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Maybe you've heard about this book ... ... which chronicles writer / director M. Night Shyamalan's February 2005 falling-out with Walt Disney Studios . Supposedly, M. Night felt that Mouse House execs didn't understand or appreciate the screenplay that Shyamalan had carefully crafted for his next big...

In theory, "Pirates" is a can't-miss proposition for the Mouse. After all, all of the research that the Walt Disney Company has done to date on the latest installment of its " Pirates of the Caribbean " film franchise suggests that " Dead Man's Chest " is going to be huge. A truly monstrous hit motion...

I'll say this much for the Mouse: He ain't exactly subtle. As you can see by all the enormous " Disney Fairies " banners that were hanging in the lobby of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center yesterday morning ... Photo by Jeff Lange ... Disney Consumer Products was anxious to make a really big splash...

"Believing is just the beginning" … ... Or so say the folks at Disney Consumer Products . This is the over-arching catch phrase that DCP has attached to the " Disney Fairies " franchise. The brand-new brand that this branch of the Walt Disney Company is currently in the middle of launching. With the...

First up, Ravi T. writes in to ask about Sunset Boulevard at Disney-MGM Studios . To be specific, something that he noticed was embedded in the asphalt on Sunset. Jim -- Last week, my family and I were down at Walt Disney World . And while we were walking through MGM to get to the Tower of Terror , I...

It's one of Hollywood's great unwritten rules: "Take every meeting." Meaning that -- no matter how unlikely it may seem that anything productive will actually come out of a face-to-face meeting with an industry exec -- you should still explore every possiblity. In short, take every meeting. And no one...

Picking up where we left off yesterday ... Of course, it's not just outsiders who get their jollies by riffing on Mickey. Sometimes it's the Disney Studio employees themselves who like to get in an occassional shot at the Mouse and/or like to slip in a quick tribute to their favorite Disney character...

In an age where some many people seem to know the names of the directors that work on their favorite films (I.E. Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, James Cameron et al), it seems surprising (to me, anyway) that so few people remember Robert Stevenson nowadays. Which is kind of bizarre. Given that -- back...

Hyperdictionary.com defines the "dog days of summer" as that period between July and September when it's just too darn hot to do much of anything. Or words to that effect. Anyway ... Given that the above phrase describes the waning days of August 2004 to a T ... Well, I thought that now might be a good...

Well, they can't all be masterpieces or classics. Let me guess. You're one of those Disneyana fans who bought the "Platinum Editions" of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King." And you probably already have plans to pick up the special 2-disc version of "Aladdin...

Okay. Let's start with the obvious: Watching "Shrek 3D" in the comfort of your own home ISN'T really the equivalent of getting to see the "Shrek 4D" attraction at the Universal theme parks in Orlando, Hollywood and Tokyo. Unless -- of course -- you have friends or relatives who are willing to shake your...

Let's start with the obvious. No one is ever going to mistake Disney's "Haunted Mansion" movie for "Gone With the Wind." That said ... I personally thought that this Rob Minkoff movie always looked great. John Myhre designed some just flat-out amazing sets for the film. And Rick Baker's make-ups for...

You know, for years now, I have been thinking that I really have to get around to attending the San Diego Comic Con . Too many friends of mine have come back from that event absolutely blithering about what an amazing time they'd just had. What it felt like to be crammed into the San Diego Convention...

Woody Allen tells this great joke at the start of "Annie Hall": Two elderly women are staying at a Catskill Mountain Resource Resort. And one of them says "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible." The other one says "Yeah I know. And such small portions." That joke immediately came to mind as...

Boy, I wish I had better news for you folks. But -- in regard to this whole what-actually-happened-with-Wave-3-of-those-"Disney-Treasures"-DVDs situation which we discussed at length here at JimHillMedia.com last Thursday and Friday -- I haven't been able to find one person at Buena Vista Home Entertainment...

Okay. Quick show of hands here: How many of you actually like the new improved version of "The Lion King" that made its DVD debut earlier this month? Particularly that Jeese-I-thought-that-this-was-a-lousy-song-in-the-Broadway-show-but-it's-even-worse-now new musical number, "The Morning Report"? For...

Sometimes it pays to have friends in low places. I can't tell you how. Or where. Or when. (Why? Because that might result in someone getting fired. And that's a hard-and-fast rule here at JHM. No story -- no matter how great -- is worth someone losing their job over.) But recently, I got the chance to...

One of the nicer things about running a site like JimHillMedia.com is that -- every so often -- someone decides to share something truly amazing with you. The following is one of those items: A pretty darned complete listing of Buena Vista Home Entertainment's next 18 months worth of releases. It's all...

What a difference four days make. You may recall that back on Friday, as part of my latest "Why For" column, I reported that Buena Vista Home Entertainment would NOT be producing a 2-disc special collectors edition of the "Lilo & Stitch" DVD. Several hundred e-mails (and a couple of dozen phone calls...