MaxAndGoofy wrote in yesterday to ask about my whereabouts:
Are you okay? I've been coming by your website since late Tuesday
night. Other than that Roger Rabbit article that you pulled out of the archives,
I haven't seen any new articles posted on JHM since then. Since you're usually good
about updating your site with new content, is everything alright?
Dear MaxAndGoofy,
Don't worry. Everything's fine. The reason that JHM has been
a little light on content these past few days is that … Well, my daughter Alice
got into town late last week. And what with driving this 17-year-old down on
Massachusetts so that Alice could then get some face-time with her grandparents
and he cousins, that kind of ate into my writing time.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
More to the point, I spent much of last week working on my
latest article for the Huffington Post's Entertainment section. Which was meant
to commemorate the 41st anniversary of the day (i.e. August 6, 1970)
that the Yippies invaded Disneyland.
Mind you, "Yippie-Dee-Doo-Dah" wound up being such an epic tale that the
Huffington Post actually broke it up into three separate installments. If you'd
like to check this story out, Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here and Part 3 is
located here.
And if all of the above didn't already make last week a very
busy time for me, I also got together (via Skype) with Lee & Tracey Mallaby
and Hunter Fagan. Who are the talented trio behind 100% Unofficial Universal
Orlando. Which is basically the only podcast out there that focuses exclusively
on the Universal Orlando Resort.
Universal Islands of Adventure celebrates the one year anniversary of the opening of The
Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Copyright Universal Orlando Resort. All rights reserved
Anyway, Lee, Tracey, Hunter and I spent an hour or so this past Monday night talking
about the theme park that almost got built at that Resort ahead of Universal's Islands of
Adventure. Not to mention what may be in the works for the expansion of The
Wizarding World of Harry Potter. If you'd like to check that particular podcast
out, you should probably click here.
And speaking of podcasts … This past Saturday morning,
Nathan Rose and I recorded the most recent installment of our Magical
Definition show. This time around, Nathan and I talk about "Phineas & Ferb:
Across the 2nd Dimension" as well as what the future holds for this
super-popular animated series on the Disney Channel & Disney XD. If you'd
like to check out this edition of the Magical Definition podcast, you can do so
by clicking here.
And speaking of animation … Guess who was just asked to be
the moderator of a panel at the D23 EXPO? To be specific a 25th
anniversary retrospective of Pixar's short films, which will be held on Friday,
August 19th from 2:30 – 3:30 p.m. on Stage 23 at the Anaheim
Convention Center?
Copyright Disney Pixar. All rights reserved
To say that I was surprised, shocked and honored by this
invitation from Pixar Animation Studios is an understatement. But – that said –
I'm genuinely looking forward to sharing a stage with such talented filmmakers
as Ralph Eggleston, Angus MacLane & Teddy Newton and then talking about how
classic Pixar shorts like "Luxo Jr.," "For the Birds" and "BURN-E" actually came
together. I'm also hoping that JHM readers will turn out in force for this particular
D23 EXPO panel to help me honor these filmmakers.
Anyway … That's why I haven't been updating JHM lately,
MaxAndGoofy. Except for yesterday's review of "Muppets: The Green Album," of
course. I promise that the site will get back to its usual posting schedule
shortly, though. So until then, please hang
in there, okay?
Your thoughts?