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Ken Pellman

I was a Disneyland Cast Member for 15 years. Currently a freelance writer.

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster closed yesterday after injury and June autopsy released

Local news is reporting that the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster attraction at Disney-MGM Studios was closed yesterday after a 59-year old man reported ill effects from the attraction. Closing the coaster was likley done out of an abundance of caution, but that’s a good thing when you’re dealing with 2000+ guests an hour roaring through… Read More »Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster closed yesterday after injury and June autopsy released

Tom Sawyer Island, some thoughts

I’ll admit right off the bat that I have some emotional ties to Disneyland’s Tom Sawyer Island. My grandfather was one of the Imagineers who helped realize Walt’s plan for the area (he’s two seats behind Walt in this photo from the Disneyland 50th exhibit). So all this talk about a rumored switching over to… Read More »Tom Sawyer Island, some thoughts

EPCOT Center back at the beginning

Along with the Magic Kingdom, Epcot had its birthday on October 1st. It’s been 24 years since the new concept in themed entertainment opened. Since then it has experienced a few changes to say the least. I really hope Disney decides to do something big for the 25th birthday (by contrast, this year the 1st… Read More »EPCOT Center back at the beginning

Winners of Disney Dreams online contest visit Disney World

The Spangler family of Randolph, Ohio were the lucky winners of the DisneyParks.com contest to have a morning all by themselves in the Magic Kingdom. This AP story about the winners is funny because it gets so many facts wrong: "The Magic Kingdom was eerily quiet, with only the chirping of birds, piped in orchestra… Read More »Winners of Disney Dreams online contest visit Disney World

Disney Fingerprinting Guests? Not Exactly

When I went to the parks this last weekend, I noticed that the biometric single-finger scanner has been rolled out to Epcot. That makes at least two parks with the new system. Eventually, it will be rolled out to all four theme parks and the two water parks. It certainly is faster than the previous… Read More »Disney Fingerprinting Guests? Not Exactly

Miyazaki and Son

First CartoonBrew notices some weird relationship issues between master animator Hayao Miyazaki and his son Goro Miyazaki as detailed in this Reuter’s article. Now we learn that the elder Miyazaki has launched the work on his next animated feature. Earthsea, the son’s picture, is scheduled to be released in 2007 and his father’s film in… Read More »Miyazaki and Son

LOST premier in Hawaii draws fans, stars

A recent beach party featured the season three debut of LOST. The entire cast of the show was there along with hundreds of the shows fans. The Lost Virtual Tour was there and provided a trip report, spoiler free for those of you who are concerned about that. For those of us not lucky enough… Read More »LOST premier in Hawaii draws fans, stars

FX snags broadcast rights to Invincible

Reuters reports that FX has secured the television broadcast rights to Disney’s summer hit Invincible. The cable rights have gone to Starz. Not exactly big news, but the article does provide some insight into the type of payments that go into determining who gets which film for their network.