It’s not often that fans of a particular artist get a chance to give back to that artist. But today us Disney fans get that chance. If you ever got a chuckle from a classic Chip & Dale cartoon or were wowed by a Disneyland audio-animatronic then you’ve experienced the magic of celebrated Disney Legend and Animator Bill Justice.

Justice is getting ready to celebrate his 96th Birthday, but he’s been in a rehabilitation home for the last few years and not receiving many visitors.

Here’s a note sent to me from a source I trust on how you can make a difference.

We need your help flooding Disney Legend Bill Justice with cards and letters. He has been residing in a convalescent home the past few years.

For those of you unfamiliar with his name, Bill Justice is best known for his work as an animator of Chip & Dale, and directed several cartoons including “What’s the Truth About Mother Goose?” He also programmed the Country Bear Jamboree, Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion. He was very active at fan events such as Disneyana Conventions and NFFC events in the 80’s and 90’s.

We’ve been asked to share an address where cards and letters can be sent. Please help us show him that we still remember him and appreciate what he has given us as fans. Perhaps send him a picture that you took with him or just a simple card. You can send the cards and notes to:

Bill Justice
Arbor View Wellness & Rehabilitation Center
1338 20th Street
Santa Monica, CA 90404

Thanks for helping out. Let’s show Bill how much we appreciate the joy and fun he has brought into the world.

The Hollywood Reporter believes that Michael Jackson will return from the dead to visit Disneyland. Well the Captain EO attraction starring the gloved one will, at least.

A few months ago Disneyland actually did set up the theater to show the Captain EO film with most of the original effects. It was shown to company executives and Jackson family members, including Michael’s kids who had never seen it before. The general feeling by executives was that it could work, but that the justification just wasn’t there financial wise to do it.

Now, with the global success of “This Is It” the Michael Jackson concert pic earning big dollars around the world, it might be time to roll out Captain EO for one more dance.

What do you think? Will you make a special trip to Disneyland to see Captain EO if it’s brought back?

Chad Emerson of Blooloop.com has a short interview with EPCOT Vice President Dan Cockerell. I’ve met Dan on a couple of occasions and can tell you his heart is definitely in the right place. He comes with a lot of front line experience as well as operations experience.

When asked about his leadership style he said:

Albert Einstein said, “Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means.” I really believe that. People don’t care what you say, they care what you do. Since our Cast is what makes our guest experience unique and they deliver the magic, I spend most of my time finding ways to support them in their roles and making sure they can be as successful as possible.

More at Blooloop.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger has just fulfilled the wishes of many a Disney theme park fan by moving Disney Worldwide Parks and Resorts Chair Jay Rasulo out of his position. He will be changing places with Disney CFO Tom Staggs effective in the new year.

Many a finger has been pointed in Rasulo’s direction when it comes to fans unhappiness with the theme park divisions direction. (Of course, some of those same fans are not so quick to give accolades when things go right.) He was often accused of not being interested in the parks to the point of avoiding any travel to them. The focus on DVC over regular resorts, the disasterous run (DCA, Paris Studios, Hong Kong Disneyland) of small theme parks with little themeing over immersive parks favored by the fans, and the general decline of the dining experience at the parks have all be laid at the feet of Rasulo’s policies. I’m not sure how fair any of that is.

As for Staggs, to be honest, I don’t know much about his views on Disney’s theme parks division. But I’ve found his handling of the corporate financial conferences to be masterful. To me this move is roughly the equivalent of Eisner putting Wells in charge of the theme parks, a move which I’m sure would have pleased many fans. So there is hope here.

Quotes from Bob Iger and Tom Staggs at the Orlando Sentinel.

It’s Veterans Day. Time to turn to those you know who served in the armed forces and offer them a word of thanks or perhaps pick up their check for a free meal as many restaurants are doing this year. If you’re at Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom today (we’ll be at the MK) make sure you find your way to Town Square for the flag retreat. Lately the parks have been doing a little something extra on Veterans Day.

To all who served and serve today, a big thank you from everyone at The Disney Blog.

Do you make a habit of chatting with strangers? How about someone you’re sitting next to on an airplane for a few hours? Perhaps you should. You never know who you might meet. In this case, Noah met a man he’s calling Mr. Q.

Mr. Q had a large role in designing the ambient sound for Walt Disney World and solving one of the big problems encountered when moving from land to land… where does one soundtrack end and the other begin?

In the mid 1990’s, the park started researching the problem. It would eventually find no existing solution, so the engineers had to design and construct, on their own, one of the most complex and advanced audio systems ever built. The work paid off: today, as you walk through Disney World, the volume of the ambient music does not change. Ever. More than 15,000 speakers have been positioned using complex algorithms to ensure that the sound plays within a range of just a couple decibels throughout the entire park. It is quite a technical feat acoustically, electrically, and mathematically.

As we land, I ask Mr Q what he considers the highlight of his career. He describes how he wrote some software for “manufacturing emotion” with the thousands of new speakers in the park. The system he built can slowly change the style of the music across a distance without the visitor noticing. As a person walks from Tomorrowland to Fantasyland, for example, each of the hundreds of speakers slowly fades in different melodies at different frequencies so that at any point you can stop and enjoy a fully accurate piece of music, but by the time you walk 400 feet, the entire song has changed and no one has noticed.

More at How Mr. Q Manufactured Emotion.

(Via BoingBoing)

It’s Friday Night. If you’re not out watching High School Football, then perhaps you’re planning your next trip to Walt Disney World. Me? I’m posting the latest Disney news and links roundup.

• Trevor Hogg is writing a three-part profile on Pixar Studios being posted by the UK film website Flickering Myth. Part Two will be posted on Nov. 11 and Part Three on Nov. 18.
• A.O. Scott of the New York Times actually gives “A Christmas Carol” a positive review. Other than a few uncanny valley problems and a weak third act, he thinks Zemeckis did justice to the subject matter. Might be a bit scary for the young ones, however.
• A giant Mickey Mouse balloon will appear in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade this year. This raises an interesting quandry as traditionally, the floats and balloons appear at Universal Studios Orlando after the New York event.
• If you like “V” on ABC tune in to a special ‘Social Commentary‘ this Saturday. Show experts and fans can leave their commentary as the show streams online.
• Bloomberg News reports on some of the Chinese villagers who will be relocated to make way for Shanghai Disneyland.
• It’s interesting to see how fears of contracting swine flu while on vacation at a Disney themepark are playing across the pond.
• Meanwhile, it’s not the flu, but the sick economy that is delaying the construction of Disney World’s West Gate development – Flamingo Crossing.
• Don’t forget to go register for “Townsquare” the official forums of The Disney Blog. Over 100 have already signed up.
• Finally, check out this list of the 5 coolest new theme parks. Anything you think they’re missing?

When the Walt Disney Company set out to build a theme park in Hong Kong there were a lot of questions. Would the Chinese take to the American style theme park? Would the Disney characters resonate with a population that had previously had little exposure to them? Just who was the audience for the park?

Fortune Magazine looks at some of the lessons Disney can take away from their experience in Hong Kong that might serve them well in future expansion into Asia markets.

[Disney] failed to gauge local tastes, opened with a park that was too small to meet the grandiose expectations of its clientele, made some public relations mistakes early on, and took too long to adapt to local food, culture, and tastes, according to Allan Zeman, the chairman of the rival Ocean Park theme park in Hong Kong.

“Disney, on the other hand, came in very American,” Zeman says. “Disney was a big brand, not really understanding the culture at the beginning. They had everything run out of the U.S. At the beginning there was a sense of arrogance: ‘We’re Disney, and don’t tell us how to run a theme park.’”

Hong Kong Disneyland also earned the wrath of the Hong Kong press corps by taking a long time to respond to queries with answers that had to be approved through U.S. headquarters

In hindsight it’s obvious Disney didn’t know what they were getting into when they built Hong Kong Disneyland. Let’s hope they’ve done their homework for Shanghai?