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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In her second direct-to-DVD animated movie, Tinker Bell, the world’s most famous pixie, sets off on an adventure that takes her away from Pixie Hollow, and toward a new friendship. Along the way she makes mistakes, learns some lessons, and, in the end, saves the day in her own unique way. All-in-all Tinker Bell And The Lost Treasure is a worthy successor to the first movie.

If you watched the first movie for the secondary pixies, you’re going to be a big disappointed by Lost Treasure. The DVD producers appear to have made a choice to make this second film more boy friendly, and so Fawn, Iridessa and their friends are left with only minor roles. It actually seems like they have bigger roles in the DVD extras than they do in the movie

In Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure the adventure takes place in Autumn, as the fairies are on the mainland changing the colors of the leaves, tending to pumpkin patches, and helping geese fly south for the winter. The rare Blue Moon will rise, and when its light passes through the magical Fall Scepter that Tinker Bell has been summoned to create, Pixie Hollow’s supply of pixie dust will be restored. But when Tinker Bell accidentally puts all of Pixie Hollow in jeopardy, she must venture out across the sea on a secret quest to set things right.

Along her journey Tink meets new friends, including Blaze, a cute and courageous firefly that helps Tinker Bell complete her mission. It’s a long and dangerous journey, full of astonishing encounters, a few narrow escapes and a daring rescue by Tink’s friend Terence.

My biggest problem with the movie was that the adventure took so long to get going. Then once it started, there was enough momentum to keep it going, but the audience is asked to make a log of jumps in story along they way. That was the same problem I had with the first movie, so if you liked the first one, you’ll probably enjoy this one the same.

I was impressed with the quality of the animation in this film. Although it is CG Animation, the style worked well with the story, and the enhanced natural presentation that is Pixie Hollow.  It was wonderful to have all the big name voice actors back representing their characters. There will be three more of these films and I’m sure they’ll all make Disney a ton of money, not just in the DVDs, but in the product division, which basically ordered the DVDs to help with merchandise sales. If that’s the goal, then it is working.

Both the Blu-ray and DVD have magical bonus features including animated “scenes you never saw,” a guide to Pixie Hollow, and much more, offering viewers an extraordinary trip deep inside the enchanted world of Pixie Hollow. This is one of those special features where the animators put in extra work to make the audience laugh, and while most are very funny, it would have been better to see that humor in the film.

Bonus Materials

• Scenes You Never Saw – These fairy funny alternate scenes did not make it into the movie.
• Magical Guide to Pixie Hollow – Tinker Bell and Terence are your guides as you explore the autumn area of Pixie Hollow.
• Deleted Scenes with Filmmaker Introductions – Play deleted scenes with optional intros by Director Klay Hall and Producer Sean Lurie.
• Pixie Hollow Comes To Florida – Discover how the filmmakers helped transform Epcot into Pixie Hollow.

Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure is directed by Klay Hall and produced by Sean Lurie. It will be available in stores on October 27th, but you can pre-order it now online.

Feature run time: Approx. 70 minutes
Rated: This movie is not yet rated
Technical specifications may only apply to feature
Aspect ratio: Family-friendly wide screen, 1.78:1
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound
Languages: English, Spanish and French
Subtitles: English, Spanish and French

It’s time to go Around The Hub with the latest Disney News and Links:

• Via The Disney Parks blog we learn that the US Mint has partnered with Disney to introduce some new one dollar coins into circulation. The program ends December 13th and coins are only available at select locations in EPCOT and the Magic Kingdom.
• FoxFurr gets her fangirl on and gives the seal of approval to the Magic Kingdom Fantasyland Expansion. There are a few caveats, of course. Always some of the best Disney reading at Passport to Dreams.
• /Film visits Disneyland, Club 33 and the Disney Animation Research Library. They really got the VIP tour and have photos to prove it. Don’t miss inside the Disneyland Dream Suite.
• Via the OC Register we get a photo of Sleeping Beauty Castle with its moat drained. Mind the salt licks.
• Animation World News has an interview with Directors Ron Clements and John Musker about the long-awaited return to 2D animation at Walt Disney Animation Studios: The Princess and the Frog.
• Church of the Customer blog understands that Fees are Penalties always. Airlines that charge fees for things like baggage lost money while those that do everything for one price, made money. Disney understands this too. That’s why Disney’s Magic Express is free (the cost is actually built into the total cost of the vacation). However, the airline fees are still a problem for resort guests who need to add a bag to their ticket and use DME at the same time. You still working on fixing that Disney?

UPdate: here’s a video from Disney Parks covering the CHOC Walk that Disneyland hosted earlier this week.

This wonderful parody of the famous Pixar intro comes from College Humor. I hope that Emeryville is on the phone with this animator even now.

Sorry for the late notice on this, but if you’re in SoCal today. Find your way to Hollywood to meet two of the feature vocal talents from Disney’s new animated film, “Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure.”

When: TODAY – SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17 12-4 PM
Where: DISNEY’S SODA FOUNTAIN & STUDIO STORE IN HOLLYWOOD

Veteran actors Rob Paulsen and Jeff Bennett, two of the featured vocal talents from the new Disney animated film, “Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure,” will be on hand to sign books and related merchandise this Saturday afternoon (from noon to 4:00 pm) at Disney’s Soda Fountain & Studio Store. Paulsen (“Pinky” in “Pinky & The Brain”) is heard in Tinker Bell’s latest direct-to-DVD adventure as Bobble, the friendly tinker fairy with dewdrop goggles. Bennett, who voices such popular animated characters as Johnny Bravo, and the voice of Pip in “Enchanted,” provides the voice of a big boisterous lovable fairy inventor named Clank.

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The first five minutes of The Princess And The Frog, mostly finished, but still in rough form in parts, has been leaked to YouTube. Don’t know how long it will last, so check it out now.

Part two: 39 seconds more…

I’ve deliberately not watched much of the other leaked footage so as to avoid spoilers. But I watched this and I have to saw that Disney Animation is back. There’s something about that hand-drawn look that provides exactly the right sort of warmth for this story, and there’s something about the story that you know is uniquely Disney.

Btw, I think I found the first easter egg of the film. Right after the camera zooms in through the window, you see the spires of what looks to be a dollhouse version of Cinderella Castle.
(Thanks Jason!)

It’s Pixar week at The House Next Door, a blog which features writing about the art of movie craft from some of the industries leading artists and critics. The week kicked off with a masterpiece article by Todd VanDerWerff that attempts to weave the cinematic threads linking each Pixar animated feature into a tapestry of beauty unmatched by any modern movie studio.

The whole week of essays is being collected here.  A much deserved focus of attention for Pixar Studios which has a real chance at winning a Best Oscar picture for ‘UP’ this year.