The Walt Disney Family Museum has launched to much acclaim drawing fans from all over to see the story of Walt’s life laid out as only his family could tell it. But the museum is not resting just on its exhibits. A full series of events is planned.

The December calendar has just been released. Head to the official website to buy tickets for anything you like.

CONCERTS

December 12th – String Circle Quartet
4:00pm, Special Exhibition Hall, 122 Riley Avenue

Concerts in our Special Exhibition Hall continue to shine light on composers of Fantasia with Schubert’s String Quartet in G. Henry Purcell’s delightful Suite from The Faery Queen—a bit of musical fantasy—is also performed. Joseph Edelberg, Anthony Martin, and Kati Kyme, violins, and Thalia Moore, cello.

December 19th and 20th – Artists’ Vocal Ensemble Concert: A Candlelight Christmas
4:00pm, Special Exhibition Hall, 122 Riley Avenue

Nothing is more magical than a choir performing classic Christmas songs and carols. Our candlelight program will include European Renaissance motets and carols, contemporary American carols and anthems, and an audience sing-along led by Jonathan Dimmock.

FILM

Film of the Month: Christmas with Walt Disney
Christmas with Walt Disney runs until January 4
12:30pm, 3:30pm, 6:30pm, Theater
(except Tuesdays, December 25, January 1, and December 5th at 12:30pm and 3:30pm)

This special holiday screening includes The Nutcracker Suite from Fantasia (1940), Pluto’s Christmas Tree (1952), scenes from the television Christmas specials, and rarely seen home movies of Walt and his family. See how Walt celebrated Christmas at the Studio, at Disneyland, and at home.

LECTURE

December 5th – Memories of Walt: A Conversation with Legends
2:00pm, Theater

Join us on Walt’s birthday as we hear from Disney Legends Blaine Gibson, Rolly Crump, and Richard Sherman as they share special memories of Walt. Blaine is the sculptor behind the Hall of Presidents, Rolly is one of the Imagineers behind “It’s a Small World” and “Haunted Mansion” and Richard wrote such Disney music classics as “It’s a Small World” and “Chim Chim Cher-ee”. It will be an extraordinary afternoon filled with stories, laughter, and reflection.

December 25th – Christmas Day
Museum is closed

And now a public service announcement for lovers of crab, like me! Stone crab season is here and Fulton’s Crab House is taking advantage of these succulent claws. To kick off the stone crab run in Key West, Fulton’s will be offering stone crab menu specials from October 21st through November 30th.

These juicy crab specials can be served as an appetizer or entrée and include traditional Chilled Stone Crab Claws, served with cilantro lime and key lime mustard sauce and Cracked Stone Crab Claws, oven roasted with white wine garlic butter.

Other specials include Key West Conch Fritters with Lemon Garlic Aioli ($9.95), Bohemian Style Conch Chowder ($6.95), Key West Whole Yellowtail Snapper ($29.95), ½ pound Peel and eat Key West Spiced Shrimp ($16.95) and Chocolate Key Lime Pie On A Stick ($5.95).

The stone crab specials will be served daily for dinner from 4 p.m. – 11 p.m. from October 21st – November 30th.

About Stone Crab Season

Stone crab season opens October 15th each year and runs through May 15th. The majority of Florida stone crab claws are commercially harvested off the southern tip of Florida’s peninsula from Sarasota to Fort Lauderdale. Stone crabs are harvested for their mouth-watering claws and only the claws of the stone crab are removed. The stone crab is then returned to the water where it will regenerate new claws within 18 months.

Stone crab claws are cooked immediately after harvest, and sold either fresh cooked or frozen. Fresh cooked can be eaten within three to four days if packed in ice or stored in the coldest part of a refrigerator.

About Fulton’s Crab House

The freshest catch from around the world turns up in the inspired dishes of the nautically themed Fulton’s Crab House located at Downtown Disney® Pleasure Island at the Walt Disney World® Resort. Snow crab, blue crab and Alaska King Crab are specialties on the three dining decks of the grand Empress Lilly Riverboat, named for Walt Disney’s wife, Lilly. Each deck offers an expansive view of the Downtown Disney waterfront, and guests can book special-event dining on the riverboat’s third floor.

It’s been a long time dream of Diane Disney Miller, and others in the Disney family, to open a museum to honor her father Walt and now that dream is a reality. I still have a major quibble with the museum’s location, in the Presidio area of San Francisco, being of convenience to the Miller household instead of centrally located to Walt’s personal story, but the museum itself appears to be everything a Disney fan could want.

Here’s the local news coverage of the opening ceremony. Those people in the back are the members of the Disney-Miller family in attendance.

Famed Disney Imagineer Bob Gurr was also at the Grand Opening and gave his unique perspective on the events in his column on LaughingPlace.com

Sadly the museum is not without controversy. It’s “No Photos” policy has raised the ire of Thomas Hawk, a noted digerati from the central California region. He points out that many museums have recognized that guest photos are essentially free advertising and have changed their policies to be more open. Hopefully this no photos policy is just for the initial few weeks and eventually you’ll be able to capture your own memories to share after the tour.

Capacity at the museum is limited, so you’ll need to visit the official website to reserve a time. If you can’t make it to the museum, be sure to become a fan on Facebook where you can keep up with the goings on. I also recommend the “Friends of the Walt Disney Family Museum” facebook page.

I’d like to thank everyone who worked to make this dream of every Disney fan a reality. In particular Bruce Gordon who, when treated badly by Disney company, turned his passion to making the museum the best it could be. We tragically lost Bruce in 2007, but I’m sure he’s looking down with pride on his success. We miss you Bruce.

Disney fans with cash to spare have a chance to own some unique history – the home where Walt Disney was born. Walt Disney’s father Elias built the Tripp Avenue two-story house himself in 1892. Walt Disney was born in an upstairs bedroom in 1901. It has currently been split into a two-unit rental.

In 2006 Disney’s birthplace was up on ebay, but that sale never closed. Perhaps its an indicator of how soft the housing market still is, that this unique home is still for sale. The price has now dropped below $200,000.

There are few of my favorite childhood movies that hold as special a place as BedKnobs And Broomsticks. Although it was produced after Walt Disney’s death, it continued the Mary Poppins tradition of combining live action with animation, brought on wonderful actors like Angela Lansbury and David Tomlinson, and was chockful of musical tunes to boot. What more could a budding Disney fan want?

How about the new Enchanted Musical Edition DVD? It’s restored and remastered and ready to occupy that empty spot on your shelf.

We have the Sherman Brothers to thank for the songs for the film, including The Age of Not Believing, Portobello Road, and The Beautiful Briny Sea. If that strikes your memory bone, then you’ll want to make sure you watch the best special feature — Music Magic: The Sherman Brothers. Inside Angela Lansbury narrates the history of the development of the songs and you’ll enjoy a rare listen at a song never before heard.

Also knew is the “Wizard of Special Effects” feature that walks viewers through the special effects of the movie and compares them with Disney’s current wizard TV show, The Wizards of Waverly Place.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a must have for any Disney fan. The Enchanted Musical Edition DVD captures the family entertainment value you expect from the team at Walt Disney Pictures.

More details of the DVD below the jump:

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Yesterday evening, I had the pleasure of attending the World Premiere of the groundbreaking documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty (IMDb page) at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The film chronicles the revival of Walt Disney Animation beginning in 1984 and the start of the decade-long Disney Renaissance.

Without rambling on, Waking Sleeping Beauty is a top-notch, honest, captivating documentary. There was enthusiastic audience applause as the end credits rolled.  Every fan of Disney animation has to see this film, even if they already know the backstory. Actually, it will be best enjoyed by those who know the history of what transpired during those crucial years for Disney and the animation industry as a whole.

There’s a wealth of never-before and rarely-seen footage, from home video to old interviews with the major players, like Roy E. Disney, Michael Eisner and Jeffery Katzenberg, each of who participated in the making of the film.  That and the many hilarious satirical caricatures drawn of them by the artists at the studio. The film relies entirely on archival material, with voice-overs, to convey the story. And never has a filmmaker had such behind-the-scenes access to the topic ―the filmmakers here are a large part of the story.

Director Don Hahn (who produced Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King) and producer Peter Schneider were in attendance (they opened the screening and did a Q&A with the audience) and I had a chance to talk briefly with them afterwards.

On my way out, I met and chatted with animator Mark Walton, famous as the voice of Rhino in Bolt, who was there with his girlfriend. As it turns out he’s in Toronto working on the Miramax project Gnomeo and Juliet (IMDb page).

Waking Sleeping Beauty will get a limited theatrical run in April through Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and will be shown to interested groups, according to Hahn and Schneider. It deserves a high-quality release on DVD and Blu-ray for sure, hopefully with extras.

There’s a new trailer out for Walt Disney Animation Studios’ next release – The Princess And The Frog. There are some new scenes included (new to me at least) and it’s clear to see why early buzz is that Disney has recaptured the magic of hand drawn feature animation that was created by Walt and practiced so wonderfully by his crew.

Although the above trailer is not on it for some reason, there’s also an official youtube channel for the movie. But it is on Facebook. So, if Facebook is your think, go become a fan of the movie over there.

The film opens nationwide on Dec. 11, 2009.

People sometimes ask me why Disney stopped producing video podcasts. I wondered about that too, but it looks like the video production never really ended. They just don’t call it a ‘podcast’ anymore. Now you can just subscribe to a couple YouTube channels and you’ll have quite a bit of new content from The Walt Disney Company coming all the time. The only problem with Youtube is it’s not really suited for longform video, but perhaps Disney Parks and Disney Living will get a Hulu channel of their own soon to solve that.

The latest to hit is a new ‘promotional’ video from Walt Disney Imagineering. The video masterfully edits in a bunch of stuff you’ve probably seen before but also tosses in a few new exciting items from the folks at WDI. This would work as a great recruiting piece… if only WDI was hiring.

I love how they snuck Joe Rhode in there at the end. That’s what an Imagineer should look like if you ask me.