Category — Online

Disney Interactive Media = DIM. Sorry Disney, I couldn’t resist. They, of course, prefer the acronym DIMG, but that doesn’t sound out very well. DIG has been done and might have bad connotations at the Mouse House after that billion dollar debacle. So DIM it is. Maybe they work with the lights off….

But I digress.

Disney Interactive and Walt Disney Internet Group are in the process of finalizing their announced merger, that of course brings management changes. Steve Wadsworth remains the general BMOC, but:

Graham Hopper, the current EVP and GM of DIS, will continue to run Disney Interactive Studios while Paul Yanover, current EVP and GM of Disney Online in the US, will run Disney Online (DOL) globally. Club Penguin co-founder Lane Merrifield will run virtual worlds development and operations as part of DOL. Larry Shapiro will be responsible for DIMG global strategy, business development, corp communications and legal. Also, Mark Handler is retiring as head of WDIG International and has agreed to work with the company for the next six months.

The full memo is at the Washington Post.

The El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood is the pinnacle of the Disney movie watching experience.  It is old Hollywood meets new, with restorations to both the exterior and interior, and equipped with Dolby SR-D digital sound, film and digital projectors, and 3-D capability. It is a Disney stage production.  It is excellent ice cream.  What’s not to love?

The El Capitan is located in the heart of Hollywood, right across the street from the Kodak Theatre- you know, the Academy Awards place.  It originally opened in 1926 as “Hollywood’s First Home of Spoken Drama.”  In the ten years following its opening it featured over 100 stage productions starring the likes of Will Rogers, Joan Fontaine and Clark Gable.  In 1941 Citizen Kane made its World Premiere at the El Capitan Theatre.  Basically, the place has history.

Then there is the ice cream.  Disney’s Soda Fountain and Studio Store features an old fashioned ice cream parlor (with actual soda jerks!) serving Bakersfield’s famous Dewar’s and homemade candies.  They also make a mean peanut butter and jelly sandwich (Mickey-shaped, of course).

The store portion is basically a small Disney Store with DVDs and character merchandise, but with a strong emphasis, including theming, on the film currently featured in the adjacent theatre.

We saw WALL-E (my review here, and my kids’ review here).

One of the cool things about the theatre is that they overlay everything to fit the movie, and by everything I mean from the marquee to the ATM (it was space-themed, not a robot).  This is carried next door into the ice cream parlor where my son and I shared a WALL-E sundae, and by share I mean I had two bites and he went into a sugar-fueled eating frenzy (see above).

For WALL-E the El Capitan teamed with NASA and JPL.  The lobby was decorated in models and information regarding various satellites, robotics, and other milestones of space exploration.  It was out of this world (sorry, I couldn’t resist).  WALL-E runs through August 27th.

Prior to WALL-E there was a live stage show that incorporated scenes from classic Disney/Pixar movies into dance numbers featuring the characters from the corresponding films.  The show is called “Disney’s Flight of Fantasy” and the crowd went wild.

My family and I had a blast and I can’t recommend the experience enough.  If you’re visiting for a Disneyland Resort vacation you should really consider adding this to your itinerary, and if you’re local you’ll appreciate this: clean bathrooms in Hollywood.  That’s the Disney touch.

Upcoming shows include Sleeping Beauty, TinkerBell, Beverly Hills Chihuahua (Chihuahua!), The Nightmare Before Christmas (3-D), High School Musical 3: Senior Year, and Bolt (3-D).

You can call 1-800-DISNEY6 or visit www.elcapitantickets.com for tickets and information.

A few months ago when Disney.com received it’s big makeover, managers were candid about the fact that this was largely an exploratory phase of the website. They wanted to see what worked, what didn’t, what they could do better, and what users were drawn to. They’ve had some time to check things out and now their ready to start making some changes.

What will those changes be? Well the NY Times says that for one thing, Disney will be changing the look and feel to be much more friendly to the websites younger users. There will be more free video (think YouTube), more games, and even some mobile applications.

Myself, I was never particularly won over by either the old or new design. For me Disney.com has always been a utility site. I go there when I need an answer to a question, a movie or tv show website, or occasionally to see some original content. So, I’ll reserve judgment until I see the new changes, but from what I hear it sounds like they’re leaving users like me behind for people who see Disney.com as an entertainment channel.

Camp Rock’s Disney Channel premier beat High School Musical 1 for eyeballs, but failed to match the explosive debut of HSM2. I’m pretty sure Disney doesn’t care, 8.9 million eyeballs for a cable television is still pretty amazing.

Don’t forget that beginning today Disney.com will stream the Disney Channel Original Movie “Camp Rock” Disney.com/CampRock. The Disney.com “Camp Rock” online event will include unique interactive content so fans can chat and play games while watching. Fans can also watch in a full screen experience featuring “Camp Rock” trivia and an interactive map of the camp.

Visit www.Disney.com/CampRock then come back and let us know what you think of the experience. For instance, what was your favorite song from the movie?

Update: 9pm 6/23 – Apparently Disney.com is having problems handling the load of fans flocking to see Camp Rock streaming on the site.

An internal email sent from Disney CEO Bob Iger reveals that The Walt Disney Compnay will be merging its digital media group with its video gaming division to create a new unit called Disney Interactive Media Group. Walt Disney Internet Group currently manages Club Penguin and Disney.com among others. While Disney Interactive Studios mostly makes video games for Disney brands. Although they both do quite a bit more than that and there is often considerable confusion about exactly what they do.

I’ve been waiting for this move to happen for a long time. There is a ton of potential cost savings here, not to mention making it easier for one hand to know what the other is doing. It also makes sense to have one reporting structure for this group since so much of Bob Iger’s strategy for the future depends on being able to leverage these technologies and media to tell quality Disney stories.

My one complaint, DIMG isn’t as fun an acronym as WDIG. Just change the “I” from Internet to Interactive and there you go. The media is implied.

(via AllThingsD and CNNmoney)

Author and social media strategist Shel Israel gazes into the crystal ball and sees a future populated by children who learned everything they needed to know about how to interact online from a Disney owned Social Network or Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG).
[Read more →]

Rick Munarriz keeps an eye on the Walt Disney Company over at Motley Fool. He wonders why Disney is closing Virtual Magic Kingdom (VMK) when it should be using it as a gateway game into all of its other properties?

The site’s public rationale is that the community was never supposed to last forever. It was just a Disneyland milestone promotion. That’s hogwash. You don’t spend years shoving codes in cereal boxes and selling cards and pins in the actual parks for virtual goodies that will be deemed worthless in a few weeks. More importantly, if you want consumers to devote time to the new communities, you’re setting a terrible loyalty precedent by dismantling the one that started it all. Do you think any of the ex-VMK users will trust the new vibrant worlds Disney creates if they know they can all vanish under the guise of an anniversary promotion?

That’s a point made over and over again by the games players who are fighting to keep their community alive. But I think the mal-ease will extend beyond just the ex-VMK users. Any player of other games who might be looking at Disney will think twice before joining when they know Disney can and will pull the rug at any time. (Read)

Previously:

• Saving VMK
• News of VMK end brings anger and petitions
• VMK To End May 21st 2008

Danny Sullivan is reporting that his sons are having problems with their Club Penguin accounts after a recent upgrade. Both Penguins has changed color and lost items after a recent upgrade to the game.

If they hit Edit Player, the Color, Pin & Background tab shows nothing. That’s bad, because his penguin color was changed, and now he can’t change it back. And the Clothing and Award tab shows nothing. And these tabs mean like nothing to me, by the way.

It’s unclear if this is a system wide error or just happening sporadically. The Club Penguin Blog mentions a few bugs, but nothing system wide.

The Walt Disney Company purchased Club Penguin in a $700 million deal to grow its stable of online multiplayer games. Disney recently announced the closing of Virtual Magic Kingdom on May 21st which has resulted in over 11,000 fans signing a petition to keep the game open. The general feeling is that Disney wants to move players from the free VMK game to the pay games like Club Penguin.