Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film is in theaters now. Unfortunately you’d never know it unless you lived in LA or near select theatres in the NorthEast. When is this masterpiece coming to Orlando. The IFCBlog (How could I have missed this great resource before) has the depressing details including the poor per theatre performance for the… Read More »Howling about Miyazaki’s latest release
Embarked on a course that leaves traditional hand drawn animation to the film vaults, and most of its former animators on the streets, the Walt Disney Feature Animation Studios finds itself short staffed when it comes to talented Computer Animators. In fact, their recent seminar at SIGGRAPH doubled as a recruiting session. So if you… Read More »Computer Animator? Disney’s hiring
Disney’s record on remakes is hit and miss. That Darn Cat, (miss — except for the performance of Christina Ricci); Parent Trap with Lindsay Lohan (hit); Freaky Friday (miss and hit depending on what version you’re watching); Herbie (it remains to be seen). So it is with equal parts dread and anticipation that I am… Read More »Swiss Family Director
It is difficult to speculate exactly what happened yesterday to cause the sad death of a young boy at Walt Disney World. Eventually the autopsy will reveal whether the attraction had anything to do with the death. It may not have. I do not mean to accuse the family or Disney Management of misdeeds, but I do wonder what a 4-year old was doing on Mission Space (M:S) at Epcot.
M:S is one of the most intense experiences available to guests visiting Walt Disney World. So what would lead a family to want to take their young child on it? Which warnings did they see and which did they miss? How can we give a family more information before they make their decision to join the queue? All questions that need to be answered to make the Disney World experience as safe as possible for all guests.
Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror probably qualifies as the most intense experience availabe to guests at the four Walt Disney World themeparks. Not only does the name imply its intensity, but as you approach the attraction to ride you can see exactly what happens to guests already on board as they plummet faster than gravity and then are jerked back up only to be pulled back down again repeated times. If the visual clues aren’t enough, the screams of terror is another signal. Those with weak constitutions know by these indicators to stay away. Parents with questions can see what happens during the ride and can judge if their child is appropriate for the attraction. At least that should work in theory.
Read More »Blink before riding: Steps to better decision making at Disney World
There’s a new blog I’ve been reading that provides supercalifragilistic insight into the world of a walk-around Disney character at Disney World. She calls herself Lauren and here’s an example of what happened one day when she played the part of Mary Poppins. I was Mary Poppins this morning at the Grand Floridian Resort breakfast… Read More »My Life as Mary Poppins…
Her [Lucas’ wife] first idea was to have Threepio get shot, and I said impossible because I wanted to start and end the film with the robots, I wanted the film to really be about the robots and have the theme be framework for the rest of the movie. Talk continues in the comments over… Read More »1977 Interview with George Lucas
Don’t have much time to post recently, if you haven’t noticed. But I’m working on it. If you happened to visit the new OrlandoSentinel website this morning you would have seen these three stories in the news. The Weinstein Brothers are emptying the storage closet ahead of their departure from the Disney fold. A few… Read More »News Roundup
Tugger, The Jeep Who Wanted to Fly was produced by Genesis Orlando, a tiny animation house in Celebration founded by a Disney veteran. And it will star another Disney vet: Jim Belushi will sing and talk as the voice of Tugger in the 3-D computer-animated cartoon Tugger is one of the first of a new… Read More »Tugger, an ex-Disney Film