Mover over Jiminy Cricket, Tinker Bell wants in on your environmentality branding. Tink and her friends have joined forces with the Department of Energy to make a few TV ads and a website that will encourage kids to do such energy saving things as use… Read More »Tinker Bell & Friends Want You To Save Energy
Peter Sciretta from /film found that Disney had layered some advertising for the next film from Pixar, Up, into his hotel’s elevator. As little as we know about Up, it sounds absolutely fantastical and these images certainly re-inforce that feeling.
The buzz coming into WALL-E was that the films designers were inspired by Apple’s product design in their creation of the EVE robot. Pixar went as far as inviting Apple designer Jonathan Ive to consult with Pixar artists. Today’s story in AdAge suggests Pixar went… Read More »WALL-E and Apple: Product Placement or Product Inspiration?
This commercial for Hong Kong Disneyland’s version of “it’s a small world” is Pop-tastic! I mean who hasn’t dreamed of shooting a rock video inside IASW. I hope it helps to bring guests into the park. The video is obviously highly produced, but the presence… Read More »Ad for Hong Kong Disneyland “it’s a small world”
The other day I ran across this postcard of Mickey Mouse through the years. I used to have the full size poster up in my room as a teenager. With a few notable departures (CG Mickey in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Runaway Brain (which hearkens… Read More »Mickey Mouse manipulation
Toy Story Midway Mania is a new 4-D video game opening soon at Disneyland and Walt Disney World resorts. Guests ride through a series of Midway games, each with a different concept related to a Toy Story character, and use a unique ‘pull-string cannon’ to launch various projectiles at various targets and easter eggs in order to score points and be awarded a virtual prize.
What puts the Disney touch on this game is the great design of the queue and loading area and the amazing integration of 3-D and 4-D (real world) effects to raise the experience above something you could otherwise find at home in your living room. That and the addition of the characters from Pixar’s popular Toy Story series.
Read More »Toy Story Midway Mania: New 4-D Video Game from Disney/Pixar
This is the story of how Disney’s Virtual Magic Kingdom (VMK) came to its end and how and why it doesn’t have to be that way.
The year is 1959. Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom of Disneyland is just about to enter its third year of operations. Disneyland has been very successful not just in attendance, but in creating a new type of community; a remaking of Main Street America in Walt’s image. Walt calls Disneyland his great experiment. He uses it to cross-promote his movies, television shows, and his growing interest in urban planning.
However, something is not quite right. The surrounding area has penned his magical kingdom in with cheap looking motels and tourist traps. Disneyland really needs to grow, add new attractions, even remake whole parts of the theme park that just aren’t working. Walt has got grand ideas, add a steel roller coaster hidden inside the Matterhorn, bring online a monorail system (even extending to Downtown Los Angeles), remake parts of Fantasyland, Frontierland, Tomorrowland and even Main Street. Perhaps to open even a whole new city where urban blight will be a thing of the past.
All that will cost money, take time, and talent. Those are resources Walt could use elsewhere in his growing company. So he decides that his ‘experiment’ in 360 degree themed entertainment has been a success. But he wants those customers go enjoy one of his other projects where there is a higher margin so he can afford his future plans.
So, shocking everyone who has come to love and enjoy Disneyland, worked there, made friends there, even come to regard its wide avenues and wondrous attractions as part of Americana itself, Walt Disney decides to end his experiment and set up shop elsewhere (perhaps Florida, where he’ll have more room).