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Given that April 1st is typically the day when a number of Disney news sites post these elaborate prank stories where they then try & convince a few poor April Fools that their obviously bogus article is legit, I thought that JHM should go the other way today. In that I'm going to post a story...

Never mind March coming in like a lion. This month is really more a mouse, given all of the Disney-related events that are going to be happening all over the country in the coming week. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved Like what? Well, for starters, today through Monday, March 11th...

You're going to be seeing a lot of stuff about Tony Baxter online today. Stories about how this longtime Disney Company employee (i.e. Tony started at Disneyland Park back in August of 1965 as a sweeper and eventually rose through the ranks to become Senior Vice President of Creative Development...

There are many myths associated with Audio Animatronics. With the biggest one being that these mechanized marvels can do just about anything that the Imagineers can dream up. Not so says Imagineer Darrin Hughes . Who's spent the past 20 years programming AA figures for Walt Disney Parks & Resorts...

Okay. Last week, JHM reviewed a new hardcover that would be the perfect graduation present for any artists and animators that are on your gift list. This time around, I'd like to talk up a book that would be a great selection for any would-be Imagineers you may have in your extended family. And that...

Orange County Mountie writes in to say: I have just been loving these stories that you have been doing about Disneyland ’s expansion plans from the 1970s and 1980s. All of those rides, shows and attractions that the Imagineers wanted to build back then but never got around to. In your last article, you...

MonkFan wrote in to say: I really enjoyed that “ TRON attraction that Disneyland almost got ” you wrote earlier this month. So I was wondering if you have any more stories about rides & attractions that almost got built at the Parks that you could share. Maybe something about my favorite part of...

Now that the official trailer for “ TRON Legacy ” has popped up on the Web and Disney XD has revealed that it has a TRON animated series in the works , theme parks fans are now wondering what the Imagineers will be doing to help support what-the-Company-hopes-will-be its next big franchise. Well, before...

At the D23 EXPO back in September, I noted – with some amusement – that the new attractions that are now in the works for Hong Kong Disneyland follow the tried-and-true WDI formula. In that the critical event, the thing that sets everything in motion (Be it Albert the monkey opening an enchanted music...

At last month’s “ Practically Perfect Night at Mary Poppins ” event at LA’s Ahmanson Theatre , a D23 member stood up and asked the cast of the North American touring company of this Disney / Cameron Mackintosh production how they did it. Where they found the energy to perform like that, night after night...

Did you hear about the play test that WDI ran at The Magic Kingdom last month? Where the Imagineers used Guests who were waiting in line for a character meet-n-greet right outside of Pooh’s Playful Spot to try out a new entertainment-based queuing system? Though the Imagineers are being pretty close...

Over the years, I have heard a lot of stories from Disney insiders that I’ve been lucky enough to interview. Like how Alice Davis once told me that she knew that Mary Blair must be dealing with some horrific personal problems. Given that – in the early 1970s – this Disney Legend’s acclaimed sense of...

Having already put together Imagineering Field Guides for the Magic Kingdom , Epcot and Animal Kingdom , Alex Wright has taken a break from writing about the Walt Disney World Resort (Reportedly because the folks at Disney Editions want WDW Guests to get used to calling the park-formerly-known-as-MGM...

Do you remember that story that JHM ran back in January? You know, the one where we talked how -- in response to guest complaints about somewhat gruesome gags like "Please drag your wretched bodies to the dead center of the room" and "Please follow the blood red carpet into the Foyer" -- the Imagineers...

For Disney's Animal Kingdom fans ... It's one of those bad news / good news kind of day. The bad news is ... Plans for DAK's long-in-development nighttime parade -- "Rivers of Lights" -- have been tabled. Not because Animal Kingdom management lost confidence in Steve Davison's original concept. But ...

It wasn't what the Disneyana community wanted to hear last year. Copyright 1980 Walt Disney Productions. All Rights Reserved That -- in a January 27th interview with Deb Wills of AllEars.net -- Brad Rex , then-VP of Epcot , said that the Walt Disney World Resort had no plans to celebrate that theme park...

To paraphrase Al Jolson (the immigrant son of a Russian Jew) : "You ain't heard nothin' nyet ! " How many of you recall the Disney Decade ? That grandiose expansion for the theme parks that Michael Eisner announced back in January of 1990? One of the real highlights of this event was Michael revealing...

Bruce Gordon was this great big bear of a guy. Ask anyone who was ever in a meeting with Bruce when he was fighting for an idea that he believed in. They'll tell you that this man was tenacious. Whether it was getting Disneyland's first flume ride built and/or preventing that theme park's "Submarine...

Picking up where we left off on Tuesday ... I know that this is going to sound a bit bizarre. Particularly given that -- back in 1955 -- Walt Disney built an entire theme park for just $17 million . But $30 million doesn't go as far as you might think these days. Which is why WDI really had to pick...

Plussing . It's a practice at the Disney theme parks that reportedly dates back to the late 1950s. When Walt -- while he was visiting Disneyland one weekend -- supposedly overheard a mother tell her child: "We don't have to go on the Jungle Cruise again. We saw that ride the last time we visited this...