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 March 1, 2008 |
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Saturday March 1, 2008 |
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ESPN The Weekend kicks off again at Disney's Hollywood Studios Disney begins mobile service in Japan Disneyland fights fake FastPasses New WALL-E Poster Released by Disney-Pixar A Tour of Disney's Ink & Paint Department Broadway Actor Sentenced in Sex Case |
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ESPN The Weekend kicks off again at Disney's Hollywood Studios Theme Park Rangers - Notes from Friday's round of ESPN The Weekend at Disney's Hollywood Studios. It's the ABC-owned sports network's fifth edition of the event. I'm not a Sportscenter freak, but I am ESPN-dependent, and yet I'd never visited The Studios during The Weekend.
I must say it exceeded my
expectations a little bit. The athletes were more personable
than I anticipated. Sure, you expect the ESPN personalities
to do OK -- they talk for a living, after all. But the jocks
that I saw interviewed or participating in game shows were
pretty entertaining.
The second great thing about the Weekend is the ESPN Sports Zone, an area dedicated to hands-on participation by the theme park guests. Once you sign a waiver, several sporting options become available, including pitching in a baseball station (speed is posted), driving a golf ball (virtual distance calculated), basketball courts, batting cages and more. Some of the venues are scaled down to be more kid-sized, such as a basketball backboard with the rim set at 7 feet (rather than 10) and mini-tennis courts. You can definitely work up a sweat. (This is all set up in an area beyond the gate near Rock 'n' Roller Coaster). More notes after the jump.
+ Fans come dressed in team
gear. Football jersey are dominant. I saw an entire extended
family of 10 all decked out in Pittsburgh Steelers wear, but
almost every NFL team was represented on someone (Didn't
notice any Chiefs, Titans or Falcons, for instance). Next
year I'm going to bring a list of the teams and check off
whenever I spot one -- It's a theme park version of
license-plate bingo!
+ It appears to be a very father-and-son driven event. That combo was much more evident than on other days at the park. + Both of the "shows" I witnessed were entertaining. In "Dream Job," a 14-year-old contestant named Jake impressed the room and the judges with his announcing skills. In "Stump the Schwab," there were some tough trivia questions, and I think Ben Watson was truly delighted to defeat Howie Schwab. + I don't get the draw of the live broadcasts from the Studios, but folks gather round just to act crazy in the background. With the big screen hovering above the stage, it's merely watching TV only in the outdoors. Oh, wait, maybe I do get it. + In one key way, it was quite similar to Super Soap Weekend: devoted, somewhat scarily so, fans. Less shrieking at ESPN The Weekend, but more grunting and high-fiving. There's less programming, so you can get shut out of some of the shows. Arrive early if it really matters to you. + Warning: Although there's a slew of athletes attached to the event, they're not all there every day. A list is posted at www.espntheweekend.com. + Although the ESPN types are all part of the Disney family, you could tell by the occasional slip-up that they aren't the regular theme park crew. One radio guy in the shadow of the Tower of Terror referred to it as the "House of Terror." And there were frequent references to it being the happiest place on Earth, which of course is really Disneyland (WDW is "most magical," remember?). Actually, I heard one announcer say "here at Disneyland, er, Disney World. Whatever." For the most part, the interviews on stage were interesting. I enjoyed hearing Orlando's Darryl Dawkins call himself "probably the most blessed man in the world." Then we learned that Scottie Pippen has lived in Fort Lauderdale for six years. And John Stockton told a couple of stories about the Dream Team, but mainly he enjoyed the team bus, getting to know one another and trash talking. And Martina Navratilova plays ice hockey. Who knew? ESPN The Weekend runs through this Saturday and Sunday. |
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Disney
begins mobile service in Japan
AFP - Disney launched a mobile phone service in Japan on Saturday in cooperation with Softbank Corp, entering the tough Japanese cellular phone market following its withdrawal from the the United States.
They also have a special online feature that allows subscribers to jump to Disney websites, while Disney's iconic characters can be used on standby screens and to decorate e-mails free of charge. Walt Disney Japan has teamed up with Softbank, an Internet conglomerate and one of the nation's three mobile giants, leasing part of the networks and outlets owned by the Japanese firm. Disney has become Japan's first so-called mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), or a company that buys capacity from another firm to provide cellphone services. In the US Disney Mobile marketed itself as a family-friendly mobile phone service that would allow parents to talk easily to children. But the MVNO with Sprint shut down after only 18 months, with Disney finding it more profitable to sell its content through other service providers. Japan, a nation of 127 million people, has more than 100 million mobile phones in operation -- which translates into a major challenge for service providers to achieve growth. A Walt Disney Japan official said the firm was confident of success here as Disney already had a strong following in Japan, where Tokyo Disneyland receives tens of millions of visitors every year. Disney had already been a major content provider for mobile phones in Japan, the official said, adding that its tie-up with Softbank would also help bolster profitability of the service, named "Disney Mobile". |
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Disneyland fights
fake FastPasses LA Times - Disneyland faces a growing problem of forged FastPasses as visitors increasingly purchase the line-cutting tickets online or print sophisticated fakes at home. Bundles of counterfeit FastPasses regularly sell on the EBay online auction site for prices reaching $500, reported Jim Hill Media, a Disney news website. The FastPass ride reservation system allows visitors to return at a designated time and enter through a shorter line. Although Disney officials called the illegal incidents "isolated" and "infrequent," the theme park giant acknowledged the testing of FastPass bar code scanners at Disney World in Orlando, Fla., in an effort to streamline efficiency and catch cheats. Until the new electronic systems are installed, Disney employees have been instructed to run their fingers across the perforated tops of the tickets to weed out fraudulent FastPasses laser printed on cardstock paper, Hill reported. "Admission Re-Entry" FastPass tickets are particularly coveted because they contain no date stamp and can be used for any attraction at any Disney park. |
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 New
WALL-E Poster Released by Disney-PixarDisney News - d possibly the final, poster for Disney-Pixar's upcoming mega-hit WALL-E has been released. |
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A Tour of
Disney's Ink & Paint Department IESB.NET - 101 Dalmatians is the latest film to join Disney's top-notch Platinum Series of two-disc DVDS. With the release hitting next week, IESB was invited to to a behind-the-scenes look at what went into the making of Dalmatians.  First
released back in 1961, 101 Dalmatians was a unique film
for Disney in a lot of ways. Not only was it their first film to
take place in a contemporary setting but it was the first to
make use of a revolutionary new animation process: the Xerox
camera.Prior to the camera's invention in the late 1950's, animators would have their work painstakingly traced over to get it onto animation cells. The Xerox camera allowed for printing the pencil-work directly onto the cell. For the first time, artists were actually seeing their work on the screen rather than another's tracing. Though its effectiveness has been mostly replaced with computers these days, the Ink and Paint division of the Disney Studios remains in operation today, spending most of its time creating original animation cells for the studio store and animation collectors. Seeing the inner workings of the Ink and Paint department was a fascinating look into what all Disney animation went through since its inception in 1923 up until the late 1980's.
From there, the
cells are taken to be painted. Jim Lusby, the Assistant Paint
Lab Supervisor, led us through an enormous room of every color
imaginable. When paint is prepared for use on a cell, it's
catalogued and stored for future reference. If the color doesn't
exist, its created and the recipes stored. Disney let us paint our own Dalmatian cells and, as fun as it was, I'm not sure I could handle the 24 cells a second required for a full-length film. |
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Broadway Actor
Sentenced in Sex Case AP - A Broadway actor who played the beast in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" was sentenced Friday to 60 days in jail and three years' probation for sexual encounters with a 15-year-old drama student.
The 41-year-old actor also acknowledged that the teen visited him the next month at his Manhattan apartment, where more sexual contact occurred. He told Judge Micki Scherer he knew then that she was 15. Because the charges are misdemeanors, Barbour will not have to register as a sex offender. The actor had faced charges of criminal sex act in the third degree, a felony punishable by as many as four years in prison, before the deal. Before the sentence was imposed, the victim, now 22, told the court that before she reported Barbour about two years ago, she had resigned herself to living with the shame and guilt of the experience. Because of his actions, she said, "I struggled with complete lack of self-esteem, panic attacks, and put considerable distance between my family and friends for years. I had always blamed myself and felt like I had done something wrong." She said she was pleased with the sentence and hoped the punishment "will prevent him from even thinking of touching another child again." Barbour's lawyer, Ronald P. Fischetti, took biting exception to the woman's comments, portraying her as the sexual aggressor and saying her acting career had soared after she filed the complaint against his client. Fischetti said Barbour and the victim exchanged dozens of friendly e-mails for nearly four years after their last sexual encounter. In many, he said, she thanked Barbour for his mentoring and help in meeting people. Fischetti insisted that his client was no pedophile, but he conceded that his client, as an adult, should have sent the girl away. Barbour declined to speak when offered the opportunity. Fischetti's comments caused the girl to weep in court. |
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Walt
Disney Japan, the local unit of Walt Disney Co., released three
types of mobiles, made by Sharp, all covered with silhouette
patterns of Mickey Mouse.
The
process begins, like all animation, with a pencil drawing.
Sherri Vandoli, the Assistant Supervisor of Ink & Paint took us
inside the Xerox camera -- literally, inside. The thing is
massive with its own built-in dark room -- and showed us how a
single image is printed directly to a clear cell. These days,
the output is significantly diminished and there's a bit more
room to breathe, but back in the day, the camera took five
people to run and processed hundreds of thousands of cells for a
single film.
James
Barbour pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal to two misdemeanor
counts of endangering the welfare of a minor, admitting he
fondled the student when she visited him alone backstage in his
dressing room in June 2001, while he was starring on Broadway in
"Jane Eyre."