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Did you see where the purchase price of DreamWorks Animation shares dropped 6% yesterday because some investment analyst said that “ Shrek Forever After ” was projected to only make $315 million during its initial domestic run? Care to guess how many movies released last year sold more than $300 million...

Given that we now live in the age of DreamWorks 3.0 , with Walt Disney Studios distributing the films that Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider will soon be producing, it’s kind of hard to remember the bad old days. When Jeffery Katzenberg was … … out to deplete Disney’s talent pool. He flattered Disney...

By now, you’ve no doubt seen those online videos that made many a theme park fan go gaga. Where a few lucky Guests – as they were making a stop at Mickey’s House at Disneyland earlier this week – suddenly found themselves face-to-face with a NextGen walkaround character. A Mickey Mouse who not only addressed...

Good God. Are we really already be up to Volume 9 in the “Walt’s People” series? I can recall when Disney Historian Didier Ghez initially proposed these books (which – if I’m remembering correctly – was sometime back during the Pleistocene Epoch) that would collect & then reprint the very best Mouse...

Did you see where “ How to Train Your Dragon ” was No. 1 again at the box office this past weekend ? According to Box Office Mojo , if this Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois film keeps up this pace, it will soon become DreamWorks Animation’s highest grossing non-Shrek movie . Which is kind of ironic....

Do you recall – just a few weeks back – how quick industry analysts were to write off “ How to Train Your Dragon ”? That – because this Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois film “only” earned $43.3 million over its opening weekend (as opposed to the $59.3 million that DreamWorks Animation ’s “ Monsters vs...

When he was in the press room at Comic Con last July, Tim Burton talked about how “ Alice in Wonderland ” wasn’t actually the first film that he’d used green screen on (2007’s “ Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street ” was). But because so many scenes for this Walt Disney Pictures release were...

With all the talk this past week or so about how NBC is booting Conan O’Brien off of The Tonight Night so that network execs can then turn this show back over to Jay Leno , I thought that it might be interesting to take a look back at how CoCo actually got into the late night talk game. Which is why...

For a guy who spends much of his time among the stars (the Hollywood kind, anyway), author and film historian Leonard Maltin is surprisingly down-to-earth. Which is why – when Leonard and I chatted on the phone yesterday about how he’d been selected to receive the very first NFFC-Disneyana Fan Club Heritage...

It’s always been one of the great what-ifs of Disney history. What if … All of the Studio’s overseas markets hadn’t been cut off by the start of World War II? It’s well known that – as of the late 1930s -- Walt was well into development of full-length animated versions of “ Alice in Wonderland ,” “ Peter...

Okay. I know. It’s verging on panic time when it comes to holiday gifts. Especially if you’re still looking for something for the Disneyana fan on your Christmas list. You know, the one who’s always so difficult to shop for? Not to worry, though. The always reliable Jeff Kurtti (i.e. the guy behind ...

Last week, the International Animated Film Society revealed who was in the running for this year’s Annies (which are the animation industry’s equivalent of the Academy Awards). And among those singled out for recognition this time around were writer, teacher, animator, historian and all-around-nice-guy...

Do you have a Disney fanatic in your family? Then this must be the time of year that you dread most. When you’re expected to come up with a suitable holiday gift for this problematic family member. Not to worry, though. Jim Hill Media is here to help. Over the first four Wednesdays in December, we’ll...

As lucky moviegoers who live in New York & LA get their very first glimpses of “ The Princess and the Frog ” today, Global Disney Consumer Products is taking a look back at all the Disney Princesses that proceeded Tiana. Of course, you may not remember ever seeing a picture of Snow White as she might...

Those of you who were so quick to dismiss Robert Zemeckis ’ “ A Christmas Carol ” as a cinematic lump of coal in Disney’s corporate stocking may want to take another look at the grosses for this performance capture picture. As Bob Iger admitted during last week’s quarterly earnings conference call :...

The Philadelphia Inquirer said that it “ … succeeded in generating more warmth and sentiment than have flesh-and-blood actors in several previous … ‘Christmas Carols’ “ The Chicago Daily News that “ … it really was a remarkable job.” More importantly that this production “ … undoubtedly will become one...

In honor of Columbus Day, I thought that we’d spend today peeking over the horizon. Discovering what new worlds possibly awaits us by checking out some of the domain names The Walt Disney Company has registered over the past few weeks. All of you athletic-types who enjoy taking part in endurance events...

Is it just me or does Nathan Fillion seem to be everywhere these days? I mean, the guy reprised his role as Captain Hammer in that “ Dr. Horrible ” sketch on the Emmys back on September 20th. The second season of Fillion’s latest show, “ Castle ,” debuted on the 21 st , while the DVD version of the first...

Take a dollop of “ Desperate Housewives ” and then toss that into a blender with a cup full of “ Charmed .” Now whip up elements of these two hit show elements up until they’re light & frothy, then pour the whole thing over the Stars Hollow sets from “ Gilmore Girls .” What do you wind up with? A...

When “ The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies ” was initially published back in September of 2003 , I seriously doubt that Jason Surrell ever thought that he’d have to “hurry back … hurry back …” to revisit this material. Copyright Disney Editions. All Rights Reserved But who knew...