Cook said in a statement he's been contemplating leaving the studio for some time and will be moving on to "new adventures." It wasn't immediately known who would replace him.

Cook's studio has come under intense scrutiny for the quality of its films. Recent movies, like "Race to Witch Mountain," "Bedtime Stories" and "Confessions of a Shopaholic" were box office disappointments.

Cook said he believed the studio's slate of upcoming movies is the best in its history.

Cook joined Disney in 1971 and moved up the ranks, becoming president of Buena Vista Pictures distribution in 1988. He became chairman of the studio in 2002.

"I have loved every minute of my 38 years that I have worked at Disney, from the beginning as a ride operator on Disneyland's steam train and monorail to my position as chairman of The Walt Disney Studios," he said.

Detectives and Disney are working together to find out what exactly this electronic device does, and whether its purpose was malicious.

The Orange County bomb squad determined Thursday night the device was not dangerous. But until they figure out why it was attached to the bottom of the bus, they're not ruling out criminal intent.

Officials said the device looks like some sort of a transponder, but they're still not sure why it was there.

Orange County handed the device over to Disney, who said they're "researching" the device and looking at the bus' service records to find out if it was placed there for a reason.

"It may have been something that would allow them to track the location of their bus,” said Jim Solomons from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. “It could have been a training device. There's just a myriad of things it could have been right now, but I think the key thing is that it wasn't dangerous, it wasn't hazardous and it wasn't explosive. But until we determined that, we had to operate in a very deliberate fashion to ensure the safety of the folks at Disney and, of course, their visitors at the park."

Investigators still don't know exactly what kind of signal the device was transmitting or if it was even working when they found it.

The incident unfolded around 3 p.m. Thursday when a maintenance worker found the device attached to the bottom of a bus during a routine inspection. 

Disney evacuated employees in the maintenance area and suspended bus service while they inspected 300 buses.      

As a result, several parks were kept open an extra hour and taxi service was expanded.    

Disney said officials reassured their guests Friday that all buses have been checked thoroughly.

My young family of four spent just a single day at the Magic Kingdom last March that was actually plenty and perfect. It left us exhausted yet not overwhelmed, and keen to return another year for more Disney discovery.

Our quick Disney visit started with a two-hour afternoon drive from the grandparents' pad on the Gulf Coast to Orlando. Our minivan landed easily at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin ( swandolphin.com), twin hotels on Disney's Lake Buena Vista with a 1.2-hectare grotto pool, a sandy beach and nightly views of Disney's spectacular fireworks.

Its location on the Disney boardwalk allowed us to walk to at least seven family-friendly restaurants, all along a Jersey Shore-style walkway.

We considered catching a Lake Buena Vista ferry boat over to Hollywood Studios or Epcot Centre, but chose, instead, a free shuttle to Disney's Main Street USA, where we licked ice cream and watched our kids' excited participation in an impromptu hula-hoop contest.

It was then early-to-bed as we'd set our alarms for a 5 a. m. wakeup call--with only one day, we needed many hours to explore the Magic Kingdom. The next morning, another free shuttle transported us to the park; we were happily staring up at the 57-metre-high Cinderella Castle--the tallest building in the Kingdom--by 7 a. m.

The castle leads the way into Fantasyland. First stop had to be Cinderella's Golden Carousel, where my three-year-old daughter would have taken up permanent living quarters if permitted.

We managed to pry her off her horse for a ride on Dumbo the Flying Elephant, then a parent-pleasing tour of It's a Small World--that song and those moving dolls dressed in traditional costumes

For details on planning your one day -- or more -- visit to Disney World, visit disneyworld.com.

from around the world were nostalgia my husband and I remembered from our childhoods watching TV's The Wonderful World of Disney!

The day's ultimate pleaser was a simple visit to Mickey's PhilharMagic-- a brief 3D movie that mixes hilarious 3D stunts with classical music. The whole thing made my six-year-old son laugh hard and re-tell the plot endlessly. In short, Donald Duck endures many a mishap with Mickey's sorcerer's hat, and the audience is forced to duck and dart throughout the flick.

Another highlight was our watery adventure through Splash Mountain, with characters singing age-old tunes like Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah and witnessing Brer Rabbit flee from Brer Fox and Brer Bear.

While the ongoing story was hard for a six-year-old to follow, the voyage-ending, five-storey drop into water proved unforgettable.

Inside Tip: If you ride Splash Mountain look for the hidden Mickey Mouse--he's floating mysteriously on a cloud near the ride's finish.

The afternoon Share a Dream Come True Parade was a worthy end to our visit.

The 3 p. m. parade featured every Disney cartoon character.

"We were so excited," Walker said. "She talked about it for weeks. All her friends knew."

But when Miley Cyrus kicked off her 43-city concert tour Monday night, Walker said the child icon -- known for her role as Disney's Hannah Montana -- put on a very grown up performance.

"At one point, she was tapping on her private parts," Walker said, "and I'll have to tell you: not appropriate for my 11-year-old daughter."

Walker describes the teen queen's costumes as skimpy and says numerous sexual gestures caught her daughter Meghan off guard.

"She was just in shock," Walker said. "Her mouth was open. Her eyes were huge."

That wasn't the reaction Walker wanted for $400 worth of tickets.

In the recent years, Cyrus has become a sensation for youngsters, with Disney movies, pop hits and a girls clothing line. In 2008, Time magazine listed her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

So after the concert, Walker told her husband -- and he tried to contact Disney, to no avail.

"He was outraged," Walker said.

Attempts by KVAL News to get comment on this story from Disney were unsuccessful.

Walker hopes other parents will learn from her experience.

The state's tax credit program, which offers a 30 percent transferable credit for in-state production expenses, initially drew filmmakers to Louisiana, said the movie's director Randall Wallace. But once executives began looking at specific locations in the state, the culture and vibe of Acadiana immediately resonated.

"You can find 50 people off a bus who can tell you how things can't be done," Wallace said. "This is a town that's about how it can be done. This is a story about human spirit, of openness and of love of life, and Secretariat is going to be a movie that you're going to be proud to say was made in Lafayette."

The film is expected to have a crew of about 200 people. Executive Producer Bill Johnson said about three-fourths of those have already been hired, with about 10 to 15 of them from the Lafayette area. A total of about 60 crew members are from Louisiana.

In addition, the movie will demand up to 4,000 extras. A casting call is scheduled for noon to 8 p.m. Sept. 27 at the Cajundome.

The movie's soundstage space and production offices will be located in Lafayette, and much of the film editing will be done at the LITE center. About 95 percent of the racing scenes will be shot at the former Evangeline Downs racetrack in Carencro. Other scenes will be shot throughout the city, including the downtown area.

"Once we scouted locations, there was a lot more versatility that we started to find," Johnson said.

Gerald Breaux, executive director of the Lafayette Conventions and Visitors Commission, said the kind of exposure Acadiana will get from a movie that's expected to be popular across the nation is the kind that can't be replaced.

"The postcard you're going to show the world of how beautiful Acadiana is is going to have so much more value than anything we could do," Breaux said.

Lafayette City-Parish President Joey Durel said he also hopes the film helps capitalize on the existing talent in the region and the training that UL and local community and technical colleges provide.

"We needed to do something that would give them the opportunity to practice their trade here," Durel said. "Disney obviously will bring a lot of attention to this area."

The project will be based in Lafayette for at least the rest of the year. Already, film executives are thinking about bringing other movies here in the future.

A proven commodity

The Disney XD channel was recently launched on Virgin Media to replace Jetix. It joined the existing Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney channel on the platform.

Under the new deal, a variety of SD and HD Disney content will be made available on Virgin Media's on-demand offering, with the operator also retaining rights to carry the programming on mobile phones and online.

Available programs include Hannah Montana and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, as well as movies such as High School Musical and Camp Rock.

Virgin Media executive director of content acquisition Katharine Burns said: "Virgin Media has been a pioneer in developing new TV services and our three-screen deal with Disney is a perfect example of how driving innovation can benefit the consumer and enhance their viewing experience.

"As the home of family entertainment, we're uniquely positioned to give our customers the greatest range of flexibility and choice in their TV viewing, and with great premium content on-demand we think kids and families alike are going to love the freedom this Disney deal will bring."

Disney channels vice president and general manager UK and Ireland Boel Ferguson added: "Our vision is to put choice in the hands of our viewers and allow them to access our content via as many potential platforms as possible - this new deal with Virgin Media helps make our vision a reality.

Expedition Everest Challenge, September 26, 2009, a race adventure with bite! Just after sunset, teams of two take on the exotic terrain of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park in an exciting competitive 5K run, obstacle course, and scavenger hunt. The reward for completing the challenge is an exclusive after-hours party at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park.

Disney’s Race for the Taste 10K, October 11, 2009, a race course through Disney’s Hollywood Studios
and the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival complete with, a Post-Race Picnic including food samples from Epcot ®International Food & Wine Festival, Disney entertainment, music and games, face painters, Kid’s Races and the Awards Ceremony.

Disney’s Race for the Taste 3K, October 11, 2009, is a run/walk through the World Showcase and the heart of the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival complete with the Post-Race Picnic.

Jordan said he recently started working with wine makers to create his own brand, but he had to resign from Disney to avoid a conflict of interest. Jordan is starting his own wine company, Word Vineyards, in which he plans to search the world for the best grapes and create his own blends. He plans to use a facility in Santa Ynez Valley where his wine is now in barrels. Between 200 to 300 cases of each wine will be developed each year, selling for between $50 and $80 a bottle, Jordan estimated.

Disney got notice of Jordan’s departure about two weeks ago, and he worked his final day Thursday, Jordan said. He said he may later work as a contractor for Disney on wine education.

LAWeekly - Disney rolled out its equivalent of San Diego Comicon last weekend, the first time the company has attempted such a move. Tens of thousands of people converged on the D23 Expo in Anaheim to spend four days in mouse heaven.

The megacorporation wasn’t looking for any one, “ultimate Disney fan,” even though the promotional phrase was on billboards, convention badges and anything else its marketing team could get its hands on. Still, you had to wonder if the ultimate fan did exist. Was there one person who had out-Mickeyed and out-Minnied and Disneyfied his or her life more thoroughly and enthusiastically than everyone else?

Maybe it was the old man in mouse ears. He wore around his neck a ribbon festooned with Disney pins. “I specialize in Pirates of the Caribbean,” he explained.

Or maybe it was the woman shopping for “Bibbidi Bobbidi Blue” paint for her bedroom walls with coordinating “Fairest of Them All” princess-pink carpet. “It’s actually for my daughter,” she said, sheepishly. Her daughter couldn’t have been more than 2 years old. She seemed bored, and apparently had accepted her lot as an ultimate fan-in-training.

The convention offered no rides. Just long lines. Lots of walking, too, in the abundant square-footage of the Anaheim Convention Center. The celebrity appearances, the masses of Disney model toys, vinyl figures and posters left you longing for the real deal: Disneyland, practically across the street.

Being at the D23 Expo (23 as in 1923, the year Walt founded his animation studio) was like talking about sex without actually having it. You reconcile yourself to — and delight in — the tease.

At the Treasures of the Disney Archive exhibit, fans could see but not touch or photograph “crown jewels” like Annette Funicello’s Mickey Mouse Club sweater. Same for the sword Excalibur; Mary Poppins’ coat; a Tron body suit; and the heavy brocade gown Johnny Depp ripped off Keira Knightley’s heaving bosom in Pirates of the Caribbean. Divorced from their original context, these relics were both astonishingly beautiful and unnerving, packed away in their sarcophaguslike cases. The eyes of the furry animal face on Davy Crockett’s coonskin cap seemed to follow you around the room, not unlike the eyes of the politely watchful exhibit docents.

Spiritual valences were also strong with Michael Jackson’s original Captain EO costume, entombed behind glass. Its quilted white leather glowed in the dim light. “Look at the Velcro on his shoes,” whispered one man. “It still looks so modern.” He and his boyfriend cocked their heads and leaned in to peer at the shoes, as if genuflecting.

As with most things Disney, the Expo featured some surreal creations.

Take the fake skin. People were fascinated by it. There was a floppy, rubbery square of it in the lower-level Technology Magic showcase. This skin stretches over the robotized frames of the presidents in the Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World.

“Is that his real size?” a girl asked, gazing up at animatronic Abe Lincoln. His guts were exposed, and the fake skin covered just his head, neck and hands, as if the rest of the epidermis had been flayed away. His face had an appropriately melancholy expression.

“Oh, yeah. He was a tall guy,” said the guide. “He was 6 feet 4.”

The girl scooted over to take a picture of a replica of President Obama’s suit (black jacket, red power tie). “Obama’s been up since July at Walt Disney World,” offered the guide. “They were actually sculpting both Obama and McCain during the election so they could be ready to go right away no matter who won. So there’s a bust of McCain lying around somewhere.”

If you were an ultimate fan, you felt guided by the giant, four-fingered Mickey hand signs pointing you in the right direction. You felt buoyed — if a little creeped out — by the way the entire Disney organization controls your experience, down to the page in the D23 Expo guidebook where you are courteously reminded to “enter your parking location in the form below to remember where you have parked.” (Expect to see those guidebooks on eBay soon, by the way, if the man hawking used Disney ticket stubs in the vendor area is any indication.)

Everywhere was the regular strangeness Disney ultimate fans revel in. The castle built out of canned food, for instance, dominating the entryway. Or the Buzz Lightyear effigy made entirely of LEGOs.

Then there was the transcendent weirdness that lies at the outer edges of Disney’s brand-building strategy. The Daisy Duck blueberries, Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets and Mickey Mouse farm-fresh eggs. Is it weird that no one seemed to think any of it was weird? Yes. Then again, if a mouse can sell a $2,000 cruise to the Bahamas, why not dairy products?

Upstairs, a screening of rare, never-before-seen Disney animation shorts was in progress. The devil bonked Hitler on the head with a mallet. A cartoon man lost his plantation mansion to a giant malaria mosquito and wept. Dopey dwarf-sprayed poison onto a lake. In the pre-Eisenhower years, Disney studios made public-service announcements and war-propaganda films. “Your rifle is like a woman,” said a disembodied voice in one movie. “If you treat her right, she will never let you down.”

The line brought a chuckle from emcee David Bossert, Walt Disney Animation Studios creative director. “Now that’s a line of dialogue you never see in Disney films today.”

The ultimate fan expects to know things before other less ultimate fans, certainly before the general public. Thus, announcements are part of the D23 Expo experience: A new land for California Adventure is to open in 2012. It is centered around cars (groan). You could conceivably spend a half-day sitting in traffic trying to get to California Adventure, only to sit in faux traffic in Cars Land. No small coincidence that the opening year coincides with the Mayan doom prophecy for the end of the world. Hong Kong Disneyland is getting three new lands (Grizzly Trail, Mystic Point and Toy Story Land). It’s also getting a spooky Edwardian mansion called Mystic Manor. A mysterious adventurer/artifact collector lives there with his mischievous pet primate. “So,” said the guide, in utter seriousness, when an enthusiastic couple begged him to explain the ride’s storyline, “there’s this monkey.”

The ultimate defining characteristic of ultimate fans is that they spend money. The Expo makes it easy and seductive to.

At the auction closing out the event’s penultimate day, someone plunked down $6,900 for a handwritten check signed by Walt Disney. Another person bought a behind-the-scenes horticulture tour of Disneyland for 3,000 bucks (includes holiday gardening tips). But the most gasp-inducing purchase was a decommissioned passenger galleon from Peter Pan’s Flight ride for $35,000. The winning bidder, who gave his name simply as Pat, looked like he might be sick, even as other fans came up to shake his hand and congratulate him, perhaps realizing that for an equivalent amount, he could have had a new BMW.

“I didn’t want to go that high,” he said.

For Disney Pixar, the studio that has turned movie marketing into a fine art, the film's stars, a grumpy 78-year-old widower and an overweight boy scout, are clearly not marketable enough.

As one licensing expert, who preferred not to be named, puts it: ''Are you really going to see either of those two on a T-shirt or a fast-food meal.'' Probably not.

Another contributing factor could be because Disney expects a higher number of older cinema-goers - people aged 45 and over - to see the film.

Some financial analysts have been concerned enough to sell down Disney stock, citing the adult themes of loss and renewal in Up as well as the absence of any major soft drinks or fast-food deals.

Previous Pixar releases have earned hundreds of millions of dollars for Disney. More than 25 million Buzz Lightyear toys have been sold worldwide since the first Toy Story in 1995 and Cars has netted about $US5 billion ($A5.8 billion) in merchandising sales.

But Brad Hellegas, from promotional agency The Marketing Zoo and a former Disney executive, says retailers are becoming more risk averse when it comes to movie merchandise. "These days, films are in and out of theatres in quick time and the public is on to the next property, there are plenty to choose from," he says. This year alone retailers have had to choose from Transformers, Harry Potter and Wolverine.

"If the marketing or licensing machine isn't firing during this short window, the retailer can be left with loads of stock that is almost unmovable.'' In recessions, the risk factor only increases as retailers try to rationalize lines, he says. If it goes well, retailers can expect a quarter of their annual toy sales from products tied to a film.

Look at Shrek, says Mr Hellegas, ''It wasn't until the second movie that everyone clambered abroad once the jolly green giant had proven his worth to marketers.''

Disney has recognized that not every film is a merchandise's dream.

In a statement, Disney consumer products' Australia and New Zealand managing director Don Wood says Ratatouille and Up were two such recent examples that had only a "targeted and limited line of merchandise". Up is limited to a selection of stuffed toys, several story books, a book of the film, coloring books and a magazine.

AP - "Wish upon a star," Jiminy Cricket, Disney's arthropod muse, likes to say.

"Leave Hulk ALONE!" the Marvel superhuman most in need of anger management likes to say.

It's difficult to come up with two more competing takes on American life than those built by Walt Disney on one hand and Marvel Comics on the other. Here are distinctly opposite versions of the American experience, each an indelible part of the country's popular culture.

In this corner: Disney's America, a pastoral vision built upon one man's idealized memory of his small-town childhood, filled with trains and friendly people and dreams that really do come true if you believe hard enough. A world of black and white, rendered in brilliant Kodachrome.

In this corner: science run amok, reluctant superheroes transformed by radioactive spider bites and weird cosmic rays, costumed avengers who are in therapy, struggle to pay the bills and grouse about their superhuman lot. Shades of ambiguous gray, drawn in color-drenched shadows.

The contrasts are stark and sometimes way too easy: New York vs. the Magic Kingdom. Wishing and dreaming vs. struggling and coping. Doe-eyed sincerity -- literally, in Bambi's case -- vs. the worldly wisecracking of Spider-Man and the Thing.

Now this group must somehow form a family. The Walt Disney Co.'s announcement this month that it will purchase Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion does far more than consolidating two entertainment giants. It weds two of the dominant sets of myths that inform modern America.

"It's almost as if, decades ago, they made these decisions about America. And one decided that America stops in the 1950s and the other decides that America plunges into a dark, chaotic future," says John Baick, a historian at Western New England College who studies Disney's role in American culture.

The foundation of the Disney universe is late 19th-century middle America grafted onto fairy tales and transmogrified into fantasy. It's no coincidence that, in Disney's theme parks, strolling up "Main Street USA" leads you straight to the Magic Kingdom's Cinderella Castle. Not so subtle, that Walt.

The iconography is potent, and it's difficult to tell whether nostalgia made Disney so popular or vice-versa. And while the Disney myth has been updated only slightly, the High School Musicals and Hannah Montanas keep it vibrant in the 21st century.

Marvel, just as distinctly American, is an example of what cultural historian Leo Marx called "the machine in the garden" -- in effect, what industrialization did to Thomas Jefferson's vision of a nation of farmers.

The Marvel universe examines complex human dilemmas ("superhuman soap operas," they've been called) against the teeming canvas of the big city -- usually New York rather than the fictional places (Metropolis, Gotham City) preferred by its rival, DC Comics.

Though its roots date to 1939, the ambiguous, morally murky Marvel universe as we know it dates -- surprise -- to the beginning of the 1960s, when nonconformity was busting out all over. That was an intentional move to ground Marvel in real-world details while much entertainment, Disney and DC included, was operating in a cultural Never Never Land.

Fan letters printed alongside Marvel's earliest superhero stories of the sixties -- the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man -- lauded editors for serving up protagonists who were insecure, combative and bewildered about their new powers.

Contrast that with Disney, which represented comforting 1950s monoculture and well-defined, tidy resolutions. Imagine, for example, what a 10-year-old boy who saw "The Shaggy Dog" at a movie theater in 1959 would have made of a copy of the dystopian Fantastic Four issue No. 1 when it came out two years later as he approached puberty's confusion.

"The Marvel of the 1960s was in its own way the counterpart of the French New Wave and the foreign innovators in film," Peter Sanderson wrote in 2003 in his "Comics in Context" online column. "Marvel was pioneering new methods of comics storytelling and characterization, addressing more serious themes, and in the process keeping and attracting readers in their teens and beyond."

Marvel was a fresh narrative force in another respect: It was postwar, post-atomic and eventually postmodern.

It cast America as a place where science spins out of control, where heroes are not manor-born Princes Charming (or, for that matter, small-town-bred Supermen) but reluctant, sometimes resentful saviors. Even the flag-draped Captain America, the most Boy Scoutish of Marvel's heroes, was engineered from an experiment with a World War II-era supersoldier serum.

Of course, the overarching plotline of both Marvel and Disney is this: America is a factory of mass-produced myths, and now the means of production is being consolidated.

"We can be completely comfortable in describing what Disney does, what Marvel does, what television and music labels do, as the culture industry," says Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University.

"The very nature of genre -- Western, action-adventure, police procedural -- these are product lines," Thompson says. "Genre makes it possible to churn out stories like we used to turn out Chevys. And we're a lot better at churning out stories these days than we are at turning out Chevys."

We're also better at compartmentalizing them. And that's illuminating, too.

In the world of Disney, monsters are something separate, something that couldn't possibly be of us. In Marvel's universe, the monsters can stare back from the mirror, and we're never quite sure what separates ally from foe -- whether we're each just one bad day away from supervillainy.

Thus the two sides of the American narrative -- the comfortable certainty of unfettered goodness and the never-resolved question of whether we have unleashed too much power. Yesterday and tomorrow. Rural and urban. Red state and blue state, even.

"Are we these Jeffersonian yeoman farmers? Or are we Manhattanites, running around with our little devices and communicating with the world and doing 15 different things at once?" wonders Alexander T. Riley, a Bucknell University sociologist who studies how religion and patriotism merge in American memory.

"They inhabit the same universe now," he says. Of course: We're both -- Disney and Marvel, farm and market, blackberry and BlackBerry. A corporate joining it may be, but it's a pretty handy metaphor, too.

Game Zone - Everyone knows Buzz and Woody. They’re the only names in animation that hold more clout (and have raked in more cash) than Shrek. Created by Pixar’s talented writers, artists and animation team – and completed by Disney, who ensured that the right voices were assigned to this remarkable duo – Buzz and Woody are more than movie legends. One hundred years from now, when most characters have been forgotten, the world will know their names, and Mickey Mouse will be standing right beside them.

It’s that never-ending love that has allowed Toy Story to enter Disney’s theme parks, not once but twice in the form of midway-based attractions. It’s our undying appreciation for these characters that allows Disney to re-release Toy Story 1 and 2 this October with 3D support you can only get in theaters. (All things likely, its two-week run will net a small fortune.)

It’s those same feelings – and our inherent desire to watch Buzz, Woody, Ham, Rex and the gang live on through new stories – that open the door for more than a third movie. Next year, Disney will release a new video-game based on the third (and presumably final) Toy Story picture.

But you won’t have to wait until June 18, 2010 to go to infinity and beyond. In fact, you don’t even have to wait until October 2 for the movie re-release. Right now, your favorite Toy Story characters have found themselves trapped in a new video-game – Toy Story Mania! Based on the theme park attraction of the same name, Toy Story Mania! is a midway-inspired shooting game developed exclusively for Wii.

Toy Story Mania! differs from The House of The Dead and other similar Wii shooters in that the game is not on rails. Mania!’s playing field is a stagnant, single-screen environment where targets appear all over the place. Therefore the player doesn’t move around the environment at all, and the game doesn’t move for the player because it doesn’t have to.

That little tidbit of info can tell you a lot about Toy Story Mania! even before viewing a single screenshot before. At arcades, this sort of experience was quite common in the ‘80s and ‘90s; when Dave & Busters opened, they went a step further by including a real shooting gallery that used light guns and moving props (lights, signs, dummies, etc.).

Game developers learned quickly that not every 50-cent experience is worth a $50 game at home. Which will probably make you think – or at the very least hope – that Toy Story Mania! has avoided the obvious pitfalls and redefined the art of midway shooting. I, too, had those hopes.

For a game that’s being hyped as a family-friendly, all-ages-will-love-it Wii exclusive, Toy Story Mania! sure sounded like it was on the right track. But what’s inside the game isn’t much different from the stagnant shooter premise: playing as yourself (basically), not a specific Toy Story character, you enter several worlds of flat backdrops and cardboard cutouts. Visually, everything you see is intentional; the developers wanted the game to feel very traditional. In that regard, they succeeded. They should also be lauded for sticking closely to the source material – while the voices don’t always match up (there are some knock-offs here), the characters’ aesthetics are very well produced.

Graphics are the end of Toy Story Mania!’s success. In the beginning, Buzz and Woody appear, each with a shield in hand. They encourage the player to throw pies at them; mechanically, this means you point the Wii remote at the screen and press the A button.

In a very short time, players will visit stages where they’re throwing rings at rockets, planets, and the awesome green aliens who are in awe of The Claw. Players will throw darts at balloons, knowing that the number written on the front indicates how many points they’ll acquire for making those balloons pop. They’ll throw balls in various hoops, simulating – though by no means mirroring – the basketball games seen in arcades. They’ll snatch plastic fish using a magnetic fishing line, break plates that the toy soldiers are carrying, and shoot cardboard cows and other farm animals in the name of raising their point total.

But not once will players be consumed by this stagnant experience. Toy Story Mania! isn’t kind to the player – it starts rehashing each mini-game right away. If you intend to play through every section of the story mode (which is the only way you’ll ever earn enough tickets to unlock all of the mini-games in freeplay mode), get comfortable with the idea of re-playing mini-games you just finished.

That, sadly, is not the only time that re-playing mini-games becomes an issue. Toy Story Mania! uses an auto-save feature, but it doesn’t work very well. If you choose to bail on a mini-game in the story mode, don’t count on picking up where you left off at a later time. The game won’t allow it, despite the save icon appearing on the bottom left corner of the screen after every mini-game is complete. In any other game, that’d mean your current progress was saved. Here, it only seems to mean that your points/tickets are saved. The rest goes out the window, which again leads to a greater rehashing of mini-games that have already been rehashed.

Toy Story Mania! is also hurt by technical problems that are initially minor but very intriguing. I am seriously intrigued to know why the developers didn’t bother to label each section of the story mode. I am also curious to know why the freeplay navigation menu is so unclear. Most of all, I wonder why you can’t restart any of the mini-games. To play them over, you have to either finish the current mini-game or lose. If you pause the game and try to quit, the game will send you right back to the beginning.

Just as you’re starting to get really annoyed by the minor technical issues, the bigger, more significant problems begin to appear. As a Wii shooter, it is vital that you can see your on-screen targeting device at all times. Without it, you’re just a guy pointing a remote at a screen – and no, remotes do not have the accuracy of an actual gun, let alone a toy gun.

For the most part, Toy Story Mania! gives you a targeting device. But for some unexplainable reason, there are a few stages where the device disappears. It usually happens when there are targets in the foreground and in the background at the same time; in technical terms, one would have to imagine that the game industry should be able to get around this seemingly minor issue. But Toy Story Mania! was unable to, thus leaving the player with endless exasperation whenever the target disappears.

The real kicker, however, isn’t the repetitive stages or technical issues – it’s the fact that you can win this game every single time by repeatedly pressing the A button while pointing all over the screen. This isn’t a strategy because, let’s face it, any such act would be the shooter equivalent to button-mashing your way through an action game.

There may be some kids out there who are so amused by the Toy Story license that they don’t care about Toy Story Mania’s! many problems – they merely enjoy the game for what it is. And if those kids wake up Christmas morning and find this game under their trees, then I will be very happy for them. But you know, I was a kid once too, and there was a year when I asked for and received the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game (not the arcade classic) and one of the Simpsons games for the NES. Both were attractive because of their licenses, nothing more. Neither of them turned out to be much fun; both were frustrating, had numerous technical issues, and were two of the only NES games I never cared to finish.

Gameplay: 5.0
Toy Story Mania's! point-and-shoot gameplay is unforgivably repetitive. The game tries to add value with other mini-game options (such as basketball), but they're just as weak as the shooting. If you were hoping the 3D stages could save the day, don't count on it; they're the same as the other stages but with red and blue color separation. It's an old, highly flawed 3D tech never really worked.

Graphics: 7.9
Graphical glitches aside, Toy Story Mania! is a solid recreation of its respective movie characters and its popular theme park attraction.

Sound: 5.0
Only a few of the film's actors are featured in the game; the rest are knock-offs. That, however, is not as troubling as the weak dialogue or silly one-liners that were thrown into Toy Story Mania! If Cars can get a clever and funny storyline in a game (as it did a few years ago), why can't Toy Story? Also, despite the musical similarities between Toy Story Mania! and its movie predecessors, the soundtrack is bland.

Difficulty: Easy
Jam the A button and move the remote aimlessly without a care in the world.

Concept: 5.0
Shooting galleries are nothing new to gaming, especially on Wii. Nintendo's latest system has had more than its share of on-rails shooters (like The House of the Dead), stagnant-screen shooters (such as Chicken Shoot), and everything in between.

Multiplayer: 5.0
The same repetitive gameplay spread across multiple players instead of just one.

Theme Park Rangers - After two years at Disney's Hollywood Studios, the Night of Joy concerts will move back to Magic Kingdom, effective 2010.

The announcement was made Saturday during a Night of Joy appearance by MercyMe.

"We listen to our guests, and while they have enjoyed the concert venues that Disney's Hollywood Studios provides, they also told us there is something special about attending this event at the Magic Kingdom," says Charles Stovall, a Disney World spokesman.

It will be a homecoming for the Christian-music festival, which began at Magic Kingdom park in 1983.

The family-entertainment giant is confirming expansion plans for its flagship Magic Kingdom park. The rudimentary blueprints that leaked into cyberspace during the summer are real. Disney's Fantasyland area is growing, and it's tacking on several new princess-themed attractions.

Some of the key additions targeted to open in 2012 include:

• "Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid" -- a state-of-the-art family-friendly indoor ride that takes guests through scenes from The Little Mermaid. This is the same attraction that's opening at Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim in 2011.
• "Be Our Guest" -- a theme restaurant where diners will chow down in one of three dining rooms from Beauty and the Beast.
• Updated character-greeting areas for some of Disney's most famous princess characters. Unlike the drab "meet and greet" character queues of today, these areas will feature interactive elements and performances to make this experience more than just a snapshot and an autograph session.

A common complaint is that Disney is overextending itself with this initiative, with a costly expansion that appeals only to young girls. We heard a similar gripe when Disney announced the boys-centric "Cars Land" expansion that will launch in California come 2012.

But do you think the Mickey Mouse Company is going to sit on its pending $4 billion Marvel (NYSE: MVL) acquisition? There are contractual limitations as to what Disney can do in Florida with its Marvel fleet, but California is pretty much wide open. Disney would be remiss if it didn't take advantage of an opportunity when it presents itself -- whether the opportunity involves Marvel properties or its own homegrown characters.

This new plan will probably suck a large chunk of the audience to the back of the park and lighten the lines elsewhere. But if the queues at the other attractions remain just as long, then Disney will have succeeded in ramping up its overall attendance.

Disney needs this. Its Florida resort is just a dozen miles away from Universal Orlando -- the theme-park complex owned by General Electric (NYSE: GE) and Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) that's going to draw huge crowds next summer with its ambitious Harry Potter expansion.

As a kid-friendly icon, Disney may never truly win over the thrill seekers who flock to Six Flags or Cedar Fair (NYSE: FUN) amusement parks. It aims for a steadier year-round flow of families who make Disney parks the centerpiece of their vacations.

However, Disney has been taking its patrons for granted lately. Its complacency forced it into some pretty dramatic resort discounts and this year's "free birthday" promotion. Disney was coasting, in part perhaps because it was less immune to the recession than are the chains that have been aggressively adding to their parks.

At the closing gala, ALPFA and WDW leaders unveiled plans for the 2010 conference to be held at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and the 2011 conference to be held at Disneyland Resort in California. The audience was instructed to open the large gift boxes that were the centerpieces for the Gala tables, to discover a very special surprise – golden Mouse Ears for all the gala attendees.

A special video narrated by Eugene Campbell, Vice President of WDW Community Relations and Minority Business Development and a member of the ALPFA Corporate Advisory Board and of the Orlando ALPFA Chapter, gave a glimpse of what the 2010 conference will have to offer. “I wanted to show you some of the great new things we’ve added since you were here in 2007!” said Eugene. From the new Move it! Shake it! Celebrate it! Street Party in the Magic Kingdom, to Toy Story Mania in Hollywood Studios, to the new American Idol Experience, Eugene concluded by saying, “No matter what you choose to do – whether it’s old favorites or new adventures, you’ll have a great time here in 2010 and at Disneyland Resort in 2011. When you get here, what will you celebrate?” The evening ended with WDW Minority Business Development Senior Manager Valerie Royal presenting ALPFA CEO Manny Espinoza and ALPFA Board President Hector Perez with their own “unique” set of Mouse Ears. Valerie extended her own welcome, stating “On behalf of all 62,000 Cast Members at the Walt Disney World Resort, we are thrilled that you’re taking the journey back to our home in 2010!”

'Blanketed in this suit'

'Mickey, Mickey! ... Minnie?'

Fall 'a horrendous thing'

Most trouble 'in good fun'

Payoff: 'Ecstatic child'

The group spent two days brainstorming ideas to arrive at a story drawn from their own life experience. Lasseter said he had just dropped his son, Ben, off to college at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

"Driving away, when you leave your child behind at college, all I could think of was him as a little kid, sliding down the slide," Lasseter said in a press conference. "It was very emotional for us."

Lasseter said this life experience was the basis of the new story for Buzz and Woody, as the toys deal with the ultimate rite of passage  --  Andy's departure for college.

Never-before-seen footage screened for the audience at the D23 Expo opens with home-movie-style vignettes from Andy's childhood, as a boy being measured against a door frame (and measuring Woody), playing on the floor with his toys, followed by the jarring image of Andy as a teenager -- and the toys discussing his impending departure for college.

Next, the audience sees the familiar "Toy Story" characters dumped at a day-care center -- where the children disassemble Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head, slime Buzz and commit other comic mayhem. The toys decide to make a break for it.

Lasseter offered no more details about the much-anticipated movie, but he did provide some casting news. He said Michael Keaton will provide the voice of Barbie's anatomically incomplete beau, Ken. The movie's other voice talent includes Ned Beatty, "Curb Your Enthusiasm's" Jeff Garlin, Bonnie Hunt and Whoopie Goldberg.

Back in 1982, Stephen Lisberger's Tron was a little ahead of its time and fell very much into the niche of 'cult classic'. Its sequel, Tron Legacy, which got a lot of people excited with its trailer/concept footage, should fare a little better now that computer effects are a little more common.

A tie-in game is probably not going to hurt either and Lisberger, who is serving as producer and writer for the sequel, has all but confirmed that a Tron Legacy game is in the works. After speaking to Lisberger at Disney's D23 Expo, Latino Review reported:

"Steven did confirm that yes, there IS a video game in the works by Disney Interactive. He said he wasn't sure if he should mention it or not, but he's confirming it anyway."

So that means that there will be a game based on the sequel to a movie that was kind of about games, which is probably philosophical in some way. What's interesting is trying to figure out what kind of game it's actually going to be. Tron Legacy has an aesthetic unlike any other movie that I can think of, and it seems to deserve more than a quick cash-in third person action-adventure game.

At the company's D23 Expo Saturday, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Jay Rasulo said that a new 3-D version of the "Star Tours" attraction is planned for Disneyland in Anaheim and for Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida.

Based on the iconic "Star Wars" films, the attraction will include new elements that will take guests to many familiar places in the Star Wars galaxy.