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Hey, gang! Jim Hill here. And what a pleasure it is to welcome Sean Kennelly on board at JHM. At this website, we pride ourselves on trying to bring you a different take on what's really going on in the entertainment industry. And given that Mr. Kennelly is a hardened industry vet, I'm sure that Sean...

Paul Holliman, LFCA [Large Format Cinema Association] Vice-President and Board Member stepped down from the Board prior to the summer Board meeting which took place in Dallas on June 24th. With exciting new opportunities and increased responsibilities at Buena Vista/Disney, Paul expressed the need to...

"Dead men tell no tales"? Perhaps not. The story behind those dead men is one of the most fascinating tales in theme-park history. Now the history of how the most un-Disney of ideas (bloodthirsty pirates looting and pillaging as family entertainment?) became Disney's most celebrated attraction has been...

So when will we know that Bob Iger has finally officially taken over as head of the Mouse House? When virtually all mention of the Walt Disney Company disappears from the front page of your local newspaper. Advertisement That's the word coming out of Burbank. That Iger has decided that -- over the past...

After the war, when Walt Disney Studios was once again making money, Walt returned to his cherished idea of building a theme park. Initially he pictured his theme park across the street from his Burbank studio as a neatly developed 7-acre park. Its name back then was Mickey Mouse Park. The attractions...

When will Disneyana fans stop living in Fantasyland? I mean, I just spent the last day and a half reading through dozens of Robert Iger-related threads at various Disney discussion boards around the Web. And to hear some of you people talk, you'd think that Disney's CEO-to-be was an actual magician....

Based on what's being said over on various Disney discussion boards, you'd think that the world was coming to an end. And maybe for a small select group of WDW annual passholders, the world actually is coming to an end. As in: That world where -- on a whim -- these people could call the WDW reservations...

It's the question that everyone in the entertainment industry has been asking: What happens with Pixar after Michael Eisner steps down as the head of the Walt Disney Company on September 30th? Will Disney's new CEO -- Bob Iger -- be able to persuade Steve Jobs to extend his animation studios' co-production...

June 18, 2005 was a Disneyland milestone. It was the 50th anniversary of the "steam-up" of the first Disneyland train. To commemorate the occasion, Disneyland invited miniaturist Robert Olszewski for a signing of his newest sculpture, "The Main Street Train Station." The event packed the Main Street...

Hey, folks. Andrew Crim here. Jim brought me on board to be JHM's professional wet blanket. The guy who gets to step in whenever Disneyana fans are throwing out phrases like "Disney magic" & "Walt would have never done it like that ..." and then remind everyone that the Walt Disney Company is actually...

June 6th June 6, 1959 -- Disneyland's "Submarine Voyage" Attraction opens in Tomorrowland: On July 23, 1958, the USS. Nautilus (SSN-571) left sunny Pearl Harbor. She was embarking on the completely misnamed "Operation Sunshine." Misnamed because Nautilus was going to be the first ship to reach the geographic...

May 30th May 30, 2003 -- "Finding Nemo" is released to theaters : If you're wondering why Bob Iger has been knocking on Pixar's door with flowers & candy, then take another look at "Finding Nemo" 's grosses. "Finding Nemo" made $70 million in its first weekend. This Andrew Stanton film then went...

It's been called the most popular cartoon in history. But -- to be honest -- when Disney's "Three Little Pigs" premiered at Radio City Music Hall on May 27, 1933, in New York, the initial reponse to this animated short was somewhat underwhelming. I'm told that the 36th "Silly Symphony" really didn't...

Once again, "Loonatics" is in the news. The first time around was essentially a meet and greet for the Looney Tunes of the future in preparation for their television debut on KidsWB this fall. But the public reaction was not what Warner Brothers had expected. Fans expressed their dislike for the upcoming...

Hello and welcome to what I hope will be the first of many "Mouse FACTory" reports. The following is a look back at this week in Disney history. It's not surprising that spring is a busy time for a major entertainment corporation like the Walt Disney Company. After a long, hard winter, the country is...

Why would anyone want to take a travel mascot on vacation? The answers are as varied as the mascots themselves. Here's a few stories: A small group of friends traveling in Europe found a plastic spaceman in some prepackaged food they bought; the spaceman was included in the photos for the rest of the...

It's been a busy week at Walt Disney World. In honor of Disneyland's 50th anniversary, new and refurbished attractions are debuting all over the Florida resort. By the end of this year, every WDW park will have opened a major new attraction, a larger expansion than the original Anaheim park will receive...

Texas Instruments' DLP Cinema is the finest digital film experience around. If you've been fortunate enough to see a digital film presentation at a major cineplex, chances are it was projected in DLP. If you've seen Universal Studios' "Shrek 4-D," you've also send DLP projection. So how does DLP Cinema...

Before I begin this week's article, I want to take the opportunity to thank the friend of mine who has been keeping me supplied with the latest news from behind the scenes at DLRP. Let's call him "Junior". The majority of the information contained in these reports has come directly from him, and he has...

This fall's blockbuster "The Polar Express" takes viewers on a magical ride to the North Pole using motion capture and computer animation. It's even more spectacular in IMAX 3D. But none of this would have been possible without an event that took place almost five years ago. Fantasia 2000 Michael Eisner...