The original owner is now in contact with Disney Cruise Lines asking about the whereabouts of her purloined iPhone and said cast member. Now, there may be a perfectly good explanation for all this, but evidence is pretty damning. The series of photos also casts DCL’s crew in a bad light by association alone.

The story has now been picked up by national news and shared over 560 times (as of the original publishing of this post). Time to start some damage control.

Purloined iPhone Documents Disney Cruise Line Worker’s Life originally posted on
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It’s here, you guys! We made it to the finals. Here’s how the last Monday of season 14 went…

William and Cheryl kicked off the night with a new cha cha routine that Bruno helped them work on. Like Bruno said, William is sex on legs. Len said it was as good as any cha cha he has seen in 14 seasons. Bruno found it intoxicating, and Carrie Ann once again saw William’s magic. The judges awarded them a perfect 30.

Len assisted Katherine and Mark with their paso doble. Bruno saw technical brilliance, Carrie Ann called her a prima ballerina, and Len compared the dance to a yummy buffet of Spanish tapas. The judges doled out another perfect 30, which included Katherine and Mark’s first 10 from Len!

Carrie Ann showed Donald how to make his movements more dynamic in a smoldering Argentine tango with Peta. Carrie Ann praised his crispness, Len liked the intensity, even though he found it a tad careful, and Bruno called it subtle and intimate. Scores of 10, 9, 10 gave the pair a 29, leaving Donald still wanting his first 10 from Len!

Next up were the always highly anticipated freestyle dances. William and Cheryl’s freestyle was red-hot sexy and filled with daring lifts. Len wanted something different, and thought it was too predictable. While it wasn’t what Len wanted, I’m pretty sure the fans were pleased. Bruno called it a Latin-inspired extravaganza, and Carrie Ann said it was exactly what a freestyle should be. Scores of 10, 9, 10 gave the pair a total of 59 out of 60 for the night.

Katherine sang to open her and Mark’s swing-inspired freestyle. Once they started dancing, they never paused. The routine was incredibly fast-paced and energetic. Bruno proclaimed it fast and flamboyant and packed with content. Carrie Ann called it the dance of a champion, and Len displayed his pleasure by saying, “this is a freestyle.” Another perfect score gave the pair 60 out of 60 for the evening.

Donald and Peta pulled out all the stops in a dazzling country-themed freestyle full of breathtaking lifts. It was Carrie Ann’s favorite dance of the night. Len said that chances win dances. Donald finally got his 10 from Len with a perfect score of 30 which totaled 59 out of 60 for Monday night.

Tonight the couples will dance one more time for judges’ scores, which will be combined with the audience’s votes to determine who wins that sparkly mirrorball trophy. Donald and Peta are my secret (well, not anymore, I guess) favorite, but they have been disadvantaged by the judges’ chronic underscoring (I’m looking at you, Len!). Was their first dance of the season just too sexy? Maybe it started them off on the wrong foot. Or perhaps Peta being a newbie is an issue? The fans’ votes have been instrumental in keeping them in the competition. Katherine is just so adorable and sweet. She is so graceful in the ballroom dances, and although she moves well in the Latin dances, I’m not sure she is as comfortable with them. William is handsome and charming, but is his technique at a high enough level to win it all? Cheryl is one of my all-time favorite professional dancers, and she’s an excellent teacher. It’s such a close race. YIKES!

We’ll see how it all ends tonight!

The Beginning of the End. “Dancing With the Stars” Finals originally posted on
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If you find yourself at Disneyland Paris, you will have lots to choose from when it comes to Disney-themed hats to get you in a zip-a-dee-doo-dah mood! Let’s take a look at what you will – and surprisingly won’t find – trending when it comes to hat fashion at Disneyland Paris.

Plush Hats: There were lots of these oversized plush hats to be found throughout Disneyland Paris, some of which are adorned with mini Disney plush characters, like Mickey, Goofy and Donald. This chef’s hat featuring Ratatouille’s Remy is très chic, and oh so French, oui?

Sorcerer Hats: Fantasia-inspired sorcerer hats celebrating Disneyland Paris’ 20th anniversary are also a popular item. They are offered in Mickey, Minnie and Goofy ear styles and feature an embroidered gold “20″ on the right ear. What a great collectible…come to think of it, I should have purchased one!

Cowboy Hats: Yee haw! Frontierland was in no short supply of “American Western” style chapeaus. Guests have their choice of cavalry, sheriff, traditional “rawhide” and two styles of straw hats including one adorned with a riveted Mickey.

So, you may be asking, just like I was, “where are the Ear Hats”? This headwear staple of American Mouseketeers is noticeably absent at Disneyland Paris. One theory is that Ear Hats are a strictly American phenomenon, tying back to nostalgia related to the broadcasts of the Mickey Mouse Club.

Whatever the reason, as a collector of Ear Hats, I kept my eyes peeled for them, figuring that at the very least, Disneyland Paris must carry the classic black Ear Hats. At the end of day one, I stumbled up on this solitary Toy Story pair at the Disney Store in Disney Village. (Literally, there was one pair on the rack).

This couldn’t be all they offer, could it? When I asked several Cast Members about Ear Hats, they were perplexed and unfamiliar with any related merchandise. But I would continue my search…

Throughout day two the story was the same at every shop. Plenty of plush hats, sorcerers hats, cowboy hats and headband -style ears, but alas no Ear Hats. That is, until by some fate of Disney magic near the end of what was our last day at Disneyland Paris, I spotted what appeared to be a single rack of red and white polka dotted Ear Hats (mixed in with toddler clothing) in Frontierland’s Tobias Norton and Son’s shop. Could it be? I made a beeline for the shop and my eyes weren’t deceiving me – yes, Ear Hats!

I took a few moments to peruse and choose just-the-right pair (as any Ear Hat collector knows is essential) and proudly donned that Ear Hat – with the ginoumous shiny red plush bow no less – for our last hour in the Park. And though I was the only one taking that fashion risk, I like to think that maybe Ear Hats will catch on at overseas Disney Parks, and I’ll be able to say that I am a Paris fashion trend setter.

Disneyland Paris Hat Fashion Fun originally posted on
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After The Lion King 3D did $95 million at the box office, Disney announced that more films would be converted forthwith. First was Beauty & The Beast, which pulled in a respectable $47 million, and up next is Pixar’s Finding Nemo.

A new theatrical trailer for Finding Nemo 3D features many scenes where I’m sure 3D will be a great addition. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t fall in love with the movie for the special effects. It was the story and the characters that drew me to the film. Will 3D improve that? It might. With so much of the movie taking place undersea, the 3D might make you feel even more enveloped by the story, like you’re right there on the adventure.

That’s why this is one I’ll probably go see. What about you?

Finding Nemo is coming to theaters in 3D this Fall!

Previously: Finding Nemo 3D Teaser Trailer!

Finding Nemo – 3D Theatrical Trailer originally posted on
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Here’s a short clip from Disney World of what is involved an interaction at the Magic Kingdom.

So here’s a question. Should Merida join the roster of Disney’s official princesses? She would be the first Pixar character to do so.

Meeting Merida originally posted on
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Alas, it’s been almost impossible to find a copy of that short until now. Director Steve Moore finally posted it over on his Flip Animation Blog with some back story and a plea for Disney to release it on DVD.

The short is stylistically unique for Disney and it starts a bit slow, but I found the 2nd and 3rd acts to be great. So stick with it. Oh yeah, the voice over talent reads like a who’s who of mid-90s celebrity. Pretty impressive. And now without any further ado:

Well, what did you think?

(hat tip: CartoonBrew)

Rare Oscar Nominated Disney Short Surfaces originally posted on
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First up, a new TV spot for Brave:

And now a ‘spoof’ trailer featuring the Bagpipes of Freedom Brock. A spoof on those TV order albums

With just about a month to go until Brave opens on June 22nd, things should shortly be reaching a fever pitch.

Brave – two new spots from Pixar originally posted on
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Available now at the Disney Store (in store and online) are plush toys of the game’s star, Swampy, and supporting alligators Cranky and Allie. More new products will become available in the U.S. next month.

A second wave of merchandise, arriving this fall, will expand the line to include a physical game, stationary, home accessories, and more.

Disney is obviously taking on those hungry green pigs in the mobile franchise consumer products space. Taking advantage of Where’s My Water‘s popularity is a no-brainer.

Since launching in September 2011, Where’s My Water? has hit the No. 1 spot on Apple’s iOS App Store in 80 different countries. Later this year, Disney will debut a 12-episode web series titled Where’s My Water?: The Adventures of Swampy.

Can a feature film be far behind?

“Where’s My Water” Toys and More Announced originally posted on
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Louis Gonzales is a Story Artist at Pixar and was part of the team that traveled to Scotland for research (it’s all relative, they had to travel to the dump for Toy Story 3). It sounded amazing. He told this great story about a small, simple dinner they had one night while in Scotland, and how a woman had started singing a haunting, beautiful song that really touched him. He was so inspired that he created a scene with a similar song. His version wound up being a lullaby sang to Merida by her mother. There was a whole process that he had to go through in order to have the scene added to the film. It involved his having to sing falsetto in front of the Pixar bigwigs, and from the sample he played us it’s lucky he has such a fantastic day job:

An aside: Before coming to Pixar Louis worked with Brad Bird on The Iron Giant. When I asked him about that his smile filled the room, which was just the answer I was looking for. Man, I love that movie.

Claudia Chung is the Simulation Supervisor and was responsible for dressing the characters in Brave. It’s not all about fashion, it’s also about functionality. For instance, Merida has 22 costume changes and they need to allow for the range of motion required by archery (sometimes Merida alters the outfits herself). What’s amazing is that there isn’t some app that puts clothes on characters like so many animated paper dolls, rather the individual pieces are built on the character, the gowns are gathered and sewn, the kilts are folded and draped (Fergus has 16 layers of fabric, which is how he stays warm in the winter months, seems like summer would be a bit sweaty). And then there is allowing for realistic movement. It’s a process, people.

One of the biggest challenges was animating Merida’s hair. In fact, it was so difficult that Merida’s hair was actually considered to be its own character and the Pixar team created a new process to make the hairdo, um, do. From Claudia:

The curls themselves are really tightly wound curls, but the movement of her overall curl is nice and soft. And there’s also these hairs that break away from her silhouette to show her wildness, her adventurousness, and that’s kind of the key look for Merida’s hair that we had to hit when we designed her. So, as a groomer, this is what I would see in the computer… I would take her scalp and basically grow curls off of her head and detail exactly how those curls grow.

The groomer who actually worked on Merida developed a new technique because she was like, “How do I get these curls that look the way the art director wants or the director wants?” She’s like, “I really need a curling iron.” So she actually built in the computer a curling iron where she could change the sizes of the cylinder, the length and stuff, so she could curl the curves around that.

The length of her curl, if you were to pull it straight, will measure out 4 feet long. Merida herself is only five four, so she has really long hair. It’s fifteen hundred hand-placed, sculpted curves. So that’s a lot of time in the wig-making process… all of these different colors (below) actually represent different layers of her hair, kind of like you would in Photoshop… in the end it’s a 111,000 curves that get rendered on her head.

Production Designer Steve Pilcher and Shading Art Designer Tia Kratter explained the steps between studying Scotland and working with different mediums in order to capture it accurately. They had a sample of their art hanging in the room and they walked us through the various sketches, models, watercolors, and finished scenes. There was a bunch of technical stuff, but for the most part it was just a love for story and an amazing amount of talent. The watercolors alone, which were made more for character development and artistic vision, were worthy of any wall in any museum. Brave is not lacking for awe-inspiring images, that much is certain. In fact, it may be Pixar’s best stuff yet. That’s right, I said it.

So how does Pixar do it? It’s their people. Yes, it is as simple as that. Pixar has a team of people on top of their game trying to take it even higher. It is inspiring, and it is working. Too bad they can’t bottle that sort of thing. I’d buy it.

Brave opens on June 22, and from what I’ve seen it looks incredible.

Like Brave on Facebook and The Disney Blog, too!

I was a guest of Disney/Pixar. Opinions are my own.

Photo courtesy of Dinsey

Behind Brave: The Pixar Process originally posted on
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There has always been a cross-town rivalry between Walt Disney’s theme parks and Universal Studios’ attractions. When Walt Disney opened Disneyland in Anaheim, Universal Studios had already been offering studio tours at it’s Hollywood park for decades. When Universal Studios decided to build in Orlando, Michael Eisner fired back by opening Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney’s Hollywood Studios) at Walt Disney World.

These days the stakes are even higher. Not only are the resorts expanding in Los Angeles and Orlando, they’re also expanding globally. Brook Barnes in the New York Times has a profile looking at this arms race for tourist dollars:

$265 million Harry Potter-themed addition to its resort here sent 2010 attendance soaring 30 percent over the year before, draining attention from Walt Disney World in the process. Universal is now racing to replicate the attraction at its parks in California and Japan while expanding the boy wizard’s presence in Orlando.

To maintain momentum, Universal — with more Comcast money — is introducing a swarm of offerings. A major 3-D ride themed to Michael Bay’s “Transformers” movies opens this Friday at Universal Studios Hollywood, at an estimated cost of $100 million. New draws at Universal Orlando include a refurbished Spider-Man ride, a lavish parade, a high-tech fountain and pyrotechnics show and a ride based on “Despicable Me.”

Disney denies they’re involved in trying to match Universal Studios. But history has proven that Disney is often coy when in reality they’re working hard to be seen as a leader in theme park development. When a rival claims that title, like Universal has arguably done with Harry Potter and Transformers, then Disney will step up to the plate sooner or later with it’s own challenge.

Do you see this as a war between the two rival companies? How do you feel about how Comcast’s ownership has changed the Universal Studios brand parks?

Battle between Disney and Universal Catches Eye of New York Times originally posted on
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