Disney News and Information — by fans, for fans

Disney fans who share a love of trains and railroads with Walt Disney may want to forgo those next couple of Starbucks Lattes and send the money to the Mid-Continent Railway Museum instead. The museum was hit hard by the recent midwest flooding and needs your help to recover.

Photos of the flood and its aftermath show serious damage to the railway, its support buildings, and many artifacts. Clean up efforts are underway, but your donations can help preserve some of the history of the very railways that Walt Disney traveled as a young man, memories of which later inspired him to build Disneyland.

Below is what the railway looked like before the flood.

(photo courtesy zengrrl on flickr)

I was interviewed by Mike Pesca of NPR’s Bryant Park Project this morning regarding the closure of Pleasure Island’s night clubs including The Adventurer’s Club as well as a few related topics. They’ve now put the segment up on their website so you can listen to it at your leisure.

Thanks to Mike and the shows producers for the chance to share a bit of my passion for all things Disney.

Experts are predicting the 4th of July holiday weekend box office to be huge as families choose to stay close to home instead of taking the traditional road trip. The Will Smith superhero flick “Hancock” is predicted to do over $100 million for the holiday weekend. Pixar’s WALL-E looks likely to bring in $35 million. I plan to get out their and add my families $27 to the total.

Good stories about Pixar’s WALL-E continue to flow in. Remember that “I watch WALL-E” Youtube Video of the woman who cried while watching the the WALL-E trailer? Well the folks at Pixar saw that video too and were inspired by it. As thanks they sent a few gifts to her and invited her to the movie’s Wrap Party. How cool is that. She’s written up her experience on her blog. [ via Cinematical]

Remember that line from “The Incredibles” - “When everyone is special, no one is”. Columnist Paul Edwards sees elements of that same strong individualist message in WALL-E. Edwards takes an anti-liberal slant to his article, I think he might be confusing liberalism with lack of personal responsibility which can be found in every wash of life. There might be a few other facts wrong about the movie too.

Meanwhile, Christianity Today interviews Director Andrew Stanton about some of the religious themes in the movie. [ via CartoonBrew]

Cory Doctorow on BoingBoing humorously points out that WALL-E is a copyright criminal. Wait, wouldn’t the copyright have expired 700 years into the future? Maybe not if Disney gets its way in congress.

IO9, the sci-fi blog, has a long but somewhat pessimistic view of WALL-E in it’s review.

If you’re a fan of toys “Captain Toys” has reviewed a number of WALL-E Toys with more detail than you could possibly want.

Finally, Jason Kottke, whose opinion I find myself agreeing with alot, gave WALL-E a perfect 5.0 out of 5.0 rating.

Below the cut check out this great featurette on how close modern day robotics is to creating a real WALL-E.

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Despite Florida becoming the winter headquarters for much of the north’s population and the migratory destination for countless others, it still remains firmly planted in the traditions of the south. One of those traditions is a strong protectionist argument for the right to bear arms.

When state legislators felt too much infringing on that right, they passed the “Preservation and Protection of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms in Motor Vehicles Act of 2008″ a.k.a the Guns-At-Work law. The law lets an employee keep a firearm in their vehicle when at work, in case it is ever needed for self-defense (most likely when some other employee who brought their firearm to work decides to weld it unwisely).

Smartly Disney and a few other groups had a couple last minute exemptions written into the law. One of which forbids firearms when the company has a permit for explosives which includes, in Disney’s case, fireworks. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the bill’s supporters are upset saying they didn’t mean to exempt all of Walt Disney World. And yet, that’s how the bill reads.

So for now, leave that firearm at home Disney Cast Member. Okay.

Oddly enough Universal Studios and SeaWorld, both of whom could apply the fireworks exemption, each choose a different path.

[Universal] houses a work-study program, the Universal Education Center, that is staffed by Orange County Public Schools. “We are required to follow school district policies,” spokesman Tom Schroder said. “The Orange County Public School System is exempt from this law. We have so informed our team members.”

SeaWorld takes an entirely different approach: That company supports the rights of its employees or visitors to transport legal firearms in their cars, “and we have for some time,” spokeswoman Becca Bides said.

I can see both sides of the argument and mostly just hope I’ll never end up in a situation where the law could be used because gun violence is bad in my book.

As we’ve covered before Disney has announced a change in plans for Pleasure Island. Goodbye to night clubs, hello to retail and dining. In the 19 years since Pleasure Island opened, a lot has changed in the habits of tourists and locals in terms of night time entertainment. Disney has done quite a bit of tweaking recently on the PI concept and apparently was unable to come up with a workable solution.

Never-the-less, there is a growing movement to save the Adventurer’s Club. It is the only attraction at Downtown Disney that was created solely by Disney Imagineers (Joe Rhode (of Disney’s Animal Kingdom fame, had a hand in it), it has a huge following, and some of the most unique 360 degree immersive theming found in a Disney attraction.

The bad news is, except for the original “Save Mr. Lincoln” letter writing campaign, I can’t think of a single Disney fan movement to save an attraction that has worked. (Okay, the mid-90s effort to keep Sleeping Beauty Castle Walk-Through open may qualify.) I think Disney is happy to see fans get all riled up as it shows a passion in their fan base, it also means free publicity for them. But these days Disney makes decisions based more on business needs than the needs of providing a quality show.

The good news, this time may be different. When Disney announced it would be closing the Adventurer’s Club this fall, along with the other Pleasure Island clubs, there was quick reaction to the news with a lot of chatter on Disney fan sites, a Facebook group, and a petition with more than 3000 signatures in just a few days. There’s also the possibility that Disney just plans on moving

That’s a good start, but not yet the huge outcry of the type that might make Disney re-focus its ideas to rip out the attraction. To make a real difference, a letter writing campaign to Disney corporate and Themepark executives will need to be launched.

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This film continues to stir up conversations. Here are a few of the best articles I’ve found recently.

• Jason Calacanis finds two possible inspirations for WALL-E. Yeah, the Short Circuit references has been done… but the other one is a doozy.
• Think Progress has a good laugh at some of the knee-jerk reactionary responses to WALL-E.
• The Vulture Culture blogs takes on Jeffrey Wells and defends WALL-E’s eventual nomination for Best Picture by the Motion Picture Academy.
• The Hartford Courtant reports that Jerry Herman, composer of Hello Dolly, likes that his songs made it into the picture and play such an important role.

By the way, I hearby predict the eventual opening of WALL-E World, a new theme park dedicated to the lonely robot in all of us. Of course it must be closed when the Griswold’s arrive.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom recently welcomed a new baby elephant into the world. Isn’t he cute.

26-year old Moyo, the mother, gave birth to a 327-pound male elephant June 28 after 21 months gestation. 22 months is the average gestation period, and the longest of any land mammal. Both Mother and son, as yet unnamed, are reported in good condition and expected to survive.

This is the fourth elephant born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Tufani, who is Moyo’s first male calf, was born in 2003; Kianga, a female, was born in 2004; and Nadirah, the youngest female, joined the herd in 2005. All remain on the savannah at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Moyo herself came to DAK in 1997 from a zoo in Tacoma, WA after her capture in the wilds of Zimbabwe in 1983.

Having toured the facilities and met with the Animal Care team at Disney’s Animal Kingdom I can vouch for the amazing level of care they provide for the animals they supervise. The Animal Care program goes well above and beyond the AZA rules for care and breeding. So much that many of the AZA breeding program studbooks are run by DAK staff.

The full Press Release is below the cut:

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Okay. Can we put this rumor to rest now. Both the Shanghai Government and the Walt Disney Company have officially denied that a theme park will be opening there in 2012. But wait, what the story actually says is that talks have been going on for a number of years and that there is currently no agreement. That doesn’t rule out the possibility of an agreement happening at any time.

So let the rumor fest continue… I’ll believe it when I see it. A good policy with any Disney decision. (Link)

Before we get down to business, can I indulge in a bit of shameless self promotion? Thanks. If you’re interested in my take on WALL-E, follow that link for my review.

Okay, now to tonight’s episode of The Mole.

Now that Victoria has left the show, I am completely in the dark as to who The Mole could be. So I am back to where I was in week one. Well, I do have one advantage. Now I’m trying to guess who it is from seven players instead of twelve. [Read more →]

WALL-E is the little robot that could. Could generate a $63 million plus opening weekend that is. I’m predicting that Kit Kitteridge doesn’t stand a chance against WALL-E and Pixar will slide into second behind Will Smith in Hancock over 4th of July weekend.

WALL-E is currently ranked #4 (tied) in the top 250 movies of all time by the readers of the Internet Movie Database. That’s a pretty high honor. It’s also currently the top rated film of the year on Rotten Tomatoes.

Everybody should read Seth Godin’s laser point focus on why WALL-E was a great success and will be for years to come.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog looks at all the influences products from Steve Job’s Apple had on the movie.

Btw, I’m hearing that the robotic real life WALL-E won’t be making it to Disneyland Resort this summer. I haven’t heard if the same goes for Walt Disney World. Not sure what the delay is.

Finally, check out this cute little video of a pair of WALL-E and EVE toys as they interact with each other in robot speak. Too cute. The pair will set you back about $60.