Orlando Mayor and Disney Challenge Residents to Get Healthy

Disney News - City of Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Walt Disney World President Meg Crofton were joined by dozens of community and business leaders to announce Project Pressure, a first of its kind initiative to promote healthier lifestyles for Central Floridians. Mayor Dyer launched the year-long effort by challenging one million area residents to check their blood pressure.  

The effort was designed to raise awareness of the dangers of hypertension and motivate cities nationwide to step up their blood pressure education efforts.

As Tuis sing out from the dense bush, a group of teenagers are mucking around with some milk crates, trying to build a tower.

"Chuck us another one, bro," calls one of the boys atop the towering crate stack.

Behind them, flattened pongas line a muddy ravine after a recent flash flood. Beside them, fat dairy cows moo lazily as they squelch around their paddock.

It's a quintessentially New Zealand scene. Or as these kids might say - it's Kiwi as, bro. And certainly a far cry from the plastic mouse ears and fantasy castles most of us associate with Disney.

Yet here we are, in the Hunua Ranges, on the set of Disney Channel's latest production; a reality series spin-off of the Jonas Brothers' film Camp Rock.

Hosted by former C4 presenter Jane Yee, the series features two teams of performing arts students - 10 Kiwis and 10 Aussies - battling it out in a transtasman challenge.

Set to screen on Disney Channel early next year, Camp Rock the Tasman will comprise five half-hour episodes and marks the network's first long-form local production. It's part of a growing commitment by the channel to produce more local Australian and New Zealand content.

While Camp Rock the Tasman has seen the network move into long-form programming, the majority of their efforts have come in the form of short, five-minute episodal series, known as interstitials.

In the past two years Disney has developed five interstitial formats, including the comedy series As the Bell Rings, filmed in ABC's Elsternwick Studios in Melbourne.

Set in the corridors of a local high school, the comedy series revolves around 10 young teens - including one New Zealand character - and plays in between regular programming on both Disney Channel Australia and New Zealand.

Executive producer Graham Cousens is at the forefront of the movement, hired in 2006 as the creative director for the channel.

"My job is to connect to the local kids," he explains. "That's a huge priority for Disney, to have a local presence wherever they are and to engage with the local audience."

Disney has long been synonymous with happy childhood memories, but for most of us, the brand is distinctly American. With Disney Channel now screening 24/7 in countries around the world, the network realized it needed to diversify its content and reflect its global viewers.

In New Zealand, Disney Channel began screening in late 2003 as part of the Sky Digital network. But the closest it came to local content was an Australian hosted magazine-style show, called Studio Disney.

Though the format was popular, Disney soon began searching for a better way to reflect local culture and feature local talent.

General manager Melissa Dixon explains: "Internationally, all the Disney channels used to have a live daily magazine format show. A conscious decision was made to move to a more localized form of production that was repeatable and interactive in a different way."

The result was five interstitial series; As the Bell Rings, Undercover Coach, What a Life!, My High School Musical and Hidden Talents.

Two of the series - Undercover Coach and What a Life! - feature episodes filmed in New Zealand and As the Bell Rings recently wrote a New Zealand character into the script, played by Kiwi actress Amelia Reynolds.

Both Cousens and Dixon believe the comedy aspect of the series is key to reflecting our local culture.

"Comedy is a very local thing," says Dixon. "Because of our very dry sense of humor in this part of the world, some of the things that might have worked in a US script or a UK script, don't really relate to here."

Cousens adds: "The issues these kids are facing are pretty much universal. But the dialogue and all the subtleties of language are Australian and New Zealand. We do really try and use our own vernacular."

But while Disney is happy to embrace different accents and language, all productions must still adhere to the network's universal "brand promises".

"Believe in yourself, follow your dream, celebrate your family ... quite honestly, it's drilled into us," laughs Cousens. "There are principles we try to keep in mind with all our storylines. We don't go into dark places."

Though the Australian side of the operation is required to fulfill a local content quota, as set by the Government, Dixon says the channel is committed to producing more than the bare minimum. And here in New Zealand, where there are no quotas, the network aims to film between 30 to 40 per cent of their short-form programs in New Zealand.

New Zealand on Air CEO Jane Wrightson commends the channel for their efforts, which receives no funding from her organization.

"It's a great thing when foreign channels make an effort to include local content. Let's face it - they don't have to," she says.

"Local content for kids is important because children need ongoing reinforcement that they are New Zealanders. That's part of how you build pride and self-esteem."

Those are more or less the coordinates of “Samurai Girl,” a three-night, six-hour mini-series beginning Friday. It skews much more closely to Disney, as you’d expect from an ABC Family product. (That was a trick question, anyway; another Disney division released “Kill Bill.”)

The real goal, it appears, was something along the lines of “Veronica Mars” with ninjas: girl power, pop songs, martial arts and garden-variety exoticism, with just a little bit of sex and violence to keep the whole family watching. (In this case no actual sex, a few skimpy outfits and some surprisingly realistic violence.)

The samurai girl of the title is a young Japanese woman who is being forced into a marriage that will unite two powerful families. At the wedding in San Francisco smoke bombs go off, ninjas appear, a family member is killed, and the samurai girl, following her brother’s instructions, flees with her trusty chauffeur.

She is taken in by various (white) American friends and strangers, who supply a love interest, martial arts training and comic relief while she learns that her adoptive father is actually a yakuza chieftain and that she, according to an ancient prophecy, is destined to be a ninja avenger. Recruited by a sketchy “British agent” to infiltrate her father’s organization, she goes undercover and reunites with her family. But what about the last part of the prophecy, the part where the female warrior is killed in battle?

Whether “Samurai Girl” has a life beyond this mini-series rides on the slender shoulders of its star, Jamie Chung, a lithe and exceptionally attractive Korean-American actress. The 25-year-old Ms. Chung easily bridges the age gap with her 19-year-old character, but she’s not quite as credible as a naturally gifted swordswoman or, particularly, as a young Japanese who is new to American culture. She’s playing basically the same character — the quiet, hot, hard-working, somewhat blank Asian-American teenager — that she played in her best-known role to date: as herself in “The Real World: San Diego.”

That probably won’t bother the young viewers who are the target audience for this show, though they may notice that two hours’ worth of story has been stretched to fill six hours. They also may notice a lack of humor, which the show strains for. It needs a lot more moments like the one when the samurai girl bursts through a door to find her chauffeur on the verge of disemboweling himself. “Seriously?” she asks, eyeing the knife in his hands. “Seppuku?”

SAMURAI GIRL

ABC Family, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at 8, Eastern and Pacific times; 7, Central time.

Developed for television and written by Luke McMullen; based on the novel “Samurai Girl: The Book of the Sword” and the “Samurai Girl” series of novels by Carrie Asai; directed by Bryan Spicer; Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec, Scott Rosenberg, Frank Spotnitz, Leslie Morgenstein and Bob Levy, executive producers; Mr. McMullen and Mr. Spicer, co-executive producers; S. Lily Hui, producer. Produced by Big Light Productions, Space Floor, Alloy Productions and ABC Studios in association with ABC Family.

Roderick is a senior at Juan Diego Catholic High School. Out of 800 girls who auditioned for the movie “High School Musical 3,” Roderick was one of nine who was selected as a principal dancer for the movie. “High School Musical 3” was filmed at East High School in Salt Lake City, and will be in theaters Oct. 24.

“There was a week-long open call audition for ‘High School Musical 3’ last March,” said Roderick. “The first day was a private call. My dance instructor told me about the audition. Tuesday and Wednesday were auditions for girls, and Thursday and Friday were the audition days for boys. Friday and Saturday were call back days. The audition took place at Studio 600 in Salt Lake City last March.

“I got a call the following Wednesday night telling me I had been selected as a principal dancer,” said Roderick. “I began working the next day. It was in the middle of March, so I had to completely check out of school and get all my credits from Valley High School. I was gone from Juan Diego the whole fourth quarter of school.

“High School Musical 3” is about high school seniors Troy and Gabriella who struggle with the idea of being separated from one another as college approaches. Along with the rest of the Wildcats, they stage a spring musical to address their experiences, hopes and fears about their future.

“The stars of the movie are Zac Efron, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, and Ashley Tisdale,” said Roderick. “Filming was great. We had six weeks of rehearsals where we learned all the dances and all the singing. But after that, we had between four and six days of shooting each week, and we had to learn a new scene each day. Every scene was so fun and it was really fun working with all the actors every day. We became a huge family on the set.”

This experience makes Roderick definitely want to go into the movies.

“I can see myself doing this forever,” said Roderick.”

Roderick is under 18 years old, so she is only allowed to work 10 and a half hours each day including three hours each day for school. Some days she would return home, or depending on the situation, she would sometimes stay at the hotel with all the dancers. They were staying at Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City.

“I became friends with the dancers and would stay with them,” said Roderick. “We became great friends. Basically they are from all over the United States, and one was from England. We became really close because we were filming every day for three months.”

Roderick takes away from this experience, a new appreciation for the difficulty and hard work that goes into making a film.

“It was amazing to learn how they make a movie and how the cameras are set up, and what it was like to work with a movie director, a choreographer, and a producer,” said Roderick. “You really have to be on your game and ready to shoot every day.

“Kenny Ortega is the director and he is a genius and so creative,” said Roderick. “He had a say in everything. He helped choreograph the dancing as well. I have a new appreciation for directors and how creative they have to be. They do it all.”

Roderick is a member of the Dance Company and a student body vice president at Juan Diego this year. The Dance Company has a winter and a spring concert. The numbers for the dance concerts are chosen in the dance classes.

“Each student auditions a piece she has choreographed, and the officers and the director select the dances they want performed in the concert,” said Roderick. “If your dance is selected, you get to pick the dancers you want for your number. Everybody gets to perform.”

Roderick started dancing when she was 6 years old. She studied ballet, jazz, hip hop, and tap. She now takes lessons at Center Stage in Orem. Her instructor is well aware of her aspirations and is very supportive of what Roderick wants to do.

Roderick already has an agent from the D. D. Agency in Los Angeles, Calif.

“My dream is to be in the movies, to dance on television, act, or dance professionally on stage, or do commercials,” said Roderick. “I have always had an interest for working in the movie industry.”

Benedict Smith, the son of Father Michael Smith, will star as Harvey in Disney's Life Bites.

The former student of Desborough School and Sir William Borlase's Grammar School, will play the 15 year-old in the UK comedy sketch series that focuses on everyday adventures of a brother and sister.

Ponyo centers on a five-year-old boy’s friendship with a “girl-fish” who wants to be human and ventures out of her underwater world. The plot echoes elements from Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid fairy tale, as well as traditional Japanese folklore, and boy’s character is based on Miyazaki’s own son, Goro. Miyazaki was reportedly directly involved in many aspects of the animation himself, preferring to draw the sea and waves himself. The movie debuted in Japan on July 19 and opened to roughly $17 million.

Andrew Kam said Disney were hoping to resolve the dispute with the Hong Kong government over how to fund future expansion as soon as possible.

"Both shareholders are very much interested in growing the business. They want Hong Kong Disneyland to be a tourist destination in Asia," he told reporters just two days after taking up his job.

"They have an interest in making this park work and expansion is part of the strategy that will make this park work for Hong Kong."

The government owns 57 percent of the theme park and reports have said the expansion plan could see a further one billion US dollars invested.

Kam declined to put a timetable on resolving the dispute, which has been rumbling for about 18 months. The park celebrates its third anniversary next week.

Legislators are reluctant to hand over more public money to the park and have been critical of its performance, saying it has failed to attract enough visitors.

Kam, who moved to Disney after a long career marketing Coca-Cola in China, also said they would be expanding their promotion operation in the mainland.

He said they would be focusing efforts on encouraging Chinese travel agents to include Disney on any tourist visits to Hong Kong.

"By working with the trade more closely... and having their sales people recommending us into their customers' itineraries -- that alone will create tremendous opportunities for us," he said.

The park switched its marketing campaign several months ago to target a more Chinese audience, as many mainlanders were unfamiliar with the Disney brand.

“The disappearance of amphibians around the world is not only a symptom of our impact on the planet, it is also an opportunity to unite in the challenge to do something about it. With nearly two decades of intensive research into the causes of amphibian declines, we are well positioned to implement conservation projects to save even Critically Endangered frogs, salamanders, and caecilians from extinction," said Claude Gascon, Executive Vice President of Conservation International and Co-Chair of the Amphibian Specialist Group.

"I cannot say it any better than Kermit did so many years ago: 'It seems to me that if you wait until the frogs and toads have croaked their last to take some action, you've missed the point,'” said Amphibian Ark Program Director Kevin Zippel. “This is the greatest extinction event amphibians have ever experienced and humans have ever witnessed. Since we are the cause, we must also be the solution.”

Amphibian Ark is a partnership between the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), IUCN/SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist Group, and IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist Group. It was formed to develop, promote, and guide short term captive management of threatened amphibians, making possible the long-term survival of species for which adequate protection in the wild is not currently possible. For additional information about Amphibian Ark please visit www.amphibianark.org.

Conservation International (CI) applies innovations in science, economics, policy and community participation to protect the Earth's richest regions of plant and animal diversity in the biodiversity hotspots, high-biodiversity wilderness areas and key marine ecosystems. With headquarters in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, CI works in more than 40 countries on four continents. For more information about CI, visit www.conservation.org.