Disney VoluntEARS had fun for a good cause at the annual Orange County CANstruction event, where they spent nearly six hours building a Can sculpture of Tow Mater from Pixar’s Cars, out of 5,700 cans of food donated by the Disneyland Resort. This has been… Read More »Disneyland VoluntEARS help Tow Away Hunger with CANstruction of Tow Mater
Earlier today NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour completed the last leg of its cross-nation tour with a low altitude flight over a few Southern California landmarks, including the world famous Disneyland Resort. Mounted atop a specially designed NASA Boeing 747 plane for its “Ferry Flight” the… Read More »Endeavour Space Shuttle Takes Final Flight over Disneyland
(RtoL) Julie Andrews, Walt Disney and P.L. Travers
We’re still waiting for our Walt Disney bio-pic, but production has finally begun on a movie that focuses on one of the most interesting chapters in Walt’s life, his 20-year courting of P.L. Travers in order to secure the movie rights to her popular novels and the character Mary Poppins, and the testy partnership the upbeat filmmaker develops with the uptight author during the project’s pre-production in 1961. Walt knew he had a good thing there and the success of Mary Poppins allowed the Walt Disney Company to make many more innovations, including financing most of the 1967 expansion at Disneyland and transportation at WDW. This will be the first time Walt Disney has been portrayed in a dramatic movie production.
Two-time Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks (“Philadelphia,” “Forrest Gump”) will portray the legendary Disney alongside fellow double Oscar-winner Emma Thompson (“Howard’s End,” “Sense and Sensibility”) in the role of the prickly novelist. Before actually signing away the book’s rights, Travers’ demands for contractual script and character control circumvent not only Disney’s vision for the film adaptation, but also those of the creative team of screenwriter Don DaGradi and sibling composers Richard and Robert Sherman, whose original score and song (Chim-Chim-Cher-ee) would go on to win Oscars at the 1965 ceremonies (the film won five awards of its thirteen nominations).
“Saving Mr. Banks” will film entirely in the Los Angeles area, with key locations to include Disneyland in Anaheim and the Disney Studios in Burbank. Filming will conclude around Thanksgiving, 2012, with no specific 2013 release date yet set.
When Travers travels from London to Hollywood in 1961 to finally discuss Disney’s desire to bring her beloved character to the motion picture screen (a quest he began in the 1940s as a promise to his two daughters), Disney meets a prim, uncompromising sexagenarian not only suspect of the impresario’s concept for the film, but a woman struggling with her own past. During her stay in California, Travers’ reflects back on her childhood in 1906 Australia, a trying time for her family which not only molded her aspirations to write, but one that also inspired the characters in her 1934 book.
Read More »Production Begins on “Saving Mr. Banks” starring Tom Hanks as Walt Disney
Once a year the Haunted Mansion’s 999 resident ghosts make way for a few extra ghouls and goblins. Disneyland has released this short time-lapse video of how the Haunted Mansion is transformed into a temporary homes for Jack and his pals from Nightmare Before Christmas.… Read More »Haunted Mansion Holiday Timelapse Video
A new commercial highlighting Disney Parks as “The Place Where Dreams Come True” is a well produced minute-long video that attempts to capture the spirit of why kids love to visit Disney’s theme parks so much. Of course, there’s no way to really capture all… Read More »Disney Parks Kids Focused Commercial Leads to Questions About Theme Park Marketing
I’ve seen a lot of fun videos highlighting the way the Red Car Trolley moves from Buena Vista Street through Disney California Adventure. And I’ve heard that generally you can walk there faster, but that’s true of the horse drawn trolleys at Disneyland too. But… Read More »Red Car Trolley Complete Trip Video
A few weeks ago, a California court told Disneyland it would need to reconsider its ban on disabled using the Segway at the resort. At the time I wondered about that 2008 settlement made in a Class Action lawsuit. As part of the agreement, Disney… Read More »Disney Segway Settlement Upheld by Court
The digitally mapped projection show “The Magic, The Memories, and You!” has made Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom and “it’s a small world” facade at Disneyland the center of night time attraction with its fun traipse through Disney’s hit films. But all good things… Read More »New Castle Projection Show “Celebrate The Magic” Coming Soon