of an
interrogation device. (How cool would it be if Jack Bauer got
the terrorist to reveal the location of the hidden nuke by
taking the bad guy for an endless loop on It's a Small World?) I
rode it for the first and only time 30 years ago, and I still
wake up in the middle of the night screaming. Forget about Bush.
I think the guys who wrote this song need to be tried for war
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Fun and games serious business at Disney's Wide World of Sports
Orlando Sentinel - Ken Potrock, 49, senior vice president of
global sports enterprises for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts,
which includes oversight of Disney's Wide World of Sports
complex, which will soon incorporate the ESPN brand name. He
spoke recently with Sentinel Staff Writer Scott Powers.
Question: Wide World of Sports hosts everything from
cheerleaders' events to X Games to paint-ball meets to enormous
softball and basketball tournaments. What sports do you enjoy
watching?
Answer: My favorite sport overall is wrestling, only because
that's what I did both in high school and college, and what I've
got both of my young sons involved in right now. That being
said, a couple weeks ago I went to the Special Olympics and
found that to be just fascinating, both with the passion of the
athletes but also the incredible time that was given by the
volunteers and the expertise they delivered.
Q: The newly announced bowling stadium for the United States
Bowling Congress brings you into a whole new sport. What will
this stadium, and the addition of bowling, do for Walt Disney
World?
A: It'll be our 54th sport, which is very exciting, because
diversity of sports is part of our growth strategy. Bowling,
when you talk about the most popular sports in America, bowling
typically is No..1 from a participants' perspective. The ability
to host the USBC's bowling tournaments here drives enormous
value to the community, and to Disney. My understanding is the
men's tournament will have in excess of 80,000 actual
participants in the tournament. Not just spectators, but
participants, and it'll take five months for us to actually hold
that tournament.
Q: Will the bowling lanes be open to the public for
recreational bowling when there aren't tournaments?
A: That's our plan, yes.
Q: What's the status of the Jostens Center [a new,
70,000-square-foot gymnasium]?
A: It's going to open officially on July 5.
Q: When it opens, it will about double your indoor sports
space. Does this help you most with attracting additional
events, or give you flexibility with events you have, or allow
you to go after events that you don't have enough space for now?
A: All of the above, plus it allows us to take events we
already have and expand them. The first event we have is an AAU
Girls 15-and-under national championship. Whether it's field
hockey, whether it's gymnastics, whether it's wrestling, whether
it's marshal arts, whether it's archery -- having that kind of
space gives us the luxury of great variety and the ability to
attract really substantial kinds of events to the complex.
Q: Who's getting these events now -- where's your
competition?
A: The competition is scattered all over the country. What's
most exciting for me is we have a lot of competitive advantages
that other sites don't' have. No..1, we've got location. We're
located in the heart of Disney World. Not a bad place to come,
if you're an amateur athlete. No..2, with the rebranding of the
complex, and the leveraging of the ESPN brand, we're going to be
able to create an experience for our athletes and the spectators
that come along with them that literally is unparalleled.
Imagine the athletes, when they come to our complex to compete,
feel they really have made it to the big-time, that they really
have made it because now they are competing at the complex and
feeling like they've made it onto ESPN. That's a pretty heady
competitive advantage for any young athlete.
Q: What can we expect out of the ESPN rebranding? Are we
going to see name changes throughout?
A: You're going to see a name change. What you're also going
to see, which I think is more important, is we're going to
create what we call an immersive experience. We're going to
create an experience where when the athlete comes in to compete,
they're going to feel like they've made it to the big-time. That
there is no place they are able to compete that is sort of more
high-end, better facilities, makes them feel more special, and
really envelops them in the world-wide leader in sports, that
leader being ESPN.
Q: Is the "Wide World of Sports" identity lost on younger
generations who never saw the ABC television show, and is that
name going to disappear?
A: I think the question on the table is: Does anybody [among]
young athletes know the Wide World of Sports brand from the ABC
days? I think the answer is: limited. Do they know the Wide
World of Sports brand because we've been in business for 11
years as a sports facility? Yes, they do. So we're debating:
Should we keep the name? Should we incorporate parts of that
name?
Q: Any possibility that the Tampa Bay Rays' schedule might be
expanded at Champion Stadium?
A: We love having the Tampa Bay Rays play here. I would love
to have them make a longer-term commitment to play here, and to
play as many games here as they would like to play.
Q: But?
A: No buts. It's not necessarily my decision.
Q: You were very active with the Year of a Million Dreams
Campaigns. As we see the ESPN brand come in, are we going to see
that kind promotion applied to the newly named sports complex
here?
A: I think that's part of the power of the ESPN Brand. We're
looking at ways to create exposure both for the complex itself
but also for the athletes competing there. So we're looking at
how we can create exposure in ESPN media like print, online,
television, radio. The ESPN platform offers us a lot of
exposure, and ESPN is very interested in reaching out to amateur
athletes, especially youth amateur athletes.
Q: Is the youth/amateur athlete business almost too seasonal
to be able to sustain full facilities throughout the year?
A: No, I don't think it's too seasonal. I think there are
some things, however, that we need to do a better job of, which
is understanding state by state and quite honestly zip code by
zip code when kids are out of school and when they're not out of
school. We need to be able to counter-program other kinds of
events that aren't reliant on kids being out on summer break or
vacations or weekends -- things like salsa competitions, things
like Disney Channel games, things like the concert business.
These are all opportunities for us at the complex, and
opportunities we're aggressively looking at.
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Selena
Gomez: No Feuding With Miley Cyrus
E! Online - Selena Gomez wants everyone to know she's not
feuding with Miley Cyrus.
For about the past six weeks, Gomez has
been dubbed "the next Miley Cyrus," with Disney execs
hoping to fast-track Gomez into even bigger stardom because they
were getting nervous about some of the controversies surrounding
the Hannah Montana star.
The
15-year-old Gomez stars in the Disney Channel hit
Wizards of Waverly Place.
"It's a little overwhelming, but I think
really, it's a compliment," Gomez told me of the Cyrus
comparisons. "She's obviously extremely successful, and I think
she's a wonderful performer...So being compared to her, I was
very, very flattered."
I caught up with Gomez on Saturday over some
Crumbs cupcakes at a press day promoting her upcoming fall
movie, Another Cinderella Story. (I'll
have more on the flick closer to its September release.)
Gomez and Cyrus have even had a good laugh
about their so-called feuding. "We’re literally like, It's fine.
It's all good," Gomez recalled. "She's Miley and I'm Selena."
No doubt the comparisons will fire up again
when Gomez's first album debuts. However, if it's up to Gomez,
you won't find her doing it alone. "I'm not going to be a solo
artist," the Texas native insisted. "I want to be in a band with
four other guys."
Gomez is keeping mum on a release date
because her record deal isn't official yet. "Soon, soon, soon,"
she said with a laugh. "I can say that for sure."
Gomez's rise in Hollywood isn't the only
thing she's celebrating these days. She's got a party planned
for her Sweet 16 in July.
"I'd like to have a huge, fun and crazy
cake," Gomez said. "I kind of want a Mad Hatter style cake like
Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz's [wedding] cake. I want to have
karaoke, and I'm going to have a photo booth. It's going to be
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Walt Disney Internet to set sites on Australian market
Sydney Morning Herald - The Walt Disney Internet Group has
unveiled ambitious plans to blitz the online market in Australia
using gaming and "virtual worlds" to increase its base of 1
million users and challenge assumptions that people will not pay
for online content.Disney attracts about 5 million users each
month across the Asia-Pacific region but has aggressive growth
plans, particularly for the Australian market.
The group's Asia-Pacific head, Duncan Orrell-Jones, said at
least one-third of Disney's online revenues here could be
derived from premium subscriptions to children and parents, once
it unveiled a string of new content services later this year.
Mr Orrell-Jones said Australia was one of the top three
markets in the world for the Disney brand behind North America
and Japan, providing massive potential to expand its presence to
children and adults.
In the United States, Disney is having success online
attracting mothers via its family.com website and Australia will
ultimately follow suit. Already 50 per cent of Disney Internet
users here are aged over 17.
"We have a brand here in Australia that plans to have a very
broad audience," Mr Orrell-Jones said. "Over time we've got the
ability to continue to broaden the types of content and
entertainment that will break into families. We're puting
entertainment front and centre of everything and we're very
aggressive about moving onto these new platforms."
Since relaunching its Disney.com.au website last December
with new casual games and other entertainment options, unique
browsers have doubled. Mr Orrell-Jones said the content alliance
Disney struck with Yahoo!7 this year has generated a quarter of
its overall audience growth.
He said the priority for the Australian operation was to
expand its "virtual worlds" program using Disney franchises such
as Cars, Pirates of the Caribbean and Pixie Hollow as
entertainment and "edutainment" destinations.
He said Club Penguin, a premium subscription service for
children, which Disney has acquired in the US, would begin in
Australia this year.
"We are enormously encouraged by what we've seen with Club
Penguin already. There isn't a local version but people are
already on the US version and paying for it in very significant
numbers from Australia. If you get the content right, parents
are willing to pay for that online."
Premium subscription services start at about $US5 ($5.30) a
month for Club Penguin in North America.
Mr Orrell-Jones said Disney was experimenting with various
online revenue models across the region, ranging from
advertising supported content to online micro-payments for
merchandise and subscription services.
When asked if subscriptions could generate a third of
Disney's online revenues in Australia, he said: "It could
represent more than that but it's too early. We're very focused
on delivering fantastic products that people are willing to pay
for but there will probably be other business models that come
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Disney Artist Stores zeros down on LS Retail to sustain
international quality standards
India PRwire - Disney Artist that
has been launched in India in collaboration with Devyani
International Limited. (DIL). DIL today announced the successful
implementation of LS Retail. DIL’s prime requirement was to
sustain quality and maintaining international standards for
Disney that Disney is renowned world over for and to implement
and roll-out an internationally recognized POS Solution to
capture their Sales Process. LS Retail is a full blown; end-to-
end integrated retail solution built on top of Microsoft
Dynamics NAV. This helps the customer to have online integration
of data between the stores and the head office. DVS is the
exclusive distributor of LS Retail Suite of Solutions in India.
LS Retail along with Dynamics was implemented by
Trident.
DIL currently operates 1200 SKU's under “Disney Artist”
brand, which are increasing with the company’s rapid expansion
across India. The immediate need of the hour was to use an
internationally proven end to end solution that met their
requirement of quick and successful implementation. Moreover,
the solution used should prove itself to be flexible and
reliable as and when the organization scales its operations. LS
Retail is a fully blown integrated end-to- end solution built on
top of Microsoft Dynamics NAV for the retail industry and this
helps the customer to have online integration of data between
the stores and the head office. For DIL, LS Retail was favored
as it would help the organization manage their new business
professionally and seamlessly and at the same time help them
adopt best retail practices that will make them the industry
leader
The immediate benefits accrued to DIL through the
implementation of LS Retail, were:
Comprehensive Business Intelligence - LS
Retail NAV helped DIL, in tracking Sales related operations
across all stores and other MIS crucial for Business
Intelligence.
Scalable in Size and Business- LS Retail was
a vital tool for DIL at the head office, it helped them control
and maintain data common to all stores. This includes, for
example, item, customer and vendor management as well as the
management of special offers and loyalty programs.
Single Application Architecture- LS Retail's
single application architecture for DIL meant that most
functions are available at store level, head office level, or
both. This flexibility helped DIL to configure the application
according to their demands and build on their competitive
advantage without needing expensive custom-made solutions.
The LS Data Director- For DIL, Data Director
takes care of high-speed data exchange between different
Microsoft Dynamics NAV databases, and other databases that are
not based on Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The Data Director was
specifically designed to increase the speed of replication over
Wide Area Networks (WAN). It uses shorter time to send data and
requires less bandwidth than previous generations.
Commenting on the positive changes in the operation process of
Disney Artist Stores, Sukesh Gera, Head – IT and Systems of
Devyani International said, “LS Retail solution has allowed DIL
stores to quickly implement the best retail practices and
functionalities. The system can easily expand to new stores and
product lines. Users are pleased with easy interface of the
system.” He further emphasized, “We keep our processes simple
and well defined, and hence our implementation strategy was a
simple design in itself. We wanted to see the beauty of the
software completely and therefore, DVS worked with us to realize
the best practices of Retail as per software. Instead of
modifying software, we improved our practices to suit the
requirements of software which automatically improved our
working. It has sure been an interesting phase.”
Emphasizing on the alliance, Mr. Arjun Verma (Executive
Director & CFO), Devyani International Limited (DIL) stated, “We
at DIL believe that technology is not a sunk cost but rather an
investment to reduce huge long term costs. With LS Retail, we
now have an internationally proven IT platform that supports
further development of our business. LS Retail hence was an
investment to maintain competitive advantage for DIL’s long term
growth in India.”
Commenting on the success of the LS Retail Suite, Rakhee
Nagpal, Managing Director- Dynamic Vertical Solutions said,
“Disney is an admired brand world over and it was our prime
responsibility in ensuring the quality standards are maintained
to their satisfaction. As an organization we identify focus
areas based on thorough research and a deep understanding of the
needs and requirements of our client. This was well manifested
in the case of Disney as well. The fruitful partnership between
Trident and DVS has yet again yielded benefits and we look
forward at many such projects.” |
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Tuesday
June 17, 2008 |
Disney opens Toy Story Midway Mania
Greetings from Space
Orange Stinger at California Adventure to get new Disney theme
Prince
Caspian Attraction at Disney Hollywood
Disney Family.com Gearing Up For Parent-Focused Social Net
Launch
The Sword in the Stone 45th Anniversary Special Edition on DVD
The Jungle
Book 2 Special Edition on DVD
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody: Lip Synchin' in the Rain on DVD
Guest Room Refurb project for several Disney World Resorts
begins this Summer
Disney
Already Planning Sequel To Camp Rock
ReelTime Inks
Disney-ABC Pact
Game
5 ratings up 11 percent from '06 NBA finals |
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Disney opens
Toy Story Midway Mania
LATimes - What do you get when you combine a shoot-'em-up video
game with an amusement park ride?
Disney
hopes you get a way to lure jaded gamers off the couch and to
one of its theme parks.
Walt Disney Imagineering melded the interactive elements of a
video game with the kind of immersive 3-D experience of an
amusement park to create Toy Story Midway Mania, a ride opening
today at Disney's California Adventure park in Anaheim.
Riders don 3-D glasses, board a vehicle and travel through
carnival games hosted by familiar characters from the "Toy
Story" movies. They move in rapid-fire fashion past giant
screens displaying classic games of skill, reinterpreted through
Pixar Animation Studios' stylized palette. There's Buzz
Lightyear's ring toss, Woody's Rootin' Tootin' Shootin' Gallery
and Bo Peep's dart throw. The 3-D characters coax players
through each game, offering tips and encouragement.
Toy Story Midway Mania is the first installment in a
$1.1-billion, five-year effort to upgrade Disney's California
Adventure, which has remained in the shadow of neighboring
Disneyland. Opened in 2001 under the direction of former Chief
Executive Michael Eisner, the park was quickly dubbed by wags as
"Eisner's misadventure" for its poor performance. Roy Disney,
Walt Disney's nephew, blasted the company for building it "on
the cheap."
As part of the sweeping renovations, California Adventure's
entry plaza will be redesigned to evoke the 1920s, when Walt
Disney arrived in California to begin his animation career.
Future attractions will include Cars Land, featuring a Radiator
Springs Racers ride, inspired by the Disney/Pixar blockbuster
"Cars" movie.
"The strategy in all our parks, and Disney's California
Adventure is no exception, is to continue to invest and broaden
the experience that we offer our guests," said Jay Rasulo,
chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.
An infusion of capital and ideas isn't coming a moment too soon.
According to entertainment and leisure consulting firm Economics
Research Associates, attendance at California Adventure was 5.7
million in 2007, a drop of 4.5% from the previous year. That's a
fraction of the nearly 14.9 million people who went to
Disneyland in 2007.
"California Adventure has had to reinvent itself a bit from its
initial concept, which struggled," said John Robinett, senior
vice president at ERA. "This sort of ride appeals more to the
broader family market, whereas the initial concept was meant to
be somewhat more adult-oriented. That didn't really perform at
the level that they expected it to."
Toy Story Midway Mania illustrates the extent to which theme
park operators are employing technology to pry a generation of
media-saturated kids and adults loose from their computer
screens and through the turnstiles. Universal Studios has its
Men in Black Alien Attack in Florida, in which guests zap space
aliens as they chase them through the streets of New York.
Disneyland also has its earlier "Toy Story"-inspired space ride,
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, in which players team up to
battle the evil Emperor Zurg.
Park operators are walking a tightrope, however, in trying to
develop rides that provide the kind of individualized experience
that gamers covet -- in which they're competing against each
other and influencing the action -- while also appealing to
non-gamers who want a more traditional, non-interactive
experience.
"There are an awful lot of people who will come to an attraction
and say, 'You are responsible for my entertainment,' " said Bill
Coan, president of Itec Entertainment, a theme park designer in
Orlando, Fla. "The gamers come in and say, 'I want to have an
effect on my entertainment.' Therein lies the balance that all
theme parks are trying to deal with."
Ben Worley, 22, is just the type of person Disney is targeting.
During a preview ride this month, the game enthusiast from
Riverside said he realized he was in for something novel when a
life-sized depiction of Woody coaxed him to take target practice
with the "spring-action shooter" mounted on the front of the
tram. Worley said he popped Woody in the head with a virtual pie
-- and the character reacted by shaking off the glob.
"The idea of the ride being aware is absolutely mind-blowing,"
Worley said. "It's not an experience that I typically have [at
an amusement park]. Things are typically passive."
But some analysts say that building theme park attractions with
an eye to gamers may be too narrow a strategy. Gary Goddard, a
former designer at Walt Disney Imagineering who now runs his own
firm, said he was not convinced that theme park patrons were
eager to repeat their video gaming experience. "I don't know
that there's a trend in that," he said.
Instead, Goddard believes, seen-it-all audiences are looking for
spectacle. Attractions that employ the creative arsenal that
only a theme park can marshal -- such as live-action stunts,
special effects and 3-D film to make the audience believe it's
part of the action -- have broad appeal.
Toy Story Midway Mania's designers employed super-sized versions
of iconic toys -- cans of Play-Doh, interlocking chains of
plastic primates from a Barrel of Monkeys and the Candyland game
board -- to create the illusion that guests have been shrunk to
the size of a toy. In this way they feel as though they've
entered the room of "Toy Story" kid protagonist Andy.
Animators studied the "Toy Story" movies to capture the subtle
movements and gestures that made Buzz, Woody and the other
familiar characters come to life, then re-created them in 3-D
for the ride. These are not linear animation sequences but a
library of actions and responses that allow the characters to
react with participants in real time.
"It's like they're alive in front of you," said Roger Gould,
theme park creative director for Pixar.
Walt Disney Imagineering borrowed the familiarity and simplicity
of classic carnival games to make its interactive experience
comfortable for a variety of players.
"Although we knew this was going to appeal to kids who play the
Wii or the Xbox or online games, we have a family audience,"
said Susan M. Bryan, a show producer for Imagineering. "I really
wanted every single person who got on that ride to not only have
fun but feel like they're being successful."
The ride's complexity is hidden from view. Toy Story Midway
Mania employs more than 150 computers communicating over
multiple networks to synchronize the myriad moving parts. It
keeps track of the location of every vehicle, cues the right
music and lighting, and causes the on-screen characters and
targets to respond every time a rider pulls the spring-action
shooter.
Although Worley confessed that California Adventure initially
held little interest for him, he had such a good time on the
preview ride that it changed his mind. "I honestly went and told
all my friends that have annual passes that this ride will be
the reason you will renew," he said. |
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Greetings from Space
Disney
News -
In this 72-dpi screengrab from NASA video, a 12-inch-tall Buzz
Lightyear toy action figure gives a greeting from aboard the
International Space Station. Disney Parks worked with NASA to
include the toy on Space Shuttle mission STS-124 to celebrate
the opening of a new attraction -- called "Toy Story Mania!" --
that features Buzz Lightyear. The toy on the spacecraft was
transferred to the International Space Station, where it is
currently residing. A series of educational programs for school
children also is planned for the toy's time in space. The
screengrab was released by NASA to celebrate the June 17, 2008
opening date of the Toy Story Mania! attraction at Disneyland
Resort in California. Toy Story Mania! at Walt Disney World in
Florida officially opened on May 31, 2008 — the date that
mission STS-124 launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. |
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Orange Stinger at California Adventure to get new Disney theme
LATimes - The Orange Stinger swing ride will get a new Disney
theme and back story as part of the planned $1.1-billion
Disney's California Adventure makeover, Walt Disney Imagineering
officials confirmed. Gone will be the 40-foot-tall orange peel
that surrounds the 48-seat spinning swing set and the
Disney-free buzzing bumble bee theme, Imagineering officials
said.
In its place: a Victorian
architectural style more akin to the remade Paradise Pier
section of the Anaheim theme park represented by the new Toy
Story Mania attraction.
Imagineering officials declined
to elaborate on the new "Disney theme."
A Disney fan site reported the
Orange Stinger will be redubbed…… "The Silly Symphonies Swings,"
with a theme based on "The Band Concert" 1935 cartoon short
featuring the first colorized Mickey Mouse.
The made-over 1 1/2-minute ride
would feature a twirling tornado mast with smoke-spewing special
effects, an orchestral score and a "Conductor Mickey" on top.
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Prince
Caspian Attraction at Disney Hollywood
Orlando
Sentinel - The new Prince Caspian version of the Chronicles
of Narnia attraction at Disney's Hollywood Studios should
open to the public intermittently this week in preparation
of a full opening late next week.
The attraction, called Journey Into Narnia, closed last
fall, in part to make room for construction of the Toy Story
Midway Mania ride built next door, and also so that Walt
Disney Imagineering could update and enhance it from the
original 2005 concept, which reflected the first Narnia
movie, The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe. The new version
will reflect the second Narnia movie, Prince Caspian, which
is currently in international theatrical release.
A Walt Disney World spokesman confirmed the official opening
is set for June 27 but was not ready last week to discuss
soft opening details. The new Prince Caspian version is
structured similarly to the original attraction, featuring a
message from movie director Andrew Adamson, a set built to
look like a movie scene (within the stone temple around the
stone table), a brief live performance involving an actor
re-creating a few lines from the movie, and a few props and
costumes from the movie. The new version reportedly will
include some new high-tech visual effects, but Disney would
not elaborate.
Last month, an actor playing Prince Caspian was added to the
cast of characters at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
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Disney Family.com Gearing Up For Parent-Focused Social Net
Launch
Washington Post - Parentpedia. Family Blogger. Comment
Contest. Consider these just some of the elements of
DisneyFamily.com that laid
the groundwork for the company's next project, the summer
launch of its parent-focused social network, Disney
Family.com Community. The ad-supported site is open to both
mothers and fathers, but mothers are the target audience.
While still in the QA phase of development, Disney ( NYSE:
DIS) Family Network's director-marketing Maureen Bergmueller
and director-user interface design and community Maria
McManus walked me through a demo of the social net's key
features. Some highlights:
Fundamental principles: Based on observations of its current
family site and research on its competitors in the field,
Disney began its January development of the social network
with the understanding that to their key demographic,
mothers, intimacy is of chief importance. While MySpace and
Facebook users can gain satisfaction by uploading their own
photos and spicing up their "About Me" sections, moms in the
online community want to relate to others through their
families while expressing themselves in creative ways.
Uniqueness among
user profiles: Aside from choosing their own background images
and colors on their profiles, Community users can create and
customize their own avatars?not only to represent themselves,
but to represent their whole families, from children to pets.
Users can also create their own "stickers," thumbnail-type
images that can be shared among the rest of the Community or
kept to oneself. For example, a mother can create her own "Proud
to be a C-section mom" sticker and opt-in to share with the
other Community users. Other C-section mothers can then adopt
these stickers to their profiles and see the profiles of and
connect with other members who snagged the same sticker. Other
features in the works include Twitter-type updates where users
can type in a blurb to be shown in a thought bubble next to
their avatars and soon after Community launches, Disney will
introduce quizzes modeled after ones typically found in women's
magazines.
Interesting to
see Disney finally make its move into parents' social nets after
over a year of heavy funding activity and some acquisitions in
the sector. Though the company says it has experts such as
licensed practitioners and psychiatrists to vouch for the
quality of its information, not to mention the fact that it's,
well, Disney, Disney Family.com Community could still get lost
in the already-crowded space. Just because a brand is widely
known doesn't mean it is guaranteed to tap into success.
Remember Anheuser-Busch's Bud.tv? After numerous attempts to
improve the content, the site has yet to secure a steady fan
base. |
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The Sword in the Stone 45th Anniversary Special Edition on DVD
Buena Vista Home Entertainment - Modern animation wizardry meets
medieval magic in the legendary classic The Sword in the Stone
45th Anniversary Special Edition, coming to DVD on June 17, 2008
from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. Filled with
adventures, music, magic and a wondrous mixture of bonus
features including an all-new game; perfect for the whole
family.
Based
on T.S. White's immortal novel The Once and Future King, The
Sword in the Stone 45th Anniversary Special Edition brings the
legend of King Arthur to spectacular animated life in a dazzling
adventure sure to entertain both adults and children. Arthur, a
young squire known as "Wart," encounters his destiny when he
meets the magical wizard Merlin. This 1963 musical gem from the
Disney vaults features original songs by Richard M. and Robert
B. Sherman (Mary Poppins) making The Sword in the Stone 45th
Anniversary Special Edition a must-own classic.
Humor, spectacle and magic rule
in Walt Disney's legendary classic tale The Sword In The
Stone—now celebrating its 45th Anniversary with exciting new
bonus features!
Embark on an adventure-filled
quest for an unlikely hero! According to legend, only someone
with honor, decency and inner strength can claim the throne of
England—by pulling out the enchanted sword that lies locked in a
massive stone. Many brave knights have tried, so it seems
impossible that a young apprentice known as Wart could succeed.
But with the guidance of the wizard Merlin, help from some
hilarious friends and true strength of character, Wart just
might become England's greatest king.
There's even more wizardry fun
with marvelous new bonus features including the all-new Merlin's
Magical Academy game, animated shorts, Disney's song selection
and much more! The Sword In The Stone 45th Anniversary Edition
DVD is a magical experience your whole family will want to share
again and again!
The Sword in the Stone 45th
Anniversary Special Edition DVD is priced at $29.99 SRP in the
US and $36.99 SRP in Canada. |
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The Jungle
Book 2 Special Edition on DVD
Buena Vista Home Entertainment - It's 2 times the laughs, 2
times the thrills and 2 times the swingin' fun when The Jungle
Book 2 Special Edition comes to DVD on June 17, 2008 from Walt
Disney Studios Home Entertainment. Available for a limited time
only,The Jungle Book 2 Special Edition includes an all-new
adventure game, plus enough deleted scenes, music videos, behind
the scenes featurettes and games to entertain the entire family.
The
Jungle Book 2 Special Edition takes fans on another thrilling,
swingin' adventure with the indomitable man-cub, Mowgli. The
popular sequel to one of Disney's most beloved films, this
fun-filled musical safari has the jungle jumping again with a
host of original toe-tappin' tunes and new renditions of old
favorites including "The Bare Necessities." Boasting a stellar
voice cast, including Haley Joel Osment as Mowgli and John
Goodman as Baloo the bear, The Jungle Book 2 Special Edition
provides a playful mix of music, laughs and thrills that will
capture the imagination of both kids and adults for years to
come.
Walt Disney's jumpin' jungle
adventure continues in this special edition of The Jungle Book
2—with all your favorite characters from the original, toe-tappin'
classic and more swingin' songs! Mowgli has been living in the
man-village with his little stepbrother Ranjan and his best
friend Shanti. But the man-cub still has that jungle rhythm in
his heart, and he misses his old buddies Baloo and Bagheera.
When Mowgli wanders back to the wild for some swingin' fun, he
soon finds Baloo isn't the only one waiting for him—the
man-eating tiger Shere Khan is lurking in the shadows and
planning his revenge. If he is to defeat his nemesis, Mowgli
will need the help of both his old friends and his new family.
With an all-new Mowgli's Story
Time Adventure Game, music videos and more, The Jungle Book 2
Special Edition will have the whole family roaring for more!
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The Suite Life of Zack and Cody: Lip Synchin' in the Rain on DVD
Buena Vista Home Entertainment - Check into Boston's posh Tipton
Hotel and check out the latest, greatest adventures of
television's funniest family duo! Identical twins Zack and Cody
Martin are once again up to their necks in mischief when The
Suite Life of Zack & Cody: Lip Synchin' in the Rain comes to DVD
on June 17 from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.
A
pair of jokers are totally wild in these four laugh-out-loud
escapades from the top rated Disney Channel series. With a
luxury hotel as their playground, the teenaged twins (Dylan and
Cole Sprouse) take their high rise high jinks from the basement
to the penthouse and back again. Co-stars include Ashley Tisdale
("High School Musical 1 & 2") as loveable Tipton employee Maddie
Fitzpatrick and Brenda Song ("Wendy Wu, Homecoming Warrior") as
madcap hotel heiress London Tipton. Fans will sing along with
the title installment of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: Lip
Synchin' in the Rain, a special musical episode that finds the
gang auditioning for their school production of High School
Musical! When London beats out Maddie for the role of Sharpay,
it looks like London will get all the glory and Maddie will do
all the work—but the boys have a plan to reveal the real star of
the show!
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
is one of Disney Channel's most popular cable programs. The
Suite Life of Zack & Cody: Lip Synchin' in the Rain is priced at
$19.99 US SRP. |
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Guest Room Refurb project for several Disney World Resorts
begins this Summer
Disney News - Disney is about to begin a
large refurbishment project covering many of the resorts at Walt
Disney World. Set to begin this summer are the Caribbean Beach
Resort and Boardwalk Resort, followed later in the Year with
Beach Club, Yacht Club, Coronado Springs, and Wilderness Lodge
Villas. The projects are total refurbishment of the guests
rooms, including new carpet, wallpaper, paint and furniture.
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Disney
Already Planning Sequel To Camp Rock
ChattahBox - Orlando (ChattahBox) - According to the latest
reports, Disney is already planning a sequel to the hit Camp
Rock.
The president
for entertainment at Disney Channel Worldwide, Gary Marsh, has
confirmed to New York Daily News that they are already working
on Camp Rock 2.
Apparently, a
script is already in the world for a sequel to the hit release
for Disney.
They are already
in talks with the types of story plotso they want to go with,
and how they want it all to evolve.
Camp Rock
reveals the story of the pop group The Jonas Brothers, made up
of brothers Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas.
When the band’s
leader Shane (Joe Jonas) has problems, the band cancels their
tour and sends him to summer camp to teach rock and roll
classes. The film evolves from here in typical Disney fashion. |
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ReelTime
Inks Disney-ABC Pact
Broadcasting & Cable - ReelTime, which delivers online content
for a one-time fee or subscription, struck a deal with
Disney-ABC Domestic Television for video-on-demand content from
the company's various production arms, including Walt Disney
Pictures, Disney-Pixar, Touchstone and Miramax.
Among the titles ReelTime will
get access to: The Curse of the Black Pearl,
National Treasure and No Country for Old Men.
ReelTime CEO Barry Henthorn said
in a statement that he expected the addition of the Disney-ABC
content to provide an immediate bump to the service.
ReelTime streams video online
over a broadband connection directly to the TV set. |
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Game 5
ratings up 11 percent from '06 NBA finals
AP - Television ratings for the NBA finals Sunday were up from
the last time the series went five games.
The Los Angeles Lakers' 103-98
win over the Boston Celtics to avoid elimination averaged a 10.1
fast national rating on ABC, the network said Monday. That's an
11 percent increase over the 9.1 for Game 5 of the Dallas-Miami
series in 2006.
The rating is the percentage
watching a program among homes with televisions.
ABC is a division of The Walt
Disney Co. |
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Monday
June 16, 2008 |
It's
Your Dream Home
Software Notebook: This Dream Home comes with a Mouse
Life|ware Added to
Disney Exhibit
Disney takes 'Science
Fair' prize
Musician who sued Walt Disney World gets support from national
Sikh group
Parents fret as even toddlers love 'High School'
Disney
working on panda picture in China
Vintage
high-rise had role in Disney history
Smith wins
Danskin Triathlon at Disneyland
Original Disney Fine Art Paintings, Free Disney Gift with
Purchase & Free Shipping
Destination Disney - Balancing Fun and Food Allergies
Nancy Kanter is Playhouse Disney Worldwide senior VP |
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It's Your Dream Home
Disney
News - Imagine a home so perfectly attuned to the needs of a
family that it can anticipate and fulfill them, virtually
without anyone lifting a finger. Now imagine that the home
offers family members high-tech connectivity, not just with one
another but with people, entertainment and information in the
world at large.
Guests at Disneyland can soon do more than imagine it. Beginning
June 17, the Innoventions Dream Home in Tomorrowland is bringing
that world to life as a limited number of guests have the
opportunity to preview the home.
The Innoventions Dream Home is both a show and a showcase,
offering guests of all ages a hands-on experience with new
in-home technologies, some that are practical and some that are
astounding. Microsoft, HP, Life|ware and homebuilder Taylor
Morrison have joined with Disneyland Resort to demonstrate how a
connected digital lifestyle can simplify and enhance many
aspects of daily family life.
"We're thrilled to open the Innoventions Dream Home with the
help of our partners," said Ed Grier, president of the
Disneyland Resort. "We are confident our guests will find new
ways to connect to their world in this immersive, entertaining
experience."
The experience includes guest interaction with the residents of
the Dream Home - the fictional Elias family – who will be
excited to welcome all guests into their new home at the end of
June. Members of the family move from room to room, utilizing
the technology as they prepare for a big celebration. Guests who
enter the Dream Home can observe and play with all its comforts,
including:
Innovations from Microsoft that enable today’s digital
lifestyle, seamlessly connecting family members to live and
recorded entertainment and memories
Connected entertainment devices and PCs from HP that help the
family members stay connected and simplify their daily
activities
Wireless technology adapted by Life|ware that allows the
Dream Home’s devices to recognize individual family members as
they enter a room and tailor the room to their individual
preferences
Design elements from homebuilder Taylor Morrison on the
façade, the patio and party tent areas.
“It’s both ‘high-tech’ and ‘high-touch,’” said Greg Atkins,
writer and director for the free-form Innoventions Dream Home
experience. “We’ll be showcasin g
technology that connects families to each other, their home, the
surrounding community and the world. And many of the innovative
things our guests will be playing with are actually available
today.”
Also new in the Innoventions building are five Neighborhood
Shows – educational entertainment presented in the ring area of
the first floor. The interactive shows opening June 17 are
presented by ABC Television, homebuilder Taylor Morrison and
Yamaha Music. Honda and Southern California Edison will open
shows later this summer.
The user-friendly technology of the Innoventions Dream Home is
on display from the moment guests approach the entrance to “360
Tomorrowland Way” (a whimsical reference to the circular
“carousel” structure of the Innoventions building). Each room
offers new experiences and surprises.
Front Yard
A member of the Elias family greets guests as they approach the
front door of the Dream Home. Today, the family member
announces, everyone is invited to visit as the family prepares a
party to celebrate younger son Robbie’s amazing soccer goal,
which earned his team a victory in the Nationals and a spot at
the International Soccer Championships in China.
The Front Yard also introduces guests to the ease, function and
connectivity of the Dream Home. With the touch of a button, the
family can change the outside appearance of the Dream Home.
Today, they’ll be decorating for Robbie’s celebration, but they
can also easily decorate for the holidays.
The Dream Home “recognizes” members of the Elias family as they
enter the home. The dog door even recognizes the family dog!
Foyer & Great Room
Upon entering the Dream Home, guests may explore on their own in
several directions. Whichever direction they choose, they will
enter through the Foyer and Great Room, which showcases many of
the connected personal features of the home.
As the Dream Home notes the presence of individual members of
the Elias family, the surroundings in the Great Room – pictures
on the walls, music in the sound system – automatically adjust
to the preferences of the family member who is in the room.
At the Grand Piano in one corner, a would-be virtuoso can take a
master class from a teacher on the other side of the country.
Technology lets the teacher do a full demonstration, complete
with technique, on the Dream Home piano.
In the center of the room, next to the family’s easy chairs and
ottomans, is a “coffee table book” that is actually an
interactive touch screen with content from the library. The book
will display the original manuscript of “Alice in Wonderland.”
Guests and Elias family members can turn the pages of the book
simply by touching the screen.
Kitchen
Like most kitchens, the Elias family Kitchen is more than just a
place to prepare food. It’s where the calendar is kept, and
where family photos and works of art are displayed. New
technology enables all of this, with a virtual bulletin board
that posts all the latest messages about soccer schedules, along
with digital photos and versions of the kids’ hand-drawn
creations.
Since this Dream Home Kitchen is fully interconnected,
appliances can “talk” to one another. So can the grocery items!
If Mrs. Elias puts a bag of flour on the counter, the computer
voice of “Lillian” will provide recipes and instructions to
prepare the meals. If ingredients are missing or out-of-date,
the interconnected pantry and refrigerator will share the
information and create a shopping list on the virtual bulletin
board.
Dining
Room
Like most families, the Elias family gathers around the dinner
table to discuss the day’s events, and the day of Robbie’s
soccer victory has been a special one. The Dining Room table is
a large interactive surface, inlayed with computers, and when
the family sets down their mobile phones on the table, photos
and videos spill across the screens. Then the family can
interact with, view and enlarge the images with a simple touch.
The Dining Room table can also be used to create art, do
homework, and assemble video puzzles – with multiple family
members all at once.
A Dining Room memory cabinet displays photos and art appropriate
to any occasion, triggered by objects placed on its shelf.
Family Room/Home Office
The entertainment center in the Dream Home Family Room is a
movie lover’s dream. With the touch of a button, the room
transforms into a state-of-the-art home theater. The curtains
close, the lights adjust, the 7.1 surround sound kicks in, and
the 100-inch television screen comes to life with one of the
movies stored in the Media Center.
Across the room is the Home Office, with desk and chair inspired
by the classic design of Walt Disney’s own Studio office. Here,
Elias family members can attend to the business of the day,
including communication with the Chinese soccer team that will
meet Robbie’s team when it arrives for the contest. A 3-D
Printer enables the Chinese hosts to send a congratulatory
three-dimensional gift directly to the Elias home.
Teen
Daughter’s Room
At her desk, the Elias family daughter can connect with friends
or her favorite entertainment. As she develops new interests,
she can easily change the photos and posters in her room.
But she may be spending much of her time in front of the Magic
Mirror, a virtual mirror that projects accessories, hairstyles
and the clothes from her closet onto her reflection, fitting the
styles to her body so that she can try out different “looks” as
she prepares for her brother’s party.
Tip: Watch as she holds the dress up for consideration. The
virtual skirt even sways as she twirls around!
Younger Son’s Room
Robbie has a room that would be the envy of any adventurous kid.
His bed is a pirate ship, complete with onboard cannon. In the
manner of all great Disney attractions, the room combines the
latest technology with classic storytelling.
When
a family member takes a seat by the bed and begins to tell the
story of Peter Pan, the story jumps off the pages. Everyone in
the room is immersed in the story with special effects,
including video that appears on the ship’s sail and the
surrounding walls. Tinker Bell may even breeze past some of the
room’s fixtures, causing them to shake and tinkle. The
bed-cannon can shoot holes through the virtual clouds, just like
the cannon on Captain Hook’s ship.
Backyard, Courtyard & Party Tent
When guests exit the house and make their way into the Courtyard
and Backyard, they’ll find that even the barbecue and outdoor
décor feature the latest technology, including a flat-screen
monitor that can dispense barbecuing instructions.
Inside the Party Tent, guests who want to “build” their own
virtual Dream Home can get even more hands-on experiences with
the fascinating applications on display in the Innoventions
Dream Home.
NOTE FOR NEWS MEDIA ONLY – NOT FOR PUBLICATION: For details,
photos and video related to Toy Story Mania!, the Innoventions
Dream Home and the alliance that built it, and all the new
experiences at Disneyland Resort, go to www.disneylandnews.com
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Software Notebook: This Dream Home comes with a Mouse
SeattlePI
- Jonathan Cluts is the type of guy who once rewired his dorm
room to control all the lights from a central switchbox. And as
a kid, he thought it would be great to be an "Imagineer," one of
the creative minds behind the Disney theme parks.
He hasn't realized that particular ambition, but he has come
pretty close as the director of Microsoft's strategic
prototyping team, including oversight of the futuristic
Microsoft Home on the company's Redmond campus.
And in an extension of that role, Cluts, 47, is one of the
key people behind the new Innoventions Dream Home attraction at
Disneyland. The project, scheduled to open Monday, is a
partnership of Microsoft and other companies.
The Dream Home is a modern-day sequel to the Monsanto House
of the Future, a Disneyland attraction from 1957 to 1967. The
new Dream Home project, in Disneyland's Tomorrowland, includes
some futuristic technology concepts, like its predecessor.
But the companies made a conscious decision to focus more on
technological capabilities that are possible today, though not
widely used.
"It's real. This isn't science fiction, and it's not pure
extrapolation," Cluts said last week. "You can integrate much of
what you see here now."
The problem with going purely futuristic is that people get
home and say, "Wow that's cool, but it's never going to happen,"
Cluts explained.
By focusing on current scenarios, the Dream Home also doubles
as a subtle promotional vehicle for Microsoft. For example, the
dining room table is a collection of Microsoft Surface tabletop
computers that display photos and videos when members of the
home's fictional family place their mobile phones on the top.
Microsoft Surface computers are currently being deployed in
commercial settings, so that scenario is already possible, but
versions for consumers aren't expected to be available for a few
years.
The Dream Home also includes concepts from the Microsoft
Home. For example, a bag of flour placed on the kitchen counter
prompts a computer voice to read recipes and instructions for
meals that include flour as an ingredient.
One bedroom also includes a smart mirror that projects, on a
person's reflection, virtual images of clothes from a nearby
closet, reducing the need to actually put them on. The Microsoft
Home has a similar magic mirror in its bedroom.
Cluts, whose father was an electrical engineer, was
introduced to the concept of Disney Imagineering as a kid, when
he saw a "Wonderful World of Disney" TV episode that went behind
the scenes at Disneyland. He remembers being wowed by the
animatronics and other technological tricks.
A pianist and former professional musician, Cluts studied
music and audio engineering in college, and worked in the
recording industry. He joined Microsoft in 1990, after his wife,
Nancy, was hired by the company, and he has held a variety of
positions.
One highlight of the Dream Home experience for Cluts was
participating in an early brainstorming session that included
Kim Irvine, a legendary Disney Imagineer.
Although the Microsoft Home in Redmond has existed for years,
it isn't open to the public, so the Dream Home at Disneyland
will be the first exposure to the concepts for many people who
visit it.
The 5,000-square-foot Dream Home grew out of a series of
visits that Disney representatives made to the Microsoft Home in
past years. The companies started talking about creating a
similar Disneyland attraction.
Computer maker HP also contributed to the project. The Dream
Home includes software called Life|ware, homeautomation
technology that works with Microsoft's Windows Media Center
software. Disney brought in homebuilder Taylor Morrison to work
on the project, as well.
The companies have a five-year agreement for the Dream Home.
Cluts and his Microsoft team have been heavily involved in the
creation of the home, which is expected to be updated at various
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Life|ware Added to
Disney Exhibit
Electronic House - It may be a small world, but that doesn’t
mean it can’t be automated.
Life|ware just announced its participation in Disneyland’s
Innoventions Dream Home. The exhibit shows rollercoaster-dazed
theme park visitors how to get their geek on via the wonderful
world of Disney.
The display showcases the fictional Elias family and their
ability to have personalized entertainment anywhere. Life|ware
uses Windows Media Center to make control happen. Other parts of
the exhibit shows Life|ware products triggering Lutron lighting,
temperature controls, Panasonic security cameras, a MediaMatrix
NION distributed audio system, and more. Currently, the company
has a variety of its products on display in the Disney exhibit.
“Life|ware is best understood when experienced and Dream Home
is the perfect showcase for millions of Disneyland guests each
year to experience our products first-hand and show how
Life|ware can change their lives,” says Bret Fitzgerald,
Life|ware’s VP of marketing. “Dream Home lets consumers
experience just how Life|ware makes a home fun, interactive and
entertaining.”
Aside from the products mentioned, the Innoventions Dream
Home currently houses technology by Microsoft and HP. |
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Disney takes 'Science
Fair' prize
Hollywood Reporter - Writer John Sullivan has sold his family
adventure spec "Science Fair" to Disney for $275,000 against
$575,000. With echoes of "Night at the Museum," the screenplay
centers on a science fair where all of the kids' projects --
think papier-mache volcano's and fungus -- come to life.
A mild bidding war broke out last week between Walden Media and
Disney until Buena Vista Pictures president Oren Aviv and
executive vp production and development Brigham Taylor pocketed
first prize.
Energy Entertainment is partnering with Broken Road Prods.' Todd
Garner and Sean Robins, who helped develop the script. Broken
Road and Energy recently teamed on the sale of "Stop Huntingdon
Animal Cruelty," written by Adam Sachs, to Lionsgate.
Producing deals on "Science Fair" still are being negotiated.
Sullivan, who is repped by ICM and Energy, hatched the idea with
manager Jake Wagner last year during a late-night Hollywood
brainstorming/drinking session.
"I grew up on stuff like 'Explorers' and 'Goonies' and 'Weird
Science,' " said Sullivan, whose mother teaches sixth grade. "I
really wanted to explore something that was more family-friendly
and something that I would actually like to go see myself if I
was 12-16. There's a lot of wish fulfillment in that. Movies
like this are just fun to write."
Energy also has "Galahad," by Ryan Condal, set up at the Film
Department and "The Low Dweller," by Brad Ingelsby, at
Relativity Media, with Leonardo DiCaprio attached to star.
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Musician who sued Walt Disney World gets support from national
Sikh group
Orlando Sentinel - A Broward County musician who sued Walt
Disney World last week claiming the "Disney Look" of grooming is
a form of religious discrimination is getting backing from the
national Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund today.
Sukhbir Channa, 24, sued Disney last week in Hillsborough County
claiming that the theme park company refused to rehire him in
2006 because his beard, long hair and his turban -- which he
contends are religiously-mandated -- did not conform with
Disney's grooming and dress requirements known as "The Disney
Look."
Walt Disney World officials insist no discrimination occurred.
They contend that Channa was not rehired in 2006 because he did
not reapply, and that the arrangement had nothing to do with his
look. His claim, said Disney World spokeswoman Jacquee Polak,
"is denied, and is without merit."
His attorney Matthew Sarelson disputed Disney's claim, noting he
has filed affidavits from Channa and a witness stating that he
had reapplied. Sarelson is seeking class-action status for the
suit.
The suit was filed last Thursday in circuit court in Tampa,
because that is where Channa said he was hired in 2005 and
turned down in 2006, when Disney sent an official to the
University of South Florida's music school to hire musicians.
This morning the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund
backed Channa, contending that Disney's hiring practice
discriminates.
Sikhs are followers of the 15th century Indian guru Nanak, and
his successor gurus. They believe in one God, and advocate the
practice of holistic life experiences, work, worship and
service. The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund
states there are an estimated 24 million Sikhs worldwide. Their
religion is not associated with Islam, though many westerners
confuse followers of the two religions.
As an article of faith, Sikh men do not cut their hair, and
cover it with a turban. Disney spokeswoman Polak insisted that
Disney does not discriminate, but that the company makes
accommodations to allow Sikhs to work there. "We value and
respect diversity in our cast members and treat each request
(for accommodations) individually," Polak said. "The type of
accommodations varies with the type of request, job and
location."
Channa, a trumpet player who now lives in Davie, performed at
Disney World in late 2005 and early 2006 while he was a student
at the University of South Florida. He performed in
Christmas-seasonal parades at Magic Kingdom as a toy soldier.
The costume hid his beard and hair. After the parade's season
ended, he sought another job as a street musician and was turned
down, his suit states. His suit contends he was terminated in
early 2006 "for not having the appropriate look." The following
fall he tried to get rehired to the toy soldier role but was
turned down.
"But for 'the look' problem, plaintiff would have been rehired
by Disney in October, 2006," Channa's complaint states.
His suit seeks damages "in excess of $1 million" and to enjoin
Disney from further discrimination against other Sikhs. |
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Parents
fret as even toddlers love 'High School'
AP - Talya Appelbaum recently had a "High School Musical"
birthday party. She got special balloons and a slice of cake
decorated with the spoiled Sharpay, her favorite character
because "she's with Ryan."Jemma Fox has an HSM karaoke
microphone and trading cards of the East High gang.
Talya and Jemma are 3 years old. They have tot-sized insights
but large obsessions with the wildly popular Disney franchise
that has jumped from TV show to hit song factory to
merchandising mania since 2006, when the Wildcats first took kid
culture by storm.
But it's high school, and now senior year at that. Do Talya
and Jemma need to "bop to the top" or demand "all things
fabulous?" And what about the kissing, the backbiting and the
big-kid fashions?
With the October release of the third HSM movie — this one in
theaters rather than on the Disney Channel — parents of extra
young aficionados are debating whether the phenom is innocent
dance-'til-you-drop fun or not quite appropriate.
"It really is insipid and Disney starts early and has some
clever ways to get to the kids who don't even watch movies,
listen to the radio or read," said Jemma's mom, Jennifer Hawkins
of New York.
Appelbaum has three older kids, including a 4-year-old
daughter. All are HSM fans. Appelbaum isn't sure she could
shield her youngest, even if she wanted to. But HSM's popularity
among young children, along with similar adolescent fare like
Hannah Montana — the other Disney mega-franchise — isn't limited
to those exposed through older siblings.
Jemma, who has a 2-year-old brother, stumbled on HSM at a
Target store, where Hawkins bought "what I thought was an
innocent toy." She didn't know the microphone was preprogrammed
with two HSM songs and admits: "I didn't really look at the
packaging."
Five-year-old Valencia White got hooked after dad bought
tickets to "High School Musical: The Ice Tour" last year.
"She went straight from Disney princess to 'High School
Musical,'" said her mother, Virginia Duplessis of El Cerrito,
Calif. "The child has never seen the movies, yet she knew the
songs immediately. It just got to a point where it's everywhere
and the more we were trying to make it this forbidden fruit, the
more interested she was getting."
Therein lies the parenting challenge, said Jean Twenge, a
social psychologist and associate professor at San Diego State
University who studied young people and pop culture for her
book, "Generation Me."
The pressure to succeed, materialism, an emphasis on outer
beauty, narcissism, romance trouble and other issues faced by
high schoolers may not be what draw young children in, but the
issues are there nonetheless, Twenge said.
"How do you even talk to a 3-year-old about this stuff? Think
before you leap. If you've leapt, then cut her off. There are
things you have to take a stand on," she counsels parents.
Any hint of parody or sarcastic nuance is most likely lost on
the very young, Twenge said.
Consider Sharpay, the brash and popular HSM schemer who wants
heartthrob Troy to herself and makes dark-haired, brainy
Gabriella miserable in the process. While Sharpay may learn some
life lessons on the way, her journey might be difficult for the
very young to process.
Like 3-year-old Talya, Duplessis' daughter Valencia is a
Sharpay fan.
"I say she seems kind of mean, and she says, `Oh but she's so
pretty and I really like that song "Fabulous."'" Duplessis said.
"It's the focus on clothes, appearance. That's what bothers me
the most. It's good clean fun with Jimmy Choo flip flops,
perfect hair and makeup. I would just rather her focus on being
a kid and having fun and getting dirty."
Before "High School Musical" entered their lives, Duplessis
and her husband, David White, restricted their kindergartner's
TV-watching mostly to PBS in their crunchy liberal area just
outside Berkeley. Now Valencia's grandparents, aunts and uncles
have bought her HSM notepads, a backpack, cups and a T-shirt.
Disney spokeswoman Patti McTeague said children younger than
six have other programming geared more for them, including a
daily eight-hour dose of Playhouse Disney on the Disney Channel.
"We recognize that younger siblings most often watch Disney
Channel with their older brother or sister and that some aspects
of our programming, including the music of `High School Musical'
and `Hannah Montana,' can strike a responsive chord with younger
kids," she says, but she adds that their block for younger
children "reflect themes more relevant to kids age 6-14."
Talya's mom, Melanie Appelbaum of Harrison, N.Y., doesn't
worry about the teen themes.
"They don't really kiss until the end of the second movie,"
she says. "So much of what people are worried about is going
over their heads. I think you can overanalyze anything."
Selling products to the very young is perhaps the bigger
danger, said Juliet Schor, a psychology professor at Boston
College who explored the effects of marketing on children in her
book "Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer
Culture."
Hawkins agrees. The microphone Jemma has is bright pink,
"looks like a baby toy" and was placed on a low store shelf in a
section for young children, she said. And this year's big-screen
movie release "High School Musical: Senior Year" includes three
new sophomore Wildcats aimed at keeping the franchise fresh.
"They're trying to appeal to a much younger child in order to
prepare them for being hooked in," Hawkins said. "One piece of
the scenario leads to the next."
While social psychology has much to say on the extension of
adolescence through one's 20s, Twenge said, there's an extension
down the age ladder as well.
"Pretty soon adolescence is going to last from age 5 to age
35," she said. |
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Disney
working on panda picture in China
UPI - The Walt Disney Studios and Chinese filmmakers Castle Hero
Pictures and Ying Dong Media say they are teaming up on the new
movie "Touch of the Panda."
The project was announced Sunday at the Shanghai
International Film Festival.
To be shot in Sichuan, China, the film is to feature giant
pandas bred and nurtured at the Wolong Giant Panda Nature
Reserve. The movie is to be made with the facility's official
cooperation and supervision.
The live-action movie is about a panda cub separated from his
mother and eventually rescued by a young orphaned boy, who
realizes the best thing he can do for the cub is to help him
find his way home.
Daichi Harashima plays the boy in the film, which is being
directed by Chinese director Yu Zhong.
"We're thrilled to be working with a team of talented
filmmakers on this exciting film for Chinese moviegoers of all
ages, as well as for audiences around the world," Jason Reed,
executive vice president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture
production, said in a statement. "'Touch of the Panda' follows
in the tradition of Disney's most memorable family films, and
takes audiences on a spectacular adventure with some of the
rarest and most fascinating animals on the planet." |
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Vintage
high-rise had role in Disney history
Orlando Sentinel - Not too long ago, reader Jason DiDonato
inquired by e-mail whether Flashback had any background
information about the old Cherry Plaza hotel, now known as Post
Parkside apartments at Lake Eola.
Boy,
do we. Among other things, the building has a claim to a place
in Orlando history because Walt Disney made his November 1965
announcement of plans for Walt Disney World from the Egyptian
Room, the ballroom wing of the then-Cherry Plaza. (That ballroom
wing of the building no longer exists; it was about where Spice
restaurant is now).
You can see the Egyptian
decorations for the room, at left, in one of the state archives
photos of the shindig that accompanied the announcement.
Disney's announcement has been
called the transforming moment in Central Florida's history.
But the hotel where it was made
had already heralded the start of the new era. It brought a
touch of modern glamour to 1950s Orlando.
For folks growing up in Orange
County in the 1950s and '60s, the urban settings of movies,
television and popular books were sometimes elusive. On the
big screen, Doris Day and Rock Hudson rode shiny elevators
to chic New York apartments with high-rise views. Even the
children's book heroine Eloise lived in New York's Plaza
Hotel.There, at
least, was something we could relate to: We, too, had a
Plaza hotel, a nine-story, elevator-adorned piece of Moderne
elegance right in the middle of Orlando, at the southeast
corner of Lake Eola Park.
For more than a
half-century, through changes of ownership and name - Eola
Plaza, Cherry Plaza, Park Plaza - the high-rise building
remained a touch of urbanity in the midst of Spanish moss
and be-columned Southern houses.
Now, the building that
premiered as the Eola Plaza in the fall of 1950 is the Tower
at the Post Parkside apartments, a retail-residential
complex on Central Boulevard and Osceola Street developed by
Post Properties of Atlanta.
Unfortunately, the big
almond-shaped restaurant space overlooking Lake Eola that
last housed Lee's Lakeside remains vacant. It's a graceful
room where many Central Floridians have celebrated
graduations, birthdays, anniversaries and prom nights over
the decades.
Like its present Post
Parkside incarnation, the building originally was home to a
variety of shops and businesses. The Eola Pharmacy opened in
1951. Also in the building were Plaza Petites, the Eola
Plaza Flower Shop, Jeanne Elkins Dress Shop, Markham's
Restaurant, the Mary Bradshaw Beauty Salon, and a real live
night club: The Eola Plaza Bamboo Room, the site perhaps of
swing dancing and martini-imbibing during Saturday nights on
the town.
Through the years, the hotel
was home to some big-name guests and events, including an
October 1964 visit by President Lyndon B. Johnson,
reportedly the first U.S. president to spend the night in
Orlando.
When it opened, the Eola
Plaza was one of the tallest buildings from Jacksonville to
Tampa. With so many taller buildings near it now, it's hard
to imagine how much it transformed the skyline around Lake
Eola at a time when most nearby buildings were two-story
residences.
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Smith
wins Danskin Triathlon at Disneyland
AP - Alexis Smith had her dreams come true at the Disneyland
Resort after she won the Danskin Women's Triathlon on
Sunday.
Smith, of Monterey, Calif., finished the race in 48:04, more
than three minutes better than runner-up Jennifer Chalmers of
Dana Point, Calif. Christina Venturacci of Aliso Viejo, Calif.,
came in third place.
The race consisted of a .35-mile swim, a 10-mile bike ride
and a 2.5-mile run/walk.
Sunday's race at Disneyland is the third of eight in the
Danskin Series.
San Diego's Angie Bagnas won the Team Survivor division that
is devoted to woman in all stages of cancer treatment. |
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Original Disney Fine Art Paintings, Free Disney Gift with
Purchase & Free Shipping
PR
Web -
SandersArtStudio.com in Ogden,
Utah, is pleased to announce two exclusive gifts with the
purchase of Disney Fine Art. Guests who purchase any Disney Fine
Art Giclee or Original Painting from SandersArtStudio.com will
receive one (1) free Disney Fine Art Pin with each purchase.
Each pin will be individually marked with a limited edition
number (example 1 of 50) and comes in its own bag.
Pin
Facts:
Gift with Purchase - Disney Fine Art - "Teasing Tink"
Artist: Trevor Carlton
Edition Size: 100
Size: 3 inches
Gift with Purchase - Disney Fine Art - "Safari Mickey"
Artist: Dick Duerrstein
Edition Size: 50
Size: 3 inches
These pins were created to celebrate "The Magic of Disney Fine
Art Exhibition."
In addition to the exhibit, over 500 limited-edition Disney
Fine Art Giclee's and Disney Fine Art Originals are available
for purchase on a website and virtual gallery at
SandersArtStudio.com.
The website will be showcasing work from the artists listed
below:
John Alvin - Toby Bluth - Tricia Buchanan - Benson-James Coleman
- Dick Duerrstein - Harrison & Peter Ellenshaw - Michael &
Inessa Garmash - Manny Hernandez - Mike Kungl - Mike Kupka -
Allison Lefcort - Stephen Reis - Tim Rogerson - John Rowe - Jim
Salvati - Jim Warren - Trevor Carlton
Quantities are limited. Limited-Editions vary in size.
About
DisneyPins.com
The official Disney site includes new releases, event
information, pin trading locations, and a database of over
10,000 pins. |
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Destination Disney - Balancing Fun and Food Allergies
Go Dairy Free - Disney has a well-earned reputation for
accommodating special dietary needs. But there is still a little
extra leg work needed on the part of Disney and the guests
themselves. So we asked Joel Schaefer, Disney's Special Dietary
Needs Manager, how to plan to dine safely at Walt Disney world.
Here's what Joel shared with us this month ...When
planning a Disney vacation with a food allergic child, how far
in advance do I need to contact Walt Disney World?
If your child has multiple allergies, it is best to contact
us three months ahead of time or before you book your trip. We
will supply you with the most current information for you to
make an informed decision.
If your child has a single food allergy, when you make your
dining reservations, indicate their allergy. Most restaurants
and counter service locations can accommodate single allergy
requests. Simply ask to speak to a chef or manager upon arrival.
Do you still have a form for guests with special
dietary needs?
Yes. We can send the form to the Guest by email so the Guest
can fill it out and return to us. This form contains information
on specific allergies, food that can be eaten or not eaten, and
reservations. The form is then sent to the chefs in the
indicated dinning locations.
I'd like to get a feel for what types of meals and
snacks are available at the different parks. How can I do this?
We have a variety of specialty snacks that are available at
most locations. Please contact us ahead of time for the most
updated list of products and where they are located. Menus,
vendors and products may change.
I'm uncomfortable with buffets but I don't want my
son to miss some of the fun character breakfasts. Could we make
special arrangements so that my child's meal is prepared
separately?
Depending on your child's allergies, buffets may not be the
best options for you. Foods are prepared in a central kitchen
and we cannot guarantee that the chef's will be able to prepare
food separately. [See below for tips on dining at table service
locations.]
My child has celiac's disease. Are there kid-friendly
options for her? I would love for my child to be able to
experience Mickey Mouse waffles and a safe cookie or brownie.
We have a variety of options for Guests with celiac disease
and most locations have gluten-free pancake and waffle mix. You
will need to contact us ahead of time to see what locations can
accommodate your request.
Do you use peanut oil in the parks?
Our current fryer oil is made from High oleic canola oil.
Do you offer Kosher meals?
Yes! Kosher Meals are available at the following Walt Disney
World® Resort quick service locations with no advance notice
needed:
World Premiere Food Court at Disney's All- Star Movies Resort
Intermission Food Court at Disney's All- Star Music Resort
Riverside Mill Food Court at Disney's Port Orleans Resort -
Riverside
End Zone Food Court at Disney's All-Star Sports Resort
Pizzafari at Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park
Old Port Royale Food Court at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort
ABC Commissary at Disney-MGM Studios
Everything Pop Shopping and Dining at Disney's Pop Century
Resort
Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe at Magic Kingdom Park
Liberty Inn at Epcot
Electric Umbrella at Epcot
Artist's Palette at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
Gasparilla's at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
The Mara at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge
What is the procedure for making a special dietary
request at table service locations?
1. Call the Dining Reservation Center at 407-WDW-DINE or
(407) 939-3463.
2. Indicate to the Cast Member your special dietary requests.
3. Your special dietary request will be noted by the Cast
Member on your reservation.
4. Write down the dining location phone number that the Cast
Member provides you, as well as your reservation number and the
day and time of your reservation.
5. Contact your dining location at least 72 hours in advance
to discuss your special dietary request with the chef, manager
or food and beverage representative.
6. Please feel welcome to speak to the chef or manager on
duty when you arrive at your dining location.
What about when you don't want to make a reservation and
just want a quick bite to eat? Are there counter service
locations within each park that can accommodate special dietary
requests?
Yes, for counter service at Disney's Animal Kingdom Park, you
might try:
Restaurantosaurus (located in DinoLand U.S.A.
Flame Tree Barbecue (located between Asia and DinoLand U.S.A.
Harambe Fruit Market
For additional information, contact Disney's Animal Kingdom®
Special Diet line at 407-938-3288 or by e- mail at
wdwakspecialdiets@email.disney.com
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protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
For counter service at Disney's Hollywood Studios, you might
try:
Sunset Ranch Market
Backlot Express
Studio Catering Company
ABC Commissary
Toy Story Pizza Planet
For additional information contact the Disney's Hollywood
Studios Special Diet line at 407-560- 3551 or by e-mail at
wdwstspecialdiets@email.disney.com
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protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
For counter service Epcot, you might try:
Liberty Inn (located at The American Adventure in World
Showcase)
Sunshine Seasons (located in The Land Presented by Nestle)
For additional information, contact Epcot Special Diet line
at 407-560-6395 or by e-mail at
wdwecspecialdiets@email.disney.com
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protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
For counter service at the Magic Kingdom, you might try:
Cosmic Ray's Starlight Café (located in Tomorrowland)
Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Café (located in Frontierland)
Main Street Bakery
Toontown Farmer's Market
Liberty Square Market
Pinocchio's Village House
For additional information, contact Magic Kingdom Park
Special Diet Line at 407-824-5967 or by e- mail at
wdwmkspecialdiets@email.disney.com
This e-mail address is being
protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
The DISNEY CRUISE LINE special dietary request information is
located at
www.disneycruise.com or phone
Disney Cruise Vacations at 1-800-951- 3532
For more information, see
Disney's Special Dietary Requests,
Disney Dining FAQ's, and
Disney Magic. |
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Nancy Kanter is Playhouse Disney Worldwide senior VP
IndianTelevision -
US kids broadcaster
Disney has announced that Nancy Kanter has been promoted to
Playhouse Disney Worldwide senior VP and will have
responsibility for the Playhouse Disney creative content on a
global basis.
Kanter has been
with Disney since 2001, most recently as Playhouse Disney US
senior VP, programming. The announcement was made by
Disney Channels Worldwide president, entertainment Gary Marsh to
whom Kanter reports.
In her new role, Kanter will continue to oversee the development
and production of all long and short-form programming,
encompassing live action and animated series, and will add the
responsibility of unifying all programming, marketing and brand
management teams on the creative vision for Playhouse Disney,
ensuring cohesiveness between programming and promotion and all
extensions of the brand.
Marsh said,
"Nancy's dedication to learning-focused stories for preschoolers
helped drive unprecedented success for our Playhouse Disney
programming. As we increase our programming development around
the world, this promotion recognizes her valued contribution to
creative excellence and will ensure a consistent vision for all
Playhouse Disney content."
Kanter is
responsible for supervising the development of Playhouse
Disney's most successful original series thus far, including
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, My Friends Tigger and Pooh and Handy
Manny; the new series Bunnytown and upcoming Imagination Movers. |
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Sunday
June 15, 2008
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY |
Walt Disney’s inspiration is a Copenhagen amusement
Disney
whirl: 4 theme parks in just 1 day
2008 Candlelight Processional narrators and packages
Disney-isms drive
glossy 'Camp Rock'
Eating Smartly at
Disney and Beyond
Dated cartoon classics being reimagined for the Internet
generation
Anaheim's GardenWalk is open for business at last |
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Walt Disney’s inspiration is a Copenhagen amusement
Kansas City Star - Denmark | The 165-year-old amusement park
that inspired Walt Disney and Danish fairy tale writer Hans
Christian Andersen offers style and charm of a kind often
imitated.
Tivoli, Copenhagen’s downtown
landmark, blends tradition and modernity with old-style Ferris
wheels and gravity-defying rides, family restaurants and gourmet
eateries.
Neon lights are banned here and
plastic materials are avoided — beer cups aside — to preserve
the feel of an old-style amusement park.
“We want to maintain tradition
and quality,” said Lars Liebst, Tivoli manager.
In 1841 Georg Carstensen sought
royal permission to create an amusement park on the ramparts
that once surrounded medieval Copenhagen. The son of a diplomat,
he wanted to give Danes samples of the wonders he had seen
during childhood trips abroad.
Tivoli opened two years later.
The Danish capital has since
grown around the green oasis where families and friends stroll,
and lovers cuddle up on benches amid oaks, birches and Japanese
cherry trees.
“It’s so beautiful, it’s cozy,”
said Elin Peitersen, a 74-year-old retired secretary. “You can
take your family along or sit on a bench, like I do, and enjoy
others having a good time.”
The park is charming, but it’s
the thrill rides Tivoli is famous for, especially among the
throngs of young visitors.
The youngest children prefer the
slow-moving vintage car ride, while exhilarated teenagers zoom
past in the adrenaline-pumping roller coaster.
Meanwhile Tivoli’s Boys Guards
march behind children dressed up as royals, riding a horse-drawn
carriage through the garden.
The scent of popcorn and cotton
candy fills the air while Vienna waltzes, big-band tunes and
rock music play in the background through the evening.
A stone’s throw away is the
Chinese-style Pantomime Theater from 1874 with its peacock
curtain. When the bird lowers its tail, the curtain rises for
one of Europe’s last stages keeping Commedia dell’Arte
traditions alive.
“I heard it was a famous
amusement park so I wanted to see for myself,” said Sung
Young-Jae, a 36-year-old visitor from Seoul, South Korea. “It is
very beautiful but I am a little bit disappointed, it is so
small.”
The park covers about 880,000
square feet (82,000 square meters), elbowed between the City
Hall and the capital’s main train station.
Disney visited Tivoli several
times in the 1950s and 1960s to seek inspiration for his theme
parks in the United States, Liebst said.
Nearly a century earlier,
Andersen, the legendary children’s author, wrote “The
Nightingale” after watching the illuminated Chinese Tower, one
of the park’s landmarks.
Today the park is lit by tens of
thousands of colored lights after nightfall.
Before each summer season, which
runs from mid-April to mid-September, gardeners plant 100,000
bulbs alongside 50,000 other flowers.
Posters announce that Israeli
conductor Daniel Barenboim, K.D. Lang and the New York City
Ballet, among others, will perform this season, either at
Tivoli’s concert hall or on an outdoor stage where strong men
and bearded ladies once performed.
For 2008 Tivoli reopened a
Moorish-style building from 1909, which has been through a major
renovation. The white edifice, now decorated with 3,600 colored
light bulbs, was originally covered with papier-mache and
chicken wire.
The park hired Italian workers
to re-create the front using a mixture of concrete and marble.
The building now houses a high-end restaurant, a dairy, a deli
and a luxury hotel with 13 suites.
Tivoli has extended its opening
times in recent years. The park twinkled in the Nordic winter
darkness for the first time in 1994 and now stays open for four
weeks over Christmas and New Year’s. A fall season was
introduced in 2005 and focuses on Halloween’s universe of
witches, pumpkin lanterns and autumn crops.
In previous years the number of
visitors during the summer season has hovered just above 3
million. Visitors are chiefly Danes and Scandinavians. Fewer
than 10 percent come from outside the region. |
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Disney
whirl: 4 theme parks in just 1 day
Philadelphia Inquirer - Four theme parks. Three kids. Two
adults. And one seemingly impossible assignment: to visit every
Disney World resort on the same day.
I'm not talking about an
amusement park toe-touch, either. I mean quality time, taking no
fewer than three marquee family rides at each place and not
skipping meals - in other words, real visits.
At a resort that's sprawled
across 25,000 acres of flat central Florida, is a quadruple play
even possible?
"It's not something we really
recommend," Disney spokesman Charles Stovall warned.
As if that's not enough of a
challenge, let me introduce you to my family. Kari and I have
three kids: two boys - Aren, 5, and Iden, 3 - and a 1-year-old
girl, Erysse. Since we live in Orlando, they're no strangers to
theme parks. But they're still young kids, with abbreviated
attention spans, inflexible nap schedules and an occasional
diaper to change.
Disney may not endorse our
adventure, but that doesn't exactly stop people like us from
trying. Since it opened Animal Kingdom a decade ago, it has all
but invited its guests to squeeze a fourth park visit into a
day. And that's all the encouragement that time-starved families
with only a day to spend in Orlando needed. (Besides, if Disney
didn't want us zipping around its resorts like Boy Scouts on a
scavenger hunt, why would it sell a "Park Hopper" pass that
allows us to do it?)
Magic Kingdom - 9:02 a.m.
We valet-parked our car at Disney's
Contemporary Resort and ordered breakfast at the hotel's
Concourse Steakhouse. Why spend $10 to valet park? Because it's
$1 cheaper than using the main lot and saves you a bundle of
time. (Technically, this was a no-no to park at the hotel, I was
told later by a Disney official.) It's just a short monorail
ride to the entrance of Disney's signature park, versus a
half-hour odyssey on a tram, followed by a connection to a boat
or monorail when you park the conventional way.
There was no time for a
leisurely stroll down Main Street USA - we walked briskly toward
Cinderella Castle and then circled around to Fantasyland. High
on our list of rides was The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh,
one of the most popular attractions at the park. I've seen wait
times of more than an hour, but this morning, it was less than
10 minutes. From there, we darted over to Peter Pan's Flight,
where the line was even shorter.
So far, so good.
We debated the third ride. The
boys wanted Pirates of the Caribbean, because, well, it's a boy
thing to do. The girls preferred It's a Small World. Small World
won because it's closer. But it came at a steep price: The song
is still in my head.
As we rolled back to the park
entrance, our confidence started to build. As long as we picked
three rides, had backups for each one, and avoided diversions,
we might be able to conquer four parks. The kids were ready for
more rides. We boarded a monorail for Epcot.
Epcot - 10:45 a.m.
The line for The Seas With Nemo &
Friends was about average, which is to say, it lasted a
patience-testing 20 minutes. Worse, the baby's diaper needed to
be changed. As we edged closer to Nemo's undersea world in a
slow-moving line, we had no choice but to change Erysse without
the benefit of a bathroom. Thanks to the low light, no one
noticed.
But once the ride ended, the
kids started to get fussy. They wanted lunch. We had a schedule
to keep, so we decided to see one more attraction before taking
a break. Journey Into Imagination With Figment is one of the
most underrated Epcot attractions. It's fast-moving and fun, but
there's never a line. Before any of the kids could protest, we
were face-to-face with Figment in his laboratory. Then we were
off to lunch.
Although we've tried almost
every restaurant in Epcot's World Showcase, we're partial to
China's Lotus Blossom Cafe because it's fast - and today, fast
matters. Within a few minutes, we were wolfing down vegetable
stir-fry and pot stickers. Before catching the Gran Fiesta Tour
at the Mexico Pavilion, we grabbed a pretzel from the nearby
Norwegian bakery. The kids needed sugar. The adults needed
sugar, too. It's a 20-minute bus ride to our next park.
Animal Kingdom - 2:05 p.m.
The signs in front of It's Tough to
be a Bug! warn that the 3-D attraction may frighten young
children, but we ignored them. After six rides, we concluded
that our children had become desensitized to loud noises and
special effects. And besides, the wait was a manageable 10
minutes. Only Iden appeared shaken by the experience, asking
whether insects grow to be as big as the seven-foot animatronic
grasshopper on stage.
It's a hike to the Festival of
the Lion King, and in the afternoon heat, only the promise of
ice cream kept the kids moving. Erysse had already fallen
asleep. Fortunately, it was cool inside the theater, and the
show, which features songs from The Lion King, is a real
pick-me-up.
When the performance ended, we
needed to move quickly to avoid being trapped on the wrong side
of an afternoon parade. The TriceraTop Spin offered a convenient
third-ride option on the way out. We escaped Animal Kingdom and
boarded a bus just as the parade started. The baby woke up in a
cranky mood.
Come to think of it, we were all
beginning to feel a little cranky.
One park to go.
Hollywood Studios - 4:15 p.m.
We made a beeline to the Indiana
Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, but the attraction was closed for
a special event. So we found our way to Muppet Vision 3-D. While
we waited for the show to begin, Aren and Iden curled up on the
floor and tried to sleep. Not a good sign.
"Come on, boys," I said. "Only
two rides to go. You can do it!"
"Dad, I'm never going to a theme
park again," Aren replied.
"Come on. You don't mean that."
"Whatever."
Ride number two was the
combination live-action and puppet show Voyage of The Little
Mermaid. By now, we were depending on the loud noises and
special effects to keep the kids awake. The final attraction of
the day - Playhouse Disney - was wall-to-wall with dancing
preschoolers and featured frenetic puppets and elaborate props.
Our preschoolers sat in the darkened theater in a semi-catatonic
state, waiting for the end.
We left the park after 7 p.m.,
feeling exhausted and a little giddy.
"We won!" Iden said.
"What did we win?" his brother
asked.
"I don't know. But we won!" Iden
replied.
The children fell asleep in the
car and didn't wake up until the next morning.
All told, we spent more than 10
hours at Disney World, averaging slightly more than one ride per
hour. I learned that hitting four parks in a single day can be
done, as long as you know which attractions you want to visit,
schedule plenty of time for meals, and bring a limitless supply
of patience.
Who knows, we might try another
four-bagger again soon. Maybe I'll wait until the blisters on my
feet have healed. |
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2008 Candlelight Processional narrators and packages
Disney News - The Following is a list of the 2008 Candlelight
Processional narrators and is Subject to change without notice.
Nov 28-30 John O'Hurley
Dec 1-3 Patti LaBelle (Tentative)
Dec 4-6 Brian Stokes Mitchell
Dec 7-9 Virginia Madsen
Dec 10-12 Monique Coleman
Dec 13-15 TBD
Dec 16-18 Chita Rivera
Dec 19-21 Abigail Breslin
Dec 22-24 Steven Curtis Chapman
Dec 25-27 Edward James Olmos
Dec 28-30 Marlee Matlin
For an extra special treat, ring in the holiday season with a
Candlelight Dinner Package, which includes dinner at a select
Epcot restaurant and reserved general seating at the American
Gardens Theatre during the Candlelight Processional. For more
information or to make dinner reservations, please call (407)
WDW-DINE (939-3463).
Tier 1
Seating 1 - $27.99 plus tax & gratuity / (3-9) $12.99 (Lunch)
Seating 2 & 3 -$32.99 plus tax & gratuity / (3-9) $14.99 (Dinner
The Garden Grill Restaurant – Land Pavilion
Biergarten – German Pavilion
Tier 2
Seating 1 - $36.99 plus tax & gratuity / (3-9) $12.99 (Lunch)
Seating 2 & 3 - $42.99 plus tax & gratuity / (3-9) $14.99
(Dinner)
San Angel Inn – Mexico Pavilion
Restaurant Marrakesh – Morocco Pavilion
Nine Dragons – China Pavilion
Rose & Crown – United Kingdom Pavilion
Tier 3
Seating 1 - $41.99 plus tax & gratuity / (3-9) $12.99 (Lunch)
Seating 2 & 3 - $47.99 plus tax & gratuity / (3-9) $14.99
(Dinner)
Chefs de France – France Pavilion
Tutto Italia – Italy Pavilion.
Le Cellier Steakhouse – Canada Pavilion
Mitsukoshi Teppanyaki Dining Room – Japan Pavilion
Coral Reef – The Seas with Nemo & Friends Pavilion |
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Disney-isms drive glossy 'Camp Rock'
Orlando Sentinel - Is it the next High School Musical?
Probably not, but Camp Rock should please a lot of young girls.
The Disney Channel movie follows Mitchie Torres (Demi Lovato), a
gifted musician who struggles at the expensive camp. She loses
her way by hiding that she is helping her caterer mom in the
kitchen and by cozying up to snooty Tess Tyler (Meaghan Jette
Martin).
Even so, Mitchie attracts the attention of egotistical rock star
Shane Gray (Joe Jonas). His Concert 3 bandmates -- played by
Kevin and Nick Jonas -- hope the camp will reinvigorate jaded
Shane.
The movie supplies the familiar Disney Channel themes:
celebrating family, following your dreams and being yourself,
all set to catchy tunes. The plot concludes in a big variety
show that lets the talented cast strut and sing.
Lovato supplies the heart, Joe Jonas provides the sex appeal,
and Martin inspires the campy humor. One disgruntled pal tells
her, "Your lip gloss so isn't glossy anymore."
Camp Rock is glossy, all right, and should provide a glow for
Walt Disney Co. |
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Eating Smartly at Disney and Beyond
The Ledger - The couple at the next table in the upscale
restaurant eyed the two little kids in our group with decided
distaste. Their mom was upset, but I convinced her we should
simply ignore the dirty looks.
For one thing, I didn't think the
3-year-old and her 5-year-old brother were misbehaving. True, a
glass of milk got spilled and they were (somewhat) noisy and
jumped around a bit, picking up crayons that had dropped on the
floor. But so were a lot of the other kids at The Flying Fish,
the noisy, bustling Orlando restaurant. Besides, we were smack
in the middle of Walt Disney World and I figure anyone who is
dining at one of the 300-plus eateries here has got to be
prepared for kids at the next table (unless they're at the
Victoria and Albert, Disney's only adults-only restaurant.)
That said, wherever you take
your kids out for a meal - at home or while traveling this
summer - it's good to be prepared with a pad and paper (I taught
5-year-old Ethan how to play hangman) and even some crackers. I
was disappointed that Disney restaurants - so quick with the
kids' menus and crayons and awesome kids' desserts (how about a
white-chocolate puzzle that came with a brush and different
color frostings so they could "create" their own desert?) -
didn't immediately offer some Mickey-shaped crackers when we sat
down.
If you haven't been to Disney
World or Disneyland in a while, you'll be surprised by the
quality and variety of the food. It's no longer about overpriced
burgers and fries (though you certainly can find those). Try an
Asian-fusion eatery (Yak & Yeti at Animal Kingdom) or check out
The Wave at Contemporary Resort, which promises organic beers
and American cooking.
Of course, the kids with us
preferred the old standards - like eating in '50s-era "cars" at
Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater at Disney's Hollywood Studios and
watching old cartoons on the giant movie screen, all designed to
make us think we were at an old-fashioned drive-in, complete
with stars twinkling above us. I thought they'd also love the
Coral Reef at Epcot, with its giant aquariums and scuba divers
that feed the fish, but the service was disappointingly slow.
There are a lot of healthier
options, too, if you can get the kids to eat them. Kids' meals
now come with fruit or vegetables and juice, water or low-fat
milk and there are fruit carts around the park.
When I booked reservations, I
was asked if anybody had allergies so that the information could
be noted. (Don't be shy about dietary requests, either. Walt
Disney World gets more than 7,000 such requests a month - just
call a few days in advance.) Another tip: Whether you are at
Disney World or a favorite city this summer, book reservations.
With young kids, earlier is better. You can always change them.
But even at Walt Disney World,
you may not be able to get a table at the
restaurant-of-the-moment. If you have a little princess who
wants to dine with Cinderella, book as soon as you book your
trip and even then, you won't be guaranteed a spot. Same with
dinner at the California Grill atop the Contemporary Resort,
with terrific food and a first-rate view of the Magic Kingdom
fireworks. (Call 407-939-3463 for reservations.)
A tip from Disney VIP guide
Maureen Murphy: The Princess Storybook meals at Epcot's
castle-like Akerhus Royal Banquet Hall are an easier reservation
to get.
We opted for Chef Mickey's
breakfast at the Contemporary Resort, where the kids were so
enthralled by Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and the rest of their pals,
getting autographs and hugs and posing for pictures, that it was
tough to get them to eat their breakfast, which was surprisingly
good.
Choose your character meals
based on your kids' favorite characters - breakfast with Winnie
the Pooh and friends at The Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom
or Lilo and Stitch at the Polynesian Resort; lunch with Chip n'
Dale in Epcot, or the gang from Playhouse Disney at Hollywood
and Vine at Hollywood Studios; dinner with Cinderella at 1900
Park Fare at the Grand Floridian Resort.
Be prepared with cameras,
autograph books (we filled up two!) and pens. Rest assured that
the characters will stop at your table. These meals, while
pricey, are a great way to get those autographs, hugs and
pictures (with mom and dad, too!) without waiting on the
inevitable lines in the parks.
Another tip: Consider the
well-priced meal plans that you can add on to your room/tickets
package that even include a daily "snack." Disney officials say
you can save as much as 40 percent at more than 100 restaurants
and quick-food places throughout the resort. (Book packages by
June 22 for certain dates in August and September and you get
the Disney Dining Plan free at Disney World. Visit
www.disneyworld.com for
details.)
There's one drawback: If you
have any junior foodies under 10 in the group, they'll be
limited to the kids' menus. The other drawback: It seems so many
people are opting for the dining plan that reservations are
needed.
Remember, you are really booking
a "priority seating" time, which means you may need to wait when
you arrive, as we did several times. It's always good to get
there a little early, especially with hungry kids in tow. "Birnbaum's
Walt Disney World Dining Guide" ($11.95 is a good resource)
See you at the Castle. I'll be
the one chatting up Cinderella. |
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Dated cartoon classics being reimagined for the Internet
generation
Dallas Morning News - Strawberry Shortcake was having an
identity crisis. The "it" doll and cartoon star of the 1980s was
just not connecting with modern girls. Too candy-obsessed. Too
ditzy. Too fond of wearing culottes.
So her owner, American Greetings
Properties, worked for a year on what it calls a "fruit-forward"
makeover. Strawberry Shortcake, part of a line of scented dolls,
now prefers fresh fruit to gumdrops, appears to wear just a dab
of lipstick (but no rouge), and spends her time chatting on a
cellphone instead of brushing her calico cat, Custard. Unveiled
last week, the new look is part of a new line of toys from
Hasbro.
She is not the only aging
fictional star to get a face-lift. An unusually large number of
classic characters for children are being freshened up and
reintroduced – on store shelves, on the Internet and on
television screens – as their corporate owners try to cater to
parents' nostalgia and children's YouTube-era sensibilities.
Warner Brothers hopes to
"reinvigorate and reimagine" Bugs Bunny and Scooby-Doo through a
new virtual world on the Internet.
American Greetings is dusting
off the Care Bears, which will return with a fresh look this
fall (less belly fat, longer eyelashes).
Even Mickey Mouse is getting an
update, although the Walt Disney Co. is still mulling what
tweaks to make. "I love classic Mickey, but he needs to evolve
to be relevant to new generations of kids," Robert A. Iger,
Disney's chief executive, said in an interview.
New media applications have
created opportunities that companies did not have before, said
Lisa Gregorian, executive vice president for worldwide marketing
at Warner Brothers Television. And done correctly, reinvation
can be lucrative: Mickey Mouse produces an estimated $5 billion
in merchandise sales every year.
There have been some noteworthy
misfires. "Earring Magic Ken" is the industry's nightmare.
Mattel's 1993 character, who had a purple mesh T-shirt, a
pierced ear and a leather vest, drew howls from consumers, who
did not see him as a realistic boyfriend for Barbie.
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Anaheim's GardenWalk is open for business at last
LATimes - Marking another step in its long struggle to scrap a
kitschy past and conjure up a modern resort city, Anaheim on
Saturday officially opened GardenWalk, an upscale
multimillion-dollar retail and entertainment center where an
abandoned musical theater-turned-Christian church once stood in
the shadow of Disneyland.
"The last thing we wanted to have happen," developer Bill Stone
told about 100 people gathered for the grand opening, was for
tourists to say, " 'Yeah, we've got that back in Des Moines
too.' "
Built in the mold of outdoor shopping malls like nearby Downtown
Disney and the Block at Orange, the complex of shops and
restaurants is slated to eventually feature nearly 100 outlets
with brand names such as Harley-Davidson and Ann Taylor Loft.
The development was a long time coming.
Just over a decade ago, streets around Disneyland were decidedly
Space Age. In 1950s and '60s retro-futuristic style, neon signs
cast a bright glow of man-made light, and eateries out of "The
Jetsons" dotted the sidewalks. Melodyland, a musical theater
converted into a Christian church, stood abandoned with its
flying-saucer-like roof.
At GardenWalk, the transformation is dramatic. In place of the
flying saucer and chrome-inspired decor, GardenWalk is replete
with chain stores, some of which have yet to open. A series of
new mini-gardens grows throughout the center.
And although most of the stores can be found in similar new
malls across the country, developers say this project is unique,
pointing to, among other things, plans for a mega-theater and
bowling alley set amid the gardens.
The city embarked on an ambitious resort makeover in the
mid-1990s with plans to eradicate the neon signs, themed hotels
and Space Age diner architecture around the Disney resort in
favor of a sleek urban center of upscale retail, residential and
hotel development.
GardenWalk is one of the projects that has grown out of that
effort.
Disney Co. now plans to operate two hotels at GardenWalk. But in
the late '90s, when a mall project was first proposed, the
entertainment giant did nearly everything it could to block
construction.
Shortly after an outdoor project, then called Pointe Anaheim,
was proposed, Disney lawyers filed hundreds of pages of
objections.
The company also funded groups that criticized the plans and
sponsored public meetings to air its complaints. At the time,
Downtown Disney was still in the works.
Disney later withdrew its opposition when developers agreed to
limit signs, increase parking and change traffic routes. But the
project stalled again a few years ago, in part because of an
economic downturn after the Sept. 11 attacks, and the demolished
site sat as an empty fenced lot.
In 2005, a new set of developers took over, paying $30 million
for the land and starting construction a short time later.
At Saturday's long-awaited grand opening, Karen Eger, 32, and
her mother, Pat Eger, 58, visitors from Canada, said they were
glad to find a mall right next to their hotel. The family, along
with niece Kirsten Popowich, 6, planned to stay eight days in
Anaheim, including four days spent at the Disney resort and one
day at SeaWorld in San Diego. If the mall weren't there, Karen
Eger said, they would probably be "sitting by the pool at the
hotel."
Nearby, longtime Anaheim residents Kelly White, 26, and her
grandmother, Doris Marshall, 76, were like tourists in their own
city, snapping pictures in the gardens and in front of the new
shops. They struggled to recall what was on the land before.
"It's been under construction for so long," White said, "I don't
remember." |
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