Disney News and Information — by fans, for fans

Susan Lucci, Emmy Award-winning star of the ABC Daytime drama “All My Children,” strikes a pose with her “Dancing with the Stars” professional dance partner, Tony Dovolani, Nov. 15, 2008 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Lucci and Dovolani, who were eliminated from “Dancing with the Stars” on Nov. 5, appeared at “ABC SOAPnet Super Soap Weekend,” a soap opera fan event held this last weekend at the Walt Disney World theme park.

2008 marks the last year Super Soap weekend will be held at the Walt Disney World resort. In 2009 plans are to have six regional events around the country.

(Photo courtesy Disney. Matt Stroshane, photographer)

The NY Times has a terrific article about Mark Walton, the Disney Animator and general pop culture nerd, whose ’scratch’ track for Rhino, the wheel bound Hamster from BOLT!, became the breakout character of the movie.

A couple months ago, though, the co-directors asked Mr. Walton to meet them in the recording studio. He assumed it was to re-record a line that was slurred or too quiet. Instead he was told he was the voice of Rhino.

The directors suddenly had a very animated 6-foot-2 bearded man on their hands. “I jumped up and down and screamed like a girl,” Mr. Walton said. “There’s a videotape to prove it.”

“Who cares about fame and fortune?” he said, clenching his fists in excitement and waiving them in the air. “I’m going to be a plush animal.”

Mark sounds like someone I hope Walt Disney Animation Studios plans to keep around a long time.

We’ve always known there is a bit of a dark side to Mickey Mouse. Usually he was just being his mischievous self, but sometimes, as in Runaway Brain, he seemed like a completely different mouse. Okay. Maybe he was a completely different mouse. But he’s always been fairly squeaky clean when it comes to consumer products. In the last few years, however, we’ve been treated to some wider extremes of Walt’s most famous creation.

Walt Disney’s influence as a creative visionary and artist has inspired generations and BLOC28 by Disney is a new label that uniquely connects today’s street art and contemporary art culture with Disney’s most iconic character, Mickey Mouse. BLOC28 by Disney - Series 2, builds on the phenomenal success of the first series with well-known urban artists Aroe, Chaz Bojorquez, Ewok, Rime, Suiko and Tenga.

Each artist developed a one-of-a-kind piece of Mickey–themed art in their signature style which serves as the inspiration for a line of limited-edition product. And in celebration of the contemporary art community, Disney is kicking off a ten-day auction of limited edition BLOC28 product with eBay Giving Works to benefit Art Share Los Angeles – a community arts incubator whose mission is to shape lives through art, education and community action.

If you don’t live in New York or Los Angeles it can be incredibly difficult to get your hands on the BLOC28 line of products. So this auction is probably your best chance. Plus it supports a good cause. So everyone is a winner.

More information on the auction is available at eBay.

As part of a recently started tradition for 43-year history of the Disney Ambassador program, the worldwide 2009 Disney Park Ambassador team gathered for a week of training at the Disneyland Resort. Each of the eight Ambassadors pictured above represent the five Disney Resort locations around the world - Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World Resort, Tokyo Disney Resort, Disneyland Resort Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland - and will serve as emissaries of goodwill in their respective communities for the year.

The training included meet and greets with Disney executives, a complete overview of the history and heritage of The Walt Disney Company, visits to Walt Disney Imagineering, Walt Disney Studios and the Walt Disney Archives. After training at Disneyland, the team of eight flies to Florida for a similar experience at Walt Disney World Resort. The extensive training schedule prepares the Ambassadors to represent their Resorts, as well as The Walt Disney Company, for the duration of their term as a Resort representative.

The Disneyland Ambassador program began in 1965 under the supervision of Cicely Rigdon. Julie Riehm was the first Ambassador and was selected by Walt to help celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Disneyland.

2009 Worldwide Ambassador Team (From Left to Right in Photo): Chi-ho Law, Hong Kong Disneyland Ambassador; Makiko Okamoto, Tokyo Disney Resort Ambassador; Vanessa Rosas, Walt Disney World Resort Ambassador; Quinn Shurian, Disneyland Resort Ambassador; Danielle DuBois, Disneyland Resort Ambassador; Clay Shoemaker, Walt Disney World Resort Ambassador; Prisca Vigana, Disneyland Resort Paris Ambassador; and Julien Lothier, Disneyland Resort Paris Ambassador.

Disney’s ESPN cable sports network brand is making a bid to become a big player in the Bowl Championship Series.

Disney made a reported $125 million bid for the rights to the complete Bowl Championship Series, the five annual contests — the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose bowls plus the BCS National Championship — that ultimately determine college football’s No. 1 team.

Fox, which has the rights to all but the Rose Bowl at a cost of $82.5 million per year, has upped its bid to $100 million. If Disney is successful, ESPN will air the games beginning in 2010. The Rose Bowl, currently airing on ABC, would likely also move to ESPN.

I really hope the big wigs at ESPN listen to the talking head talent they’ve hired. Nearly all of whom agree that NCAA Division I football needs to end in a playoff series, at minimum a plus one game. Imagine the hero ESPN would become to college football fans everywhere.

(via)

If you’re like me and wondered while you were watching WALL•E in the theater you wondered what happened to that repair robot who got locked out of the AXIOM when EVE and WALL•E flew in, then you’ll get a real kick out of BURN•E.

Below the cut you’ll find the transcript from a recent roundtable discussion with Director Agnus MacLane.

Previously: My Review of BURN•E, WALL-E on Amazon.
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A couple early reviews of Disney’s upcoming animated feature BOLT! have begun to leak out. Obviously you’ll want to avoid them to remain spoiler free. But here are some summary thoughts.

Jerry at CartoonBrew recommends you see it:

I really enjoyed the film - especially its digs at the behind the scenes world of network television production. Bolt is a lot of fun, and a good step in the right direction as Disney continues to rebuild its brand in Feature Animation. I’m rooting for Bolt, and the studio, to succeed.

Honor Hunter at Blue Sky Disney was also lucky enough to see the film:

It’s as good as I had hoped. Possibly a bit better. It’s got that unmistakable Lasseter fingerprint. There’s more heart in this film than the entire last decade of Disney animation.

Both are fairly strong endorsements. So keep your fingers crossed that BOLT! makes a real charge at the box office. The race begins November 21st.

In addition to the theatrically released short “Presto” Pixar and Disney have decided to include an additional short on the WALL-E DVD and Blu-Ray releases. They did this with Tow Mater and the Ghostlight on Cars to great effect. Here WALL•E is partnered with BURN•E.

What BURN•E does differently than most other Pixar shorts is it inserts itself into the story of the main movie, in this case WALL•E. So it really helps if you’ve seen WALL•E first. In fact, it’s practically a requirement. You see part of the short from perspective of the main characters in WALL•E as the story takes place, but mostly you follow BURN•E as he faces his sysiphean task in the background of the larger conflict.

“Humor usually comes about when result doesn’t match the expectation,” says Director Angus MacLane. “If everything in an characters’ life goes well it’s hard to relate to and probably not as funny.”

It’s a cute idea and MacLane really pulls it off well. As an Animator, Angus MacLane has contributed significantly to Pixar Animation Studios’ short and feature length films since his arrival at the studio in 1997. In addition to WALL•E and BURN•E, MacLane has worked on various award-winning Pixar films, such as Geri’s Game, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, For The Birds, Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo. For his work on The Incredibles, he was awarded the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Character Animation. MacLane also supervised the animation on the Academy Award-nominated animated short film, One Man Band.

If you watch closely “there are a few small nods here and there to various sci-fi properties.” said MacLane. “I won’t go through all of them, but I will mention that there is a graphic on the elevator inside the Axiom that reads “ELV 426″ indicating that this is elevator number four hundred and twenty-six. This is of course (pushing my glasses up on my nose) a reference to LV-426 the planet that is the setting of the movie Alien and Aliens.”

One of the details I like is how BURN•E hums “Ode To Joy” to himself as he’s making the first repair. They’re able to bring that back full circle at the end of the short very effectively.

You can find BURN•E exclusively on the Wall•E DVD and Blu-Ray sets. It is available for pre-order now on Amazon.

Stay tuned for a full review of the DVD in the next couple days.

I’ll start by saying I’m not in favor of platform dependent services when it comes to mobile or wireless internet services. That said, I understand that this is the way things get built at Disney Parks. You have a great idea, you find a partner, and then you work with them to make it a win-win for both sides. Hopefully the guests get something good out of it too.

So what’s the big deal coming to the U.S. based Disney theme parks? How about a park guide with real time information on your mobile phone? It’s about time, I say. The ability to know how long a queue is without having to walk to the attraction yourself is practically invaluable to the Disney park goer. Finding last minute dining reservations, special deals, interactive games and adventures, and so much more offers to enrich the theme park experience dramatically.

Beginning next year, guests will be able to access an array of features on their Verizon Wireless phones while at the Walt Disney World or Disneyland Resort to help them make the most of their Disney experiences. Planned services include an exclusive mobile application that will give guests with Verizon Wireless service the ability to easily locate shows, restaurants and the Disney characters anywhere inside the Parks; get real-time attraction availability information; access mobile games; receive messages from characters and more. Verizon Wireless is also continuing to invest in its wireless network from coast to coast, and the relationship with Disney means the wireless users will benefit from further enhancements to the Verizon Wireless network in the Parks.

Verizon gets access to millions of Disney guests each year and a good chance of converting frequent theme park visitors to their service. I hope they’ll also offer ‘test’ units to those who don’t currently have Verizon as a provider. If it’s cool and useful, it might be enough to make me switch. Any current Verizon Wireless users want to chime in with your experiences?

The full press release is below the cut:

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In the spirit of excellent Disney movie trailer mashups I present to you Pixar’s The Incredibles meets James Bond in Quantum Of Solace.

I’m quite ready to see 007 in his latest flick and found this trailer to make me even more excited. How about you?