James Lopez is best known as an animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios and an instructor at CalArts. He’s worked on a bevy of great film characters including Timon from The Lion King, Pain from Hercules, and Dr. Facilier from The Princess and the Frog.… Read More »Animated Recreation of Disneyland’s America Sings
Tokyo Disneyland is the third Disney theme park to get the Star Tours 2.0 upgrade (Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disneyland are the other two). The actual ride mechanics is the same, with over 50 possible ride combinations, but the setting and queue is very different. This gave Imagineers a chance to do what they do best, play. For instance, do you recognize the robot tribute to the Hitchhiking Ghosts?
Also inspired to add his two cents was George Lucas. We have his video and more below the jump:
Read More »Star Tours: The Adventure Continues opens at Tokyo Disneyland
I’m back in town after spending a few days away and still trying to catch up. Yes, that is why my recap for Castle hasn’t been posted yet. I did get a chance to watch the episode on Tuesday.
And some of the details have faded, so this is going to be a bit more general than I normally do.Read More »Castle 5-23: The Human Factor
The old photographer’s saying goes “the best camera for the shot is the one you have with you.” With more than half of the US now possessing a mobile phone with digital camera built in, the phone has become the camera fo choice for many. This is evidenced by the plethora of apps out there that allow you to take, modify, and share your photos in all sorts of ways.
Disney Interactive may be a little slow out of the gate, but they have announced their own photo based sharing app. It has an emphasis that’s core to the Disney experience – Story. In fact, that’s the apps name.
Story allows you to quickly assemble storybooks of your daily experiences. You choose a theme, add a few narrative bits of text, and select the photos or video you want to include, then Story makes it available to share and view via mobile or web device.
“When we become moms, our iPhone instantly becomes the go-to device to capture the spontaneous moments of family life. Before we know it, we have thousands of photos and videos on it,” said Brooke Chaffin, senior vice president, Disney Interactive Family. “With Story, we’ve created a easy-to-use app that takes this content and creates meaningful narratives and stories that can be shared with friends and family with just a few taps.”
You are allowed up to 20 photos and two short videos in each story. It reminds me a bit of the digital scrapbooking software that was popular a few years ago, but really stripped down to the essentials.
Story features:
Alas Story by Disney is only available for iOS devices (iPhone or iPad) at the moment. I hope Disney Interactive realizes its ignoring more than 54% of the mobile phone market (myself included) by not having an Android version too.
I’ve embedded a sample Story to explore below the jump:
As we reported earlier, Disneyland closed three attractions voluntarily after a CAL/OSHA report that fined the resort $234,850 for violations. Space Mountain was down the longest, three weeks, but all three attractions have now reopened. Disneyland’s voluntary actions have also saved having to pay that… Read More »State panel reduces Disneyland’s Safety Violations and Fines
Marvel released a new featurette from Iron Man 3 today. Just a kindly hint that the movie needs its fans, especially those who haven’t seen the film, to visit theaters this week and help it stay number one at the box office. Iron Man 3… Read More »Iron Man 3 Continues Box Office Run
Universal Orlando Resort made official its worst kept secret today. The Hogwarts School of Wizarding Magic & Hogsmeade themed Wizarding World of Harry Potter land in Islands of Adventure will joined by a Diagon Alley companion land in Universal Studios Florida. Connecting the two lands… Read More »Universal Orlando’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter Expands The Magic with Diagon Alley
Guests visiting Adventureland in the Magic Kingdom have begun to regularly encounter the opportunity to beta test the newest interactive attraction in the park — A Pirates Adventure: Treasure of the Seven Seas.
There are five maps to launch adventures with different variations. Each takes about 10 minutes to complete. So the pace is very quick. Of course, this is still early, that may change.
Here’s video from one of the families that were able to try it out:
Each adventure starts in the HQ building at the far end of Adventureland just past the Pirates of the Caribbean plaza. It’s the former home of a Kodak film kiosk. Not much need for those any more. Read More »A Pirates Adventure: Treasure of the Seven Seas Enters Beta Testing