Photo courtesy of the LA Times and Disney

To help celebrate the 20th anniversary of Disneyland Paris, Disney has announced a new night time event that will take place in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle as well as a reimagined evening parade.

According to the LA Times, the new Disney Dreams show will basically combine parts of the Magic, Memories, and You and the World of Color at Disney California Adventure. The show will feature water screens, dancing fountains, projections onto the castle, pyrotechnic displays, and laser effects.

The Disney Dreams nighttime spectacular will be a show about courage and compassion that follows the adventures of Peter Pan’s shadow. The story will feature many Disney and Pixar films including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Wall-E, Tron, Tangled, and Toy Story.

The current parade at Disneyland Paris will also be transformed. The daytime Once Upon a Dream Parade will become a nighttime parade called Disney Magic on Parade. It will have a theme of light and color as a part of the anniversary celebration. The opening and closing floats will be redesigned. Two carriages with carousel type horses will feature Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty along with their Princes. The finale float will have Mickey and other Disney characters in Sorcerers Apprentice costumes. There will also be all new music, costumes, and choreography.

I am wishing now more than ever that I could make a trip to Disneyland Paris this year.

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The LA Times reports on some new changes coming to Disney.com websites.

The Walt Disney Co. is rebuilding its outdated Disney.com website to make movies, television shows and games directly available to consumers. Disney President and Chief Executive Robert A. Iger said the company’s portal will be redefined as an “uber-network” for all things Disney, where entertainment would be offered by way of subscription, pay-per-view or supported with advertising. The relaunch is expected within a year, he said.

“We have a unique opportunity as Disney because it really is the only true global entertainment brand,” Igers said Thursday at the All Things Digital conference in Rancho Palos Verdes. ”People go to Disney because they know its brand attributes. We believe we have an opportunity to go with our content directly to consumers.”

The Disney.com website has undergone multiple iterations, beginning with a failed attempt in the late 1990s to become one of the central destinations on the Web — vying with the likes of Yahoo! and Microsoft Corp. Disney would later eliminate 800 jobs and write off $800 million of its investment in the family-friendly Go.com venture.

Since those days, the Disney.com site has sought to balance dual goals, as a promotional site for all of Disney’s film, television and music offerings, and as an entertainment destination that would attract advertising revenue.

 

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Photo credit LA Times.com

This article comes to us from LA Times:

Protesters dressed as Mickey and Minnie Mouse were arrested Wednesday morning after they chained themselves to the gates of the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank.

The two costumed activists were protesting what they said was the company’s use of paper that contains fiber from endangered Indonesian rain forests in its children’s books.

The protesters arrived about 7 a.m. and chained themselves to the gate while two others unfurled a banner over the company’s entrance gate.

“Today’s protest is a loud and colorful message to the executives at Disney that it’s totally unacceptable for them to continue to drag their feet when Indonesian rain forests are falling at one of the highest rates in the world,” said Laurel Sutherlin, a spokesman for Rainforest Action Network, which organized the protest.

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This sad news comes to us from LA Times.

Disney Interactive Studios has closed its Vancouver, Canada-based game development studio Propaganda Games, representing another in a series of shake-ups since John Pleasants was installed last fall as head of the games group.

Propaganda recently completed work on Tron: Evolution, a console game that explores events leading up to the conflict in the film “Tron: Legacy.” Even though it featured voice talent from the film, sales have been weak. Disney has sold only 190,755 copies, according to NPD Group.

The Canadian studio had been hit with a round of layoffs last October, after Disney cancelled Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned, a role-playing game inspired by the movie franchise. Propaganda employed about 70 people.

Propaganda’s closing signals a new emphasis for the games group under Pleasants, who was brought into Disney with the acquisition last summer of online social gaming company Playdom, where he was chief executive. He oversees all of Disney’s video game business, including console titles, mobile and online games, and Web-based virtual worlds such as Club Penguin and the recently launched World of Cars.

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This article comes to us from the Orlando Sentinels Daily Disney column.

According to several published reports this past week, a visual-effects studio that has worked on recent Disney films such as “Tron: Legacy” and Tim Burton‘s “Alice in Wonderland” soon will move its operations from California to Port St. Lucie.

The move should bring about 70 jobs to the state, and more are forecast.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Digital Domain Productions Inc., based in Venice, Calif., was in the process of acquiring Westlake Village, Calif.-based In-Three Inc.

In-Three was founded in 1999 and has been at the forefront of converting films into the popular 3-D format. The company developed and patented a process called “Dimensionalization,” which it has used to convert 2-D films. In addition to Disney films “Tron: Legacy” and “Alice in Wonderland,” the studio also worked on Disney’s “G Force” production, too.

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This sad article comes to us from the LA Times.

Once upon a time, there was a studio in Burbank that spun classic fairy tales into silver-screen gold.

But now the curtain is falling on “princess movies,” which have been a part of Disney Animation’s heritage since the 1937 debut of its first feature film, “Snow White.” The studio’s Wednesday release of “Tangled,” a contemporary retelling of the Rapunzel story, will be the last fairy tale produced by Disney’s animation group for the foreseeable future.

“Films and genres do run a course,” said Pixar Animation Studios chief Ed Catmull, who along with director John Lasseter oversees Disney Animation. “They may come back later because someone has a fresh take on it … but we don’t have any other musicals or fairy tales lined up.” Indeed, Catmull and Lasseter killed two other fairy tale movies that had been in development, “The Snow Queen” and “Jack and the Beanstalk.”

To appreciate what a sea change this is for the company, consider that a fairy tale castle is a landmark at Disney theme parks around the world and is embedded in the Walt Disney Pictures logo. Fairy tale characters from Disney’s movies populate the parks, drive sales of merchandise and serve as the inspiration for Broadway musicals.

Alas, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Jasmine and the other Disney royals were all born in the 20th century. Now, different kinds of Disney characters are elbowing their way into the megaplexes and toy aisles, including Pixar’s “Toy Story” buddies Buzz Lightyear and Woody, Capt. Jack Sparrow from “Pirates of the Caribbean” and a platoon of superheroes from the recent acquisition of Marvel Entertainment.

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This article comes to us from the LA Times.

Walt Disney Co. quietly launched Disney Movies Online, which lets consumers buy or rent digital versions of Disney and Pixar films and watch them on the Internet. The site, which debuted without fanfare in May, was conceived as a bridge to step the family entertainment company’s mainstream consumers gently from the physical to the digital world.

How much without fanfare? Disney still isn’t promoting the site –- there are no links on the Disney.com site — beyond inserting the Web address on a sleave inside DVDs and Blu-ray discs.

In a second, more-public milestone, Disney partnered with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to offer a free “digital copy” of the movie “Toy Story 3” with the purchase of the video. Consumers use an enclosed code to unlock and watch the film through the retailer’s Vudu online movie service.

Taken together, these developments help lay the foundation for Disney’s vision of the digital future, in which consumers would buy, store and access digital copies of the studio’s films from one place. These efforts work in tandem with an initiative announced last year called KeyChest. The technology would allow consumers to pay once for a movie, then watch it on any device, such as Internet-connected computers and mobile phones.

“We believe if we harness the power of these separate initiatives … we’ll immediately seize the opportunity, extend a lot more benefits to Disney customers and sort of catapault this thing into the future very rapidly,” said Bob Chapek, distribution president for Walt Disney Studios.

Despite the convenience of renting and buying movies online -– and the promotional bonanza 38 million visitors to Disney.com delivers -– the company is keeping mum about Disney Movies Online because it is still in a test phase, officials said. At some point in the first half of 2011 a promotional campaign for the studio’s digital offering is expected to kick in, under the name Disney Studio All Access.

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This article comes to us from the LA Times.

If the employees at the Disney Archives have a time capsule, they’ll want to file the Disney Dance Crew under “The Way We Were” circa 2010. Decades from now, the archivists will want to pull out the video of Mixmaster Mickey Mouse hip-hop dancing to mash-ups of urban street sounds and familiar Disney songs as yet another example of Disney’s never-ending desire to stay current with pop culture.

Years from now, we’ll laugh, cringe and marvel at Disney’s valiant but vain efforts to remain contemporary with bad fashion, bad puns and bad ideas. At the moment, we can only ask, “What were they thinking?”

On the whole, the Disney California Adventure show, which made its official debut Oct. 22 after a soft opening few days before, left me torn when I viewed it last week. I was amazed by the animatronic advances made by Walt Disney Imagineering yet befuddled by Disney’s foolhardy decision to turn the company’s renowned icon into Gangsta Mickey.

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Photo Credit Brady MacDonald / Los Angeles Times

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Sad news from the LA Times.

A man leapt to his death from one of the upper floors at the main parking structure at Disneyland, an Anaheim police spokesman said Monday.

The man, who was not immediately identified, was found around 8:45 p.m. Sunday at the Mickey & Friends Parking structure on Walnut Street and Magic Way, said Anaheim police spokesman Rick Martinez.

The man, who was believed to be in his 40s or early 50s, jumped from the southwest corner of the structure.

He did not have any identification on him but did leave a suicide note, Martinez said.

Source

This article comes to us from LA Times.

Walt Disney Studios has told the producers of its Miramax movies “The Debt” and “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” that it won’t be releasing the films because of the pending sale of the specialty division.

The two pictures are being sold to newly created Filmyard Holdings, whose partners include Ron Tutor and private equity fund Colony Capital, as part of its $660-million acquisition of Miramax Films, expected to close by the end of the year.

Disney had originally planned to release “The Debt,” a thriller about a Nazi war criminal directed by “Shakespeare in Love’s” John Madden, on Dec. 29 and “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark,” a horror film produced by “Pan’s Labyrinth” director Guillermo del Toro, on Jan. 21. The studio had already started early advertising for the pictures, including a well-received trailer for “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark.” Disney took “The Debt,” which stars “Avatar’s” Sam Worthington and “The Queen’s” Oscar-winning Helen Mirren, to September’s Toronto International Film Festival.

Del Toro said he was devastated by the news.

“It’s been 13 years trying to make this movie, and we finally make it,” he said of the movie about an estate whose basement is inhabited by devilish creatures. “It’s quite shocking. I am trying to see the silver lining in this.”

Added producer Mark Johnson, who was informed of Disney’s decision by the studio’s production President Sean Bailey today: “We were primed to come out. It’s pretty disastrous.”

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This first look comes to us from the LA Times.

Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree promises to be the dizziest and noisiest of the new rides coming to Cars Land in 2012 at Disney California Adventure.

The racket begins before you even board the spinning tractor and cart ride: A play area near the main entrance will feature an interactive junkyard of bangable hubcaps and honkable horns.

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This interesting news comes to us from LA Times.

From the start, this dragon seemed to be missing a spark or two.

When Disneyland’s updated version of Fantasmic debuted in June of last year, it had to do so minus Maleficent, the mighty fire-breather from “Sleeping Beauty” that was supposed to be the star of the show.

At the time, rumors flew over what had felled Maleficent, with some observers reporting that the dragon’s head had fallen off during rehearsal. But Disney officials refused to confirm anything more than mechanical trouble.

The 45-foot-tall, 18,000-pound dragon finally debuted in September. But on Monday, the image-conscious officials representing the Happiest Place on Earth confirmed that the dragon was out again, this time indefinitely, after some kind of “technical” problem during Saturday’s show. “

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Great news from the LA Times!

What’s better than an E Ticket ride? How about an F Ticket?

Radiator Springs Racers promises to redefine our expectations of an E Ticket attraction by combining a classic dark ride with a thrilling head-to-head drag race.

Currently under construction at Disney California Adventure in Anaheim, the $200-million ride, scheduled to make its debut in 2012,  will take passengers on a four-minute journey through stalactite caverns, around hairpin turns and along high-speed straightaways. Each side-by-side race ends with a randomly selected winner.

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This all comes from a post on the LA Times website today. What do you guys think? You can also share your opinion on the LA Times post here.

Should a Muslim employee at Disneyland be allowed to wear a headscarf at work?

That question is at the center of a debate about religious freedom. Imane Boudlal works as a hostess at a Disney-owned restaurant. She filed a discrimination complaint against the entertainment giant Wednesday, saying they have repeatedly sent her home without pay for refusing to remove her headscarf at work.

Disney officials said the hijab would be a departure from the costume policy for Boudlal’s role as hostess.

“It has to do with the costume, every role at Disneyland Resort has a specific costume,” spokeswoman Suzi Brown said, adding that a number of employees wear religious clothing and work behind the scenes.

What do you think? Share your views below.

- Jessica

Photo courtesy of the LA Times

A very interesting look at the Red Car Trolley’s from LA Times.

It’s a testament to Disney California Adventure’s disconnect from the vision of its famously transportation-obsessed namesake that the Anaheim theme park was built without a ride dedicated to a bus, streetcar or train.

Across the way, Disneyland’s Main Street USA bristles with vehicular traffic: A horse-drawn streetcar, a fire engine, a “horseless carriage” and double-decker bus take turns carrying tourists up and down the thoroughfare. Passengers board the Disneyland Railroad near the main entrance. The Monorail zips past the front gate.

Come spring 2012, the Red Car Trolley will add a much-needed burst of kinetic energy to the streets of Disney California Adventure. Somewhere, Walt Disney is smiling.

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This article comes to us from the LA Times.

ESPN‘s World Cup soccer coverage and the strong box-office performance of films including Disney/Pixar Animation Studios’ “Toy Story 3″ helped buoy Walt Disney Co.‘s bottom line in the third quarter.

The media giant reported a 40% jump in earnings to $1.3 billion, up from $954 million a year earlier. Revenue reached $10 billion for the three-month period ending July 3, an increase of 16% from a year ago.

In a call with analysts, Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert A. Iger highlighted the film studio’s summer performance, noting that it released three of the top five films worldwide in “Toy Story 3,” Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland” and Marvel Entertainment’s “Iron Man 2.” The three pictures not only were a financial success but also have fueled other businesses such as merchandise sales, he said.

” ‘Toy Story’ merchandise sales reached new heights as consumers responded to a fresh line of well-designed products available globally,” Iger said. “And this bodes well for Pixar‘s next feature film, ‘Cars 2,’ ” due in June 2011.

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Photo by Stefan Wermuth, Reuters

Walt Disney Co. is in discussions to buy game developer Playdom Inc. for as much as $750 million, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The Hollywood entertainment giant wants to get into social and mobile games to market its shows and characters.

Playdom has scheduled a board meeting next week to decide whether to accept the buyout offer, the people said. The two sides have been negotiating for more than two months.

“I’m pretty sure it’s going to happen. The money is pretty big,” said one person. But, he cautioned, there is still a chance the deal will fall apart.

Playdom is concerned about the amount of risk that Disney wants it to shoulder, the person said.

L.A. investment banker Michael Montgomery said Playdom offers Disney strong leadership, opportunity for growth and a toehold in a hot market that is shaking up the multibillion-dollar gaming industry.

The Mountain View, Calif., gaming company plays second fiddle to Zynga Game Network Inc. in the red-hot and increasingly crowded space of social games that are played on Facebook and elsewhere. These games have developed a significant following, generating revenue from advertising and virtual goods. Last year Electronic Arts Inc. bought Zynga rival Playfish for more than $300 million.

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One of Disneyland’s oldest attractions, the Alice in Wonderland ride, has been closed since last week while workers install safety barriers recommended by California work-safety inspectors. Park officials said they hope to reopen the ride in the next few weeks.

Disney officials said the Anaheim park voluntarily closed the ride July 15 after California Department of Occupational Safety and Health inspectors pointed out that it lacked handrails needed for maintenance crews who work on an elevated segment of the ride.

The Cal/OSHA inspectors were in the park on a separate matter and did not order closure of the ride, Disneyland spokeswoman Suzi Brown said. “We like to have all of our rides ready for our guests,” she said.

The ride, which opened in 1958, takes guests on rail-guided cars that resemble caterpillars into a dark tunnel that features glowing characters from Disney’s 1951 animated version of the Lewis Carroll classic. Toward the end of the ride, the cars roll outside, along an elevated rail segment with no handrails or barriers to prevent maintenance workers from falling off.

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Great News from the LA Times talking about the new Little Mermaid ride coming to DCA.

The remaking of Disney California Adventure will continue in 2011 with the debut of the $100-million Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, a family-friendly, E-ticket dark ride that will take visitors on a musical underwater journey themed to “The Little Mermaid” animated movie.

Inspired by the Dragon Gorge scenic railway at the long-gone Ocean Park amusement zone in Southern California,  the new Little Mermaid ride building has a dramatic arch that will feature relief carvings of frolicking mermaids and King Triton. Nautically themed glass work and tile work is designed to blend with the 1920s and ’30s seaside amusement park motif of the surrounding Paradise Pier area.

Inside the building, riders will board pastel-colored, clam-shell-shaped PeopleMover vehicles similar to the Haunted Mansion’s “Doom Buggies.” (You can take a point-of-view trip through an early concept of the Mermaid ride, which is featured in the DVD extras of the 2006 special-edition movie release.)

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There was a time, not long ago, when companies preferred to negotiate private business contracts in private.

Now, when it comes to negotiating new carriage agreements between cable companies and local TV stations and sister cable channels, the trend increasingly is to negotiate in public and invite the consumer to pull up a seat at the bargaining table.

Or so the public is led to believe.

That’s the takeaway from current talks between Time Warner Cable and Walt Disney Co. for a new contract to carry Disney’s ESPN, Disney Channel and some local ABC television stations. Time Warner, the country’s No. 2 cable operator, provides cable TV services to 2 million households in Southern California. Unless an agreement is reached before the Sept. 2 deadline, there will be no shortage of miffed sports fans who won’t be able to watch “SportsCenter,” disappointed kids missing out on “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody,” and stay-at-home moms miffed at their inability to tune in “The View.”

And, like all public fights these days, it’s unfolding first on the Internet.

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