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Between that basilisk in the basement, those pesky mountain trolls who wander in through open doors, not to mention the occasional dragon which slips its chain and then starts ripping up the roof of this famed castle, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has obviously previously had some problems...

"Did you enjoy attending the 2011 edition of the D23 EXPO ?" For a lot of Official Disney Fan Club members, the answer to that question depends largely on how early they got in line for last year's Dick Van Dyke and the Vantastix concert. If you were among the folks who got in line early...

What with James Cameron's tour of Disney's Animal Kingdom on October 17 th (which was then followed by this Academy Award-winner's visit to Universal's Island of Adventure on October 18 th ), the Web has once again been a-buzz with stories about how The World of Avatar is supposed to...

Greetings from the Licensing International Expo . Which -- this year -- is being held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. Photo by Jim Hill This is where the various studios -- in order to impress would-be licensees -- annually put on elaborate displays for their upcoming TV shows &...

So what exactly is the deal with Boxing Day ? How did December 26 th wind up with this particular moniker? Well, in the U.K., the name supposedly dates back to the tradition of Victorian tradesmen receiving "Christmas boxes" and/or gifts on the day after Christmas in return for goods &...

Remysthe14me writes in to say: Copyright Disney Pixar. All rights reserved I saw Jon Nadelberg 's story about the " Pixar: 25 Years of Animation " exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California and was wondering if this is the same exhibition of art that was presented at the MOMA in 2005?...

Four weeks from tonight, the Universal Orlando Resort will be premiering the 20th anniversary edition of Halloween Horror Nights . "And just what should we expect as HHN reaches this special headstone ... er ... milestone?," you ask. Well, to hear show director Mike Aiello talk, the 20th anniversary...

Greetings from the Universal Orlando Resort . Where I’m now in my final day of covering the grand opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter . Photo by Jim Hill It has been an absolutely amazing couple of days. And I’m heading back to New Hampshire tonight with all sorts of stories to share about...

Welcome to Las Vegas. Where the 2010 Licensing International Expo is just winding down. Just like last year, before attendees could enter the Mandalay Bay Convention Center , they first had to walk through this gauntlet of colorful banners which trumpeted all of The Walt Disney Company’s key brands and...

Do you hear that loud beep-beep-beep noise coming from Burbank? That’s The Walt Disney Company backing up. Rapidly retreating from its earlier attempts to make the Winnie the Pooh characters seem hip, fashionable and contemporary. “Coming off of ‘ My Friends Tigger and Pooh ,’ we did a lot of research...

It’s that time of year again. When high school and college students all over the country are graduating. More importantly, when JHM readers reach out and ask for my suggestions when it comes to the perfect graduation gift for the would-be animators and Imagineers in their families. This year, though...

All’s well that ends well. Or so says William Shakespeare and/or John Heywood . But it’s not Heywood that we’re talking about today. But – rather – Hollywood. And after having watched Disney’s “ Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ,” I’m now wondering if it’s actually okay to overlook the first 100 minutes...

This past Sunday was the 20 th anniversary of Jim Henson ’s passing. And if you look around the Web, you’ll find a number of articles out there that talk about all the great TV shows & movies we missed out on because this gentle genius passed away at the far-too-young age of 53 . But the part of...

IronManFan236 sent in a question that was short & sweet: Did Marvel Studios deliberately make Howard Stark look like Walt in “ Iron Man 2 ” as a tribute / tip-of-the-hat to the Disney acquisition deal? Iron Man 2, the Movie: Copyright 2010 MVL Film Finance LLC. Iron Man, the character: TM & Copyright...

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...

Let’s start with the obvious question: Is Lee Unkrich concerned that he’s going to be the guy who breaks Pixar’s now-10-pictures-long winning streak? When I got to talk with the director of “ Toy Story 3 ” as part of a roundtable session at Comic-Con last year, Lee admitted that – with each new hit that...

I know, I know. It’s just the first week of May. But as far as Hollywood is concerned, Summer blockbuster season starts tomorrow with the release of “ Iron Man 2 .” But before the Web goes wild with predictions of how much this “ Iron Man ” sequel will earn over its opening weekend, I thought it might...

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...

Trina P. wrote in to say: Thanks for sharing those pictures from the Tim Burton exhibition at the MoMA . I’m a huge Burton fan and had wanted to get down to NYC while that exhibit was there, but never found the time. I noticed that you had a lot of pictures from Tim Burton movies that never got made...

You’ve probably seen a lot of Joe Ranft -related material popping up around the Web over the past few days. John Musker ’s excellent story reel-based tribute to his old pal (who was tragically killed in an automobile accident back on August 16, 2005 ). No to mention the first installment of Leo Holzer...