Anika Noni Rose, Princess Tiana, takes us on a very special journey through the music from The Princess and the Frog. The soundtrack hits stores November 24th or pre-order it now from Amazon. Save over 25% if you pre-order.

Also see here’s the music video for “Never Knew I Needed” by Ne-Yo (opens in new window as embedding is disabled)

If you’re heading out to Disneyland or Walt Disney World this fall, make sure you mosey on down to the Rivers of America and catch “Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee.” Princess Tiana, Prince Naveen, Louis, and the evil Dr. Facilier are all featured with their own songs from the movie and it’s sure to get you excited about seeing The Princess and the Frog in the theaters.

I’ve put together a few clips from the show to give you an idea on what to expect.

The show is currently scheduled to run through January 3rd, 2010 as a tie-in to the movie’s launch on December 11th.

It’s one of the realities of Disney Animated Features, they’re just plain expensive to produce. So much that sometimes even a $400 million box office earning film, like Cars, just breaks even for the company after marketing and production are accounted for. So how does Disney make money off these animated beauties? One word, merchandise.

That makes Dara Trujillo a very important person at Walt Disney World. She’s the Manager of Merchandise Synergy and is in charge of coordinating the theme park’s line of products with the animator’s vision for the film.

I got to speak with Trujillo at the premier of Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee, the Magic Kingdom’s tie-in to the launch of “The Princess and the Frog”. She was presiding over a very full and very beautiful table of merchandise to be sold in the parks. Much of it already available and flying off the shelves even with the film’s debut more than a month away.

Tiana is the Walt Disney Company’s newest princess in 12 years and the first princess under Trujillo’s watch. So she was excited about the possibility of making dreams come true for a whole new generation of theme park guests.

Central to those dreams is the Princess Tiana costume. It’s a theme park exclusive and very similar to the dress that Tiana wears in the film and the park. There were already a number of little princesses wearing this dress at the Magic Kingdom, anxious to spot the ‘real’ Princess Tiana as she made her way through the park. It was very cute.

Another item that I think will be a bit hit are the Kissing Frogs. These are a pair of frogs from the film representing Tiana and Naveen in amphibian form. A magnet in their heads keeps them together in the kissing pose.

All this merchandise is currently available in every park in at least two locations, said Trujillo. And they’ll roll out to more locations as the film’s premier draws closer.

See anything you like?

I’m really looking forward to a chance to revisit Pixar’s latest amazing animated feature ‘UP’. That chance arrives November 10th when the film will be available on DVD and Blu-ray disc. To celebrate the release Disney*Pixar has made available 8 retro style posters celebrating the artistry of ‘UP’.

Also here’s a preview of the bonus short that will be available on the DVD – “Dug’s Special Mission – Dug In A Hole”.

Follow below the jump for seven more great retro posters:

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So, I’m hanging with Bruce Smith at the Magic Kingdom the other day (how many times will I ever be able to open a story with that line?) and I totally wanted to ask him about a “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” sequel, since he worked on the original. But when time came for the official interview, I forgot. Figures.

Turns out that’s okay because Honor Hunter sent his minions out to collect the latest details on the Roger Rabbit sequel and found a scoop. Roger Zemeckis mentioned that a new screenplay was in progress during this interview with MTV.

There are still a lot of hoops to climb through for the sequel. For instance, Bob Hoskins who played Eddie Valiant has essentially declared himself unfit for that style of acting. But every step forward is a good one.

At the premier of Walt Disney World’s newest show, Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee, I had the chance to speak with Bruce Smith, the Supervising Animator on Dr. Facilier, the Villain at the center of Walt Disney Animation’s next feature “The Princess and the Frog.”

Smith honed his craft at Cal Arts, a school created by Walt Disney to help provide his studio with a ready flow of animators to work on his projects. Smith’s first work with the Walt Disney Company was on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” He’s since done quite a lot of great work including Supervising Animator on Kerchak from “Tarzan”, Pacha from “The Emperor’s New Groove”, and Pearl from “Home on the Range.” He also was the creator and director of the Disney Channel show “The Proud Family” and the directing animator on Warner Brother’s “Space Jam” with Michael Jordan.

While “Home on the Range” was once thought to be the end of the Disney Studios hand drawn animation division, they even sold all the animator’s desks, the genre has been revived with an all star team of animators for “The Princess and The Frog.” In this roundtable interview Bruce Smith talks a bit about what it’s like to work on a team like that, creating Dr. Facilier, working with the theme parks, and much more.
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Interview with Disney Supervising Animator Bruce Smith – Dr. Facilier from The Princess and The Frog

Your host with Bruce Smith.

This week Tinker Bell was named Honorary UN Ambassador of Green. Disney has released a cute video featuring some of the voice talent and the famous Pixie herself at the United Nations building in New York.

Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure hit store shelves today. Are you planning to buy?

The full press release is below the cut:

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Princess Tiana appears in a horse drawn carriage fit for an American Princess.

Yesterday marked the official opening of a 15 week run for Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. As I posted earlier, the show envelopes guests into being part of the show, a great experience for the guests involved, but how would it play for the rest of the park attendees? Turns out, pretty amazing.

For the special ceremony New Orleans dancers led Princess Tiana to the castle.

The Princess and The Frog is an American story at its root and it features the first African American Princess. The park is really excited about promoting the first new princess in 12 years, so they rolled out some big guns for the press event. One of those was Bruce Smith, the lead animator on Dr. Facilier, the main villain of the movie.

Characters representing current inhabitants of the Magic Kingdom welcome Princess Tiana to the fold.

There was also a wonderful display of merchandise that Disney spent the last two years creating. Some of it, like the theme park exclusive Princess Tiana dress, has been for sale in the park for two weeks and is already flying off the shelves.

A royal proclamation is read.

But the focus of the day was the introduction of Princess Tiana to the park and the official debut of Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee. TSJ has three distinct parts, and while it’s possible to catch all three, if you can only pick one, make sure to choose the middle part performed on the Liberty Belle when it stops in front of Splash Mountain.

The regular show will take place three times daily on the Liberty Belle with a procession leading to and from the boat before and after each performance.

The show is currently only scheduled to run through January 3rd, 2010 as a tie-in to the movie’s launch on December 11th. It’s my hope they extend this show at least through the summer. The show was already drawing huge crowds without the benefit of the movie even being in theaters, I imagine it will continue to grow once it’s seen by the public.

Lots more photos below the jump, so come on down

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