In celebration of their Oscar nod, the fine folks at Industrial Light and Magic Visual FX (now a part of The Walt Disney Company thanks to the Lucasfilm acquisition) have released a special video highlighting how many of the special effects were made for Marvel’s… Read More »How’d They Do That: ILM releases Special Effects Video for Marvel’s The Avengers
On September 25th at the 4:50 pm show of Aladdin – A Musical Spectacular at California Adventure there was a frightening malfunction of the flying carpet effect during the show. Thankfully, redundant safety systems prevented any real injury, but the show was stopped and the audience evacuated while performers on the flying carpet swung upside down above the audience.
This video shows the moments after the carpet flipped over. Both performers can be seen strapped into the carpet, but the Jasmine performer is obviously (and understandably) upset. So don’t watch the video if that bothers you:
Here’s another angle that shows the carpet actually flipping over:
Well, at least it wasn’t anything violent.
I wasn’t going to post about this incident, chalking it up to a freak accident, but it turns out this is not the only time the flying carpet effect has had problems. Spoilers and more details below:
Read More »Aladdin Accident Video – Flipped Flying Carpet Stops Show
Disney has released a short featurette that goes behind the scenes on TRON: Legacy and looks at how the world of Tron was created for the film: TRON: Legacy opens nationwide December 17, 2010
ProgressCity USA has uncovered one of the more unique moments in Disney history. A 1982 promotional clip featuring Walter Cronkite exploring the technology behind the special effects involved in the movie TRON. There’s a section where Cronkite is inserted TRON-like into a film where he… Read More »Walter Cronkite soft shoes for TRON
If you missed Disney’s G-Force in theaters I can understand. It’s not exactly a film in the classic Disney mold. But it does have heart and a plot that actually drives a story line. Eventually you’ll get over the idea that the main characters are computer animated because they really do fit seamlessly into the world. Just think, if Walt had had this technology in the 40s, he wouldn’t have had to drive actual lemmings off the cliff.
Trailer
Bloopers and more below the cut:
Sad news today – Stan Winston, known as a special effects wizard but was a man who had much more influence than a mere effects-man-for-hire, has passed away. It is impossible to talk about special effects in the movies without addressing the work of Stan… Read More »Stan Winston Has Passed Away
Sheigh Crabtree gets a piece printed in the Los Angeles Times about how performing in Mary Poppins sparked Dick Van Dyke’s interest in special effects, which is still a hobby of his over four decades later. After starring in 1968’s "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," in which he drove a flying car thanks to the magic… Read More »Dick Van Dyke Digs SFX Work
Gone are the old visuals and conscientiously French theme based on Jules Verne’s novel "From the Earth to the Moon." Instead, the ride tours the solar system before hurtling out through asteroid showers to skim past supernovas and other astronomical phenomena, portrayed with high-definition video and a host of other new effects. Paris Disneyland unveiled… Read More »Space Mountain II???