Director Alastair Fothergill took part in a Virtual Roundtable for DisneyNature’s EARTH today. They also showed the ‘Earth Diaries” film that will be a special feature on the Blu-Ray Disc. It took over 5 years to complete the film, so there is a lot of territory covered in the feature, but it really lets the creators put some umph behind what is otherwise just the story of the movie.

The next two films Fothergill is working on for DisneyNature are Big Cats, projected to release early in 2012, and Chimpanzee, which should arrive early in 2013.

For those interested in the nitty gritty, I’ve included the full transcript below.

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Based On Popular Demand: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Extends Worldwide Blu-ray Combo Pack Efforts through December 2010

Exceptional Value, Quality & Versatility Included In The Purchase of Any Disney-Branded Blu-ray Disc

BURBANK, Calif.— August 11, 2009 – In a time when price, quality and value are top of mind with consumers, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (WDSHE) today announces the extension of it’s Blu-ray Combo Pack initiatives worldwide, providing extended utility of DVD and exceptional quality of a Blu-ray Disc in a single value-pack. The Combo Packs will now be available across all Disney-branded Blu-ray titles releasing through December of 2010.

In a recent online survey* of US home entertainment consumers conducted by WDSHE and an independent market research company, Lieberman Research Worldwide showed that the value of the Combo Pack is undeniable for consumers. More than 77% consumers that intend to embrace Blu-ray technology in the near future agree that Combo Packs are a better value than purchasing a DVD or Blu-ray alone.

“Since introducing the industry’s first Blu-ray Combo Pack in Fall of 2008, we’ve seen tremendous consumer interest towards the purchase of product that come fully-loaded with extras that fit into their budgets, desires and lifestyles,” commented Bob Chapek, President of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. “The Disney Blu-ray Combo Pack is the perfect marriage of value, quality and versatility all wrapped-up in a single package.”

Some of the upcoming Combo Pack titles families can look forward to include an exciting new slate of Disney-branded theatrical, Diamond and Video Premiere titles, such as Hannah The Montana The Movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure, UP and Santa Buddies.

WDSHE first pioneered the Combo Pack – a Blu-ray Disc plus a standard definition DVD in a single package – with the Blu-ray release of Sleeping Beauty in October of 2008 to, at the time, allow consumers without Blu-ray players the opportunity to “future proof” their collections. Today, you can find two different models of the Disney Blu-ray Combo Pack on shelf: (1) A Blu-ray + DVD and/or (2) A Blu-ray + DVD + DisneyFile Digital Copy of the movie. Additional Blu-ray Combo Packs current available in the marketplace include Race To Witch Mountain, Bedtime Stories, Bolt, Pinocchio and High School Musical 3: Senior Year.

In addition to the exceptional picture, sound and hours of extra bonus features provided on all Disney Blu-ray Discs, consumers can also take advantage of watching their favorite films across multiple formats of choice. For example, The Blu-ray Disc can be used at home to maximize high definition home entertainment systems, the DVD in the car, and the Digital Copy on a PC or mobile device.

About Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, a recognized leader in the home entertainment industry, is the marketing, sales and distribution company for Walt Disney, Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures, Miramax and Buena Vista product which includes DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and electronic distribution. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is a division of The Walt Disney Studios.

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I reviewed Race To Witch Moutain Blu-Ray combo pack at Imaginerding. I love the idea behind the format and the ability to by the film in hi-def for the home theater and the kids can watch the DVD version in the car or in their rooms.

Makes everyone happy!

George Taylor can normally be found digesting Disneyana over at Imaginerding.com!

Disney Japan and Panasonic have recently agreed to a contract for Disney feature film releases to be put on micro SD cards. Panasonic-manufactured memory cards will be released alongside new DVD releases. Users will be able to incorporate the SD cards into cell phones, car navigation systems, video cameras, and flat screen TVs; of course, Panasonic has already installed card slots in their newest devices.

Expect to pay around $50 per title (or $11 more with purchase of the DVD) in order to enable playback through the micro SD card, which boasts quality comparable to those found on iTunes downloads and DVDs. Most of the titles will not be announced until we near the release date in November, but I’m betting Pirates of the Caribbean will have a good chance of landing on someone’s phone (photo), just in time for the holiday season.

Do you think this is a benefit worth paying more for?

Attention all Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, Alice in Wonderland, and general fans of the Disney order; now is your chance to be the first to see the debut of the Alice in Wonderland Teaser Trailer.

The Loyal Subjects of the Red Queen, the Loyal Subjects of the White Queen, and the Disloyal Subjects of the Mad Hatter are all building armies on Facebook. The fan page with the biggest army at 4PM PDT on Thursday, July 23 will get to see an exclusive new trailer from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland before anyone else. So be sure to log onto Facebook and choose a side.

The Loyal Subjects of the Red Queen: Facebook.com/RedQueenSubjects

The Loyal Subjects of the White Queen: Facebook.com/WhiteQueenSubjects

The Disloyal Subjects of the Mad Hatter: Facebook.com/MadHatterSubjects

There is also a general Alice in Wonderland fan page that can be found here: Facebook.com/AliceInWonderland

My personal strategy is to have my wife fan one group and I’ll fan another. Then we at least have a 2/3rds chance.

Btw, you can also join The Disney Blog’s Facebook Fan Page. It’s still a work in progress, but keep an eye on it.

Disney’s new film, G-Force rolls into movie theaters this weekend. If you’re like me and you’re wanting to learn more about this seemingly odd film, then Disney’s PR team has just the thing for you; the film will be the focal point of search engine Ask.com’s homepage beginning next Thursday, prior to the movie’s launch of Friday, July 24.

A preview of the homepage is available below and will include interactive ‘rollover’ components that prompt users to experience Ask’s ‘Smart Answers’ first hand. From encouraging movie fans to Ask ‘Where did guinea pigs get their name?’ to ‘How is a 3-D movie created?’ the homepage encourages education and exploration into all things guinea-pig and will remain active for two days to help kick off the opening weekend.

This isn’t the first time Ask has provided cinema-based ‘infotainment’ for their users. Since 2008, they’ve also paired with the James Bond smash hit, Quantum of Solace and Night at the Museum 2 to feature fun, engaging homepages to support the passions of movie goers when they’re searching online.

Pixar artists Jim Capobianco and Alex Woo were recently interviewed by the marvelous Art Of The Title blog. That only makes sense when you know that the pair were responsible for the end title sequence of WALL-E which actually completes the story of humanity’s return to Earth.

Here’s a perfect opportunity for all you readers in the Los Angeles area to get some quality film education and take in a rarely seen film from Disney’s vault at the same time. The Art Directors Guild (ADG) Film Society and American Cinematheque (AC) will honor Production Designer and Special Effects designer Peter Ellenshaw with a screening of Disney’s The Island at the Top of the World (1974).

This film will be shown on Sunday, June 28, at 5:30 pm at the Aero Theatre (1328 Montana Ave, Santa Monica), the fourth of this year’s screening series focusing on specific genres of narrative storytelling. Academy Award® nominated Visual Effects specialist Harrison Ellenshaw, son of Peter, who was an assistant Matte Artist on the film, will participate in a discussion to be moderated by John Muto.

The Island at the Top of the World, which was nominated for an Academy Award® for Art Direction, will be shown from a “Designing for Adventure” perspective. Starring David Hartman and Donald Sinden, the film tells the story of a father who puts together an expedition team to find his son, who vanished while searching for a long-lost Viking community somewhere in uncharted Arctic regions. Peter Ellenshaw served as both Production Designer and Visual Effects designer on the film, a rare occurrence.

Ellenshaw won an Academy Award® in 1964 for his Special Effects work on Mary Poppins (shared with Eustace Lycett and Hamilton Luske), and was nominated for his work on Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) and The Black Hole (1979). Like his son Harrison, Peter Ellenshaw followed his stepfather Percy Day, who is considered one of the greatest of all British matte artists, into the business. He was handpicked by Walt Disney to be a part of the studio’s creative team and painted the first map of Disneyland that was featured on all the early postcards and souvenir booklets. Ellenshaw started his career at Disney in 1947 where he worked on the studio’s first live-action film, Treasure Island, and continued there until his retirement in 1979.

More information at: www.americancinematheque.com

As I reported after seeing Pixar’s animated feature ‘UP’, it is a very adult film with adult concerns (love, loss, anxiety, quests left unfinished) and humor thrown in for the kiddie’s sake. What I failed to see was how this is a trend in Pixar’s films that echos the earliest of Walt Disney’s feature animated works.

But it all became clear to me after finding Michial Farmer’s two very insightful posts on the dark existential dream of early Disney Feature Animation and how Pixar appears to be recapturing that anxiety.

First, moved by watching ‘UP’, which Farmer considers the darkest animated film ever made by Disney or Pixar, he looks back at the early Walt Disney classics and the dark topics they explore.

Here, in other words, is what makes Pixar in 2009 closer to Disney in 1941 than Disney in 2009 or even 1992. All of the early Disney features—for our purposes, let’s define “early” as prewar, which would allow us to work with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi—are shiny and beautifully drawn, but all of their prettiness only serves to hide the deep, existential dread at their cores.

That all changes with the post World War II optimism and never lets up.

In his second post, Farmer looks at Pixar’s films and delves into how anxiety, a dark portion of the human condition, is the focus of the central conflict in each film. After brief consideration of the earliest Pixar films, Farmer starts with Monster’s Inc.:

which taps into a very specific but universal childhood fear: the monster in the closet. Never mind that most of these monsters turn out to be essentially good people—the operative point is that there’s a deep-seated need in Monstropolis for children to be afraid. If anxiety is defined (as it is by Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and others) as fear without an object, that’s certainly what we’re dealing with in the world influenced but outside of the movie. Children are afraid of monsters, which deep down they know do not exist—therefore, they are afraid of nothing, of an empty space in their closet. Monsters, Inc. plays off of this fear, exploits it before finally putting it (no pun intended) to bed.

Many people have said that the secret to Walt Disney’s success (other than his massive amounts of hard work and dedication to his dreams and ideals) was his ability to tap into the American gestalt. To intuitively know what audiences would want to see because that was what he wanted to see. The story trust at Pixar has been said to have the same talent. If Pixar is tapping into this sense of anxiety felt across America, what does that say about where America is right now?

See also this Pediatrician’s take on ‘Up’. It’s not a rant against the film, per se, but rather that reviewers aren’t doing their jobs warning parents about the very adult themes in the film Although I disagree with the severity of her claims, you have to know the limits of your own child.