Okay, technically it’s still only at $99,248,026.00, but it’s going to get there real soon, especially if you go out and see it this week. Yes, you there who still haven’t seen the latest from Walt Disney Feature Animation. What are you waiting for? Actually,… Read More »The Princess and The Frog passes $100 million
Update: My sources tell me its definitely a new building. My guess is that TV or the direct-to-dvd folks will move into the hat building. Update: ABC7 is reporting that they’re just renaming the current building. While that’s still nice, we’ll see. A new animation… Read More »New Animation Building at Disney Studios named after Roy E. Disney
Up next from Disney animation is the story of a girl who really knows how to let down her hair. Apparently she can use it for other purposes as well as this new image from Studio CinéLive magazine shows. Rapunzel opens in November 2010. (via… Read More »New Rapunzel Image
Philip K. Dick is best known for his science fiction writing. But he did dabble once in the fantasy genre. The result was “King of the Elves”, which Disney announced would be one of their 2012 animated feature releases. Slashfilm just ran a story that… Read More »King of the Elves in question?
Time magazine is out with the year end top ten lists. For movies they have ranked Walt Disney Animation Studios return to hand-drawn animation “The Princess and the Frog” as the best film of the year. That’s even ahead of Pixar’s “Up”, which came in… Read More »Time ranks “The Princess and the Frog” Best Movie of the Year
Disney’s latest animated feature film “The Princess and The Frog” took in an estimated $25 million at the box office this weekend. A healthy number for Disney’s return to hand drawn animation, but not blockbuster numbers either. Pixar’s “The Incredibles” and “Finding Nemo” each opened… Read More »The Princess and the Frog reels in $25 million
At the premier of Walt Disney World’s newest show, Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee, I had the chance to speak with Bruce Smith, the Supervising Animator on Dr. Facilier, the Villain at the center of Walt Disney Animation’s next feature “The Princess and the Frog.” Smith honed… Read More »Interview with Bruce Smith, Supervising Animator on The Princess And The Frog
Princess Tiana appears in a horse drawn carriage fit for an American Princess.
Yesterday marked the official opening of a 15 week run for Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. As I posted earlier, the show envelopes guests into being part of the show, a great experience for the guests involved, but how would it play for the rest of the park attendees? Turns out, pretty amazing.
For the special ceremony New Orleans dancers led Princess Tiana to the castle.
The Princess and The Frog is an American story at its root and it features the first African American Princess. The park is really excited about promoting the first new princess in 12 years, so they rolled out some big guns for the press event. One of those was Bruce Smith, the lead animator on Dr. Facilier, the main villain of the movie.
Characters representing current inhabitants of the Magic Kingdom welcome Princess Tiana to the fold.
There was also a wonderful display of merchandise that Disney spent the last two years creating. Some of it, like the theme park exclusive Princess Tiana dress, has been for sale in the park for two weeks and is already flying off the shelves.
A royal proclamation is read.
But the focus of the day was the introduction of Princess Tiana to the park and the official debut of Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee. TSJ has three distinct parts, and while it’s possible to catch all three, if you can only pick one, make sure to choose the middle part performed on the Liberty Belle when it stops in front of Splash Mountain.
The regular show will take place three times daily on the Liberty Belle with a procession leading to and from the boat before and after each performance.
The show is currently only scheduled to run through January 3rd, 2010 as a tie-in to the movie’s launch on December 11th. It’s my hope they extend this show at least through the summer. The show was already drawing huge crowds without the benefit of the movie even being in theaters, I imagine it will continue to grow once it’s seen by the public.
Lots more photos below the jump, so come on down