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Mike & Sulley join the long parade of Pixar & Disney stars who "Got Milk ?"

Jim Hill — Thu, 16 May 2013 03:32:00 GMT

So what's the drink of choice in Monstropolis these days? Milk, of course. And if the college-aged versions of James P. Sullivan & Mike Wazowski are to be believed, milk doesn't just do the human body good. It also does wonders for a growing monster. Giving Sulley a thicker coat of fur and -- in Mike's case -- stronger nails on his hands & his feet.

Mind you, these stars of Pixar's first-ever prequel, "Monsters University," (which arrives in theaters on June 21st) aren't the only Mouse House-related toons to ever appear in a "Got Milk ?" ad. Truth be told, Handy Manny was the very first. This Disney Junior favorite wore a milk mustache in a "Got Milk ?" print ad that ran back in June of 2010.

Phineas & Ferb followed Manny with their own "Got Milk ?" print ad back in August of 2012.

But before these Disney Channel / Disney XD toon stars got their milk mustaches, there have been plenty of real-life Mouse House performers who got to appear in "Got Milk ?" ads.

Hilary Duff was probably the first. After her "Lizzie McGuire" TV series had wrapped production but before "The Lizzie McGuire Movie " had rolled into theaters in May 2003, Hilary helped promote that upcoming Walt Disney Pictures release by modeling a milk mustache in a "Got Milk" print ad.

Lindsay Lohan -- inbetween starring in Disney's "Freaky Friday " remake in 2003 and "Herbie: Fully Loaded " in 2005 -- did the white-stuff-under-her-nose thing in 2004.

Okay. I admit it. That was kind of a mean joke. But as you can see by the make-up work that's been done on Corbin Bleu ...

... just prior to the shooting of the High School Musical "Got Milk ?" ad ...

... making sure that that milk mustache looks just right (as it does on Miley Cyrus) ...

... does take some doing. There are actually huge crews that work behind-the-scenes on these "Got Milk ? " print ads ...

... which given how elaborate these photo shoots can be sometimes (EX: Demi Lovato crowd-surfing below with a milk mustache) ...

... but as far as The Walt Disney Company is concerned, all this extra effort is worth it ...

... given all the free publicity this California Milk Processor Board promotion gave to Disney Channel shows like "The Suite Life on Deck " with Dylan & Cole Sprouse.

Which is why the Mouse has happily worked with the "Got Milk ? " people to help get the word out about ABC primetime programs like "Modern Family" ...

... and "Dancing with the Stars."

Not to mention ABC Daytime shows like "The View" ...

... and its soaps ... er ... I mean soap.

And if those photos that popped up around the Web earlier this week are any indication ...

... Disney is about to start working with the "Got Milk ?" people to promote the syndicated series it produces like "Katie."

So what do you folks think? Are these "Got Milk ?" ads actually an effective way to promote upcoming projects like "Monsters University" ?

Your thoughts?

Huffington Post -- How cinematographer Roger Deakins helped blur the line between live-action and animated features

Jim Hill — Wed, 15 May 2013 01:05:00 GMT

It wasn't a phone call that Roger Deakins had ever expected to receive. This acclaimed English cinematographer -- best known for his Oscar-nominated work for the Coen brothers and Sam Mendes -- had strictly been working the live-action side of the street. But when Pixar Animation Studios reached out in 2005 and asked him to come consult on a project that they then had in development, Deakins had to admit that he was intrigued.

Cinematographer Roger Deakins

"They were just getting started on WALL•E," Roger recalled during a recent phone call. "And Andrew Stanton, the director of that animated feature, had asked Pixar to bring me in because he wanted this movie to look different from everything that this studio had previously produced."

You see, because WALL•E was supposedly set in mankind's future, Stanton wanted this animated feature to look more like a conventional motion picture. For lack of a better term, he wanted the first act of this film to look realer than any of Pixar's prior pictures. And Andrew thought that Roger might just be the guy who could then teach the folks working at that animation studio the sorts of lighting styles and camera movements that would make WALL•E's opening scenes look more like live-action cinematography.

So Deakins went up to Emeryville for what he thought would be a relatively short stint. Give the people at Pixar a quick master class on the principles of live-action cinematography and then return to the allegedly real world of Hollywood. Where -- at that time -- Roger had just begun talking with Joel and Ethan Coen about what his director-of-photography duties on their next production, No Country for Old Men, might entail.

But what was originally supposed to have been a quick turnaround trip gradually turned into this two-week long stay in Emeryville. As Stanton and his WALL•E team repeatedly picked Deakins' brain for ways that they could then make the first act of this futuristic fantasy look more like a live-action film.

"And in WALL•E's introductory scenes, what helped sell the idea that this Pixar film was actually set in the real world was cutting back on the number of lights that they were using to light these scenes," Roger explained. "The real world, the natural world that we live in just isn't as well-lit as your typical animated world is. There are shadows here. Areas in half-light over there. And if you can take that into account as you're planning your camera movements on a CG production, make those sorts of necessary adjustments to light levels as you're composing your shots, you'll then wind up with scenes that look much more naturalistic when they're up there on the big screen."

And while Deakins is quick to play down whatever small role he played in WALL•E's eventual enormous box office success ("Seriously. I only consulted on a few shots for the first 20 minutes of that film," Roger protested. "It's Andrew and his team who really deserve the lion's share of the credit here"), his creative contribution did not go unnoticed by others in the animation industry. For the next thing Deakins knew, DreamWorks Animation was reaching out. Asking him to come take a look at How to Train Your Dragon.

"Having seen the way that I helped out with on WALL•E, Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois wanted me to come consult on their movie. Help them find ways to use natural light and shadow to make the world that Dragon is set in seem that much more believable," Deakins stated. "I wound up working on that film for over a year. I was much more hands-on with Dragon than I had been with WALL•E. I had my own dedicated website where -- whether I was back home in England or off on location working on one of my live-action assignments -- I could still connect with DreamWorks and offer up any thoughts or suggestions I might have about the scenes that Chris and Dean were working on at that time."

Roger's finessing of this film's visuals can be seen and felt all throughout How to Train Your Dragon. From the way that the Viking village of Berk looks when it's lit only by torchlight to the soft mist and shadow which fills the forest where Hiccup goes off to search of that fallen Night Fury, Deakins' creative suggestions brought so much to the look and feel of that movie. Particularly when it came to the proper lighting and camera placement on this animated feature's flying sequences.

"With CG, it's often easy to do something that's impossible in the real world. But the only problem with doing impossible things is that it then give your audience an excuse to disengage from your movie," Roger explained. "So when it came to Dragon's flying scenes, what I told Chris and Dean is that they should avoid having Hiccup and Toothless do truly impossible things. Give this film's aerial sequences some sort of grounding in reality."

And DreamWorks Animation must have clearly thought highly of the creative contributions that Roger made on 'Dragons.' For they then began bringing him in earlier and earlier to work as a visual consultant on the other films DWA had in development. For Rise of the Guardians, Deakins provided photographic reference for the color keys that were used throughout this fantasy-adventure. He also gave director Peter Ramsey extensive notes on issues like depth of field and light intensity.

"That's the sort of stuff that I got to do on Guardians. When I wasn't working on Skyfall, I mean. But each of these DreamWorks Animation productions have their own unique sets of challenges," Roger continued. "On The Croods, Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco wanted this comedy-adventure to have almost a documentary look to it. So that the audience would then feel like that this prehistoric family was in real peril and then begin to root for them as this family made its way across a landscape that's in constant upheaval. And in order to successfully pull off that documentary-like look ... Well, you can't be afraid of blown-out, harsh lighting. You have to jump in with both feet and really commit to a look like that."

And clearly The Croods' very different look didn't have an adverse impact on its worldwide ticket sales. To date, this prehistoric adventure-comedy has earned $533.8 million. Which is why DreamWorks Animation has already tasked Chris and Kirk with coming up with a possible storyline for a Croods sequel. And -- at some point in the future -- DWA will no doubt be roping Roger in again. Asking this accomplished cinematographer to please come in and consult on the visuals for Croods 2. Just as he's working now with Dean DeBlois on How to Train Your Dragon 2 (which will be released to theaters in June of 2014).

Mind you, Deakins is doing all this visual consulting working while soldiering on with his still-quite-active live-action director-of-photography career. In fact, before I could get Deakins on the phone last month to talk about all of the animation consulting work that he'd been doing, I had to wait for Roger to finish up with his day job. Which -- at that time -- was director-of-photography on Prisoners, that Hugh Jackman / Jake Gyllenhaal movie which has been shooting in and around Atlanta for the past few months.

"This is kind of an interesting side-gig that I've got going. Being the guy that people bring in whenever they're trying to make the animated film that they're working on look like live-action," Deakins laughed. "That's what Gore Verbinski did when he hired me to be his cinematography consultant on Rango. And let me tell you: Getting the shadows in that film's saloon scenes to look just right plus the hard, harsh light in the desert scenes was tough."

But even so, Roger welcomes the challenges he faced in these CG assignments. If only because this 10 time Academy Award-nominee feels that the lessons that he's learned while working as a visual consultant on all these animated features has given Deakins a unique perspective on what's been going on in Hollywood over the past 10-15 years.

"I mean, look at The Hobbit. How exactly do you classify a film like that? It's a live-action production that has got more CG in it than a lot of animated features that I've done consulting work on," Roger concluded. "We're working in this age when the lines between what a live-action film is and what an animated feature is has basically been blurred. And given that I'm something of a purist -- I prefer working with film over digital cinematography. And I'd love to be able to shoot a film in black and white -- I sometimes wonder if that's actually a good thing."

Which is kind of ironic. Given all the work that Roger Deakins has put in to help blur the line between live-action and animated features.

"Moving Innovation" is a ridiculously entertaining & informative look back at the history of computer animation

Jim Hill — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:08:00 GMT

"Discover a new world with Epic the Movie by Blue Sky Studios, a brand-new 3D animated film from the people who brought you Ice Age ."

That's the message that the folks who work in promotions at 20th Century Fox have been hammering home for the past few weeks. As they try & make sure that as many would-be moviegoers as possible know that this new Chris Wedge movie will soon be opening in theaters. On Friday, May 24th, to be precise.

But as Tom Sito points out in his terrific new book, "Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation " (The MIT Press, April 2013), it wasn't all that long ago -- just a mere 12 years -- that Fox had little or no faith in this computer animation operation, which ...

" ... had been formed in the late 1980s from the survivors of Magi / Synthavision after 'Tron .'

As Blue Sky was completing 'Ice Age,' Fox trimmed their staff down to a skeleton crew and let it be known they would sell (this animation studio) off to the first bidder. There was very little advertising for 'Ice Age,' and it was given a dead-zone release date, late March. There weren't many toy tie-ins because Fox didn't think it would do anything.

'Ice Age' went on to become a smash hit, garnering $188 million in ticket sales in North America, more than that year's live action Best Picture Oscar Winner, A Beautiful Mind . When the results of Ice Age came in, Fox producer Bill Mechanic was reputed to have exclaimed, "Aw $#!+ ! Now we have to stay in animation !"

Academy Award-winning screenwriter William Goldman once famously stated that " .. In Hollywood, no one knows anything." But that axiom doesn't really apply to Tom. You see, Mr. Sito was one of the key players in the revival of Walt Disney Animation Studios in the late 1980s / early 1990s. After having worked on "The Little Mermaid ," "Beauty and the Beast," and "The Lion King ," Tom left Disney to go help set-up DreamWorks Animation. Where he then served as storyboard supervisor on that animation studio's first real CG hit, "Shrek ."

More to the point, given that he was president of The Animation Guild, I.A.T.S.E., Local 839, from 1992 to 2001, Sito can actually bring a dual perspective to the table when he's discussing the arrival of CG and how it forever changed the film industry. He can tell you stories straight from the trenches, sharing personal anecdotes about how the individual animation studios tried to get a handle on this often-balky new technology ...

"Walt Disney's classic 'Beauty and the Beast' began with an enormous camera pullout from the stained glass into a long shot of the Beast's castle. Dan St. Pierre, the layout artist who designed the shot, would pass my desk. 'Crashed the system again ...,' he would say with a wry smile of satisfaction."

But thanks to the 40,000-feet-up view that Tom got as president of America's largest animation union, he can also point out those not-so-little moments that wound up transforming the film industry. Take -- for example -- Steven Spielberg's decision to push back the start of production on "Jurassic Park " so that he could then concentrate all of his creative efforts on completing "Hook ."

If "Jurassic Park" had stuck to its original production schedule ... Well, that would have then meant that all of the dinosaur scenes for this Universal Pictures release were split between Stan Winston's FX team (which created all of the oversized animatronic dinos that were actually used on set) and Phil Tippet's group of stop-motion animators (who had originally be tasked with creating more than 50 Go-Motion shots for the big screen version of this Michael Crichton bestseller).

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According to Sito, one of the main reasons that Spielberg put off the start of production was that he was unsatisfied with the early test dinosaur footage that Tippet and his team had provided. As Steven explained:

"I brought the tests home and kept watching them over and over. My kids loved the dinosaurs. But as refined and lyrical as the tests were, I still felt they looked too Go-Motionly."

While Spielberg pondered this problem, the CG team at ILM led by supervisor Stefan Fangmeier and Eric Armstrong began a test, animating some Gallimimus dinosaur skeletons galloping as a herd. ILM head Dennis Muren wanted to move cautiously: "No one wanted it more than me, but I had to be responsibly cautious." Animators Steve "Spaz" Williams and Mark Dippe, who had been pushing the envelope on character work since Casper , were feeling pretty confident that they could attempt shots of the dinosaurs that looked photoreal. They began to do "guerilla tests," extra work done after hours so as not to affect their deadlines on other projects. They got a break when Spielberg's production schedule was pushed back so he could complete his previous film, Hook (1991). The extra time allowed them to work out the bugs in the software.

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Everyone at ILM watched the progress of both the stop-motion team and the CG artists. Any traditional effects artist or animator who understood trends in the business knew, since Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , that it was only a matter of time until CG came for their jobs. The off-stated mantra of CG hackers was, "computer animation is a year away!" Stop-motion chief Phil Tippet recalled, "Dennis [Muren] kept me informed on the tests' progress, and I thought, Holy $#!+ ! Here it comes."

By summer 1992, the animators had completed their CG tests. Dennis Muren brought them down to Spielberg's offices on the Universal Studios lot that, because of their southwestern architecture, were nicknamed the Taco Bell. First was of a flock of dinosaur Gallimimus skeletons that leap off their pedestals and run through a field, like a museum exhibit run amok. When Spielberg saw it, his jaw dropped. "I'd never seen movement this smooth, outside of looking at National Geographic documentaries ... I wasn't completely convinced until I saw another test of a fully fleshed-out dinosaur in the outside, in the harsh sunlight."

Williams and Dippe's test was of a Tyrannosaurus rex pursuing the now-fleshed-out herd of Gallimimus through a sunlit field. The dappled sunlit fell on the T-rex's leathery skin as he walked under a shade tree, past camera. "I watched this test with Phil (Tippet) and it blew my mind again," Spielberg said. When Spielberg asked Tippet for his reaction, Tippet exclaimed, "I've just become extinct!" Spielberg liked that line so much he wrote it into the movie.

That's the real joy of "Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation." Marrying his obvious skill as a storyteller to his encyclopedic knowledge of animation history, Sito has crafted this ridiculously readable book which is just loaded with entertaining insights. Sometimes surprising ...

Director Ted Berman and Richard Rich asked to get the multiplane camera out from storage to create some shots (for The Black Cauldron ). The multiplane was a device invented at Walt Disney in 1937 to simulate the illusion of depth using 2D flat art. This was done by mounting a camera vertically to shoot down through layers of background art painted on glass, all moving to precise calibrations. The multiplane was expensive to use, and Walt had it mothballed after Lady and the Tramp (1955). When (Berman and Rich) tried to get it running again for Cauldron, they discovered hardly anyone remembered how to use it and no one had left behind any written instructions.

Other times quite melancholy ...

Tom seated at his line tester while working on "Aladdin"
for Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Starting in 2003 the Walt Disney Company had begun to eliminate most of the traditional animation crew trained by the golden age masters, as simply as one would dump an old typewriter in the attic ... When master animator Frank Thomas died in 2004, there was a memorial at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. Many of the former Disney animators there paused to wonder if they were there to mourn Thomas or their own careers ...

... "Moving Innovation" is a must-read. Not just if you're an animation fan or a film history buff. But also if you want an up-close look at some of the most powerful people working in Hollywood today.

Take -- for example -- this surprising admission from Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and President of Walt Disney & Pixar Animation Studios. You'd think that -- on the heels of Toy Story 's enormous box office (not to mention all the critical acclaim that Pixar's first full-length animated feature received when it was first released to theaters back in November of 1995) -- that Ed would have been elated. But that wasn't actually what happened.

(L to R) Ed Catmull, Thomas Schumacher, John Lasseter, Michael Eisner, Steve Jobs
and Peter Schneider in the mid-1990s, during the early days of the Disney / Pixar
relationship. Copyright Disney / Pixar. All rights reserved

"I felt a little lost after the success of Toy Story. I took a year to think about it." Oscar Wilde had said that when the Gods wish to punish us, they give us what we want. Now that (Pixar) had conquered the mountain and established CG animation as a viable platform for the creation of theatrical features, what was next? "Organizations are inherently unstable," Catmull thought. "Nothing stays the same. I realized the next goal was to create a culture that is sustainable. That can go on after John [Lasseter] and me."

Isn't that some great writing? That's why I can not recommend "Moving Innovation: A History of Computer Animation" strongly enough. Tom Sito has taken what could have been an overly dry academic study of CG and -- through well-thought-out, beautifully-written passages like this ...

The great Tyrannosaurus rex of Jurassic Park roaring in triumph as all came crashing down around him represented more than just the climax of one movie. It was a clarion blast to all Hollywood that their century-old way of doing production had changed forever.

... -- turned it into a real page-turner. So if you want to know how & when computer animation changed the film industry, go pick up a copy of "Moving Innovation" right now.

EDITOR'S NOTE: My apologies for JHM being so light on content this past week or so. But between some pressing family obligations (One of Nancy's nieces graduated from college this past weekend) and a cold that I caught while visiting Pixar last month that just wouldn't quit, I was kind of overtaken-by-events last week. But now that my dance card has cleared up some & the pollen count around here has dropped a bit, hopefully things will be back to normal around here and JHM can then resume its usual 5-new-stories-a-week schedule.

A Huffington Post exclusive: A detailed look at Diagon Alley, the highly anticipated expansion of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort

Jim Hill — Sat, 11 May 2013 13:43:00 GMT

Ever since The Wizarding World of Harry Potter first opened at Universal's Islands of Adventure back in June of 2010, thousands of people have entered Hogsmeade and -- after spotting that stationary version of the Hogwarts Express (which was parked at the entrance of this theme park land as a photo op) -- exclaimed: "Oh, wouldn't it wonderful if we could climb aboard that train and actually go someplace like London or Diagon Alley."

Well, as you can see by this exclusive piece of concept art, starting in the Summer of 2014, that dream will finally become a reality. Building on the success of Hogsmeade, Hogwarts Castle and the award-winning "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey" attraction, Universal Orlando Resort and Warner Bros. Entertainment today announced an expansion of historic proportion with the addition of an entirely new themed environment, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Diagon Alley.

According to Mark Woodbury, president of Universal Creative (i.e. the division of Universal Parks & Resorts that develops rides, shows & attractions for their theme parks), it was only weeks after The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade opened that Universal & Warner Bros. officials first began toying with the idea of bumping out the borders of this super-popular theme park land.

"Given the strong response that we got from our Guests as well as from Harry Potter fans, we knew that we had done something truly special in bringing to life this great body of fiction with such a high level of detail and authenticity," Woodbury explained. "But even so, we knew that there were other great Harry Potter-related tales to tell. That there were stories, characters and experiences that we just hadn't been able to fit into Hogsmeade & Hogwarts Castle."

Half the fun of looking at a piece of concept art like this is trying
to figure what's supposed to be where in this new Harry
Potter-themed land. Take -- for instance -- this window,
giant hat and hand ...

"So we then began to wonder: Given that we had these two great theme parks sitting right next to each other, could we maybe turn that to our storytelling advantage?," Mark continued. "By placing Diagon Alley & London at Universal Studios Florida and Hogsmeade & Hogwarts at Islands of Adventure, could we maybe use the distance between these two theme parks as a way to echo the natural geographic separation that the readers find between Hogwarts & Diagon Alley in J.K. Rowling's own stories?"

Now you have to understand that no one has ever attempted to do something quite this bold & ambitious at an entertainment destination resort before. Taking a world-renown intellectual property like Harry Potter and then creating two separate lands set in different theme parks that are then connected by a transportation system. With all three of these elements then coming together to tell one single immersive story on an epic scale. But that's exactly what Universal Orlando & Warner Bros. Entertainment are planning on doing with Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley and the Hogwarts Express.

... which seems to suggest that the Weasley Wizard Wheezes shop
will be located toward the front of The Wizarding World of Harry
Potter - Diagon Alley. Copyright Universal / Warner Bros.
Entertainment. All rights reserved

So was Woodbury and his team ever daunted by this challenge? More to the point, what did Ms. Rowling have to say when Universal Orlando & Warner Bros. Entertainment officials told her that they were planning on building the world's first centrally themed, multi-park experience around the characters that she'd created?

"Those meetings are fascinating and wonderful opportunities to have, to be able to talk and collaborate directly with J K Rowling and the Warner Bros. film-makers. This was a big idea. And everybody immediately saw that when we initially laid it all out. And the fact that we wanted to continue to tell the Harry Potter story, the places that we had chosen to develop -- Diagon Alley & London & Gringotts & Hogwarts Express -- were really big ideas and bold moves, I think that the ambition behind that was very much appreciated," Mark stated.

Mark Woodbury walks J.K. Rowling through the just-
completed Wizarding World of Harry Potter
- Hogsmeade back in June of 2010. Copyright
Universal / Warner Bros. Entertainment.
All rights reserved

So with steel already rising up at the Diagon Alley construction site and tracks for the Hogwarts Express already being laid backstage at Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure, is Woodbury worried that -- what with The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade now considered (by many in the themed entertainment business, anyway) to be the absolute gold standard when it comes to successfully translating an IP to a theme park setting -- that Guest expectations for this Potter expansion project might be hard to meet?

"As we went into this project, the folks at Universal Orlando & Warner Bros. Entertainment set the bar very high and we weren't about to compromise. We knew that London & Diagon Alley & the Hogwarts Express had to be equal to and better than Hogsmeade & Hogwarts Castle in every way and at every level. And that's exactly how we approached this expansion project right from the get-go," Mark said.

And look at what's parked right out in front of The Wizarding World of
Harry Potter - Diagon Alley. It's the Knight Bus! Copyright Universal /
Warner Bros. Entertainment. All rights reserved

"Our goal here is to fully immerse people into the Harry Potter stories. So the architecture plays a big role in that. And starting with the London area, which is totally authentic and recreates & captures the essence of the iconographic parts of the fiction in that space, we went big," Woodbury continued. "And then we find our way into Diagon Alley in much the same way you do in the books and movies. And that's a totally different environment that gives Guests an even deeper immersion into the world of Harry Potter. And those buildings are big as well. Four and five stories-tall in some places."

And though Mark -- in addition to the rest of the team at Universal Orlando & Warner Bros. Entertainment -- are now being somewhat close-mouthed about which shops & restaurants Harry Potter fans can expect to find as they wander through the streets of Diagon Alley next year, Woodbury did admit that he had one specific aspect of this expansion project that he was most looking forward to seeing UOR Guests experience.

"After teasing people with that static version of the Hogwarts Express in Hogsmeade, we're now going to give them the opportunity to climb aboard that train and go on an actual journey. And we're not going to do the usual theme park thing, where you get on an attraction that promises to take you on a journey, but then when you exit your ride vehicle, you're actually back in the exact same spot where you began that ride," Mark enthused. "After people climb aboard the Hogwarts Express at Universal Orlando Resort next year, as they exit that train, they're going to find themselves in an entirely different environment, in a completely different place. Whether they've journeyed from London to Hogsmeade or visa versa. And we've made sure that even your train trip aboard the Hogwarts Express will be part of the ambitious immersive storytelling experience that we're trying to create for our Guests with this Potter expansion."

This is why -- for the past year or so -- Woodbury has gotten a kick out of going over to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade and then listening in as people talk out loud about how they wish they could climb aboard that stationary version of the Hogwarts Express and then go visit some other spot in the Pottersphere.

"When I hear Universal Orlando Guests say things like that, I just smile and think about how we're working on that right now," Mark concluded. "How focused we are on creating the next great place for Harry Potter fans to go visit."

How the Thinkwell Group conjured a "Making of Harry Potter" attraction for the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London

Jim Hill — Mon, 06 May 2013 02:52:00 GMT

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 with creatures. But who knew that the people who had been placed in charge of rebuilding the cinematic version of this iconic structure would then find themselves being out-foxed by a fox?

As Craig Hanna -- the Chief Creative Officer of the Thinkwell Group -- recently recalled on TEA Case Studies Day (which was held last month as part of the Themed Entertainment Association's annual 2-day summit at the Disneyland Hotel), his company encountered some interesting animal-related issues while they were working on the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London -- The Making of Harry Potter attraction.

Photo by Red Ryder

To explain: The Hogwarts Castle model had always been considered the crown jewel of the Harry Potter production collection at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden. Originally built back in 2000 for the first film in this series, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone ," it took 86 artists & crew members to construct this 1:24 scale recreation of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry. And this 50 foot-tall model was then used repeatedly over the course of production on the next five "Potter" movies. (Only for "Deathly Hallows - Part 1 " & "Part 2 " did Warner Bros. finally switch over to a CG version of Hogwarts Castle. And even then the CG version of this massive structure was based on a digital scan of that over-sized model).

Anyway ... When Warner Bros. and the Thinkwell Group began toying with the idea of building a Harry Potter production attraction at Leavesden (where all eight installments of this acclaimed film series had been shot over the course of a decade), they knew that they had to make use of this 1:24 scale version of Hogwarts Castle. But creating a space to properly present this massive model in (which -- at that time -- was being stored at nearby Shepperton Studios) was going to take some doing.

"We knew that we wanted the Hogwarts Castle model to be the culmination of the 'Making of Harry Potter' experience. So we purposefully built this room with a ramp that would come in high, give you this amazing dramatic vista of the castle model and then ramp through that space down to the bottom," Hanna explained. "And because it had been chopped into little bits to store at Shepperton, they then had to bring the Hogwarts Castle model in in pieces. And because one wall of this building had been deliberately left open during the 32 days it took to load in & reassemble this massive model, a fox moved in."

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And how exactly did Craig know that a full-sized fox had moved into this 1:24 scale version of Hogwarts Castle? "We had fox prints all over the model," Hanna laughed. "We were also doing some time lapse photography at this same time to capture the reassembling of this massive model. So someone went through the footage and stepped through it, frame by frame, knowing that they'd eventually find the culprit."

And how then did the "Making of Harry Potter" construction team deal with their fox problem? "Warner Bros. brought in an animal control guy who put some frankfurters in the model and he eventually captured the booger," Craig continued.

This animal control guy then took the fox away from Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden and released the animal in the Hertfordshire countryside. The only problem was that this animal control officer wasn't taking this creature far enough away. Because -- as Hanna explained " ... the fox kept coming back. So the joke around the construction site was that this guy was getting 100 quid per fox. Anyway, once we sealed the building, no more foxes."

An image of the fox climbing on the Hogwarts Castle model from the time lapse
photography that was done during the construction of this exhibit for the
Warner Bros. Studio Tour London -- The Making of Harry Potter attraction.
Copyright 2013 Thinkwell Group, Inc. All rights reserved

So when this fox-free attraction officially opened for business in March of 2012, what did the first visitors to Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter discover? Something that was deliberately different from what Universal Creative had built in Orlando as part of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure.

"Warners Bros said -- right from the beginning as we were developing this attraction -- that we're not going magically into the movies. Here at Leavesden, we're going to talk about the magic of the movies. And that was always the clear differentiator between what we were doing and what Universal Creative was developing for Orlando," Craig said. "Which -- I have to admit -- did initially cause some frustration for the team at Thinkwell. They say things like 'Wouldn't it be great if we got to see Moaning Myrtle talking in a painting?' And I'd then have to ask the team 'Was that how it was done on the set? Because if it wasn't, we can't do that. We're not making magic. We're making movie magic.' And that became the filter for everything."

During the two years that Thinkwell worked with Warner Bros. on the design of the "Making of Harry Potter," that was the central idea that Hanna and his team kept circling back on. That whatever was going to be put on display here at this 150,000 square-foot attraction had to be authentic to what was done during the production of the Harry Potter films. Which was very different from what Universal Creative was doing for its theme parks. Where the driving idea was that you're living the movies."

Hogsmeade Village at night at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at
Universal's Islands of Adventure. Copyright Universal Orlando.
All rights reserved

"Interestingly enough, we didn't know what Universal was up with their Harry Potter project. Luckily the two experiences wound up being very complimentary. Theirs is such a fanciful experience. It's what every Harry Potter fan wishes they could do in the real world. Walk into Hogsmeade Village as a magical person, get a wand and drink Butterbeer, do all those things," Craig said. "But the real fans of the Potter films also want to see the authentic items that were used in the production of these movies. Which is why I'm constantly reading online about people who have visited both attractions and love them equally. They go to London and then Orlando or visa versa."

And when I say authentic, I mean authentic. As part of his TEA Case Studies Day talk, Hanna fondly looked back on the very first time that he got to walk the sets of a Harry Potter movie at Leavesden Studio.

"This was back in 2007. I think the fourth film was in production at that time. And I remember thinking that you could just open this whole thing up to the public. Because everything that was being done for the Potter films was being done to an extraordinary level of detail," Craig recalled. "We saw these absolutely amazing sets. We then went over to the art department & the creature shop, all of which was located right there onsite at Leavesden Studios and saw those beautiful sculpts and creatures being created. Wherever we turned, our jaws were just hitting the floor."

Craig Hanna (L) shows THEA members some of the photographs that
he took behind-the-scenes at Leavesden Studio as he and the team
from Thinkwell were touring this facility as thy developed their
"Making of Harry Potter" attraction.
Photo by Shelly Valladolid

But what genuinely excited Hanna about the potential of building a 'Making of Harry Potter' exhibit right there onsite at Leavesden Studios was the already-created assets that he and his team would then be able to build this attraction around.

"You have to understand that -- after Warner Bros. acquired the movie rights for the Harry Potter books in 1998 and then settled on Leavesden Studios as the place in the UK where they then wanted to shoot these movies -- the executives at Warner Bros. did this very smart thing. They told the Potter production team that 'We don't know what's coming up in the upcoming books from J.K. Rowling. So you'd better save everything so that we can then save some money if we need to reuse that set, prop or costume again in another movie further on down the road,' " Craig explained. "So there were hundreds of these Harry Potter-related shipping containers onsite at Leavesden Studios. And every one we opened up was a treasure trove."

Which -- in a weird sort of way -- having so much authentic Harry Potter movie material to chose from actually made things harder for the folks from Thinkwell.

The portion of the Weasley Burrow that Craig Hanna was able to convince
Warner Bros. official to include in their "Making of Harry Potter" attraction.
Photo by Red Ryder

"It's amazing how many beautiful, extraordinary things we agonized over. I mean, you can pick through the Potter films yourself and then think about what props & sets that you'd like to see on display in an exhibit like this," Hanna said. "Me personally, I wanted put the entire Weasley Burrow in there so badly. I wanted to do a walk-thru of this whole set from the films so that everyone could then see how wonky everything was in the Weasley household. But I only got to put in a tiny piece of that set."

"I also wanted to include the Shell Cottage from 'Deathly Hallows,' which was this amazing set that was made entirely out of these gorgeous real sea shells," Craig continued. "But it was Potter executive producer David Heyman who actually talked us out of doing that. Arguing that -- since the Shell Cottage was really only going to be onscreen for 30 seconds or so in 'Deathly Hallows' -- we shouldn't make that set, as pretty as it might be, part of the display. That we should go more for the more iconic settings. The places that fans of the Harry Potter film series would genuinely love to visit."

Which -- obviously -- included the Great Hall at Hogwarts Castle. Back in 2000, this was one of the very first sets built for the Harry Potter film series. And since production designer Stuart Craig knew that the filmmakers would be shooting scenes in this 120 feet long by 40 feet wide space for the next 10 years, he had the floor of this set made out of genuine York Stone.

The Great Hall set reassembled onsite at Warner Bros. Studio London
- The Making of Harry Potter attraction. Photo by Red Ryder

"And when it came time to transfer the Great Hall set over to its original soundstage at Leavesden to the 'Making of Harry Potter' attraction ... Well, we numbered each of those York Stones and then carefully noted where it was located on the floor on the Great Hall set. And then those stones were placed in the exact same spot on the floor of the Great Hall display that we were creating for the attraction. That's an example of how obsessive we were when it came to getting the detail just right for this 'Making of Harry Potter' exhibit," Craig enthused.

Of course, what helped with getting all of the details right for Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter was that -- when the crew from Thinkwell were temporarily stumped by something -- all Hanna & his crew had to do was hike across the Leavesden lot. Where they could then consult with the artists & technicians who's actually been on set and/or behind the camera when these various Potter movies were being shot.

"The Heads of Departments at Leavesden have helped with every aspect of the 'Making of Harry Potter' attraction and they continue to help us with the attraction. It's a real tribute to their artistry & dedication that this display is as authentic as it is," Craig continued.

Some of the 3000 wand boxes on display in the Warner Bros. Studio Tour -
The Making of Harry Potter attraction's version of Olivander's. Copyright
2011 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Harry Potter Publishing
Rights copyright JKR.

And to pay tribute to those Heads of Departments -- not to mention the 3000 other people who worked on all 8 of the "Harry Potter" films over the past ten years ... Well, that's why the folks at Thinkwell decided to turn the final scene of this attraction into a very special version of Ollivander's wand shop.

"There are over 3000 wand boxes on display in our version of Ollivander's. And on the label of each of these boxes is the name of someone who worked on the Harry Potter movies," Hanna explained. "Now we thought that people would just stroll through this space. But -- as it turns out -- so many people in the UK had friends or family who worked on these films that they then linger in Ollivander's, looking for the wand box with their friend or family members name on it. Which is why we've now got an actor stationed in this part of the exhibit who's memorized where a lot of the wand boxes are located. And he then helps visitors find the wand boxes that they're looking for."

And speaking of visitors ... Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter certainly has become a hit with visitors to the UK. Even though there are no walk-up tickets sold to this attraction (all visits to the Leavesden lot have to be pre-booked in advance), the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London still managed to welcome its one millionth visitor within nine months of its March 2012 opening.

Visitors to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry
Potter attraction gaze up at the Diagon Alley sets. Photo by Red Ryder

What's more, people who have visited this 150,000 square foot display just been raving about the overall experience. How -- thanks to the way people are plussed through the attraction (i.e. Every half hour, a new group of 125 people are allowed to enter the "Making of Harry Potter." And only 5000 tickets total are sold each day) -- you never feel rushed or crowded. Throughout most of the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London (with the possible exception of the Great Hall. Which -- because this space served as the opening scene / introduction to the attraction -- guests have just a half an hour to explore the displays located here) you can linger as long as you want at any of the exhibits and displays.

In fact, there's such good buzz these days about Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter that word got back to Buckingham Palace. Which is why -- just last week -- Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry made a special trip out to Leavesden just so they could spend some time exploring Diagon Alley (or at least the sets that were used when the "Potter" filmmakers were shooting scenes set in & around Diagon Alley) as well as trying their hands at wielding a wand.

So does it please Hanna that the project that he and his team at Thinkwell worked on for 5 years has been so enthusiastically embraced by the royals & Harry Potter fans alike?

Prince Harry and the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge try and cast a spell in Diagon
Alley which will make the sign above Potage's Cauldron Shop bang and flash as
if by magic. Copyright 2011 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Harry Potter
Publishing Rights copyright JKR.

"I'm just glad that I got the chance to work on this little-known IP and help bring it to everyone's attention," Craig said in conclusion, his tongue firmly planted in his cheek.

Special thanks to the Themed Entertaiment Association for allowing JHM to attend this year's Case Studies Day. More importantly, thanks to Noe & Shelly Valladolid for making a special trip out to the Disneyland Resort last month to cover this day-long event for the site.

Knott's Berry Farm freshens its flume with a multi-million dollar redo of Timber Mountain Log Ride

Jim Hill — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:00:00 GMT

It's one of the hard realities of the theme park business. You may have this absolutely killer concept for a new attraction in your head. But when you factor in the size of the budget that you've been handed coupled with the amount of time that you have left to actually construct this ride, sometimes only a fraction of the show that you had in your head makes it out into the real world.

Bud Hurlbut (l) and Walter Knott look over the scale model of
Calico Log Ride. Copyright Cedar Fair Parks.
All rights reserved

That -- as I understand it -- is what actually happened with that Knott's Berry Farm attraction which, when it first opened at that theme park in July of 1969, was originally known as the Calico Log Ride. Bud Hurlbut had spent 5 years developing the idea behind this elaborately themed flume ride. Which was supposed to recreate a journey through the rough-and-tumble timbering operations which used to be found in California's North Woods. But given that Walter Knott wasn't exactly enthusiastic about this proposed addition to his theme park, Hurlbut was forced to cover the Calico Log Ride's construction costs all by himself.

And when you're talking about building a mountain that's 300 feet long & 85 feet high which then contains a flume that's 2,100 feet long ...

... $2.5 million could only goes so far. So while this triple level attraction featured some fun vignettes which showed taxidermied animals peeking out at passersby through the thick underbrush & animated lumberjacks hard at work alongside that flume ...

... given the time crunch that Bud was working with (he only had one year to complete construction of this entire attraction), the limited budget he had plus the physical limitations of non-Disney-built mechanical figures back in the late 1960s ... Well, the Calico Log Ride AKA Timber Mountain Log Ride may not have been everything that Hurlbut had originally dreamed of. But for its time, this theme park attraction was still pretty darned impressive.

Cordelia Knott christens one of the 450 pound fiberglass logs that
floats through this elaborated theme flume ride as John Wayne
looks on. Copyright Cedar Fair Parks. All rights reserved

By that I mean, John Wayne and his son John Ethan (who were the first to experience this flume ride when it first opened to the public on July 11, 1969) certainly thought so. As were the 2.7 million Knott's Berry Farm visitors who have annually climbed aboard this log flume so that they can then experience a thrilling four minute-long trip through Timber Mountain which ends with a watery plunge down a 42 foot-tall incline.

But as the folks at Cedar Fair Parks (which recently completed a freshening up of this theme park's historic Ghost Town area) were looking for additional ways to plus Knott's Berry Farm, they took a closer look at Timber Mountain Log Ride and then wondered: Was it now time to perhaps deliver on the promise of the original premise of this flume river? Maybe serve up the sort of show that Bud Hurlbut would have done back in the late 1960s if time & money had not been an object?

With this goal in mind, Cedar Fair Parks partnered with the fine folks at Garner Holt Productions to look into ways that Timber Mountain Log Ride could possibly be enhanced. First and foremost, preserving what had made this flume ride an Orange County favorite for nearly 44 years now. But at the same time, serving up the sort of show that Bud Hurlbut would have put together back in the late 1960s if he'd had the opportunity / access to this sort of sophisticated technology.

Get ready to grab your hardhat for a behind-the-scenes tour.
Photo by Shelly Valladolid

Last week, Knott's Berry Farm gave a handful of journalists & bloggers a hint of what the freshened-up / reimagined version of its Timber Mountain Log Ride will look like. Though there's still plenty of work to be done as part of this 5 month-long refurb, between the concept art for new show scenes ...

... signage & props that will soon be installed along the flume ...

... not to mention the high quality of those sample animatronic figures which Garner Holt's people put on display that morning ...

Photo by Shelly Valladolid

... all signs point to Timber Mountain being transformed into ... Well, a ride that -- while obviously still being respectful of its storied past -- is about to genuinely impress a whole new generation of theme park goers.

Photo by Shelly Valladolid

When it came time to actually tour the eight story-tall structure that this historic flume ride is housed in, it quickly became apparent to the assembled journalists & bloggers how extensive a makeover Timber Mountain is now receiving. Entire rooms which were previously stuffed full of show scenes had been gutted. All to make way for the 60 incredibly lifelike animatronic animals and human figures which will soon be installed inside of Ghost Town's tallest peak.

Photo by Shelly Valladolid

I was lucky enough to get the chance to tour Garner Holt Productions back in March of this year. And as I wandered through GHS' two massive buildings into that San Bernardino office park, the artists and technicians there were already hard at work on the new animatronic figures for Timber Mountain Log Ride. Using all of their skills to create lifelike mountain lions ...

An artisan at Garner Holt preps the head of a
mountain lion animatronic which will be
featured in Knott's redo of its Timber
Mountain Log Ride. Copyright
Garner Holt Productions, Inc.
All rights reserved

... and wolves ...

Not to mention human figures (which -- according to one of the GH sculptors that I spoke with back in March) which will draw much of their inspiration from those sorts of carefully caricatured characters which Blaine Gibson used to sculpt for Disney's theme park attractions.

A trio of the new human animatronic figures being built for TMLR.
Copyright Garner Holt Productions, Inc. All rights reserved

Now you may have noticed the word "Hootenanny" on the new poster for this Ghost Town favorite.

Photo by Shelly Valladolid

Not to spoil some of the surprises that Knott's Berry Farm has planned for the newly enhanced version of Timber Mountain Log Ride, but you may see this banjo ...

... popping up in the hands of one of those animatronic humans pictured above as you float through the Hootenanny portion of this attraction sometime later this year.

Beyond that, I have to admit that it was very cool to get up close to the crew as they used fabric & faux fur to create animatronic animals that look like an awful lot more lifelike than the old, dusty taxidermied specimens which used to be on display inside of this flume ride.

Photo by Shelly Valladolid

That -- in a nutshell -- is kind of the key to what's going on with the Timber Mountain Log Ride redo. Knott's Berry Farm is taking everything that you remember about this flume ride and -- while preserving the parts that were already popular (i.e. its three drops, the way that you whiz along through this attraction at speeds varying from 8 to 22 feet per second) -- they plussed a lot of the other elements found in this watery thrill ride. Thus transforming Timber Mountain Log Ride into the sort of attraction that will still thrill longtime Knott's Berry Farm fans while also entertaining the next generation of theme park goers.

Photo by Shelly Valladolid

As you can see by this photo that was just taken last week, there's still a lot of work to be done on the interior & exterior of this elaborately themed flume ride. But if all goes according to plan, Timber Mountain Log Ride will begin taking Knott's Berry Farm visitors through a brand-new version of California's North Woods just as this theme park's busy summer season is getting underway.

So what do you folks think? Are you ready for a freshened-up flume ride at Knott's Berry Farm?

Huffington Post -- Is Walt Disney Animation Studios' "Get A Horse!" something old, something new or something inbetween?

Jim Hill — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 03:23:00 GMT

Toon fans and film historians just don't know what to make of Walt Disney Animation Studios' "Get a Horse!"

There's a real air of mystery surrounding this animated short. The fact that it's done in black-and-white, features rubber-hose, pie-eyed versions of classic Disney characters and has Walt himself providing Mickey's speaking voice suggests that this is something that Disney has dug out of its vault. And yet still others at the studio are suggesting that "Get A Horse!" might actually be an entirely different sort of animal. A heartfelt tribute to those early Mickey Mouse shorts that was secretly put together by some of top animators working at WDAS today.

So what actually is the truth here? For now, the Mouse is keeping its trap shut. Suggesting that those who have to know make their way to France on June 11th. Which is where "Get A Horse!" will be making its world debut at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Where director Lauren MacMullan, producer Dorothy McKim and animation legend Eric Goldberg are expected to be on hand.

And why exactly are this trio of animation all-stars headed to Annecy this year? Will Lauren, Dorothy and Eric be revealing what really went on with "Get A Horse!" ? Did they actually help out with the restoration / completion of a Mickey Mouse short that Walt shut down for some reason?

Because -- believe it or not -- there actually were a few of those over the history of Walt Disney Studios. Take -- for example -- "The Plight of the Bumblebee" AKA Production 2428. This Mickey Mouse short (which was being directed by Jack Kinney and featured some terrific animation by Freddy Moore) was shelved by Walt back in 1951 because the Old Mousetro wasn't happy with the way its story was shaping up.

So is this what happened with "Get a Horse!" ? Or this WDAS production a horse of a different color? We'll know more after Annecy next month. Know this, though: If the rumors are true, "Get a Horse!" will do a lap of the festival circuit this summer before it then goes into wide release later this November as the animated short that accompanies Disney "Frozen" into theaters.

So what do you folks think the real deal is with this Mickey Mouse short? Is "Get a Horse!" something old? Something new? Or something inbetween?

Your thoughts?

Monstrous makeover: How Pixar artists made Mike & Sulley look more youthful in "Monsters University"

Jim Hill — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 19:47:00 GMT

So how exactly do you make an eyeball look like it's 18 years old?

That was the challenge that Ricky Nierva faced on "Monsters University." As the art director / production designer of Pixar's first-ever prequel, Nierva (working closely with this project's character art director Jason Deamer) had to figure out how to properly reverse-age Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan. Turn these two "Monsters, Inc. " stars into believable college students.

So how do you get started on a design assignment like this? To Deamer's way of thinking, research was the way to go. Which is why -- before Ricky & Jason got started reimaging Mike & Sulley -- they asked everyone who was working on the "Monsters University" production team to bring in their senior class portraits.

"So we gathered together all of these high school pictures. And after we all had a good laugh at everyone's weird hairstyles & interesting fashion choices, we then took a close look at the differences between the 18 year-old version of a person and what they eventually came to look like as an adult," Deamer explained. "Because while some of the changes are obvious -- people put on weight, their hairlines recede -- a lot of the other changes were actually pretty subtle."

The other challenge which Nierva & Deamer faced with this project was that -- in the 12 years since Pixar had last visited the Monster world -- this animation studio had completely upgraded & overhauled the tools which it uses to make these movies.

"The technology we have at our disposal now is so advanced, so sophisticated that Jason & I didn't want the way that the college-aged Mike & Sulley looked & moved to be all that different from the way that these characters had looked & moved back in 'Monsters, Inc.," Ricky said. "So it then became this delicate balancing act. Trying to take advantage of what we could do now with Pixar's new animation tools while -- at the same time -- preserving the essence of these 'Monsters, Inc.' characters. Making sure that the college-aged version of Mike & Sulley still maintained their original flavor."

So keeping this delicate balancing act in mind, how did Nierva & Deamer go about giving Mike & Sulley more youthful appearances? Reimagining these middle-aged "Monsters, Inc." characters as 18 year-olds?

"Where did we start? Well, your typical college student is a lot more svelte than your average adult. So to make Mike & Sulley look more age appropriate, we carved a lot of weight out of their mid-sections," Ricky said. "Then -- to give the sense that Mike & Sulley still had some growing up to do -- we thinned up their arms & legs while keeping their hands & feet adult-sized. With the thinking being that -- just like puppies -- Mike & Sulley would eventually have to grow into their paws."

Then to get across the idea that these were far younger versions of Mike Wazowski & James P. Sullivan than audiences had previously seen in "Monsters, Inc.," Nierva & Deamer made these characters a much more vibrant green & blue. They also removed a number of skin blemishes & age spots and reduced the size of the bags under Mike & Sulley's eyes. Thereby giving Wazowski & Sullivan fresher, much more youthful-looking faces.

"We then took their horns and shortened them. Figuring that -- as a monster -- your horns would grow over the course of your lifespan," Jason continued. "With the end result being that we hoped -- once the audience looked at these versions of Mike & Sulley and then absorbed all of these little subtle changes that we'd made -- they'd then buy into the idea that these were college-aged versions of the character that they'd previously known from 'Monsters, Inc.' "

John Lasseter with some of the "Monsters University" toys that will soon be
appearing on store shelves everywhere. Copyright Disney Pixar.
All rights reserved

But when Nierva & Deamer showed their first pass at college-aged versions of Wazowski & Sullivan to John Lasseter, Pixar's grand poobah wasn't entirely enthused.

"Don't get me wrong. John was still very supportive of our work. He told us that we'd come up with some great looking versions of Mike & Sulley. His problem was -- in spite of all the design decisions that we'd made, the numerous physical changes that we'd made to these 'Monsters, Inc.' characters -- there was still nothing about these versions of Mike & Sulley which specifically told the audience that they were now 18 years of age," Ricky said. "We then realized that we were going to have to be a little more obvious about the 'Monsters University' versions of these characters. Hit the audience over the head a little bit more if we were actually going to get across the idea that the college-aged versions of Mike & Sulley were different from the ones that people had previously met in 'Monsters, Inc."

When it came to Mike Wazowski, the easiest way to illustrate that he was just 18 years-old was to give him a retainer & a baseball cap to wear. Whereas creating a believable college-aged version of Sulley would prove to be a much hairier challenge.

"Given that Sulley -- at least when we first meet him -- is kind of gliding through college, not paying all that much attention to his studies, we wanted his physical appearance to reinforce that idea. So since some college students will just roll out of bed and then head off to class without first running a comb through their hair ... Well, we wanted Sulley to kind of have a head-to-toe bed head look," Jason laughed. "We also added a tuft of hair to the top of Sulley's head, almost a mohawk, to suggest a youthful rebellious streak."

And when it came time to come up with a more youthful appearance for the college-aged version of Randall Boggs, Nierva & Deamer actually went the other way. They gave "Monsters, Inc." 's villain a pair of glasses and slightly improved his posture. Visually reinforcing the idea that the 18 year-old Randall is the type of guy who really wants to make good at school, who seriously wants to fit in.

"Of course, what's great about giving Randall glasses is that -- once he takes them off -- he immediately goes from being this wide-eyed innocent to looking just like that squinty-eyed villain that we all know from 'Monsters, Inc.,' " Rick said. "So this is one of those moments that we could actually use character design as a way to foreshadow some story elements."

And speaking of innocents, one of Nierva & Deamer's favorite parts of working on "Monsters University" was getting the chance to create all of the other students that Mike & Sulley would interact with while they're at college. Take -- for example -- Scott "Squishy" Squibbles, an Oozma Kappa fraternity member (Who -- here's a neat bit of trivia for all you animation fans -- is being voiced by Ricky & Jason's fellow Pixarian, Peter Sohn. Who's currently co-directing with Bob Peterson this animation studio's next feature-length project, "The Good Dinosaur." Which is due to hit theaters in May of 2014. Anyway ... ).

"There's always that guy at college who's still trying to figure himself out. In this movie, that's Scott. He's already a sophomore at Monsters University but his major is undeclared. So while we were designing Scott, we tried to use this character's very shape and coloration to suggest how moldable & undefined he still is," Jason said. "When we were searching for inspiration on Squishy, we actually looked at a lot of Gummi candy that was colorless & squishy. But in the end -- because Scott has to look child-like because he's not really an adult yet. More importantly, because Squishy had to be lovable -- we settled on mochi balls. They're soft and super-appealing. Plus they have this nice, powdered surface. We so wanted Scott to look like this kind of Japanese rice cake that we actually sent multiple pictures of mochi balls to Pixar's shading department and then told them that we wanted Scott to be shaded just like that."

So of the 400+ characters that Nierva & Deamer designed for "Monsters University," are there are any that didn't make it into the finished version of this film that Ricky & Jason wished had actually made the final cut? These two had a quick answer for that question.

"Mike's parents. In several earlier versions of 'Monsters University,' Mr. & Mrs. Wazowski played a very big part in this story. So we came up with some great designs for these characters," Ricky said. "But as we made our way through the production process and then kept refining & refocusing this film's story, it became obvious that 'Monsters University' was more about Mike and his journey. And the more we cluttered Mike's storyline with characters that -- while they might be fun -- didn't really move his story forward ... Well, his story suffered. Which is why -- in order to give Mike as much screen time as possible in order to properly tell his story -- we wound up cutting Mr. and Mrs. Wazowski."

"Mind you, Mike's parents are still in the movie," Jason enthused. "You just have to know where to look in order to find them."

(Please visit the site to view this media)

It was at this point that my time to interview Nierva & Deamer ran out. Which was kind of ironic. Given that -- at this very moment -- Ricky & Jason sounded just like Mr. and Mrs. Wazowski. Two proud parents who couldn't wait to hear what the world had to say about "Monsters University" once their baby graduated (i.e. completed production) and headed out into the world.

Huffington Post -- Director Jeff Calhoun has nothing to "Hyde" when it comes to Disney's "Newsies"

Jim Hill — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:56:00 GMT

You'd think -- what with getting the revival of "Jekyll & Hyde" ready for its 13 week-long, limited engagement at the Marquis Theatre -- that director Jeff Calhoun wouldn't have any time left for his other Broadway show, Disney's "Newsies."

But that's where you'd be wrong. Last month while he was out-of-town with this Frank Wildhorn musical in Chicago, Jeff used his one day off from "Hyde" to nip off to NYC's Nederlander Theatre to go check up on "Newsies." Making sure that this Tony Award-winner remained in tip-top shape as it began its second year on Broadway.

"We've had a lot of new kids come into the show over the past few months. So I've made a point of regularly going by the Nederlander Theatre to work with the cast," Calhoun explained. "I want to make sure that the newer members of the 'Newsies' cast are just as sharp, just as well-rehearsed as the original members of this cast were."

Mind you, for Jeff, going back to the Nederlander is kind of like Old Home Week. Back when Calhoun worked with Tommy Tune, that Broadway legend used to rehearse all of his shows in that then-all-but-abandoned theater.

Director Jeff Calhoun

"That was something that Tommy was famous for. If you hired him to direct your show, Tommy wasn't going to work in some bland rehearsal hall. He always had to work inside a theater. So that he could then see what a scene might actually look like when it was up on a real stage as he was still shaping & modeling that show," Jeff continued. "So we rehearsed 'The Will Rogers Follies ,' 'Busker Alley ,' 'Grease ,' even 'Tommy Tune Tonite!' there. I've spent an awful lot of the past 20 years in and around the Nederlander Theatre."

Of course, what's kind of ironic about "Newsies" now doing eight performances a week at Calhoun's old stomping grounds is that this particular Walt Disney Theatrical production was never ever supposed to go to Broadway.

"I swear to God. The original plan for 'Newsies' was that we were just going to do the pilot production at the Paper Mill Playhouse. Prove that the stage version of this Disney movie actually worked with audiences and then just make the show available for licensing for regional productions," Jeff insisted. "Disney Theatrical had had so many inquiries from high school & colleges about whether there was a script available for a stage version of 'Newsies' that this pilot production at the Paper Mill Playhouse was just supposed to be a means to an end. A way for Disney to meet that demand."

But even back when Calhoun & this show's creative team were just getting "Newsies" up on its feet, back when the temporary sets which the cast was pushing around that empty rehearsal space were made out of unpainted plywood, Jeff sensed that this pilot production had some real potential.

"Now you have to understand that I had never seen the movie version of 'Newsies .' Even now, I still haven't. I really have to get around to seeing that movie someday," Calhoun laughed. "Anyway ... Even when I was seeing the stage version of 'Newsies' in its rawest possible form, there was something so cinematic about this show. Something so dynamic about the guys as they stood there in that rehearsal space singing Alan Menken & Jack Feldman's songs and performing Chris Gattelli's choreographer that I thought to myself: Maybe this pilot production could go further than the Paper Mill Playhouse."

"In this business, you just never know. There's always more heartache than there is success. But with this particular production -- and the very smart way that Disney Theatrical had put the whole thing together -- right from the get-go, 'Newsies' had the potential to be something special," Jeff continued. "And at each stop along the way -- from the weeks we spent in that rehearsal hall to the month we were out in front of an audience at the Paper Mill Playhouse right up until we opened on Broadway -- the creative team kept writing new lines, adding songs, tightening scenes. Always looking for ways to improve this show."

Members of the "Newsies" cast & creative team celebrate the one year
anniversary of Disney's "Newsies" Broadway opening

As for which member of the "Newsies" creative team was the most responsible for this show's success ... Well, while Calhoun doesn't like to play favorites, he was quick to credit Tony Award-winner Harvey Fierstein with the clever way that he took Bob Tzudiker & Noni White's original screenplay and reimagined it for the stage.

"So much of what makes 'Newsies' work on Broadway can be traced straight back to Harvey. He was the one who came up with the idea of book-ending Act One with 'Santa Fe.' Harvey was also the one who decided to change Jack's original love interest -- who used to be David & Les's sister in the movie -- and then turning her into this pioneering girl reporter. Which -- if I'm remembering correctly -- Harvey based on a real person, Nellie Bly," Calhoun stated. "And every one of those changes, those new story choices that Harvey made just make 'Newsies' a better & stronger vehicle for the stage."

But if Jeff had to pick the main reason that "Newsies" has become such a big hit on Broadway, to his way of thinking, it's all due to the talented teenagers & young adults who make up the cast of this show.

"When we initially opened at the Nederlander in March of 2011, we had 27 actors who were making their Broadway debuts," Calhoun stated. "So while the 'Newsies' cast may not have been long on stage experience, they more than made up it with energy & enthusiasm. And that just comes rolling off the stage each night and energized the audiences who are watching this show."

This is why -- in order to make sure that "Newsies" maintains its high energy & enthusiasm levels -- Jeff has kept a close eye on how this show has been recast. Making sure that each singer/dancer who leaves this Disney Theatrical Production is replaced by an equally talented performer.

"Now what's been kind of interesting is that -- as 'Newsies' has been going along and we've brought in replacement performers -- the ages of the kids that we've been casting has been skewing younger & younger. We're now hiring 18 & 19 year-olds," Calhoun explained. "Which was the age that a lot of the newsboys were when they went out on strike in 1899. So in a weird sort of way, because we've now got more age-appropriate performers appearing in this show, 'Newsies' is actually more authentic now than when it initially opened on Broadway."

Real "Newsies" back in the day

This sort of interesting factoid clearly tickled Jeff. But to Calhoun's way of thinking, the very best part of being associated with "Newsies" is the impact that this Disney Theatrical production is having far beyond Broadway.

"For my generation, what made us dream of going to Broadway was the original production of 'A Chorus Line.' When I was growing up in Pittsburgh, I'd catch clips of that Michael Bennett musical on television and think: That's what I want to do with my life," Jeff recalled. "And when you think about how good Disney Theatrical has been about getting 'Newsies' out there on television -- whether it's on 'Dancing with the Stars' or on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day pre-parade show or earlier this month on 'Good Morning America' -- you gotta wonder how many kids are seeing our cast dance on television and then thinking: That's what I want to do with my life. I want to go to Broadway and dance. I'd kill to know what's going on in dance schools all over the country right now. How many young guys are coming through the door and signing up for classes, all because they've seen Newsies on television and dream of someday dancing in a show like that."

Which then begs the question: Given that Calhoun is obviously so proud to be associated with "Newsies," does it bother him that -- given all of his outside commitments these days (EX: getting this "Jekyll & Hyde" revival ready for its limited Broadway engagement) -- he's only able to get over to the Nederlander Theatre once or twice a month now?

Tommy Tune (L) and Jeff Calhoun at the Broadway
opening night for Disney's "Newsies"

"Not really," Jeff said with a smile. "One of the lessons that Tommy Tune taught me is that you never break up a winning team. So when I went off to work on 'Jekyll & Hyde,' I took a lot of the 'Newsies' design team with me. So even when I'll be at the Marquis working on my new show, it will still feel & sound like I'm right back at the Nederlander."

Why For does Disney think that "No Nudes is Good News"

Jim Hill — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:26:00 GMT

Earlier this week, Paul T. sent me an e-mail with an image attached that -- I'm sure -- will titillate a certain segment of the Disney fan community.

Jim,

Check out what I found on an animation art auction cite!! It's a bare-ass Ariel!!

Well, okay. This is how this particular cel from that 1989 Walt Disney Animation Studios production was inked & hand-painted back in the day. But please note that the paint never actually makes it to the bottom of ... Well, Ariel's bottom. That's because when it came time for the scene in which this cel was featured to actually go in front of the camera, this shot in "The Little Mermaid" was framed in such a way that this Disney Princess' shapely caboose was always going to be kept safely out of sight. So don't expect that when the Blu-ray of this John Musker & Ron Clements film goes on sale later this year (October 1st, to be exact) that -- if you carefully go frame-by-frame during this portion of that motion picture -- you'll ever be able to spy Ariel's behind as it's depicted in the above cel.

Mind you, if you talk with true Walt Disney Animation Studios veterans, they'll look at this particular image from the Little Mermaid and laugh. "That's the sort of stuff that titillates you?," these guys would snort. "Let me show you some of the Freddy Moore girl drawings that I've got squirreled away in a drawer here. Or -- better yet -- tell you about those female nudes that used to be painted on the walls of the Studio's old Penthouse Club."

Now you have to keep in mind that was the pre-1980s version of Walt Disney Productions. A few years into Michael Eisner's run as head of the Mouse House, Mickey developed kind of a prudish streak which continues even today.

The inciting event of this "No Nudes is Good News" policy seems to date back to the theatrical release of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" in June of 1988. A few weeks into this Robert Zemeckis movie's run in theaters, Disney executives learned that -- when Eddie Valiant & Betty Boop have their brief meet-up in the Ink and Paint Club -- there was an moment in this scene where, just for a single frame (depicted above), the strapless dress that this classic cartoon character slipped off of her breasts and thus revealed Betty's bare nipples.

Mind you, the only reason that the animators who worked on "Roger Rabbit" slipped a topless Betty into this Touchstone Pictures / Amblin Entertainment co-production was to pay tribute to those animation pioneers like Grim Natwick who used to do the exact same thing when they were animating the original Betty Boop shorts for Fleischer Studios back in the 1930s. And the reason that they did this back then was ... Well, most of the animators who worked for Max & Dave Fleischer were young men in their 20s. And when you're that age, the temptation to try & put one over on the boss is great.

More to the point, given that film whizzes through the projector at 16 frames per second (which is actually faster than the human eye can actually process individual images), that meant 99.99999% of the greater movie-going public would have absolutely no idea that the animated cartoon that they had just been watching had included a somewhat salacious image in a single frame. So the chances that anyone outside of this animation studio would ever find out that the folks at Fleischer had pulled a stunt like this were pretty slim.

Of course, given that the cel in question had pass through a bunch of hands (i.e. from the animator to the inker to the cel painter to the cameraman, etc.), there were dozens of folks at Fleischer who knew about this slip-a-sexy-shot-of-Betty-into-each-short gag and then kept quiet about it. In fact, if what Richard Fleischer (i.e. Max's son as well as the director of Disney's 1954 live-action classic, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ") once told me is true, Max and Dave knew about this stunt as well. But the Fleischer brothers deliberately turned a blind eye to this practice because thinking that they were secretly putting one over on their bosses made the animators at that studio happy. And to Max & Dave's way of thinking, keeping morale high at their studio was far more important than being the sorts of bosses who came down hard on their employees for silly, sexy pranks.

That said, there were certain high-minded sorts among the movie-going crowd who thought -- right from the get-go -- that Betty Boop with her short skirts & garter belt was far too sexy. And if these self-appointed censors had ever known that the animators at Fleischer Studios were deliberately inserting images of a topless or bottomless Betty into each of these animated shorts ... Well, they'd have lost their minds.

But once Joseph Breen was installed as head of the Studio Relations Committee in 1934 and then began enforcing Hollywood's restrictive Production Code, pressure was brought to bear on Fleischer Studios. And as a direct result, Betty Boop's skirts got longer and the animators there were actively discouraged to stop with all that sexy stuff. Including slipping a single salacious cel into each short.

Joseph Breen

Even so, those pre-code Betty Boop shorts were still out there. And kids who were just starting out at film school in the 1970s would occasionally throw one of these old Fleischer animated shorts on a moviola. And then -- by going frame-by-frame through these films -- they'd then eventually find that single frame where Ms. Boop was doing something a bit naughty. And they then gleefully share this information with their fellow film students. And these future movie moguls would then all marvel at what production people used to get away with back in the old days of Hollywood.

Anyway ... That is why that topless image of Betty was deliberately placed in "Roger Rabbit." As a loving tribute to what Hollywood's animation pioneers used to do back in the old days. So -- to Richard Williams' way of thinking (And -- yes -- from what I've been told, the director of animation on this Touchstone Pictures / Amblin Entertainment co-production knew that a single cel featuring Betty Boop's nipples had been inserted in this movie and condoned it. And depending on who you talk to, Robert Zemeckis was also supposed to have been in on this gag as well) -- this was just the next generation of animators honoring the traditions of its pioneers.

Well, that's certainly not how the executives at The Walt Disney Company saw this situation. As soon as they learned that there was a topless Betty Boop hidden in plain sight in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," they immediately leaped into action. Even though this information was only brought to these execs' attention during the final few weeks of this live-action / animated hybrid's domestic run, they still sent Disney employees out to theaters around the country. Where these studio representatives were then under orders to enter each projection booth and take physical possession of that movie theater's print of "Roger Rabbit." Only after these Disney employees had unspooled the second reel of this movie, find the offending frame and snipped it out of the movie were they then allowed to return control of this print to that theater's projectionist.

These Disney employees then had to collect all of these individual single frames of film (each of which depicted Betty Boop with her top off) and return them to the Studio. Where Disney's attorneys then determined which frames had come from which specific print at what theater (making sure that all of them could be accounted before) before Studio officials then ordered that all of these frames be destroyed.

So you can imagine how Disney Studios officials felt, after having already dealt with the Betty Boob issue, when they learned that there yet another single sexy frame that had been hidden away in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." A moment late in this Robert Zemeckis movie where -- right after Jessica Rabbit had been involved in a traffic accident -- this cartoon siren had thrown into the air. As Roger's wife flew by the camera, for just an instant, Jessica's skirt flew up & her legs briefly parted. Which was when it was revealed that this toon temptress was sans panties.

Now what made Mouse House managers particularly crazy about the Jessica Rabbit / no panties situation is that they only learned about it months after the VHS version of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" had originally gone on sale in stores back in October of 1989. So while they couldn't do anything about the millions of copies of this Academy Award-winning film that had already been purchased by animation fans, they could at least contact retailers and then asked them to return all of their unsold "Roger Rabbit" videos so that the offending tapes could then be destroyed.

Jessica Rabbit as she appeared in the sequence in question for
the 1989 VHS release of "How Framed Roger Rabbit" ...

... and this same scene in this Robert Zemeckis film when it was released on DVD
on 2003. After Disney artists had gone in and digitally extended Jessica's dress.
Effectively ending any questions about whether this cartoon siren had or had
not been wearing any panties during this sequence of that live-action /
animated hybrid. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

Mind you, given that the VHS &laser disc players that most people owned back in the late 1980s weren't really capable of going frame-by-frame through a film (I mean, even when you did pause a movie using your VHS or laser disc player, what you typically wound up with was an on-screen image that was either very blurry or had an awful lot of grain to it), it became next to impossible for animation fans to verify whether the Jessica-Rabbit-wasn't-wearing-panties stories that had begun leaking out of Disney Studios were true. Even those who knew exactly where to look in this live-action / animated hybrid still struggled to find just the right frame. And because they weren't looking at the sort of crystal-clear image of this sexy cartoon character that one might be able to procure in a professional editing bay back then (or from one of today's DVD or Blu-ray players), this Jessica-without-panties story just didn't get the traction back then that it would have surely gotten today thanks to the presence of websites like Gawker, Deadline or TMZ.

So Disney kind of dodged a bullet with "Roger Rabbit" 's original VHS release (And trust me, folks. The 25th anniversary of this Touchstone Pictures / Amblin Entertainment co-production which Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released last month has long since been scrubbed clean). But on the heel of having to recall six million copies of the VHS of "The Rescuers" in January of 1999, all because Mouse House managers learned -- well after the fact -- that there was a single frame in this 1977 Walt Disney Productions release where a nude Playboy playmate could be spied in one of the apartment windows that Bernard, Bianca and Orville flew by in New York City ... Well, it was finally time that something formally had to be done about this issue.

Truth be told, Disney executives did start getting more hands-on about the animated features that WDAS had in production prior to the "Rescuers" recall in 1999. The first film to receive the go-through-frame-by-frame-to-seek-out-the-sex process was "The Hunchback of Notre Dame ." Paul & Gaetan Brizzi had done a masterful job with their animation of the "Hellfire" sequence in this Kirk Wise & Gary Trousdale movie. But as studio officials began reviewing Paul & Gaetan's pencil tests, they became very concerned about that fiery version of Esmeralda which Judge Claude Frollo envisioned dancing in his fireplace. The concern -- at least at the executive level -- was this hallucinatory version of "Hunchback" 's gypsy just looked too naked. Which is why the Brizzis were then ordered to go back in and reanimate a specific portion of "Hellfire." So that it would then appear that Esmerelda, even as she was supposedly made entirely out of fire in this scene, still had some clothes on.

Please note the scoop neck dress line that the Brizzi brothers added after the
fact to their original animation of Esmerelda in "Hunchback" 's "Hellfire"
number. Which then suggested that this fiery version of the sexy
gypsy was still wearing clothes. Copyright Disney
Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

Things got even sillier / stranger when "Mulan" was in production at Walt Disney Feature Animation - Florida. The executives back in California were so concerned about the skinny-dipping scene in this Tony Bancroft / Barry Cook movie that word came down that only the supervising animators for each of the characters featuring in this scene (i.e. Mark Henn for Mulan, Aaron Blaise for Yao and Broose Johnson for Chien-Po & Ling) were to be allowed to animate these characters in "Mulan" 's skinny-dipping scene. With the message from Mouse House Management clearly being that -- if anything even remotely risque were to pop up in this portion of that motion picture -- Disney officials would then know who exactly to fire.

The irony is that -- because Blaise and Johnson wound up being so careful & cautious with their animation of Yao, Chien-P & Ling in this film's skinny-dipping scene -- people who watched test screenings of "Mulan" intially didn't realize that the Gang of Three had actually removed their clothes prior to jumping into the water to join Mulan. Which is why -- prior to "Mulan" 's June 1998 theatrical release -- Disney animators had to create a brand-new scene that (in silhouette, mind you) clearly showed Yao, Chien-Po & Ling peeling off their Chinese army uniforms before they then raced downhill to join Mulan for a late night swim.

But if you watch "Mulan" 's skinny-dipping scene today, you can see how carefully choreographed it is to make sure that any naughty bits are kept below the surface of the water and/or just out of frame. In fact, to hear some of the animators who worked on this Disney Feature Animation -Florida film talk, a lot of potential for comic tension in this scenes got lost because the execs out in California were so paranoid about Mulan, Yao, Chien-Po and Ling getting too close to one another and then possibly touching while they were all together in that water skinny-dipping. So the notes that Bancroft & Cook kept getting back from Burbank was " ... make sure that those characters stay far apart while they're together in the water."

The same sort of caution supposedly carried over to the production of Pixar's "Brave" last year. That -- while the folks back in Burbank didn't dare tell Mark Andrew, Brenda Chapman & Steve Purcell what sort of story they should be telling in their tale of the Scottish Highland -- they did reportedly send along a note or two about Queen Elinor's (SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD) transformations. That -- when Merida's mother changed her form in this film -- Andrew, Chapman & Purcell please make an effort to make sure that the Queen's naked body was always kept just out of sight. That it was okay to suggest this character's nudity just as long as no real body parts were ever shown.

Merida's bare-bottomed brothers -- Hamish, Harris & Hubert -- scramble into
Queen Elinor & King Fergus' arms at the end of Pixar's "Brave."
Copyright Disney Pixar. All rights reserved

Likewise those brief moments in Pixar's "Brave" where Hamish, Harris and Hubert appeared naked and/or the members of the clans Macintosh, MacGuffin, Dingwall and DunBroch all march back into the castle without their kilts ... Well, that was okay as long as these male characters faced away from the camera and all the audience ever saw was bare butts. But even so, as a direct result of these two brief bits of male nudity, "Brave" still wound up being only the third film in Pixar history to be receive a PG rating (with 2004's "The Incredibles " and 2009's "Up " being the other two).

And to make sure that no other sexual content and/or untoward images ever pop up in Pixar & Walt Disney Animation Studios productions, Disney Legal now reportedly has several people on staff whose specific assignment it is to go through each new film (once it completes production, mind you) frame-by-frame and then search for questionable content that the filmmakers may have deliberately and/or unintentionally placed there. And when you consider that a CG film like Pixar's "Toy Story " had 114,240 highly detailed frames in it ... Well, it could take weeks at a time to go through each of Disney & Pixar's latest productions and then carefully search for questionable content.

But to Disney Legal's way of thinking, this additional effort & expense prior to a new animated feature's release to theaters will ultimately pay off. If only because the Company will now be dealing with far fewer embarrassing PR problems after production has officially wrapped & these movies are out in theaters and/or have been released to various retail outlets through Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

After all, in this age of Blu-rays & digital downloads, it's now possible for virtually anyone out there to go frame-by-frame through an animated feature and then discover that single salacious cel that the filmmakers thought that they had cleverly hidden out in plain sight. Which is why -- in an effort to save the Company from some future embarrassment -- Disney has adopted this "No Nudes is Good News" policy.

So how do you folks feel about this bit of news? Are you happy that Disney Legal has gotten so hands-on about making sure that each of the animated features that Disney & Pixar produces are genuinely family-friendly? Or does this practice of going through a film frame-by-frame to make sure that no questionable content ever makes it out in front of an audience these days smack of censorship? A way of stifling the creativity of the people who actually make these motion pictures?

Your thoughts?

Huffington Post -- How Sony Pictures Animation is reinventing the way that toons are made

Jim Hill — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 01:18:00 GMT

As the staff cuts at DreamWorks Animation and Walt Disney Studios prove, bigger is no longer thought of as better in Hollywood. The suits are now angling after a far more efficient business plan. Tinsel Town 2.0, if you will. A place where smaller teams follow shorter production schedules and work within tighter budgets yet still somehow manage to deliver top-quality motion pictures.

You know. The way that Sony Pictures Animation has been doing business for the past 10 years.

Oh, sure. Pixar's animated features get all the acclaim while Blue Sky Studios' movies clean up at the box office. But over in Culver City, SPA has been consistently turning out strong performing animated features for a significantly lower price point than anyone else in town. Which -- in the wake of "Hotel Transylvania 's" success last fall (This Genndy Tartakovsky film sold $148.3 million worth of tickets stateside, $198.3 million foreign for a combined worldwide gross of $346.6 million) -- has not gone unnoticed in certain corner offices.

Of course, one of the main reasons that SPA is often able to do so much more with less if that this animation studio grew out of Sony Pictures Imageworks. And given that the work ethic of a visual effects house is hardwired into Sony Pictures Animation's DNA, it's no wonder that these guys have a gift when it comes to delivering top-quality work on very tight schedules.

And given that all of this got started back in July of 2002 when Sony Pictures Imageworks released its Oscar-winning short, "The ChubbChubbs!," it's kind of appropriate that SPA has recently gotten back into the short animated film game with last year's traditionally animated "Goodnight, Mr. Foot" which Tartakovsky wrote, directed and animated himself and then continuing with the 22 minute-long movie "The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow." Which will have its world premiere in June when this Halloween TV special is screened at Annecy in official competition.

Now some industry watchers might see "The Legend of Smurfy Hollow" as a cold & somewhat calculated bit of brand extension. A way for Sony to cash in on "The Smurfs 2," which is expected to do big office this summer (The original "Smurfs " was one of the biggest hits of 2011, selling more tickets worldwide than Pixar's "Cars 2" and Blue Sky Studios' "Rio"). But since The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow (in a nod of the old "Smurfs" television series ) will mostly be done in 2D while "The Smurfs 2" will be a mix of live action and CG, from the Sony Pictures Animation's point of view, there's more than brand extension to this Halloween TV special. "Smurfy Hollow" also allows the studio to expand its creative palette & production pipeline. It gives SPA different ways to tell stories.

And Sony Pictures Animation is taking the same sort of approach when it comes to producing sequels to some of its more popular early releases. When "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" developed such a strong following after its theatrical release in September 2009, Bob Osher -- the president of the Digital Production division at Sony Pictures Entertainment -- decried that it was time for SPA to revisit Swallow Falls, the setting of the original "Cloudy" movie.

But where this gets interesting is that Osher -- rather than seeing "Cloudy 2 " as a strict cash grab -- opted to also view this sequel as an opportunity to grow SPA's creative team. So the studio had Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the directors of the original Cloudy with Chance of Meatballs, meet with Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn, two longtime Sony Animation Pictures story artists. As the four of them tried to come up with an exciting, entertaining storyline for this Cloudy follow-up.

Borrowing a page for Pixar's "Toy Story 2" playbook (i.e. John Lasseter and co. used scenes and characters that had been cut out of the original "Toy Story" as the jumping-off point for that film's sequel), Phil, Chris, Cody and Kris took some food-imals that had been cut out of the final act of the first "Cloudy" movie and then made them into the main attraction of this movie's sequel. And as soon as SPA management heard about the proposed "Something Big was Leftover" storyline for "Cloudy 2" ... Well, Osher and co. not immediately got excited about this creative new direction for "Cloudy" 's sequel, they also decided to let Cody and Kris direct the picture.

It's bold moves like this that are causing a lot of people in feature animation to keep a closer watch on Sony Pictures Animation these days. When Bob took up the reigns on the digital side of things and Hannah Minghella was named as the new president of production for animation back in March of 2008, these two brought a new energy and focus to the operation. It was Osher and Minghella who rebooted "The Smurfs" under the watchful eye of Michael Lynton (who grew up with these little blue creatures) and Amy Pascal. Hannah was subsequently promoted to president of production at Columbia Pictures in 2010. Bob and her successor Michelle Raimo Kouyate are then responsible for recruiting Genndy to come direct "Hotel Transylvania" which had been stalled in development hell for years before that.

And speaking of "Hotel" (Which SPA is already sequelizing. The follow-up to this family-friendly vampire movie is due to hit theaters in late September of 2015), Tartakovsky won't be returning to Transylvania anytime soon. The Monday after Hotel Transylvania held its U.S. premiere at The Grove, Genndy and his story team were already hard at work boarding a big screen comedy-adventure starring E.C. Segar's Popeye the Sailor Man. Which -- if the early buzz on this 3D movie proves to be true -- "Popeye" is really going to wow audiences when it sails onto screens on September 26, 2014.

And when you factor in the great work that's being done over at Universal's Illuminations Entertainment (Their latest CG feature, "Despicable Me 2," will be bowing in multiplexes nationwide on July 3rd) and Paramount Pictures' animation division (where they're currently hard at work on a sequel to 2004's "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie "), Sony Pictures Animation is now one of a trio of animation studios that are delivering top quality feature films at a significant lower price point than Disney, Pixar, Blue Sky Studios and DreamWorks Animation are.

Which -- to hear Jeffrey Katzenberg talk (as he was reflecting on how poorly "Rise of the Guardians" had performed at the box office during DWA's Quarter 4 2012 earnings conference call) -- is an issue that his animation studio is now attempting to address. By mid-2014, DreamWorks Animation hopes to have new technology in place that will then lower the production costs of their new full-length features to $120 million.

Which -- to put things in perspective here -- will still be $35 million more than SPA spent during the entire eight years that "Hotel Transylvania" was in development.

Which is why -- as we enter the era of Tinsel Town 2.0 -- you should expect to see even more financial pruning and production fine-tuning on the Toon Town side of the operation.

Want to show that you actually care about what just happened in Boston? Make plans now to visit Beantown later this year

Jim Hill — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:21:00 GMT

It's been 36 hours or so now since those bombings happened at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. And a lot of us are feeling ... Well, kind of helpless. We wonder what we can do to show our support. Let the people of Boston know that we're solidly in their corner. That we genuinely care.

Well, after the 9/11 attacks, then-president George W Bush famously went on television to tell Americans that the very best way " ... to restore public confidence" was for " ... the traveling public (to) get onboard, do your business around the country, fly and enjoy America's great destination spots. Go down to Disney World in Florida, take your families and enjoy life the way we want it to be enjoyed."

So if you're really looking for a way to show your support for the people of Boston, later this Spring / early this Summer, book a flight to Beantown. Spend an afternoon shopping at Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Take the kids to visit the New England Aquarium. Or -- better yet -- take the elevator to the 50th floor of the Prudential Center. Where -- as you wander around the Skywalk and take in all of the breathtaking views -- you can then see for yourself what a beautiful city Boston truly is.

In other words, put your money where your mouth is. If you really feel like you should do something to help show your support for those battered but unbowed Bostonians, then come here. Don't allow these cowards who hid bombs in innocent-looking backpacks to make us all afraid to walk the streets of the Hub.

And if East Coast Disney fans need a little extra incentive in order to book that flight and/or drive on up to Beantown later this year ... Well, did you hear that the Norman Rockwell Museum (which is located in the western part of the Bay State. Stockbridge, MA to be exact) will be presenting "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Creation of a Classic" from June 8th through October 27th?

This one-of-a-kind celebration of Walt Disney's first feature-length animated film just closed this past weekend at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. And once its 4 1/2 month run at the Rockwell wraps up ... Well, who knows when these 200 works of "Snow White" -related artwork (some of which are on loan from private collectors. Who only agreed to allow these pieces of animation art to be publicly displayed for the length of this special exhibition) will ever be available for viewing again?

So why not go for the twofer here? First fly into Logan International Airport. Go grab dinner in the North End (and while you're in the neighborhood, stroll by the Old North Church and see where church sexton Robert Newman & Captain John Pulling hung those two famous lanterns). Then -- after spending the night in one of Beantown's many fine hotels -- hop on the Mass Pike and drive on to the Western part of Massachusetts. Where you can then check out "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Creation of a Classic" exhibit at the Rockwell.

That way ... Well, you get to show your support for the people of Boston AND you get to check out some genuine Disney animation rarities. That sounds like a win-win to me.

But seriously, folks. The way to help Boston right now is not be afraid. Do what President Bush said back in late September of 2001. Go about your business as you normally would. And if you do have business to do in Boston, please don't put off that trip.

I mean, that's what Nancy and I intend to do later this month when we drive down to the city to catch a press screening of "Iron-Man 3." I'm not going to let some faceless fiend who thinks that it's fair game to make targets out of defenseless athletes, women & children prevent me from ever going back to Boston. I've loved this city ever since I was a little kid and my Mom first took me on the T to go visit my grandmother who lived at Fields Corner.

So if you've been to Beantown before ... Now would be a great time to schedule a return trip to this city for sometime later this Spring / early this Summer. And if you've never ever been to Boston ... If you really want to show that you actually care about what happened this past Monday afternoon on Boylston Street, make plans to come here soon.

Trust me, folks. You'll be glad that you did.

"Disney U" features many informative & hilarious stories about how things really work behind-the-scenes at the Mouse House

Jim Hill — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 02:59:00 GMT

Did you need a distraction from all of the sad news coming out of Boston tonight? I know that I do. Which is why -- rather than watch that footage of the explosion at the marathon's line yet again -- I picked up a copy of Doug Lipp's terrific tome, "Disney U: How Disney University develops the World's most engaged, loyal, and customer-centric employees" (McGraw-Hill, March 2013).

Given that Lipp helped create the first international version of Disney University (which was then used to train Cast Members for the April 1983 opening of Tokyo Disneyland), Doug's the perfect guy to take you behind-the-scenes at this somewhat mysterious educational arm of The Walt Disney Company. Which teaches the Mouse House's 166,000 employees that they should always be on the lookout for ways that they can improve the Guest's / customer's experience.

And this always-be-looking-for-ways-to-improve-things attitude can be traced right back to the Old Mousetro himself. Who -- in a neat little story that Lipp shares in this 222-page hardcover -- surprised an hourly Cast Member one day during the early 1960s as Walt was looking for ways to improve one of the Happiest Place on Earth's then- newer attractions:

The Fantasyland ride operator is busily moving the Skyway gondolas through the loading area. It is midwinter, and there aren't many guests at Disneyland, nor on his attraction. He turns briefly and is startled to see Walt Disney sitting on a bench watching him.

Walt calls out, "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Yes sir," says the cast member, as he nervously makes his way to the bench to sit next to Walt. While he has heard about these moments when Walt would unexpectedly emerge, this is a first for him.

"We're thinking of updating the Skyway," Walt informs him. "You work on this attraction every day, so I can't think of anyone more qualified to give me ideas for the new design."

A bit surprised, the cast member considers Walt's comment, and then offers his suggestion. "Actually, the gondola roofs are too low and Guests often bump their heads when I load and unload them."

When they finished this brief exchange of ideas, Walt thanked him. Intending to get a closer look at the attraction, Walt proceeded to board one of the gondolas ... and he bumped his head!

That's the real fun of "Disney U." Doug understands that the easiest way to get people to remember one of the 13 lessons in leadership & company values that he's crammed into this McGraw-Hill Educational book is by entertaining them. So Lipp sprinkles in laughs wherever he can. Take -- for example -- this tale of what actually happened at Tokyo Disneyland's version of The Haunted Mansion just prior to the opening of Walt Disney Productions' first international theme park. In the years leading up to the opening of TDL ...

... a core group of Japanese managers and supervisors have received months of training from an elite group of Disneyland operations professionals. Many Japanese managers were transferred to the United States, spending months learning the details of running a theme park, Disney style; some even participated in the grand openings of attractions and theme parks in California and Florida. But as with any grand opening, there are endless details and many fingers in the pie, and some things simply fall through the cracks.

In preparation for the press event (which would be held to commemorate the grand opening of Walt Disney Productions' first international theme park), the custodial and grounds-keeping crews have been hard at work cleaning, polishing, and scrubbing every attraction, every restaurant, and every store. Flower beds are repeatedly checked for wilted or dying plants. Tokyo Disneyland is spotless and ready for the big day.

And this created a huge problem.

Enthusiastically embracing the mission to "make the park shine," the custodial crew cleaned the Haunted Mansion. It's just prepped and readied for the big day; it is spotless! All the dust is gone. The spooky cobwebs have been removed. The Haunted Mansion is immaculate -- it no longer looks HAUNTED.

Ron Pogue, vice president of Disneyland International and Walt Disney Attractions, Japan, recalls, "The Japanese custodial crew wanted everything to look perfect for the press event. So they tidied up the old mansion." Unfortunately, in their enthusiasm, the custodians managed to eliminate meticulously created and specifically placed artwork. They removed all the rubber cement cobwebs, wallpaper stains, and dust on the velvet curtains that had been purposely and carefully applied by a team of artists to make the place look haunted. The art of aging and graining, a process commonly used in the worlds of theater and film, involves the precise application of paint and other materials to on-stage props and buildings, creating a sense of realism. In the Haunted Mansion, artists spent week transforming the newly built mansion into an old, decrepit haunted mansion. In one night, the graveyard custodial crew transformed the aged and grained Haunted Mansion into a building so clean, shiny, and spotless, it could have the white-gloved inspection of the strictest inspectors.

Steve Lewelling, the director of operations at Tokyo Disneyland, has a lasting memory of the incident. Living in Japan as part of the start-up team, Steve got a wake-up call -- literally. "The call came at 2 a.m. My manager of custodial, another American expatriate, called me at home, woke me up, and said, 'Steve, they've cleaned the Haunted Mansion!' I couldn't believe this guy was calling me in the middle of the night simply to tell me the Japanese custodians had done their job." As the details started to emerge, Steve realized the gravity of the situation. What had taken the artists three weeks to create had gone down the drain. "We had just put the artists on a plane and sent them back to California," recalls Steve. "I was on the telephone scrambling to get them back, and their plane hadn't even landed in Los Angeles!"

And it's not just Walt Disney Parks & Resorts that Doug Lipp takes you behind-the-scenes at. He also has lots of great stories that deal with the Studio side of the operation. Take -- for example -- how Disney lost out on a boatload of dough back in late 1989 / early 1990 because various arms of the Company weren't communicating all that effectively back then:

As part of (their) strategy to reinvigorate the Disney Studio -- and the whole company -- Michael (Eisner) and Frank (Wells) were determined to foster a culture of creativity, innovation, and accountability. Several years after they joined the company, the new entrepreneurial culture they created was already reaping great rewards; the 1989 smash hit The Little Mermaid was a direct result. But there was also an unintended negative consequence.

(As Carol Davis-Fernald -- who started out as a trainer in the Disney University and eventually rose to a position of vice president of human resources and employee initiatives at the Company -- recalled:) "The Little Mermaid was a blockbuster hit in the theaters, but we didn't fully leverage that success in consumer products; retail sales of The Little Mermaid-themed merchandise such as dolls and games didn't fare as well as they could have."

The problem was product volume and variety. In light of the unparalleled success of the movie, there was a lack of mermaid-themed merchandise in stores. The consumer products team hadn't been involved in developing merchandise until late in the game, and since the product development cycle -- from initial ideas to products on store shelves -- is long, there hadn't been time to catch up. The lack of timely communication and collaboration between business had become a major problem.

(In the wake of these lost merchandising opportunities from The Little Mermaid), Retailing specialists from consumer products were brought in to share research data (with Mouse House upper management).

"Every executive in the room reacted in the same way: Look at the opportunity we missed," says Carol. The importance of involving a more diverse team, even from the earliest levels of script development, became one of the many learning points garnered by those attending (this after-actions meeting).

The tremendous increase in the volume of merchandise sales for subsequent films as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King provides testimony to the power of improved communication and the synergy that (this in-house meeting in 1990) helped foster.

And Doug doesn't just take "Disney U" readers to behind-the-scenes places at the Company's corporate headquarters. Lipp also journeys to the top of WDW's Cinderella Castle. To a room that ...

... had no windows, nor was it painted. In fact, it was just an empty space left over from construction, no more glamorous than an unfinished attic.

Dick Nunis picked up the telephone and personally called the vice presidents of every division, (inviting them to join him) high above the Magic Kingdom, (in a room that could only be reached) via a small construction elevator or a steep, narrow staircase.

So why did the then-executive vice president of Disneyland and Walt Disney World invite all of these VPs to join at the top of Cinderella Castle? Lipp shines a spotlight on a little known moment in WDW history. A time in early 1973 when ...

... the barometer of employee morale, the turnover rate, was hovering near 83 percent; employees were leaving the company in such high numbers that the recruiting and training teams could barely fill the gaps. They had long since passed the service industry average of 55 percent.

By 1973, the original team of 5,500 Cast Members had ballooned to almost 10,000. Employees and managers (were experiencing) burnout.

So what did Dick and his cadre of WDW vice presidents do to turn around the Resort's employee retention levels? You're going to have to pick up a copy of "Disney U," Doug Lipp's extremely entertaining & educational book in order to find out.

Your thoughts?

Pixar Animation Studios shows its school spirit at "Monsters University" press day

Jim Hill — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 05:55:00 GMT

So how was your Tuesday? Me? I wound up getting schooled on Pixar's next full length animated feature, "Monsters University."

Photo by Jim Hill

Early yesterday morning, I flew out to San Francisco to take part in a Press Day for this "Monsters, Inc." prequel. And I'll say this much: The folks in Disney & Pixar's marketing office really know how to theme a media event. As I (and 30 other lucky bloggers & journalists) got off the bus that took us over to the Emeryville campus, we first had to walk through a facsimile of the Monsters University gate. Then when we arrived at the Steve Jobs building ...

Photo by Jim Hill

... we found all sorts of sign-up booths set up for various activities at Monsters University ...

Photo by Jim Hill

... which then made us relive that first-day-of-college feeling. As we first registered for classes ...

Photo by Jim Hill

... and then wandered around the student union ...

Photo by Jim Hill

... and then checked out the fliers on the dorm's communal bulletin board to see what was going on around campus that coming weekend.

Photo by Jim Hill

The central atrium in the Steve Jobs Building featured these enormous colorful banners which talked up the various fraternities found at Monsters University.

Photo by Jim Hill

Or -- if you wanted -- you could get your picture taken with those two big men ... er ... monsters on campus, Mike and Sulley.

Photo by Jim Hill

Now as part of yesterday's "Monsters University" media event, we got to see about 40 minutes of this Dan Scanlon movie. Plus we got to see all of Pixar's brand-new short, "The Blue Umbrella" ...

... which is a photo-realistic charmer. And I'd love to tell you guys all about the footage we were shown yesterday afternoon. But I have to honor the embargo that Disney & Pixar's publicists set up. Which means that I'm not allowed to post a piece that goes into great detail about "Monsters University" and/or "The Blue Umbrella" 'til April 24th at 9 a.m. ET. So if you want to swing by JHM two weeks from now, I'll have some fun stories that I can then share with you.

Your thoughts?

Now it's time to say good-bye: Remembering Annette Funicello (1942 - 2013)

Howard Green — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 17:05:00 GMT

Annette Funicello, long-time Disney and Beach Party star, passed away on Monday April 8 at Mercy Southwest Hospital in Bakersfield, CA, at the age of 70. She died peacefully from complications due to Multiple Sclerosis, a disease she battled for over 25 years. Beloved by television viewers in the 50s for her stint on Disney's original The Mickey Mouse Club, and by film buffs for her numerous roles in a series of popular teen-oriented movies in the 60s, Funicello became a pop culture icon.

Commenting on her passing, Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, said, "Annette was and always will be a cherished member of the Disney family, synonymous with the word Mousketeer, and a true Disney Legend. She will forever hold a place in our hearts as one of Walt Disney's brightest stars, delighting an entire generation of baby boomers with her jubilant personality and endless talent. Annette was well known for being as beautiful inside as she was on the outside, and she faced her physical challenges with dignity, bravery and grace. All of us at Disney join with family, friends, and fans around the world in celebrating her extraordinary life."

Diane Disney Miller, daughter of Walt Disney, added, "Everyone who knew Annette loved and respected her. She was one of the loveliest people I've ever known, and wasalways so kind to everyone. She was also the consummate professional,and had such great loyalty to my father. Annette will always be very special to me and Ron." Diane's husband, Ron Miller, who helmed the Disney company in the 1980s and worked with Annette when he was a young assistant on The Mickey Mouse Club, recalled, "She was always in good spirits and ready to help out if she needed to step in when something unexpected happened."

Oscar®-winning composer and Disney Legend Richard Sherman, who, with his late brother Robert, wrote many of Annette's biggest song hits, said, "Annette's sweet, unassuming spirit, her love of people, and her capacity to exude kindness and good feelings to everyone she met was part of her beautiful charisma. Because the songs we wrote for her brought us to the attention of Walt, Bob and I always referred to Annette as our 'lucky star.' My wife, Elizabeth, joins me in sending a heartfelt aloha with much love to our 'Pineapple Princess.'"

Fellow Mouseketeer and long-time friend Sharon Baird observed, "Throughout all the years we were friends she never changed from that sweet person who cared so much about others. She always had time for everyone; family, friends and fans alike. It's no wonder she was America's sweetheart."

Born October 22, 1942, in Utica, New York, Funicello and her family moved to Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley when she was four years old. She was discovered by Walt Disney at age 13 while dancing the lead in Swan Lake at the Starlight Bowl in Burbank and he invited her to audition for his new children's TV series called The Mickey Mouse Club and was hired on the spot to become a Mouseketeer. The show debuted on October 3, 1955 and Annette soon became the most popular member of the group. The series ran for three original seasons and in reruns through the 1990s.

After leaving the Mickey Mouse Club, Funicello was the only Mouseketeer to remain under contract to Disney and appeared on the TV shows Zorro (1957), The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca (1958), and starred in the Disney feature films The Shaggy Dog (1959), Babes in Toyland (1961), The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964), and The Monkey's Uncle (1965).

In the early 1960s, Annette starred in a series of beach party movies with teen idol Frankie Avalon, including Beach Party (1963), Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965). During this time, she recorded a series of hit top-40 pop singles, including "Tall Paul," "First Name Initial," "How Will I Know My Love," and "Pineapple Princess." Her string of successful record albums included such favorites as "Hawaiiannette" (1960), "Italiannette" (1960), and "Dance Annette" (1961).

In 1987, Funicello again teamed up with Frankie Avalon to co-produce and star in Paramount's Back to the Beach as parents of a pair of troublesome teenagers. In 1989 and 1990, Avalon and Funicello staged a nostalgic concert tour, performing the beach party music and pop hit singles they made famous in the 1960s.

In 1987, Funicello was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), a degenerative neurological disease and in 1992 went public with her illness. Later that year, she established The Annette Funicello Research Fund for Neurological Diseases. It is dedicated to funding research into the cause, treatment and cure of multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases and continues to be an active charity.

Despite battling MS, in the 1990's Annette launched The Annette Funicello Teddy Bear Company, marketing a line of collectible bears on QVC, and developed her own perfume line, Cello, by Annette. In 1992, on her 50th birthday, she was named a Disney Legend. However, as she became more debilitated by MS, Annette retreated from public appearances in the late 1990s and has been cared for since that time by her second husband, rancher Glen Holt, who she married in 1986. She was previously married to Jack Gilardi from 1965 until their divorce in 1981. She has three children from her first marriage; Gina, Jack Jr. and Jason, and three young grandchildren.

Summing up the life of the iconic star, Diane Disney Miller quoted a verse from Byron's "She Walks in Beauty," that she felt "seemed to have been written for Annette:

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which Heaven to gaudy Day denies.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Annette's memory made be made to The Annette Funicello Research Fund at annetteconnection.com.

The staff of JHM wishes to extend its condolences to the family of Annette Funicello & her extended circle of friends during their time of sorrow.

My Disney Experience delays are having a domino effect on several Magic Kingdom projects

Jim Hill — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 03:42:00 GMT

"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 -- that "Tangled" -themed rest area that recently came online in Fantasyland. Even before this elaborately themed set of bathrooms was officially opened to the public, some of the Mouse's more vocal online critics were using this pair of potties as an excuse to once again go after Team Disney Orlando. Complaining about how ridiculous / wasteful it was for The Walt Disney Company to devote this much time, money and effort to theming a set of restrooms.

But here's the thing: You know that area off to the left of the Rapunzel restrooms? Just past the "D-Zone" with its 6 charging stations where WDW Guests can now recharge their Droids, iPhones and other electronic devices for free? Did you notice that walkway alongside the garden that kind of leads to nowhere? Which features this beauty spot where Rapunzel's tower is in the background and a small waterfall is in the foreground?

Doesn't it strike you odd that the Imagineers would go to all that trouble of creating such a pleasing visual in a part of the Magic Kingdom where few Guests would ever venture? If you spent all of this time & money creating such a beautiful "Tangled" -themed backdrop, wouldn't you then at some point actually want to use it?

Well, that was the original plan, folks. This exact spot was where WDW visitors were supposed to go if they wanted to have their pictures taken with Rapunzel & Flynn Rider. Until Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom became too popular and then the My Disney Experience program fell behind schedule. Which is what causes the Imagineers to deviate from their original plans for this portion of that theme park.

Because -- make no mistake, people -- The Walt Disney Company knows all too well how popular the "Tangled" characters are with the public these days. Going strictly by retail sales, Rapunzel is the most popular Disney Princess to be introduced in decades (She's right up there -- from a merch point of view -- with The Little Mermaid . And Ariel dolls have been consistent sellers with little girls for almost a quarter of a century now). Which is why -- in the late Summer / early Fall of 2011 -- when word came down from Disney's corporate headquarters that Rapunzel & Flynn Rider were going to have to vacate Fairytale Garden (You know? That elaborately themed character meet-and-greet area located just to the right of Cinderella Castle) so that Princess Merida of Pixar's "Brave " could then move in in the Spring of 2012 ... Well, that caused some real consternation both at WDI as well as inside of WDW's Character Department.

Interesting side note: That whole Scottish Highlands-retheming of the Fairytale Garden area (along with those three Audio Animatronic bear cubs) was paid for by Walt Disney Studios as part of the Company's worldwide effort to promote the June 2012 theatrical release of Pixar's "Brave."

Anyway ... Getting back to today's story ... Given how popular Rapunzel & Flynn Rider were with Disney World visitors (More importantly, given that a family bathroom was already in the works for that quiet corner of the Magic Kingdom which the long defunct Fantasyland Skyway Station had been previously operated out of), a plan was put in motion to create WDW's first-ever character-based restroom with an appropriately themed meet-and-greet area just off to the side. Blueprints were drawn up. Budgets were approved. Contracts were signed. Everything was good to go ...

Meanwhile, the people who were prepping the My Disney Experience / MagicBands program for the theme parks realized that there were going to be a certain number of Guests every day in the Parks who weren't going to have their Smart Phones or Droids with them OR were going to leave these electronic devices at home or back in their hotel rooms. Which meant that if these WDW visitors were looking to modify any of the ride times and/or dining reservations that they'd previously made, these people were then going to have to have access to some sort of My Disney Experience kiosk which would allow them to make modifications to these reservations.

So the plan (at least as far as the Magic Kingdom was concerned) was that there'd initially be two sets of these kiosks built. One would be located towards the front of that theme park in the Town Square area of Main Street, U.S.A. While the other would be built deep inside of that theme park. To be specific, inside of the then-vacant Crow's Nest storefront that Kodak used to operate in Adventureland just past Pirates of the Caribbean.

But then Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom debuted in February of 2012. And given how wildly popular this new interactive role-playing game quickly proved to be with WDW visitors, the managers of that theme park immediately decided that they needed a second interactive role-playing game to take some of the heat off of Sorcerers (More to the point, cut down on the number of 5-and-10-person-deep lines which were popping up all around the Park. Where Guests were patiently standing with their Sorcerer Key Card & Spell Cards in hand, waiting for their chance to do battle with various Disney Villains).

Which is why the "A Pirate's Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas" interactive role-playing game was brought online. The only problem with this MK-based project was ... Well, just as Disney World Guests needed a specific place inside of that theme park to go in order to sign up to play Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom and get issued their first set of Spell Cards and their Sorcerer Key (which -- in this case -- was inside of the Old Firehouse on Main Street, U.S.A. as well as behind the Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe in Liberty Square), "A Pirate's Adventure: Treasure of the Seven Seas" was also going to need a headquarters / base-of-operations. Which Magic Kingdom managers eventually decided would be built inside of the Crow's Nest.

And once that decision was made, the dominos began to fall all over that theme park. Since the Crow's Nest was no longer available to house those My Disney Experience kiosks that WDW felt had to be located deep inside of that theme park ... Given that an area where people could line up had already been designed into the site plan for the "Tangled" rest area, Magic Kingdom managers decided to move the location of those deep-in-the-park My Disney Experience kiosks over to this corner of Fantasyland. So they ordered that the necessary electrical & interactive terminal changes be made to the Rapunzel restrooms construction plans.

The only problem with doing that was now Magic Kingdom managers were concerned that if they had two lines going back in this corner of that theme park (i.e. one for Guests looking to change ride times & dinner reservations, while the other line was for people looking to get their photographs taken with Rapunzel & Flynn Rider), someone might then get confused and accidentally get on the wrong line. Which might then lead to a bad Guest experience. Which is something that Disney World always tries to avoid at all costs.

So -- to prevent this from happening -- Magic Kingdom managers decided to put the idea of having a Rapunzel & Flynn Rider meet-n-greet as part of this theme park's "Tangled" -themed rest area on hold for a while. At least until the My Disney Experience program was up & running and WDW Officials could then gauge how many Guests were actually going to need access to interactive kiosks in order to make changes to their previously booked ride times and/or dining reservations.

Now never mind that the Imagineers had already planned to plant a colorful garden alongside the area where WDW Guests were supposed to stand & wait for their chance to meet-n-greet with Rapunzel & Flynn Rider. Or that -- in order to help people pass the time as they stood in line -- WDI had plans to hide Pascal statues all over that garden so these Disney World visitors could then search for this tiny chameleon while they waited.

Mind you, even though the Rapunzel & Flynn Rider meet-n-greet was now on hold, the Imagineers still went ahead with the construction of that garden and its "Hidden Pascal" decorative program. All with the hope that Magic Kingdom managers might eventually change their minds about this planned character greeting area for Fantasyland. And if they did, then all of the necessary supporting elements for a successful queue area for the Rapunzel & Flynn Rider meet-n-greet would already be in place.

Confused yet? Wait. It gets better. Because the in-park launch of My Disney Experience is now running months behind schedule, Magic Kingdom managers have now decided to put off their plans to install any of those interactive kiosks where Guests could then go to change their ride times and/or dinner reservations. But since this corner of Fantasyland is now wired to support computers and other electrical devices ... Well, they didn't want all of that wiring to go to waste. Which is why WDW officials turned this portion of the "Tangled" rest area into a "D-Zone." Where -- thanks to the 6 charging stations -- Disney World visitors can now recharge their electronic devices for free.

Now please keep in mind that this "D-Zone" will only remain in place until the My Disney Experience program finally gets in gear again. And once that happens, these free charging stations will then be replaced by those now-delayed interactive kiosks.

And speaking of delays ... Since My Disney Experience / MagicBands is now running behind schedule, WDW officials have now decided to push back the construction of some of those new Scene Ones which were supposed to be installed around the Magic Kingdom to help handle all of the Guests who will now be waiting in longer lines for their chance to experience these newly enhanced Fast Pass Plus attractions. Which is why those bathrooms next to Peter Pan's Flight (which were supposed to be demolished just as soon as the Rapunzel rest area opened to then make room for a newly expanded queue for this super-popular Fantasyland dark ride) are still standing. Mouse House managers just don't want to proceed with this particular construction project until My Disney Experience / MagicBands is officially up and running.

Which -- given that " ... the best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men gang aft agley" (FYI: That's the way Burns -- the proud Scot -- originally wrote this line in his poem. The "often go astray" translation only came about when this poem was eventually Anglicized) -- could be a while yet.

Image courtesy of WDWLive

Your thoughts?

Remembering Jane Henson (1934 - 2013)

Jim Hill — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 02:48:00 GMT

It has often been said that "... behind every great man, there's a great woman."

Well, that certainly wasn't the case with Jane Henson. Take a look at these pictures from the early, early days of the Muppets. Back when these characters starred in their own late night television series, "Sam and Friends" on WRC-TV. Please note that Jane isn't standing behind Jim. But -- rather -- that this then-21 year-old was standing beside her future husband, puppeteering right alongside him.

Now this was the mid-1950s, folks. The era of "Father Knows Best." A time when the little woman was supposed to be at home, keeping house. Not out in the world actually having a career.

But Jim Henson, he never thought of Jane Ann Nebel as a little woman. From the very moment that he met this talented 20 year-old in a puppeteering class at the University of Maryland, he saw her as an equal. Someone who not only shared his somewhat twisted sense of humor, but also believed in Jim's unique vision when it came to the way that puppets might work on the then-relatively new medium of television.

Now you have to understand that it was the exposure that Henson's characters got through "Sam and Friends," this 5 minute-long program that was presented nightly on the NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C., which ultimately led to the Muppets' worldwide success. So without this TV show, there would have been no Kermit the Frog. No Big Bird. No Fraggle Rock. No Dark Crystal or Labyrinth. Nothing.

Which is why all us Muppet fans owe an especially large debt to Jane Henson. You see, during the Summer of 1958, Jim actually left "Sam and Friends" for a couple of months so that he could then travel in Europe prior to graduating from college. And it was Jane -- with the help of puppeteer Bob Payne -- who kept this TV show going on WRC in Henson's absence.

One has to wonder what might have happened if Jane had dropped the ball while Jim was away. If WRC-TV had then decided to cancel "Sam and Friends" (which was being presented twice nightly at this point on that NBC affiliate. Once at 6:25 p.m. and then again at 11:25 p.m.), would the Muppets still have appeared on "The Jack Paar Show" in late 1958? The national exposure that these kooky characters (More importantly, Henson's style of puppeteering) received as a direct result of that Paar appearance eventually turned out to be a crucial turning point in Jim Henson's career.

But Jane didn't drop the ball while Jim was away. She made sure that the "Sam and Friends" episodes that were shot while Henson was away in Europe were equal in quality to the ones that Jim had personally produced.

And as the decades flew by and the Muppets went from being a favorite of Washington D.C. television viewers to becoming a worldwide phenomenon, Jane was still concerned about quality. She always wanted to make sure that the new people that the Henson Company was hiring to perform the Muppets still met Jim's high standards when it came to infusing this colorful group of characters with distinct relatable personalities.

Many was the time in the 1970s & 1980s where Jane (often with the help of the late, great Richard Hunt) would spend weeks reviewing video tapes and personally interviewing prospective puppeteers, as they slowly worked their way through a thousand hopefuls before finally arriving at that handful of truly talented individuals who could then really bring the Muppets to life.

And Jane ... No matter what the venue was, she still had the ability to spot a puppeteer with real potential. Steve Whitmire loves to tell the story of how he auditioned for the Muppets in the Fall of 1977. He actually had to go out to the airport in Atlanta, GA. and catch Mrs. Henson between flights. Steve then performed for Jane while the two of them were seated together at a restaurant in one of that airport's terminals. But she immediately saw Whitmere's potential. Which is why -- just a few weeks later -- Steve was formally invited to come audition for Jim.

Now please keep in mind that Jane is doing all this while still riding herd on the five Henson children -- Lisa, Cheryl, Brian, John and Heather. Not to mention maintaining the Greenwich, CT farmhouse where Jim & Jane raised this brood.

Which isn't to say that the Hensons (who were married in 1959) had this ideal existence. Jim and Jane actually legally separated in 1986. But even after that, she remained supportive of Jim's career and his vision for the future of puppeteering.

Which is why -- following Henson's untimely death in May of 1990 -- Jane established The Jim Henson Legacy to help preserve & perpetuate her late husband's work. She also served on the boards of the Jim Henson Foundation and the American Center for Children's Television.

And for the next decade or so, Jane was a dynamo. She co-founded The National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Where -- just as she did back in the days when Jane & Richard Hunt were weeding through those piles of audition taps -- Jane displayed a notable knack for discovering new talent and then supporting their work. Some of this was done through the Jim Henson Foundation, where -- over the years -- she helped more than 300 American puppet artists through the awarding of various grants.

But at the same time, Jane always made sure to make time for her children and grandchildren. Hers was a very full life that was tragically cut short by cancer earlier today.

On a personal note, I was lucky enough to get the chance to meet with and then talk with Jane Henson a couple of times over the past 15 years. And each time we met, Jane was always very kind & gracious. Not mention being incredibly modest whenever it came to discussing the part that she played in the Muppets' success. Whenever this topic was raised, Mrs. Henson always insisted that Jerry Juhl, Don Sahlin and Frank Oz had a far bigger role than she did.

But pictures don't lie, my friends. And if you look at these images for "Sam and Friends" from back in 1955 & 1956, you can see that -- back then -- it was just Jim and Jane, working side by side. Together creating a brand-new style of puppeteering for television that would eventually take the world by storm.

And Jane clearly enjoyed that time and recognized the important role that "Sam and Friends" played in the Muppets' eventual success. Which perhaps explains why -- in August of 2010 -- Mrs. Henson donated 10 of the puppets from that old WRC-TV show to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History's permanent collection.

Which is just one of the many generous things that this woman did over her 79 years on this planet. Which is why the world is genuinely going to miss Jane Henson.

The entire JHM family wishes to extend its condolences to Jane Henson's friends & family during their time of sadness.

No foolin'. Here's a story about that Star Wars-themed dual track coaster which Imagineers thought about building back in the 1980s

Jim Hill — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 17:37:00 GMT

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 that may sound bogus but is -- believe it or not -- absolutely true.

Better yet, given all the chatter that there's been out there on various discussion boards around the Web about that Star Wars-related survey which the Disneyland Resort has been sending to various annual passholders, asking for their input ... today's story will actually be kind of newsworthy.

But before we get started here, I need to remind you all how miserable things were for the Mouse back in the early 1980s. During this time, Walt Disney Productions was deliberately trying to reinvent itself. The executives in charge of the Studio at this time had decided that the Mouse Factory needed to stop churning out charmless sequels like "Return from Witch Mountain," "The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again " & "Herbie Goes Bananas " and instead start producing far more ambitious films that would then (in theory, anyway) help the Studio broaden its box office appeal. Allow Disney to finally bust out of the family film ghetto, so to speak.

The only problem was that the ticket-buying public just wasn't buying what Disney was trying to sell then back then. Moviegoers turned up their noses at "Midnight Madness ," the Mouse's ham-handed attempt at making a raucous "Animal House " -like comedy aimed at young adults. Likewise adults balked at the idea of buying tickets for "Night Crossing ," Disney's earnest attempt to turn one family's real-life escape from East Germany to West Germany via hot air balloon into an exciting drama.

And you have to understand that -- each time Walt Disney Productions served up a cinematic dud -- it then had this unfortunate ripple effect on the rest of the company. Which meant that -- because the Studio wasn't creating any new characters that the public was actually interested in seeing again -- this then made life that much harder for the Imagineers. They didn't have stories or settings that then could then used as fodder for new rides, shows and attractions at the theme parks.

And for the second generation of Imagineers like Tony Baxter, Bruce Gordon and David Mumford, this situation was just intolerable. Largely because -- at a time when Walt Disney Productions was serving up stillborn thrillers like "The Watcher in the Woods " -- George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were working at the very top of their games. Producing these elaborate effects-filled motion pictures like 1980's "Star Wars Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back" and 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" that featured strong characters, vivid settings and compelling storylines. The sorts of movies that did huge box office because they appealed to a very broad audience. More importantly, the kinds of films that could easily be translated into popular theme park attractions.

It was during this period that the Imagineers approached Ron Miller, the then-CEO of Walt Disney Productions and told Walt's son-in-law that it was time to think outside the box. That if the Studio was now incapable of making sorts of movies that could then serve as the inspiration for new rides, shows and attractions for the parks, perhaps it was time that Disney now reach out to the filmmakers who were actually making those sorts of movies. And then see if it were possible for Walt Disney Productions to snag the theme park rights to said productions.

And to Ron Miller's credit, he did see the wisdom of what the guys from WED were saying. So in 1983, he arranged a meeting with George Lucas. Lucas actually drove down from Skywalker Ranch and then had dinner with Ron and his wife Diane Disney Miller at Silverado Vineyards, the Disney family winery in Napa Valley.

Luckily, it turned out that George was a life-long Disneyland fan. The then-11 year-old Lucas and his family had actually visited the Happiest Place on Earth on July 19, 1955, the second day that this theme park was open to the public. And the Lucases had been so impressed with what they saw on that initial visit to the park that they then began making annual treks down to Anaheim. Just so the Lucases could then be among the first to experience the latest wonder that Walt had just installed at Disneyland.

So to now be approached by Walt Disney Productions and be asked if it would be okay if the Imagineers could use some of his Star Wars characters to help create new rides, shows and attractions for the parks was kind of a dream come true for Lucas. So right after George gave his blessing to Ron, the Imagineers then became knocking around ideas about how exactly they could fold these characters who lived " ... a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away" into the Happiest Place on Earth.

Because -- believe it or not -- the first idea that the Wizards of WED came up with during this project's Blue Sky phase wasn't "Star Tours" (or -- as this flight simulator-based attraction was known during a particularly unfortunate period of its development, "Star Bus"). But rather an indoor steel roller coaster.

Which -- when you take into consideration the time when the Imagineers initially started working on this Star-Wars-in-the-Disney-theme-parks project -- only makes sense. After all, the most popular attractions that had been built for the parks in the previous 10 years had been heavily themed coasters like Space Mountain (the WDW version of this indoor coaster opened in January 1975, the Disneyland version in May of 1977) and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (the Disneyland version of this outdoor coaster opened in September of 1979, the WDW version opened in November of 1980). So doing some initial exploration of possibly trying to tell the Star Wars story in coaster form seemed like a fairly logical way for WED to go at this very early phase of the project.

But as David Mumford revealed during a talk that he gave at the National Fantasy Fan Club's annual convention in July of 1988, what the Imagineers had originally hoped to do with this Star Wars-themed coaster was to significantly step up their game. Create an attraction that Guests would have to ride at least twice in order to experience all of its show elements.

Here (according to Mumford, anyway) was this proposed indoor attraction's key gimmick: After your coaster car left the load / unload area, it would proceed to the lift hill. And as your car proceeded up this lift hill, to the left & the right side of the coaster track, two holograms would suddenly appear. One would be of Yoda, who would appeal to you to follow the ways of the Force. While the other hologram would be of Emperor Palpatine, Dark Lord of the Sith. Who'd then try to seduce everyone who was riding in this particular coaster car over to the Dark Side.

Now where this gets interesting is that -- much in the same that Epcot's "Horizons" pavilion used to feature a choose-your-own-ending finale (i.e. diving beneath the water and then journeying to the Sea Castle research station deep beneath the ocean, flying a hovercraft across the desert to the Mesa Verde agricultural station, or blasting off into space and then piloting a probe to the Brava Centauri space station) -- each seat in this Star War-themed coaster was to have featured a light-up panel where the Guest could then vote on what they wanted their ride experience to be.

(Please visit the site to view this media)
In kind of an ironic bend on this story, there used to be a spot in
the queue area for the Tokyo Disneyland version of Star Tours
where you could watch all three of the ride films that the
Imagineers had created for "Horizons" choose-your
finale sequence

And if the majority of the riders decided that they wanted to go to the Dark Side, then their coaster would take a track that would zoom them past show scenes which featured close encounters with Boba Fett, Jabba the Hutt and Darth Vader. If -- on the other hand -- if the majority of the riders in this coaster car wanted to follow the ways of the Jedi, this coaster would then connect with an entirely different track at the top of that lift hill. One which would then have sent these Guests whizzing by show scenes which featured Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia.

That sounds like a neat idea, don't you think? According to David Mumford, George Lucas thought so as well. The only problem was ... Well, no one had ever built a coaster like this before. Where -- at the top of the lift hill -- the track would then have to have a switch assembly that could safely & seamlessly shift cars full of people from the Dark Side over to the way of the Jedi over & over again. 365 days a year, sometimes for as long as 18 hours a day.

As Mumford told those attendees at that NFFC convention back in July of 1998, WED's engineers figured that it would take them upwards of 5 years to first design, build and then safety test the sort of track switching mechanism that was crucial for this Star Wars-themed, choose-your-own-path coaster. And given how competitive the Southern Californian market was when it came to thrill rides (i.e. the assortment of killer coasters that could already be found at Knott's Berry Farm & Six Flags Magic Mountain), the Imagineers felt that they really didn't have the time to waste on developing a coaster-based project like this that might -- in the end -- ultimately not pan out.

Six Flags Magic Mountain and its mad collection of coasters

So the Wizards of WED then began exploring other options when it came to bringing the Star Wars characters into the parks. Then someone had the very bright of taking that Rediffusion flight simulator technology which the Imagineers had already been checking out and then possibly using that ride platform as a way to tell a story which was set " ... in a galaxy far far away." And it was this you-got-your-chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter moment that eventually led to the creation of "Star Tours" as we know it today.

Anyway ... I brought up that Star Wars-themed dual track coaster today because ... Well, the way I hear it, the Imagineers are investigating all sort of ideas right now as they look for new ways to bring George Lucas' characters & the storylines that he helped create into the Disney theme parks. And as they dig down into WDI's files, they're undoubtedly going to come across this Blue Sky concept that David Mumford described to those NFFC members back in July of 1988. And an idea that seemed impractical or damn near impossible back in 1983 might actually be downright doable in 2013.

Again, just to reiterate, folks: This isn't an April Fool's joke. This was indeed a Star Wars-based ride idea that Walt Disney Imagineering toyed with (albeit briefly) in the early 1980s. And given that survey which Disney Parks & Resorts sent out to annual passholders last month, asking what sort of Star Wars-themed lands, rides, shows, and attractions (more importantly, how many Star Wars-themed rides, shows and attractions they'd like to see in each of these lands) ... Well, I just wonder if this dual track roller coaster might now make it out of the filing cabinet and back onto WDI's drawing board.

Mind you, were Disney to actually build this indoor thrill ride, we'd be talking about a genuinely massive show building, people. Something twice the size of DHS' Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. But given that this attraction would be able to celebrate both sides of the Star Wars saga, you have to admit that it would be a pretty neat addition to the parks.

So what do you folks think? No fooling now. Would you like the Imagineers to maybe circle back on this particular Star Wars-related ride concept?

Your thoughts?

Disneyland Paris makes its nighttime spectacular even more magical by adding "Brave" & "Lion King" -themed scenes to Disney Dreams!

Andrea Monti — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 23:40:00 GMT

One really has to tip their colorful, blinking mouse ears to the Disneyland Paris Creative Entertainment team. Between those two new scenes that were just added to the Disney Dreams! nighttime spectacular and that "Glow with the Show" technology which made its international debut this past weekend, DLP is now a brightly shining star in the theme park heavens.

Which -- as you may recall -- wasn't always the case. Back in April of 1992 when this $4 billion project first opened to the public, what was then known as Euro Disney faced an awful lot of challenges. Chief among these being that Europe was right in the middle of a recession when this theme park & resort welcomed its first Guests.

So admittedly it did take the eventually-renamed Disneyland Paris a few years to find its financial footing. Not to mention overcoming some early negative reviews. But starting in 1998 - 2002, things began to turn around as that theme park slowly started eeking out a profit. And what with the opening of the commercial city of Val d'Europe (Think Celebration, Florida but with a solid business park as well as an aesthetically French design sensibility) and the March 2002 of Walt Disney Studios Park, things definitely appeared headed in the right direction.

Mind you, it definitely took some guts to open a second theme park onsite in those terrible-for-tourism post 9/11 days. Not to mention that -- on opening day -- (in spite of some genuinely terrific shows like CineMagique and Animagique) WDSP with its modest assortment of attractions obviously paled in comparison to the far more elaborate & ambitious DLP. Which was located right next door.

But for the folks who actually ran the Disneyland Paris Resort, they didn't obsess on any of this project's perceived deficiencies. They just focused on continually making improvements. Doing things like retheming Discoveryland's main thrill ride as Space Mountain: Mission 2 or adding Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast to DLP's assortment of attractions. Doing whatever they could to give Guests yet another reason to return to this Resort's two theme parks and re-experience the magic.

One of the real highlights of this "plussing" effort was Disneyland Paris' "Once Upon a Dream" parade, which premiered at that theme park in March of 2007 as part of the DLP Resort's 15th anniversary celebration. Directed by Katy Harris, "Once Upon a Dream" was the first DLP parade to be designed & built entirely in France. Thanks to its catchy theme song ("Just Like We Dreamed It") as well as its fun choreography, "Once Upon a Dream" quickly became a fan favorite at that theme park.

Now one thing that the DLP Resort seemed to be missing was a nighttime spectacular point-of-view. Something along the lines of Fantasmic!, Illuminations: Reflections of Earth or Remember Dreams Come True that would then give Guests an additional reason to linger at Disneyland Paris and/or the Walt Disney Studios Park after the sun set.

But all that changed when Steve Davison crossed the Atlantic. As anyone who's seen "Believe" at Disneyland Park, "Wishes" at WDW's Magic Kingdom, "World of Color" at Disney California Adventure or "Fantasmic!" at Tokyo DisneySea will tell you, Steve has a real knack when it comes to serving up a truly spectacular nighttime spectacular. Which is just what Davison was looking to produce for Disneyland Paris' 20th anniversary.

As you may recall from my earlier JHM article, Steve put together a pretty stellar team for his Disney Dream! project. Right off the bat, he recruited Katy to be his show director in Paris. Making Ms. Harris his eyes, ears and feet on the ground at the Disneyland Paris theme park. Davison also asked Sayre Wiseman to serve as this nighttime spectacular's producer and tapped Ben Spalding to handle the show quality side of this production. To round out this team, Steve asked Chuck Davis to be Disney Dream!'s technical manager, Sandra Halloran to serve as stage manager, Claude Lifante as laser designer and Brian Larsh to be the show programmer.

Right from the get-go when Disney Dreams! debuted at Disneyland Paris back on April 1, 2012, this new nighttime spectacular has been a hit with the theme park-going public. Achieving a 95% Guest satisfaction rate, or so says DLP's survey time.

But given that Phillipe Gas, Disneyland Paris President, said on the night that Disney Dreams! opened that he hoped this nighttime spectacular would continue to change & grow ... Well, that's just Steve, Katy & Co. has tried to do with this DLP show.

Disney Dreams! first evolution came this past Saturday night when members of the press, fan site webmasters and VIPs were invited out to Marne la Vallee (i.e, the town where Disneyland Paris actually located. Much the same way that Anaheim serves as the home of the Disneyland Resort) to experience the two new scenes that had just been folded into this nighttime spectacular.

To give you a little background on how these two new sequences were created: The soundtrack for these Disney Dreams! segments were recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London (Yep. Right where the Beatles recorded many of their albums & singles between 1962 and 1970). And as to when these two scenes were then inserted into DLP's nighttime spectacular, Steve, Katy and their team perfected the programming of these new additions during two long, cold winter nights in early March.

It's worth noting here that it did took a lot of doing to bring the Disney Dreams! creative team back together to ride herd on the finaling of these two new scenes. Especially given that Ms. Harris had been stateside to help "plus" the "Celebrate the Magic" castle projection show for WDW's Magic Kingdom while Mr. Davison was knee-deep in getting Tokyo Disneyland's new "Happiness is Here" parade ready for its April 15th debut (where it will then help kick-off TDL's 30th anniversary celebration). But since Disneyland Paris had just decided to extend its 20th anniversary celebration by another six months, it was crucial that the Resort bring something new to the party. Which is the Disney Dreams! team returned to Marne La Vallee in the middle of the night to make sure that these two new sequences for this theme park's nighttime spectacular were programmed just right.

"So what are these new scenes actually look like?," you ask. Drawing their inspiration from Disney's "The The Lion King" and Pixar's "Brave," these two new segments in Disney Dreams! replace the show's "Mary Poppins" Step In Time & "Jungle Book" number. Though (in an artful bit of recycling), Steve, Katy & Co. took the beautiful waterfall effect from the "Jungle Book" and then turned that show element into a fun background for this nighttime spectacular's new "Hakuna Matata" number.

As you might expect, Disney Dreams! new "Lion King" segment was loaded with colorful projections that were powered by this film's Academy Award-winning score & songs. But if you were to ask me which of the two new additions to this nighttime spectacular was the most visually impressive, I'd have to say that it was the "Brave" sequence.

This new Pixar portion of the show starts off with Merida appearing as the wonderful song "Touch the Sky" plays in the background. Then as our favorite Scottish Princess shoots her arrows, water jets follow the path of those arrows. Via projections, Merida's father then appears with the three clans and they all performs a water & laser dance to Celtic pipe music. (Having seen a similar sort of scene presented as part of DCA's "World of Color," I can definitively say that the Disney Dreams! version comes out on top thanks to the clever use of those lasers).

But what really helped to make last Saturday night's premiere performance of this newly enhanced version of Disney Dreams! memorable was the DLP debut of "Glow with the Show." This technology was developed by Chuck Davis's team for Steve Davison's "World of Color" show and made its theme park premiere at Disney California Adventure Park back in June of 2012. And it's no small point of pride for the Disneyland Paris Creative Entertainment team that it was DLP -- rather than the Tokyo Disney Resort -- which was chosen for the international debut of this amazing technology.

Mind you, there are a few key differences between the "Glow with the Show" ears that are available for purchase at DCA and the ones that are now on sale at Disneyland Paris. Chief among these being that the DLP versions are being called "Disney Light'Ears," a name that sounds good in both French & English. The Parisian version will be powered by two AA batteries, rather than the 3 AAAs that are used to light up their Californian cousins. Best of all, the "Disney Light'Ears" has a much easier-to-find-and-then-operate on and off switch. Which is really going to help extend the lives of those AA batteries.

Now just so you know: While those media reps & VIPs were fitted with "Glow with the Show" technology this past Saturday night for the newly enhanced Disney Dreams!, "Disney Light'Ears" won't actually be debuting at DLP 'til July.

But even without that "Glow with the Show" technology, Disney Dreams! remains a genuinely impressive show. With its 15 flamethrowers, each on a retractable motorized arm. Not to mention this nighttime spectacular's 16 HiDef video projectors and 2 lasers. Each of them precisely focused on this theme park's central structure within 1MM, which is what makes possible to pull off all of those blow-your-mind scenes in Disney Dreams! (EX: Like that moment in the show where the Genie seemingly makes Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant completely disappear. Only to then have DLP's castle magically reappear seconds later). And it's all capped off by that mechanical "Second Star to the Right" loaded with LED which rises out of the castle's tower at a crucial moment in this show.

And speaking of the key elements from Peter Pan 's mythology that drive Disney Dreams! : The use of Peter's shadow to drive the story of this nighttime spectacular is yet another piece of artful recycling. To explain: What Steve Davison had originally wanted to do with DCA's "World of Color" was have the sequences in that water-and-light show linked by a brand-new comical character called Little Squirt. Who was supposed to be this mischievous little fountain that would periodically pop up in the show and wordlessly either comment on the action and/or help to move the story along.

Anyway, as Disney California Adventure's nighttime waterfront show was fine-tuned during its late-night rehearsal obvious, it became more & more obvious that Little Squirt wasn't really an essential storytelling element for "World of Color." But even so, Steve still loved the idea of using an essentially silent character who -- just through his or her pantomime skills -- could suddenly come in and then comment on a show's action. Which is why -- when the Disneyland Paris Creative Entertainment team decided to use Peter Pan as the central character for DLP's castle projection show -- Davison decided to resurrect the Little Squirt concept. Only this time around, it would be Peter's shadow that linked this show's various story elements and/or mischievously commented on Disney Dreams!'s action.

So the morale of today's story is: Recycling isn't just good for the environment. By borrowing bits & pieces (not to mention key creative concepts) from earlier theme park shows like "The Memories, The Magic and You!" at WDW's Magic Kingdom and DCA's "World of Color," Disneyland Paris wound up with a spectacular new piece of nighttime entertainment. Which -- thanks to DLP's commitment to keeping Disney Dreams! fresh -- continues to delight & amazing theme park goers with brand-new scenes projected right onto Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant.

So the next time you're at the Disneyland Paris Resort, be sure and check out Disney Dreams! But don't be concerned if you're still a year or more away from making a return trip to DLP. Based on what I heard just this past weekend, this nighttime spectacular is expected to be presented nightly at this theme park at least through 2017. It might even wind extending through 2019.

Which -- to my way of thinking, anyway -- is a Disney Dreams! come true.

Remembering Legendary Disney film editor Norman "Stormy" Palmer (1918 - 2013)

Howard Green — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 04:20:00 GMT

Veteran Disney film editor Norman "Stormy" Palmer passed away this past Saturday, March 23rd at his home in Northridge, California from age-related natural causes. He was 94 years old.

Palmer worked at the Walt Disney Studios for 45 years, and became closely associated with the acclaimed series of "True-Life Adventure " films. Among the popular titles in that series that he edited were "The Living Desert," "The African Lion ," "Beaver Valley ," "White Wilderness ," and "Nature's Half Acre." He also served as editor on such classic Disney live-action films as "Ten Who Dared ," "The Incredible Journey ," and "The Gnome-Mobile," and has more than 20 editing credits on the Disney television anthology series. Palmer served as a mentor to the late Roy E. Disney, who began his career in the Studio's Editorial department and went on to help guide the Company as Vice Chairman and Head of Animation for two decades.

"Stormy was one of the key players in creating the classic Disney True-Life Adventures series, and he was a true pioneer in the field of nature documentaries," says Dave Bossert, Producer and Creative Director at Walt Disney Animation Studios, and the producer (along with Roy E. Disney) of the True Life Adventures DVD collection. "He took tens of thousands of feet of raw footage and was able to craft it into some of the most riveting, beautiful, and entertaining nature films ever created. That series of Oscar-winning films set the gold standard for years and helped to inspire the many generations of nature filmmakers that followed."

Palmer was born on October 7, 1918, in Santa Ana, California. A fourth-generation Californian, he graduated from Hollywood High School in 1937, and headed north to Oregon to become a ranch hand and learn how to ride horses. The following year, in 1938, he got a call from the Disney Studios, where he had earlier applied, and soon found himself with an entry-level job as a staff projectionist. After six months, Palmer moved into the Editorial department, where he assisted on such animated classics as "Pinocchio" and "Fantasia."

During World War II, Palmer worked with director John Ford in the field photo branch of the U.S. Navy, and edited films for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington D.C. He also served an overseas stint as an aerial photographer on numerous surveillance missions.

In 1946, Palmer returned to Disney's Editorial department, where he met and fell in love with Barbara Major from the Ink and Paint Department. They were married on December 4, 1947, and remained devoted to one another through 52 years of marriage. Barbara passed away in 2005.

In 1953, Palmer received his first feature film credit on the Academy Award-winning True-Life Adventure classic, "The Living Desert." He had previously worked on "Beaver Valley," "Nature's Half Acre," and "Water Birds." He went on to edit many other films in that acclaimed series including "The African Lion," and "White Wilderness." He also edited "Grand Canyon," the 1959 Academy Award winner for Best Live-Action Short. The innovative CinemaScope film was a pictorial interpretation of Ferde Grofé's famed "Grand Canyon Suite." For the 1952 Oscar-winning True-Life featurette, "Water Birds," Palmer used Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody to great effect in capturing the mood and adding entertainment value to the film.

Disney's bold entry into television provided more great opportunities for Palmer to explore his talents as an editor. He worked on more than 20 episodes for the long-running anthology show ("Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" and other titles), from the mid 1950s to the early 1980s. His television credits as an editor include "Atta Girl, Kelly! ," "The Best Doggoned Dog in the World," and "One Day at Teton Marsh."

As a feature film editor, Palmer made his mark on such popular Disney fare as "Ten Who Dared," "The Legend of Lobo ," "The Incredible Journey," "The Gnome-Mobile," and "The Shaggy D.A. " among others. Palmer retired from the Walt Disney Studios in 1983, and devoted his leisure time to sailing, golfing and woodworking.

He is survived by two daughters -- Christine Thomson of Salem, Massachusetts, and Lindsey Palmer of Santa Ynez, California -- and two grandchildren, Amanda and Colin Sebern. A third daughter, Laurie Palmer, passed away in 2012. Funeral services and cremation will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in the name of Stormy Palmer to Southern California Hospice Foundation (Simi Valley Branch) at www.socalhospicefoundation.com