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Greeting from the 2015 Licensing Expo , which is being held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. Photo by Jim Hill I have to admit that I enjoy covering the Licensing Expo. Mostly becomes it allows bloggers & entertainment writers like myself to get a peek over the horizon. Scope out...

So just how quickly after the Disney - Lucasfilm acquisition was officially announced was tonight's "Phineas & Ferb Star Wars" special put into production? Well, to hear Dan Povenmire & Jeff "Swampy" Marsh tell the story, this affectionate-yet-hilarious show (which airs...

So what exactly is going on with the Disney Store these days? The reason I ask is ... Well, it wasn't all that long ago (October of 2009, to be exact) that The Walt Disney Company announced that it would be reinventing all 340 of its stores in the United States and Europe. We're talking floor...

When Lella Smith 's 10-year-old godson, Rey, found out she was retiring from the Walt Disney Animation Research Library (ARL) , he was incredulous. "Why would you do that auntie?," he said. "You've got the coolest job in the world!" Smith has been the Creative Director for...

As its box office totals continue to trickle in, you just know that there have to be people back in Burbank who are disappointed with the way " Muppets Most Wanted " performed this past weekend. Racking up just an estimated $16.5 million in ticket sales . Which doesn't compare all that...

An estimated 1.5 million people made their way to Times Square last week to experience Super Bowl Boulevard . In fact, so many folks crowded into this 13-block area that they sometimes had to wait for hours before they could then zoom down that 60-foot long toboggan run on 40th Street or shuffle through...

Ever since Steven Clark -- the head of D23 -- stepped down in late September, people have been wondering what this means for the future of the Official Disney Fan Club. Even though Bob Iger had already announced that The Walt Disney Company would be staging another D23 EXPO in Anaheim in 2015 , there...

Over the past few days, you've probably seen a story or two about " Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark ." You know, that problem-plagued Broadway musical which just closed at the Foxwoods Theatre this past Saturday night . Given that Marvel Entertainment, LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of...

"If you build it, they will come." No, that's not just a phrase that gets whispered to Kevin Costner as he wanders through a cornfield. That's also the dream of would-be entertainment entrepreneuers everywhere. They sincerely believe if they build a state-of-the-art soundstage somewhere...

SuperGrover22 wrote in yesterday with a Why For question: Copyright Ballantine Books. All rights reserved I just finished reading your review of Brian Jay Jones ' " Jim Henson: The Biography ." Can you please explain why Michael Eisner seemed so eager to get his hands on the Sesame Street...

If you're looking for someone to thank for two of Walt Disney's greatest triumphs -- Disneyland Park and " Mary Poppins " -- take a moment right now to think about the late Diane Disney Miller . Miller -- who passed away earlier today following complications from a fall -- played a...

So when Jim Henson finally signed the Muppets over to The Walt Disney Company, where exactly did the deal go down? New York City? London? LA? Nope. According to Brian Jay Jones , the author of " Jim Henson: The Biography " ( Ballantine Books , September 2013), this fateful meeting actually...

So it was Walt who dreamed up the Disney Company. And it was his older brother Roy O. who repeatedly found the funds necessary to turn Walt's dreams into reality. And it was Michael Eisner who took Disney when it was dead last in Hollywood (Out of the eight studios in town that were making movies...

Last month when I was out at the D23 EXPO , longtime Imagineer Doug Hartwell was nice enough to give me a brief tour of the "Journey into Imagineering pavilion. Doug Hartwell and Jim Hill stand in front of the Disney Springs model. Photo by Nancy Stadler As part of that tour, we stopped in front...

So it's been a week now since the first big on-property beta test of MyMagic+ was held, where Guests staying at four different WDW resorts were given the opportunity to personalize their vacation experiences. Of course, when these people elected to be part of the MyMagic+ beta test, I don't think...

Since sinkholes are back in the news again in Central Florida , Hungry Howie was inspired to drop me a line earlier today to ask about the sinkhole that almost swallowed EPCOT Center back during the construction of that theme park: For years now, I've been hearing stories about EPCOT's sinkhole...

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray." This oft-quoted line from Robert Burns ' 1785 poem applies to an awful lot of aspects of modern day life. But none more so than the work that's recently been done in & around WDW 's Magic Kingdom Park . Take -- for example...

So what does it actually take for D23 to pull together those Fanniversary events that they've been presenting around the country for the past few weeks? According to Jeffrey Epstein, spokesman for the Official Disney Fan Club, it takes a solid six months of behind-the-scenes effort to produce each...

When " The Wizard of Oz " held its Hollywood premiere back on August 15, 1939 at Grauman's Chinese Theater ... Copyright Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved ... MGM really went all out. They took the courtyard of this famous movie palace and transformed into a miniature...

You've heard about Fast Pass Plus , right? Well, this Saturday morning, the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood will be home to Peter Pan Plus. Which will (in theory, anyway) be able to give all you J.M. Barrie fans out there a new appreciation for the many & varied ways that The Walt Disney Company...