The line is designed as high end and for the distinguished Disney fan. (Right now they only feature men’s designs, but that will change soon.) They seek to be just as emblematic as the merchandise that you’d normally find in the parks, but with a more refined aesthetic. If you’re a Disney fan, you’re going to want one of these tees. They’ll be released on the 28th of the month, available for one week after that, and at a certain point, past designs will be reinterpreted and available in the theme parks. (So if you miss the window, hope is not lost.)

As the second batch debuts (featuring awesome designs centered around the Main Street Magic Store and Tom Sawyer Island), we reached out to Douglas Strayer, the Creative Director of Disney Design Group, to talk about the mentality behind Twenty Eight & Main, what we can expect from the line, and whether or not he’s always been a Disney fanatic.

So were you always a Disney fan?

Oh, I’m a Disney fanatic. I grew up on the Disney movies, animated and live action. I was inspired to be an artist by those films, and worked really hard to perfect my skills in illustration and design. It had been a dream of mine, since I was a little kid, to work for Disney. Fortunately, I have that opportunity to live that dream.  

Where did the idea for Twenty Eight & Main come from?

The idea of Twenty Eight & Main was dedicated to fans of Disney and the Disney theme parks. Being that huge fan of Disney myself, I along with several of my co-workers, were inspired to provide a line of upscale product that speaks to the rich details and history of Disney theme parks and its attractions that we do not always get the opportunity to provide [in the normal theme park merchandise]. We hope that we made the Disney fans proud as each item in the line becomes a conversation piece, where there is a story of Disney theme park history behind each graphic, trim, pattern, or hidden detail used in the creation of each item. This was very important to us, as we wanted each item to be a unique surprise. It is fantastic that the product line does not look like most Disney product we are familiar seeing. In some cases, you may not even know that the item in the Twenty Eight & Main line is Disney unless you learn the story behind the item. We love this because again, it provides the opportunity for our Disney fans to have something that only they know, or insider knowledge. It gives the Disney fan something to feel comfortable to wear in almost any occasion with the opportunity to share their passion and knowledge of Disney with others.

Where did the name Twenty Eight & Main come from?

When speaking to all of those details of story and history in the Twenty Eight and Main line, it all starts with the name, and the logo. Where the “Twenty Eight” stands for the year that Mickey Mouse was created, and “Main” represents Main Street U.S.A. Which is the Main Street located at Disney theme parks [Editor’s Note: except for the upcoming Shanghai Disneyland]. The lion reaching for the star is drawn from the coat of arms located on the Main Centerpiece castle at all Disney theme parks. This lion reaching for the star symbolizes Walt Disney’s pursuit of his dreams.

How do you go about picking which attractions or moments from the parks’ history goes into one of these shirts?

Well, the foundation of everything we are trying to do is to showcase all of Walt Disney’s accomplishments. So, when we looked to Walt Disney himself, we truly realize that he was the most interesting man in the world. He really is this gentleman, explorer, adventurer, and creative genius. It is amazing to think about when Walt Disney and his team had a vision for a movie, story, or theme park attraction. He and his team would travel the world to visit, meticulously study, eat, live, and breathe the topic so they could truly tell the best story they could to our Disney fans. It was important to recognize all of the research, and work Walt Disney and his team of creative minds did to make these stories, attractions, and ideas come to life. We started to look at the key attractions and themes that were extremely important to Walt Disney, and go from there. So, to start, some of the first design themes used for the Twenty Eight & Main line are centered around Walt Disney’s love of trains, as well as, the textures, themes, and stories that make up the classic Main Street U.S.A.

Can you talk about making the first batch limited edition?

In this case, we really wanted to offer up something unique and special to kick of the Twenty Eight & Main brand. So, we’re offering alternate limited versions of some of the Twenty Eight & Main graphics online that will be different from what can be found in the theme park locations.

Twenty Eight & Main is described as “fine quality goods for the discerning gentlemen.” Is there talk about making shirts for the ladies?

Absolutely! Well, it is true Twenty Eight & Main is currently titled as a men’s apparel line. However, the Twenty Eight & Main Brand was created in tandem with its sister brand called Kingdom Couture, that will offer similar stories, themes, and textures as Twenty Eight & Main, but with a focus on women. Kingdom Couture will be released online and in theme park store locations soon.

Check out Twenty Eight & Main at the Disney Store now!

The post Disney Parks Luxury: Behind the New Twenty Eight and Main Clothing Line appeared first on Disney Blogs.

As one of the chief creative architects of Food and Wine, Chef Hannon oversees an international cast of 250 chefs, cooks, and culinary specialists who run more than 35 food and beverage restaurants and outlets. That’s a lot to keep track of. Luckily, the chef, who started his culinary career back in 1993, doesn’t seem phased. While talking with him on the phone a few weeks ago, he let us in on what makes this year’s Food and Wine (the 20^th year!) so special, what you simply must try, and how he got to bring back some old classics while simultaneously breaking new ground. Be warned, though: this interview will make you very, very hungry.

What are you guys doing to make the 20^th anniversary of Epcot Food and Wine really special?

Overall, Food and Wine offers a great opportunity to not only taste your way around the world but also explore a new area that we’re doing for the 20^th anniversary, which is moving into Future World. That’s what we really want to get across to our guests: that we’re moving into Future World. So we’re going to have four new marketplaces into Future World: a cheese studio, wine studio, an area called Next Eats, which will have two market places (Sustainable Chew and Chew Lab). Sustainable Chew are menu items inspired by the TV hosts from The Chew, so we’re going to have a great zucchini and ricotta cheese ravioli and at the Chew Lab we’re going to have a liquid nitro chocolate almond truffle. So we’re going to dip a chocolate almond truffle into liquid nitrogen and what that’s going to do is freeze the outside and we’re going to pull it out and crack it, so it’s going to be frozen on the outside and really soft and gooey on the inside and we’re going to drizzle a nice warm whiskey sauce on top.

If nobody has even gone to Food and Wine before, why should they come this year?

We think this is the best and definitely the biggest year ever. Because not only do we feature marketplaces around World Showcase but since we’re moving into Future World, they’ll be able to experience something that really has never been done before.

So for those who have never been, what would you say are things that people must try?

I think some of the food items you cannot miss are, first of all, the Canadian cheddar cheese soup is one of the guest favorites. It’s been around for a while and it’s the actual soup we serve in Le Cellier, so it’s a great opportunity to try something from one of our signature restaurants. The escargot from France is another great item, since it’s baked into a freshly made croissant. We also have, in Brazil, a crispy pork belly that has black beans, tomatoes and onions. Returning as a guest favorite is our New England lobster roll in hops and barley. We also have some great desserts in our line-up. We have something called the strawberry basil champagne toast. It’s a champagne glass, we have a little of champagne at the bottom that’s infused with a little bit of strawberry puree and basil. Then we have some strawberry mousse, some cool gold glitter, some crispy pearls, a little whip cream and a nice 20^th logo to top it off. We hope people are going to be walking around going, “Where can I get that?”

As a chef, what is the push-and-pull between wanting to try new things and wanting to bring back things people love from previous Food and Wine Festivals?

Well, since we’re celebrating 20 years, instead of having a ton of new items, we’re bringing back a lot of guest favorites. This is a year where we didn’t have to push-and-pull too much. We brought back items from years’ past. We brought back the spicy chicken sausage with creamy polenta in Canada; that’s been gone for a while. In cheese studio we brought back the cheese fondue with sourdough bread; that’s been gone for about four years. And in South Korea we brought back the Korean short rib with steamed rice. So we’ve really been able to go back into our vault and pick up some great items. And over in Future World, every item is new. From a culinary perspective, the Chew Lab, where we’re trying to execute food that incorporates food science, in a small marketplace experience even though these things are typically done in a signature restaurant.

We’ll have more Epcot Food and Wine coverage throughout the week! Find out what bands you have to check out at Food and Wine, over at Oh My Disney now!

The post Epcot Executive Chef Gregg Hannon on What You Can’t Skip at This Year’s Food and Wine Festival appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Hocus Pocus has remained an enduring cult classic, with repertory screenings and, this year, a live stage show at Walt Disney World called the Hocus Pocus Villain Spectacular (running through November 1 as part of the Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom). Another incredible bit of Hocus Pocus-y witchcraft is a series of limited edition tees that were just released by the Disney Store (hurry, they’re only here until Sunday). There are three costume tees focused on the witches’ wardrobe from the film and another, super cool tee devoted to the Sanderson Sisters Witch Museum (available in fall-ready sweatshirt form, too!)

We loved the tees so much we jumped on the phone with Richard Terpstra, the super talented designer of the tees (we had previously spoken to him about his equally incredible Haunted Mansion design), to talk about where the design came from, why Hocus Pocus has endured and what his Disney-related Halloween plans are.

So Hocus Pocus: did you know that the stage show at Walt Disney World was happening before you designed the tees?

Nope! We had a meeting and we had been pushing, for a long time, for a Hocus Pocus shirt concept. And it was really funny because while we were in that meeting and we decided to do it, someone else said that Entertainment had contacted them about Hocus Pocus. That was our first inclination that something was happening inside the park for the Halloween season. We had already been in development, but once we knew that it was going to be a stage show and we knew that the Sanderson Sisters were going to be a main focus of it, that’s when we worked with the archives and the costume department here. We went over to the costume department and spend a good five hours digesting, taking great reference photos, talking to the costume department, working with them. So it was a really great relationship between archives, costuming, and entertainment, here at the parks. It was awesome.

Why do you think Hocus Pocus has endured?

I was there: Friday, July 16, 1993, me and my little sister, front row. Our family has a passion for Halloween season. And I think over time when you think of family fun and you think of the holiday season and Halloween in particular, you think of Hocus Pocus. I think it really embodies everything for Halloween, between the costuming and the decorations; it’s the ultimate fantasy of what Halloween should be in every town across America. I think a lot of us remember a time when Halloween used to be like that. I remember, as a child, trick-or-treating and having the houses be really themed out and in the streets there were just tons of kids. So watching it, for parents it’s really nostalgic and for kids it’s just fun. Hocus Pocus is just amazing.

There is an additional design, which is the Sanderson Museum. Can you talk about that?

Well we knew that there was a demand for costume tees for the female demographic, and while we would have loved to have done a costume tee for Billy, that costume doesn’t exist anymore. And the shirts themselves are working from the original photos we took from the original costumes. We could have done an artistic interpretation but since we decided to go the photo real route, there wasn’t any reference. But we wanted a unisex feel and we wanted to do something a little vintage and a little advertisement-like, so if you were living in Salem, Massachusetts and opened up a newspaper this would like an advertisement. We added some distressing and some vintage wear and tear. And it spoke to the older demographic which was great.

You have a love of the spookier side of Disney. What do you do for Halloween?

I go to the Not-So-Scary Halloween party, but not on Halloween because it’s just too crazy for me. I actually stay at home and have a movie marathon and I have a series of Disney movies that I absolutely love to watch in order for Halloween. Usually they’re the creepier Disney movies. So I watch those and really enjoy those. There used to be this amazing Halloween special that they used to do, I believe it was Disney’s Halloween Treat and it was basically a clip show of animated shorts; it had the “Night on Bald Mountain” scene from Fantasia. It was amazing. Unfortunately they don’t have the DVD of that. It is the ultimate Disney Halloween must-see, followed by Hocus Pocus.

What besides Hocus Pocus is part of your marathon?

Usually it’s chronological by year so I start off with Watcher in the Woods and then I follow that up with Return to Oz. Then I watch Something Wicked This Way Comes. And if I have time I’ll squeak in Black Cauldron and “Ichabod Crane” [from Ichabod and Mr. Toad] and finish it with Hocus Pocus. That’s usually how I go.

The post Designer Richard Terpstra On the New Limited Edition Hocus Pocus Tee appeared first on Disney Blogs.

If you’re a fan of the Indiana Jones franchise (the last film was 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), chances are the name “Jock Lindsey” will ring a bell. That’s because Jock Lindsey was Indiana Jones’ pilot in the memorable opening sequence of the very first film in the series, 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. As played by professional pilot Fred Sorenson (in the movie he’s American but Lawrence Kasdan’s script states that he’s British), Jock introduced audiences to Indy’s fear of snakes (courtesy of Jock’s pet boa constrictor Reggie) and made for a memorable cameo. This cameo was so memorable, in fact, that Disney has decided to open an entire bar devoted to the rascally pilot in the form of Jock Lindsey’s Hanger Bar, now open at Downtown Disney as part of its ambitious Disney Springs project. The Disney Parks Blog has photos of the incredibly rich new establishment, which seems to be heavily themed and detailed, calling to mind similar Disney eateries like Trader Sam’s. We’ll be headed down to Walt Disney World soon and will report back about our experiences with the restaurant, and if you’ve already been, please let us know what you thought in the comments below!

Disney Comes to Amazon Underground

If you’ve got an Android enabled smartphone and want to play select Disney mobile games to your hearts content, then download Amazon Underground right away. First thing you should know: they’re all free. Second thing you should know: the unlimited bundle means that there are all sorts of boosts, endless lives, power-ups, and freedom to play the games unlocked. And what’s more, there are 15 games that include recent favorites (like Inside Out Thought Bubbles and Star Wars Rebels: Recon Missions), as well as re-mastered versions of older games like Where’s My Water and Castle of Illusion.

Spot the Hidden Mickey is Back!

Last year, a sweepstakes was created wherein Disney fans were encouraged to find the hidden Mickeys in their everyday life. (For those of you who don’t know, hidden Mickeys are when three circles combine, either on purpose or serendipitously, to create the shape of Mickey Mouse. This has become a common inside joke that Imagineers place in many attractions, restaurants and shopping experiences. And once you start looking for hidden Mickeys, it’s hard to stop.) The results of the sweepstakes were so amazing, so stupendous, so hidden, that the sweepstakes is back. All you need to do is down the Disney Applause app on iOs or Android and start taking photos of the hidden Mickeys in your life. Can’t wait to see what everyone finds!

See a New Star Wars Planet in 360 Degrees

Thanks to the new 360-degree video technology that Facebook recently adopted, you can now visit one of the alien landscapes featured in December’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, in a wholly immersive new way. In the video you race along on Rey’s speeder, as featured in several of the trailers for the film, and can look around, at the fallen Star Destroyer out in the distance, the pirate-y inhabitants of the planet, and other speeders. (The experience, which lasts a little less than a minute, was created by special effects house Industrial Light & Magic’s X-Lab.)  If you’re really paying attention, you’ll notice a cameo from our favorite adorable spherical droid, BB-8. This is all happening not in a galaxy far, far, away, but on the Star Wars Facebook page. It’s pretty incredible!

Disney Infinity App Available Now

It’s no secret that we love Disney Infinity 3.0. It’s easily the best, most creatively intuitive, most gorgeously rendered game in the series and we can’t get enough. (We owe you all a long post about how incredible the upcoming Toy Box Speedway add-on is.) Just this week the Disney Infinity: Toy Box 3.0 app was released (on Apple, Google, and Amazon) and allows you to take your addictive Toy Box activities on the go with you. (While you wouldn’t believe it, mobile players upload and download more Disney Infinity Toy Boxes than on any other platform.) This miniaturized version of the Toy Box experience includes a number of the additions to the experience, including the El Capitan community center, Toy Box Hub, and farming simulation. Those Disney Infinity diehards can unlock additional content through new Daily Challenges. Disney Infinity is super fun no matter where you go, so it’s a pretty huge thrill to take the Toy Box with you, no matter where you are.

The post 5 Disney Things You Might Have Missed This Week appeared first on Disney Blogs.

In Disneyland (details for the Disney’s Hollywood Studios version will be released shortly), Season of the Force will begin on November 16. This is huge (and very exciting) news, as the D23 Expo presentation made it seem like it would be after the first of the year. And what makes up the Season of the Force? Well, let’s break it down for you (all details come courtesy of our friends at the Disney Parks Blog).

Star Wars Launch Bay

So the Star Wars Launch Bay will take up the bottom level of the former Innoventions building and will be a wholly immersive experience where guests will be able to interact with their favorite characters, check out exclusive props from the films, and get access to never-before-seen material. (If you’re curious, the top floor will later be dedicated to an expanded Marvel experience.) There are unique character experiences, where you can get your photo with a hero from the Light Side (Chewbacca!) or Dark Side (Darth Vader!) in a highly themed environment. There are also a series of galleries: in the Dark Side Gallery, you can look at famous Sith lightsabers and stormtrooper armor; the Light Side Gallery has Rebel fighter helmets and Jedi lightsabers; the Preview Gallery features props from the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens; and finally, the Starship Gallery has models of famous starships and their pilots from throughout the Star Wars saga. But that’s not all! There’s the Star Wars Game Center, where guests can play the latest Star Wars-related games, including Disney Infinity 3.0 featuring park-exclusive Toy Box levels.

Jedi Training: Trials of the Temple

The newly expanded Jedi Training experience (opening slightly later than everything else, sometime in December) will feature characters and a new villain from Disney XD series Star Wars Rebels.

Star Tours – The Adventures Continue

When Star Tours returned after a lengthy refurbishment as Star Tours – The Adventures Continue, it featured a number of improvements, including 3D digital projection and in-vehicle effects, but what made it so special was the unpredictability of the attraction. Instead of a single voyage, it featured a combination of two destinations, seemingly randomly chosen, offering up an endless amount of experiences. And come Season of the Force, a new scene will be inserted into Star Tours, this one based on a sequence from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Aw yes.

There will also be a number of limited edition experiences:

Hyperspace Mountain

This is a reimagined version of the classic Space Mountain attraction. In this new version guests will join an X-Wing starfighter battle.

New Film at Tomorrowland Theater

There will be a new film experience in the Tomorrowland Theater, former home to Captain EO, Magical Journeys, and Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (as well as a number of nifty previews for current Disney movies like Tomorrowland). It will be focused on iconic Star Wars moments from throughout the series and probably make the wait for Star Wars: The Force Awakens that much harder.

Themed Food

While the exact details of the exclusive food offerings have yet to be revealed, we’re crossing our fingers for some blue milk and Bantha burgers.

The post Details On Season of the Force at Disneyland Emerge From Hyperspace appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Walt Disney World Inside Out was show was hosted by stand-up comedian Scott Herriott, who had an affable, goofy quality to his delivery, occasionally slinging well-placed barbs at resort guests during his many on-the-street segments, and adding irreverent commentary to familiar attractions (“Posture is very important,” he told his hitchhiking ghost at the Haunted Mansion). The show would mix in nifty challenges (guests were forced to hold a cup of water in their mouths on some of the resorts thrill rides, with points awarded for least amount of water spilled), behind-the-scenes demonstrations of things like the then-cutting-edge virtual reality experiences that would become commonplace at Innoventions and DisneyQuest, taped segments with celebrities (Gilbert Gottfried played a private detective investigating the Hollywood Tower Hotel shortly after Twilight Zone Tower of Terror opened), and an informational rundown of events happening in the parks in the coming months (“What do Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone have in common besides rippling biceps? They’re opening a brand new Planet Hollywood, the newest nightspot in Pleasure Island!”)

The show is well remembered, largely because of Herriott’s prickly delivery, the New Orleans-inspired theme music and the red couch with Mickey Mouse-shaped polka dots that they would cart around to various locations within Walt Disney World. Looking back on the show, it offers up fascinating tidbits to the resort that once was, acting as a sort of snappily edited time capsule, with old shows like Splashtacular at Epcot (which ran for seven months) getting as much screen time as bona fide classics like Splash Mountain. (It’s also fun to hear Epcot being referred to as “Epcot ‘94” and “Epcot ’95,” naming that was implemented after the EPCOT Center moniker was dropped the year before the show aired.)

We were so driven by our love of Walt Disney World Inside Out that we tracked down Herriott, who now makes nature documentaries about long distance hiking and the legend of the bigfoot (more on that in a minute). He was kind enough to share stories from the production of the series, including what it was like filming in Walt Disney World and whatever happened to that crazy couch.

How were you first approached?

A friend of mine recommended me to audition for it. And it just worked out. I got the gig and I don’t think I was doing any stand-up in a club. It was just a normal audition.

What was the shooting schedule like? Were you living down there?

No. It was really nice. I was living in L.A. and Disney would fly me out there for a week. It was basically five to seven days. You would shoot one episode a month. What I liked about it was that we were snarky and we were making one of the more sarcastic shows that had been done on Disney Channel. We were trying to be hip without being hip…I liked the idea that we were trying to get behind the scenes and show some of the workings and the technological aspects of it.

Were you a Disney fan before doing the show?

I wasn’t obsessed but what kid growing up doesn’t, to one degree or another, love Disney? And growing up in the southland, we would go to Disneyland quite a bit. I remember, as a kid, going to the Haunted Mansion for the first time. It was such a big deal.

What was your favorite aspect of taping the series?

I remember meeting the celebrities was always fun. Nancy Kerrigan was on. And the Gilbert Gottfried remote he did separately from my filming. We didn’t interact at all. But one that just came to mind was Splash Mountain and I’m dressed in a lab coat, sitting behind people, using some horrible eastern European accent. I also loved all the stuff about the Haunted Mansion, because I loved it as a kid. It was neat to see that work.

You also got to capture things that wound up not being a part of Walt Disney World forever.

Yeah I mean obviously things change. There was ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter. That was a fun thing to do.

What about that couch?

I always kind of liked the idea of that couch. I thought it was cool and funny. And always, while I was doing the show, it was the number one thing that people asked about. “Did you get to keep the couch when you were done?”

Have you been back since?

I haven’t been back to Walt Disney World, mostly because I’ve been doing my documentaries about long-distance hiking, available at Squatchfilms.com. I’m on the other side of the country. So no, I haven’t been back.

You’re now a bigfoot enthusiast. There’s the yeti at Matterhorn and there’s a Bigfoot at Expedition Everest. Where does that fascination come from?

I don’t know. But it didn’t come from the Matterhorn, because I’ve had this fascination since I was a little kid. I’ve always thought it’s been a genuinely fascinating mystery. It’s fun, it’s goofy, but it’s a real mystery too. I’ve made two films about it: Squatching and Journey Towards Squatchdom. And those were the first things I did after Disney. I’m a comic and I wanted them to have a comedic bent but also take the phenomenon seriously. Yes, I think there’s an unclassified hominid but do I also think there’s tons of misperception, absolutely. That’s what makes it an interesting phenomenon.

The post Remembering Walt Disney World Inside Out With Host Scott Herriott appeared first on Disney Blogs.

The premise for Dapper Day is simple: just wear sophisticated clothing. Most of this means clothing from a specific time period (post-war to the late 1950s) but can really mean anything, so long as it’s spiffy and pressed. While the official website for the event states that out-and-out costumes are “better suited for other events,” there was a lot of interesting skirting around this issue, with period “Disney bound” outfits popping up everywhere. (Our favorite was the group dressed as old-timey Avengers.) Certifiably vintage outfits were the most eye-popping looks at Dapper Day, but there were also a lot of homemade ensembles that proved just as dazzling. (Below is a gallery courtesy of Disney Style.)

And if you didn’t already have an outfit, the two-day Dapper Day Expo, held at the historic Disneyland Hotel, offered up a whole bunch of opportunities to find that perfect old school look. The Expo was like a mini-D23 Expo, with individual booth set up for whatever you needed (including booths that specifically sold hats, gloves, and other accessories). One booth even promoted a line of skirts embroidered with designs from legendary Disney artist Mary Blair (responsible for much of the look of Sleeping Beauty and the mural inside the Contemporary Resort in Florida). There was a terrific photo opportunity set up and exclusive merchandise (some of which was designed by Disney product designers). If you are a Disney fan who loves looking to the past for inspiration as to how you dress today, you were probably in heaven.

Over in Disneyland, there were a number of impromptu meet-ups, including one at the Mark Twain Riverboat. That event ended up being more crowded than originally anticipated so there were several Dapper-affiliated boat trips throughout the afternoon. (It’s here that we’ll mention the commitment to the Dapper community to their aesthetic; on Friday it peaked around 90 and if you were, like us, wearing more than one layer, it felt significantly hotter. Still: nobody complained and everybody looked great.) On Saturday, there was the first-ever Dapper Day car show at the Disneyland Hotel. And it wasn’t just Disneyland that provided an amazing backdrop for all your Dapper Day finery; we noticed many Dapper Day participants in Disney California Adventure, where Paradise Pier, Carsland and (in particular) Buena Vista Street and Hollywood Land, were flooded with dashing gentlemen and ladies. When we ate at Carthay Circle on Friday night, it was almost completely full of Dapper Day enthusiasts, which only added to the restaurant’s charmingly sophisticated old school appeal.

That’s what we mostly took away from Dapper Day: the sensation that you had become unstuck in time. It was like visiting the park long ago, perhaps during one of the incredible “Date Nite at Disneyland” soirées (where the park would be open until one a.m. and flyers would advertise “moonlite dancing aboard the Mark Twain riverboat!”) Everything felt more sophisticated and even though the park was incredibly full, it felt more leisurely paced. You could tell that people were there, not to stand in line for their favorite attraction, but to walk around and be seen (and to see other people). There was an enormous amount of positivity flowing at Disneyland, with many guests trading comments about how fabulous they looked. When you rode a classic attraction like the retro-futuristic monorail to Tomorrowland, surrounded by sophisticated vintage attire, it was positively eerie. Even more so than the actual 60^th anniversary of Disneyland this past July, when the park encouraged guests to wear their best 1955-inspired outfits, this felt like taking a trip into yesterday. And my what a trip it was. In the next few weeks, Dapper Days are being planned for Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris and if you have the opportunity, put on your finest duds and try and attend. Even if you’ve been to the parks a thousand times, we promise you that you’ve never been to them like this. We can’t wait to go back next spring.

Donald and Daisy 1 of 9

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We love that these two got these retro DisneyBounds exactly right with colored tights.

Classic Polka Dots 2 of 9

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This group nailed it with Minnie and Mickey-inspired polka dots and stripes. The parasols were a great idea for a particularly warm day.

An Assortment of Dapper Characters 3 of 9

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It took us a second to realize this handsome group was also DisneyBounding! We recognize a Tweedle, Jiminy Cricket, the Blue Fairy, and Peter Pan.

Cruella De Vil 4 of 9

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We know Cruella is a villain, but come on, her style is flawless. This polka dot headscarf situation is amazing, and kudos for achieving the two-tone hair.

Practically Perfect 5 of 9

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Any excuse to use your parrot-handled umbrella works for us.

Fur and Fans 6 of 9

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Not every look at Dapper Day has to be Disney-inspired! Simply achieving a retro look from your favorite period is how the day got its start.

Coordinated Couples 7 of 9

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This dress is amazing, and we love the bow tie!

Adventure is Out There 8 of 9

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At first, these two just had an adorable, soft yellow coordinated thing going on. Then the grape soda pins made us realize they were DisneyBounding as Carl and Ellie!

Parasols Please 9 of 9

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It was so hot during Dapper Day, these parasols probably did a lot more than just make a statement.

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The post Dapper Day at Disneyland Is Like Traveling Back in Time appeared first on Disney Blogs.

The footage had never been seen before the D23 Expo panel and hasn’t been seen since … until now.

We are so thrilled to exclusively debut the behind-the-scenes footage, with new material that wasn’t seen at D23 Expo, right here on Disney Insider. It’s also a great way to get a unique perspective on a film that you’ve undoubtedly seen countless times before. In short: it’s a look at whole new world of Aladdin.

Aladdin will be released on Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere on September 29 and will be available on Blu-ray on October 13.

The post Exclusive: Never-Before-Seen Aladdin Behind the Scenes Footage appeared first on Disney Blogs.

This new short, entitled “Eggpo: Waiting,” focuses on the same new Eggpo, who doesn’t understand why, as a video game bad guy, he can’t just throw fireballs wherever he wants. It’s hilarious and continues the previous video game-themed shorts in a really fun way (we really love the southern drawl of the older, more experience Eggpo). The short premieres on Disney XD and Disney XD’s YouTube channel next week, but you can get your exclusive first look here! And we’ll have more from Two More Eggs, including an interview with the Brothers Chaps, in the coming weeks!

The post Exclusive: In This Two More Eggs Short, Retro Video Game Villains Ponder Their Jobs appeared first on Disney Blogs.

The film, co-directed by John Musker and Ron Clements (filmmakers who were instrumental in shaping the Disney Renaissance and are hard at work on their next Disney masterpiece Moana), was based on a series of children’s books written by Eve Titus and illustrated by Paul Galdone called Basil of Baker Street (which, incidentally, was the original name of the movie). The Great Mouse Detective follows the adventures of Basil (Barrie Ingram), a small mouse who lives in the same flat as Sherlock Holmes and takes on a number of his characteristics (like, almost all of them). With his partner Dawson (Val Bettin) he works to stop the evil Professor Ratigan (Vincent Price, in one of the greatest vocal performances ever) from overthrowing the mouse monarchy.

While no one could have known it at the time, the movie laid the groundwork for the runaway blockbusters to come, in three key ways: it had great music, utter commitment to its concept, and a willingness to innovate technologically. These would be the hallmarks of the Disney Renaissance, in everything from Beauty and the Beast to Mulan, and contributed to their resonance with audiences and critics (a resonance that can still be felt today). They are the elements that helped make these movies into modern day classics. And it all began with The Great Mouse Detective.

Firstly, there’s the music. While the Disney Renaissance was largely defined by big, Broadway-style musicals, with lavish numbers and the kind of inner-monologue-as-outer-sing-along approach that remains to this day (including with Frozen, the biggest animated hit ever), The Great Mouse Detective doesn’t follow that aesthetic, exactly, but it does point towards that direction.

It’s got a lively score by Blake Edwards confederate Henry Mancini, who co-wrote two songs for Vincent Price’s character (including the timeless “World’s Greatest Criminal Mind”), while Melissa Manchester wrote a third song. That’s right: there are only three numbers in the entire movie. But in these early days of the Renaissance, experimentation was encouraged and the formula had yet to be locked down and refined. (The Great Mouse Detective was followed by Oliver & Company, an out-and-out Broadway pop musical, complete with a New York setting but after that was the comparatively dramatic non-musical The Rescuers Down Under.)

In many ways, The Great Mouse Detective, even though it isn’t a full-on musical, captures the spirit of the later Disney Renaissance classic musicals. The “World’s Greatest Criminal Mind” number, in particular, foreshadows similar villain-led musical sequences in Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. The fact that Mancini was hired, too, showed a willingness on Disney’s part to think outside the box when it came to musical contributors, a practice that would be commonplace during the Disney Renaissance, when everyone from Hans Zimmer to Phil Collins was tasked with creating music for the animated features. (This was one of only two animated films Mancini ever scored.) You can feel that the animators were starting to realize what could work, really work, further down the line, and they were testing those things out in The Great Mouse Detective.

Another defining trait of the Disney Renaissance is how strictly it adheres to its concept. Beauty and the Beast is an updated take on a classic fairytale; The Lion King is a family drama with Shakespearean overtones; Hercules is a postmodern interpretation of timeless mythology. It was very clear what each of these movies was setting out to achieve (and even clearer how they achieved those goals). In the same way, The Great Mouse Detective is a kind of neo-noir, a fog-draped mystery with an emphasis on procedural elements and atmosphere. Everything about the movie reinstates this–the production design (vaguely steampunk-y, particularly in the finale), the special effects, the characters. Everything is working together to forward a single goal: to make a Sherlock Holmes movie starring mostly rodents.

And then, of course, there’s the element of The Great Mouse Detective that most often gets overlooked but cannot be overstated: its technological developments. From the ballroom sequence in Beauty and the Beast to the stampede in The Lion King to the zooming, “Deep Canvas” camerawork in Tarzan, the films that comprise the Disney Renaissance are known for the ways in which they push the medium technologically, to new and groundbreaking places. The Great Mouse Detective is similar in this regard and very much a trailblazer. While The Great Mouse Detective was not the first Disney animated film to use computer-generated imagery (that distinction goes to The Black Cauldron), it was the first to use it so extensively. It was primarily utilized for the climactic chase through the whirring cogs inside Big Ben. What makes it even more startling is how seamlessly the animators were able to incorporate traditionally animated characters, who interact with the CGI sets and cogs. (Computers also aided the production, with the layouts all being done with computers and the use of video cameras aiding with pencil tests.) The clock tower sequence is very similar to the ballroom sequence in Beauty and the Beast in terms of how the computer generated effects were utilized and how genuinely incredible they were at the time.

So while it’s not widely regarded as the film to kick off the Disney Renaissance, The Great Mouse Detective really should be viewed as the one to start it all. This was the beginning of the era, a new classic in Disney animation that told a story clearly and effectively, pushed the envelope technologically and emphasized music in all the right ways, made my filmmakers and animators who would be instrumental in the construction of Disney’s unparalleled winning streak. The Great Mouse Detective might be about tiny little mice, but it certainly casts a long shadow.

The post How The Great Mouse Detective Kick-Started the Disney Renaissance appeared first on Disney Blogs.

The premise for Gargoyles was deceptively simple: in medieval Scotland, there are a group of magical guardians tasked with defending an ancient castle. These are the gargoyles, who are stone statues by day and fearsome, winged creatures by night. In the pilot episode, their human confederates betray the gargoyles; many are lost and the remaining gargoyles are placed under a dangerous curse (they’ll be stone until the castle “rises above the clouds”). That happens … 1,000 years later, in our modern world, at the top of a futuristic skyscraper in New York City. Waking up in this shocking new world, the gargoyles are confused and angry, eventually taking it upon themselves to defend the castle (and eventually the entire city) once again.

From the word “go,” Gargoyles felt like something new. In its first season, the show aired once a week, but it debuted with a five-part arc that ran every day for an entire week. This was basically an afternoon animated series reconceived as a dramatic miniseries. This arc (known collectively as “Awakening”) employed an ingenious structure that allowed for extensive flashbacks to medieval Scotland and modern day action sequences to exist side-by-side. The moral center of the universe was Goliath (voiced by Keith David, who would later voice Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog), the leader of the clan of gargoyles, whose love Demona (Marina Sirtis) was killed in that initial attack and who consigned himself to the magical spell after returning to the ruined castle. After waking up in New York, he teams up with a tough cop named Elisa Maza (Salli Richardson) and investigates the mystery surrounding his awakening.

Both the look and tone were dramatically different than anything else on television, animated or otherwise.

Aesthetically, it had a stark, hard look, with an emphasis on simple silhouettes over more complex character detail. There were heavy shadows and carefully choreographed action sequences. (The animation was produced by Disney Television Animation’s Japanese studio and the anime influence is pronounced.) The look was stunning and had more in common with big budget Hollywood action movies than the television animation that it actually was. There’s a moment in the second episode, when the gargoyles are finally hoisted to the top of the skyscraper and wake up, that is as gorgeous as any piece of fully produced feature animation: lightning crackles in the background, rain dots the gargoyle’s stone exterior, and when Goliath wakes up, he does so with violent shards of stone flying into the night sky. This was Gargoyles.

While auteur-driven television is now relatively commonplace, it wasn’t in the mid-‘90s and certainly not on afternoon animation blocks. But Gargoyles’ first season was written almost entirely by the husband/wife team of Michael Reaves and Brynne Chandler Reaves. Weisman, who shepherded the series through production, would go on to become the series’ spokesperson and in a candid series of internet posts, would let fans into the process and expose what would have come for the characters, had the series continued. (Gargoyles was one of the first shows where the creative principles behind the series interacted directly with the fans.) It was clear by watching Gargoyles that it was being guided by a dedicated and incredibly small group of creators who took the series very seriously.

Which brings us to the show’s tone, which was decidedly darker and more complex. Eight episodes into the first season, while things like character and mythology were still being established, one of the gargoyles accidentally injured the cop character. While he tries to cover it up, the rest of the gargoyles target local criminals they thought were responsible and set out to exact their revenge. Heavy right? It could have been preachy and insincere (this is, after all, a show about gargoyles that come to life) but its deft execution made it a powerful, emotionally riveting episode. But thought-provoking episodes like that was nothing compared to the complexity of the mythology that surrounded them; by the second season (where the number of episodes ballooned from 13 to 52) several characters had returned (some back from the dead), romantic subplots were introduced and the gargoyles had gone on a globe-spanning mini-adventure (dubbed, by Weisman, as “The Gargoyles World Tour”). It took on Shakespearean dimensions. And the mystery grew more insidious and multifaceted; villains were revealed to be sympathetic while characters who were seemingly altruistic showed their true nature.

Watching the series today, its startling design and storytelling is even more pronounced and profound. This was a series that embraced strongly serialized storytelling years before critical darlings like Lost, an animated series that unabashedly embraced the darkness and pushed the boundaries of both design and narrative. Quite frankly it’s hard to think of an animated series, in the past 20 years, that has broken so much new ground.

The post What Made Gargoyles So Groundbreaking appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Earlier this year, a new version of Cinderella, directed with flair by Kenneth Branagh and written by Chris Weitz, was able to modernize some of the relationships and themes and retain what made the original animated film so special. Again: not an easy feat. On the home video release of Cinderella (out this week on Blu-ray, Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere), you get the sensation that all of the filmmakers were trying to make a film that lived up to the animated film’s legacy.

We got the chance to talk to Weitz, who recently wrapped script duties on next year’s hotly anticipated Star Wars: Rogue One, about trying to stay faithful to the original while also reinvigorating it, if there were any deleted scenes that he sorely misses, and a time that the movie had more overt “thriller” elements.

On the special features, it seems like you were very attached to the original animated feature and inspired by that type of approach. Was it hard to figure out what you’d reference and what you’d stay away from?
I didn’t feel like there were many edicts in terms of what we were meant to preserve. So that wasn’t hard. What’s hard is if you’re going into it, and this is just being a screenwriter, is the question of how to preserve the spirit of the film that people love, while tweaking some of its messages. Which is to say, the view of romance in the animated film is not particularly contemporary. The prince gets something like seven lines and so there’s not much for Cinderella to go on, at least as we understand it, in terms of why she loves him or why she wants to go to him. I think these days, we demanded more than that. We knew the places we wanted to go in a bit deeper and wanted to expand things and our general sense was that we didn’t want to fix the bits that weren’t broken.

What was it like working with Kenneth Branagh?
It was great. I think that, first of all, he’s a lovely guy. He’s a gentleman and a great collaborator. He’s just as good with writers as he is with actors. He really gives you the space to experiment and have fun with things. I can’t tell what he’s like on a movie where it’s not supposed to be fun. Part of what he wanted to bring to this was a real sense of lightness and joy and I think that’s something the cast and crew felt.

As light and fun as the movie was, at one point on the disc there’s a discussion of amplifying the “thriller” elements of the movie. Can you talk about that?
I think there were certain moments where you think, Well we’re going quite straight ahead with this story and there are very few surprises, in the sense that you’re making a film that everybody knows the ending to, and also the beginning and the middle as well. So there was a bit more drama at one point about whether or not Cinderella was going to reach the Prince after the ball, to get back in touch with him. Eventually it was dropped because it really wasn’t necessary. The ellipses that the fairy tale employs is very useful at times. The great thing about a story that people know the ending to is that you don’t have to explain that much. So it didn’t make sense to amp things up too much.

There are a few deleted scenes on here; was there anything you were really sad about losing?
No. I mean of course I miss every single piece of golden dialogue I ever wrote, but I really don’t. As a matter of fact, the first time I saw the final cut, I didn’t even know that they were missing, which is a great sign.

Another huge part of the disc is behind-the-scenes footage of the ballroom sequence. When you were writing that did you ever imagine the opulence would be brought to screen, or were you totally surprised?
That was a great surprise. I saw the set while it was building so I thought, Wow, this is rather big. But I wasn’t there when they were filming it, so it was a lovely experience for me to see it all put together. I think that [production designer] Dante Ferretti is a genius. So there were so many times when I watched the film, where I felt like the film was given a shot in the arm by the visuals and by the sets. It helped a huge amount.

Were you ever afraid that this version of Cinderella would be rejected? And what was your response when you realized that it was fully embraced?
Listen, with the internet, somebody’s going to dislike what you’re doing. So there was going to be somebody who disliked it. I felt really good and confident about the non-ironic approach that we were taking to this material. I felt that it was very much in the spirit of the 1950s version, even if we change things or tweak things or introduce new elements. So I felt okay about it. I was surprised and delighted when we got so many lovely reviews and when the response was so strong. I think that’s a credit to Ken’s direction and also to his casting. It’s a skill to be able to figure out how good Lily James is going to be in that role, how she’s going to elevate the material. It was really wonderful to experience it.

Cinderella is out now on Blu-ray, Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere.

The post Cinderella Writer Chris Weitz on the Magic it Took to Reinvent a Classic appeared first on Disney Blogs.

JC Richard designed this officially licensed Cinderella print, depicting the iconic castle, for Cyclops Print Works, and it goes on sale on Friday at 12pm PST. The $100, 18-color serigraph is magnificently beautiful, full of gorgeous little details that any eagle-eyed Disney fan will appreciate. It’s the kind of piece that you just soak in. What’s more, it’s being released alongside Richard’s “Paperman” print (something he describes as “joyous fun”) and Dave Perillo’s “Feast” print, both of which were (previously) D23 Expo exclusives. If you love Disney and have some empty wall space, this is your time to shine.

We got on the phone to talk to Richard about his longstanding Disney fandom, how important those little details were to the piece, and whether or not he’ll be working on any Disney pieces in the future.

So you’ve been a longtime Disney fan, right?

Yeah, I’m a huge Disney fan. Luckily, since I’ve raised some kids in the past few years, I’ve become reacquainted with the precision and majesty and lighting and sound of these animated films. Coming back to it recently has become a revelation to me. It’s really interesting.

Have you always been a fan of Cinderella?

That was always my daughter’s favorite and that was one that I probably watched the most as I got back into it. What I was always struck by, going back into the making of it, was that even though it was a step forward, they were bringing a lot more reality to it but it was also more surreal. That new technique made me keep watching it even when she wasn’t in the room. That always struck me–the environments and the lighting they brought into it. It was almost like they finally got away from technique and made a film that was a little more organic.

You chose the castle, which thanks to Walt Disney World, is probably the most iconic castle in the world. Was that a daunting proposition?

Yes, absolutely. Especially when you start to study both castles. Like the [Imagineer] Herb Ryman castle in Florida evokes the castle from the film but when you really look at them, they’re completely different. You almost see them as the same thing in your mind. The castle from the film was a little amorphous. It’s a little dreamlike because it was her dream. So I wanted to bring it a little more into the real world and just solidify some of the design for myself. I always saw it one way in my head and when you watch it in the movie, it’s not at all like the Ryman castle but they’re still similar. I wanted to bridge the two.

For Disney fans, there’s so many Easter eggs in this piece, between the star and the clock at midnight and you being able to see her coming out of the castle. How important was it to you to get all that stuff in?

That’s the ultimate importance, because that’s the storytelling of it. Seeing all those things, as much as this is a single image, I wanted to evoke all the character and all of the emotions of the film itself and of that scene. The storytelling aspects, like all things Disney, are what elevate it beyond a pretty picture or a pretty castle. I think the details are what make it real.

I don’t think it’s much of a leap to assume that you’ll be doing more Disney pieces for Cyclops.

That’s a good guess. We talk a lot about it. Seeing the breadth of the catalogue is daunting in and of itself, to be honest. I’m trying to approach it from what I want to see. Like the Cinderella piece, I want to present those classic pieces from the movie but in a new way.

The post Exclusive: Artist JC Richard On His Amazing Cinderella Castle Print appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Directed by Iron Man’s Jon Favreau, this new Jungle Book features newcomer Neel Sethi, the “man cub” Mowgli who is befriended, mentored, and menaced by various animal inhabitants of a vast African ecosystem. And the voice cast is insane. Bill Murray stars as Baloo (you can even hear him humming the “Bare Necessities” over the end of the spot), Ben Kingsley is kindly panther Bagheera (we spotted Kingsley backstage after the D23 Expo panel and he had nothing but wonderful things to say about his experience), and Lupita Nyong’o is doting wolf mother Raksha. On the other end of the spectrum, there’s Idris Elba as Shere Khan (absolutely terrifying in his brief appearance here), Scarlett Johansson as Kaa as Kaa (she narrates much of the trailer) and Christopher Walken as King Louie. You don’t get a lot of King Louie in this trailer, but he was a huge part of the D23 Expo footage and was super intimidating and awesome.

The trailer really gets across the wonderful visual aesthetic that Favreau and his collaborators have conjured for this adaptation. These characters share similar traits with their beloved animated counterparts, but are altogether fiercer and more realistic creations. When The Jungle Book opens on April 15, 2016, it will be familiar … and yet unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.

The post The Jungle Book Teaser Trailer Gets Wild appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Thanks to Disney Visa^® Card for sponsoring this post!

Every year the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival takes up residence in the World Showcase section of Walt Disney World’s Epcot, and quickly becomes the hottest spot in the world for foodies and wine connoisseurs. This isn’t just an event for the Walt Disney World faithful, this yearly event offers up a serious array of sophisticated culinary delights; Food and Wine is it.

And in the spirit of getting really, really, ridiculously excited about the event (it looks like we’ll actually be attending), we wanted to run down five things that we can’t wait to experience at this year’s Epcot International Food and Wine Festival. If this makes you insanely hungry or thirsty, we apologize ahead of time.

Rockin’ Burger Block Party

Sure, Epcot International Food and Wine is a chance to expand your palette, to experience new taste sensations from around the globe. But it’s also hard to overlook the pure joy of a good burger. The Rockin’ Burger Block Party, one of the new offerings at the Food and Wine Festival this year, is an all-night party that features world class burgers and a live DJ. Also, on October 8, the Emmy-winning hosts of ABC daytime hit show The Chew will be your hosts. As if this event could get any better.

Eat to the Beat Concerts

While you might not immediately think of Epcot Food and Wine as a place to see great concerts, it should be. The Eat to the Beat concert series is amazingly awesome this year, and should pair well with whatever wine and dish you’re treating yourself to that evening. Everyone from Wilson Phillips to Christopher Cross to the Pointer Sisters to Rick Springfield to Tiffany to Boys II Men to Chaka Khan will be preforming this year, ensuring that whenever you wind up attending Epcot Food and Wine, you’ll have a terrific concert to go along with it.

Brews, Breakfast and More

Chase sponsors the Food and Wine Festival and has a number of exclusive opportunities at the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival for Disney Visa Cardmembers. (Full disclosure: we have a Disney Visa Card.) One of the most exciting experiences is the Brews, Breakfast and More morning. Here you’ll have a three-course breakfast that uses beer as both an ingredient and a pairing. You’ll also learn about various beer styles and the history of the process, dating back to ancient Egypt. Also, and this is incredible: “In honor of the 20th Epcot Internal Food & Wine Festival, Brewmasters from the Florida Beer Company will present Passport 20 Belgian Tripel Ale. This complex beer features one ingredient for every year of the festival, including 11 ingredients for each of the countries in Epcot’s World Showcase and one special ingredient to represent the State of Florida.” Some of the truly astounding-sounding meals include “liquid-nitrogen-fried “smoking” s’mores cereal.” Um, yes.

Food Crawl

World Showcase at Epcot is a never-ending world’s fair, where countries from around the world can exhibit and present the best of their respective nations. And just like you can walk around World Showcase, experiencing bits of culture and heritage from different lands, you can do the same at Epcot Food and Wine. You can literally “taste your way around the world,” discovering hidden delights at more than 30 unique marketplaces (with the corresponding wine to go along with those aforementioned delights). This is an experience that is undoubtedly eye-opening, in more ways than one, and a perfect way to celebrate World Showcase, Epcot and the Food and Wine Festival.

The Chocolate Experience: From Bean to the Bar – Hosted by Ghirardelli® Chocolate Company

Chocolate is the finest substance known to mankind. It is also the world’s most famous flavor. And this interactive experience promises to raise your appreciation and love of chocolate even further. You can watch Walt Disney World pastry chefs create chocolate sculptures, explore the journey chocolate takes from the bean to the bar, sample chocolates, purchase gourmet drinking chocolate (probably better than your mom’s hot chocolate; just saying), select wine and chocolate pairings and shop for a bag of your favorite Ghirardelli chocolates. We could barely finish typing that last sentence without trying to consume our computer.

Epcot International Food and Wine Festival Presented by Chase runs from September 25 to November 16. Visit DisneyRewards.com to explore Disney Visa^® Card and the great benefits Cardmembers can experience at the festival this year.

The post 5 Things We Can’t Wait to Experience at Epcot Food and Wine appeared first on Disney Blogs.

This new show features, as you can imagine, a Pickle (voiced by Jon Heder) and a Peanut (Johnny Pemberton) who get into a series of comic misadventures. They’re dreamers, and they have a distinct sense of the world as a place more fantastical than it actually is. The animation style is in keeping with this sensibility, combining traditional animation with live-action embellishments. The mixed media approach creates a feverishly heightened, giddily excitable feel for the series, which recently premiered (new episodes air at 9 p.m. on Mondays).

We were lucky enough to chat with Noah Z. Jones, who created Pickle and Peanut and Joel Trussell, who developed the show. We talked about where the show came from, the series’ decidedly off kilter design aesthetic, and whether or not Tom Hanks could show up in a future episode (he worked with Hanks on an animated web series in 2012).

Where did the idea for this show come from?

Jones: During Fish Hooks, I was working on another pitch for Disney and I realized as I was working on it that if I got locked into working for those characters for the next few years, I’d probably go a little crazy because it wasn’t that interesting. So I talked to the VP of development and I said, “I don’t want to work on that, I want to work on this.” And I brought in Pickle and Peanut. It was a couple of food-based characters that I created because I liked the way pickle and peanut sounded together. That was the pitch that I sold to them and they brought Joel on pretty quickly after that to develop the pilot.

How did you develop that initial idea into the series? And how did you come up with the aesthetic?

Jones: What everything is founded on is the idea that Pickle and Peanut helped create the show. So it’s through their filter. I was really interested in doing a show that captured the spirit of your late teenage years when you’re trying to figure things out. You’re not sure who you are or what you want but you have your best friends in the world and they’re your favorite people that you could hang out with. When they brought Joel on, I was really excited, because he shared the vision of capturing that spirit. And we both had a similar vision for the aesthetic of the show.

Trussell: I’m really good at low-end, gritty aesthetics. I’m good at making things clunky. I’m trying to think, when I came on, Noah had already established Pickle and Peanut, their relationship and a little bit of their world. And I came in and we built it out from there. We came up with how to further visualize the world with live action stuff and how we wanted to make this show a little different.

Jones: We wanted to do something that stood out from the rest of the TV animation crowd. Where other shows have beautiful skies and big billowy clouds, we want to have telephone lines and power transformers invading the shots and airplane trails crisscrossing the skies. It’s not to be dirty and gross, but it just speaks to the world of our show.

Trussell: You can take those elements and make them visually appealing.

A lot of the shows on Disney XD take this kind of extreme approach to aesthetics. Is it fun to be a part of this new crop of shows?

Trussell: Oh for sure. We didn’t know what Disney XD was going to evolve into at the time, since it felt like it was still an experimental kind of playground. I think it’s a new era and a new design aesthetic going along with Disney XD. We’re excited about what’s happening with Disney XD right now.

What were you guys touching on when you created the series and as you continue to create new episodes?

Jones: The thing that has been the most inspiration for us is just looking back at when we were teenagers and the really bad decisions we made, to take from those memories and turn them into funny stories. That’s why the world is lo-fi. Pickle and Peanut live in a small town outside of Reno. We picked it because Joel and I both grew up in places that were not the nicest, most palatial suburbs. It’s fun to tell stories that take place within that world. We have really cool drainage ditches that Pickle and Peanut hang out in, just because when I was a kid, that’s where we’d hang out.

Trussell: Pickle and Peanut live in a world with low resources. We picked a suburb of Reno, Nevada, because there’s not a lot to do there and Pickle and Peanut, despite having low resources, are still able to entertain themselves. From a design aspect, shows like early The Simpsons, like how they looked like they were shooting from the hip a little bit and everything seemed uncalculated. Some of that is in our show.

Joel, you worked with Tom Hanks on an animated series. Is there any chance of getting Tom Hanks to work on Pickle and Peanut?

Jones: He could be himself.

Trussell: I would love to have Tom Hanks on the project. Are you kidding me? But he’s probably long forgotten my name.

There are so many crazy characters in Pickle and Peanut. Where does something like the foot-faced girl come from?

Jones: When we did the pilot, a lot of it was me and Joel trying to crack each other up. So we sat there for two months, throwing every gag and every joke we had at it. A lot of them survived but a lot of them were dead along the way. They weren’t as funny. We like keeping the audience on their toes with this show. That’s why the live action stuff works so well. You’ll see things like foot-faced girl throughout the show. Most of the characters that populate our world are normal people. So when you do see a foot-faced girl or a Champion Horse or a pickle with arms and legs, that stands out. That was a very conscious decision. We don’t want everything to be weird and wackadoo.

Trussell: This isn’t a hard and fast rule but it kind of feels like Pickle and Peanut, even being a pickle and a peanut, is how they visualize themselves. They feel different than most people. I think that’s where some of that stuff seeps in. Not that we’ve ever analyzed it.

If you need even more silliness, Pickle and Peanut airs on Monday nights at 9 p.m on Disney XD. Be about it.

The post Unhinged Silliness: Talking to the Creators of Disney XD’s Pickle and Peanut appeared first on Disney Blogs.

1. Sphero BB-8

The crown jewel of Force Friday was undoubtedly the Sphero BB-8, an app-controlled robot replica of the breakout droid star of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. If you’ve seen the trailers, you know who BB-8 is: the precocious, soccer ball-shaped droid who rolls around and is about the cutest sidekick in the galaxy. This take-home version of that droid is just as incredible: you control it with an app on your tablet or smartphone, and watch as he speeds up, looks around, and captures your heart. There’s a mode that lets him just roll around the room (eventually he’ll learn the layout, which will lessen the times he adorably bumps into something) and you can even send holographic messages using an augmented reality function. This is the must-have toy of Force Friday, and maybe the whole year.

2. Lego Rey’s Speeder

There is a whole fleet of Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens set (we’ve got our eye on that X-Wing), but what immediately caught our eye, thanks to its iconic design and attractive price point (around $20) was Rey’s speeder. This is one of the first vehicles from the movie anybody ever saw (featured prominently in the very first teaser trailer). This set is easy to put together and features cool embellishments like lasers that actually “fire.” It’s a blast putting this together and the end product looks really, really cool.

3. Rey with Goggles Funko Pop

We love the Funko Pop line of vinyl figures. Our desk is positively littered with them. And the Star Wars: The Force Awakens line is one of their best. So many of them are great (Phasma, BB-8, Kylo Ren) that it was hard to pick a favorite, especially if you factor in the retailer exclusives (Barnes & Noble got a chromed out C-3PO and Gamestop a helmetless Stormtrooper Finn). Our favorite, though, is the Rey with goggle variant from Hot Topic. Hot Topic has a lot of awesome Star Wars: The Force Awakens merchandise, including some killer tees, and their exclusive Funko Pop is pretty tremendous. We love this Rey figure for similar reasons that we love the Lego set: they were some of the first images from Star Wars: The Force Awakens that we ever saw, which makes them instantly iconic.

4. Millennium Falcon Drone

Everyone wants to fly the Millennium Falcon (one of the big rides planned for the Star Wars-themed lands at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disneyland involves piloting the stylish starship) and now you can! For around $100 you can take home this really cool Millennium Falcon drone from Air Hogz. The body of the ship is lightweight and durable, made of some kind of foamy material, and it’s easy to control, with a remote control that gives you power over both its lift and direction. Oh and there are sound effects too, so you can press a button and pretend that your little Millennium Falcon is making the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.

5. Kylo Ren Lightsaber

There are a number of new lightsabers on the market. There’s the build-your-own lightsaber model and another, collectors-grade version that will set you back $200. But our vote (and hard-earned cash) goes towards this Kylo Ren lightsaber from the Disney Store. It’s only $30 and is unbelievably cool. It’s really heavy, so it feels great in your hands and it’s incredibly detailed, so you can get lost just looking at it. The sound effects are dynamic and the lighting really cool (this is the cross-guard lightsaber, so the main blade lights up first and then the smaller flames). It’s got gyroscopic controls so it knows when you’re swinging it (and clashing with another lightsaber). Like we said: unbelievably cool.

6. Nerf Chewbacca Bowcaster

Chewbacca’s signature weapon, the Bowcaster, has been turned into a toy before but never by fabled foam-dart-company Nerf and we must say, this is worth the wait. You get to assemble the bowcaster yourself, which makes it a perfect companion piece to the Lego Speeder (we built both on the same Saturday afternoon) and you pull back the string to make it feel more like a crossbow. The firing might not be totally dead on, but that doesn’t matter much. We let out our best Chewbacca growl and got to firing!

7. Captain Phasma Elite Series Die Cast

This is another Disney Store gem: the Elite Series of die cast figures (they’re heavy) that feature everyone from Finn to the First Order Flame Trooper. Our favorite, though, is the figure devoted to Captain Phasma, the First Order heavy played by Gwendoline Christie. We love her silvery chrome armor and her awesome cape and the detailing of the figure, which has every pouch on her utility belt and all the plates on her equally silvery boots. The character still remains (largely) a mystery, so on a purely aesthetic level she is truly dynamic. And this Elite Series figure (still very hard to get ahold of) totally does her stylish image justice.

8. Kylo Ren Coffee Mug

While not a toy, this mug was one of our favorite Force Friday finds, at the Target near our office. The coffee mug is in the shape of the villainous Kylo Ren and it’s totally awesome. The mug holds a whole lot of coffee (or whatever else you want to drink out of it) and the design is sharp and bold. We would have never expected this to be one of our favorite items, but it totally is.

9. Eric Tan Star Wars Tee

As we stated before, we totally love the work of artist Eric Tan, who created the images that grace most of the boxes that these toys are housed in. But we would be remiss if we didn’t give him a shout out for some of the products that actual feature his design as the central image. And while this image appears on everything from a decorative print (we also saw that at Target) to the limited edition pin that they gave out at select Disney Stores at midnight on Force Friday, our favorite placement is on a terrific limited edition tee from the Disney Store. Just think how awesomely menacing you’ll look in this tee, which depicts Kylo Ren and the rest of the First Order. So deliciously evil!

Are we right on, or did we miss your favorites? Tell us in the comments.

The post Force Favorites: Our 9 Favorite Star Wars Items from Force Friday appeared first on Disney Blogs.

But how do you become an Imagineer?

Well, while the new book One Little Spark: Mickey’s Ten Commandments and the Road to Imagineering (out now) won’t guarantee you a place in the Imagineering hierarchy, it is enough to make you think about what you should and shouldn’t try when chasing that dream. It was written by Marty Sklar, a genuine Disney Legend and Imagineering Ambassador who has worked on (amongst other things) it’s a small world, Space Mountain, and The Enchanted Tiki Room, and guided the creative development of Epcot (then called EPCOT Center) at Walt Disney World. He later served as executive vice president and then president of Imagineering, overseeing creative projects at nearly every Disney park around the world.

In the book, Sklar lays out the fundamentals of what makes for a good Imagineer and the things you should always keep in mind while attempting to become one. He also interviews other Imagineers to get their perspectives on what the process is like, and offers advice that can just as easily be translated to your life (some of these lessons aren’t Disney-specific). It’s a fascinating read and like some of the best attractions Sklar worked on, informative and entertaining. We got to chat with Sklar, who took us further down the road to Imagineering.

How did this book come to be? What made you want to write down your ten commandments?

Well the whole thing started with the talks I made around my Dream It, Do It book. Everywhere I went, all over the country, I’ve had people come up to me asking about how they could become an Imagineer. That was the prevailing question. So I said, “Well I’ve got to find a way to answer this.” I knew that that alone wasn’t a book, but I also knew that my Mickey’s Ten Commandments, I had never explained them with examples. I had only written the commandment and then a one-liner explaining what the meaning was, but never had spelled each one of them out and given examples. So I started with the premise that I was going to get to the question of, “how do I become an Imagineer?” And the rest just fell into place, really.

You talk to all of these people from around the company. Was there any piece of advice that really surprised you?

I have two or three of them that almost made me cry. For example, Daniel Joseph, who was talking about how when he was a kid he couldn’t get his math or his grammar correct. He was the last one in his class and he was really looked down on. Then he started experimenting with electronics at home, building things. And he’d take him into school and pretty soon everyone would say, “How do you do that? You’re so smart!” And it changed his whole life. He writes about that and it’s pretty beautiful, I think. Then Shelby Jiggetts-Tivony, she has a wonderful story about growing up as an African-American in Richmond, Virginia, and how Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society exposed these school kids to the arts, and how she got interested in the arts because of that. Again: it’s a very nice, personal story.

The title of the book is based on the Journey Into Imagination theme song and you’ve even got an introduction by Richard Sherman. What about the song spoke to this creative process?

I told Richard when I asked him to write something, as he did for my Dream It, Do It book, that this song really was the Imagineers’ story. And he said, “Absolutely.” He wrote about that in his introduction. So it really fit beautifully. And I have to give Wendy Lefkon [editor] credit because she said that Mickey’s Ten Commandments and Road to Imagineering were not sufficient titles. So I came up with One Little Spark and she jumped on it.

Which one of these ideas is most important?

Oh, right off the bat: know your audience. Because if you start out to create something, build something, do anything in life, if you don’t know who you’re talking to, it’s not going to hit the mark. You have to identify what the purpose is and who the audience is. If you don’t do that, you’re going to flail because you might come up with great ideas but it might not fit the program you’re after or the project you’re working on.

Was there anything in your history with Imagineering where you didn’t know your audience? And what did you learn from that stumble?

Well, yes. In the book, and I give Joe Rohde a lot of credit for writing about this, but when they made Animal Kingdom, the idea was adventure and they tried to keep the entrance to each of the attractions not visible, so you’d have to find it. Well, our audience didn’t like that because they want that weenie [Editor’s Note: a weenie is a Walt Disney-devised term for an icon that draws guests’ attention, like castles or Spaceship Earth]; they want a target that they can go to. We had to go back in, during the first year, and move a lot of bushes and trees so people could see where they were going–we didn’t listen to ourselves, we didn’t follow the commandments.

One of the first things in the book is a note about not avoiding the clichés. Why is that so important?

That was George Lucas’ advice when we were working on Star Tours. And that’s because clichés are things that people understand and you can use them as a way to get through to people, in the same way that Walt did in using nostalgia. Walt always liked to tell a background story before he jumped into the future and we did that, for example, all through Epcot, trying to tell enough background about each of the subjects we were working on, to give us a platform and a foundation. And a lot of those are clichés because they’ve been used as examples before, but they work! People understand them and you can get them into the story!

You make it clear at the beginning that this wasn’t written for the 60^th anniversary of Disneyland, but that it was just a wonderful coincidence. What do you think of Disneyland now and where do you think it’s headed?

It’s pretty astounding to me. How many things in your life that are 60 years old are still relevant to you? I bet you don’t have anything. Maybe some memorabilia from your family, but other than that, you don’t have anything that’s 60 years old. But this is the same place as it was 60 years ago when Walt opened it. You walk onto that Main Street and you understand that something is different. It’s inviting and it communicates to you a sense of wellbeing and happiness and reassurance, as John Hench used to say, that the world can be okay. Those values are so important to us today, maybe even more important to us when Disneyland opened 60 years ago. We need that, we need those kind of foundations that we can use as a platform to develop things for the future. And as far as the future of Disneyland, I think it’s unlimited.
Order One Little Spark now and get into the magic!

The post Disney Legend Marty Sklar On the One Little Spark Needed to Become an Imagineer appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Disney Movies Anywhere, the unique platform that allows you to get your favorite Disney movies across multiple devices and streaming services, announced earlier this week that it has two new partners: Amazon Video and Microsoft Movies & TV. And what’s more, customers in the U.S. who sign up for Disney Movies Anywhere will get a free copy of Monsters, Inc. to enjoy across all of these streaming services. If you’re new to Disney Movies Anywhere, it’s really quite magical: one purchase, whether it’s on a digital service iTunes or as a code received in a physical copy, will unlock the movie across the board, on everything from YouTube to Vudu. (When you enter the special DMA code, you can choose which service you want the movie to be played on.) These new partners means you can really watch your Disney movies anywhere, and we couldn’t be more excited.

Arrrrr! It’s Pirates of the Caribbean as Told by Whiteboard

If you loved Frozen and Tangled as told by emoji, get ready for the next great video recreation from Oh My Disney. This time it’s Pirates of the Caribbean as told by whiteboard and it is grand. Relive your favorite moments from Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, but told on something that you probably write your grocery list on. It’s a hoot. And don’t worry, if you have little pirates who want to watch, it’s not rated arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.

Osborne Lights Dances One More Time

The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights has been part of the Walt Disney World holiday tradition since 1995. And as the Disney Parks blog points out, this holiday season will be the finale for the amazing light display, which was based on a light display that an Arkansas family put up every holiday season. While the light display original was just made up of the Osborne family lights, it has grown exponentially each year and includes more and more Hidden Mickeys. It first took place on the Residential Street area of the studio’s back lot, and then moved to the New York Street (after the Lights! Motor! Action! Extreme Stunt Show took over that space), also part of the back lot. The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights has gone through a number of substantial changes and upgrades, including, in 2011, when the traditional Christmas lights were swapped out for more beautiful, energy efficient LED lights. So if you’ve never seen the lights before, this is your last chance. It’s a truly immersive, amazing experience that will instantly put you in the holiday spirit. And don’t worry, the magic is going to be replaced by even more amazingness, as Disney’s Hollywood Studios gets ready for the Star Wars– and Toy Story-themed lands coming to the park.

Jessica Jones, Agent Carter and Agents of SHIELD Set to Appear at NYCC

Last year, at New York Comic Con, the world was introduced to Marvel’s Netflix wonder Daredevil. At this year’s New York Comic Con, happening in October, another new Netflix Marvel series will be unveiled, and some of your favorite Marvel series will be making a return appearance. On Friday, October 9, get ready for Marvel Television Presents: Agents of Primetime. Marvel’s Head of Television Jeph Loeb will return with exciting news about your favorite Marvel shows on ABC, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and our beloved Agent Carter. The next day, on Saturday, October 10, Loeb returns and this time you’ll meet the cast and crew of the new Netflix original series, Jessica Jones (based on the comic book series by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos), about a superhero private detective (played by Krysten Ritter). Jessica Jones is coming in November and this will be your first chance to get a glimpse of your next serious binge watch. You’ll also celebrate the stellar first season of Daredevil, with a look towards that show’s second season (debuting in 2016).

Did we miss anything else? Let us know in the comments!

The post 4 Disney Things You Might Have Missed This Week appeared first on Disney Blogs.

This all-new theatrical production will open at the Hyperion Theater, and will “immerse you in the world of Frozen as never before.” Dana Harrel, Portfolio Creative Entertainment Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering, told the Disney Parks Blog: ““Our stage production of Frozen will stay true to the heart and soul of the film. Anna and Elsa will carry the audience on an emotional journey that includes show-stopping production numbers and a few unique theatrical twists. We can’t wait for everyone to see it!” Disney Parks Blog notes that the new production will come complete with “elaborate costumes and sets, stunning special effects and surprising scenic transformations.”

Of course, with a new show set to open at the Hyperion Theater, that means another one will sadly close. After nearly 14,000 shows, Disney’s Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular will have its final curtain call on January 10, 2016. Since opening 13 years earlier (almost to the day, it’s opening date was January 16, 2003), the show has delighted millions of guests, as it magically recreated fan favorite moments and musical numbers from the animated classic. If you haven’t seen it yet, the show will still be performed several times daily up until January 10, 2016. So if one of your three wishes is to see this production, you still have time to make that happen!

“Thanks to our amazing cast and the many, many fans, Disney’s Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular has enjoyed a longer run at Disney California Adventure park than we could have ever imagined,” said Vice President of Operations for Disney California Adventure park Kris Theiler told Disney Parks Blog. “Today, we are excited to share more exciting news about another story that will soon come to life for guests at the Hyperion Theater. With larger-than-life musical numbers, wondrous scenery and lovable characters, Frozen will begin entertaining guests in 2016.”

This new musical at Disney California Adventure is one of several Frozen-themed attractions on the way for various Disney theme parks. Next year, Frozen Ever After will open at the Norway pavilion in Walt Disney World’s Epcot, and an entire new Nordic port of Arendelle is on the way at Disney TokyoSea. (Currently the Coolest Summer Ever limited time event is winding down at Walt Disney World.) So if you’re a fan of the film, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to let it go over the next few years.

The post In Summer: A Frozen Musical Debuts at Disney California Adventure in 2016 appeared first on Disney Blogs.

We reached out to Alex Hirsch, the creator of Gravity Falls and the writer of last night’s episode, to talk about writing an episode around “the gals,” who could be possessed by Bill Cipher, and an exclusive reveal about the cop show spin-off of Gravity Falls. (Actually, he was just kidding about that last part. We think.)

This episode is great because it gives Mabel, Wendy, Grenda, and Candy a chance to go on an adventure of their own. Is this something you’d wanted to do for a while?

In TV it’s always fun to pair up different characters who don’t normally hang out and see how they’d mesh together. In this instance, we thought it would be fun to contrast Mabel’s glitter-and-hugs mentality with Wendy’s teen-angsty rebellious streak. Candy and Grenda generally act as gleeful followers to whatever strong personality acts as a leader, and it’s funny to me how quickly they shift alliances to Wendy’s side.

Early on we see a memory-erasing gun from the Society of the Blind Eye in Ford’s office (that Dipper later tries to use on his great uncle). Are we to believe that Ford was a member of the Society of the Blind Eye?

Not quite—Ford was in the portal when the society was created! If you recall, Dipper got his memory-gun from the Society, and then gave it to Ford in order to get rid of the government agents. Ford has had the gun ever since. Don’t feel bad for getting it wrong though; there are a lot of sneaky hidden details tying the chronology together. We are working on a canon Journal #3 to sell in stores that will answer these questions and reveal some big new secrets as well!

What are some of your favorites of Mabel’s 1,000 good deeds?

I think somewhere in that list is “Abolish the Electoral College.” Way to go, Mabel!  I don’t know how she managed to fix American democracy in an afternoon, but in the power of a montage anything is possible!

Was it fun to shed some light into the backstory between Ford and Bill Cipher and to get a glimpse at the larger threat?

Befriending Bill was the worst mistake Ford ever made. His ego was so seduced by the idea of being “chosen” by a muse that he became Bill’s biggest fan. Ever wonder why there were so many Bill shaped artifacts in the shack (rug, stained glass, etc.)? Ford was obsessed with this god-like character’s influence on history.  Unfortunately for Ford, this “god” was really the devil in disguise. And he’s getting ready for Revelations.

One of our favorite sequences was when Mabel and crew visit the gnome bar and the sting operation that follows. Have you thought of a Gravity Falls spinoff concerned with undercover gnomes and that cute deer with the police light on its head?

For Gravity Falls to turn into The Wire for a minute cracked us up on the office. I honestly can’t believe they let us get away with it. That was so fun to write, and I would love to write more if someone let me. Look forward to Gnome PD: Miami Nights coming this fall!

Once again, the stinger was super important: Bill promises to possess one of our beloved Gravity Falls citizens. Please tell me Tad Strange is safe.

No one is safe. I would advise you to lock your doors, burn any triangle-shaped objects in your home, and get “It’s a Small World” stuck in your head. Bill won’t enter your brain if he has to listen to that.

The post Exclusive: Gravity Falls Creator Alex Hirsch On The Last Mabelcorn appeared first on Disney Blogs.

The episode opens with the inhabitants of the Mystery Shack fast asleep: Mabel is clutching her stuffed unicorn toy, Dipper has fallen asleep reading a boys adventure novel (The Sibling Bros. in: The Telltale Fable of the Unstable Table) and, elsewhere in the house, Ford is having a terrifying dream. The imagery is astounding, both in its complexity and rich symbolism: he’s in the middle of a field when a crop-circle like figure is made; eventually it forms the shape of Bill Cipher. Cipher tells Ford that he’s been “making deals” and “chatting with old friends,” a reference (perhaps) to last episode’s closer, which had Bill colluding with Little Gideon. Bill warns Ford that he’s coming for him; the end of days is near. Bill is seen against a rip in the fabric of the universe. Everything about this sequence is haunting: the dusty field Ford is standing in, the ruined portal behind him, the swing set where Ford and Stan would swing, sitting idle. And of course Bill Cipher, who has emerged as just another piece of Gravity Falls’ weird puzzle into a truly terrifying adversary. Ford is startled away and says, “I have to warn them.”

Cue title sequence.

Dipper and Mabel are looking for a fun board game to occupy their time. In the spider-webbed closet they find Battle Chutes and Ladder Ships, Necronomiconopoly, Connect Forty-Four and, What Could Go Wrong? The Board Game. “The last players who opened this box never made it out alive,” Dipper reads. After a moment he agrees, “Well this should take up the next 21 minutes.” This is a winking reference to the length of an average episode and a total misdirect; the twins put down the board games and shuffle into the living room for a family meeting, called by Ford. Outside, Ford is handing his confederate “Santiago” a barrel full of pug puppies. This is a reference to the last episode, which listed one of Stan’s many criminal offenses as “pug trafficking.”

Ford is issuing a warning about the dangerous nature of Bill, but the twins have already dealt with him and dispatched him (“Once with kittens and once with tickles,” Mabel cheerfully reminds us). When Dipper tries to bring up how Ford knows Bill, he shrugs off his question, instead focusing on the task at hand: making the Mystery Shack “Bill-proof.” The only problem: the last ingredient is unicorn hair. Mabel promptly freaks out. Her first word was unicorn, she is wearing a unicorn sweater and she’s “probably the most pure-of-heart person in this room.” Ford hands her the journal and a crossbow and Mabel calls Wendy, Grenda, and Candy and tells them to “clear the afternoon.” Still, Ford doesn’t believe that Mabel can do it. “If I had to describe unicorns in one word it would be frustrating,” he intones.

When Mabel leaves to go questing, Ford brings Dipper down to his study, “a place where I keep my most ancient and secret knowledge … even Stan doesn’t know about this place.” Ford’s idea? If he can’t Bill-proof the Mystery Shack, then they’ll have to Bill-proof their minds. The situation is dire. Cut to the relentlessly upbeat Mabel, who says, “It’s nice to be out on a mission, just us gals.” They reach the enchanted realm of the unicorn, and the unicorn is a prissy princess, demanding that they all take off their shoes (“I have a thing about shoes” she coos from her light-up horn). When Mabel steps up to accept the lock of the unicorn’s hair, the unicorn informs her that she isn’t pure of heart.

This leads Mabel on a good deed spree, while Dipper and Ford discuss Bill (Ford says, “He’s older than our galaxy and far more twisted”). Ford discloses that Bill is unable to manifest physically but can “project himself through the mindscape.” He wants the tear (the small snow globe of inter-dimensional goo), because it will allow him to enter our world. (Ford went so far as to have a metal plate inserted in an attempt to keep Bill out.) When Dipper brings up Ford’s history with Bill, he again shushes him.

The Mabel-doing-good-deeds montage (scored by an upbeat, ‘80s-style song) is pretty amazing, and includes her giving blood and planting a tree (her to-do list includes “Scratch Waddles,” “Wash Soos,” and “Sponsor Clown”). When they return to the enchanted forest, the unicorn again denies her. This sends Mabel into a spiral of self-doubt. Wendy suggests that they stop trying to be who the unicorn wants them to be and start acting like they are “crazed, angry, sweaty animals; we’re not unicorns, we’re women!”

Wendy, Candy and Grenda enter a gnome bar and ask who can “take down a unicorn.” A grizzled gnome suggests “fairy dust,” since it’s “enough to put a unicorn out cold.” For a jar full of butterflies (“I like they way they tickle my face”), the girls get their fairy dust, but in the middle of the deal, the undercover gnome police spring out and take the grizzled gnome away (our favorite is the deer with the flashing police light on its head). When the grizzled gnome complains, the lead gnome cop says, “Tell it to the adorable owl we’ve dressed as a judge.” As far as insane Gravity Falls tangents go, this is one of the best ever.  The girls put the unicorn to sleep and are about to snip a locket of its hair, when Mabel stops them, only to be interrupted by two male unicorns who tell the female unicorn to give up the scam. “Unicorns can’t see into your heart,” he says, “all our dumb horns can do is glow, point towards the nearest rainbow, and play rave music.” That’s when Mabel punches a unicorn in the face and the epic clash between humans and unicorns erupts.

Meanwhile, back at the Mystery Shack, Dipper is hooked up to the machine designed to block his mind from Bill’s trickery. Still, he’s gripped with the mystery of what Ford is thinking, so he puts the mind helmet on Ford to see his thoughts. “Just a little peek,” Dipper says. Then he sees: Ford made an unholy alliance with Bill. When Ford comes to, it looks like he’s possessed. Dipper picks up one of those memory-erasing guns from the Society of the Blind Eye and points it at Ford. After Dipper fires the gun (it ends up shorting out the machine they were using to help safeguard their minds), Ford explains what his relationship with Bill really was. “Bill tricked me,” Ford explains. A long time ago, Bill presented himself as a friend. Bill would help Ford with his investigation of Gravity Falls, and Bill was able to move freely in and out of Ford’s minds (“We were partners”). Bill instructed Ford on how to build the gateway between worlds, while hiding what the portal would do (“When that portal finishes charging, your dimension is going to learn how to party”). Ford had been betrayed and shut down the portal, hiding the instructions in the journal so no one could finish Bill’s work. Ford lays it out clearly: if Bill succeeds, it’s the end of the world.

Still, Mabel returns, covered in unicorn blood, clutching a locket of unicorn hair. (Also, lots of jewels and gold.) In the mid-credits scene, though, Dipper and Ford finish the force field around the Mystery Shack. Then we see Bill, drifting in the cosmic void, who says, “I’m going to have to find my next pawn on the outside.” Inside Bill’s eye flashes glimpses of all sorts of Gravity Falls townsfolk: everyone from the local TV news anchor to the time cops from “Blendin’s Game.” Sadly, there was no Tad Strange.

This was an epic episode, full of startling revelations and really, really good jokes. The stakes have been set up considerably; whatever Bill is playing at, it’s going to be huge. And if Gravity Falls was fundamentally changed with Ford’s arrival, it’s set to really change with these upcoming episodes. And we can’t wait.

The post Gravity Falls Recap: The Last Mabelcorn appeared first on Disney Blogs.

So when you take the already sky-high levels of excitement usually associated with Star Wars merchandise, and you mix it with brand-new, never-before-seen characters, droids, and vehicles from an upcoming Star Wars film, the enthusiasm is going to be blinding. This is especially true when the toy release has been trending on Twitter (#ForceFriday) and accompanied by an 18-hour global unboxing presentation that had just ended, mere hours before.

Such was the case last night, when the Disney Store in San Francisco, one of only three Disney Stores in the entire country to do this, opened their doors at midnight and allowed people to come in and devour all of the never-before-seen Star Wars product, in the ultimate Force Friday event. Star Wars: The Force Awakens was ready for its grand unveiling.

See how the Disney Store in San Francisco prepared for Force Friday.

We arrived at the Disney Store around six p.m., when it was beginning to close down so it could be fully transformed into an intergalactic hub. Even then, more than six hours before the store would reopen for Star Wars mania, there were people waiting outside. The family at the head of the line had been there since 2:45 p.m. If patience is a virtue, then these folks were saintly.

A little after six the store went down for its transformation. The front doors and window, massive slabs of glass, were covered with brown paper. This product was still top secret, and they wanted it to stay that way. Slowly, merchandise that had previously existed in the main rotunda was removed to make way for everything pertaining to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Meanwhile, downstairs, a small army of Disney Store employees was opening giant cardboard boxes, unsure of what was even inside. (It cannot be stressed how secretive these toys were.) They would remove an item, look it over, gain a quick understanding of what it was and where it was meant to be placed, and then shuttle these items upstairs, where other activities were taking place (mannequins were being redressed and giant posters, featuring these new characters, were hoisted and leaned against the walls). The magic of the Disney Store is maintained because of tirelessly hardworking people like those who manned the San Francisco Disney Store last night. They make it look effortless because that’s just how good they are.

And while there were a number of truly amazing toys that night (and we’ll be getting into that in the days and weeks ahead), there was one that stood above all others as the must-get item: the app-controlled BB-8. BB-8 is the new droid in the movie (dubbed the “soccer ball droid” by some due to his spherical shape and geometric markings), and is as cute and full of personality as R2-D2. The BB-8 toy, designed by a company called Sphero (known for its spherical robots), has a number of nifty abilities (like “patrolling” around the room independently) and looks and feels like a real robot. This was the one toy that everybody wanted. And throughout the night Adam Wilson, one of the co-founders of Sphero, would stop by and say hi to the fans, giving an impromptu demonstration for a local news crew or just chatting with those who were waiting. He seemed genuinely awestruck by the reception to his little robot and more than happy to engage with people. If there’s already a breakout star of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it’s clearly the adorable droid.

As the night rolled along, the same cast members who had been so amazing getting the product up from the basement to the store floor were now entertaining the guests in line. (The line by this point had stretched beyond the sidewalk and switched back around the block.) These cast members were holding impromptu trivia contests and handing out tickets for guests who wanted to purchase the app-controlled BB-8 (two per customer). Meanwhile inside, the rotunda was being filled with new characters: Captain Phasma, her chrome armor exemplified by children’s Halloween costumes, action figures, and an incredible helmet that changes your voice; evil villain Kylo Ren, whose likeliness was molded into a huge, talking toy, several pieces of clothing (including a children’s sweatshirt that we were hoping came in an XXXL size) and another cool voice-changing mask/helmet; and, of course, BB-8, who didn’t just come in app-controlled robot form, but was also a miniature figure, die cast model and huggable plush. These characters, especially when placed next to Star Wars legacy toys, felt like familiar faces. They are clearly inhabitants of the same galaxy (far, far away).

Finally, as the night crept towards midnight, there was an eerie sense of calm inside the store. Since the brown paper over the windows kept the fans from seeing inside, it also kept the cast members from peering out, so it was hard to get a sense of just how pumped the people standing on the sidewalk were getting. (As it turns out, very, very pumped.) The store looked beautiful: everything was in its right place and laid out perfectly, and when they brought in that family (the ones who had been waiting since 2:45 in the afternoon) to officially open the store, it bordered on the transcendent. The young girl in the family stepped up to the giant fairy tale lock and instead of the usual key ceremony that opens the Disney Store, the cast members announced that she would have to use The Force to open the store. So the young girl put out her hand and the lock magically fell away. Force Friday was officially underway. But instead of a mad stampede, the crowd was sedate and respectful. A few moments passed where everyone, who was so desperate to get inside, just looked around the room, at the hard work that all of the cast members had put in, and the room was filled with a hushed sort of awe. They drank it in, appreciating the moment. Because there aren’t many like this, when fans can come together, expressing their appreciation for something they love. The vibes were cosmically good.

The post Force Friday: Our Adventures in a Disney Store Galaxy Far, Far Away appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Like the first emoji series, this one is currently available on Twitter. If you use any one of the following hashtags, the new emoji (an X-Wing from Star Wars: The Force Awakens) will reveal itself to you, like a glittery Force ghost:

#Resistance

#XWing

#StarWarsXWing

#PoeDameron

#PoesXWing

#ForceFriday

#OscarIsaac

#Jakku

#TheForceAwakens

#StarWars

#StarWarsTheForceAwakens

Once you enter the hashtag on Twitter, the emoji will automatically pop up in your tweet. And it’s a good one, too. This new emoji is the X-Wing piloted by piloted by Poe Dameron (the ridiculously talented Oscar Isaac) in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And like all of the other emojis, Truck Torrence, an insanely wonderful artist who goes by the name 100% Soft, created this adorable space vehicle. We jumped on the phone with Torrence to talk about his latest adorable addition to the Star Wars universe.

What was cool about this new X-Wing, Torrence said, was the fact that “it’s inverted colors—it’s black and orange.” (The X-Wings from the original trilogy were a kind of muddy white with an orange stripe, this new model is mainly orange with black markings.) Truck even has his ideal Force Awakens toy picked out. “I would love an iPhone-controlled BB-8,” he said, with joy. And while he is thrilled to be a part of nearly every big event leading up to the opening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Torrence is ready for the film itself. “I’m excited to see the movie. I just want to see it. I’m a lifelong Star Wars fan, so I have the experience of being over-saturated with fan stuff before, like you couldn’t escape Star Wars for the prequels,” Torrence said. “And at this point, I’ve seen enough. I just want to see the movie. Give me the movie, let me see the whole thing, and I’ll be excited about the whole thing.”

And while the new X-Wing emoji is currently a Twitter exclusive, there are tons of cool emojis on the Star Wars App, available from both the App Store and Google Play.

The post Woohoo! The #ForceFriday X-Wing Emoji Has Landed! appeared first on Disney Blogs.

When it comes to Force Friday, you’ll be seeing a lot of Tan’s work on the shelves, especially since he created the packaging design for most of the products (featuring the fearsome Kylo Ren, complete with a reddish hue). Tan refers to these pieces of art as the “branding system” that everything falls under. And while it might be something that you tear through to get to the goodies underneath, it’s still a gorgeous design and something that Tan found incredibly cool. “It’s amazing because I grew up, as a kid, collecting all of those action figures and geeking out over the packaging and to be able to design those now, I can’t explain it,” Tan said. (And, of course, we tried to push him to explain it.) “It’s like you get to be a kid again and relive all of those memories you had, as a kid, looking at all that stuff on the store shelf and imaging what kids today will make of it.” After getting the story pitch for the new film about a year-and-a-half ago, it left Tan “speechless” and he was totally on board.

Tan says that he came upon the image of Kylo Ren (played in the film by Lincoln star Adam Driver) as the main component to the packaging pretty early. “We knew, early on, that Kylo was the big deal on this thing,” Tan said. “He is the most menacing, cool-looking character and there’s also a lot of mystery to him. In the past we’ve used Stormtroopers, we’ve used Darth Vader, it felt like he was kind of the perfect to keep the line going. And making it new, like, who is this character?” We’re wondering the same thing.

And while there are definitely Tan-created designs making their way to store shelves on Force Friday, he isn’t sure what, exactly, will be there, which makes it even more fun for him. “I do the artwork but I’m not necessarily a part of how it gets put into product,” Tan explained. “So it’s a mystery to me too and I’ve purposefully not asked questions, like, ‘What did you do with that poster?’ Or, ‘What did you do with that character item?’ I’m just a fan like everyone else. So I’m going to go to the store and see what made it in.” Still, he maintains that you will see his work come Force Friday: “Not only will the whole branding system be unveiled at all the retailers but we did a lot of new artwork, and we really focused on the new characters. It’s all about introducing this new group and we did a lot of art with these new characters.”

When we brought up how much fun it must be to draw BB-8, her spherical robot sidekick, Tan also surprised us. “He’s more difficult than you’d think,” Tan said. “Because he’s a sphere, everything to draw around him, the graphics and things, is hard. It’s not easy. It just looks wrong all the time. It’s easier to draw something on a flat surface. Once you get a sphere going and you are trying to get all the circles and the little buttons in perspective, it’s kind of a nightmare.” Still, he says a remote-controlled BB-8 is his number one Force Friday item. “I want one,” he said.

If you’ve followed Tan’s work long enough, chances are you’re familiar with his series of prints, depicting the original trilogy, that were limited edition pieces from the Disney Store. They were 12” x 36” and absolutely stunning (a cursory glance on eBay shows one of the prints dedicated to Star Wars: A New Hope going for a cool $1,500). When we asked if he would be doing new ones for the new Star Wars films, he seemed optimistic (giving us a new hope of actually owning one). “I think there’s a demand for it,” Tan said. “I’d love to keep the series going, because that was the whole goal.”

While Tan admits that he’s already “really heavy” into work on next year’s Star Wars: Rogue One, he’ll also be contributing to another really cool bit of Star Wars-related awesomeness that will be happening much sooner: The Art Awakens show that will be held at Gallery 1988 this fall. The show was teased at D23 Expo last month, where two new prints (one for the light side of The Force, the other for the dark side) were first sold. “I’m one of seven artists chosen to do a screen print, and the rest will be original paintings and there’s a fan component, too,” Tan said. “I can’t wait to see them all. I purposefully haven’t asked Gallery 1988 which artists they chose and what those artists are doing.” Like any good fan, he’s still ready to be surprised.

The post Packaging the Galaxy: Artist Eric Tan On Creating the Force Awakens Box Art appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Walt Disney famously loved trains, something that he carried with him from his childhood in Marceline. He came up with the idea for Mickey Mouse while riding on a train and had many trains, of varying sizes, at his home. Later, he built trains for his theme parks and put them in his movies. Train enthusiast seems like too tame a description for what Walt Disney was. He had a passion for them. And it showed.

So in honor of Walt’s love of trains (and in celebration of the release of All Aboard), we are counting down five of our favorite Disney trains. Toot toot!

5. Constitution and the Jupiter from The Lone Ranger (2013)

The train chase sequence that ends The Lone Ranger is, quite simply, the greatest train chase in the history of motion pictures. Directed by visionary filmmaker Gore Verbinski (who staged a similar ship-to-ship battle for the climax of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End) and assisted by the wizards at visual effects house Industrial Light & Magic, the sequence is absolutely stunning, featuring crisscrossing train tracks, big action set pieces, and all set to the familiar “William Tell Overture.” To accommodate the sequence, the filmmakers built five miles of railroad in the middle of the desert, as well as the two trains. (They also had a “road rig” unit, where the trains were on the back of flatbed trucks, driven through closed roads.) The Jupiter is a smaller, more passenger-oriented train and the Constitution is, in the words of production designer Crash McCreery (on the film’s Blu-ray special features), “a beast.” Added McCreery: “These trains are characters.” They are really are characters and in this climactic sequence, those characters are hard to look away from. As Amendola says, “The film is an adrenaline rush on steel wheels.”

4. Fort Wilderness Railroad

Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground is a sprawling camping resort within Walt Disney World Resort. The Campground officially opened in November, 1971, and from 1973 to 1980 featured a marvelous, steam-powered railroad called the Fort Wilderness Railroad, which added to the campground’s rustic charm and lost-in-time theming. The engines were not given names, like the train that circled the nearby Magic Kingdom, but were instead issued numbers that were painted on their sides. (These trains were significantly smaller than their Magic Kingdom cousins, as well, but just as beautiful.) While much of the track still remains around Fort Wilderness, the resort repurposed several of the Fort Wilderness Railroad’s train cars. Two were reused as ticket booths at the entrance of nighttime destination Pleasure Island (currently in the process of being turned into Disney Springs), while another was found outside heavily themed waterpark Typhoon Lagoon, in the parking lot. Even now, the Fort Wilderness Railroad is being used to set the stage.

3. Animal Kingdom Wildlife Express Train

This railroad, which takes guests at Disney’s Animal Kingdom from Harambe, Africa to Rafiki’s Planet Watch, is staggering, both due to its rustic aesthetic and commitment to theme. These trains are part of the fictional Easter Star Railway, and as All Aboard author Amendola explains, was originally supposed to travel through the savanna plains so “guests could view the animals from the coaches.” (This was later shuttered due to concerns for the animals’ safety.) Still, the Wildlife Express Train is super charming, and highly stylized. Amendola points out that, unlike the Walt Disney World locomotives, keeping with the more grounded, real-world approach of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, are based on the actual East African Railway system and “purposely distressed, complete with dust, grime, loose baggage containers on the roof, off-center headlamps, and a water buffalo skull above the smoke box.” The ride on the Animal Kingdom Wildlife Express Train is short (round trip, it’s just over a mile), but very much worth it.

2. Tomorrowland Viewliner

We wanted to include some kind of monorail on this list, but trains have two rails, and thusly our beloved monorails were disqualified. So, we decided to do a deep dive and find the next best thing: the Tomorrowland Viewliner. A sort of proto-monorail, with a track that ran parallel alongside the Disneyland Railroad track, when it opened in 1957, was billed as “the fastest miniature train in the world.” It was constructed by legendary Imagineer Bob Gurr and built as a scale replica of General Motors’ hyper-stylized Aerotrain. The track looped through Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, with the cars named for various planets (on the Tomorrowland side) and classic Disney characters (on the Fantasyland side) and dazzled visitors for more than a year, until construction of the nearby Matterhorn and Submarine Voyage necessitated that the Disneyland Railroad use the track. As with everything in Tomorrowland, it was a glimpse at things to come; in this case it previewed the even-more-beloved (and still running!) monorail.

1. Disneyland Railroad

This is it: the greatest Disney theme park railroad, and also the first; this is a railroad that still dazzles us to this day (and it’s 60 years old). It’s not just a mode of transportation, it’s a thrilling attraction in its own right, and ending your day at Disneyland with a trip on the Disneyland Railroad is the perfect closure to a magical experience. The train is long, traveling a mile-and-a-half and taking more than 20 minutes. It’s also rich with history: not only do you get to see a magnificent view of the theme park, but you also get to see things like Delmer J. Yoakum’s Grand Canyon diorama (the longest in the world, featuring actual stuffed animals), and the Primeval World diorama, which was added in 1966, fresh from the 1964-65 World’s Fair attraction Ford Magic Skyway (where many of the audio-animatronics were originally held). The Disneyland Railroad has evolved along with the park (it was rerouted slightly for the Indiana Jones Adventure and sections were enclosed when New Orleans Square was developed), but it still remains as charming as ever. (Additionally, it was sponsored by the Santa Fe Railroad until 1974, since the Santa Fe line no longer operated passenger service thanks to the nationalization of Amtrak.)  Even the passenger cars are unique; we love the one that only faces outward, towards what you are supposed to be looking at. The Disneyland Railroad has four stops (New Orleans Square, Main Street, Tomorrowland, and Mickey’s Toontown) and five distinct locomotive engines, familiar to the Disneyland train watchers. On July 17, 1955, Walt Disney drove the Disneyland Railroad (he was piloting No. 2, the E.P. Ripley) into the Main Street Station for the first time. As Amendola says, “Exactly one year earlier, all that was on this 160-acre property in Anaheim were orange groves. Walt had built his park, and it was surrounded by a train.”

The post All Aboard: Our 5 Favorite Disney Trains appeared first on Disney Blogs.

The sunny 44-minute mystery, in the spirit of Edward Stratemeyer’s Hardy Boys, aired on May 25, 1986, the same night as global concert phenomenon Live Aid (watched by 30,000,000 people worldwide) and the start of the Hands Across America campaign (where willing strangers were linked, arm-in-arm, from Los Angeles to New York), so “Casebusters” certainly had some hefty competition as it aired. But it’s widely available on a number of streaming services and certainly worth a watch, especially if you want to bask in the craftsmanship and artistry of Craven and also want to sleep tonight.

In some ways, “Casebusters” is an anomaly in Craven’s oeuvre; it’s squeaky clean, brightly lit, and features no fewer than two chase sequences scored by cheery pop songs. The mini-movie’s central narrative, about a kindly private eye (Pat Hingle, who most will remember as Commissioner Gordon from the Michael Keaton Batman movies) whose grandkids Jamie and Allie come to visit and end up uncovering a much larger case (it involves a counterfeit money ring), is pretty standard. But Craven manages to actually craft a few memorably suspenseful set pieces, notably when the kids are investigating a spooky old house that looks an awful lot like the central location of a later Wes Craven film. And you can tell that Craven gets a kick out of working with young actors, something that he perfected on his breakout film, released just two years before “Casebusters,” and would later exhibit in other films. Craven was a tweedy intellectual and had a professorial air about him and you could tell that he knew, on a basic psychological level, what was so important about the intersection of spooky stories and adolescence.

“Casebusters,” with its truncated running time and zippy illustrated title sequence (set to Hall & Oates’ immortal “Private Eyes”), feels like a backdoor pilot to a series that never happened. Not that the “Casebusters” case was actually closed. In 1995, a series of “Casebusters”-affiliated novels were first released, in conjunction with Disney Adventures magazine. (Disney Adventures was a small, TV Guide-sized entertainment and education magazine published ten times a year.) The book series, with subtitles like “Check in to Danger” and “Secret of the Time Capsule,” had a more supernatural slant and featured a different set of heroes (brothers Sean And Brian, perhaps as a more explicit nod to the Hardy Boys). But the spirit of the book franchise, which ran for a dozen books and finished in 1997, seems to be impossibly linked to what Craven created on a sleepy Sunday night a decade earlier.

So while Craven might have been known for his more outwardly intense films, it would be a shame to overlook “Casebusters,” a charming oddity that is very much worth seeking out (we found it on iTunes, YouTube and Amazon Prime). “Casebusters” is slight but lovable, with few of the Craven hallmarks, and it managed to make us smile on this otherwise sad day.

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If you’re new to the Disney Infinity universe, let us briefly explain the core game mechanics: the game is roughly divided into two halves. The first half consists of play sets, with a more structured style of gameplay and a straightforward game narrative. The second half of the game is the Toy Box, where toy versions of your favorite characters interact and where you can create your own, incredibly dense levels using designs that you come up with. (We recently attended the annual Toy Box Summit and we can say that it’s genuinely awe-inspiring what committed users can come up with.) Each edition of the game adds more and more characters to play with, with the first edition comprised largely of classic Disney and Disney•Pixar characters and the second adding characters from the Marvel universe. For Disney Infinity 3.0, the game is adding characters from a galaxy far, far away.

Inherent to the Disney Infinity experience are small, action figure-like characters that are placed on an electronic gamepad that you plug into your respective system (Disney Infinity 3.0 is available for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, and Xbox One; we played the PlayStation 4 version). You can swap in different figures for different missions, since chances are that they have a specific move or ability that can help you traverse part of the world, and in the Toy Box mode, where imagination runs wild, it’s fun to mix and match characters in fun and unexpected ways. As an added bonus, every figure from previous installments of Disney Infinity can be used in the Toy Box, which is beyond awesome.

When Disney Infinity 3.0 comes out tomorrow, there are some wonderful play sets that will be available (and so many more will come out throughout the year, including one themed to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, out this Christmas). First and foremost, there’s the “Twilight of the Republic” play set. This play set, set shortly after the events of Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, it comes with figures of Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano, who come across a reactivated droid factory (and a labyrinthine conspiracy associated with said factory). The format for this adventure is a straightforward action game, with lots of emphasis on Force powers (the Force push/pull mechanic is a joy) and potential to explore tangential missions outside of the main narrative thread. (The “Rise Against the Empire” play set, featuring characters like Han Solo and Chewbacca, is released at the end of the month, or in a massive Star Wars box set right away.) In addition to the stars of the Star Wars prequels and original trilogy, there are figures for Star Wars: Rebels characters that interact with the same levels. (Some of these figures are retailer-exclusive, so it could take a little time to track all of them down, but it’s very worth it. We especially love our Sabine figure.) Everything about this play set feels fresh and new, with improved gameplay and graphics and a seemingly endless well of fun and adventure. We are hard pressed to think of a recent Star Wars video game that was this much out-of-control amazing.

The other big play set available on day one is the Inside Out play set. What makes this play set so fun is it’s so different from the other play sets in Disney Infinity 3.0, which tend to be more action-based (there’s a Marvel-themed play set out in mid-November). Instead of an action game, Inside Out is more of a puzzle platformer. The different characters can each accomplish different things in these levels: Anger has the ability to walk on lava, while Sadness can fly around on her rainy cloud. There have never been levels like this in any previous Disney Infinity installment, but it’s not just the variety of game play that makes these levels such a joy (sorry, we couldn’t resist); they’re also really well-constructed levels and inspired by elements that the Inside Out filmmakers toyed around with but ultimately abandoned (like Riley’s fascination with music). Some of these Inside Out levels are like playing through deleted scenes from the movie.

Over in the Toy Box, there are also some quietly revolutionary features. The Toy Box is an area of endless possibility, even more so this time around. What makes this iteration of the Toy Box so thrilling is that it allows you a seemingly unlimited amount of entertainment value just playing around in the wacky sandbox that is the Toy Box, but also is very handy in explaining how to make your own levels and experiences. Our experiments didn’t turn into the awe-inspiring creations that we witnessed at the Toy Box Summit (we’re not exactly advanced), but at least the fundamentals were there and taught to us in a very easy-to-understand way. There are a lot of lovely new additions to creating Toy Box levels, too, like the “path” function that allows you to purposefully direct characters, vehicles, and camera movements (for cinematic cut scenes) and improved mechanics. There are also new play sets for the Toy Box, with the Toy Box Takeover (available tomorrow, but only if you’ve pre-ordered) allowing all of the villains come together to wreak havoc on the Toy Box and, even more tantalizingly, the Toy Box Speedway (coming soon), which sets up kart-style racing within the Toy Box. This will be so fun.

What should be emphasized, again and again and again, is that we have just scratched the surface of what Disney Infinity 3.0 has to offer. Not only will new figures, play sets, and Toy Box challenges be released over the coming months, but we haven’t even really dug into the available play sets. In fact, as soon as we finish this piece, we’re going to head back into the Toy Box and try to build a worthy level (and if not, we’ll zoom around the galaxy using the Force or maybe take a trip inside the mind of an 11-year-old girl). Disney Infinity 3.0 is positively overstuffed with awesomeness; there are more levels and experiences and modes of game play than you could find in a whole season’s worth of disparate video games. And they’re all here, in one game. Disney Infinity 3.0 isn’t just the best game of the series but it seems like a bold promise of innumerable avenues future versions of the game could go. Wherever Disney Infinity is headed, we’ll be there.

The post Best of the Bunch: Our First Impressions of Disney Infinity 3.0 appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Have you ever wanted to know how Disney•Pixar makes their animated classics? Well Pixar in a Box, a new interactive learning initiative from Pixar and online education platform Khan Academy, can help you learn (and it’s free!). While the program is primarily designed for middle and high school students, anyone can use it, and it focuses on how the studio combines art, technology, science, engineering, and math to develop those aforementioned animated Disney•Pixar classics. Quite frankly, the seminars and lesson plans are deeply informative, with classes devoted to how parabolas are used to model environments, how weighted averages are used to create characters, and how linear and cubic interpolation are used to animate beloved characters. This is really cool stuff that will constantly be evolving and changing, and all for free.

Share the Adventure All Weekend Long on Disney Channel

Looking for something to do this weekend? Well, Disney Channel has you covered. This weekend is the Share the Adventure marathon, with some of your favorite animated films showing each and every night. On Friday night, it’s Disney•Pixar’s lushly folkloric Brave. On Saturday, it’s Disney’s spirited animated adventure Mulan. And bringing it home on Sunday is Disney’s charming twist on the Rapunzel fairy tale, Tangled. All of these are classics and it should be really fun to watch them in a mini-marathon. Each film premieres at 8 p.m. EST/PST. Watch them with someone you’re comfortable crying in front of.

The Force is Strong with the Star Wars Half Marathon

Get ready to put on your running shoes, because the latest runDisney marathons have been announced and they will certainly be appealing to your inner Jedi (or Sith). The Star Wars Half Marathon weekend, which Disneyland runners are already familiar with, will also be coming next year to the Walt Disney World Resort. The marathon will happen from April 14-17, 2016, and will feature a new distinction, with the Disneyland run being the “Light Side,” while the Walt Disney World version is the “Dark Side.” The Walt Disney World weekend will include a 5K, 10K, and kids’ races, in addition to the half marathon, and will feature a course that takes participants through Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios (future home to an expansive Star Wars-themed land). The “Star Wars Dark Side Challenge” offers runners a chance to compete for a Death Star-themed metal, but only if they complete the 10K and half marathon on consecutive days. Honestly, we’re out of breath just writing this. This promises to be a super cool event for any fan of Disney, marathons, or Star Wars. Sign up now; April 14 isn’t all that far, far away.

PhotoPass Snaps Onto My Disney Experience

If you’ve been to Walt Disney World in the past few years, you know how essential the My Disney Experience app is to your vacation. You can do pretty much everything with this app. The app, which would previously allow you to book FastPass+ selections, get dinner reservations, and so, so much more, has just been upgraded to include PhotoPass. This means your vacation is getting even more magical. This upgrade will let you view all of your Disney PhotoPass vacation photos, including photos from select attraction and dining locations. It will also let you find Disney PhotoPass Photographer locations around Walt Disney World and link Disney PhotoPass Cards collected during your vacation. Additionally, you have the option to purchase Memory Maker, to receive access to all of those Walt Disney World vacation memories for one price. And guests who activate a Memory Maker entitlement will be able to use the app to download their photos and share them to their favorite social media apps, all from their mobile device. My Disney Experience just got even more indispensible.

Force Friday Awakens

Can you feel it? Next Friday, at the stroke of midnight, stores across the country will be celebrating Force Friday. This will be the first chance to grab official merchandise from the insanely anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens (out December 18). In the days preceding Force Friday, there will be a global unboxing event unfolding over 18 hours in 15 cities and 12 countries (see the totally cool breakdown at the official site). At the Disney Store, there will be free giveaways and early hours (with some stores opening at midnight). There is going to be a lot of Star Wars stuff happening next week, and we’ll be in the thick of it. Next Friday we’ll be flying to San Francisco to take part in the Force Friday shenanigans at the Disney Store up there. It’s going to be wild!

The post 5 Disney Things You Might Have Missed This Week appeared first on Disney Blogs.

A few weeks ago we were lucky enough to chat with producer Dorothy McKim, who has worked at Walt Disney Animation Studios since 1988 (her first film was Oliver & Company). She was largely responsible for overseeing many of the short films included in this collection and just last week was announced as a producer on Gigantic, the new fairy tale epic from Tangled director Nathan Greno.

The way she tells it, these short films fell into her lap. “At the time, when John [Lasseter] and Ed [Catmull] came to the Studio, we were just finishing up Meet the Robinsons. And I then went to run development and the shorts program lived in development. So I took that over,” McKim explained matter-of-factly. “So being in development, it was easy for me to take these on and produce them and help them along on their way.” (Part of the excitement, for her, was being able to utilize 2D animation in some of the shorts. “It was still staying with the history of the studio and the legacy of where we were,” she said.)

So we decided to talk about each one of the shorts that she produced that wound up on the Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection (available now!)

“Prep & Landing: Operation Secret Santa”

“Kevin [Deters], Stevie [Wermers-Skelton] and myself worked on these and when you work on projects with a small little team and you’re way under the radar, it was a great way to test out different technologies that we were using,” she said of the short film, a sequel/spin off from an ABC holiday special called Prep & Landing that aired a year before. The short concerned a pair of tactical elves named Wayne (Dave Foley) and Lanny (Derek Richardson), who perform covert operations for Santa Claus (W. Morgan Sheppard). There was another TV special the year after the short aired, but McKim even had an even bigger holiday wish for her characters. “One of the things we were always hoping for, and I still wish, that when we do the 25 Days of Christmas [on ABC Family] and they have those little intros, I just want Wayne and Lanny in them …” McKim said, still very passionate on the subject. “That was one of our hopes. I still try every year.” “Prep & Landing: Operation Secret Santa” is also very “near and dear” to McKim’s heart because one of the characters, the uptight supervisor Magee, is in part based on McKim. “The character of Magee is designed after me. I have short hair and it’s easy to do in CG and her name comes from Jenni Magee-Cook, who’s our associate producer. They took her last name, both of our personalities, and my look,” McKim explained. “It’s funny to see her on the screen.” Ah, to be an elf!

“Tick Tock Tale”

“Dean pitched the idea to John and John loved the idea, because he loves inanimate objects,” McKim said, of the story of a tiny clock who gets made fun of by the other clocks in the shop. But when a criminal comes to burgle the business, the little clock that nobody likes steps up and saves the day, directed by animation veteran Dean Wellins. And even though Lasseter was on board, that doesn’t mean that it was a easy production. (When the short was completed, it was supposed to air in front of The Princess and the Frog, but that never happened, instead touring the international film festival circuit. It’s making its wide debut on this collection.) “It was a challenge here and there because wood doesn’t bend. It was really tricky because you had to think about how he gets around. At one point he walked more like a human and John said, ‘No, no, no, you’ve got to have him waddle.’” Almost as an aside, McKim noted (as she did in the awesome short films panel at D23 Expo) that, “We did most of that short with mostly trainees.” Honestly, you can’t tell by looking at the short, which is just as gorgeous and heartfelt as anything else in the collection.

“The Ballad of Nessie”

“It was Stevie’s idea,” McKim said of co-director/co-writer Stevie Wermers-Skelton, who she had worked with on the Prep & Landing specials and short films. “It was actually her senior project at Cal Arts. It was her dream that she could finally get up on the screen.” McKim then described the process for the animators (“The Ballad of Nessie” was a famously long production, a lyrical, musical ode to the legend of the Loch Ness monster, told as a heartsick ballad): “You do these shorts in between the features and some of the artists would come on for a week and go off to work on another feature and maybe come back for another week. But it gives people an opportunity to work outside of what they do on a daily basis.” And a traditionally animated, sing-song-y folktale about a mythical creature is definitely outside of the norm.

“Get A Horse!”

“We wanted to do some Mickey Shorts,” McKim explained, of an effort for the entire studio to get behind Mickey Mouse (this led to the critically acclaimed Disney Channel series and this, the Oscar-nominated short “Get A Horse”). “So in Animation, we hosted a big pitch and about 30 people came forward to pitch Mickey ideas. We culled it down to a top ten and had them pitch in front of John. When Lauren [MacMullan, co-writer and director] pitched, she had one image and she had a black cloth in front of that image. It was less than ten minutes. She got up and said, ‘I have this idea. It’s a theatrical idea. It starts these classic characters, who are hand drawn and in black-and-white and they get through the screen and when they get through the screen, they’re in CG and in color.’ Then she pulled off the cloth and the image was black-and-white, with Mickey’s foot sticking out in yellow. John pointed at the screen and said, ‘I want to make that short.’ It was that fast and that easy.” In the short, which played before Frozen (so, chances are you’ve seen it dozens of times), Mickey Mouse (voiced by Walt Disney) escapes into the modern world (in 3D and in color). Not that everything about “Get a Horse!” was as easy as securing its green light. For starters, MacMullen was doing storyboards for Wreck-It Ralph, so she had to work on the short once her commitment to the feature were done. Then there were the amazing presentations that MacMullan did at Annecy and the last D23 Expo, where she pretended to be an archivist who had recently discovered a lost Mickey Mouse short. As it happens, her presentation was a little too convincing and some of the Academy members actually believed the short was old! Said McKim, “We had to get the word out: everything in there was brand new.” Yes it was: brand new and totally brilliant.

These shorts (and many more) are available on Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection, out now on Blu-ray, Digital HD, and Disney Movies Anywhere.

The post Tiny Secrets: Producer Dorothy McKim On the Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection appeared first on Disney Blogs.

We reached out to Alex Hirsch, creator of Gravity Falls and a co-writer of last night’s episode, in the hopes that he could answer our burning questions.

The episode takes its title from the ‘70s paranoid thriller The Manchurian Candidate and there are nods to similarly classic thrillers like North by Northwest. Was this always a genre that you had wanted to play with? And were there any references to other thrillers that are included in the episode (but that we might have missed)?

Our inspiration came less from thrillers and more from the weirdness of small town politics. I personally went canvassing door to door in a local race when I was in high school and thought it was kind of hilarious how worked up people got over such small stakes elections. The only thriller reference I wanted to do would have been a parody of House of Cards, with Gideon constantly turning to the camera and saying things like “When you throw red meat to the hound dogs, they come a-runnin! The squeaky molasses bucket gets the grease!” and have everyone be totally confused who he was talking to. As is often the case, we had to cut this for time!

A beloved Gravity Falls character bites the dust. How do you hope fans remember Mayor Befuffuftlefumpter?

Mayor Befufftlefumpter, we hardly knew ye! Like, literally—who was that guy? He only left his mayoral mansion once a year to get lettuce for his 200-year-old pet Galapagos Tortoise Jembles, who he said “made him feel young.” I think Mayor Befufftlefumpter will be remembered by his long life and his even longer name. Valentino Funeral homes is working on their widest headstone ever.

But, as the Circle of Life continues, you introduce what might be our favorite Gravity Falls character (period), Tad Strange. Where did he come from and will he be back for more good, clean fun?

Tad Strange likes to keep a low profile, which is perfectly normal. (Incidentally, “Low Profile” and “Perfectly Normal” are both written on his business card.) Although Tad won’t be back for a while, rest assured that whenever you buy milk, paint something white, or stare at a nondescript rock, Tad is there in spirit. And ladies, he’s single!

This episode sees the return of Little Gideon, in a big way. Was it hard to figure out a way to bring him back while keeping him imprisoned?

We’ve always wanted to bring Gideon back, and getting his scheming family in on a local election seemed like the perfect way to do it.  

At the end of the episode, a fairly huge bombshell is dropped: not only has Gideon been in contact with Bill Cipher but he finally summons him after his quest for power is thwarted. How long has Gideon been in contact with Bill and what does this mean for the town of Gravity Falls?

Gideon has an uneasy relationship with Bill. He likes having the ear of someone so powerful, but he hates the idea of being second-fiddle to someone more powerful than him. He’s been biding his time in jail waiting for the chance for his big break, and now that it’s been foiled he’s finally decided to swallow his pride and take drastic measures.

Elsewhere in Gravity Falls mythology, Tyler’s last name is finally revealed! What else do we need to know about Mayor Cutebiker?

Local “Enthusiasm-Enthusiast” Tyler Cutebiker is passionate about 3 things: watching fights, wearing cutoff jean shorts, and ensuring the fiscal and infrastructural long term stability of Gravity Falls. He has already begun decorating his mansion with artisanal wind chimes and he plans to fight crime with his new “Cut That Out, Guys!” initiative which mainly involves putting pictures of himself in high crime areas making an adorable, pleading face.

What should we ask Alex next time? What are you dying to know about the world of Gravity Falls? Let us know in the comments!

The post Exclusive: Gravity Falls Creator Alex Hirsch On The Stanchurian Candidate appeared first on Disney Blogs.

This week’s relatively lighthearted “The Stanchurian Candidate” is a perfect example of this new dynamic; even though Ford is sidelined for large swaths of the episode, his presence is still felt and affects things greatly for the rest of the characters.

The episode opens with Great Uncle Stan having to retrieve some light bulbs from the grocery store (Dipper has taken to make a “planetarium suit” for Soos). While at the store, he’s heckled by teenagers and intimidated by security guards. When he gets home, he finds Ford has already fixed the light bulb (“I invented my own-it will last a thousand years and the light it emits makes your skin softer”). Stan is feeling old, lonely, and obsolete and turning on the TV he is treated with a shocking bit of news: Mayor Befuffuftlefumpter has died (“Best known for raising the water tower, possibly starting World War I and putting town menace Gideon Gleeful behind bars”). The construction of a Mount Rushmore-style memorial for the mayor has already started. That’s when inspiration strikes Stan: he can run for mayor!

Welcome back to Gravity Falls, everyone!

According to the town charter of Gravity Falls, a worthy candidate is anyone who “can cast a shadow, count to ten, and throw your hat into the provided ring.” (This is the first time a mayor’s race has been held in “almost a century.”) But the first candidate is an unlikely one: Bud Gleeful, Gideon’s father. Bud dodges questions about his incarcerated son by giving everyone a 50% coupon for a used car. While Dipper immediately expresses his outrage, Soos tempers him by reminding him that everyone in Gravity Falls is a tad strange, “except, ironically, Tad Strange.” Enter our new favorite character: Tad Strange! “Hello everyone, Tad’s the name and being normal’s my game,” he says. But before Bud takes his oath of office, Stan joins the race. He encourages others to join the race (including Tyler Cutebiker) and the entire town gets fired up about the election (literally–they set off a canon).

Dipper and Mabel are doubtful of Stan’s chances at succeeding, but Stan is passionate about the prospect. “Do I really want crooked grifter on my tombstone? What about crooked mayor?” Still, the twins get behind Stan because they know that Bud is “up to something.” Of course, Stan isn’t exactly a polished politician and after a series of missteps (like a radio interview where he makes fun of the American flag and vows to “teach kids swears”) Wendy states, gravely, “You’re meme-ing fast and none of them are good.” After Stan shoots down the idea of reading Dipper and Mabel’s prepared remarks, Dipper goes to Ford, despondent. Ford gives Dipper a mind-controlling tie (developed for “Ronald Reagan’s masters”) and tells him that he can turn Stan into a “literal talking head.”

After Stan starts his stump speech off offensively, Mabel and Dipper jump in, and have the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand (especially after some impromptu breakdancing). From there, Stan becomes a sensation, as we see in a number of Gravity Falls newspaper headlines (our favorites: “Stan A Hit With the Elderly, Promises Tough New Lawn Laws,” “Stan Gets Beaver Endorsement, Could Shrews and Voles Be Far Behind?” and “Underdog is Over, Dawg.”) Bud is enraged and excuses himself to speak to his “campaign manager,” who turns out to be Gideon! Gideon wants Bud to win the election so he can “pardon me out of prison” (the added benefit of striking back at the Pines family, who sent him to prison, is just the icing on the deliciously evil cake). Gideon has an idea: using a piece of the journal that he kept concealed in his hair (of course), he can issue a spell that can allow him to possess his father.

Stan is a hit; and he knows it (even Tad Strange loves him). But when Mabel and Dipper try to get him to wear his “lucky tie” for the big debate, he turns on them. When Dipper announces that they have been controlling him using a tie of Ford’s invention, Stan gets even more upset and storms off to win the election on his own.

“If we’re going to beat Bud, we need another candidate, fast,” Dipper tells Mabel.

“What we need is a blank slate, someone suggestible, an empty piece of clay we can mold to our whims,” Mabel says.

Enter Soos, with his head stuck in a sweater.

In the final debate, Stan stammers, Soos get caught in a tug of war between Mabel and Dipper’s thoughts, and Bud (under Gideon’s control) treats the townsfolk to a super adorable song-and-dance number. Gideon reveals his evil intentions (thanks to a small monitor on Bud’s belt buckle) and forces Bud to tie up Mabel and Dipper, inside the monument for Mayor Befuffuftlefumpter (the first of many references to Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest). Stan is dying in the debate, but he admits that he should have listened to the kids when he “had the chance.” Stan looks up to see the kids dangling from within the monument and rushes to save them. As he pulls them to safety he admits that “being the town’s hero wasn’t enough, I wanted to be yours too” (clearly he is suffering in the shadow of Ford). The twins apologize too. And when Stan returns to the pulpit, the crowd is over-the-moon enthusiastic for him. Fireworks explode overhead and Dipper says, “I guess we know who won.”

Except we cut immediately to a television news broadcast, where the anchor says that Stan loses, having been disqualified “due to discovery of an extensive criminal record.” Among his crimes is “first degree llama-cide, to which Stan responds, “That llama knew too much.” Due to the disqualification, the mayoral title went to “the only candidate who properly filled out their paperwork.” That’s right folks, meet your new mayor of Gravity Falls–Tyler Cutebiker! The rest of the news broadcast is dedicated to listing all of Stan’s crimes (among them: pug trafficking, impersonating a dentist, and bingo fraud). The episode ends in a moment of tenderness, with Dipper admitting that Stan being mayor would have been fun and Mabel knitting him a sash that says, “Our Hero.” Stan gets choked up but blames it on “campaign confetti in his eye.” They then run off to vandalize the new mayor’s house. Awwwww.

But, since this is Gravity Falls and it ain’t over until it’s over, there’s a bumper at the end of the closing credits that might be the most important few seconds of the entire episode: in the scene, Gideon removes an inspirational cat photo from the wall of his cell. Behind it is a hieroglyphic of evil entity Bill Cipher. Gideon completes the glyph and says, “I’m finally ready to make a deal.” Ominous music plays. The end.

Like “Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons,” this week’s episode is light on the hardcore mythological through line of the show, but offers some intriguing hints on (potentially) what’s to come, particularly Gideon’s last-minute summoning of Bill Cipher. Bringing Gideon back into the fray was also a huge move, since he was the main (mortal) antagonist of the first season and his absence has created a malevolent void this season. It was also a fascinating episode in how it dealt with Ford; he was off screen for much of the episode but he was still felt throughout the entire episode. It’s Ford that is partially responsible for driving Stan to enter the mayoral race and Ford is also responsible for the magical, mind-controlling ties. Like so many characters on Gravity Falls, even when he’s not around, he still is.

The next all-new episode is “The Mablecorn,” airing on September 7 on Disney XD. And we’ll be back then!

The post Gravity Falls Recap: The Stanchurian Candidate appeared first on Disney Blogs.

If you haven’t made it out to Disneyland to take part in the 60^th anniversary Diamond Celebration, fret not (at least when it comes to picking up the glittery exclusive merchandise): you can now grab it online, courtesy of our friends at the Disney Store. You can get everything from plush toys to accessories (like cool, attraction-specific totes) to mugs and clothes, all branded with the Diamond Celebration logo (and usually embroidered with lots of shiny things). This is the perfect opportunity to pick up the merchandise, especially if you don’t think you’ll make it to one of the California parks in the next year.

Show Your Disney Side Shows New Sides

We love the Show Your Disney Side App (available on the App Store now). Any app that allows us to be magically inserted into Star Tours or the Haunted Mansion, by using your photos and turning you into a character from those attractions, isour favorite thing ever. And a great thing just got better, with additions made to the app that allow you to utilize the Haunted Mansion features without being at the attraction, plus new experiences themed to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Toy Story Midway Mania, and Enchanted Tales with Belle. Get ready to make some very silly Instagram photos.

Jungle Cruise-Themed Skipper Canteen Docks at Walt Disney World

Eagle-eyed Walt Disney World visitors might have noticed some construction that has been taking place in Adventureland in the Magic Kingdom. You might have wondered what, exactly, is going on over there. Well wonder no more. At the D23 Expo, during a presentation devoted to the beloved Jungle Cruise attraction, it was revealed that a brand new restaurant will be opening at the end of 2015. And the best part is that it’s themed to the Jungle Cruise attraction. (Disney fanatics will take note that this is the first time that a restaurant has been themed around an attraction.) The Jungle Navigation Co., Skipper Canteen (the sign promises “World Famous Jungle Cuisine”) will feature several unique dining rooms, including a crew mess hall and a once-hidden secret meeting room for the fabled Society of Explorers and Adventurers. (Those still mourning the loss of the Adventurers Club in the former Pleasure Island should have a lot to love about this new restaurant.) Our favorite detail might be that Jungle Cruise skippers staff the restaurant. Puns ahoy!

Tomorrowland Rockets Onto Home Video in October

If you missed The Incredibles director Brad Bird’s magnificent, futuristic adventure Tomorrowland when it was in theaters this summer, you’ll get a second chance this fall when the George Clooney-led film debuts on home video. On October 13, you’ll be able to take Tomorrowland home on Digital HD, Blu-ray combo pack, and Disney Movies Anywhere. In fact, there will be quite a few features exclusive to the DMA package, which is pretty exciting for anyone who is a fan of the movie and engaged in the program (you don’t have to buy the movie on DMA to get the extras, but you have to register your digital copy through DMA). The movie is one that is rich in detail and witty visual gags (Is that Space Mountain in the distance? Yes it is), and we are so excited to be able to luxuriate in its world of secret societies, utopian playgrounds, and robot spies. The complete special features list follows, and includes a bunch of new documentaries, the Pixar-animated short film that sets up the backstory for the film, and deleted scenes:

• Remembering the Future: A Personal Journey Through Tomorrowland with Brad Bird – Discover everything there is to know about the making of Tomorrowland through Director Brad Bird’s perspective.

• Casting Tomorrowland – Join Brad Bird, Damon Lindelof, George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Britt Robertson, and Raffey Cassidy as they discuss the making of Tomorrowland.

• A Great Big Beautiful Scoring Session – Famed composer Michael Giacchino invites Disney legend, Richard Sherman to join him in an informal visit to the Tomorrowland scoring stage, told through the personal lens of Michael’s brother, documentarian Anthony Giacchino.

• The World of Tomorrow Science Hour, Hosted By Futurologist David Nix (Blu-ray and DMA Exclusive) – Believe it or not but Nix used to host a children’s television program about science. Now watch the recently discover outtakes from the show.

• Animated Short: The Origins of Plus Ultra – An animated story of how Tomorrowland came to be.

Brad Bird Production Diaries

Diary Entry #1 – “The First Day” (Blu-ray and DMA Exclusive)

Diary Entry #2 – “Tomorrowland vs. the Weather” (DMA Exclusive)

Diary Entry #3 – “NASA”

• Blast from the Past Commercial – Go back in time and watch this original commercial for the Blast from the Past store.

Deleted Scenes with Filmmaker Intro

Deleted Scene 1 – Joking on the Eiffel Tower

Deleted Scene 2 – Young Casey vs. The Volcano

Deleted Scene 3 – Doomsday Living Room

Deleted Scene 4 – As Originally Written Casey The Downer

Deleted Scene 5 – What Happened to Tomorrowland

Deleted Scene 6 – What is Tomorrowland

Deleted Scene 7 – Great Big Beautiful World World’s Fair (DMA Exclusive)

Deleted Scene 8 – Frank Walker age 10 (DMA Exclusive)

4 Easter Eggs

The post 4 Disney Things You Might Have Missed This Week appeared first on Disney Blogs.

We don’t want to give too much away about the short, which was recently screened at D23 Expo to a rapturous response, but what makes “Wish Upon a Coin” so special is that it somehow takes place inside of Walt Disney’s 1937 classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Specifically, the short is set within the wishing well sequence of the animated breakthrough (yes, Mickey and Minnie even sing “I’m Wishing”). Of course, as is the case with Mickey Mouse, things take an abrupt left turn and an idyllic fairy tale quickly turns into a high stakes action sequence.

Watch the exclusive clip below and you’ll get a sense of the kind of reverential lunacy packed into the short. “Wish Upon A Coin” premieres Friday, August 21 (9:25 p.m., ET/PT) on Disney Channel.

The post Oh Boy! Exclusive Images and Clip From Tonight’s Very Special Mickey Mouse Short appeared first on Disney Blogs.

We were lucky enough to chat with Aimee Scribner, who worked on both Tangled and Frozen, as well as their short film counterparts: “Tangled Ever After” and “Frozen Fever.” She talked us through the process of converting a giant feature film into an adorable little nugget, how much involvement she has in the various Frozen off-shoots (including the EPCOT ride and the sequel) and what it feels like to know that the film you’ve worked on can live beyond a single feature.

You worked on the feature versions of each of these films and also on the shorts. Can you talk about that process?

Absolutely. When you make these films, you fall in love with the characters and you form such a deep bond with the artists and filmmakers. And then your movie goes off into the world. So doing these shorts, for me, is like a family reunion, for both Tangled and Frozen. To go back to the characters and extend the storytelling, for both of these, is a labor of love for me.

These are both unique in the sense that a lot of these spin-off shorts immediately appear on the home video release, but both “Tangled Ever After” and “Frozen Fever” happened way later. When did you start thinking about these shorts?

They’re all unique in how they get created. We have some shorts that are about technologic innovation, some are about storytelling innovation, or a new filmmaker wanting to tell their story and giving them a shot at the director’s chair. With Tangled and Frozen I think it was much more about wanting to give our audience another little chapter in the storytelling.

Let’s talk about the individual shorts. In “Tangled Ever After,” we spend most of the time away from the main characters. Was that one of the things that excited you about that short?

You know, we started talking about “Tangled Ever After” after the film and what was interesting was the real royal wedding was happening with William and Kate, so that was sort of an inspiration. We knew that people wanted to see Eugene and Rapunzel get married but Byron and Nathan really wanted to have fun with Max and Pascal. So we used the wedding as a framing device to go out and wreak havoc in the kingdom and have a lot of comedy and a lot of fun. So that was the inspiration for that one.

It also proved that people were still really interested in Tangled. Is that part of the fun?

Oh for sure! You work so hard on these and you just hope that it will connect with people so it’s always a delight.

“Frozen Fever,” is unique in how it’s built around a single new song. Was that always the jumping off point?

Well, we knew that we wanted to spend some time in the girls now that they’re connected again. We knew we wanted to have some fun with Elsa. We came upon the idea of Anna’s birthday and Elsa wanted to create the perfect day and we knew we wanted another song with Bobby and Kristen Lopez. So I think all of those converged. It wasn’t like the song drove the story specifically. It was really a collaborative effort between story and Bobby and Kristen. And the idea of Elsa having an idea and sneezing and the Snowgies was just an amazing moment in the story room. I’ll never forget the first drawing in the story room; it was so charming and so cute. The idea of the string and how Anna finds her presents comes out of director Chris Buck’s life. He and his wife would do that for their boys on a holiday and painstakingly take the string and tie it to the presents and weave it inside and outside. That’s how they discovered their gifts. That came out of Chris Buck’s life.

The response to “Frozen Fever” has been incredible. I see little girls in Disneyland wearing the dresses.

Oh yes! The new dresses! That was great because the costumes really are about the storytelling and that was so much fun for our art director and entire art department to think about new dresses for the girls.

Frozen is going to continue with the Epcot ride and the sequel. What kind of relationship do you have with this property now?

I’m hugely involved in everything Frozen. I know for a lot of us that we never stopped working on the film because there’s been so much interest and we feel so passionate about protecting our characters and our world and our storytelling. So yes, I’m intimately involved in the Frozen Epcot ride as well. There’s so much Frozen and we just want to take care of the property and that we engage our audience in the sequel in a way that we don’t let them down.

Is continuing with Frozen something that you’re excited about?

I am so in love with these characters and this world, so all of the things are interesting to me. Whether it’s the stage show or the theme parks; I just want to make sure they’re cared for.

You can get Walt Disney Animated Studios Short Films Collection on Blu-ray, Digital HD, and Disney Movies Anywhere right now (including Disney Store). It’s an amazing collection and a must-have release for any Disney fan.

The post Big Movies, Only Shorter: Producer Aimee Scribner Talks Frozen Fever and Tangled Ever After appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Most of the news was Disney Infinity-related, but there was some other great stuff too. Here it is, in all its joystick-wielding glory.

Marvel Comes to Disney Infinity 3.0

The Hulkbuster and Ultron figures have been connected to Disney Infinity’s upcoming 3.0 iteration for some time now but it was thought that they would simply exist within the game’s expanded, open-world Toy Box mode. (The last version of Disney Infinity had a huge emphasis on Marvel.) But at D23 Expo, a surprise announcement was made: Marvel Battlegrounds, a new Marvel-themed play set, would be coming to Disney Infinity 3.0 in the spring of 2016. It’s going to be super. The new play set will bring four-player gameplay to the series for the first time (and will of course work with the two new characters). The footage screened at the panel featured Tony Stark’s Hulkbuster beating up Spider-Man’s nefarious foe, the Green Goblin.

The Stars of Star Wars: The Force Awakens Announce Their Figures

After taking the stage with J.J. Abrams and Harrison Ford the previous day, John Boyega and Daisy Ridley, stars of the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens, surprised the panel and debuted their respective Disney Infinity figures. (There will also be a Star Wars: The Force Awakens play set … yes, this game going to be huge.) Boyega (who is a self-professed “big gamer”) and Ridley looked thrilled to unveil the figures for their characters of Finn and Rey. Oh and the figures are amazing, by the way.

Peter Pan and Others Announced

Earlier last week, we were honored to be a judge at this year’s Toy Box Summit, where Toy Box artists were tasked with creating a fully immersive, unique world overnight. (Video of this summit actually played during the panel.) A few days later, at the D23 Expo panel, it was announced which character those artists had voted into the next iteration of the game. And that character is … (dramatic pause continues) Peter Pan. Additionally, some new characters were announced for 3.0: Spot from November’s Disney•Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur and Judy and Nick from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Zootopia, out next spring.

Magic Band Powers

This is a minor note but one that we found to be infinitely cool: players who have a MagicBand (those magical room key/park ticket/payment option currently in use at Walt Disney World) can unlock a secret Disney Infinity 3.0 item: the Partners statue (of Walt and Mickey holding hands). Look for similar exclusive content for players on the Disney Cruise Line’s special Disney Infinity space (starting in November). We love when something as intangible as a videogame is giving this physical, real world component and the MagicBand integration is just beyond awesome.

Big Hero 6 in Kingdom Hearts

After the recent announcement that Tangled would be a part of popular RPG Kingdom Hearts III, producer Roy Conli. “The story takes place after the events of the film, after Hiro and the gang have formed a heroic team,” Conli said. What’s really interesting is that the image featured on the giant, giant screen showed Baymax, the lovable, huggable healthcare robot turned superhero, in an all black suit, with the presenters noting that this was the original Baymax (the one left in the alternate dimension at the end of the film). This could be the rare videogame that has the opportunity to strengthen and intensify the mythology of the film it’s based on. We can’t see what they cook up. And in related Kingdom Hearts news, it turns out the Key Blade, the video game series’ most recognizable weapon, is the Ultimate Unlock. Power discs were also passed out that allow the Mickey Mouse character to dress up in his Kingdom Hearts attire.

In Magic Kingdoms You Can Build Your Own Disney Theme Park

Not everything at the Disney Interactive panel was platform-based, however. In addition to a heavy emphasis on Playmation (which we will be bringing to you in detail in the weeks ahead), there was also talk of Disney’s mobile games. One of the more exciting mobile games coming out is Magic Kingdoms (in partnership with Gameloft). This is a game that lets you build your own Disney theme park, even though you are (probably) not a licensed Imagineer. The gameplay looks simple and highly addictive, with a narrative component that unfolds as you construct your dream park. Apparently the villains (including Maleficent) get wind of your new park and don’t take too kindly. Eep.

Star Wars Battlefront Visits Jakku (And Gets a Cool PS4 Special Edition)

Star Wars Battlefront, which looks like a gripping and gritty battle game, is coming out this November. This is a game that will bring you into a number of iconic Star Wars conflicts. And at D23 Expo an additional battle was revealed: the Battle of Jakku, based on Star Wars: The Force Awakens, will be available as a free download pack on December 8. If you pre-order the game, you’ll get the download pack a week early and make all of your friends super jealous. But if you want to make them really jealous, you could pre-order the exclusive Star Wars Battlefront Playstation 4 bundle (with the Playstation 4 system). Not only is the system jaw-dropping to look at (the console itself has a graphic of Darth Vader and the remote is based on his blinky chest piece), but it also includes a deluxe version of Star Wars Battlefront and four classic Star Wars games available on the Playstation 4 for the first time (with enhanced graphics and Trophy support, of course). The idea of playing Super Star Wars, in high definition, is something that gives us serious nerd joy. (There’s also a Disney Infinity 3.0 bundle that includes the same awesome system and retro games, the Rise Against the Empire play set, and the Playstation-exclusive Boba Fett figure.) This is packing some serious coolness.

So there you have it: most of what Disney Interactive brought to this year’s D23 Expo. Thankfully, what they announced we will be playing for many months (and years) to come.

The post (Almost) Everything That Was Revealed in the D23 Expo Disney Interactive Presentation appeared first on Disney Blogs.

We went out to lunch with Jim Reardon, who co-wrote WALL-E with director Andrew Stanton before transitioning to Walt Disney Animation Studios, where he has worked on Wreck-It Ralph and next spring’s Zootopia, to get the full scoop on the evolution of WALL-E.

While WALL-E is often thought of as a singular work of Stanton (and with good reason), the original idea came from Inside Out filmmaker Pete Docter. “It was about a family of aliens going on a summer vacation on a planet and it’s supposed to be a resort and there’s this tiny little robot that drives them nuts,” Reardon said of the original story, likening it, in spirit, to National Lampoon’s Vacation. “John [Lasseter] passed on it but the idea of a lone, solitary robot on a planet full of trash really struck something in Andrew. And he thought he could make it into a love story.”

Reardon boarded the project in 2004, after “directing on The Simpsons for about 14 years.” He and Stanton had gone to school together at Cal Arts and Stanton had always asked Reardon when he was going to come up and join the Pixar family. After the phenomenal success of Stanton’s Finding Nemo, Reardon thought he’d finally take Stanton up on the offer. “So when I came in he pitched this idea of a lonely robot who meets a robot sent to this planet,” Reardon explained. “Based on that, John and Ed [Catmull] went for it.”

Early on, they knew that this would be a tough nut to crack. With a fairly solid first act, the question was: where do they go from there? “The hardest part was getting from the part when he leaves the planet, to: what is the rest of the story?” And that’s where the major deviation in WALL-E’s development occurs.

In the current version of WALL-E (the version that A.O. Scott loves so much), WALL-E and EVE are transported to the Axiom, a giant spaceship that houses some of the last humans in the galaxy. But originally the spaceship was filled with gelatinous, inhuman blobs. This ties into an initial idea that Stanton and Reardon had about the movie being totally free of speech.

“We were going to try and do it without any dialogue at all,” Reardon said. “We invented a dialogue taken out of the IKEA catalogue.” This language was made up of indecipherable, childlike gibberish, Reardon explained. “They were a tribe, really. The whole mislead was that it looks like a tribe of aliens but then you realize humans have gotten really, really fat … and transparent.”

Apparently this twist was inspired by one of director Stanton’s favorite sci-fi movies.

“It was meant to be a little bit like Planet of the Apes, because Andrew loves the original Planet of the Apes. There would be this big reveal where you thought they were just these blobby aliens but you discover that they were human beings once,” Reardon explained. “So there was a mystery to it. And one thing we discovered was that if you were going to do a movie without dialogue, you have to be exceedingly clear as to what your story is.”

Keep in mind that there were also drafts, around this time, where WALL-E wasn’t as Reardon called him, “Johnny Humanity-Seed, everywhere he goes he makes people a little more human,” but is instead leading a Spartacus-like robot revolution. (Something Reardon confirms.)

And while these ideas are fascinating and would have made a very interesting (and very different) film, Stanton, Reardon and the rest of the filmmakers behind WALL-E kept running up against the same trouble spot, that was tied directly to the alien’s and their baby talk-like language. “The story was too complicated and finally we said, ‘We’re going to have to have some dialogue,’” Reardon said. “I know some people felt we should have stayed without dialogue.”

Not that he misses the blob creatures. “It could have been off-putting,” he said, matter-of-factly, adding that the process WALL-E went through, of extreme creative revision, is one that pretty much every animated film goes through. “In this business, you try a lot of ideas and sometimes it doesn’t work or it leads to something else.”

But there was one question that still nagged us: it had been reported that WALL-E was, at one point, titled Trash Planet. We had to ask: was this ever the title? And apparently, it was, if only for a short amount of time. “It was always going to be WALL-E, but originally it just had one L, for Waste Allocation Lifter. But John didn’t like that idea. He said it looked like whale,” Reardon told us. This impasse led to the creation of alternate titles. “So they started making lists for alternate titles like Trash Planet or Out There, which marketing really liked but we weren’t crazy about.” It was Reardon, actually, who solved the problem and allowed them to keep the name they had originally. “One morning I got a rush of blood to the head and went to Andrew and said, “What if we add another L?” And it satisfied John because you could pronounce it phonetically. So we got to use it.”

And through all that, with blobby creatures and abandoned titles, a genuine animated classic was born.

The post Trash Planet: The Version of WALL-E You Never Saw appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Here are just some of the things that were discussed in the 90-minute-long presentation:

Much More Star Wars

Yes, the two Star Wars-themed lands are the biggest galactic additions to the Disney theme park, but they’re not the only interstellar adventures coming to the parks. In the next few months, a number of new Star Wars-related additions will be appearing at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland. There will be a new location added to Star Tours – The Adventures Continue, based off of characters and locations from Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Jedi Training Academy will allow younger fans to feel the Force, with new scenarios based on Disney XD’s Star Wars Rebels. Additionally, later this year the Star Wars Launch Bay, an all-new interactive experience, will come to the Animation Courtyard at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Tomorrowland at Disneyland. There will be photo opportunities, previews of new games, artifacts from the films and testimonials from the filmmakers. (Upstairs in the same building in Disneyland will be an updated Superheroes HQ, featuring your favorite Marvel characters.) And the Season of the Force, based in part on the phenomenally successful Star Wars Weekends, will be a seasonal part of both domestic parks beginning in early 2016, with exclusive food, drinks, merchandise and entertainment. At Disneyland, Space Mountain will be transformed into Hyperspace Mountain, with new effects and music. And at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, guests will experience a nightly fireworks show set to the classic Star Wars music.

Toy Story Land

One of the amazing aspects of the parks presentation was the assertion that Disney’s Hollywood Studios is going from a “park that took you behind the scenes, to putting you in them.” To that end, Disney’s Hollywood Studios is about to expand massively with an 11-acre Toy Story Land. This land includes a super-long family-friendly roller coaster, where guests climb aboard a Slinky Dog ride vehicle and coast through a toy-filled adventure. The land will also feature an alien saucers attraction, where “The Claw” looms over and defines your fate. And this is in addition to the already-announced new track for Toy Story Mania!, the popular 3D attraction.

Soarin’ Around the World

Soaring Over the Horizon is a new version of the popular attraction, set to open at Shanghai Disneyland next year. But fret not; today it was announced that the attraction, called Soarin’ Over the World here, will arrive in 2016 at both EPCOT and Disney California Adventure. Both attractions have been getting rejuvenated in recent months, receiving an upgrade in both sound and picture quality (with laser projection replacing the old 70 mm format), so when Soarin’ Around the World finally opens, it will be spectacular.

Iron Man Experience

In Hong Kong Disneyland, the Iron Man Experience is coming. The complex is designed after the Stark Expo, the World’s Fair-esque technological showcase that Tony’s dad, Howard Stark, oversaw many years ago. After checking out some of the history and technology of the Stark dynasty, you climb aboard a ride vehicle designed like the Iron Wing (a nifty vehicle made with Stark tech). Once you get into your Iron Wing, you’re supposed to take a leisurely tour of the new Stark Tower in Hong Kong but, of course, trouble finds you in the form of Hydra. From there, you’ve got to battle your way out and return to the Expo safely. And if the ride footage (created with the help of the wizards at Industrial Light & Magic) we saw is any indication, it’s going to be a wild ride!

Frozen Ever After

There wasn’t a lot shown from Frozen Ever After, the Frozen-themed attraction that will occupy the former space of the Maelstrom at EPCOT. They flashed a photo of the Sven animatronic figure, which looks insanely adorable, while work continues on the expansive building adjacent to the Norway pavilion. It was announced that Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez will be helping with the soundtrack for the, bringing magical continuity to the franchise. When this opens next year, this is going to be a next level dark ride attraction for kids of all ages.

Nighttime Fun at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

A lot of this D23 Expo has been focused on how amazing the model for the Avatar-themed land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, now formally named Pandora: The World of Avatar, really looks. And it does. It is stunning. And Avatar director James Cameron and producer Jon Landau were on hand to discuss just how immersive this experience will be, and give an official name for the flight attraction, now called Flight of Passage. (Imagineer Joe Rohde said that together, “Our combined goal is to feel that it’s real.”) We cannot wait to visit the richly detailed world of Pandora. But that isn’t the only change coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, especially since the part is going to be open into the night now. There will be an extended Kilimanjaro Safaris, magically suspended in a perpetual dusk, set to open next spring, that will feature new African wild dogs and hyenas. There’s also the Rivers of Light nighttime spectacular (“a celebration of life itself,” per Rohde’s description) with cascading water, dancing fountains, live performers, and insane projections (during the panel they showed a test where a barge traveled along the water, projecting a bear running across the surface). Disney’s Animal Kingdom promises to transform into an entirely different park at night.

These next few years promise endless excitement for Disney Parks and Resorts, as some of the wildest attractions from the Walt Disney Imagineers are bringing truly unforgettable and cutting-edge experiences to life.

The post (Almost) Everything That Was Revealed In the D23 Expo Parks and Resorts Presentation appeared first on Disney Blogs.

“Colin is someone I’ve been interested in working with ever since I saw Safety Not Guaranteed,” Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, said in a statement. (She wasn’t at D23 Expo because, as Horn explained, she’s taking her daughter to college.) “The power of that film paired with the enormous success of Jurassic World speaks volumes about his abilities both as a storyteller and skilled filmmaker. We are thrilled to have such an incredible talent as Colin join our family and step into the Star Wars universe.”

For his part, Trevorrow said, in a statement: “This is not a job or an assignment. It is a seat at a campfire, surrounded by an extraordinary group of storytellers, filmmakers, artists and craftspeople. We’ve been charged with telling new stories for a younger generation because they deserve what we all had—a mythology to call their own. We will do this by channeling something George Lucas instilled in all of us: boundless creativity, pure invention and hope.” It’s easy to see the Lucas influence in Trevorrow’s work, particularly the wide-eyed wonder with which he views the world, and it will be interesting to see what he does with the material.

Star Wars: Episode IX will premiere in 2019 (in a galaxy far, far away).

The post Colin Trevorrow to Direct Star Wars: Episode IX appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Here’s what was announced in the panel: a pair of 14-acre lands that will feature creatures, characters and vehicles pulled from Star Wars: The Force Awakens as well as the older films. Iger teased a Mos Eisley-style cantina, as well as the two signature attractions: one that puts you in the middle of a climactic battle between the Resistance and the First Order and the other that allows you pilot the most famous ship in the galaxy, the Millennium Falcon. The lands will be located in both Disneyland in California and Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida. This is very, very exciting news indeed.

“I am thrilled to announce the next chapter in the long and exciting history between Disney Parks and Star Wars,” Iger told the ecstatic crowd, who had already been primed by a wonderful moment with man Star Wars: The Force Awakens cast members, including the legendary Harrison Ford.  “We are creating a jaw-dropping new world that represents our largest single themed land expansion ever. These new lands at Disneyland and Walt Disney World will transport guests to a whole new Star Wars planet, including an epic Star Wars adventure that puts you in the middle of a climactic battle between the First Order and the Resistance.”

Star Wars first appeared in the parks with the Star Tours attraction in 1987 and has been a presence ever since, with everything from the Jedi Training Academy to the revolutionary revamp of Star Tours, Star Tours: The Adventure Continues (which opened in 2011). This marks a truly historic culmination of nearly 30 years of creative partnership and will undoubtedly become a destination for Star Wars fans the galaxy over.

The post Two New Star Wars-Themed Lands Coming to Disneyland and Walt Disney World appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Thankfully, you won’t have to wait much longer to get even more Inside Out.

Accompanying the home video release of Inside Out is a new short film called “Riley’s First Date?” (that question mark is very important), written and directed by Josh Cooley. Cooley served as a screenwriter and story supervisor on Inside Out and who will next co-direct Toy Story 4, and while appearing onstage at the D23 Expo before its world premiere, seemed really excited to get to explore the world of Inside Out further. (Apparently this was a pitch for something that would appear in the actual movie, but Lasseter encouraged him to spin it off.)

“We were working on Inside Out, we had this connection because we all have daughters. We would talk about our kids and it eventually became fathers-of-daughters support group,” Cooley explained. “One of them said, ‘Just wait until she’s old enough to bring home her first boy.’ That became the premise of the short film.”

And what a premise it is! “Riley’s First Date?” concerns the boy from the end of Inside Out (the one who has a brief exchange with Riley at the ice skating arena), who comes over to Riley’s house to go skating. This sends the parents (and the emotions inside the parents) into a tizzy. Riley’s dad (Kyle MacLachlan) takes the stern approach, while Riley’s mom (Diane Lane) tries to be relatable and hip and comes off as hilariously out of touch. To say any more about the short would ruin the fun and surprise of “Riley’s First Date?” (and really, it’s very close, with the Blu-ray release in November and the digital release in October). But we will say that it does zig where you think it’ll zag and that it is glorious.

This is one of those spin-off shorts (like “BURN-E”) that is perfectly able to capture the spirit of the original film, while also adding to it in new and inventive ways. And yes, it will tug on your heartstrings just like Inside Out did and since it’s a short, you’ll have even less time to wipe away your tears and pretend like you were chopping an invisible onion. And remember that “Riley’s First Date?” is only available when you bring home Inside Out on Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere on October 13 and Blu-ray November 3.

The post Riley’s First Date? Is a Sublime Follow-Up to Inside Out appeared first on Disney Blogs.

To explain: Sohn talked about his immigrant parents and about how they didn’t understand the movies that he loved as a child because they didn’t speak English. But with animated Disney films, she could understand them because of their emotional content, and they would share this very powerful bond. While Sohn was talking, sketches that he had drawn of his own life flashed on the giant screen behind him. It was moving and sentimental without being sappy (like Disney•Pixar movies in general) and really set relatable bedrock for a movie that takes place in a world where the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs missed.

In the sequences that Sohn showed the crowd at D23 Expo, this message got across, reiterating the kind of unspoken universality that Sohn talked about sharing between himself and his mother. One of the sequences, when Arlo and Spot share stories about their families, really got the crowd choked up. And with good reason: the sequences he shared were powerful and features stunningly animated, placing the characters in lushly rendered photo-realistic backgrounds.

But that’s not all. As part of the presentation the team showcased a trio of Tyrannosaurus Rex characters that are central to Arlo and Spot’s journey. Butch (voiced, with typical hangdog drawl, by Sam Elliott), Ramsey (Anna Paquin) and Nash (A.J. Buckley) come across Arlo and Spot and use Spot’s keen sense of smell to track down some cattle rustlers (raptors of course). The vocal performances from all three actors are totally on-point and very much fit into the Good Dinosaur world; they’re both threatening and huggable. What’s even better is that we can share those characters with you, as pictured above.

At the close of The Good Dinosaur section of the animation presentation, Lasseter promised that when the film opens (on November 25), it would offer viewers a world “unlike anything they had ever seen before.” After this presentation, it’s hard to argue with him. But we would add that in addition to being unlike anything anyone has ever seen, it’s also unlike anyone has ever felt.

The post Peter Sohn Makes a Movie About Talking Dinosaurs Personal With Good Dinosaur appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Disney•Pixar films have always been based about captivating high concepts, and Coco is no different. This new film is directed by longtime Pixar stalwart (and Toy Story 3 filmmaker) Lee Unkrich and produced by Darla Anderson, and hearing Unkrich talk about it, it was a unique idea first that evolved into something much more emotional and personal.

“I’d seen it portrayed in folk art. It was something about the juxtaposition of skeletons with bright, festive colors that captured my imagination,” Unkrich explained. But then, like most Disney•Pixar films, it took an unexpected turn. “It has led me down a winding path of discovery. And the more I learn about Dia De Los Muertos, the more it affects me deeply. “

In the process of making the movie, he began to think about his relatives, including the ones who had passed away before he was able to get to know them. “I thought – what if I could meet them, what would I ask them?”

The main character in the film is a spirited 12-year-old boy named Miguel, who somehow finds himself in the fantastical realm of dead. After the brief explanation, Unkrich and Anderson treated the D23 attendees with a “diorama,” meant to express the general feeling of Coco (even though the designs might change dramatically before the movie is done). This “diorama” was incredible and visualized as a single shot moving through the mortal version of Dia de los Muertos, with people celebrating and lighting candles for the family members who have passed on, and moving into the uproarious landscape of the dead. This is where things really take off, with skeleton mariachi bands, colorful designs, and lots and lots of fun. John Lasseter described it as “breathtaking, beautiful and fun,” and based on the diorama presented, we couldn’t agree more.

The post Meet the Newest Disney•Pixar Marvel, Coco appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Moana is a young woman who sets off to discover her destiny on the open ocean. She encounters a demigod named Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson, otherwise known as The Rock) and battles ancient creatures, including an incredible character made out of molten lava. Oh, and she has a couple of adorable sidekicks in the form of a pig name Pau and an uppity rooster name Hei-Hei. It’s a story that’s totally new and yet utterly timeless, and the presentation, which included a pair of animated sequences (including one where Maui recounts his epic past and another where a young Moana wades into the ocean, who plays back with her), left us speechless (and a little weepy). After the presentation, there was a musical number from the film (composed by the team of Tony-winner Lin-Manuel Miranda, composer Mark Mancina (The Lion King) and Opetaia Foa’i (founder and lead singer of the world music award-winning band Te Vaka). Last D23 Expo, Idina Menzel came out and sang “Let It Go” for the first time, while snow showered down from the ceiling. This time, with a much more tropical spin, an equally magical memory was born.

A new logo for the film was unveiled, which you can see above, as we settle in for the very long wait until the film’s release, on November 23, 2016.

The post Moana Dazzles At D23 Expo appeared first on Disney Blogs.

That’s concept art from the film, above. In this version of the story, set in the Spanish Age of Discovery, Jack travels to the most new and unusual land, high above the clouds, a land populated with giants. That’s where he befriends Inma, a precocious 11-year-old giant (based on a young girl the filmmakers met on a research trip) and attempts to stop the villainous storm giants who are wreaking havoc on the giant community. It sounds incredible, and the preproduction artwork was so gorgeous that you could frame any image (like the one above), which hasn’t even been finalized or animated yet.

“When you read old Jack and the Beanstalk stories, you don’t think, What a tearjerker. But we want that,” Greno, who was joined onstage by his producer Dorothy McKim. “Those are the ones that you’re going to play for your kids and they’re going to play for their kids. So we’re going for that too. We want that deep, deep emotion. And if we do our jobs right, we hope that this will be the definitive version of Jack and the Beanstalk.”

And to help with that emotionality, the filmmakers have enlisted Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, the songwriting duo behind Frozen and Winnie the Pooh, will be penning the songs. In fact, they even treated the D23 Expo visitors to a song right after Inma first discovers Jack. It was adorable and fun and perfectly captured the spirit of Gigantic.  We couldn’t be more in for this if we tried.

The post New Animated Epic Gigantic Announced At D23 Expo appeared first on Disney Blogs.

A couple of weeks ago, we spoke to artist Truck Torrence, who goes under the name 100% Soft, and who was responsible for designing all of the amazing Star Wars emojis, all the way back to the emojis debut at Star Wars Celebration earlier this spring. We had heard a Lucas emoji was on the way, so asked Truck about what it was like illustrating the ultimate Jedi Master.

“It was great because it comes down to three elements: the hair, the beard, and the plaid,” Torrence told us. “And so as long as I nail the hair, the beard, and the plaid, I was good. I had to finesse the hair for a while because he has that perfectly coiffed curl. So I had to really perfect that. I went through a few iterations of plaid before I figured what best suited him. But once I got all those three together, they were the holy trinity of George Lucas iconography.” Indeed they are! The Force is strong with this emoji!

And we’re sure you’ll agree that the George Lucas emoji turned out fabulously. It’s now part of the Star Wars App (available now on the App Store and Google Play). Download it and delight.

The post Behold! The George Lucas Emoji, In All Of Its Glory! appeared first on Disney Blogs.

So please enjoy! And come back for more real soon!

World of Disney 1 of 65

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More Great Things on Insider

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Restart Gallery

The post These Photos From the Imagineering Pavilion at D23 Expo Will Blow Your Mind appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Cyclops Print Works Print #S1: Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection by Joe Dunn
Size: 20”x15”
Technique: Serigraph | 5 Colors
Edition Size: 23
Paper: Conventry Rag Vellum 320 gsm
Printed by: Eclipse Workshop

The first thing we want to talk about is the Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection by Joe Dunn. These are individual handbills that will be passed out throughout the D23 Expo, one for each of the 12 short films included in the new Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection home video release. We already have them and they are awesome. Dunn is an art director at Disney and has recently created some awesome Big Hero 6-inspired prints. But these 5” x 5” handbills are just adorable. And what’s more – the first 23 D23 Expo fans who collect all 12 individual pieces will win a limited edition uncut sheet of them, signed and numbered by Dunn. There are also some wildcard handbills thrown in there (we have a beautiful Beauty and the Beast one). Like we said: awesome.

Another piece that we are extremely excited to reveal is the Beauty and the Beast-inspired print by Mark Englert, “She Really is a Funny Girl.” Just looking at it, you’re struck by the composition, the artistry, the subtle visual in-jokes. It’s just stunning. We actually got to jump on the phone with Mark, to talk about his inspiration for the piece and whether or not he’d like to tackle future Disney projects (he would!) Mark will be signing the piece on Friday at 5 p.m.

Cyclops Print Works Print #8: She Really is a Funny Girl by Mark Englert
Size: 12”x36”
Technique: Serigraph | 9 Colors
Edition size: Limited Edition of 275
Features: Hand-Numbered | Varnish Finish |Authenticity Seal
Price: $60
Printed by: Eclipse Workshop
Officially Licensed by Disney

How did you come to Beauty and the Beast and how did you come to this style?

I’m a ‘90s Disney kid so I was a huge fan of Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, probably back to Oliver & Company. This was the stuff that got played over and over again on the VCR. I did a Little Mermaid print a while back. And when Disney approached me, I was like, Beauty! Beauty! As for the style, I always like the idea that a Disney character is always looking up, looking towards the next thing. So for Little Mermaid she was literally looking up, out of the ocean. And for Belle, she wants out of her small town, into something bigger and something exciting. It just felt right to me to stick to a vertical orientation and have them both looking up. And then I tried to hide the little stuff that foreshadows what is coming.

Was this always the moment that you wanted to illustrate?

Yes, these are always my favorite parts of the movies, too. I feel like that’s when the best songs are and the parts I connect with in the movies.

You said you have a kid, so is watching these movies still a part of your life?

Oh 100%. I would say even more than having a kid, my dad, who is still a big kid at heart, would always, without being a grump about it, take me to animated movies when I was a kid. He would take me opening weekend, whatever Disney movie was out. So for him it was exciting and it still is for me. So having it on all the time in the background with my kid is fine by me. These days it’s a lot of Wreck-It Ralph.

Would you do another one of these Disney prints?

Oh absolutely. I could do every movie I think. I even pitched a “Little Match Girl.” It was on my copy of The Little Mermaid DVD so I must have seen “Little Match Girl” a million times. I think it’s the short most burned into my brain.

Cyclops Print Works Print #10: Paperman by JC Richard
Size: 16”x24”
Technique: Serigraph | 5 Colors
Edition size: Limited Edition of 275
Price: $50
Paper: Conventry Rag Vellum 320 gsm
Printed by: Eclipse Workshop

Yet another gem is JC Richard’s print inspired by the Oscar-winning short film “Paperman.” This is another stunner; it might make you get choked up just looking at it. This one won’t be available until Sunday at 4 p.m. but it’s very much worth the wait, especially since Richard will be there signing the print.

Genie’s D23 Vacation *exclusive to D23 and Disney retail locations
Serigraph – Limited Edition 123 – Hand Signed by Eric Goldberg – $175
Mounted Lithograph on Board – Limited Edition 500 – $40
Hand Drawn Original – Ink on Paper – $4,400 (Framed)

Lastly, Disney Fine Arts by Collectors Edition is releasing a batch of Eric Goldberg prints. If you’re a fan of animation, then you’ll immediately recognize Goldberg’s name. He is perhaps most famous for animating Robin Williams’ Genie in Aladdin, but has done exemplary work before and since (he worked on the recent short film “Get a Horse!” and did all of the Mickey Mouse animation for Disney California Adventure’s nighttime spectacular World of Color: Celebrate!) There are a couple of insanely awesome D23-exclusive prints (pictured below) and several prints based on drawings Goldberg did for the upcoming book An Animator’s Gallery: Eric Goldberg Draws the Disney Characters (out in September but available early at the D23 Expo), which itself is a collection of drawings done for the upcoming Shanghai Disneyland resort. Owning one of these pieces is like owning a part of your own childhood.

And you can even have the chance to tell Goldberg yourself – he’ll be appearing in the Disney Fine Art booth (Hall B, booth 901) on Friday from noon to 2 p.m. and again from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. And on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon and again from 4:15 to 5:15 p.m.

The D23 Gang *exclusive to D23 and Disney retail locations
Serigraph – Limited Edition 123 – Hand Signed by Eric Goldberg – $175
Mounted Lithograph on Board – Limited Edition 500 – $40
Hand Drawn Original – Ink on Paper – $6,400 (Framed)

The post More Arty D23 Expo Exclusives: Englert Does Beauty and the Beast, Shorts Collection Handbills, and Eric Goldberg appeared first on Disney Blogs.

This week one of the very best tees was released in the form of a limited edition flash sale shirt celebrating classic Disney attraction The Haunted Mansion and, more importantly, the Hatbox Ghost. (If you don’t know about the Hatbox Ghost, we implore you to read our exhaustive history of the character; we promise it’s worth it.) The shirt is a great celebration of the character’s return to Disneyland after 46 years spent in some unknown realm; it’s comes complete with a retro-spooky font and an image on the back of the shirt depicting gravestones against a snowy moon. (You can also get the shirt in long-sleeve, women’s cut, and children’s size.) Like the other limited edition shirts, it’s just great. And the best part? The tee is also super glow-in-the-dark, which means that when you wear it on the actual Haunted Mansion ride, it’ll light up with a ghostly glow!

We got a chance to talk to Richard Terpstra, the designer behind the new tee, and talked about his unlikely path to Disney glory, combining elements from the Haunted Mansions of both coasts, and whether or not he’s seen the Hatbox Ghost in action.

You first began by blogging your Disney designs, way before you became a part of the company, right?

Yes, I was a fan and I was just using a blog as a portfolio of things that I would want.  But I was doing it back home, before I got hired and moved to Orlando, and so it was a way of exercising my skills and my talents but also a way to maybe get my name out there. And it did! So I did that and then some people down at Theme Park Merchandise at the Disney Design Group saw what I was doing, liked what I was doing, and contacted me.

You also won an Imagineering contest where you created a ride based on Nightmare Before Christmas. Can you take us through that ride?

Not really because WDI [Walt Disney Imagineering] has that all locked down. I can talk about the context, which is still going on today. WDI holds a contest every year called Imaginations and university students are encouraged to apply. The contest has evolved over the years. It used to be a blue-sky create-whatever-you-want-for-the-park so it could have been a restaurant experience, an attraction, a show, a whole park. They really gave you blue sky to do whatever you wanted. But in the years since they’ve really honed that and are now giving students a rubric. But it’s a great way to get an internship. The students go out there for a week and really get to experience how the magic happens.

You created a ride based on Nightmare Before Christmas. Your favorite rides are Tower of Terror and Pirates of the Caribbean. Now you’re designing a tee based on The Haunted Mansion. What about the spooky side of Disney is so appealing to you?

I’ve always been a fan of that genre ever since I was a kid and the Haunted Mansion was my introduction to that. I’m a huge Disney fan. I’ve been going to the parks since I was born. My family was one of those families that would go to the park every summer. And the Haunted Mansion was what I really loved. I also loved the magic shop on Main Street at Walt Disney World because it was a little bit spookier than Disneyland’s. I’ve always been attracted to that. And since I’m an ‘80s child, I loved the Disney movies in the ‘80s like Something Wicked This Way Comes and Return to Oz and Watcher in the Woods. There was this era when Disney was taking some risks and making these young adult thrillers. I just fell in love with them. That’s always been a part of it and Disney has been a huge part of it.

My last job freelancing for Disney was working on Momento Mori, the Haunted Mansion gift shop in Orlando and it was absolutely surreal. So I try to do as much Haunted Mansion stuff as I possibly can and the flash sale is a great place to do that.

Your tee features the Hatbox Ghost. Were you always involved in the lore of the character?

Oh definitely. I remember having a few books that were read-along books with the records that I bought at Walt Disney World, even though they were branded as Disneyland. Even at age 10 I knew of Disneyland and knew it was the original. But going through the books, we didn’t have this ghost. And as time went on and as the internet became a thing, I got to find out more about the Hatbox Ghost. It was interesting because even though he was so short-lived initially, he had such a following and so much stuff revolved around him.

And the design of the shirt itself is based on something that we sold in the parks that had Hatbox Ghost on it. It was a magic book that was sold at Disneyland called Magic from the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. So that artwork was directly lifted from this vintage piece of merchandise. Because the style in this book was so kooky, it just screams “Haunted Mansion.” When I came across it, I knew I had to use some piece of part from this magic book because it’s one of the most amazing vintage items anybody could have. I also want to give a shout out to a designer who worked with me on this one, his name is Ian Giles and he’s a big fan and another winner of the Imaginations competition. He did the typesetting underneath and it was his idea to pull the font from a vintage Walt Disney World advertisement for the mansion. When we design something we want to make sure both coasts get some love. So there’s a hat tip to both. There’s always going to be undertones of Disney history or lore; we really love to bring in that nostalgia and bring in some retro nostalgia synergy.

Have you been out to see the Hatbox Ghost yet?

No, I will hopefully be able to see him when I’m out there for D23 Expo.

You can get the limited edition Haunted Mansion tee from now until Thursday (act fast!), and you can see Richard at the D23 Expo. On Saturday, he will be signing from 5:15 – 6:15 p.m. at the Disney Dream Store and from 10:30 – 11:30 am on Sunday (he helped with some of the Expo merchandise and he’ll be debuting a piece for the gallery – a brand-new 14” figurine).

The post Boo! Artist Richard Terpstra On Conjuring the Limited Edition Haunted Mansion Tee appeared first on Disney Blogs.

The clip cannily sums up the premise of the new film (and eventual series), with Kion (voiced by Max Charles) leading a group of animals called The Lion Guard. Traditionally, this group has been comprised of the bravest, fastest and strongest animals of the Pride Lands, but Kion “breaks with tradition” and recruits his friends. This means that the new Lion Guard is comprised of a motley crew that includes Bunga (Joshua Rush), a blustery honey badger; Ono (Atticus Shaffer), a smarty-pants egret; Fuli (Diamond White), a confident cheetah and Beshte (Dusan Brown), a friendly hippo. Yes, this sounds very promising.

Even more promising is the voice cast that executive producer Ford Riley and his talented team have assembled. Not only does The Lion Guard include original stars James Earl Jones and Ernie Sabella, reprising their roles as Mufasa and Pumbaa, but also great new talent like Rob Lowe as Simba and Gabrielle Union as Nala. (Kevin Schon reprises his role as Timon from The Lion King’s Timon and Pumbaa television series.)

What makes The Lion King even more interesting is that the Education and Science experts from Disney’s Animal Kingdom have been advising on the project, letting the storytellers in on the “characteristics, behaviors and habitats of the African animal species” and continuing the series’ theme of preservation and respect for the natural surroundings of Africa.

Quite frankly, we can’t wait. The concept behind the serious is adorable and ingenious, allowing for genuine education about serious issues to be presented in an easily digestible platform (a spoonful of sugar, after all), and the animation is gorgeous and evocative. Something tells us that the time in between The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar and the premiere of the series will seem awfully long.

The post Watch the First Clip from The Lion Guard and Find Out Who’s Taking On the Roles of Simba and Nala appeared first on Disney Blogs.

We’ll be showing you some of the new artwork this week, beginning today with an exclusive look at artist Dave Perillo’s ode to the musical masterpiece Fantasia. We got the chance to speak to Perillo about the piece and his print celebrating the Oscar-winning animated short “Feast.” As an added bonus, we have included information about how to get your hands on these gorgeous prints while attending D23 Expo.

Cyclops Print Works Print# 5: Fantasia 75th Anniversary by Dave Perillo
Size: 18”x24”
Technique: Serigraph | 5 Colors
Edition size: Limited Edition of 240
Price: $55 (sales tax included)
Printed by: Eclipse Workshop

Perillo is an incredibly talented artist known for his bold, graphic approach to the material and his style does wonders for both projects. “Feast” is broken down into simple moments, with a lovely presentation of the short’s title treatment, while Fantasia manages to wedge in a number of moments from Walt Disney’s classic musical experiment, while giving center stage to Mickey Mouse in the sorcerer’s hat. Both pieces are powerful and beautiful, with the extreme stylization never undercutting either’s emotional core.

We were lucky enough to chat with Perillo about the pieces, attending the D23 Expo, and what spoke to him about both films.

Can you take me through both of the pieces—how did you decide what size they were and what the general style would be?

“Feast” is 10” x 20”. They wanted a little smaller piece and I figured that it would be a good one to do as a smaller piece because it’s a short film and you only have about six minutes of stuff to work with, in terms of imagery. So I figured doing a small piece would be good. Fantasia is 18” x 24”, which is one of the standard sizes for screen-printed posters.

Both “Feast” and Fantasia offer pretty rich source material. Was it hard to distill them into a few images?

Yeah, Fantasia was trickier than “Feast” was. Because “Feast” is a six-minute short that has a progressive story so I could build off of that, where the top of the poster it starts and the bottom of the poster is the end of the short and it just flowed that way. But for Fantasia, it’s so many segments with so many different styles that I kind of wanted to get as much of the movie in there and as much of the iconic imagery of the film as I could. I’ve done that format before on some other pieces, so I tackled it that way to get as much of the movie in there. Some things from Fantasia don’t translate that well to a poster, like when they’re talking about the soundtrack and it’s just lines on a screen. A lot of it works better in motion than a still image, so I tried to pick things that work better for still imagery.

That might have been an interesting poster!

I’m sure there are some artists who would have been able to handle it in a style but I don’t think it would have worked with how I do stuff.

Was Fantasia always one of your favorite Disney movies?

Well, it’s funny. It’s a classic but one that I hadn’t seen since I was a kid. So I went back and watched it again, because you remember stuff like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Night on Bald Mountain but there are other things that I completely forgot about when I was little. Like the whole Mount Olympus section I had forgotten about and the dinosaurs segment. So that stuff was neat to revisit. It sparked my imagination again. It’s a beautiful film and seems very ahead of its time, especially when watching it now, that something like that was made in the ‘40s. It’s a nonlinear film that’s an orchestral musical piece. It’s brilliant. And so different than a lot of the Disney stuff; it shows you how innovative they were, even back then.

Cyclops Print Works Print# 7: “Feast” by Dave Perillo
Size: 10”x20”
Technique: Serigraph | 6 Colors
Edition size: Limited Edition of 240
Price: $45 (sales tax included)
Printed by: Eclipse Workshop

What attracted you to “Feast?”

Well that was on the front of Big Hero 6 and I remember seeing it and is just a gorgeous little short. It gets me choked up every time I watch it. They asked if I wanted to do one of the shorts, because the collection is coming out, and I wanted to do “Feast.” It’s cute, it’s funny, it’s got a lot of heart. There’s not really any dialogue to it and it’s from the point of view of the dog and that’s what I really liked about it. So I wanted to do a poster that was all from the dog’s perspective, where you take little scenes from his journey.

You’ll be at D23 Expo this weekend, doing signings and engaging with fans. Is that something that you’re looking forward to?

Yeah! I like it a lot. I live on the East Coast so it’s always fun to go to conventions and meet different people and it’s always nice to say hello to people who buy my art. A lot of times you work from home, as an illustrator, day to day, and you don’t get to interact with people. So it’s nice.

Is there anything else you’re looking forward to at D23 Expo?

I’m going to try to make it to the parks. I always like to try and get out there at least one day when I’m on the west coast. And I’m doing signings at the Dream Store as well as Autograph Central, through the Wonderland Gallery. So there are quite a few signing spots on Friday and Saturday.

Dave Perillo will be signing his “Feast” and Fantasia prints at the D23 Expo this weekend. He will be signing on Saturday from 10:45 0 11:40 a.m. Details for both prints are below.

The post Exclusive: Artist Dave Perillo Debuts His Fantasia Print For D23 Expo appeared first on Disney Blogs.

The entire show looks like it was filmed from inside a black light poster, seemingly inspired by prog rock album covers from the 1970s (Wander definitely has the look and feel of an optimistic folk musician). Often times the visuals are pushed to almost experimental extremes, and the narratives blow past commonplace formality for something more charming and uncommon.

Tonight, one of the episodes that really exemplifies Wander Over Yonder’s commitment to visual and narrative inventiveness, airs on Disney XD. Entitled “The Breakfast,” which sees the lovable Wander waking up and getting ready for his day, along with Lord Hater getting ready at the same time. The entire episode is presented in split-screen, with action taking place on both sides of the device, with jokes playing off one another and occasionally interacting. If you want to know what makes Wander Over Yonder so special, this 11-minute episode is a good place to start.

“It was about trying to create this world of science fiction before Star Wars,” Wander Over Yonder creator McCracken explained. “So everything before 1977, everything from old science fiction book covers, to psychedelia, to early Terry Gilliam animation. And it’s also heavily influenced by Muppets. I really like the simplicity of Jim Henson designs and I try to incorporate that.”

And while Wander Over Yonder flawlessly combines gentle surrealism with actual danger, McCracken said a chief imperative towered above all others: the show’s inherent silliness, and that the show’s sweetness influenced its look. “It’s shamelessly cartoon-y and we always embrace the silliness. There are deeper stories and the characters have real emotions and real feelings but the overall tone of the show is fun. So we wanted to come up with a design style that was fun and cool to look at.” To that end they created a “lava lamp” aesthetic and applied it to everything. “It’s all gloopy and soft and there’s not a lot of hard edges or sharp angles.” It’s true that everything on Wander Over Yonder looks super huggable, even if it’s supposed to be something scary and weird.

When coming up with the split-screen episode, McCracken had to ask himself some questions. “The way I always approach every one of my cartoons is by saying, What’s something that we haven’t done? What’s a fun experiment? And I think of every cartoon not as individual episodes but as little sketches or little films. So it was a matter of noting that Hater is an eternal pessimist who has everything handed to him and Wander is this eternal optimist who lives out in nature and has to work hard for everything. So we thought it’d be a neat character study to do a point/counter-point of how they get breakfast in the morning.”

We mentioned that we couldn’t think of any animated series that had done something like this; McCracken couldn’t either. Not that it fazed him. “That was what I got really excited about. Can we do this? Can we make two simultaneous cartoons where each joke plays point/counter-point? It was really tricky to figure out because the one thing we needed to do was direct the audience with where to look at any given time. We didn’t want to play both of them as noise. We needed to lead you to choose a side. So all of that was very meticulously crafted.”

Something rendered entirely in split-screen is pretty unheard of. When we watched “The Breakfast” episode of Wander Over Yonder, we immediately thought of the work of suspense director Brian De Palma, whose work, particularly in the ‘70s (the same period of pop art that Wander Over Yonder references), made extensive use of split-screen. But McCracken’s reference point wasn’t so heady. “I had recently seen some commercials that had did that,” McCracken admitted. Hey, we’re sold.

The kind of playful experimentation presented in “The Breakfast” isn’t a fluke, either. McCracken points out that there were two episodes in the show’s first season (“The Day” and “The Night”), “the way those cartoons are designed, the last frame of each one loops up into the next one. So you could watch those cartoons in a perpetual loop forever.” He also points out to the “Rashomon-style” approach to the Christmas and Halloween episodes of the show last season (“The Gift” and “The Giftening”), where Wander’s charitable good deeds are seen, in Lord Hater’s eyes, as truly terrifying. “We took the same story but looked at the other side of it,” McCracken explained.

And don’t worry, the series’ intoxicating mixture of far-out visuals and bold storytelling isn’t going to stop anytime soon. McCracken is particularly excited about an extra-long musical episode (set to air sometime next year). “We did a full-on 22-minute musical and what we wanted to do was treat it like a real, classical Disney musical,” he enthused. “So we did it like they used to do it with the Sherman Brothers where the composer was in the story room with a keyboard while we were watching the story. So we would break it with our composer, Andy Bean. It’s something we’re incredibly proud of. It’s incredibly ambitious. It’s going to be a lot of fun.” Like we said: you can search the entire galaxy, but there isn’t a show quite like Wander Over Yonder.

New, increasingly brilliant episodes of Wander Over Yonder air on Monday nights at 9 p.m. on Disney XD. They’re worth the journey.

The post Creator Craig McCracken On the Visual Inventiveness of Wander Over Yonder appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Earlier this week, Kermit announced that he and Miss Piggy were, in the style of so many Hollywood power couples before them, terminating their “romantic relationship.” This comes just before the premiere of the hotly anticipated (especially by us) new ABC series The Muppets, which airs on Tuesday nights this fall. This is tragic personal news for the beloved couple, for sure, but will surely make for some crackerjack entertainment. And on a much less tension-fraught Muppet update, watch the Electric Mayhem Band and Sam the Eagle perform “Jungle Boogie” in the hilarious video below. It’s anarchic and colorful, like all the best Muppet moments, and we can’t help but think that Jim Henson would love the piece.

Beach Robot Draws Walt Disney at Disney’s Contemporary Resort

Walt Disney was, quite famously, incredibly passionate about developing technology to push the boundaries of storytelling and entertainment, and today that spirit is being kept alive and well. A few months ago we told you about Beachbot, an adorable robot that could draw things in the sand. The brainchild of the Disney Research Zurich lab and graduates students from a Swiss engineering school, the Disney Parks blog points out that the “entertainment robot” was recently brought to the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World, where it handily drew a portrait of Walt Disney in the sand. The video above is really cute and kind of mind-blowing.

Aladdin Told By Tsum Tsums

The amazing Aladdin Tsum Tsums are already in short supply at the Disney Store. But if you still want to experience one of your favorite Disney animated masterpiece in the form of tiny, super cute toys, watch the amazing Aladdin as Told by Tsum Tsums video.

Awesome Retro Limited Edition Mickey Tee

We love the amazing limited edition tees that the Disney Store has been releasing recently (it’s kind of sad how many we already have), and this week’s shirt is one of the best: it’s Mickey Mouse from EPCOT Center, with his rainbow-emblazoned space suit, in a gorgeous 8-bit render. (There’s one with Minnie for you ladies out there.) We were recently talking about how much we love this iteration of Mickey, especially since, when EPCOT Center first opened in the eighties, it was almost completely character-free, and Mickey was one of the few identifiable characters. (The park instead chose to focus on newly created characters like Captain Eo and Figment, and on the more educational and technological aspects of EPCOT Center.) The tee is bordered by the logos of the original pavilions (although no Wonders of Life, whose symbol was a simplified Vitruvian man) and an 8-bit EPCOT logo on the back. It’s only available until Thursday, so act fast!

Idina Menzel Visits Frozen Festivities at WDW

It’s not every day that the star of a feature film stops by its corresponding theme park attraction, but this happened recently when Idina Menzel dropped in at For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The Disney Parks blog was there to capture the magic, which you can watch above (only if you let it go).

Disneyland App Available Now

Want to get even more out of your next trip to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure? Well, the official app just launched today (available in both the App Store and Google Play), and it should make that next visit to the parks even more magical. The app will include maps of attractions, restaurants, and shops and will feature attraction wait times, entertainment showtimes and character appearance schedules. You can even buy tickets on the app and just flash your device at the turnstiles to gain admission (you don’t have to print anything out). Yes, the future really is now.

Toy Story That Time Forgot Announced

Last year Toy Story That Time Forgot, the holiday-themed (and dinosaur-heavy) Disney•Pixar television, aired on ABC. And it was an instant classic, the kind of thing we can picture ourselves watching each and every holiday season. How will we watch it each year? Why with the brand new Blu-ray, Digital HD, and Disney Movie Anywhere versions, of course! It’ll be available on November 3, and will be chock full of extras (including a documentary about the world of Toy Story That Time Forgot, filmmaker commentary, a Comic Con recap, deleted scenes, a karaoke sing-along, and a 2D animated opening for the fictional TV series). This is going to be a must-own release and we cannot wait.

The post 7 Disney Things You Might Have Missed This Week appeared first on Disney Blogs.

But that was just the beginning.

For San Diego Comic Con even more emojis were released (just as amazing, just as adorable) and now the entire set, including a bunch of brand new characters, vehicles, and weapons, are available as part of the deeply essential Star Wars App (available now on the iOS model and coming soon for Android). What was once a marvel of social media can now be transmitted, emailed, text messaged, and chatted to anyone. It really is a new hope.

In celebration of the Star Wars app unveiling, we chatted with Truck Torrence, a brilliant Los Angeles-based artist known for his super-cute interpretation of famous television shows and movies, who goes by the moniker 100% Soft. (We have several of his works hanging on our walls at home, including a recent, amazing Avengers: Age of Ultron print.)  Torrence is a super fan of Star Wars and perfectly suited for the project, since he’s able to boil down a character’s essence into an easily readable, identifiable symbol. Torrence could take one of the most dangerous scoundrels in the galaxy, better suited for a wretched hive of scum and villainy than your new smartphone, and make that dastardly cad downright huggable.

We talked to Torrence about how he became involved in the project, what it feels like to be bringing new characters to people, what Star Wars means to him, and which Star Wars: The Force Awakens character is his favorite to draw.

How were you first brought onto the project?

I had a solo art exhibition open earlier this year called Mass Hysteria and it was at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles. And basically the theme of the show was pop culture crowds. So I had really, really densely populated prints of characters from movies and TV shows and I had a Star Wars print in there that had most of the original trilogy characters surrounded by stormtroopers and Darth Vader. A few people from Lucasfilm went to the show and saw the print and they ended up contacting me, asking me if I would be available to design a very limited first round of emoji for them in conjunction with Star Wars Celebration and the release of the first teaser. So the first ones I did were C-3PO and BB-8 and the updated stormtrooper. Those were the first ones I did. It was really cool and fun that they saw my original art to begin with and thought it would be a good fit for the emoji.

When you saw Lucasfilm was calling did you think, Oh great, I’m getting sued?

[laughs] No because they went through the gallery to contact me. So the gallery hit me up and said, “Would you be interested in a super, super secret project for the biggest movie of next year?”

When the emojis for Celebration were released, the internet lost its mind. How soon afterwards were you contacted about the emojis for San Diego Comic Con and now the app?

Pretty quickly afterwards. There was always talk about seeing how well the original three were going to go over and if people seemed to respond to them and people seemed to use them and people seemed to like them, then we’d like to do more. After those three were released they asked me to do a substantially bigger set, specifically they wanted me to do stuff for The Force Awakens. So I got to do Kylo Ren, the crossguard lightsaber, they had me do Captain Phasma, and a few others. Then the big push came for all the original trilogy characters, the Clone Wars characters, the prequel characters, different vehicles, and all kinds of stuff.

Are you excited about having them on the app now? They’ll no longer live on Twitter via hashtags.

Yeah, I cannot wait. I think it’s awesome. It was really, really cool to see #C3PO trending on Twitter and scroll through my timeline and see all of those little emojis being used by people. So to be able to get all the other ones to a wider audience will be awesome, I think.

What is Star Wars to you?

I can’t even remember when I was first exposed to Star Wars because it was exposed  so early in age that it was just something that was part of my makeup when I was growing up. I remember being a kid in the ‘80s and begging my parents to get me all of the figures I wanted and then after Empire Strikes Back came out, I would take all of my toys and freeze them in the freezer to mimic carbonite freezing. I was relentlessly obsessed with Star Wars all through my youth. It’s something intrinsically tied to my childhood forever.

What does it feel like to get to introduce people to these new characters?

It’s a dream. These are arguably some of the most iconic characters ever put on screen and everybody in the world knows who these characters are. So the opportunity to put my spin on them and do them in my style and to give those to everybody else and hopefully they’ll enjoy them; it’s a really, really big honor. And it’s fun too because I loved taking characters like that and doing them in my style and I do it for fun. I do it just to see how they’d look in my head. So to do it for the official app and for Twitter and to have Lucasfilm seek me out is just an incredible honor.

Who has been your favorite new character to illustrate?

I really liked doing Kylo Ren. He’s really fun because he’s a very evil character and the actual design of the character is very harsh and he has this chrome faceplate and a metal mask that makes him look very intimidating. So it was fun to take those elements and to distill them into something very soft and cute. And I don’t know who it was, but one of the notes I got back was that I needed to make him a little more menacing. But he was fun to design for sure. And BB-8 was great too. The design for BB-8 anyway is incredible and watching the practical version of him roll out on stage at Celebration was pretty amazing. So it was cool to translate him as well.

So what are you waiting for? You can now send your friends texts that conclude with an adorable emoji of BB-8! The emojis are available now, via the official Star Wars App, on iOS and coming soon for Android. May the Force be with you.

The post Cosmically Cute: Talking Star Wars Emojis With Artist 100% Soft appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Hirsch is the lifeblood of the series. He created the series and frequently contributes to scripts, but he also oversees the massive, increasingly intricate mythology and voices beloved characters Grunkle Stan and Soos. So if there’s someone who could fill us in on the particulars of the episode, it would be Hirsch. (We also tried to get details on upcoming episodes, but no dice. He enjoys keeping the mystery in the Mystery Shack.) And don’t worry—this will be an ongoing feature, with the next episode “The Stanchurian Candidate” premiering on Disney XD on August 24.

Did you play these types of role playing games as a kid? If so, was this something that you had wanted to write into the show for a long time?

I never did, actually! But one time back in my Flapjack days Pen Ward (creator of Adventure Time) and Pat McHale (creator of Over The Garden Wall) asked if I wanted to play D&D after work. I asked what the rules were, and they said, “It’s a game of imagination! There are no rules!” and then proceeded to argue about the rules for an hour and a half. I haven’t played since. But I should probably give it another try.

What was it like working with Weird Al? He’s a comedy legend for a lot of people and certainly still at the height of his powers. Had you always been a fan and what did he bring to the episode?

My dad raised me on Weird Al cassettes, and I think I probably knew the words to “Eat It” before I knew my whole name, so obviously working with him was a dream come true.  The legends about him being literally the nicest man in show business are true. After our recording session I wanted to shoot a Vine with him, so I said “Hey, would you want to film a-” and he said “YES!” before I even got to the end of my sentence. Then he hopped on a table so he could adjust the lighting to make it better. That dude is a serious entertainer.

This is a particularly reflexive episode—at one point Stan describes Duck-Tective having “a big mystery element and a lot of humor that goes over kids heads,” while later, when the big twist on the show is revealed, Mable exclaims, “He had a twin brother all along? That’s the big twist we were waiting for?” Was it fun to address the audience like that?

It’s always fun to write the little bit of TV that the characters watch in Gravity Falls, because it’s a perfect place to poke fun at the media. Obviously this time we were poking fun at ourselves. Our fans are so good at solving mysteries that they’d figured out some of our big secrets ages ago; this was our way of letting them know we were impressed.

How has the dynamic of the storytelling changed since Great Uncle Ford was introduced? Does it make these kind of standalone stories trickier to come up with?

Dipper’s journal used to be the source of magic and the guide to mystery in the series, but now that the author has been revealed, it made sense to us that he would occasionally serve the purpose that the journal once filled. From a character point of view, the addition of Ford creates interesting new tensions and character dynamics that we’ve had fun exploring. You’ll see more of that in upcoming episodes.

What can you tease about future episodes? Since Gravity Falls has an ongoing arc, what ramifications will this episode have for episodes down the line?    

Nice try, pal! A lot of the fun of Gravity Falls comes from the secrecy surrounding the plot. We want fans to be able to guess and speculate, to be surprised by twists and be engaged when they get things right. The only thing I can say about the next episode is that it will involve a situation that affects the fate of the entire town.

What should we ask Alex next time? What are you dying to know about the world of Gravity Falls? Let us know in the comments!

The post Exclusive: Gravity Falls Creator Alex Hirsch On Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons appeared first on Disney Blogs.

And with that, Gravity Falls is back!

When the show returns from its super catchy theme music, Mabel is scribbling a letter to her parents. This is, as far as we can remember, the first time the twins’ parents have been explicitly referenced. What makes the letter so interesting is that Mabel is, in her charmingly Mabel-ish way, explaining the general weirdness that has recently befallen the sleepy Pacific Northwest town. Then, thanks to a news clip, we see various Gravity Falls townsfolk, in the wake of the event (Lazy Susan jokes that she’s going to have to sell “right-side up cake”) and Mayor Befufflefumpter decrees that the rejuvenation of Gravity Falls begins. Mabel even tells her parents about Ford.

Unable to join Ford in his adventuring, Dipper instead turns to a turn-based board game called Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons. Initially, Mabel is intrigued (“that hot elf looks promising”) but after Skipper explains some of the rules, including the heavy use of math, she bounces. (Soos is more of an FCLORP-er, which stands for “Foam and Cardboard Legitimate Outdoor Role Play,” so bows out.) Stan just makes fun of him. So Dipper is forced to play by himself outside, with Gompers the goat. After Dipper chases his 38-sided die into Ford’s underground lab, he finds someone who is willing to play with him: Ford, who exclaims, “This is my favorite game in the whole multiverse—I can’t believe they still make it!”

Meanwhile, Mabel and Stan are preparing for the Duck-Tective finale. Ford and Dipper are in the basement playing their game. In one of the best jokes of the episode, Ford marvels that the evil wizard in the game has undergone a scary reinvention since he last played his game, while Dipper recounts the character’s “cooler” ‘90s makeover, leading into a vintage commercial full of ‘90s slang and iconography. “Must have been dark times, those ‘90s,” Dipper says with a shiver. But when Dipper tries to press Ford for details of his inter-dimensional journey, he rebuffs him. Finally, Ford throws him a bone and shows Dipper one of his magical doohickeys: an infinity-sided die. “These things are outlawed in 9,000 dimensions. Infinite sides means infinite outcomes,” Ford explains.

Later that night, Mabel expresses concern over Dipper spending so much time with “Old Fordsy.” And when Grenda comes over to watch Duck-Tective with Mabel and Stan, they’re in for a rude awakening: Ford and Dipper have expanded their game to include the TV room. They’re going for a world record. When Ford mocks Stan for getting “all keyed up to watch a kids’ show,” Stan, in a moment of extreme meta-textual awareness, says that Duck-Tective has “a big mystery element and lots of humor that goes over kids’ heads.” As the argument gets more and more extreme, Stan grabs Ford’s bag of dice and accidentally rolls the infinity-sided die, unleashing dark wizard Probabilator (voiced by “Weird Al” Yankovic) and some fantasy realm goons, threatening to eat Ford and Dipper’s brains (“It’s what I do”). Suddenly, Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons becomes very, very real.

With Ford and Dipper abducted by magical, potentially murderous fantasy creatures, Stan sighs and says, “Alright, I guess if we have no other choice, we’ll go on an epic wizard quest.” After grabbing their weapons (Grenda takes an armchair), Mabel cries out, “We’re coming for you Dipper, and Great Uncle Ford, and that hot elf, if he’s got anything to do with this.” Then they set off on their journey. When Stan, Grenda, and Mabel get to where Ford and Dipper are being held, Probabilator challenges them to a game of Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons, “real-life edition!” This means that Dipper and Ford are shrunk down, placed on a magical game board, and forced to do the bidding of the players, Mabel and Stan (who made endless fun of the game earlier in the episode). If they win, Probabilator will go back to his own dimension and if they lose, Ford and Dipper’s brains will be devoured by a character who sounds a lot like the guy who popularized song parodies decades before the Internet.

These sequences with the game board are thrilling and hilarious, playing up the somewhat nonsensical guidelines of these types of games (they require “risk” and “imagination”). “I cast giggle-time bouncy boots!” Mabel exclaims, and the soundtrack replicates the chirpy score of a 1980’s dungeon-crawler video game. It’s pretty magical (we really love the “ogrenado,” especially since “it’s exactly what it sounds like”). Of course, it comes down to Probabilator using a nearly impossible foe (from the “controversial 1991-1992 edition”) that requires Stan to use dumb luck that turns out to be flagrant cheating, leading Mabel to cast the fatal blow, in the form of “death muffins.” Afterwards, Stan gives Dipper his blessing to hang out with Ford, while Dipper instead ops for some “mindless fun” in the form of the Duck-Tective finale. The actual Duck-Tective footage is hilarious (apparently the show is British) and again leads to some ace in-show commentary from Mabel, who says, “He had a twin brother all along? That’s the big twist we were waiting for?” (Soos, perhaps echoing some online commenters, says, “I predicted that like a year ago.”) In the basement, Ford locks away the infinity-sided die and shows Dipper what he’s been working on: dismantling the portal that brought him back to Gravity Falls. And then he drops a bombshell: the instability of the portal created an inter-dimensional rift. “I’ve contained it for now but it’s incredibly dangerous,” Ford explains. Ford locks the rift away, which is a psychedelic, swirling goo in a glass orb and the episode ends … ominously.

“Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons” is a truly satisfying episode, mostly because it establishes the new paradigm that future episodes will presumably follow, folding in Ford (excellently voiced by recent Academy Award-winner J.K. Simmons) and introducing a new, even more dangerous threat in the form of the rift. It swaps out Dipper’s motivation (instead of searching for the author of the book, he’s on a quest to join the author’s adventure) and establishes clear lines of conflict between Ford and Stan, as well as double-underlining the parallels between Dipper and Mabel and Ford and Stan. And it’s also really, really fun. The episode’s bout of weirdness is introduced late in the episode but plays out well and has an appropriate level of danger (Yankovic’s performance, too, is out-of-the-magical-shire amazing). It will be interesting to see where the series goes from here, and what’s going on with that swirling vortex goo.

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So, in an effort to get you ready for the D23 Expo, we thought we’d suggest 10 panels that you cannot skip (time and personal physical stamina notwithstanding).

Friday, 10 a.m. (Stage 23) – The Magic Behind The Muppets

It’s no secret that we’re really excited about the new Muppets series coming to ABC this fall, and this panel will certainly fan those flames. (If you need a reason to get equally pumped, just watch the amazing reel that got ABC executives on board.) This panel (presented by ABC) promises “the magic and art of being a Muppet performer” and “a few surprise guests.” So, if you’ve ever had a lifelong dream of being in the same room as an honest-to-goodness Muppet, this panel is for you.

Friday, 3 p.m. (Hall D23) – Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Films: The Upcoming Films, Hosted by John Lasseter

It’s hard to overstate how essential this two-hour panel is going to be. And since we don’t know what will be presented during the panel, let’s just review what happened at this panel during the last D23 Expo: at the end of panel, Idina Menzel took the stage and sang “Let It Go,” while images from the film appeared on a giant screen behind her. Keep in mind this was August, and Frozen wouldn’t be released until that November.  Up until this point, nobody knew much about the movie, much less the amazing songs it contained. As Menzel sang, snow started to fall from the ceiling. And by the time she was done there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. So that’s the kind of panel this usually is. Do not miss it.

Friday, 5 p.m. (Stage 23) – Imagineering 60 Years of Disneyland

This two-part panel discussion features both Disney Legends and current Imagineers, who will talk about how it all began and what it takes for them to carry on Walt Disney’s innovative spirit into the distant future. It will be moderated by Leslie Iwerks, daughter of Disney Legend Don Iwerks and granddaughter of Ub Iwerks, the original Disney animator and co-creator of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, who will be presenting a brand new trailer from her forthcoming documentary about Walt Disney Imagineering. In other words: it’s going to be an awesome (and rare) behind-the-scenes peek at one of the most magical parts of the company. It’ll also probably make you want to run down the street and into Disneyland right after the panel is done.

Saturday, 10:30 a.m. (Hall D23) – Worlds, Galaxies and Universes: Live Action at the Walt Disney Studios

Again, an anecdote about a panel from the last D23 Expo: at the end of the live action presentation, Richard Sherman (who co-wrote the songs from Mary Poppins) came out with Jason Schwartzman (who played Sherman in the then-forthcoming Saving Mr. Banks) and they sang “Spoonful of Sugar.” At the same time, dancers entered the building and started to do choreographed dancing. It was beyond magical. Given how diverse and heavy hitting the upcoming Disney live action feature slate is, chances are this will be thrillingly action packed. This will undoubtedly be the panel that everyone is talking about for the rest of the Expo.

Saturday, 3 p.m. (Hall D23) – Walt Disney Parks and Resorts

The title for this panel is enigmatic and nobody knows what is going to be presented (or how it will be presented). It’s even unclear which parks and resorts will even be spotlighted. So it’s safe to say that, considering how densely the panel cloaked in mystery, it’s going to be downright incredible.

Saturday, 3 p.m. (Stage 28) – Pixar Secrets Revealed! Hear the Stories They Didn’t Want You to Know!

And here is the biggest dilemma of the entire weekend: do you attend the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts panel (which has the potential to be quantifiably mind-shattering) or do you attend this amazing-sounding Pixar panel, hosted by Pixar senior development executive Mary Coleman? The choice is yours and either way you choose, you’re going to get something really special. This panel will include Pixar storytellers like producer Darla K. Anderson, director Mark Andrews, director Ronnie Del Carmen, and director Dan Scanlon. They’ll discuss the many interesting “twists and turns” of creating a truly unforgettable film and reveal some of the crazy notions that didn’t make the final cut.

Saturday, 6 p.m. (Stage 28) – Aladdin: The Making of a Classic

Everything’s coming up Aladdin these days: the Tsum Tsums hit today, the Diamond Edition comes out in September, and at D23 Expo there’s this amazing panel, which celebrates the groundbreaking classic by bringing together much of the creative talent responsible. Legendary Disney animators John Musker and Ron Clements (whose newest masterpiece is 2016’s Moana) will be joined on the panel by animators Eric Goldberg (Genie) and Mark Henn (Jasmine), along with vocal talent like Linda Larkin (Jasmine) and Scott Weinger and Brad Kane (who both portrayed Aladdin). What are you going to do with your other two wishes?

Sunday, 11:30 a.m. (Stage 28) – The Shorts of Walt Disney Animation Studios: From “Paperman” to “Prep & Landing,” “Feast” to “Frozen Fever”

The Disney animated short film is as old as the company itself; after all, Walt Disney didn’t start off doing feature length cartoons. Instead, he and his brother Roy focused on short form animation. And animated shorts have been an important part of Disney ever since. This panel will focus on many of the recent, jaw dropping animated shorts, everything from the Oscar-winning 2D/3D hybrid “Paperman” and this year’s audience favorite “Frozen Fever.” (These shorts will come to Blu-ray and Digital HD this August.).) Animators behind many of these shorts (including those who worked on this writer’s personal favorite “Lorenzo”) will assemble on stage for what is sure to be an unforgettable conversation.

Sunday, 1 p.m. (Walt Disney Archives Stage) – Disneyland: Fond Memories of the Past

If for some reason you missed D23’s Destination D: Attraction Rewind, you’re in luck. According to the official release, “Walt Disney Archives Director Becky Cline and Disney artist and historian Stacia Martin revisit their popular 2014 event presentation taking fans on a journey through some of Disneyland’s most beloved attractions of yesteryear.” This sounds right up our alley, and will be presented at the Walt Disney Archives Stage, a more amble-up-after-you’ve-toured-Mickey’s-of-Glendale spot that doesn’t require some of the organized waiting of the other panels. So all in all, this could be one of the best panels of the weekend.

Sunday, 6 p.m. (Stage 28) – The Tunes Behind the Toons

Walt Disney was always fascinated by music, whether it was in the groundbreaking “Silly Symphonies” short films or just-as-groundbreaking feature film Fantasia (later continued in Fantasia 2000). The Tunes Behind the Tunes is a short form documentary that will be screening at D23 Expo, with this Q&A following that screening. The documentary features interviews with everyone from Alan Menken to Richard Sherman, who discuss the importance of music in Disney animated features, and the “star-studded” Q&A will be hosted by producer/director (and Disney animation super-fan) Dave Bossert, promises to be just as riveting as the documentary itself.

Of course, these are just ten of the amazing panels the D23 Expo has to offer. The entire weekend is overflowing with amazing panels, activities, performances, and appearances. To see the rest of the schedule, go to their official site. You can buy tickets for the D23 Expo now. We look forward to seeing you in your Darkwing Duck costume.

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There had always been plans for a “life and health” pavilion at EPCOT Center but it didn’t always look like Wonders of Life. By 1978 plans had been finalized. The building would be a circular building with outposts that held rides and attractions. A giant waterfall would greet guests as they entered, and once inside they would (in the words of an early promotional video) “experience a new awareness and appreciation of themselves.” There was a circus theme to the complex, called the Midway of Life, and other attractions that would jut out from that carnival-tinged hub. These attractions included the Incredible Journey Within, a dark ride where guests would “explore the incredible workings of the complex human machine.” Good Health Habits would be a “three-part animatronic fable” in a revolving theater like the Carousel of Progress. And a common entry would make room for two more attractions: Head Trip (featuring animatronic versions of emotion, intellect, and the nervous system) “humorously explaining the data handling and communication capabilities in all of us” and Tooth Follies, a musical, mouth-centered revue. There would be a sensory maze and a theater that would show The Joy of Life. An educational (but still fun) atmosphere would permeate the pavilion, showing guests that “good health is based on your own personal behaviors.” The planned pavilion was ambitious and huge.

Disney wanted to make sure the pavilion was as scientifically accurate as possible. Marty Sklar, then-President of Walt Disney Imagineering, told WD Eye Imagineering, an in-house magazine for Imagineers, in the inaugural issue (November 1989), that they did a lot of “testing the water.” They got people together for a major conference called Good Health in America (Sklar says it was “about 1976 or ’77”) and established an advisory board (members included Theodore Cooper, M.D., Phd., the Chairman and Chief Executive Office of the Upjohn Company and Director of the Heart Institute of National Institute of Health and Robert J. Haggerty, M.D., the President of the William T. Grant Foundation, a Professor of Pediatrics at Cornell and the Editor-in-Chief of Pediatrics in Review). The quest was hugely helpful. “One of the fascinating things about the subject is that in many ways, this is much more controversial than any other subject we have taken on, because theories about health care and how you manage your own body have changed a lot over the 14 years since we first started,” Sklar admitted. “We finally focused on one central theme, and that basically is: ‘Your role in managing your own body and your own health.’ Within that, through entertainment, we give great suggestions about the things that impact your health, whether it’s stress or exercise or smoking and involve you in a process of personal choice, rather than preaching.” Insurance giant MetLife eventually came on board to sponsor the sprawling pavilion.

Another major breakthrough was the technological approach to the attractions. The Wonders of Life, as it was now known, had a centerpiece attraction that was similar to The Incredible Journey Within, except instead of a dark, ride-through attraction with a Peter Pan’s Flight-style ride system, it was a motion simulator not unlike Star Tours (based on the Star Wars films and recently opened at Disneyland; the Walt Disney World version wouldn’t open until December of 1989). The attraction, entitled Body Wars, was directed by Leonard Nimony (a man familiar with fantastic voyages), starred a young Elisabeth Shue and Tim Matheson and found guests being shrunk to microscopic size and injected into the human body. The film was shot on 70mm, with cutting edge effects and stop motion work completed by Industrial Light & Magic. There were four 26-ton ride vehicles that could seat (and then jostle) 40 guests.

“We started out to do a ride-through,” Sklar explained to WD Eye. “But we found that it was nearly impossible to move the huge set pieces. If you can think of moving a section of lung, for instance, that was 30 feet high, on a continuous basis as people ride through … you can imagine how ponderous and difficult that turned out to be. It wasn’t until we hit on the idea of using the simulator, as a result of the success of Star Tours, that this really became viable.” And viable it was.

In addition to The Incredible Journey Within becoming Star Tours, the other signature attraction of the pavilion, The Head Trip, would become Cranium Command, housed inside a state-of-the-art, 200-seat theater. Instead of animatronic versions of emotion, intellect and the nervous system, Cranium Command would feature a single animatronic character (a young pilot named Buzzy, voiced by Corey Burton, who replaced a more macho Captain Cortex) and several screens where popular comedians and actors would inhabit characters like Left Brain (Charles Grodin) and Right Brain (Jon Lovitz). Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon would reprise their Hans and Franz personas from Saturday Night Live to play the heart’s Right and Left Ventricles. In one of those weird coincidences, writer-director Pete Docter who would make the very Cranium Command-ish Inside Out, worked on Cranium Command.

When Wonders of Life finally opened on October 9, 1989, there would be a number of touchstones that would carry over from the early versions of the “life and health” pavilion to Wonders of Life. The basic layout of the pavilion, with a circular building (featuring a dome that was 250 feet wide and 65 feet high, making it the largest dome in EPCOT) and smaller additional buildings would remain, as would the futuristic carnival theming. (The pavilion actually consisted of four buildings, with the main dome, a ride wing, a main theater wing and a support wing.)

There would be three theaters towards the center of the building, Goofy About Health, which explained exercise and wellness in his typically bumbling fashion (told over several screens), a live comedy show featuring the Anacomical Players and The Making Of Me, a gloriously odd live action/animated short hosted by Martin Short that features the comedian traveling back in time to see how he was conceived (yes, it has shades of Back to the Future). Short played both himself and his father, and wonderful retro-style animation proved very eye-opening.

Elsewhere in the pavilion, interactive bikes (called Wondercycles) would allow you to choose virtual bike paths, shops would sell sporting supplies (Wells & Goods Lt.) and low-fat food (Pure and Simple). Frontiers of Medicine would present exhibits on “leading-edge developments in medicine and health sciences” and Coach’s Corner would have guests “have their tennis serve, golf or baseball swing analyzed and compared with a real sports pro’s, through the magic of instant replay.” And the Met Lifestyle Revue would allow guests to obtain a computer-generated analysis of their health habits.

This was a gorgeous pavilion, with a glittery golden sheen to the dome and a 76-foot tower called the Tower of Life (made of steel-and-carbon) that was modeled after the double helix of DNA, served as the grand entrance. Inside, the high tech circus theme was warm and effective, and like much of EPCOT Center at the time, carried a mood that was both futuristic and charmingly nostalgic.

For a while, the Wonders of Life flourished. A year after Body Wars opened, a half-a-minute was edited out of the ride film, during a section where the vehicle is caught in the body’s lungs (the seesawing back-and-forth motion was too intense for some riders, like our mother), and the large archway that initially greeted visitors was taken down and a new sign erected. (The pavilion was somewhat tucked away, at least by EPCOT Center standards, and sometimes easy to simply miss.) But it moved along, entertaining and educating guests. Sklar had predicted that the pavilion “will touch people more directly and more personally than any other subject at EPCOT Center.” The space educated and entertained visitors for fifteen years. After that, the Wonders of Life pavilion was opened seasonally between January 2004 and August 2007, when the entry signs and Tower of Life were quietly removed.

But as the life cycle kept on spinning, the Wonders of Life space has been used, semi-regularly, ever since, as the main hub for both the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival Presented by Chase and the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, where guests can take classes, listen to lectures and have a refreshing drink. Companies can also rent out the well-maintained space (and swank, circus-themed boardrooms). And Body Wars was instrumental when the company was redesigning its Star Tours attraction; this is where early versions of the new ride would be tested out, and parts from Body Wars were often used when the Star Tours vehicles needed some extra love. In a way, Wonders of Life would live on, giving itself up for other attractions and experiences that are still wowing guests today with the same blend of education and entertainment.

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The First Six Minutes of Descendants

Tonight is the world premiere of Disney’s Descendants, a charming and fun Disney Channel original movie that takes place in a world where various villains (including Maleficent, Jafar, Cruella de Vil, and the Evil Queen) have spawned equally rotten children. These children are given the chance to go to school with the more goodly inhabitants of this fairy tale realm, and as you can imagine, complications ensue. It’s got a great spirit and the young actors (Dove Cameron, Cameron Boyce, Booboo Stewart, and Sofia Carson) do a terrific job at playing the conflicted youth. Kenny Ortega, who directed the three High School Musical films (as well as Newsies and Hocus Pocus), energetically stages the musical numbers and is great at tipping his hat to past Disney classics. And you can watch the first six minutes now (try getting this song out of your head).

Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters Comes to Disney California Adventure

If you’ve been to Cars Land at Disney California Adventure recently, you’ve noticed that the former site of Luigi’s Flying Tires (which opened with the rest of the land in June of 2012) has been under construction. There’s new magic being revved up behind those walls. And thanks to the official Parks Blog, we now have a better idea of what’s in store come early 2016. The new ride will be called Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters and features a storyline involving Luigi, the most famous tire salesman in Cars Land, returning from a vacation in Italy with some special guests. As the Parks Blog states: “Luigi has invited all of his cugini (cousins) from his hometown of Carsoli, Italy, to visit his Casa della Tires. To help celebrate Race Day in Radiator Springs, they will demonstrate the dances of their village with Cars Land guests.” Um, yes please. The car in the image above is actually a photo of the new ride vehicle, which is pretty exciting too. We can’t wait to take a spin on Cars Land’s newest ride, in early 2016.

The Collected Works of Hayao Miyazaki Is Coming

Chances are that if you love animation, you love the work of filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. The filmmaker has a gorgeous style and a unique point of view, finding magic in the ordinary and the emotion in fantasy. If Terrence Malick made cartoons, he’d be Hayao Miyazaki. And his lyrical, gently surreal animated features have been hugely influential on Disney and Disney•Pixar artists. At John Lasseter’s urging, Disney has released a number of films by Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli animation studio. So the just-announced Collected Works of Hayao Miyazaki box set, an Amazon exclusive being released on November 17, has us over the moon. The 12-disc collection includes all 11 of Miyazaki’s feature-length masterpieces (including My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away and The Wind Rises) as well as rare extras like Yuki no Taiyo, a 1972 TV pilot directed by Miyazaki and Akado Suzunosuke, three episodes of an anime series storyboarded by Miyazaki. Maybe most devastatingly, it also has the entire, uncut press conference where Miyazaki announced that he would be retiring from filmmaking. Sob.

Tangled As Told By Emoji

If you loved the oh-so-adorable Frozen as Told by Emoji video, get ready, because Tangled is getting the same treatment and the results are just-as-adorable. Experience the tale of Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, and the burly patrons of the Snuggly Duckling, in easily text-able form. It’s a riot.

Food and Wine and Not-So-Scary Tickets Available Now

Two huge events make Walt Disney World even more magical every fall, and they are the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival Presented by Chase (September 25 – November 16), and Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party (select nights from September 15 – November 1). Tickets are now on sale for the premium events at Food and Wine (you only need a ticket to EPCOT to participate in the festival and the amazing Eat to the Beat concert series) and Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween. You can also buy your tickets for the West Coast version of Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween, at Disneyland. So go get your tickets and you too can eat, drink and be (not-so) scary.

Inside Out Thought Bubbles

If you aren’t already playing the Inside Out Thought Bubbles mobile game (available now on Android and iOS devices), then you really should. This highly addictive bubble-popping game is a total hoot and is wonderfully themed around the Disney•Pixar film that we can’t stop thinking about. As you progress through the game, you’ll get additional custom animations that could have been right out of the movie, with different levels themed around the different emotions (and different parts of the mind). There are even Easter eggs for keen-eyed gamers, because, hey, what’s a Disney•Pixar product without Easter eggs?

Did we skip a Disney event that made your week? Tell us in the comments.

The post 6 Disney Things You Might Have Missed This Week appeared first on Disney Blogs.

So let’s go through the lands once again and see what else is in store, come the spring of 2016!

Mickey Avenue

This land, just inside the entrance to Shanghai Disneyland, is the premiere corridor for the entire park. It’s cheerful, bright, and fun, with an emphasis on the classic Disney characters that audiences around the world know and love. As we said before, the Avenue M Arcade will feature the largest selection of gifts and accessories in the park, but what we didn’t know then was that everything about it is themed to the max, including the checkout area, which is centered around Scrooge McDuck. There are new details about the Mickey & Pals Market Café, which we know is designed like an open-air market where guests can choose a table in one of four themed dining rooms (Mickey’s Galley, Tony’s from Lady and the Tramp, Daisy’s Café, and the Three Caballeros). But that’s not the only place to grab a bite. There is also Remy’s Patisserie, a French-inspired bakery based on characters from Brad Bird’s brilliant Ratatouille (be sure to look closely, at the tiny scaffolds and ladders that line the walls, as proof that Remy is hard at work). And don’t forget about the Sweethearts Confectionary, a sweet shop representing the childhood home of Minnie Mouse. Mickey Avenue definitely sounds like the most mouth-watering land.

Gardens of Imagination

As we pointed out in our earlier post, this is the most interesting “land” and the most traditionally Chinese, as this is the place where guests can stop and appreciate the “wonders of nature and joy of imagination.” We already mentioned that this is the place where guests can ride the Fantasia Carousel and Dumbo the Flying Elephant, wander around seven uniquely themed gardens, and experience both the Ignite the Dream nighttime spectacular and Mickey’s Storybook Express, a daytime parade that will feature the longest route in a Disney park. This section of the park also features the Wandering Moon Teahouse, a teahouse that honors the restless creative spirit of China’s wandering poets; this quick-serve location will feature Chinese dishes and recreate authentic Chinese architecture.

Adventure Isle

We ran down all of the major points of this land, like the new variation on the Soarin’ attraction and the Roaring Rapids raft ride. But the site does offer some more details, like how the giant monster in Roaring Rapids (seen above) is named Q’araq and the inclusion of the Tribal Table, a festive restaurant that promises guests a “sensory dining experience.” This means that sights, sounds, and smells will permeate the restaurant, modeled after an ancient gathering house in the Arbori village (adorned in murals, artifacts and illustrations). Everything about Adventure Isle will be adventurous and unexpected.

Treasure Cove

The first pirate-themed land at a Disney park, which will feature Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure, a new take on the classic boat ride, as well as Eye of the Storm: Captain Jack’s Stunt Spectacular, a live stage show at the El Teatro Fandango. There will also be Explorer Canoes, which will allow guests to take to the water, as well as Shipwreck Shore, a water play area located onboard the remains of a shipwrecked French galleon and the surrounding beach. Treasure Cove is also home to one of the largest restaurants in all of Shanghai Disneyland, Barbossa’s Bounty. It’s a lively “grog shop,” this specializes in spicy barbeque (the pirate chefs show off in a demonstration kitchen), and guests can dine in a themed dining room of their choosing or inside the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction (a la the Blue Bayou at Disneyland). The official site also makes mention of the Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure’s high tech ride system (premiering in Shanghai). According to the site, the boats are “able to spin, move and react smartly to their position, triggering action and synchronized music as they travel through breathtaking scenes and lively battles.” And with that, we purchase our plane tickets to Shanghai!

Tomorrowland

Most of what we learned about Tomorrowland was about the TRON Lightcycle Run, the thrilling, roller coaster-type attraction themed to Disney’s beloved sci-fi classic. And while a Buzz Lightyear ride and Jet Pack attraction were teased, there is now more concrete detail and it is super exciting. Buzz Lightyear Planet Rescue is the next iteration of the popular Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster/Space Ranger Spin system, but with an “immersive, new storyline combined with a new, interactive targeting system.” This attraction also features new ride vehicles (called Space Cruisers), animated targets, LED screens, and real time feedback from the targeting system. (We’ll start practicing now.) The Jet Packs attraction also has a more detailed rundown. As the site says, guests will be “strapped into individual Jet Packs, with legs dangling.” At the center of this attraction is some kind of “energy sphere,” which spins faster and faster as the ride progresses. What’s so neat about this one is how interactive it is, as guests can control how high their jetpack goes and how dramatic the pitch of their vehicles is. Also in this land is Star Wars Launch Bay, which is a kind of meet-and-greet mixed with a museum, promising immersion into a “state-of-the-art cinematic experience.” The Marvel Universe is a similar experience, with a chance to meet the famous superheroes, as well as being briefed on a “multimedia mission,” while you can also learn to draw some of the characters. Rounding out the land is the Stitch Encounter, with guests engaging in unrehearsed banter with your favorite cuddly alien and the Stargazer Grill, located at the upper concourse of Tomorrowland. Not only will it be the largest restaurant in the theme park, offering spectacular views of the rest of Shanghai Disneyland, but the design will be incredible, with a curved ceiling and glass orbs of twinkling light. We can’t wait for Tomorrow(land).

Fantasyland

This is it: the largest land in the park and home to classic favorites like Peter Pan’s Flight (featuring a brand new “inverted-coaster ride system”) and the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, as well as the Voyage to the Crystal Grotto (an excursion through the waters of Fantasyland, complete with colorful fountains, wonderful music and a spin underneath the Enchanted Storybook Castle) and Hunny Pot Spin, a Winnie the Pooh-themed attraction where guests board whirling honey pots. There will also be an Alice in Wonderland-themed maze (the first attraction at a Disney park themed to the Tim Burton version of the story), featuring delightful surprises around every corner, and “Frozen: A Sing-Along Celebration,” located at the Evergreen Playhouse. Maybe most excitingly for Tangled fans is the Tangled Tree Tavern, inspired by the Snuggly Duckling from the recent animated classic. We’ve got a dream … to go to this restaurant.

If there was anything that could get you more excited about the opening of Shanghai Disneyland (and the entire Shanghai Disney Resort), then this should do it. These new details offer an even more specific view of what the park will be when it opens in the spring of 2016. This is going to be a park that pushes the boundaries of technology and storytelling, offering a brand new Disney experience while staying true to Chinese heritage.

The post Additional Details Of Shanghai Disneyland Revealed appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Captain EO, the breakthrough 3D science fiction adventure that starred Jackson, was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by George Lucas, quietly returned to EPCOT earlier this month in all of its breakdancing, stargazing glory. The 17-minute-long attraction is right where it was when it first debuted back in 1986: the Imagination Pavilion in the Futureworld West section of the park.

It’s hard to imagine how huge Captain EO was when it first came to the parks in 1986. This was Michael Jackson at the height of his popularity, five years after Thriller broke every record there was and less than a year before his equally powerful Bad would be unleashed. It was also George Lucas’ first collaboration with the Disney theme parks, three years after Return of the Jedi closed out the original Star Wars trilogy and a year before Star Tours would be joyfully jostling Disneyland attendees. And by 1986 Coppola had cemented himself as a legendary filmmaker, having already helmed the first two Godfather films, The Conversation, and (more recently) The Outsiders and Rumble Fish. It was almost too good.

There were a number of technical innovations that also went along with Captain EO; it is largely thought of as the first “4D” film, with in-theater effects like smoke, lasers, and a glittery star field that was draped across the theater ceiling. (In both Florida and California Captain EO replaced Magic Journeys, a gentle 3D fantasy.) Captain EO featured two new songs from Jackson, including one (“Another Part of Me”) that would appear on Bad. (The other, “We Are Here to Change the World,” would only be released, in truncated form, in the 2004 Jackson box set The Ultimate Collection.) Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, who lensed The Conformist and would later shoot Disney’s Dick Tracy, was responsible for the 3D photography. The late, great James Horner (whose Rocketeer score we absolutely adore) provided the score. An in-depth hour-long special called Captain EO Backstage, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, premiered on The Disney Sunday Movie on ABC and another hour-long special aired from the film’s Disneyland grand opening (it was hosted by Patrick Duffy and Justine Bateman along with musical guests Starship and Robert Palmer). This was it.

And it goes without saying that the film was (and still is) totally awesome. It features dancing and monsters and Anjelica Huston as a witchy, H.R. Giger-esque space princess (when Jackson compliments her appearance, she hisses, “You find meeee beautiful?”) At 17 minutes, it tells a complete story but never feels flabby or overlong; it zigs and zags and boogies with the best of them.

Back when the film opened, the Imagination Pavilion was a much different place. Journey Into Imagination, the flagship ride, was a sprawling ode to the unlimited capabilities of the human mind, and once you finished riding the attraction, you were funneled up to a play area called the Upstairs Image Works. This is where you got to interact with exhibits like a giant, colorful tunnel (that was a favorite of Jackson’s whenever he would visit the park) and a kind of color canon that would allow you to fire paintbrushes (and virtual paint) at blank canvases. When you would complete your play, you would get on an escalator that would bring you into the specially outfitted theater where Captain EO played. Walk around versions of several of the characters would mill around outside the pavilion. It was the kind of sprawling, synchronous experience that defined those heady early days of EPCOT Center.

In 1994 Captain EO closed and a year later Honey, I Shrunk the Audience premiered. It was aired (once) on MTV in 1996 in a downscaled two-dimensional version. But after Jackson’s tragic passing in 2009, the film returned to the Imagination Pavilion theater (it also reappeared at several other parks, including Disneyland). This new version of the attraction premiered in the summer of 2010 at EPCOT and was labeled a “tribute.” It swapped some of the earlier effects for those installed for Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, including a nifty gag where the floor bounces up and down as the villainess’ dark forces approach, and was digitally projected. When it returned, Captain EO was even more beautiful than when it first premiered. Audiences clapped and sung along and snapped up merchandise, including T-shirts modeled after Michael’s nifty rainbow model and plush versions of the characters.

Over the past few months, the theater has been used for a variety of purposes, mostly to exhibit upcoming Disney features like Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland and Disney•Pixar’s Inside Out. But now Captain EO is back and we couldn’t be more excited. It’s an attraction that feels so classically EPCOT, one that has one foot in fantasy and the other in science fiction; that is both futuristic and warmly nostalgic. It’s an attraction shares EPCOT’s view of the future as a place where anything is possible and everything is super fun. Captain EO is the story of “a ragtag band led by the infamous Captain EO,” and almost 30 years later, it’s enough to make you smile … and dance.

The post He Is Here to Change the World (Again): Captain EO Returns to EPCOT appeared first on Disney Blogs.

As with any Disney theme park attraction, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror went through a number of iterations. After Disney’s Hollywood Studios opened in 1989, it was a smash hit, more rides were needed, including an all-new thrill attraction. In keeping with the movie theme of the park, Imagineers wanted to center this new attraction around a horror film and researched popular horror movie icons of the time. They also looked into an attraction based on the works of novelist Stephen King, a “ghost tour” ride with Vincent Price (who wound up narrating one of the park’s very first nighttime spectaculars), a horrifically comedic (or comedically horrific) attraction hosted by Mel Brooks, and perhaps most tantalizingly even considered putting an actual haunted hotel inside the park.

Eventually, the team looked back to a drop ride project originally envisioned for the Euro Disney project (later: Disneyland Paris); if you look at early artwork for the Discoveryland section of that park you can see an exposed, elevator-style ride next to that park’s version of Space Mountain (then called From the Earth to the Moon), coming out of an open, glowing volcano. (Remember folks: at Imagineering a good idea never goes away for good.) The haunted hotel idea was brought over from the Hotel Mel and actual-hotel concepts, as was the drop ride system planned for the European park, only this time it was grafted to a truly ingenious property: the beloved anthology series The Twilight Zone (which ran from 1959 – 1964 on CBS).

The ride would take the form of a “lost” episode of the classic TV show, centered around the glitzy Hollywood Tower Hotel that gets struck by lightning one lonely evening, sending several of its guests (who have climbed aboard the doomed elevator) into another dimension, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind, a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. Today the hotel is a spooky relic, one that will sees guests entering the elevator in our world, but those same guests will quickly find themselves in … the Twilight Zone. An introductory video, delightfully directed by Gremlins filmmaker Joe Dante, sets up the story wonderfully, beautifully capturing old Hollywood (the ride’s story is set in 1939) in velvety black-and-white and featuring footage from original Twilight Zone episodes (with new voice work by an uncanny Rod Serling impersonator named Mark Silverman). Since the show building was visible from EPCOT, it was designed to blend into the skyline; since you can view it from Morocco, it has a vaguely similar façade.

The inventive ride technology, which the Otis Elevator Company and Eaton-Kenway consulted on, would move the elevator car both horizontally and up and down (mostly down). This wasn’t a typical drop ride, which would simply lift you up and drop you. Instead, after the ride vehicle moved through the hotel, it would get into the elevator shaft, where a computer would randomly program how many drops the ride vehicle would endure. (The amount of drops and the computer-controlled nature of the drop would be emphasized at various points throughout the ride’s existence. One memorable ad campaign stated ominously that, “The Tower is in control.”) The ride vehicles are actually tugged towards the earth by a set of cables, accelerating and intensifying what the normal drop would be. (This generates the feeling of enhanced weightlessness; Imagineers would return to the concept of weightless experiences for the upcoming Mission: SPACE attraction at EPCOT.) At 199 feet tall, it is the second tallest attraction at Walt Disney World (Expedition Everest beats it by half-a-foot).

When The Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror opened in 1994 nobody knew what to expect; there had never been a ride like this attempted at Walt Disney World (or anywhere else for that matter) and the attraction would be opening alongside an entire land, known as Hollywood Boulevard. But what could have been an experimental one-off attraction quickly became a sensation. In 1997 the ride was the basis for a Wonderful World of Disney television movie entitled Tower of Terror (it starred Steve Guttenberg and a young Kirsten Dunst); it is notable for both its playful tone and the fact that it was the first Disney movie to ever be based on a theme park attraction. In 2002, plans were drawn up to take The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror to Disney California Adventure (it would open in 2004). This slightly redesigned version of the ride, which doesn’t have the horizontal “Fifth Dimension” show scenes, had an updated ride system that would make it so that three ride vehicles can cycle through the attraction simultaneously. In 2006 a similar attraction would open at Tokyo DisneySea (just called Tower of Terror, since Japanese audiences were unfamiliar with the original series) and in 2007 it would open at the Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris. Guests were screaming around the world.

And while all of these Towers have their unique charm and personality, that original attraction in Florida remains Disney Insider’s sentimental favorite. Not only does it have that cool horizontal section of the attraction (which has never been replicated in the other versions of the ride), but at the time it felt so insanely important. The first time you rode the attraction, back in 1994, you could tell that you were climbing aboard a future classic. It’s a shared sensation: after the Mickey hat came down in front of The Great Movie Ride earlier this year, Disney’s Hollywood Studios has adopted a new icon for most merchandise (and the My Disney Experience app): the lightning-damaged Hollywood Tower Hotel, home to the scariest elevator of your life.

The post 13 Stories Down: On the Anniversary of Twilight Zone Tower of Terror appeared first on Disney Blogs.

So watch the reel below and soak up its glorious insanity; this is the complete reel, uncut (the surprise celebrity cameos remain intact) and side-splittingly funny. If you weren’t excited about The Muppets already, watching this reel will make you insanely pumped for the new series. This is the very definition of appointment television.

The post Meet the Muppets (Again) with this New Sneak Peek! appeared first on Disney Blogs.

And this week’s episode, “Itty Bitty Bess,” makes Doc McStuffins even more endearing. The series has always been quietly groundbreaking and this episode is very much in that spirit. It features a toy that Dottie’s mom rescued for her from the flea market: a miniature toy version of Bessie Coleman, the first female pilot of African American descent and the first African American to hold an international pilot license. Dottie helps “Itty Bitty Bess” with her rusty joints. And “Itty Bitty Bess” opens up a valuable (and never preachy) history lesson for Dottie and the rest of the toys.

What makes this episode even more special is that “Itty Bitty Bess” is voiced by Audra McDonald, a Tony-winning performer who will soon voice another Disney character, appearing as Madame Garderobe the wardrobe in the upcoming live action version of Beauty and the Beast. McDonald’s performance is soulful and upbeat and adds even more to this very special episode.

As a treat, we’ve included exclusive images from the episode, which airs at 9 a.m. this Thursday on Disney Channel.

The post These Exclusive New Doc McStuffins Images Will Cure What Ails You appeared first on Disney Blogs.

The Good Dinosaur, directed by Peter Sohn (who helmed the charming Disney•Pixar short Partly Cloudy and voiced Emile in Ratatouille), is the tale of Arlo (Raymond Ochoa), a young Apatosaurus who gets separated from his family and ends up befriending a young human that he calls Spot (Jack Bright). Yes, this film takes place in an uncanny universe where the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs missed the earth entirely, so now dinosaurs and humans are evolving side-by-side. These unlikely outcasts wind up forming a very deep bond that transcends the divide between human and dinosaur, while encountering a number of colorful characters (including Sam Elliott as a good ole Tyrannosaurus named Butch) and deadly situations.

As the jaw-dropping, highly emotional new trailer suggests (that Of Monsters and Men song certainly doesn’t make us want to cry less), this is unlike any Disney•Pixar movie you’ve ever seen before. The backgrounds are photo-realistic (like reach-out-and-touch-it realistic) and the characters are even more stylized. This works marvelously, on a design and narrative level. The contrast is incredible; the dinosaurs are huggable and sweet and the environments are harsh and dangerous. This is a movie that is contemplative, funny and deeply beautiful. (It is even framed in a wonderfully widescreen 2.39:1 aspect ratio.)

If you thought that all the tears had been wrung out of you with Inside Out, don’t worry, The Good Dinosaur will finish the job. It’s a moving adventure that the entire family will love. Just try watching this trailer without sniffling.

The Good Dinosaur is out this Thanksgiving.

The post This New Good Dinosaur Trailer Is Beyond Gorgeous appeared first on Disney Blogs.

The series is an absolute blast, mixing coming-of-age humor with psychedelic elements of fantasy, horror and science fiction. It’s absolutely mind boggling what Nefcy and her collaborators are able to pull it off, time and time again. They seem to raise the bar with each passing episode, maneuvering between crazy adventures and touchingly human moments. Tonight’s episode, “Blood Moon Ball”/”Fortune Cookies” features cameo appearances from Rider Strong, as Star’s demonic ex-boyfriend Tom, and Michael C. Hall as a brand new bad guy named Toffee, and is no different. Be prepared to laugh out loud at the unicorn skeleton who doesn’t know that he’s dead one minute, and then find yourself surprisingly touched the next.

We got a chance to chat with Nefcy about the origins of Star vs. the Forces of Evil, what it was like casting Strong and Hall in these pivotal roles, and what is coming up in future episodes of the series.

Where did the initial idea for the series come from?

I came up with the idea during my second year of college. She started out as a little sketch – she was a character with heart cheeks (she didn’t quite have the devil horns yet). And I really liked the character so I was coming up with the story around her. The initial story was a little bit different than it is now. Before, she was a girl who wanted to have magic powers so bad that she could manifest them but she didn’t have magical powers and couldn’t understand them. So it was based off my own childhood experiences of being this kid who just wanted to have magical powers really bad and was obsessed with Sailor Moon. I was really convinced my cat would talk to me at some point. So that was Star’s original concept. When I brought her to Disney, I aged her up and that’s where the whole idea of, what if the magical powers were real? Where did she come from? And where all of the backstory and the idea of Mewni [Star’s magical home world] came from. But all of that came later; the initial idea was this personal weirdness that I had.

The series walks a fine line, tonally, from one moment to the next. And in the “Blood Moon Ball” episode, is both very scary and ultimately very sweet. Is that always something you want to do?

Yeah and I think especially as we keep finding the series’ voice. During the first season of a series you’re always searching and you have this idea but it grows and I have this wonderful team that I’m working with and they bring so much to the episodes too. And that episode is definitely one of my favorites. We’d been trying to work in this idea of Star having this demonic ex-boyfriend for a while and that was the initial crumb of the story. As the episodes continue we do walk that line a lot; we’re trying to not just be a comedy but also have some drama and we really want our characters to feel like teenagers and have them going through the normal emotions that teenagers go through, but in this magical setting.

Tom was a character that was teased in a few episodes. What made you go with Rider Strong for the true personification of Tom?

Well I think that Sara [Jane Sherman] and Rachel [Glauber], who have been doing our casting, have been so awesome at finding voices that really embody the characters. We did tryouts for Tom and Rider came in for one of the tryouts and just knocked it out of the park. He sounds cool but he also has a vulnerability there and that’s what we really saw in Tom. Tom is the devil prince, so I imagine he has this royal father who is this anger demon. So Tom has inherited that but he also wants to get over it. He doesn’t want that to be his identity.

In the follow-up episode, you get to work with Michael C. Hall.

Yes, I’m such a huge fan and he does the voice of Toffee, which is something I;m really excited about. Ludo is a great villain; Ludo is super fun but Ludo is not a scary villain. And we really wanted Star to fight against somebody who is a greater evil. So this is the introduction of Toffee and there’s an arc that goes along with him throughout the end of this first season. So I’m very excited to be launching the Toffee story.

There’s been even more importance placed on you and the show, considering you’re the second female creator of a Disney animated series and the first female creator of a Disney XD series. Do you feel that pressure at all?

I don’t really think about it very much. I feel very lucky to be making a show right now. I really feel like, in the day-to-day of what I’m doing, it’s really not something that I need to think about. I’m friends with Chris Nee and she does DocMcStuffins and it’s interesting to hear her experience, because I think her generation has had to go through some rougher times. And I feel like I can reap those benefits. It’s really wonderful. And I’m so excited for the really talented women on my show, who will be making shows afterwards and never have to think about that.

And you have such an unbelievably strong female character in Star. Was getting a character like that to younger audiences part of the thrill of this project?

Oh definitely. Certainly I’ve looked at TV over the years and I have had to go to Japan when I was younger to find the cartoons that had the characters that I wanted to see. It was always a question of, Well why isn’t that on TV in the U.S.? There have been some wonderful ones in the past, like Kim Possible, but there hasn’t been enough for me, with half the population being female and all. That’s been cool too, because one of the comments I’ve been getting from girls is, “I’ve wanted to see this cartoon. And here it is!”

Can you tease the future adventures of Star?

Well I already spilled about the Toffee storyline, which I think people will really like. Right now we’re working on season 2 and I’ll say that we’ll see more of Glossaryck, we’ll see more of Janna, we’ll see more of Tom … It’s cool because we’re getting to explore characters that were a surprise to us. Like Janna, for example, we just liked her so much we started writing her in more. Those little discoveries are always fun.

Watch the star-studded Star vs. the Forces of Evil tonight at 8:30 p.m. on Disney XD!

The post Creator Daron Nefcy Guides Us Through Tonight’s Star-Studded Episode of Star Vs. the Forces of Evil appeared first on Disney Blogs.

A couple of weeks ago we got to sit down with Rudd and talked about what it was like assuming the mantle, continuing with the character, and finally being cool in his son’s eyes. Watch the video below and be sure to watch Ant-Man this weekend. You’re going to love it as much as we do.

The post Paul Rudd Talks Becoming Ant-Man appeared first on Disney Blogs.

And it’s easy to see what makes it such a classic; this ride captures the spirit of the animated Peter Pan film, while also providing a gentle sensation of flight, as you ride past the twinkly London lights and soar above Never Land and its colorful residents. It’s a triumph of imagination and one of the most artful, timeless Disney attractions ever.

All of this makes the recent addition of show scenes and visual effects, under the umbrella of the New Magic initiative that brought show-stopping embellishments to both the Haunted Mansion and Matterhorn Bobsleds (for the park’s 60^th anniversary Diamond Celebration), an even bigger event. Fans of the classic ride won’t be disappointed, the Imagineers have maintained everything that you loved about the original attraction and made it significantly more magical. Show scenes are more alive, with more motion, sound and energy, while an enchanting new story beat is added just before the Darling children take off for Never Land.

In fact, there’s so much stuff that when we went and saw the ride a few weeks ago at a Cast Member preview (shortly before it opened for the public over the Fourth of July holiday weekend) that we weren’t able to properly soak everything in. Something tells us that it will be many, many more rides from now that we can fully appreciate everything that has been added to the attraction. Every moment has been embroidered with pixie dust.

We were lucky enough to chat with Elisabeth Papadopoulos, from Walt Disney Imagineering, who served as Producer and Production Designer on the Peter Pan’s Flight New Magic project, and spoke about how the attraction was selected for New Magic love, the additional scenic elements that were added, why she thinks the attraction has endured, and what eagle-eyed Disneyland visitors should keep an eye out for.

How did Peter Pan get selected for New Magic? And what was the thought process of what to add after it was selected?

Imagineering has a rich tradition of adding New Magic into our attractions throughout our parks, over the course of many years. Part of Walt Disney’s philosophy back since the ‘50s was to continue to delight our guests with New Magic elements so that all of his parks would be living entities that continue to be updated with elements that will keep things surprising with our guests. That’s the overall backstory of New Magic. And then Peter Pan’s Flight, this is a legacy attraction that has been a long-time favorite with our guests at Disneyland. It’s one of those attractions that is so inspiring for guests and equally inspiring for Imagineers. I think it’s one that our creative directors just couldn’t wait to get hands on. It’s an attraction that we wanted to get into and add some New Magical elements.

The biggest addition is to the scene where they take off for Never Land …

I would say that we’ve added things, throughout the entire attraction, since both London and Never Land are certainly coming to life in new ways. But if you wanted to isolate one scene, the nursery has a number of new elements as well.

Can you talk about adding these new technologies to a ride that has been there since opening day?

Throughout Peter Pan’s Flight, Imagineers wanted to make certain that we were incorporating new technologies in ways that made sense. We never want to incorporate technology just to do so. Let’s start with the nursery: in the nursery scene as guests take off and fly through the Darlings’ bedroom, there are new audio-animatronics of the Darling children. It was really exciting for us to share this moment and to show the narrative impulse for that flight.

Throughout the attraction you do see Tinker Bell in ways that we’ve never previously shown. So you’ll see her flying above the kids in the nursery. We have pixie dust falling down on them and that was a way to incorporate some wonderful new technology in a way that helped us tell that particular story point.

We wanted London to come to life in ways that it hadn’t previously and to give a new sense of dynamism to the scene. So that inspired us to find ways to incorporate technology to have the Thames River moving through London, to have the moonlight sparkle on the water, to have the children actually land on the clock tower minute hand and to have that dialogue moment where Peter tells Wendy where she should look to see the second star in the distance. And also to incorporate that same visual for guests that the Darling children get in the Peter Pan story of seeing the “second star to the right” in the distance and gaining the magical power of flight to be able to reach for it. So that was all really fun.

And in Never Land, we wanted to make certain that all of the natural features of the island would sparkle with this new life. So we made sure the waterfalls would be flowing and the lagoon water would sparkle in the starlight and the rainbow would be glowing in the distance and the volcano would come to life.

Is there a single new effect or moment in the attraction that is your favorite?

That’s a really tricky question to answer because there are so many moments that are so fantastic. And I think what’s really special about this attraction is that there are so many details. For example, when you were able to ride, did you just have one opportunity?

Yeah, just once, but I fully intend on going back.

That’s what we want. I think that the first time a guest rides, he or she might notice the big elements and by the fifth or sixth time he or she rides, the guest might encounter entirely different details. There’s so much texture to what the Imagineers were able to install in Peter Pan’s Flight that every time you go through you’re going to notice something different. For example, the first time you go through Never Land, you might notice the waterfalls or the flowing lagoons but maybe on your third or fourth ride through you might also notice that there’s the shadow of the crocodile circling the Jolly Roger under water. And you’ll see the canon actually fire. There are these little storytelling moments that make the attraction so rich and that, for me, is probably the most special element of what we were able to do in this project.

What do you think was the magic of that initial attraction?

For me, Peter Pan’s Flight is about the magic of childhood. Who as a child wouldn’t want to fly out of their bedroom window and off to a magical land in the stars? It captures this essence of playfulness and wonder that is innate to us as children. Throughout our lives, we have this nostalgia for childhood and Peter Pan touches on something that is universal in celebrating that sense of wonder you have when you’re a kid.

The post Even More Pixie Dust: What To Expect When You Ride the New Peter Pan’s Flight at Disneyland appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Well, why don’t you stay inside, crank the air conditioning, and get over to the Disney Store website, where the 25% off friends and family sale is in full effect (you also get free shipping on orders over $75). This fabulous deal expires on Sunday, so get to saving! And in the spirit of the sale, we humbly suggest seven items to snag during this extraordinary event.

Ant-Man Tee

Get ready for the biggest tiny movie of the summer with this awesome Ant-Man tee. We love the simple-yet-effective design of the tee, and the fact that ants are crawling all over the text at the bottom. On that note, definitely don’t wear this to your next picnic.

Minnie Mouse Icon Beaded Sweater

This one is for the ladies: an awesome sweater with a beaded Minnie Mouse pattern on the front. What makes this even more fun is that it’s fancy enough to wear out or to a corporate function. Adding whimsy and magic to even the most mundane setting is, after all, what Disney is all about.

EPCOT Spaceship Earth Play Set

Sales like this should let you be a bit indulgent, since they’re such a great deal. So we suggest this awesome Spaceship Earth play set. EPCOT is one of our favorite theme parks on the planet, and you get so much cool stuff with this set: a little Figment, ride vehicles from some of the park’s signature attractions like Mission: SPACE and Test Track, and overall awesomeness. Show your love of the future, space travel, and science by having this bad boy on your desk.

Baymax Tsum Tsum 10”

We love Tsum Tsums. And we love Baymax. And this larger version of the Baymax Tsum Tsum is just amazing. Like Baymax himself, this Tsum Tsum is super huggable and will make you feel much, much better.

Mickey Mouse Bathroom Cup

The key to integrating Mickey-themed products into your home is subtlety. This Mickey Mouse bathroom cup is both subtle and super cute. We love its elegant design and having a little piece of Disney magic tucked away in the bathroom, just to make your day a little more whimsical, in a place you least expect it.

C-3PO and R2-D2 Limited Edition Figure

Again: this is worth the discounted splurge. This limited edition figure, which towers at a whopping 9” tall, features authentic sounds and voices from Star Wars, and light-up features. This is a beautiful piece and perfect for any Star Wars fanatic in your life.

Attack on Avenger Towers: Lego Playset

This summer’s Avengers: Age of Ultron was one of our very favorite movies. And one of the most memorable sequences in the entire movie was when the Avengers’ party was crashed by psychotic robot Ultron and his goons. This Lego playset lets you recreate that moment, complete with tiny versions of Iron Man, Thor, and assorted villainous robots. The sense of accomplishment that will wash over you after you complete this tower must be pretty profound, indeed.

Friends & Family

Offer: 25 % Off Your Purchase + Free Shipping on orders of $75 or more

Promo Dates: 7/16/15- 7/19/15

Code: DISNEYPAL

Here’s how to redeem your 25% Off Friends & Family Promotion:

•       Place at least one eligible item in your bag.
•       Type the Promotion Code DISNEYPAL into the promo code area.
•       The promotion will be applied, if eligible.
•       Continue shopping or begin checkout.

In-Store & Online – Friends & Family Promotion: *Offer begins July 16, 2015 and expires 11:59 pm PST, July 19, 2015, or while supplies last. Offer valid only on a single sales transaction at Disney Store and Disney Baby Store retail locations in North America, on a Disney Store phone order, or online at DisneyStore.com Not valid on purchases made at Disney Parks and Resorts retail or store locations. Limit one coupon or promotion code per Guest. Qualifying purchase based on pre-tax, post-discount amount and excludes Shipping & Handling, Disney Theme Park Passes, Disney INFINITY, Disney Electronics, DVDs, Blu-ray^TM, CDs, Video Games, Books, Art & Collectibles, Jim Shore, Lenox, Enesco Busts and Figurines, Olszewski, Precious Moments, Vinylmation, Limited Edition and Limited Availability merchandise, Disney Vacation Club merchandise,Dooney & Bourke, Alex & Ani, Vera Bradley, PANDORA, Duffy the Disney Bear Collection, D23 Memberships, D23 Merchandise, gift cards or certificates, Disney Dollars, The Walt Disney Company Collectible Shareholder Certificate, 3-D printed merchandise, Subscription products, Playmation^™, personalization, gift wrap and gift boxes and items not in stock.  Offer cannot be combined with other offers (except with online purchases, offer can be combined with free shipping). Products subject to availability. No adjustments to prior purchases. Prices subject to change without notice. Merchandise must be in-stock at time of purchase and can only be exchanged for identical item or returned at discounted price with valid sales receipt (or packing slip for online purchases). Returns and exchanges subject to discount taken at time of redemption. Cannot be combined with Cast Member discount. Not valid at Employee Centers. Coupon or promotion code may not be redeemed for cash. Coupon or promotion code may not be sold, altered, or duplicated and will not be replaced if lost, stolen or corrupted. In-store coupon must be relinquished at time of purchase. Use of coupon or promotion code is acceptance of its terms. Offer may be canceled or modified at any time. Void where prohibited. Free Shipping applies to Standard Delivery only on phone orders and orders placed online at DisneyStore.com over $75 sent to a single shipment address in the U.S. Certain products excluded, as noted on specific Product Pages. If any single order is sent to more than one address, Shipping & Handling charges will be applied to each shipment address. Disney E-Commerce reserves the right to cancel or modify this offer at any time.

The post 7 Things To Snag During the Disney Store Friends and Family Sale appeared first on Disney Blogs.

The third season premieres this week with “Coned” (airing at 8:35 p.m. on Friday night), a charming installment that sees Pluto coming home from the vet with a protective plastic cone (the “cone of shame,” as Alpha from Up would call it). In order to make his best pal feel better, Mickey (the always-excellent Chris Diamantopoulos) dons a similar cone and, of course, chaos ensues. It’s a typically hilarious installment, sharply animated and genuinely heartfelt. It kicks the third season (which has some of our very favorite Mickey Mouse shorts yet) in a wonderfully off-the-wall fashion.

We got the chance to talk with Mickey Mouse creator Paul Rudish about what it was like to create new content for the greatest and most well-known animated character of all time (no pressure), the genesis for “Coned,” and if there was anything that was deemed too wacky for the gonzo series.

How did you first approach this character?

Well, I had a development deal with Disney but I was worried that the character was too precious. I was trying to think if there was a way for me to trick people into letting me make a Mickey Mouse cartoon. But as fortune would have it, the request came from franchise and went out to all departments to look at developing something new around Mickey. The folks here knew that I was interested and asked if I wanted to take a crack at it. And the guidance from here was really nice in that they wanted to see my take on it without giving me any pre-prescribed rules.

How did you make the decisions about what to maintain and what to make your own?

It was really just thinking about my favorite Mickey Mouse cartoons and where Mickey had been in all of his evolutions along the way. I always gravitated back to the rubber hose stuff from the late ‘20s, early ‘30s and would always stop at the Main Street Theater at Disneyland and watch “Plane Crazy.” I loved how zany and surreal those old cartoons were and how mischievous Mickey was, while still being naïve and good-spirited. But he still had some teeth back then. So I just wanted to try my hand at making a cartoon in that vein, kind of jump off from 1934 or something. But not to try and mimic a cartoon from the ‘30s but use the characters that had been established at that point and how they interacted with each other and their personalities and add my own style to it. It should be contemporary but based on the rulebook that Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks established.

How does it feel creating a Mickey Mouse for an entirely new generation of kids? Do you ever feel that pressure?

Not often, honestly. I feel a great sense of respect for it and it’s an honor to work with the ultimate cartoon star from our history. To be at Disney and to follow in the footsteps of so many of the fantastic artists who have come through the gates of Disney, I have great reverence for the job of being very irreverent with the character.

Was there ever anything that you wanted to do but couldn’t?

Well there are certain more ideas that we’d like to do if we get more seasons. But there weren’t a whole lot of limits, surprisingly. It was more if things started to feel too old timey, that was a note we’d get. Like, This is starting to feel a little too 1930s. Is there anything you can do to make it more contemporary?

Let’s talk about “Coned,” the season three premiere episode. What was your idea behind that one?

We’ve always been looking for stories where we can employ Pluto and they’re always elusive. Given the short nature of the shorts, Pluto is always a supporting character and he ended up getting cut and all the action would be performed by Mickey. So this one came up. What if Pluto got the cone? Pluto is really the star of this one. We thought, “What if Mickey, since he’s such a good guy, is so bummed by seeing Pluto with this thing, he’s going to help out and say we can do this together!” It would be really funny, and if he’s got the cone on too, it adds sympathy like, “Oh my gosh, think of all the silliness we could come up with, with Mickey bumping around the world.” And of course it falls back on Pluto to save Mickey. It just rolled into that story pretty naturally.

You can watch Mickey Mouse on the Disney Channel (“Coned” premieres at 8:35 p.m. on Friday) and on the dedicated YouTube Channel.

The post Chatting About Mickey Mouse’s Return With Creator Paul Rudish appeared first on Disney Blogs.

The park is, according to Iger, something of an uber-resort, utilizing all of the things that Disney has learned from its resorts all over the world, to create the ultimate in family entertainment. It will be culturally specific but purposefully universal, bringing in a number of Disney characters and franchises in fun and interesting ways, and taking advantage of the most cutting-edge technology available. Come spring 2016, this will be the resort that every hardcore Disney fan will be clamoring to visit.

Let’s take a look at the individual lands that make up the theme park portion of Shanghai Disneyland:

Fantasyland

This is the largest land in the park, anchored by the Enchanted Storybook Castle, the tallest, largest, most complex and most interactive Disney castle ever. Instead of being tied to one film or concept, it’s a castle that pays homage to the very idea of fantasy (it’s topped with a peony – the flower of China, surrounded by a cascade of Disney stars). In this land, there will be a boat ride called Voyage to the Crystal Grotto, and updated versions of both the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (currently thrilling guests of all ages at Walt Disney World in Florida) and Peter Pan’s Flight (which recently got a nifty facelift at Disneyland in California). There will also be a Wonderland maze, themed to Alice in Wonderland and the Hundred Acre Wood from Winnie the Pooh to explore. Of course, you can only enjoy all of the amazing attractions if you stop staring at the castle long enough.

Tomorrowland

The centerpiece for the new Tomorrowland is the TRON Lightcycle Power Run, a coaster-style attraction where guests board two-wheeled lightcycles and zip around a domed indoor-outdoor structure that pulsates with neon lights. Additionally, there will be some kind of spinner attraction (as seen in the preview video) and the Buzz Lightyear Planet Rescue, a “new space ranger adventure”. Also, what’s interesting is that aesthetically this Tomorrowland seems to be taking some subtle aesthetic cues from Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland movie, especially since there will be a jet pack ride that promises guests will “break the bonds of gravity.” As George Clooney’s Frank Walker would say: wanna go?

Adventure Isle

The park’s version of Adventureland will be lorded over by the fearsome Roaring Mountain, beckoning guests to explore this exciting section of the park. The main attraction in this area is Roaring Rapids, which will take guests through the heart of Adventure Isle (the concept art features a giant crocodile-like dinosaur that looks like it could dwarf Expedition Everest’s mighty Yeti). Among the other attractions will be Soaring Over the Horizon, an international version of the popular flight simulator attraction Soarin’ that’s currently wowing guests at Disney California Adventure and EPCOT, a wilderness trail called Camp Discovery, and an elaborate acrobatic stage show Tarzan, Call of the Jungle, based off of Disney’s animated hit Tarzan.

Treasure Cove

This is one of the park’s many, many firsts: the first pirate-themed land in a Disney park. Unsurprisingly, the big attraction in this land is Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle of the Sunken Treasure. And trust us when we say this: it isn’t your daddy’s Pirates of the Caribbean. This attraction is based on the feature films starring Johnny Depp (the fifth film, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales will be out in the summer of 2017). This boat ride will have a bigger thrill ride component and as the official press release states, will feature “cutting-edge innovations in robotics, animation, set design and multimedia.” (We have seen some of what’s going on in this attraction and while we’re sworn to secrecy, we can say that it is beyond imagination.) There will also be pirate ships, Explorer Canoes, a new restaurant (Barbossa’s Bounty), and a live stage show called Eye of the Storm – Captain Jack’s Stunt Spectacular.

Mickey Avenue

Another first: the first main entry at a Disney park inspired by Mickey Mouse and his fabulous friends. This area of the park is reminiscent of a more sophisticated version of Mickey’s Starland, the Magic Kingdom land that focused predominantly on meet-and-greets and a colorful design aesthetic, or even Toontown at Disneyland in California. This will primarily be a place where you can meet your favorite characters, get a quick hug, and do some shopping (Avenue M Arcade will feature the largest selection of gifts and collectibles inside the park). Our heart is soaring just thinking about this area.

Gardens of Imagination

This might be the most interesting “land” at the park, and the most traditionally Chinese. Gardens of Imagination will offer a quieter, more reflective area of the park where guests can appreciate the “wonders of nature and joy of imagination.” Included in this section of the park are the Fantasia Carousel, the Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride (an easily translatable classic), and seven whimsical gardens. This is the best spot to take in the daytime castle stage show, the Ignite the Dream nighttime spectacular, and the Mickey’s Storybook Express, a parade that will feature the longest route in a Disney park. Our imaginations are certainly captured.

This is just a rough overview of the park itself. In the months leading up to Shanghai Disneyland’s opening, we will be taking a look at the hotels, entertainment-and-shopping complex (entitled Disneytown), the Broadway-style theater (the Disney Grand Theater, home to the Mandarin translation of The Lion King), the two amazing hotels, and all of the aspects that make Shanghai Disneyland such a groundbreaking, magical place.

The post Shanghai Disneyland Unveiled: What To Expect from the New Resort appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Directed by Bring It On filmmaker Peyton Reed, from a script by Rudd, Adam McKay, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, the movie is swift and riotously entertaining. Tonally, it’s similar to the anarchic fun of last summer’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and it fits snugly into the Marvel Cinematic Universe without being overburdened with references or inside jokes (although, this being a Marvel movie, we implore you to sit through until the very end of the credits).

We got a chance to sit down with Reed and talk about the development of Ant-Man, keeping the scale purposefully small, and whether or not there’s room in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for Ant-Man 2.

You had flirted with doing a Marvel movie before, but what made Ant-Man click for you?

Well as you said I’ve been dying to do one of these types of movies. Ant-Man, to me, felt like it played to a lot of my strengths—there was a strong comedic component to the movie, I’d known Paul Rudd for some time and always wanted to work with him but never had the chance, and I liked that Ant-Man is sort of an underdog in the comics but certainly in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the comics, he’s a founding member of the Avengers but the Marvel Cinematic version of the Avengers left him behind. So now, in my own mind, we’re making all right in the universe, we’re going to restore Ant-Man to where he needs to be! I love the idea. When I talked to Kevin about the scripts that existed and what I wanted to do with the characters, we were really in sync.

Do you think there could be an Ant-Man 2 in the future?

It’s interesting, I think we were either prepping or shooting Ant-Man in Atlanta when Marvel had that big press event and announced their slate into the year 2089 or whatever. And it was all set in stone with these dates. But it was so early on that I didn’t think much about it. Then, of course, Spider-Man comes around and they shift some dates around that. I think there’s a certain amount of flexibility at Marvel. Listen, if we are lucky enough that our movie does well and there’s demand for a sequel, I would love to do it because I feel like there’s so much story to tell with these characters. I really felt like we were just scratching the surface with these guys.

The third act is uncharacteristically small for a Marvel movie, in a good way. Was that something that you fought for?

Well it was something that I felt really strongly about but so did Marvel. I think it was on everybody’s mind that this movie was going to follow Avengers: Age of Ultron and movies don’t get much bigger than that–cities are falling out of the sky! It felt like that was always part of the DNA of Ant-Man, it was just a more intimate story. But it seemed fitting to close out Phase 2 of the MCU on a smaller, more intimate level. It’s an origin story. Scott Lang doesn’t have superpowers and his one goal is that he wants to be a part of his daughter’s life.

Do you have any kind of extending guidance over where this character goes? Did they consult with you on Captain America: Civil War?

When we were cutting the movie, I invited the Russo Brothers and the writers into the cutting room, because they were working on the script. At that point we knew Ant-Man was going to be part of Civil War in some way, we just didn’t know how. I wanted them to see tone of the movie and I showed them the scene where Scott breaks into Pym’s house and all that and a couple of other scenes. I wanted to give them an idea of his character and I felt a real proprietary sense of that character. But I loved the cross talk and when they went to Atlanta to shoot, I would talk to Paul every day. I would be like, “What did you shoot? What are they doing?” I was like a concerned parent. But I love that the character will co-mingle with those established characters; it’s exciting to me.

Do you think that McKay and the rest of your collaborators would come back?

It was great. The process and spirit of making the movie is really important to me, to have a tone that’s fun is really important because everyone is working hard. I love McKay. I’d love him to come back and write and I’d love for him to come back and direct a movie in the Marvel Universe. I think that’s something that is bound to happen.

Ant-Man opens everywhere on Friday!

The post Super Size Me: Director Peyton Reed Talks Marvel’s Smallest Hero Ant-Man appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Over the years everybody from Kurt Russell (who got his start in the business starring in a string of Disney live action films and lent his voice to Fox and the Hound) to songwriting legends Robert and Richard Sherman to Imagineers like Rolly Crump and Bob Gurr (and people in every imaginable part of the company, from animation to merchandising). And this year’s recently announced class of 2015 honorees (to be awarded at the D23 Expo next month) certainly is deserving of the distinction; they’re positively legendary.

This year’s Legends (in alphabetical order):

George Bodenheimer, the former Executive Chairman of ESPN. Amazingly, he started at the company 33 years ago, working first in the mailroom back in 1981. In 1998 he was named the company’s president (only its fifth in its entire history) and remained in that position until 2012, when he stepped down from day-to-day operations. (He held the Executive Chairman position until May 2014.) Sports!

Andreas Deja, a longtime animator for Walt Disney Animation who brought to life countless classic characters (he came to the studio in 1980 and worked on The Black Cauldron, sharing a cubicle with Tim Burton). While he is mostly known for his work creating scary villains like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, Scar from The Lion King, and Jafar from Aladdin, he’s also animated his fair share of cuddly characters too, like Lilo from Lilo & Stitch, Hercules from Hercules and Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. (He was also the resident specialist for the animation of Mickey Mouse for a while, having animated Mickey for Who Framed Roger Rabbit, “The Prince and the Pauper,” “Runaway Brain,” the Mickey segments in Fantasia 2000 and consulted on the character for the Epic Mickey video games.) Deja has a lot of character.

Eyvind Earle, who sadly passed away in 2000, was one of the most influential designers to ever work for Disney Animation. He was hired by the Studio in 1951 as an assistant background painter and contributed to a number of features (like Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp) and short films (like the educational “Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom”). But he’s most remembered for his singular design work for Sleeping Beauty. Earle provided the art direction for the movie and its bold stylization is largely attributed to him. It’s why that movie looks so stunning and is considered a classic to this day.

Danny Elfman, is one of the greatest composers of all time. In the Disney community he’s probably best known for writing the music and songs for The Nightmare Before Christmas, working alongside his longtime collaborator Tim Burton. He would also score Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and Frankenweenie for Disney. Most recently Elfman scored portions of Avengers: Age of Ultron and his past work for the company includes Flubber, Oz the Great and Powerful and Dick Tracy. (For Disney subsidiaries he scored Dead Presidents, Good Will Hunting and A Civil Action, amongst others.) And Elfman hasn’t simply provided scores for Disney films; he also contributed the theme music for the long-running ABC series Desperate Housewives and the score for the Haunted Mansion Holiday attraction at Disneyland and Mystic Manor attraction at Hong Kong Disneyland. Elfman’s darkly melodic music is truly legendary. For an entire generation, Danny Elfman is the sound of Disney.

George Lucas, creator of Star Wars. Long before Lucas sold his company to Disney, he was in business with them. It first started in 1986, when the revolutionary 3D attraction Captain EO premiered at Disneyland and EPCOT Center. That film, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and featuring Michael Jackson in the titular role, became a staple of Disney theme parks around the world (and can currently be seen, once again, at Epcot) and began a long and fruitful partnership. This partnership included the insanely popular motion simulator attraction Star Tours (which debuted the year after Captain EO), Indiana Jones Adventure attraction at Disneyland, the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Indiana Jones-themed attractions at Disney Parks in Paris and Tokyo and a revised version of Star Tours, entitled Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. Lucas also collaborated with Disney on the cult classic attraction ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter that entertained and terrified guests in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom for almost a decade starting in 1995.

Susan Lucci, who starred on ABC’s beloved daytime soap opera All My Children for 41 years. She’s been nominated for 21 daytime Emmy Awards (and got a standing ovation when she won, for her 19^th nomination). She’s also starred on ABC series Dancing with the Stars and Hope & Faith, as well as Disney Channel’s That’s So Raven. She can currently be seen on the hit Lifetime series Devious Maids, produced by ABC Studios. She is, clearly, an unstoppable force of nature.

Julie Reihm Casaletto, who became Disneyland’s first Ambassador in 1965. The story goes that Walt Disney, on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the park, needed somebody to act as a representative to audiences around the world, as well as host VIP guests and foreign dignitaries. Casaletto was a tour guide at the time and selected by Walt to be the first Disney Ambassador. Walt needed somebody to go in his place; he chose Julie because she was “a personification of Disneyland’s world-famous spirit of friendliness and happiness.”

Carson Van Osten, who has been responsible for bringing Disney characters to life across a number of media platforms. Van Osten has, amongst other things, overseen creative content for motion picture tie-in advertising, worked on Disney publications, and established one of the first licensing style guides for Disney Consumer Products. A talented artist and stylist, he also designed logos for Mickey Mouse’s 50^th and 60^th birthdays, the Walt Disney Studios logo and water tower design, and the Disney Hotel clock tower logo in Paris. He’s probably designing something right now.

The post Meet Your Disney Legends Class of 2015 appeared first on Disney Blogs.

First, some background: Gravity Falls is the brainchild of animator Alex Hirsch and is best described as being like Twin Peaks but for kids. It takes place in the fictional hamlet of Gravity Falls, Oregon. It’s here that young twins Dipper (Jason Ritter) and Mabel (Kristen Schaal) are sent to spend the summer under the supervision of their shifty great uncle (grunkle) Stan (Hirsch). Stan owns and operations a roadside tourist trap called the Mystery Shack, but unbeknownst to him, real mysteries are flooding the small town around him (everything from giant robotic sea monsters to kleptomaniac gnomes and everything in between).

In the electrifying midseason finale back in March (!), Stan was revealed to know everything that has been going on in Gravity Falls. And what’s more, he’s been building some kind of teleportation device in the basement of the Mystery Shack. The machine made Stan a target for government agents and played havoc with the town’s gravity (there would be periods of prolonged weightlessness that were insanely striking). In the closing moments of the episode, the machine Stan had been building finally worked and the portal opened and out stepped … Stan’s twin brother. This was a shocking conclusion, indeed, and one that made us positively itchy for the series’ return.

Well, it certainly doesn’t disappoint.

Tonight’s episode, entitled “A Tale of Two Stans,” does a deep dive into the relationship of Stan and his twin brother (also named Stan, hence the title), played by recent Academy Award-winner J.K. Simmons. Gravity Falls has never really done an episode like this one, before, told almost exclusively as a narrated flashback, which speaks to the series’ infectious creative restlessness. Grunkle Stan’s brother is revealed to be the six-fingered author of the journals that Dipper has been obsessing over in nearly every episode of the series (chronicling all the bizarre happenings around Gravity Falls); and the episode does a great job of illuminating their relationship. There are some amazing reveals, too, like how Stan got his weird tattoo, his history as a hustler and how Lazy Susan’s eye got to be lazy. Gravity Falls is known for its rich mythology and huge cast of warm, wonderful characters, and the episode really plays up both of those elements.

But if you’re a Gravity Falls newcomer, you won’t be totally lost, out in the Pacific Northwest wilderness. In fact, this episode is a perfect jumping in point for anybody who has somehow let this weird and wonderful show pass you by. (And there’s still time: tonight’s premiere is preceded by a marathon of episodes.) This is the kind of episode that exemplifies what makes the series so amazing to begin with, with plenty of visual gags, wordplay (say hello to Backupsmore University) and killer jokes (Grunkle Stan narrates: “And so the Murder Hut was born, later renamed the Mystery Shack”). But the density and sharpness of the humor isn’t just what sets Gravity Falls apart, as it’s one of the more emotionally resonant animated series on television today. And this is one of the sweeter installments yet (seriously, seeing the two Stans interact as little kids is one of those things that make you go awwww).

Gravity Falls has always been about twins: Mabel and Dipper, the real world and the paranormal realm just beyond sight, the future and the past. But tonight’s episode introduces us to a new set of twins: the two Stans. How this will affect the town of Gravity Falls and all of its inhabitants remains to be seen. All we can say is that it gives a fresh burst of energy to the series and makes us love it even more than we ever did before (which is really saying something). The next episode (“Dungeons, Dungeons and More Dungeons”) doesn’t air until August 3 (we know, we know) but that is another very special episode and hints at how the new Stan’s arrival will impact the rest of the series. As a series, Gravity Falls has always delighted thanks to its unpredictability and assertion that even humdrum everyday life is full of mystery and wonder. If tonight’s episode is any indication, there’s plenty of mystery and wonder right around the corner for the townsfolk of Gravity Falls. And we couldn’t be more excited.

The post Tonight’s Gravity Falls Changes Everything appeared first on Disney Blogs.

If you weren’t lucky enough to be there, relive the panel, and the surprise concert that followed, in all its glory:

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The post Fresh From Comic-Con, BTS Video of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and All the Pics From the Panel & Surprise Concert appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Gibson’s career is staggering: he began work as an animator, first as an assistant on movies like Lady and the Tramp and Cinderella and later as a full-fledged character animator on Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians and Walt’s Wonderful World of Color television series. But after Walt saw one of Blaine’s sculpture exhibits, he moved Blaine from animation to Walt Disney Imagineering. It was there that Gibson really made his mark: he created the sculpt for the Abraham Lincoln figure that appeared, memorably, at the 1964-65 World’s Fair in New York. He also created the cavemen for the Ford’s Magic Skywalk attraction at the same World’s Fair; the dinosaurs later appearing as part of the Disneyland Railroad.

Even if you don’t know Gibson (and, truth be told, he kept a lower profile than some of the other legendary Imagineers), you’ve probably seen (and been moved by) his work: he created characters for Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, it’s a small world, and the Enchanted Tiki Room. He created every president at the Hall of Presents at Walt Disney World, up until George W. Bush in 2001. And even though he officially retired in 1983, Gibson continued to contribute to the company he was so closely associated with: he did figures for The Great Movie Ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and, maybe most importantly, created the Partners statue (of Walt and Mickey Mouse holding hands) and the Sharing the Magic statue (with Roy O. Disney and Minnie Mouse). This video features Walt chatting with a young Gibson, years before the attraction would open. Just thinking about some of the creatures and characters Gibson created are enough to make you teary eyed.

We were on the phone with the equally legendary Bob Gurr (known for his amazing ride vehicles, trains and monorails at the various parks) earlier today, and the Imagineer shared his thoughts on Gibson’s passing.

“It’s a shame he’s gone. I think of all the people I ever met by the time his life closed this week, and he had the absolute most perfect life: he grew up in Colorado and was a farm boy who had the gift of illustration. He was born that way. He was totally kind, totally considerate,” Gurr explained. “He was a guy who was always interested in whatever anyone else was doing and never bragged about his work. He wasn’t the kind who would say, ‘Hey, want to see what I invented?’ He would say, ‘Why don’t you show me how you did that?’ He was always expressing his interest in the creativeness of other people. It is quite an interesting thing.”

Gurr seemed particularly enchanted by Gibson’s meticulous process. “He was the kind of creative artist who didn’t just settle on something and do it and say, ‘I’m done.’ He wouldn’t do anything until he completely understood it,” Gurr remembered. “He was born with a diligence of doing things right but not making a big deal out of it.”

When we asked Gurr about his working relationship with Gibson (they worked on Lincoln and Pirates of the Caribbean together, amongst others), he reflected with equal parts joy and admiration. You could tell, on the other end of the phone, Bob was beaming. “He was the neatest guy to work for. He was always so pleasant and I loved going over to his studio and find out what he’s got in the green clay now,” Gurr said. “I’m not a sculptor or an artist but Blaine made it look so simple and so easy. He just did it.”

In his final days, Gibson reportedly re-watched 101 Dalmatians and Lady and the Tramp with his grandson (named Blaine). If he could have, we’d like to think that he would have thrown in a trip on Pirates of the Caribbean or sat down at the Hall of Presidents, just to see all the faces he brought to life staring back at him one last time.

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The post In Remembrance: Blaine Gibson (1939 – 2015) appeared first on Disney Blogs.

The science fiction adventure, about a software engineer (played with charismatic dweebiness by Jeff Bridges) who gets zapped inside a vast computer network of his own creation, is a quietly groundbreaking work whose impact can be felt to this day, reverberating loudly like a crashed light cycle. Tron shaped the way we watch and make movies and is still hugely important to the Disney brand, changing what animation meant for audiences. Even if you’ve never seen Tron, you’ve still probably experienced it in some way.

Tron was the brainchild of animator Steven Lisberger, an animator whose independently produced animated feature Animalympics was released by Warner Bros in 1980 (a movie that is interesting for a number of reasons, including the score by British band 10cc, its pedigreed animation team that included Brad Bird and Roger Allers, and the fact that it features a walrus version of Richard Nixon). Libsberger was fascinated by the backlit animation style of the time (that gave characters a shimmery, “disco” look), rudimentary computer animation and the video games of the period (like Pong). It was originally envisioned as a mostly animated film, with live action wraparound sequences. Tron was short for electronic; a warrior for a new age. And while all the other studios passed on the ambitious, borderline experimental film, Disney seeing within the film the kind of restless futurism embraced by Walt Disney himself, took a chance.

Disney assembled a crack team of artists to tackle the unwieldy project, including noted futurist Syd Mead (who most recently worked with Bird on Tomorrowland) and French comic book artist Jean Giraud (aka Moebius) and contracted no fewer than four different animation firms. Keep in mind that production began in 1981, a time long before computer animation was commonplace. In fact, this was bleeding edge technology, made at a time when even the most powerful computers equipped for the production harness less power than the smartphone in your pocket. It was further complicated by the fact that the movie was shot on large format 65 mm, with the computer sequences shot on 35 mm and blown up to approximate the larger Super Panavision format. (This was more than three full years before the original Nintendo Entertainment System would be sold in America.) When Tron was released on July 9, 1982, nobody had seen anything like it before.

Looking back on it today, Tron is still pretty startling. Some of that had to do with the technical limitations of the technology; that’s why there’s so much indistinct blackness (it looks atmospheric and it was easier to accomplish). The sequences inside the computer have the shimmery glow of a discotheque (Moebius’ costumes, a canny combination of practical suits and traditional animation, wouldn’t be out of place at a modern day rave) and the action sequences still have a singular energy and pulse. The music too, by electronic music pioneer Wendy Carlos, has a strangely enchanting effect. It’s both traditional and totally unique, both dreamy and disquieting, like you’ve stumbled into an 8-bit fairy tale.

Tron‘s influence cannot be overstated. This was a movie that took viewers inside of a videogame, long before The Matrix or similar films that dealt with virtual reality (and before movies started turning video games into movies). And it presented a technology that was so groundbreaking, so tremendous, that it would change the way that movies were made. This was the first movie to utilize computer-generated effects on this scale; there’s barely a movie made these days without CGI. (Seriously, even Woody Allen uses Industrial Light & Magic.) Additionally, Pixar chief creative officer John Lasseter, who was working for Disney Animation Studio at the time, was particularly enamored with Tron. Disney Animation Studio had minimal involvement in the film (although young animator Tim Burton worked on it), but Lasseter saw early test footage and was blown away. Lasseter has said that, “without Tron there would be no Toy Story.”

In the years since Tron, the franchise has continued to grow. In 2003, a follow-up video game called Tron 2.0 was released, featuring original star Bruce Boxleitner. And in 2010 Disney released an equally ambitious theatrical sequel Tron Legacy. Groundbreaking in its own way (featuring Bridges interacting in a computerized version of his younger, Tron-era self), Tron Legacy followed a similar trajectory: it was intoxicatingly gorgeous and moody and has a passionate group of like-minded fans who appreciated its innovation and storytelling verve. Its glittery electronic score was an agreed-upon highlight (this time composed by French disco robots Daft Punk). Seeing the movie in IMAX 3D formats was like watching the biggest, most exciting video art installation ever.

This fall two characters from Tron: Legacy will join the line-up in the new Disney Infinity 3.0 videogame and Shanghai Disneyland’s version of Space Mountain will be a Tron-themed rollercoaster with light cycle-like ride vehicles.

Tron is the very definition of being ahead of its time. It’s a movie whose enduring legacy remains. This was a film that challenged the conventions of how motion pictures were produced and helped inspire a generation of movie fans and storytellers, who were encouraged to utilize barely-there technology to tell new and exciting narratives. Tron brought us into a world we had never experienced before, where anything was possible, no matter the size of the hard drive.

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Without further ado–the most magical panels at this year’s San Diego Comic Con:

Sanjay’s Super Team

Indigo Ballroom, Hilton San Diego Bayfront, Thursday, July 9 11 a.m. – noon

This panel, described as “The Super Story Behind the Pixar Short,” features director Sanjay Patel and producer Nicole Grindle and focuses on what might be our favorite Pixar short in recent memory (it’s attached to The Good Dinosaur later this year). Last year Pixar came and pretty much owned San Diego Comic Con with their Toy Story That Time Forgot panel; expect similar fireworks for this very special short film.

Marvel Television Presents

Ballroom 20, Friday, July 10 3 – 4:15 p.m.

Consider this your one-stop shop for all-things Marvel-on-television (live action category). Jeph Loeb, former Marvel writer and current Head of Television, as he introduces some exclusives and provides some much-needed surprise content. The focus on the panel is both ABC primetime Marvel series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter (maybe our favorite show on television), and promises to include showrunners and cast members from both exemplary series. (Sadly, the Marvel Netflix productions are sitting this San Diego Comic Con out, which isn’t that surprising considering both Daredevil and Jessica Jones are filming in New York as we speak.) Expect details on Agent Carter’s move to Los Angeles for season 2 and a whatever madness is going on in the intricate world of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Hall H, Friday, July 1o 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.

Obviously, this is the panel to beat at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. While details are scarce (this is J.J. Abrams, we’re talking about here, who has turned secrecy into a religion), expect the filmmakers to be on hand (including Abrams and producer Kathleen Kennedy), as well as assorted members of the starry cast. With an emphasis on behind-the-scenes footage, we’re betting there will be plenty of surprises and early revelations. (Keep in mind that this hour will be devoted exclusively to The Force Awakens, with no talk of the spin-off films, including the recently announced Han Solo project.) Oh, and remember to turn on your Star Wars app. There might be some exclusive goodies released throughout the weekend (hey, you didn’t hear that from us). This panel is going to certifiably out-of-this world. Of all the Comic Con panels, this is the one we’re most bummed about missing out on.

Marvel Animation Presents

Room 6BCF, Saturday, July 11 10 – 11:30 a.m.

You thought that the Marvel live action series would be the only Marvel television presence at San Diego Comic Con? Think again! This panel features Stephen Wacker (VP, Current Series – Marvel Animation Studios), Cort Lane (VP, Animation Development & Partnerships), and Eric Radomski (SVP, Production & Creative Director, Animation) as they preview new seasons of animated series Avengers: Ultron Revolution and Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Sinister 6. They will also be debuting exclusive never-before-seen footage from the Guardians of the Galaxy animated series. Talk about getting hooked on a feeling!

Once Upon a Time

Ballroom 20, Saturday, July 11 10 – 10:45 a.m.

San Diego Comic Con gets downright magical with the panel for the long-running ABC fantasy series. Stars Ginnifer Goodwin (who, in the six-degrees-of-Disney-characters has also been the voice of a fairy and will soon be a co-lead in Disney animated film Zootopia), Jennifer Morrison, Lana Parrilla, Josh Dallas, Emilie de Ravin, Colin O’Donoghue, and Robert Carlyle, along with newly promoted series regulars Rebecca Mader and Sean Maguire, will join  creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz for the panel. As an extra special bonus, the panel is being moderated by former cast member (she was Ursula!) Yvette Nicole Brown.

The Muppets

Room 6A, Saturday, July 11 3 – 4 p.m.

It’s no secret that we love the new Muppets television show and are over-the-moon about its premiere this fall. So as far as we’re concerned, this Muppets panel is can’t-miss stuff. For the panel executive producers Bill Prady, Bob Kushell, Randall Einhorn, and Bill Barretta will be joined by Miss Piggy and Kermit, which promises to be outrageous, irreverent fun. If you aren’t jazzed about the new series, after this panel, you will be.

Marvel Comics

Everywhere – pretty much the entire time

There are a lot of Marvel-related panels at this year’s Comic Con, with panels covering everything from the Disney Kingdoms imprint to the All-New, All-Different initiative that launches this fall. So for the full list of dates, times, and locations, please consult this handy Marvel.com post. Excelsior!

Disney Infinity

815 J St. (near 8th St.) * No San Diego Comic Con badge needed to enter.

With Disney Infinity 3.0 just around the corner (and trust us, this is going to be the best version of the game yet), a special pop-up shop will be open during San Diego Comic Con. If you pre-order the game at the pop-up shop, you will receive Toy Box Expansion Game, Toy Box Takeover, and an additional Disney Infinity 3.0 figure. Just for pre-ordering a game you were probably going to buy anyway. Also, on each day, they will distribute a different lithograph to every guest who stops by and plays the game (artwork included below). Does it get any better?

The post San Diego Comic Con: A Guide to All Things Disney appeared first on Disney Blogs.

And so it is with the brand new Star Wars app, debuting today in the Google app store and the Apple app store. This was definitely worth the wait.

The interface is brilliant and so ridiculously Star Wars-y: when you boot it up, it flings you through the stars and comes complete with droid noises (mostly adorable chirping). When you reach the main hub of the app, you can gain access to the official news feed (where things like news about the upcoming Han Solo movie will appear), official videos, and a selfie experience co-created by Walt Disney Imagineering. Elsewhere there is a nice GIF collection to send to your friends, an augmented reality component, and a Force trainer like the one in the first Star Wars (the little ball that shoots mostly harmless lasers at Luke Skywalker). There are also lovely little flourishes like what the date means in Star Wars history and a note about what planet most closely resembles where you are, weather-wise. Like we said: worth the wait.

To celebrate the launch of the app, we spoke with Mickey Capoferri, the Senior Director, Online Content and Programming at Lucasfilm. He told us about the development history and design, what makes the app unique, and, yes, emojis.

What was the thinking, in terms of the design and development, behind this app?

We wanted to create an authentic feel from the Star Wars universe. We wanted to bring a little bit of Star Wars into our world and we wanted, in designing the interface, we wanted to create a dashboard, which is what we call the main landing page, that felt like a window into Star Wars. As opposed to an app designed around Star Wars, we wanted to feel like you’re touching something that could be from that world. So we wanted much more of an authentic, organic, visual user experience for that Star Wars world.

There have been Star Wars apps that have come before this one. What sets this apart?

It’s a connection to the pulse of the Star Wars franchise. Everything that’s happening around the brand—it’s news, it’s animation, it’s gifs, it’s augmented reality experiences. It’s your daily dose of Star Wars. On a daily basis I can check in and find out everything that’s going on in the world of Star Wars but more importantly you can interact with these fun, native mobile features that I do anyway, but Star Wars versions; things that people make on their own anyway. This is a network and it’s meant to grow. It’s a platform we’re going to expand, potentially, over the next 10 years as more movies, games and TV shows come out and adding experiences to this. The goal is that there won’t be 20 to 30 random Star Wars apps on the app store. If you download the Star Wars app from the app store, you’re never going to miss anything in the Star Wars universe. It’s unlike any other app.

What else will people have access to on the first day?

Weather, this date in Star Wars history, an ongoing countdown that lets you know how many days are left until Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Rebels and Rogue One, user profiles, the ability to change the theme. You can choose light side, dark side or droid-based color schemes and it will re-skin itself based on that and include slightly different animations and sound effects. Also worth noting: all of the sounds and sound effects are custom sound effects from Skywalker Sound. There’s an additional augmented reality experience that allows you to bring up a full-sized new Episode VII Stormtrooper or BB-8 droid. So you can take a photo with a Stormtrooper or have a small Stormtrooper pop up on your desktop. There’s also a “More Star Wars” section that connects you to the Star Wars Disney Store that cross-promotes all of the officially licensed games.

Will the emojis from Star Wars Celebration be there?

Rest assured: the emojis are coming. They will not be at first launch but the first update, a couple weeks after launch, will add 30+ emojis, featuring classic characters and the Episode VII emojis.

Is there any interactivity between the app and Star Wars at the parks?

That is definitely something that we’re looking at long term. I know WDI is looking at their own in-park app; whether our Star Wars app ultimately connects to the parks, I’m not sure. But I hope so. That’s the right line of thinking, though, in terms of where I see this going. What we launch with will be fun and there will be lots of things for people to play with. But that’s not what gets me excited. The hope is that every few months we’re adding another feature to this.

The post Your Galactic Hub: Inside the New, Totally Essential Star Wars App appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Lego Star Wars: Droid Tales, is a five-episode miniseries that has an ingenious conceit: it’s the entire Star Wars saga, told, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead-style, by C3PO (voiced, once more, by Anthony Daniels) and R2D2. The series takes place after the Battle of Endor that ended Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, as C3PO first recounts his adventures after being assembled by a young Anakin Skywalker. This first episode does a really killer job whittling down both Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and even introduces a nifty wraparound narrative wherein C3PO and Admiral Akbar team up to track down his missing spaceship (just go with it).

The series is quick (seriously: it covers two movies that were each over two hours long, in less than 22 minutes) and full of that zippy humor that the Lego Star Wars franchise is known for. The jokes are amazing, especially if you’re a longtime Star Wars fan. There are repeated gags involving the somewhat convoluted nature of the prequels’ taxation-of-trade-routes-heavy storyline (“She was no longer a queen, having been promoted to Senator … I don’t understand that either,” C3PO narrates at one point), Jar Jar Binks getting thrown into the cosmos on multiple occasions, and terrific visual gags like Watto selling red flags during the background of a scene where we’re first introduced to future-Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker. In fact, there are so many wonderful little jokes that you’ll want to record it and watch it again and again just to catch everything.

If you’re worked about some of the darker elements of the series being translated into kid-friendly form, fret not: bleakness is avoided altogether and even mild violence is presented with a giddy, kids-taking-apart-plastic-playthings attitude. This is fun for the whole family, through and through (especially if you’ve already played with the building block sets or videogames). The terrific computer animation really does feel like actual Lego pieces are being animated and moving around, making jokes and blowing up little Lego robots.

With Star Wars: The Force Awakens just around the corner (relatively speaking), it’s easy to get into the spirit of the Force. But Lego Star Wars: Droid Tales really is worthy of your excitement: it’s a hilarious, charming and wonderfully animated and captures the spirit of the original Star Wars while adding an anarchic spirit all its own. Whether you’re a diehard fan of the series or a relative newcomer, you’ll fall in love with Lego Star Wars: Droid Tales from the goofy opening crawl to the final frame. The Force is definitely with this one.

The post Lego Star Wars: These Are the Droid Tales You’re Looking For appeared first on Disney Blogs.

The Treasures from the Disney Vault echoes, in both tone and title, the Vault Disney programming that used to be a part of the Disney Channel lineup. Vault Disney was a late night programming block that aired old (and mostly forgotten) Disney television shows, specials, and movies. Everything from Davy Crockett Goes to Congress to the primetime special celebrating the opening of EPCOT Center (hosted by Danny Kaye, of course) was shown during Vault Disney and it was glorious. The Treasures from the Disney Vault block on TCM is a similarly wondrous mélange of television, short films, and movies. We thought we’d rundown tonight’s program and let you know what is in store for tonight, with programming that shares a patriotic theme.

8 p.m. – “Beach Picnic” (1939) The evening starts out with a trio of classic animated shorts, the first one being this gem starring Donald Duck. In “Beach Picnic,” Donald fights with an inflatable beach animal, messes with Pluto, and ants invade a picnic like warring natives. All of these shorts exemplify boisterous summertime fun.

8 p.m. – “The Simple Things” (1953) The second short of the night is a Charles Nichols-directed Mickey Mouse short. It’s got a great theme song and features a similarly beach-y setting, with Mickey and Pluto on holiday at the beach. For animation nerds, it should be noted that there’s also a clam character who looks very similar to a character that would appear in the “Under the Sea” sequence in The Little Mermaid.

8 p.m. – “Hawaiian Holiday” (1937) This short has it all: Minnie in a glass hula skirt, Goofy with a surfboard, Mickey strumming away on a Hawaiian guitar, and so much Donald awesomeness. This is just an embarrassment of riches.

8:30 p.m. – Johnny Tremain (1957) Originally developed for television but ultimately released for theatrical exhibition (it would return to the small screen a year after its theatrical bow, as a special two-part television event). Hal Stalmaster plays Johnny Tremain, a young apprentice who, after an accident, joins the Sons of Liberty in the lead-up to the American Revolution and who ends up interacting with a number of iconic historical characters, including Paul Revere (Walter Sande). Walt loved the project and wanted to add a Liberty Street addendum to Main Street, something that would end up coming to fruition as the much-more-elaborate Liberty Square at Walt Disney World. Also, there is this truly amazing copy on the original poster: “Run – as adventure’s greatest hour explodes with glory and excitement!”

10 p.m. – “The Liberty Story” (1957) Episode of Disneyland

Stalmaster returns as Johnny Tremain in this episode of Disneyland that first aired on May 29, 1957. The other half of the hour is an animated adventure called “Ben and Me,” that featured Amos the mouse and his famous owner, Ben Franklin (narrated by Sterling Holloway, longtime Disney voice legend). This hour is quick and breezy, as educational as it is entertaining and fitfully patriotic. Plus, you get to see Walt as host of the hour, which is, of course, amazing.

11 p.m. – The Living Desert (1953)

This Disney nature documentary (which, paired with another Disney documentary The Vanishing Prairie was one of the first to win an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature) focuses on the lives of various animals living in the American southwest. Even if you’ve never seen it, you’re probably aware of the iconic image of a bobcat on a cactus. More grown up and mature than the “True Life Adventures” series, The Living Desert is meditative, gorgeously photographed and good old-fashioned fun.

12:15 a.m. – The Great Locomotive Chase (1956)

Fess Parker, who starred as Davy Crockett for an iconic Disney miniseries, returns for another patriotic adventure. This time he plays James J. Andrews, the leader of a group of Union soldiers who hijacks a Confederate train called The General. (The General was also the subject of the Buster Keaton classic of the same name, released more than 30 years before The Great Locomotive Chase.) This sprawling historical adventure was a passion project for train enthusiast Walt, who insisted on an extreme level of historical accuracy (there’s also a great old set photo of him in one of the trains they used for the movie). It was also shot in lushly widescreen CinemaScope, which means that it looks truly staggering (still). Also of note (as pointed out in the terrific new book All Aboard: The Wonderful World of Disney Trains by Dana Amendola) is the fact that the two trains from the movie have been lovingly restored and are available for public display: The General is in a museum in Georgia and The Texas is in the Atlanta Cyclorama. It would be the greatest Disney train movie until The Lone Ranger in 2013.

2 a.m. – Treasure of Matecumbe (1976)

This old school adventure (one of the true oddities of the night, although one that if you miss it can still be purchased on demand) is set in post-Civil War Kentucky, where a young man (Johnny Doran) finds the map for a buried treasure. (Disney favorite Peter Ustinov co-stars.) This movie is fascinating for how charmingly out-of-step it was with the movies of that period (it was released a year before Star Wars) and the fact that the movie’s climax, set at a beached pirate ship, was filmed at Walt Disney World’s now-defunct nature preserve/exploration park Discovery Island.

4 a.m. – Rascal (1969)

Anyone who has ever had interaction with raccoons knows that they are terrifying little monsters, always hissing and opening garbage can lids. All of this makes us think that Rascal, based on an award-winning novel by Sterling North that was published in 1963, must take place in an alternate universe and not, as it suggests, 1918 Wisconsin. How else to explain the budding friendship between an 11-year-old boy and a rescued raccoon (named Rascal), who is described on the original poster as “a ring-tailed rapscallion.” Rascal drinks Dr. Pepper, falls asleep in the sun (probably because it’s a nocturnal mammal) and engages in a spirited relationship with both the young boy and a family dog (the sworn enemy of the raccoon). As a sunny summertime fantasy, it is fun enough, but as a glimpse into the nightmarish alternate reality where man exists side-by-side with raccoon, it’s truly horrifying.

The post Breaking Down This Week’s TCM Treasures from the Disney Vault Night appeared first on Disney Blogs.

The TTA PeopleMover first opened on July 1, 1975 as an adaptation of the PeopleMover attraction in California. That ride opened at Disneyland in 1967 (as part of the massive New Tomorrowland redo) and featured a different, longer layout, with steep embankments and twists (even if it coasted at the same glacial pace). The Disneyland version of the attraction was based, in part, on a pavilion Walt had overseen for the 1964 World’s Fair that involved 50 motor-less Ford vehicles as they rode slowly along an elevated track (the Ford’s Magic Skyway attraction ended up having a huge impact on the California park). The original Disneyland version of the PeopleMover even featured rotating rubber tires.

But when the attraction transitioned to the Florida park, it was even more futuristic and relied not on tires but instead was powered more cleanly by electricity. These ride vehicles utilized efficient linear synchronous motors, a technology that has been used on a number of Disney attractions since, including California Screamin’ at Disney California Adventure and the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida. (It’s a testament to the versatility of the technology that it can be used on an attraction and sluggish as the TTA PeopleMover and as high-octane as something like the Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster.) The Magic Kingdom’s TTA PeopleMover literally glides above Tomorrowland, allowing guests to take in a scenic tour of this futuristic section of the park.

And truth be told, it’s one of our favorite attractions in all of Walt Disney World. It’s a long ride (clocking in at around 10 minutes) and allows you to really look around and appreciate the incredible theming and detail of Tomorrowland. What’s more, it coasts through a number of attractions, including Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. You also glide by a section of the original model for Walt’s EPCOT project, beautifully maintained all these years later. And at night, the attraction is even more of a giddy thrill. Tomorrowland has always turned into a different world after dark and getting to maneuver through the bright, glowing colors of Tomorrowland-at-night is incredible.

Every time we visit the Florida parks, the TTA PeopleMover is an attraction that we positively luxuriate in. There’s never a line for the attraction and there are a number of juicy easter eggs sprinkled throughout the ride for hardcore Disney fans. (The EPCOT model being the most obvious and impressive.) From high above Stitch’s Great Escape or the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor, it’s hard not to be filled with inspiration: for both where Tomorrowland came from (especially since you loop around Carousel of Progress) and where it might be headed next. And to celebrate the anniversary of the TTA PeopleMover, be sure to head over to the Disney Store and grab their limited-edition tee or prints (available only until July 5). They are just as awe-inspiring as the ride itself.

The post Paging Tom Morrow: Today Is the 40th Anniversary of the Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover appeared first on Disney Blogs.

This time we’ve set our sights on the Muppets in the theme parks – both what made it in and what was on the drawing board for future attractions. This is just as hard as the last quiz, but also shorter.

So good luck! And we’re going to warn you now: part 3 is coming. So start doing your squats and push-ups now.

How did you do? Are you ready for the next quiz?

The post The Hardest Muppet Disney Parks Quiz Ever Written Forever appeared first on Disney Blogs.

If your mind is spinning, don’t worry, ours is too. Everything about the project is confounding. This half-hour of television, known only as Dick Tracy Special, was made nearly two decades after the original Dick Tracy came out. It was photographed by Emmanuel Lubezski, the Mexican director-of-photography who has won the Best Cinematography Academy Award two years in a row (for Gravity and Birdman) and hosted by Leonard Maltin, a film critic and encyclopedic Disney historian who has made memorable acting appearances in the past (most notably in Gremlins 2: The New Batch, which like this special, had him playing a slightly different version of himself). The special was even set (and partially shot) on the historic Walt Disney Studios lot. It is baffling and invigorating in equal parts—invigorating because it’s so much fun seeing Beatty play Tracy again, even with this winking, postmodern edge and baffling because there seems to be very little reason for this special to have existed in the first place.

Dick Tracy, while something of a cult classic today, was positioned as a box office juggernaut when it was released in the summer of 1990. It seemed destined to win: it had an all-star cast (seriously: everyone from Al Pacino to Dick Van Dyke is in this movie), immaculate production design and cinematography that perfectly emulates the film’s comic book origins, and genuinely incredible music (the score is by Danny Elfman, with original songs by Stephen Sondheim). It also had the full marketing might of the Walt Disney Company, complete with an entire array of tie-in merchandise, a lavish premiere at the then-brand-new Disney-MGM Studios, a full-court marketing tour (even luring the elusive Beatty out for press), and a plan for even more Tracy-related product down the line (including sequels and a high-tech theme park attraction in the form of Dick Tracy Crimestoppers). But ultimately the movie didn’t meet expectations and things like the theme park attraction were quietly abandoned.

And yet, 20 years later, the Dick Tracy Special exists.

We were so intrigued, in fact, that we reached out to Leonard Maltin, the only other man (besides Beatty) who truly understands what this special was all about. And what he said was surprising and forthcoming, while still maintaining the air of weird mystery that the project is still enmeshed in.

How did Warren Beatty approach you about this?  

He said that he wanted to reassert and reaffirm his rights to the character of Dick Tracy and that he decided that one means of doing that was to do a little special featuring the character. I don’t know the exact order of things but he had pitched it to Disney Home Video, possibly first. And it was David Jessen, who I had worked with on the Disney Treasures, who suggested that he hire me. Because at the time he was thinking of going after Charlie Rose; that was the vibe and the look that he wanted. And David said, “Why not just use Leonard?” That’s how I got the job.

Can you compare it to your past acting appearances?

It was unlike anything I had ever done before. He had written a script and as he explained to me, at a lovely lunch where we talked about lots of thing and he told wonderful anecdotes, that when he’s performing someone else’s script, he’s very disciplined about following the words but when he’s performing his own material, he feels no constrictions about ad-libbing, improvising, veering from the printed page. A couple of days before the shoot, he came over to my house to run lines with me and that’s exactly what we did.

There’s been this long-rumored two-and-a-half-hour cut of Dick Tracy out there that Beatty has wanted to get out. Did this special tie into that desire at all?

No, there was no mention of anything like that.

It landed on TCM as this half-hour special. Did you get feedback from him that he was happy with the final product?

He told me he was happy with it as soon as it was cut together.

But did it accomplish what he wanted it to?

Well, I know that he won his case. He won his case against Tribune. So now he owns the screen rights. And that was the whole purpose of doing this. [Editor’s Note: It was revealed more than a year after the special aired that there was a use-it-or-lose-it clause, wherein Tribune suggested Beatty had to produce something with the character, to prove both his interest and Tracy’s viability.] What did sort of throw me was the night before the shoot, he said to me, “You should introduce the vintage film clips and just use your own words,” which I didn’t mind doing but didn’t expect to do. That was sort of a last-minute curve. But when we finished running lines, he said to me, “When you see me in the yellow hat and coat, it makes quite a statement.” He wasn’t wrong.

Were you a fan of this movie?

Yeah I liked the Dick Tracy movie.

Do people ever bring this special up to you? It’s such a fascinating artifact.

No. Never.

Were you happy with it?

Well, it wasn’t my doing. I was a cog in the wheel. I just wanted to be good for him. I wanted to give him what he wanted. The day before the shoot, one of his production assistants called to set up the timing. We shot on a stage at the Walt Disney Imagineering buildings in Glendale. I figured I’d be there an hour, an hour-and-a-half. And this young fellow said, “No, we need him for a full eight hour day.” Alice [Leonard’s wife] said, “Well he’s got a screening that night, I don’t want him to be completely worn out.” So he said, “What if we started at 8:30 in the morning and gave him a guaranteed out at 4:30?” Alice said, “That would be fine.” They were good to their word. I got there on time at 8:30. Had a little make-up applied. Went to the table. And we started doing it. I had already heard that Warren likes to shoot a lot, so this was not a complete surprise. But hearing it and experiencing it are two different things.

Are we talking about 80 takes on one line?

Yes. He just likes doing it over and over and over and over. It’s his MO. It’s what makes him comfortable. And so you simply go along with it. The other rather imposing surprise was that the cinematographer on the shoot was Emmanuel Lubezski. I said, “Oh my god, Chivo is shooting this little conversation!” He’s a lovely man and I’ve seen him many times since and we always laugh about it.

In terms of timing, from the time he called you to the time it aired, how long was it?

It all happened very quickly. But the time he called me it was pretty well prepared.

Did he say anything about this leading into a sequel?

No. All he said was that he was thinking about producing another movie. Not starring in and not necessarily directing but producing another Dick Tracy. And this is why it was important to him to reaffirm his rights. That’s all I knew.

Have you kept up with him?

I see him at functions from time to time. He couldn’t be friendlier. He continually thinks me for my participation in the show and I continue to be flattered that he asked me.

The post Remembering That TCM Dick Tracy Special appeared first on Disney Blogs.

In 1973, as part of a major overhaul, the Flight to the Moon attraction (a staple, in various forms, of Disneyland since 1955) was changed to Mission to Mars. This was necessitated by the fact that, after more than a decade of fantastical moon landings, in 1969 we actually achieved the impossible and visited the moon. The original version of the attraction had guests entering a large, circular auditorium with two screens: one on the ceiling showing you where you were going and one on the floor, showing you where you had been. According to a pre-recorded spiel, the room had been “carefully designed by scientists and engineers to look like a real passenger space ship of the future.” What followed was a precursor to the simulator rides like Star Tours and the new defunct EPCOT attraction Body Wars, with pseudo-scientific narration, projection effects, and in-theater jostling.

As you entered into Mission to Mars, you were greeted first with a control room, featuring then cutting-edge animatronic figures that talked about what the first manned mission to Mars would be like. While footage ran on screens, a robotic scientist talked about things like “the way crystals form in zero-G.” After that you were ushered into that circular theater that had been used from the Flight to the Moon days, which did have the feeling of looking a lot like the inside of a modern airplane. “Side screens” showed the diagnostics associated with the trip, including how far away you were from earth and how close you were to the red planet. Narration would play about the nature of the voyage, with phrases like “Mars acquisition velocity” and “hyperspace penetration commencing” being used without much context. Given the placement of the ride in Tomorrowland, there were also references to how this kind of space travel is now “routine” but that “back in the ‘70s and ‘80s would have seemed like science fiction.” Dangers like meteors and black holes were detected and barely avoided. You’d travel in space and live to tell the tale.

By the fall of 1992 though, Mission to Mars, flanked by more high tech attractions like Star Tours and Space Mountain, quietly closed its doors. (The Magic Kingdom version of Mission to Mars, which also opened in 1975, would close almost a year later, in the fall of 1993.) At one point the space in Tomorrowland was allocated for a brand new attraction, part of the ambitious Tomorrowland 2055 project. But, thanks to extreme costs associated with the EuroDisney project (later renamed Disneyland Paris), most of the ideas planned for Tomorrowland 2055 were scrapped. Instead of a daring, colorful vision of the future, the Imagineers instead leaned on a Jules Verne-esque version, full of muted colors and vaguely steam punk-y designs. In 1998 the former Mission to Mars space reopened as … a quick-serve pizza joint. (At least in Florida the space was re-appropriated for the ahead-of-its-time ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter attraction.) But that wasn’t the end of the Mission to Mars story.

In the early 2000’s, Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios Dick Cook began an initiative to turn theme park attractions into films. There was some waffling as to whether or not these productions would wind up on the big screen (as Pirates of the Caribbean eventually did) or be relegated to direct-to-video or cable premiere status (as Tower of Terror, based on the new ride at the then-Disney-MGM Studios, did in 1997). One of these projects was Mission to Mars. While only tangentially connected to the ride, the movie featured themes of heroic space exploration in matter-of-fact, scientific terms. As directed by Brian De Palma, one of cinema’s premiere visual stylists, Mission to Mars featured the filmmaker’s flair for dramatic, unbroken shots and a robust musical score (its organ-heavy music predated Interstellar by more than a decade). But, as anything based on a Tomorrowland attraction should, the movie eschewed the director’s typically nihilistic penchant for sad endings and instead featured a more optimistic, forward-thinking conclusion, in which discovery and hopefulness prevail. It also marked the end of a decades-long attempt by Disney to make a movie set on Mars; in the late ‘80s an adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars was mounted with Die Hard filmmaker John McTiernan directing Tom Cruise. (The company would finally make the film in 2013 with Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton and Friday Night Lights star Taylor Kitsch.)

In the film Gary Sinise played Jim McConnell, an astronaut who goes to rescue a colleague (Don Cheadle) who has been stranded on the red planet. Much of the film is devoted to the actual space journey, which mirrors the attraction’s combination of real-life science and fantastical scenarios. When they reach the planet, it goes into all-out science fiction territory, but it all works. It might not exactly line up with the philosophy behind the original attraction, but it still feels mightily Disney (even if it was, due to the film’s intensity, released by Touchstone). In spirit alone Mission to Mars more than paid its dues.

A space-themed pavilion had always been planned for EPCOT. Back in the ‘70s work began in earnest on a sprawling spaceport and adjacent ride. Illustrations from the period show a glittery, prismatic building that would probably make your jaw drop as soon as you entered it. When EPCOT Center struggled financially after opening in 1982, the plans were put on hold. But in 1991, on a prime time special devoted to the history and future of Walt Disney World, that same space port was mentioned as being in the works for EPCOT’s Future World (presumably in the not-too-distant future). Instead, a space-themed attraction, much smaller and more manageable than the Imagineers’ original plans, would open in the summer of 2003.

Mission: SPACE stood in the spot once occupied by Horizons, an attraction dedicated to the promise of tomorrow that ended with a choose-your-own adventure mode that saw you picking your future home underwater, in deep space, or in the desert. Mission: SPACE featured an interactive centrifuge that had visitors perform tasks connected to a manned mission to Mars. Each person in your four-person pod has to do something to insure that the mission is a success. Like the original Mission to Mars, it is, more than anything, a simulator attraction with screens that you look at and sensations that make it seem like you’re traveling through space. Of course, this was a much higher tech variation, with actual weightless simulation that feels thrilling and bizarre all at the same time. This was Mission to Mars for the next generation. And not only was it connected, thematically and through the actual attraction-type to the original Mission to Mars but it also tied back to the Mission to Mars movie.

How so?

Well, the host of the attraction is Gary Sinise, who starred in Mission to Mars. He’s playing the same character, more or less, although his name is never uttered. And the same kind of rip-snorting sense of scientific adventure that was the heart of Mission to Mars is very much present and accounted for in Mission: SPACE. The same sentiment that started in 1973 in Disneyland is still wowing guests in Florida today. Even though the attraction and film built around the concept is notably futuristic, this is a story that is, at its heart, simply timeless.

The post Mission to Mars: The Ride That Inspired the Movie That Inspired the Ride appeared first on Disney Blogs.

First, the big news: Holland will reportedly star in next year’s third Captain America movie before spinning off for a trilogy of solo films and appearances in various Marvel films. The unique arrangement, announced earlier this year, has Marvel producing the films, with hands-on involvement from producer Kevin Feige, and handling the merchandising for the films, while Sony will release and distribute them. Holland was reportedly chosen after Feige and producer Amy Pascal looked at more than 1,500 applicants from around the world and flew Holland down to the Atlanta set of Captain America: Civil War, to screen test with Robert Downey, Jr. (Iron Man) and Chris Evans (Captain America). Marvel also announced that Jon Watts, a relatively unknown director whose indie thriller Cop Car was one of the breakouts at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, will helm the standalone Spider-Man movie, set for release in July of 2017.

Holland is the young star of The Impossible, the tsunami drama that also starred Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts. And if you haven’t heard of him yet, fear not: he’s about to be a very, very big star.

We already reported about the big changes coming to the Marvel comic books, with the “Ultimate” and regular universes smashed together in this summer’s Secret Wars series. Secret Wars promises to leave last ramifications for the entire stable of classic Marvel characters, with the 60-year-old company essentially rebooting itself this fall, with all new first issues, brand new series, and drastic changes to existing titles. One of the bigger questions as to the post-Secret Wars landscape (entitled All-New, All-Different) was who would take on the mantle of Spider-Man (the Spider-Universe has been awfully full these days).

As it turns out, Miles Morales, the Spider-Man of the “Ultimate” universe, will be assuming the role of Spider-Man in a comic book of the same name. (No adjectives here.) Spider-Man #1 will (thankfully) retain the Ultimate Spider-Man creative team of writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli. Morales, for those who might not know, is a somewhat groundbreaking comic book hero, thanks largely to his mixed race background. Yes, this Spider-Man, the honest-to-goodness, true-blue Spider-Man, will be half-African American, half-Latino. Comic books have always been progressive and ahead of the curve, and it’s thrilling to see a character exemplify the melting pot identity of 2015 America so well.

The rest of the Spider-Universe has yet to be revealed, although it was noted that Peter Parker, the original Spider-Man, will mentor young Miles Morales through the complexities of fighting crime in Manhattan while delivering zippy one-liners and looking good in a skin-tight suit. While Spider-Gwen and Spider-Woman are also supposed to be a part of the All-New, All-Different universe, specifics have yet to be revealed.

So which Spider-Man announcement are you most jazzed about? Let us know!

The post The Changing Faces of Spider-Man appeared first on Disney Blogs.

We’re going to tell you why but it goes without saying that there are spoilers throughout, so turn back now if you haven’t been transformed by Inside Out yet. Dead men tell no tales.

Let’s go back to Bing Bong’s introduction: he’s first spotted by Joy (Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) in long-term memory. This is the area of Riley’s mind that is supposed to be off-limits, populated only by blobby mind workers that perform maintenance and provide valuable upkeep and categorization. But this is where Bing Bong has found himself—he’s stealing Riley’s memories, hoarding his favorites in a “make believe” bag that also includes (in no particular order) a shoe, a kitchen sink, and a live cat. He’s dressed shabbily, like a hobo in an old Hollywood movie: torn, fingerless gloves and patches on the elbow of his jackets. Given his working knowledge of the Train of Thought, you can tell he’s been riding the rails. All he’s missing is a polka-dotted bindle. (We saw the first hour of Inside Out at a press event earlier this year and were convinced, for many weeks, that Bing Bong was going to turn out to be the film’s villain; the filmmakers admitted to us that this was purposeful and a way to keep the audience on their toes.)

This characterization was purposeful. Co-director Ronnie del Carmen said he was designed to resemble “vaudeville actors who used to play big theaters but after the invention of TV and movies, they’re out of work.” Del Carmen also told us that Bing Bong, no matter how fantastical he might appear, is based on real life. “Bing Bong was created from the observation of us watching our kids,” del Carmen explained. “When they were little they were talking while they were playing and creating little scenarios. They’re talking and you say, ‘I wonder who they’re talking to.’ And then they tell you these stories.” Director Pete Docter sums up Bing Bong even more succinctly: “He’s the spirit of childhood.”

And while the origins of Bing Bong are fascinating, it’s what he stands for that makes him really special. Bing Bong is struggling for relevancy; he wants Riley to remember him, so they can continue their adventures together and secretly wishes that they can travel, together, to the moon, in his song-powered rocket sled. He is pure, unchained imagination and his DNA can be traced back to the Heffalump from Winnie the Pooh, the elephants on parade from Dumbo and EPCOT Center’s Figment (which is explicitly referenced in a sequence featuring Bing Bong). His desire to stay in Riley’s life has left him desperate and scared. This is a common theme in Disney•Pixar movies, with the Toy Story movies (and television specials) paying particularly close attention to themes of abandonment, disuse, and emotional disengagement. In some ways, Bing Bong is a stand-in for Pixar itself.

“He’s an important character to us. We’ve sort of been chasing that in all of the movies—there’s something about this resistance to growing up and that’s sort of who we are,” Inside Out producer Jonas Rivera admitted to us. “So Bing Bong stands for a lot, to us. Which is why he had to go. He just felt like this breath of fresh air—like he was going to be fun and funny and childlike but also really poignant. He could really deliver.” It’s important to note two things here: one, that Rivera was sitting next to Docter, who was doodling in our Art of Inside Out book throughout the entire interview and who, as a 46-year-old filmmaker, has won an Academy Award and who lives in a multimillion dollar tree house in suburban California. And two: Bing Bong totally delivered.

Pixar, like Bing Bong, is designed for the enjoyment of children but aims for universality. They make movies that they want their young fans to grow up with. These are films that retain their vitality and importance. Pixar does not want to be forgotten or relegated to the dusty canals of long-term memory. This deeper meaning makes Bing Bong more profound, especially for those of us who grew up with Disney•Pixar films and still consider them important parts of our lives. In fact, it’s what makes him the best, most important character they’ve ever created.

Bing Bong ultimately gives himself up for Riley’s happiness. It’s one of the most touching, heartbreaking moments of Inside Out (a film that, for all of its humor, seems comprised largely of touching, heartbreaking moments). It seems an admission, by Pete Docter and the other filmmakers, that there will be a strain of children who will grow out of Disney•Pixar films. Some children will forget about talking toys and flying houses and talking fish. Although given the emotional weight and power of Inside Out, it’s hard to imagine anyone forgetting the film (or Bing Bong) for as long as they live.

The post Why Bing Bong is the Greatest Disney•Pixar Character Ever appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Horner got his start working for Roger Corman on a string of schlocky, low budget genre movies that would rightfully find their place in the canon of great cult films. And Horner’s ability to work quickly and efficiently, something he learned while on the Corman films, would come in handy throughout his career. He recently admitted to writing the score to frequent collaborator James Cameron’s Aliens (a score that was used endlessly in trailers for action movies for more than a decade after the film came out and can be currently heard in Walt Disney World’s Great Movie Ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios) in less than two weeks. And Horner’s first two scores for the Walt Disney Company came in the form of last minute replacements.

For 1983’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, Horner replaced French composer Georges Delerue, as part of a massive, $5 million overhaul of the film (a process that also included radically re-editing director Jack Clayton’s original, far darker cut and shooting new footage, which set back the initial release date by more than a year). Horner’s work was less severe and more commercial (for curious collectors, Delerue’s original score was eventually released by Disney). Two years later, Horner performed a similar feat for The Journey of Natty Gann, replacing work done by Elmer Bernstein, who had labored so long on the film that he had essentially composed two separate scores. Still, that wasn’t good enough, and his work was jettisoned for Horner’s more soulful approach. (The final film, while largely Horner’s, still contains two small Bernstein cues.) In both cases, Horner came in and made a seemingly impossible situation seem quite possible, pulling off two pieces of film music with grace and passion.

Horner would go on to produce scores for several more Disney films, including Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (one of our personal favorites and unlike anything else Horner had done before or since), Bicentennial Man, Mighty Joe Young and A Far Off Place (an underrated movie on pretty much every front, including Horner’s music). He also contributed minor work to Disney’s witchy cult classic Hocus Pocus. But Horner’s greatest score and biggest accomplishment in terms of his work with Disney, was The Rocketeer.

The Rocketeer, released 24 years ago this month, feels like a film slightly out-of-step with the times. This is not a bad thing; in 1991 action movies were pulse pounding, quick-cutting, violent affairs with sarcastic, indestructible leading men and an emphasis on “attitude” and “edginess.” The Rocketeer, on the other hand, was a deliberate, winking throwback to kitschy Saturday morning serials. Our hero was an aw-shucks goofball (Billy Campbell) whose biggest superpower was sunny optimism and who discovers his trademark rocket pack by accident. It’s a film that feels both classic and ahead of its time. And Horner’s score is no different.

The music for The Rocketeer stands largely as a venue for the kind of sweeping, romantic scores that Horner loved and did so, so well. There are soaring strings, twinkly pianos, and deep woodwinds. It’s a lush, full-bodied, swinging score, with swagger to spare. It also had one of the more memorable main themes of the period, eschewing what was then a popular move into more electronic music, which emphasized atmosphere over melody. (This was the same summer as Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a film whose chilly metallic score Horner did not work on.) Like the movie itself, Horner’s music for The Rocketeer existed outside of the normal flow of things. It was different and bold and unlike anything else being done at the time. What makes this even more impressive is that, by his own admission, Horner only had two-and-a-half weeks to write the score (due to a seemingly endless period of test screenings and executive-mandated re-editing). With The Rocketeer, Horner was miles away from those early days scoring Roger Corman cheapies, but the amount of time he had to work remained unreasonably brief.

And yes, Horner has had some bigger, more widely popular scores, but for us, The Rocketeer is his best. It’s so big and open hearted; the first few notes of the score sound like someone throwing glitter over the top of a piano. It feels warm. Like you’re being invited to watch something while snuggled up in your favorite blanket. This is the most typical James Horner score and also the most incredible. About the only thing missing, that would define his other, most beloved scores, is a subtle mixture of Celtic influences (this wound up being a big part of Titanic and Braveheart). Instead of cultural specificity, The Rocketeer sounds like America: the big, beautiful mixture of cultures that, especially during the timeframe of the movie (California in 1938) was bound together by loyalty and a shared spirit of adventure. There’s a reason that when listening to the score we think of the honeyed atmosphere of Disney California Adventure’s Buena Vista Street or Hollywood Boulevard at Disney’s Hollywood Studios: it just feels right.

If there was anything that was widely and immediately accepted from The Rocketeer, it was Horner’s score. It was often cited as a highlight of the film and selections from the score were utilized by more than a dozen film trailers after the movie came out, probably because it is achieves such a sky high level of inspiration in such a short period of time. And the summer that the movie opened, the character (and the music) made an appearance in the Vincent Price-narrated Sorcery in the Sky nighttime spectacular at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (then Disney-MGM Studios). Even if you don’t know that it’s from The Rocketeer or that James Horner composed it, chances are you’ve heard it and that it has moved you.

The post The Rocketeer Was James Horner’s Very Best Score appeared first on Disney Blogs.

Aladdin – Adam Jacobs

Jasmine – Courtney Reed

Jafar – Jonathan Freeman

Genie – James Monroe Iglehart 

Aladdin & Jasmine – Adam Jacobs & Courtney Reed

Which transformation is your favorite? Tell us in the comments!

The post Before and After: Stunning Aladdin Broadway Transformations appeared first on Disney Blogs.

We talked to several of the filmmakers (including del Carmen) about things that almost made it into Inside Out but didn’t quite fit. In some alternate universe, maybe there’s a version of Inside Out playing with all of these scenes intact.

Warning: spoilers follow.

The Idea Fields
One of the juicier ideas, at least from a design point, was something called the Idea Fields, where images burst forth from Riley’s imagination, rising out of the ground like planets. “For the idea fields, we thought there would be a place where new ideas would be cultivated,” co-writer/director Pete Docter explained. “Ideas have to come from somewhere. So there’s probably an equivalent of farmers way, way out there. We also thought, at the time, that paradigm was more like a city and headquarters was like city hall, in some way. And then the most densely populated areas were in the center and then the further out you got to fields and more rural and eventually into the wild lands. So the alternative is that if you went the other way, you’d essentially get to the subconscious—the untamed wilderness.” Producer Jonas Rivera added that they even had a great gag cooked up for the design. “There was also this idea of a checker or something. Like he’d check whether or not they were good or bad ideas, like checking fruit at an orchard,” Rivera said.

More Imaginary Friends
As far as breakout characters in Inside Out go, it’s hard to top Bing Bong, Riley’s imaginary friend (voiced by Richard Kind). Bing Bong is an amalgamation of animals, with a body made of cotton candy. And while he’s super incredible, at one point, there were even more imaginary friends that joined in the fun. “One of the ideas was that she would have a set of imaginary friends,” del Carmen said. “She had Mrs. Scribbles, which was always a crayon drawing. Then there’s the corner sun. You know when they draw a sun on a paper and even if he moves into full-frame he’s just a pie-slice of sun. And they’re always frequenting the railway system of the train of thought, because they’re not needed anymore. They had their heyday, like vaudeville actors who used to play big theaters but after the invention of TV and movies, they’re out of work. So after we developed them to the point that they wanted to come to the rescue of Bing Bong, their other imaginary friends.” While we would love even more Bing Bong or Bing Bong-like characters, this definitely feels somewhat overstuffed and you can understand why it was cut.

Riley Goes Inside Headquarters
In the great Art of Inside Out book (our copy currently features a giant doodle from Pete Docter inside its front cover), there was a single image that really captured our imagination: it was Riley, the troubled 11-year-old girl at the heart of Inside Out walking around inside of Headquarters (where her emotions do their work). “I don’t know why we started there, but we did,” Docter admitted. “That was one of the first plots: Riley was asleep. She was having some sort of emotional issues and she feels a hand waking her up and she wakes up and there are these weird creatures there and they’re her own emotions. They had lost something … They had some excuses that had Riley coming into her own mind and solve some issue, although I don’t remember what it was.” There’s another image in the book that features Joy outside of Headquarters and sitting on Riley’s shoulder. “There was also this tangential idea where Joy would come out. There’s a beautiful illustration where she’s on Riley’s shoulder,” Rivera said. “I remember Ronnie saying that the movie would start where you were going over these mountains but it was really her bedspread. And Joy would come out and peek at her while she was asleep, but then she had to go back to work.” Docter was still trying to remember what storyline contained all of these tangents. “It may have been that Joy got lost and the other guys came out to find her. I think that was it,” Docter said a few minutes later. “It was all trying to represent what we talk about in regards to our kids growing up—that childhood Joy kind of disappears for a little while. And you wonder, What happened? I think that might have been it.”

Gloom
Inside Out is atypical in the sense that it doesn’t feature a traditional villain. But it did, at one point. If you walk around Pixar these days, through a corridor filled with Inside Out concept art, you’ll see a bunch of images of Gloom, an emotion character who was also the movie’s heavy. “It was a kind of malevolent kind of tar that overtook everything,” Docter said. “We had different versions where it was personified or not. But then the difficulty with that was: how do you solve it? If it was just Joy or somebody hoses it off. Like how do you get rid of depression? That’s a really tangle-y thing to talk about.” Ronnie del Carmen echoed this sentiment: “It could either be a darkening in the world, like storm clouds or it could be a character, who has an agenda, who not only exists but wants to keep on existing or maybe rule. And when it became that character, it started to tell us that this looks a lot like depression. And when we were looking at that, we were feeling uncomfortable about that. Because depression tends to go into a clinical situation and when that’s the case, there’s no choice in the matter and you have to create situations outside that would actually cause that. It seemed like it was going to be a much, much darker movie in all aspects.” How would it be dark? Del Carmen explained, “Because you’d have to make it clinical and understand that and that takes the story away from the emotion characters. They have no latitude in that. You’d have to save the patient. It’s a life or death situation.” Docter was careful not to play into this line of thinking too much. “You don’t want to demean anyone’s actual emotional issues, so ended up moving away from that,” Docter. Added Rivera: “It was kind of neat. It felt very Miyazaki-esque. But it just didn’t go where we needed it to go.”

Balloon Animal Horror
Bill Hader voices Fear, one of the emotions inside of Riley’s head. But he also had an “additional story” credit for Inside Out and spent a few weeks in the Pixar writers’ room. When we asked him about material that he had written and that had been cut, Hader went into a vivid description of a sequence that had been set in the Subconscious. Apparently there had been even more to the Jangles the clown sequence that would have been even creepier and more awesome. “We had this forest of dental equipment. I remember that,” Hader said. “Joy had to run through that. And the clown made balloon animals and threw them and they started running at her and the balloon animals were catching on the equipment and going off.” We agree; that sounds incredible.

Goldfish’s Head
During the closing credits for Inside Out, we get an additional glimpse inside the mind of some secondary characters, including a pizzeria employee, Riley’s teacher, and a barking dog. But there was a time when they went inside another animal’s thought process during that sequence. “We also visited a goldfish’s head,” del Carmen said. “You go inside and there’s a console but there’s no buttons. There’s no emotion. It’s just blinking lights. It was fun but the goldfish didn’t make it in.” Like many people’s pet goldfish, that idea seemed to have died pretty quickly.

Train of Thought and Stream of Consciousness
There’s a pivotal moment when Joy and Sadness journey into the subconscious, a dark place where the aforementioned Jangles the clown resides. But how they got there used to be very different. “We used to have the Stream of Consciousness running below and go into Subconscious, so it felt like a pleasant river ride that becomes the River Styx and then becomes the Pirates of the Caribbean ride from hell,” del Carmen explained with a laugh. Just hearing him talk about it, you could sense that it would have been a really special sequence. “It felt really fun and creepy but we had no time to put it in the movie,” he said.

Additionally, there was more to the Train of Thought than made it into the movie. As it stands, the Train of Thought is a train that delivers things to Headquarters (during Riley’s waking hours). It contains things like memories, facts and opinions. But at one point there was a gag built around just the idea of your own meandering personal train of thought. As del Carmen explained: “The Train of Thought used to be one of those things that we wanted to explore—what happens when you lose your train of thought? So the joke was that you would get on the train and the sign would say, “Dream Productions.” But as soon as you got on the sign would change. It’s like, “That’s not where we wanted to go.” And it jumps the tracks and zigs and zags and ends up in the wrong place. It’s kind of haphazard. You have to enjoy the ride.” And enjoy the ride we did.

Inside Out is in theaters now.

The post Imaginary Friends, Gloopy Gloom and Scary Balloon Animals: What Was Left Out of Inside Out appeared first on Disney Blogs.

The special episode, entitled “The Siege of Lothal,” starts off with the titular Rebels engaged in full-on combat against the Empire. They’re part of a Rebellion squadron, facing off against a massive fleet. And what’s more – they’re pulling it off. It’s a thrilling opening sequence that will make you think back to the dogfights of previous movies (particularly the original Star Wars).

Still, it’s not like the crew of the Ghost is agreement about their new place in the galactic struggle; Kanan doesn’t want any part of it. He openly protests, saying that he would prefer his Robin Hood-like quest to rob from the Empire and give to the needy over actual combat. “I survived one war, I’m not ready to join another,” he grumbles. Considering how brutal (and downright deadly) this episode is, it’s hard to argue with his thought process.

Also of note is a larger role for Darth Vader, once again voiced by James Earl Jones. Continuing with the graphic design approach of the rest of the series, this Vader is modeled more after the Ralph McQuarrie designs for the character, with an elongated mouth piece and more almond-shaped eyes. It’s a striking image, both new and familiar, and a perfect microcosm for what makes Star Wars Rebels so enchanting in the first place. It reminds you of the stories you know and love while pushing those same characters and concepts into different landscapes and scenarios. This Darth Vader is just as scary and intimidating and there’s a wonderful fight sequence between Vader and Kanan and Ezra that really got our heart pumping.

Without giving too much else away, there is also a cameo appearance from Lando (voiced once again by Billy Dee Williams) and the introduction of Lando’s honky-tonk robot (designed after an early C-3PO sketch) and some great stuff with Ashoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) that gracefully bridges the gap between the Star Wars: Clone Wars series and Rebels. But our favorite part might be the implication that Lothal, the small, mostly agrarian planet that a majority of the first season was centered around, might be of more importance to the Empire than original thought. If we had one problem with the first season, it was that the scope of the series felt occasionally stifled by the fact that it was largely relegated to this single planet. But the fact that the planet does have a potentially mysterious connection to the Empire makes that lone complaint drift away like Tattooine sand in a windstorm.

By the end of the extra-long episode, you’ll be even more invested in our Rebels and their plight and even more eager to see where their adventures will take them next (even if it means being stuck on Lothal). This episode establishes a new paradigm for the series, taking it to an altogether place that inches it, even closer, to the classic Star Wars trilogy while still remaining true to its established tone and style. The wait between now and the fall, when new episodes will resume, is going to be rough.

The post Star Wars Rebels Returns With a Bang This Weekend appeared first on Disney Blogs.

In fact, to celebrate the newest video, featuring the cast of Disney•Pixar’s Inside Out, we reached out to Phyllis Smith, who voices Sadness in the amazing animated feature (out today), to ask when it started for her, what it feels like to be a part of an all new set of Disney memories, and how Inside Out has changed her life.

When did it start for you?
Well I used to watch, on television on Sunday nights, they had the Disney hour then and the castle coming up and “When you wish upon a star …” That was my very first Disney memory. I’m talking way back when television was first created, after the covered wagons rolled through. And Cinderella was one of my favorites and Lady and the Tramp. I’m talking about when Disney was Disney before all of its expansion.

And now you’re going to be part of other people’s Disney memories.
For the rest of my life!

What does that feel like?
It feels pretty incredible. John Lasseter saw me at Cannes and gave me a big hug and thanked me for being Sadness and told me that I will now, forever be known as Sadness for Disney•Pixar and forever in the Pixar family, which was very terrific to hear. I took the opportunity to also thank him because this movie is changing my life.

How?
Well, to be in a Pixar movie is just great to begin with and it has afforded me the opportunity to do a different medium, because I have never done voice-over before. And I love it. And I’ve been able to visit the Pixar campus, I’ve worked on the Disney lot, I went to Cannes. Prior to that I’d been to Tijuana one day in 1986 and I don’t think that qualifies as real travel and I worked one day in Vancouver on a Chipmunks movie. So this was a pretty terrific adventure for me. It was pretty great.

What was the response like at Cannes?
They started applauding during the credits and then they quieted down and when the credits completely ended they gave us a 10-minute standing ovation. By the time the people in the press department had tried to record it, it was about 10 minutes. But afterwards I asked someone if it was a typical reaction and they said, “Absolutely not.” I could see the relief on the faces of the powers that be and the press people that it was so well received.

What was it like watching your voice come out of this amazing character?
As an actor, of course, your ego takes over and my first watching of the film was, “I should have done that differently, I didn’t do that right.” And then when you see it a second time, this is a film that you can watch multiple times and receive different messages from it and see different things. I saw different reactions in the faces of the characters that I missed in the first go-around because I was self-absorbed. Hopefully when I see it in LA I will see new things that I missed in Cannes and at the wrap party. I think it’s going to be a classic film that will live on long after we’re gone. It’s got such a great message for all ages.

And what does it feel like to be a talking doll?
Nobody’s ever called me a doll so it’s nice to be called, “Hey, doll.” That’s pretty great too.

There’s a great one that talks and kind of slumps over.
I haven’t seen that one! I was given a soft cuddly one in Cannes and you press the hand and it talks. I’m glad to be a doll. There are so many things in this world that are negative that it’s good to be a doll.

How does it feel to be somebody else’s first Disney memory?
That’s a nice question. I never thought of that. I hope it’s a memory that makes them happy and that they find something positive out of being sad. That would be pretty terrific to be in a classic movie that will forever mean something—to make people feel better about themselves or their lives. To make a positive change would be pretty great.

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