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Steve writes in to say that ... An interesting article has popped up about Harry Potter and Universal. You can find it here . Last year, you reported that Disney had signed a Letter of Intent with Rowling . Any word on where that has gone? Oh, no ! Not Harry Potter again ! Sorry. You're going to have...

Are you a fan of Disneyana & America's consumer culture? (Look who I'm talking to. You come to this website, right? So of course you're already into the Mouse. Anyway ... ) Now here's the more important question: Do you live in the LA area? If so ... Well, this would be a really good day to call...

Whatever you're reading, whatever you're doing right now ... Stop it. Drop everything and click on this link ASAP. This, my friend, is the on-line version of the Walt Disney Company's 2006 annual report. And -- as you burrow through all of the various sections of this report -- if you're a hardcore Disney...

This week's "Toon Tuesday" column (I.E. "How will 'Ratatouille' fare in Hollywood's Summer 2007 rat race ?" ) generated an awful lot of controversy. I got phone calls from Burbank, e-mails from Emeryville. With all sorts of folks who are intimately involved with this production chiming in, wishing to...

"Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." These were supposedly the last words of Sir Donald Wolfit , a British actor & director who passed away back in 1968. Though I'm sure that there's a few Imagineers at Walt Disney World right now who - after five weeks of watching their CG performers repeatedly die...

It's Christmas-crunch time, kiddies. You know what I mean. That horrible moment that arrives every holiday season. When you're feeling all smug & self-satisfied because you think that you've completed your Xmas shopping. Only to suddenly sit bolt upright in your chair and say: "Oh, cr*p! I forgot...

Correct me if I'm wrong. But weren't we all laboring under the assumption that -- now that a new management team was in place -- that the Walt Disney Company would stop using Michael Eisner 's old playbook. And yet what did the Mouse do this past Friday afternoon? Waited 'til Wall Street had closed up...

So here I was yesterday, talking about how the Mouse is growing frustrated with the on-line Disneyana community . Reportedly because us dweebs are so quick to condemn anything new that Walt Disney Imagineering proposes for the parks. But now comes word that WDI is actually thinking of using us weenies...

John Lasseter clearly must be a theater fan. After all, week before last, Lasseter was down at Disney World checking out DAK 's " Finding Nemo --The Musical ." Then this past Thursday, John was out in NYC attending the opening night of Disney Theatrical 's newest production, " Mary Poppins ." Which is...

It was 50 years ago tonight that the 1939 version of " The Wizard of Oz " was first shown on television. Copyright 2005 Warner Home Video The first-ever telecast of this Victor Fleming film was a rating smash. Over 44 million people tuned in to catch this broadcast (Which was hosted by the...

Let's cut to the chase, shall we? The Walt Disney biography that all of us dweebs have been waiting for (Some of us, for decades now) ... is finally here . While there may have been other fine books written about the founder of the Walt Disney Company (Bob Thomas' " Walt Disney: An American Original...

So what's the verdict on Bob Iger 's first year as the new head of the Walt Disney Company ? Judging by various press reports that I've read over the past two weeks, most people seem to think that Bob's done a pretty good job so far. Oh, sure. There are those (myself included) who think that the Walt...

First up is Dan Ling, who wrote in to ask about the Imagineers' initial concept for the Haunted Mansion: Jim, Jeff Lange 's "Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party" story earlier this week got me thinking about the Haunted Mansion . Especially the early, early version of this attraction, back when Walt...

You know, it was almost inevitable that Donny Osmond would wind up appearing in Disney's "Beauty & the Beast" on Broadway . Photo by Jeff Lange After all, back in 1962, the Osmonds supposedly got their start in big-time show business because they sang one day at Disneyland . As the story goes, Alan...

Has it really been just eight months since " High School Musical " was first presented on the Disney Channel ? Copyright 2006 Disney Enterprises Back in January of this year, Disney Channel execs obviously had very high hopes for this Kenny Ortega film. Otherwise, why would they have spent all of that...

First George K. writes in to say: Jim I really enjoyed today's story about the Muppet Mobile Laboratory that's going into DCA next year. But in that listing of all the "Living Character Initiative" projects that have gone into the parks already, you left out the first (and my personal favorite) : Push...

First up, Roger A. writes in to ask: Jim, We just went to see Disney Live !, the new touring magic show this weekend, and were very impressed that Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Daisy all had mouths that moved in sync and their eyes blinked. Copyright 2006 Disney/Feld Entertainment Do you know if...

Now I know that this may sound like a very left-handed compliment. But -- as I was reading Tim Hollis & Greg Ehrbar's excellent " Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records " (University Press of Mississippi, May 2006) -- I kept putting their book down so that I could then go downstairs &...

Cheryl O. writes in to say: Jim -- I feel that I'm speaking for a lot of JHM readers out there when I say: Enough with the " Cars " and the " Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest " stories already! Don't get me wrong. I understand what you've been trying to say with all these Advertisement articles...

To answer your first question: Yes, the "Walt" that's referred to in the headline for today's story is Walt Disney. To answer your second question: The conversation in question actually happened back in the 1960s. A young reporter from the New York Times heard the old Mousetro say this. In the Disney...