Showing posts with label Disney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disney. Show all posts
Saturday, November 17, 2012
15 Potential Directors for the New 'Star Wars' Films
Could it be J.J. Abrams? Matthew Vaughn? "Harry Potter" helmer David Yates? With all of Hollywood likely to want the job, here are some real choice options.
10/31/2012 by Jordan Zakarin
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/new-star-wars-movies-director-384731
Now that the shock that Disney is buying Lucasfilm and producing three new Star Wars films -- news that froze some megafans like Han Solo in carbonite -- has worn off, it's time to look at the future of the franchise with clear eyes. The fact that creator George Lucas will not direct the films and that Kathleen Kennedy will produce them opens up a wide world of possibilities.
Those possibilities, of course, all depend on who takes the helm for the films. Will they be family-friendly? Gritty? Extra nerdy? Hard to say, but here are some potential leading contenders (in our fanboy imaginations, anyway) to take over the legendary sci-fi canon.
J.J. Abrams
He's already revived one iconic space-based franchise, in Star Trek, and is wrapping work on its sequel. Would he do another? Well, he always was more of a Star Wars fan growing up. Abrams is the current king of TV sci-fi, having launched such shows as Alias and Lost, and has had other big-screen successes as director of Mission: Impossible III and producer of Cloverfield and Mission: Impossible IV -- Ghost Protocol. He also has worked with Kennedy's longtime partner, Steven Spielberg, on their '80s-style monster film, Super 8, which came out in summer 2011.
Jon Favreau
A lifelong fan of the force who had a voice role in the Clone Wars animated series, Favreau has major cred with Disney and geeks for his work in launching the critically beloved Iron Man franchise. Mixing grit with humor and gadgets, the series helped launch the current Marvel cinematic universe; there would be no Avengers without Iron Man. Oh, and he produced Avengers, too. Although Cowboys & Aliens didn't really hit, it did provide him with the chance to work with a Star Wars legend in Harrison Ford. He's set to direct an adaptation of Jersey Boys, though, presumably, a chance to direct Star Wars films would be too good to pass up.
Joe Johnston
Another Marvel vet, Johnston directed its Captain America to strong critical and commercial success. He has worked with Kennedy on Jurassic Park III, which he directed, and has had a career-long relationship Lucas, as he provided character designs and special effects to the original Star Wars films. He did the same for Raiders of the Lost Ark, winning an Oscar. He's also written a Star Wars book.
Christopher Nolan
The man that's redefining the modern comic book franchise, Nolan might be wary to get involved in another geeky venture with a classic predetermined story. But he will be out of his DC duties soon -- he's producing Man of Steel but not Justice League -- and aside from exec producing cinematographer Wally Pfister's directorial debut, he doesn't seem to have much on his docket.
Matthew Vaughn
His X-Men prequel First Class was adored by fans of the series (and did relatively well financially), and his genre-busting Kick-Ass was a fan favorite with a sequel on the way. He's shown he can do grit, with Layer Cake and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. He was at one point in talks to direct Thor for Disney, so he at least knows its executives.
David Yates
The man who took over and finished the Harry Potter series, Yates has proved that he can handle a beloved franchise, elevate its content and make big money in the process. His Potter films were at the same time dark and family-friendly enough, a difficult line to balance. Yates also has had considerable success in TV work, both in the U.K. and U.S.
Alfonso Cuaron
Another Harry Potter director (Prisoner of Azkaban), Cuaron has his own space drama, Gravity, coming out next year. Sure, that's a bit different than Star Wars -- this film will have Sandra Bullock and George Clooney drifting through space -- but it's sci-fi nonetheless. He also produced Pan's Labyrinth, which had monsters galore, and his Children of Men and Y Tu Mama Tambien proved he can add plenty of edginess to his scripts.
Zack Snyder
A bit of a polarizing figure in the fan community, Snyder made the hits 300 and remake of Dawn of the Dead but also the maligned Sucker Punch and the divisive Watchmen. He's behind the new Superman film, which will either send him to the next level or sink his bonafides. Like most directors of his generation, he's also a huge Star Wars fan.
Josh Trank
An up-and-coming director, Trank had a surprise hit with last year's Chronicle, a fresh take on the sci-fi genre with a small budget and dark subject matter. Practical special effects in the film, about high school students who gain special powers from toxic waste, were strong, and the project won him the new Fantastic Four job. That might get in the way of the Star Wars project, however.
Duncan Jones
His breakout indie hit was, fittingly, titled Moon, so you know he's got a thing for space (also, having David Bowie -- Ziggy Stardust himself -- for a father probably helped nurture that). His second film, Source Code, showed a more Hollywood aesthetic though still dealt with high concepts and special effects. He obviously never has worked with a budget like the one Star Wars commanded, but he's young and talented and has been considered for genre work, including Man of Steel and Dredd.
Brad Bird
A two-time Oscar winner for his work with Pixar, Bird made the transition to live action with aplomb as director of the megahit Mission: Impossible IV -- Ghost Protocol. His Pixar work means he's a trusted Disney hand, and his M:I creds means he can handle someone else's franchise. He's got preproduction on the period film 1906 under way, but hey, this is Star Wars.
Drew Goddard
Another lifetime Star Wars fan, Goddard co-wrote and directed the long-delayed hit Cabin in the Woods, showing he can helm a genre film with humor and serious monsters. His co-writer on that film just happens to be Joss Whedon, who is now the go-to guy at Disney/Marvel; he's long been a Whedon apprentice, having written on Buffy and other TV shows. He's also working with Spielberg, as writer of Robopocalypse, so he's got connections with some very influential people in the Disney-Kennedy spheres.
Seth MacFarlane
Yes, really. The Family Guy animation king is a lifelong Star Wars nut -- he has made several special Star Wars episodes of Family Guy -- and busted out into live-action film with the megahit Ted. Sure, he's raunchy, but one has to assume he'd respect the material. And being Oscar host can't hurt his recognition factor, right?
Guillermo del Toro
A man with his iron in many, many fires, del Toro is a master at monster films and sci-fi. But is he too offbeat for this mainstream franchise? He nearly directed The Hobbit, but that fell through because of scheduling. He produces a ton of films and has Pacific Rim on the way, but if he could strike a balance between his own interests and the franchise's requirements, he'd be a big hit with fans.
George Miller
The oldest guy on this list but a real option. He's rebooting his own Mad Max film, was an option on Justice League for DC and directed both Happy Feet movies and the sequel to Babe, the film about the talking pig.
Disney's 'Star Wars' Could Last 100 Years
George Lucas Says Disney's 'Star Wars' Could Last 100 Years
Lucas says talks are already underway with writers for the upcoming 2015 seventh film, with two more planned after that.
Gil Kaufman
Oct 31 2012
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1696485/disney-george-lucas-star-wars-film.jhtml
At this point, we don't know much about what the seventh "Star Wars" film will be about, but we certainly have some ideas about what we do and don't? want to see.
Along with fans, we were thrown into a frenzy on Tuesday when it was announced that Disney had purchased George Lucas' Lucasfilm for more than $4 billion. The deal will not only bring Luke, Leia, Chewbacca, Han and the gang into the Mouse house, but it will also serve to re-boot one of the most popular and highest-grossing film franchises of all time.
After five-decade career in filmmaking, in a YouTube video explaining the deal, Lucas said he's been contemplating retirement for a while and now seemed like the right time to hand over the keys to the Jedi kingdom.
"Obviously I've been talking about retiring for several years now," he said. "I wanted to get into sort of another stage of life where I'm not in the film business anymore, where I don't have to run a corporation. It occurred to me one day that the perfect person to run the company was [Lucasfilm co-chair] Kathy [Kennedy]. It's just such a perfect fit, and I felt that I really wanted to put the company somewhere in a larger entity that would protect it. Disney is a huge corporation; they have all kinds of capabilities and facilities. There's a lot of strength to be gained by this."
Pointing to the success Disney has had with Marvel and Pixar, Kennedy said the family-friendly company with its legendary theme parks and merchandising power was the logical choice for Lucasfilm.
The good news for fans is that they will not only get an episode seven, but, in fact, an entire new trilogy. "I always said I wasn't going to do any more, and that's true, I'm not going to do any more," said Lucas, who will not write or direct the upcoming films, but whose iconic imprint will be all over them. "But that doesn't mean I'm unwilling to turn it over to Kathy [Kennedy] to do more. I have story treatments of 7, 8 and 9 and a bunch of other movies, and obviously, we have hundreds of books and comics and everything you could possibly imagine. So I sort of moved that treasure trove of stories and various things to Kathy, and I have complete confidence that she's gonna take them and make great movies."
Kennedy revealed that meetings have already begun with prospective writers for the new movies. "I'm doing this so that the films will have a longer life," Lucas said. "So more fans and people can enjoy them in the future. It's a very big universe I've created and there's a lot of stories sitting in there."
In a separate video announcing the deal, Disney CEO Bob Iger had nothing but praise for Lucas' vision for the "Star Wars" universe, which he noted now includes 17,000 characters inhabiting several thousand planets spanning 20,000 years. "George Lucas is a true visionary and an innovative, epic storyteller who has defined modern filmmaking with unforgettable characters and amazing stories," said Iger.
The pact will also spin off new TV shows, games and theme park attractions and Iger said the company fully understands the responsibility that comes with stewardship of such iconic, beloved characters. In the same video, Lucas said he's been a fan of Disney all his life and that the deal will allow him to move into more philanthropic efforts as well as work on more experimental films that don't fit into the Lucasfilm universe.
"It was a perfect match of two companies that are constructed similarly," Lucas said. "It will give me a chance to go off and explore my own interests [and] at the same time feel completely confident that Disney will take good care of the franchise that I've built."
The best news of all? "We have a large group of ideas and characters and books and all kinds of things," Lucas said. "We could go on making 'Star Wars' for the next 100 years."
Lucas says talks are already underway with writers for the upcoming 2015 seventh film, with two more planned after that.
Gil Kaufman
Oct 31 2012
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1696485/disney-george-lucas-star-wars-film.jhtml
At this point, we don't know much about what the seventh "Star Wars" film will be about, but we certainly have some ideas about what we do and don't? want to see.
Along with fans, we were thrown into a frenzy on Tuesday when it was announced that Disney had purchased George Lucas' Lucasfilm for more than $4 billion. The deal will not only bring Luke, Leia, Chewbacca, Han and the gang into the Mouse house, but it will also serve to re-boot one of the most popular and highest-grossing film franchises of all time.
After five-decade career in filmmaking, in a YouTube video explaining the deal, Lucas said he's been contemplating retirement for a while and now seemed like the right time to hand over the keys to the Jedi kingdom.
"Obviously I've been talking about retiring for several years now," he said. "I wanted to get into sort of another stage of life where I'm not in the film business anymore, where I don't have to run a corporation. It occurred to me one day that the perfect person to run the company was [Lucasfilm co-chair] Kathy [Kennedy]. It's just such a perfect fit, and I felt that I really wanted to put the company somewhere in a larger entity that would protect it. Disney is a huge corporation; they have all kinds of capabilities and facilities. There's a lot of strength to be gained by this."
Pointing to the success Disney has had with Marvel and Pixar, Kennedy said the family-friendly company with its legendary theme parks and merchandising power was the logical choice for Lucasfilm.
The good news for fans is that they will not only get an episode seven, but, in fact, an entire new trilogy. "I always said I wasn't going to do any more, and that's true, I'm not going to do any more," said Lucas, who will not write or direct the upcoming films, but whose iconic imprint will be all over them. "But that doesn't mean I'm unwilling to turn it over to Kathy [Kennedy] to do more. I have story treatments of 7, 8 and 9 and a bunch of other movies, and obviously, we have hundreds of books and comics and everything you could possibly imagine. So I sort of moved that treasure trove of stories and various things to Kathy, and I have complete confidence that she's gonna take them and make great movies."
Kennedy revealed that meetings have already begun with prospective writers for the new movies. "I'm doing this so that the films will have a longer life," Lucas said. "So more fans and people can enjoy them in the future. It's a very big universe I've created and there's a lot of stories sitting in there."
In a separate video announcing the deal, Disney CEO Bob Iger had nothing but praise for Lucas' vision for the "Star Wars" universe, which he noted now includes 17,000 characters inhabiting several thousand planets spanning 20,000 years. "George Lucas is a true visionary and an innovative, epic storyteller who has defined modern filmmaking with unforgettable characters and amazing stories," said Iger.
The pact will also spin off new TV shows, games and theme park attractions and Iger said the company fully understands the responsibility that comes with stewardship of such iconic, beloved characters. In the same video, Lucas said he's been a fan of Disney all his life and that the deal will allow him to move into more philanthropic efforts as well as work on more experimental films that don't fit into the Lucasfilm universe.
"It was a perfect match of two companies that are constructed similarly," Lucas said. "It will give me a chance to go off and explore my own interests [and] at the same time feel completely confident that Disney will take good care of the franchise that I've built."
The best news of all? "We have a large group of ideas and characters and books and all kinds of things," Lucas said. "We could go on making 'Star Wars' for the next 100 years."
Disney buying 'Star Wars' maker Lucasfilm
Disney buying 'Star Wars' maker Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion
Brandon Bailey
bbailey@mercurynews.com
10/30/2012
http://www.mercurynews.com/movies-dvd/ci_21891588/disney-lucasfilm-buying-star-wars-maker-george-lucas
Vowing to breathe new life into filmmaker George Lucas's beloved "Star Wars" franchise, The Walt Disney Co. said Tuesday that it will pay $4.05 billion to buy San Francisco-based Lucasfilm and the rights to produce future installments in one of the world's most lucrative film sagas.
Disney CEO Robert Iger, who called the series "one of the greatest family entertainment franchises of all time," said his company plans to release the first of at least three more "Star Wars" films in 2015, with an additional sequel coming every two to three years after that.
Lucas had previously said he would make no more "Star Wars" films, and he recently announced plans to ease into retirement after naming a successor to run his production company. Disney said he will serve as "creative consultant" on the upcoming films.
"I've always believed that 'Star Wars' could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime," the 68-year-old film pioneer said in a statement released by both companies.
The deal will add to Burbank-based Disney's already significant presence in the Bay Area, where the media conglomerate also owns Emeryville-based Pixar Studios -- itself an early spinoff from Lucas' company. Disney said it has no plans to move employees of Lucasfilm or its subsidiaries, including the celebrated special-effects division known as Industrial Light & Magic, from their current locations.
Lucasfilm has been headquartered at San Francisco's Letterman Digital Arts Center since 2005, but the company also has operations in Singapore and at two campuses in Marin County, where Lucas moved from Hollywood to the property he renamed Skywalker Ranch in 1978.
The privately held Lucasfilm employed about 1,700 people as of last year, according to an analysis by the research firm PrivCo, which estimates it had $1.5 billion in revenue in 2011.
In addition to new films, Disney plans to create new toys, consumer products, TV spinoffs and theme park tie-ins from the "Star Wars" series, which the company will add to a growing stable of iconic characters that already includes Disney's Snow White and the Little Mermaid, Pixar's Buzz Lightyear and Nemo, and Marvel's Iron Man and the Mighty Thor.
"If you look at the films that work these days, it's these big-branded characters that do really well," said Michael Corty, who follows Disney for Morningstar. "So this is in their wheelhouse."
Lucas also produced such hits as the Indiana Jones films starring Harrison Ford, but Iger told analysts Tuesday that Paramount has certain rights to that series that make it unlikely Disney would seek to revive it.
"We're going to concentrate on the 'Star Wars' franchise," said Iger, who added that as part of the deal, Disney is acquiring an "extensive and detailed treatment" or story outline for the next three films in the series.
While the later "Star Wars" installments were panned by some critics and fans, the last sequel in the series ranked as the top-grossing film of 2005. "We believe there is substantial pent-up demand" for more installments, Iger told analysts.
The six "Star Wars" feature films produced by Lucas have earned a combined $4.4 billion in box office revenue. Disney Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo said he estimated each of the last three films could have averaged $1.5 billion after adjusting for inflation and the increase in potential for revenue from overseas and other sources.
Toys and other products tied to the "Star Wars" brand will bring Lucasfilm about $215 million in revenue this year, Rasulo added, but he said Disney believes it can make even more money in foreign markets and through additional tie-ins at theme parks and elsewhere.
"We like Star Wars' potential on television, as well," Iger told analysts, adding that Disney may create a related series for its new cable channel aimed at boys.
Though best known for its films, Disney is a diverse conglomerate that also owns television networks ESPN and ABC, vacation resorts and retail stores. It reported $1.8 billion in profit for its most recent quarter, up 30 percent from a year earlier.
Some analysts trace the current strength of Disney's film division to its $7.4 billion purchase of Pixar, which was an early spinout from Lucasfilm before it was taken over by Apple (AAPL) co-founder Steve Jobs.
"Their movie business before Pixar was kind of struggling," said Morningstar's Corty. "Disney needed an injection of creativity and Pixar helped with that."
Disney's latest deal will mean additional wealth for Lucas, whose personal fortune was estimated at $3.3 billion by Forbes earlier this year.
As sole owner of Lucasfilm, he will receive slightly more than $2 billion in cash and about $2 billion worth of stock in Disney -- making him the second-largest individual shareholder in the company.
The filmmaker had announced plans to retire earlier this year, when he named veteran producer Kathleen Kennedy as co-chair and his eventual successor as head of Lucasfilm. Disney said Kennedy will now run the operation as a division of Walt Disney Studios.
Lucas had recently abandoned plans to build a new studio on a third Marin property known as Grady Ranch, after neighbors opposed the project. A spokeswoman for Lucas said he will retain ownership of the current Lucasfilm campuses, including the sites in San Francisco and Marin, with the understanding that Lucasfilm will continue operating on the sites.
Contact Brandon Bailey at 408-920-5022; follow him at Twitter.com/BrandonBailey.
1971: George Lucas founds company as he releases "THX 1138," his first feature film.
1975: Special-effects studio Industrial Light & Magic and sound-effects company Sprocket Systems, which later becomes Skywalker Sound, founded.
1977: "Star Wars," the first film in a blockbuster trilogy, released.
1978: Lucas purchases 2,500-acre ranch in Marin County that later becomes Skywalker Ranch, home of some of Lucasfilm's production studios.
1979: Lucas hires Ed Catmull to head Lucasfilm's new computer division, which later creates the Pixar Image Computer.
1982: New video game division, Lucasfilm Games, later renamed LucasArts, launched.
1983: THX division, focusing on in-theater sound, founded.
1984: Computer division, using new Pixar Image Computer, releases first short film, which featured contributions from John Lasseter.
1985: Lucasfilm moves to Skywalker Ranch.
1986: Lucas sells Pixar to Steve Jobs.
1997: Original "Star Wars" trilogy re-released.
1999: Release of "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace," kicking off new trilogy.
2003: Lucasfilm Animation established.
2005: Lucasfilm moves into new offices in the former Presidio military base in San Francisco.
2006: Disney buys Pixar from Jobs.
2008: "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," first full-length animated film, released. TV series of the same name debuts.
2012: Disney buys Lucasfilm.
Source: Lucasfilm, Pixar, staff research
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Great American Garage Entrepreneurs
October 6, 2011
http://www.history.com/news/2011/10/06/great-american-garage-entrepreneurs
Setting up shop in a garage may sound like a cliché, but did you know that a number of thriving American businesses really got their start that way? One of the most famous examples is, of course, Apple Inc., founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, who died Wednesday at age 56, and his friend Steve Wozniak. Find out about their brainchild and other major companies that trace their roots to humble birthplaces.
Apple Inc.
On April Fool’s Day in 1976, 21-year-old Steve Jobs and 25-year-old Steve Wozniak established Apple Computer, later known simply as Apple Inc. Pioneers in the burgeoning world of personal computers, the pair worked out of Jobs’ parents’ garage in Los Altos, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Jobs, a college dropout, became one of the great innovators of the digital age, transforming not just his original field but also music, animation and mobile communications. He died at 56 on October 5, 2011, after a long struggle with cancer. Apple’s notable products include the Macintosh computer line, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, iTunes, the Mac OS X operating system and Final Cut Studio.
Hewlett-Packard
Considered the first American technology business to launch behind a garage door, Hewlett-Packard was founded in 1939 by Bill Hewlett and David Packard, who had scraped together an initial capital investment of $538. At the time, Packard and his new wife Lucile lived in an apartment next door and Hewlett camped out in a shed on the property, located in Palo Alto, California. After developing a range of electronic products, the company entered the computer market in 1966 and is now one of the world’s largest technology corporations. The one-car garage where it all began is a designated California historic landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Walt Disney Company
In 1923, the Missouri-born cartoonist Walt Disney moved to Los Angeles with his brother Roy to make short films that combined animation and live action. They spent several months producing their first series, the “Alice Comedies,” out of their uncle Robert’s garage before relocating to the back of a realty office and finally to a studio. Now the world’s largest media conglomerate, the Walt Disney Company became a leader in film, television, travel, leisure, music and publishing. In 2006, it acquired Pixar Studios from another veteran of a California garage: Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer. Robert Disney’s garage was saved from demolition in 1984 and donated to the Stanley Ranch Museum.
Mattel
When Ruth and Elliot Handler, who had met in an industrial design course, started making picture frames in their California garage, they probably never thought their venture—Mattel—would grow into the world’s biggest toy manufacturer. More or less by accident, they wound up crafting dollhouse furniture and later children’s playthings out of spare wood scraps. In the late 1950s, Ruth determined there was a market for dolls that looked like “grown-ups”; ignoring her husband’s objections, she designed a prototype and named it after their daughter, Barbie. (Ken, named for their son, followed soon after.) Mattel struck gold with the new line, and in 1968 Ruth became the company’s president.
Google
Long after Hewlett-Packard and Apple Computer made their unpretentious debuts, another technology powerhouse came screeching out of a Silicon Valley garage. After developing a groundbreaking search engine for a research project, Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in a garage owned by Susan Wojcicki, a friend and future employee. The company, which has since branched out into numerous other areas, now runs the most visited websites on the Internet and boasts locations around the world. In 2006, Google bought Wojcicki’s house—and the garage where its vast empire began.
Yankee Candle Company
In 1969, 17-year-old Michael Kittredge of South Hadley, Massachusetts, couldn’t dig up enough cash to buy his mother a Christmas present. On a whim, he melted down some crayons in his parents’ garage and made her a scented candle. When neighbors began expressing interest, Kittredge, who needed a hobby since his rock band had just broken up, recruited some friends and began churning out candles. By the following year, the booming business had taken over the Kittredge home, so the young entrepreneurs moved into a dilapidated mill. Today, the Yankee Candle Company is the leading U.S. candle manufacturer, with hundreds of retail locations, international distribution and multiple product lines.
http://www.history.com/news/2011/10/06/great-american-garage-entrepreneurs
Setting up shop in a garage may sound like a cliché, but did you know that a number of thriving American businesses really got their start that way? One of the most famous examples is, of course, Apple Inc., founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, who died Wednesday at age 56, and his friend Steve Wozniak. Find out about their brainchild and other major companies that trace their roots to humble birthplaces.
Apple Inc.
On April Fool’s Day in 1976, 21-year-old Steve Jobs and 25-year-old Steve Wozniak established Apple Computer, later known simply as Apple Inc. Pioneers in the burgeoning world of personal computers, the pair worked out of Jobs’ parents’ garage in Los Altos, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Jobs, a college dropout, became one of the great innovators of the digital age, transforming not just his original field but also music, animation and mobile communications. He died at 56 on October 5, 2011, after a long struggle with cancer. Apple’s notable products include the Macintosh computer line, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, iTunes, the Mac OS X operating system and Final Cut Studio.
Hewlett-Packard
Considered the first American technology business to launch behind a garage door, Hewlett-Packard was founded in 1939 by Bill Hewlett and David Packard, who had scraped together an initial capital investment of $538. At the time, Packard and his new wife Lucile lived in an apartment next door and Hewlett camped out in a shed on the property, located in Palo Alto, California. After developing a range of electronic products, the company entered the computer market in 1966 and is now one of the world’s largest technology corporations. The one-car garage where it all began is a designated California historic landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Walt Disney Company
In 1923, the Missouri-born cartoonist Walt Disney moved to Los Angeles with his brother Roy to make short films that combined animation and live action. They spent several months producing their first series, the “Alice Comedies,” out of their uncle Robert’s garage before relocating to the back of a realty office and finally to a studio. Now the world’s largest media conglomerate, the Walt Disney Company became a leader in film, television, travel, leisure, music and publishing. In 2006, it acquired Pixar Studios from another veteran of a California garage: Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer. Robert Disney’s garage was saved from demolition in 1984 and donated to the Stanley Ranch Museum.
Mattel
When Ruth and Elliot Handler, who had met in an industrial design course, started making picture frames in their California garage, they probably never thought their venture—Mattel—would grow into the world’s biggest toy manufacturer. More or less by accident, they wound up crafting dollhouse furniture and later children’s playthings out of spare wood scraps. In the late 1950s, Ruth determined there was a market for dolls that looked like “grown-ups”; ignoring her husband’s objections, she designed a prototype and named it after their daughter, Barbie. (Ken, named for their son, followed soon after.) Mattel struck gold with the new line, and in 1968 Ruth became the company’s president.
Long after Hewlett-Packard and Apple Computer made their unpretentious debuts, another technology powerhouse came screeching out of a Silicon Valley garage. After developing a groundbreaking search engine for a research project, Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in a garage owned by Susan Wojcicki, a friend and future employee. The company, which has since branched out into numerous other areas, now runs the most visited websites on the Internet and boasts locations around the world. In 2006, Google bought Wojcicki’s house—and the garage where its vast empire began.
Yankee Candle Company
In 1969, 17-year-old Michael Kittredge of South Hadley, Massachusetts, couldn’t dig up enough cash to buy his mother a Christmas present. On a whim, he melted down some crayons in his parents’ garage and made her a scented candle. When neighbors began expressing interest, Kittredge, who needed a hobby since his rock band had just broken up, recruited some friends and began churning out candles. By the following year, the booming business had taken over the Kittredge home, so the young entrepreneurs moved into a dilapidated mill. Today, the Yankee Candle Company is the leading U.S. candle manufacturer, with hundreds of retail locations, international distribution and multiple product lines.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
17 Things You Might Not Have Known About 'The Lion King'
Gary Susman
Sep 13th 2011
http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/09/13/lion-king-3d-trivia
Call it the circle of life: many kids who saw 'The Lion King' in theaters when it opened in 1994 can now take their own kids to see it when the 3D version hits the cineplex on Sept. 16. (The film hits both standard and 3D Blu-ray on Oct. 4.) Of course, it's hard to believe there's a generation that has never been exposed to 'The Lion King'; since the landmark Disney cartoon debuted, it has spawned an industry that's included two direct-to-video sequels, a TV series, several video games and a long-running Broadway musical.
To celebrate the 17-year history of 'The Lion King,' Moviefone has unearthed 17 things you might not have known about the furry film fable, including which Oscar-nominated song Elton John thought would kill his career, the supposed secret "sex" scene, what that chant at the beginning of 'Circle of Life' means, and a precedent-setting blast of warthog flatulence.
1. Originally, the movie was going to be called 'King of the Jungle,' until the filmmakers realized that lions live on the savanna, not in the jungle.
2. Initially, the film was not going to be a musical, but rather, a more realistic, National Geographic-type story. It was lyricist Tim Rice -- who'd worked with Disney on 'Aladdin' -- who suggested adding songs and hiring Elton John to compose them.
3. The film's writers referred to the film in private as 'Bamblet,' noting the similarity between their movie's plot and those of 'Bambi' and 'Hamlet.'
4. Conservative activists objected to a scene where particles in the night sky supposedly spell out, for an instant, the word "SEX." The animators have said that they were actually spelling out the abbreviation "SFX" (for "special effects") as a signature of their work that would be visible only to viewers with sharp eyes (and fast thumbs on the pause button).
5. For inspiration, the animators and artists spent two weeks in Africa, visiting Hell's Gate National Park in Kenya. They also had real lions brought into the animation studio, under the supervision of Jim Fowler, of TV's 'Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.'
6. The song 'Hakuna Matata' originated with a phrase the animators heard from a tour guide during their African trip. Tim Rice heard the phrase (which, as every fan knows, means "no worries") and noted its similarity to 'Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo' from Disney's 'Cinderella,' and he turned it into the film's comic centerpiece. Elton John, however, was afraid the tune would mark a low point in his career. "I sat there with a line of lyrics that began, 'When I was a young warthog," John said in 1995, "and I thought, 'Has it come to this?'"
7. Hans Zimmer, who eventually won an Oscar for composing the instrumental score, brought aboard Lebo M, a South African composer and singer he'd worked with on the film 'The Power of One.' (A self-imposed exile from the apartheid regime, Lebo M was parking cars in Los Angeles when Zimmer met him.) It's Lebo M who added the African choral passages to the score, including the famous 'Circle of Life' chant that opens the movie.
8. Lebo M's 'Circle of Life' chant, translated from Zulu, means, "Here comes a lion, Father/Oh yes, it's a lion/We're going to conquer/A lion and a leopard come to this open place."
9. Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella, who were co-starring on Broadway in 'Guys and Dolls,' auditioned together, hoping to play hyenas. But the filmmakers liked their chemistry and cast them instead as Timon and Pumbaa, the meerkat/warthog comic relief duo. For the hyenas, the filmmakers initially wanted Cheech and Chong , but the stoner comedy duo had broken up by the time the movie was made. So the filmmakers stuck with Cheech Marin but used Whoopi Goldberg instead of Tommy Chong.
10. 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight' was almost a comic duet for Timon and Pumbaa, but Elton John balked. As a traditional love ballad, marking Simba and Nala's romance, the song became one of three from the film nominated for Oscars (along with 'Hakuna Matata' and 'Circle of Life,') and it won the Academy Award for Elton John and Tim Rice.
11. A musical number called "The Morning Report" didn't make it into the film (it was replaced by dialogue), but it was used in the Broadway musical and was included in the 2002 IMAX re-release and the platinum-edition DVD, accompanied by newly created footage.
12. 'The Lion King' marks the second time that James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair played royal parents of an African prince. The first time was 'Coming to America,' where they played Eddie Murphy's dad and mom.
13. When Simba (voiced by Jonathan Taylor Thomas) tells Scar (Jeremy Irons), "You're so weird," and Scar replies, "You have no idea," the reference is to a nearly identical exchange between Ron Silver and Irons during the latter's Oscar-winning turn as Claus Von Bulow in 'Reversal of Fortune.'
14. While the characters in the movie are all hand-drawn, computers were used for assistance in some sequences, notably, the wildebeest stampede. In that sequence, a computer multiplied several hand-drawn animals into hundreds and created random paths for them. The resulting two-and-a-half-minute sequence took more than two years to create.
15. 'The Lion King' was the highest grossing movie worldwide in 1994, with a total of $772.6 million grossed around the globe. It's also the top-grossing hand-drawn cartoon of all time and the fourth-biggest animated feature of all time (behind CGI features 'Shrek 2,' 'Toy Story 3,' and 'Finding Nemo') in the U.S.
16. For a long time, 'The Lion King' held the record as the best-selling home video release, having sold 30 million copies on VHS.
17. Pumbaa was the first Disney character to fart.
Follow Gary Susman on Twitter @garysusman.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Siegel and Shuster’s Funnyman
The First Jewish Superhero From the Creators of Superman
Mel Gordon & Thomas Andrae
Review by Kenn Thomas, SteamshovelPress.com
Feral House bills Siegel and Shuster's Funnyman as the "first Jewish superhero" in this anthology that reprints certainly most of that comic book and strip. So the book should appeal to students of both popular American culture and Jewish cultural identity. Text chapters here deal with the history of Jewish humor, including analytical takes concerning self-mockery, inversion, solipsism and materialism sure to deprive the subject of some laughter, accompanied by essays on old Jewish superhero legends and the decline of the modern superhero. Siegel and Shuster created Superman, after all, the quintessential comic book super guy, and this lesser known creation - Funnyman, a crime fighting comedian named Larry Davis - demonstrates more clearly the Jewish roots of their inspiration. Authors Thomas Andrae and Mel Gordon also make a case for a connection between the creation of Funnyman and that of the state of Israel. The book is short on discussing comic books as secular culture in which Jewish tradition stews along with everything else, but in the process of directing this focus here, the authors shed some new light on Siegel and Shuster's legal struggles. They worked harder to retain the rights for Funnyman after the legendary ripping off they received from their publishers over Superman. The comic book industry has been one of those "conspiracy as usual" businesses that routinely deprived its best creators of a percentage of the licensing of their own creations. Recent lawsuits involving technicalities of the changing copyright laws have rectified this only to the smallest degree, and a similar case being fought between Jack Kirby's estate and Disney, which owns the Marvel properties Kirby created, remains a thing to be looked at for a possible victory against this type of conspiracy. Alas, no such legal drama accompanies Funnyman, a character few people know of or care about, and the book dodges any cynical remarks about comics economics and Shylock stereotypes. And while its essays may be overcooked, it does reprint an obscure and well-done piece of comics history and so is a must for the geeky bookshelf.
Mel Gordon & Thomas Andrae
Review by Kenn Thomas, SteamshovelPress.com
Feral House bills Siegel and Shuster's Funnyman as the "first Jewish superhero" in this anthology that reprints certainly most of that comic book and strip. So the book should appeal to students of both popular American culture and Jewish cultural identity. Text chapters here deal with the history of Jewish humor, including analytical takes concerning self-mockery, inversion, solipsism and materialism sure to deprive the subject of some laughter, accompanied by essays on old Jewish superhero legends and the decline of the modern superhero. Siegel and Shuster created Superman, after all, the quintessential comic book super guy, and this lesser known creation - Funnyman, a crime fighting comedian named Larry Davis - demonstrates more clearly the Jewish roots of their inspiration. Authors Thomas Andrae and Mel Gordon also make a case for a connection between the creation of Funnyman and that of the state of Israel. The book is short on discussing comic books as secular culture in which Jewish tradition stews along with everything else, but in the process of directing this focus here, the authors shed some new light on Siegel and Shuster's legal struggles. They worked harder to retain the rights for Funnyman after the legendary ripping off they received from their publishers over Superman. The comic book industry has been one of those "conspiracy as usual" businesses that routinely deprived its best creators of a percentage of the licensing of their own creations. Recent lawsuits involving technicalities of the changing copyright laws have rectified this only to the smallest degree, and a similar case being fought between Jack Kirby's estate and Disney, which owns the Marvel properties Kirby created, remains a thing to be looked at for a possible victory against this type of conspiracy. Alas, no such legal drama accompanies Funnyman, a character few people know of or care about, and the book dodges any cynical remarks about comics economics and Shylock stereotypes. And while its essays may be overcooked, it does reprint an obscure and well-done piece of comics history and so is a must for the geeky bookshelf.
Appeals Court Rejects More Media Consolidation
Stephen Lendman
Saturday, July 09, 2011
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/07/appeals-court-rejects-more-media.html
In six editions of "The Media Monopoly" and subsequent update titled, "The New Media Monopoly," Ben Bagdikian explained how deregulation let major media corporations consolidate to oligopoly size.
Since 1983, the number of corporations owning most newspapers, magazines, book publishers, recorded music, movie studios, television and radio stations shrunk from 50 to a handful, including Time-Warner, Disney, News Corp., Viacom, Comcast, and Bertelsmann AG.
In 1996, Telecommunications Act backers claimed it would increase competition, lower prices, and improve service. In fact, TV station ownership limits were raised to let broadcast giants own twice as many local stations as before, charge what they wished, and dismiss public concerns in the process.
For radio, all national ownership limits were removed, and, in large urban areas, one company could own up to eight stations in a major market. In smaller ones, two companies could own them all.
The bill also consigned new digital television broadcast spectrum space only to current TV station owners, and let cable companies increase their local monopoly positions. Media and telecom giants were clear winners. Consumers lost out.
Yet in October 2007, FCC chairman Kevin Martin proposed lifting the 1975 media cross-ownership rule, forbidding one company from owning a newspaper and television or radio station in the same city even though some conglomerates already did like News Corp. In November, he amended his plan to allow cross ownership only in large markets where competition already exists, with deceptive loopholes through waivers to permit it anywhere.
In 2003, FCC Michael Powell also tried loosening ownership rules, despite opponents saying relaxing them would further stifle debate, inhibit new ideas, weaken diversity, and more greatly consolidate oligopoly power.
In June 2004, the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled favorably for the Media Access Project (MAP) in Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC, ordering the agency to reconsider its ill-advised ownership rule changes that included:
-- ending cross-ownership restrictions that prohibits a company from owning a newspaper and TV or radio station in the same city;
-- eliminating the previous ban on radio/TV cross-ownership, and replacing both types with a single set of cross-media limits;
-- a dodgy "diversity index" based on assigning varying weights to different media to determine if markets retained enough. It not, ownership limits would be restricted, but the formula proposed was deceptive and dishonest, including for smaller markets; and
-- redefining National Market Share to let ownership ceilings rise unfairly.
In fact, the public overwhelmingly wants more, not less consolidation. On July 7, an important victory was won when the same Third Circuit Court issued its long-awaited verdict, throwing out proposed FCC rules changes.
The Prometheus Radio Project (PRP) "builds participatory radio as a tool for social justice organizing and a voice for community expression. (It) advocate(s) for a more just media system, and help(s) grassroots organizations build communications infrastructure to strengthen their communities and movements."
PRP explained the court decision on its web site, accessed through the following link:
http://www.prometheusradio.org/node/2532
Headlining "Federal Court Rejects Media Consolidation in Prometheus vs. FCC," it hailed PRP's "second historic victory" this year, saying:
The Third Circuit Court rejected FCC rules changes "that would have allowed one company to own a newspaper and broadcast stations in the same market," despite some already doing it.
Other FCC broadcast ownership limits were also upheld, as well as agreement that proposed changes failed to consider how women and minorities would be affected.
Media Access Project's PRP attorney Andrew Jay Schwartzman hailed the decision, saying:
"We won on almost every point. This decision is a vindication of the public's right to have a diverse media environment," despite how little now exists, except through alternative media sources, especially online.
On January 4, PRP won another victory when the Community Radio Act became law, permitting thousands of new stations nationally. Praising the decision, PRP's Policy Director Brandy Doyle said:
"Media matters. Thousands of people fought to pass the (law), and thousands more spoke out loudly when the FCC tried to further consolidate broadcast media." However, despite important victories, "we must continue to push the FCC to do the right thing for community radio."
On July 12, ahead of implementing the Local Community Radio Act, "the FCC will again propose new rules." Key is ensuring low-power urban FM community radio stations channel space as Congress mandated.
"Commercial broadcasters must share the airwaves with the urban churches, schools, and non-profits who have waited more than a decade to serve their communities with radio."
On July 7, a Free Press.net press release also hailed the court ruling. Corie Wright (who argued with Schwartzman for PRP) called it:
"a sweeping victory for the public interest. In rejecting the arguments of the industry and exposing the FCC's failures, the court wisely concluded that (media) competition....not more concentration will provide Americans with the local news and information they need and want."
Nonetheless, she said dominant media giants still lobby hard for rules changes, very much against the public interest that won this battle but can't relax.
This win, however, prevented one company from owning a city's dominant newspaper, eight radio stations, three television stations, and a major cable operation, shutting out most other voices entirely.
Distorted Major Media Coverage
On July 7, New York Times writer Bill Carter headlined, "Court Overturns FCC Cross-Ownership Rule," downplaying the decision's importance, saying:
"In a narrow ruling unlikely to have an immediate effect on current broadcasters," the court "did not rule on the merits" of FCC's proposed changes. "Instead, (it) said that the FCC had failed to allow sufficient time for official notice and public comment on them," distorting what, in fact, happened in typical Times fashion, suppressing vital information from its readers.
Wall Street Journal writer Amy Schatz was no better, headlining, "Appeals Court Bumps Up Pressure to Overhaul Media-Ownership Rule," unsurprisingly siding with media giants while ignoring the decision's importance.
Bloomberg's Sophia Pearson and Todd Shields also offered a distorted, biased account, headlining, "FCC's Rules on Media Cross-Ownership Are Vacated by Federal Appeals Court," saying:
The court ruled that the FCC "failed to provide adequate notice," downplaying the decision's importance like The Times, including by quoting Newspaper Association of America president John Sturm calling the decision "very disappointing. We're back to the original rule that was passed in 1975. It strains credulity to understand why that is."
In fact, following daily major print and broadcast media explains clearly why less (lots less), not more, concentration is needed.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour
Saturday, July 09, 2011
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/07/appeals-court-rejects-more-media.html
In six editions of "The Media Monopoly" and subsequent update titled, "The New Media Monopoly," Ben Bagdikian explained how deregulation let major media corporations consolidate to oligopoly size.
Since 1983, the number of corporations owning most newspapers, magazines, book publishers, recorded music, movie studios, television and radio stations shrunk from 50 to a handful, including Time-Warner, Disney, News Corp., Viacom, Comcast, and Bertelsmann AG.
In 1996, Telecommunications Act backers claimed it would increase competition, lower prices, and improve service. In fact, TV station ownership limits were raised to let broadcast giants own twice as many local stations as before, charge what they wished, and dismiss public concerns in the process.
For radio, all national ownership limits were removed, and, in large urban areas, one company could own up to eight stations in a major market. In smaller ones, two companies could own them all.
The bill also consigned new digital television broadcast spectrum space only to current TV station owners, and let cable companies increase their local monopoly positions. Media and telecom giants were clear winners. Consumers lost out.
Yet in October 2007, FCC chairman Kevin Martin proposed lifting the 1975 media cross-ownership rule, forbidding one company from owning a newspaper and television or radio station in the same city even though some conglomerates already did like News Corp. In November, he amended his plan to allow cross ownership only in large markets where competition already exists, with deceptive loopholes through waivers to permit it anywhere.
In 2003, FCC Michael Powell also tried loosening ownership rules, despite opponents saying relaxing them would further stifle debate, inhibit new ideas, weaken diversity, and more greatly consolidate oligopoly power.
In June 2004, the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled favorably for the Media Access Project (MAP) in Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC, ordering the agency to reconsider its ill-advised ownership rule changes that included:
-- ending cross-ownership restrictions that prohibits a company from owning a newspaper and TV or radio station in the same city;
-- eliminating the previous ban on radio/TV cross-ownership, and replacing both types with a single set of cross-media limits;
-- a dodgy "diversity index" based on assigning varying weights to different media to determine if markets retained enough. It not, ownership limits would be restricted, but the formula proposed was deceptive and dishonest, including for smaller markets; and
-- redefining National Market Share to let ownership ceilings rise unfairly.
In fact, the public overwhelmingly wants more, not less consolidation. On July 7, an important victory was won when the same Third Circuit Court issued its long-awaited verdict, throwing out proposed FCC rules changes.
The Prometheus Radio Project (PRP) "builds participatory radio as a tool for social justice organizing and a voice for community expression. (It) advocate(s) for a more just media system, and help(s) grassroots organizations build communications infrastructure to strengthen their communities and movements."
PRP explained the court decision on its web site, accessed through the following link:
http://www.prometheusradio.org/node/2532
Headlining "Federal Court Rejects Media Consolidation in Prometheus vs. FCC," it hailed PRP's "second historic victory" this year, saying:
The Third Circuit Court rejected FCC rules changes "that would have allowed one company to own a newspaper and broadcast stations in the same market," despite some already doing it.
Other FCC broadcast ownership limits were also upheld, as well as agreement that proposed changes failed to consider how women and minorities would be affected.
Media Access Project's PRP attorney Andrew Jay Schwartzman hailed the decision, saying:
"We won on almost every point. This decision is a vindication of the public's right to have a diverse media environment," despite how little now exists, except through alternative media sources, especially online.
On January 4, PRP won another victory when the Community Radio Act became law, permitting thousands of new stations nationally. Praising the decision, PRP's Policy Director Brandy Doyle said:
"Media matters. Thousands of people fought to pass the (law), and thousands more spoke out loudly when the FCC tried to further consolidate broadcast media." However, despite important victories, "we must continue to push the FCC to do the right thing for community radio."
On July 12, ahead of implementing the Local Community Radio Act, "the FCC will again propose new rules." Key is ensuring low-power urban FM community radio stations channel space as Congress mandated.
"Commercial broadcasters must share the airwaves with the urban churches, schools, and non-profits who have waited more than a decade to serve their communities with radio."
On July 7, a Free Press.net press release also hailed the court ruling. Corie Wright (who argued with Schwartzman for PRP) called it:
"a sweeping victory for the public interest. In rejecting the arguments of the industry and exposing the FCC's failures, the court wisely concluded that (media) competition....not more concentration will provide Americans with the local news and information they need and want."
Nonetheless, she said dominant media giants still lobby hard for rules changes, very much against the public interest that won this battle but can't relax.
This win, however, prevented one company from owning a city's dominant newspaper, eight radio stations, three television stations, and a major cable operation, shutting out most other voices entirely.
Distorted Major Media Coverage
On July 7, New York Times writer Bill Carter headlined, "Court Overturns FCC Cross-Ownership Rule," downplaying the decision's importance, saying:
"In a narrow ruling unlikely to have an immediate effect on current broadcasters," the court "did not rule on the merits" of FCC's proposed changes. "Instead, (it) said that the FCC had failed to allow sufficient time for official notice and public comment on them," distorting what, in fact, happened in typical Times fashion, suppressing vital information from its readers.
Wall Street Journal writer Amy Schatz was no better, headlining, "Appeals Court Bumps Up Pressure to Overhaul Media-Ownership Rule," unsurprisingly siding with media giants while ignoring the decision's importance.
Bloomberg's Sophia Pearson and Todd Shields also offered a distorted, biased account, headlining, "FCC's Rules on Media Cross-Ownership Are Vacated by Federal Appeals Court," saying:
The court ruled that the FCC "failed to provide adequate notice," downplaying the decision's importance like The Times, including by quoting Newspaper Association of America president John Sturm calling the decision "very disappointing. We're back to the original rule that was passed in 1975. It strains credulity to understand why that is."
In fact, following daily major print and broadcast media explains clearly why less (lots less), not more, concentration is needed.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Justice for Jack Kirby
DJ Coffman
February 25, 2011
http://yirmumah.keenspot.com/2011/02/justice-for-jack-kirby
Don’t debate me here, I know the truth. Want to know what Jack Kirby himself said about the creation process of who WROTE and CREATED the things he worked on at Marvel? Listen to the words straight from his mouth in this mp3: “Jack Kirby Tells You The Truth”
Little do people know that Jack Kirby SINGLE HANDILY saved Marvel Comics and literally stopped them from closing the doors. Seriously, they were taking out the furniture when Jack showed up one day and made them stop. All Jack wanted back then was a little respect and acknowledgment and a new title from the company he saved and the NEW industry he spawned from his imagination. Marvel Comics has made BILLIONS off the back of Jack’s creations and energy, but all he saw from it was a page rate and NO contract. He didn’t even want his “fair share”
All these years later, and billions of dollars in movie money and licensing based off things Jack created, and Marvel has never dropped ONE DIME to the estate of Jack Kirby. That’s fucking sad. What’s even more sad is, the MAIN thing keeping that company going is still Jack Kirby’s creations. It’s why they never really came up with anything new… just the same characters and stories rehashed over and over again. They just bring in new Stan Lees to change the words around.
Now that DISNEY owns Marvel and has money to spare, MAYBE they’ll do the right thing. Of course we’ve heard the rumors of how evil they can be too… but here’s a BIG chance for both of these companies to step up and do the honorable thing. Wouldn’t that be an awesome story and make you believe in heroes again? Imagine if the Jack Kirby Museum had the backing of Disney Dollars???
Disney, do what’s right. Hook up these old schoolers and their estate. Walt would have loved that. Remember Walt? That guy who made you?
Fans… if you truly love these creations and love these movies and things, pay a little tribute to Jack by donating to the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center. You can also actively help out old schoolers in need by donating to the Hero Initiative.
Do the right thing!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Virual Reality & Disneyland
In 1955, Walt Disney Imagineers achieved virtual reality with Disneyland. Eight Imagineering principles explain how they did it...
Eight Principles of Imagineering
According to Disney historian Alex Wright and contributors to The Imagineering Field Guide to Disneyland, Imagineering consists of the following eight basic principles.
1. Area Development: “The interstitial spaces between the attractions, restaurants, and shops. This includes landscaping, architecture, propping, show elements, and special enhancements intended to expand the experience.”
2. Blue Sky: “The early stages in the idea-generation process when anything is possible. There are not yet any considerations taken into account that might rein in the creative process. At this point, the sky’s the limit!”
3. Brainstorm: “A gathering for the purpose of generating as many ideas as possible in the shortest time possible. We hold many brainstorming sessions at WDI [Walt Disney Imagineering], always looking for the best ideas.” The rules include remembering that there is no such thing as a bad idea and that nothing should stifle the flow of ideas.
4. Dark Ride: “A term often used to describe the charming Fantasyland attractions, among others, housed more or less completely inside a show building, which allows for greater isolation of show elements and light control, as needed.”
5. Elevation: “A drawing of a true frontal view of an object—usually a building—often drawn from multiple sides, eliminating the perspective that you would see in the real world, for clarity in the design and to lead construction activities.”
6. Kinetics: “Movement and motion in a scene that give it life and energy. This can come from moving vehicles, active signage, changes in lighting, special effects, or even hanging banners or flags that move as the wind blows.”
7. Plussing: “A word derived from Walt’s penchant for always trying to make an idea better. Imagineers are continually trying to plus work, even after it’s ‘finished.’”
8. Show: “Everything we put ‘onstage’ in a Disney park. Walt believed that everything we put out for the Guests in our parks was part of a big show, so much of our terminology originated in the show business world. With that in mind, ‘show’ becomes for us a very broad term that includes just about anything our Guests see, hear, smell, or come in contact with during their visit to any of our parks or resorts.”
Source: The Imagineering Field Guide to Disneyland by Alex Wright and the Imagineers (Disney Editions, 2008).
Now Is the Time for the Future
At the entrance to the original 1955 Tomorrowland, the first attraction to come into view was a tall clock structure. This was the Clock of the World, which declared that now is the time for the future. This clock was intended to symbolize the incredible futuristic world about to be entered. Standing more than 17 feet tall, the clock looked much like a squeezed soda can topped with a half sphere, gold-spiked anodized aluminum sun and a stylized silver crescent Man in the Moon face. The blue tiles encircling its base depicted the vast universe.
Few passersby stopped to notice that the timepiece showed not only the time in Anaheim, California, but also around the world. Other than serving as a convenient place for parents to meet their kids, the clock rapidly faded into obscurity. The towering red-and-white TWA Rocket was a much more-remembered symbol of Tomorrowland.
The Clock of the World is now gone, with only some first-generation Disneylanders able to recall it. The clock continued to faithfully perform its timekeeping duties until it was removed in 1966, along with the widespread demolition of the original 1955 Tomorrowland. The exiting of the clock was captured in a photo showing the timepiece, minus its top ornamentation, being hauled away with the lower edge of its blue “universe” mosaic tiles broken off at the base.
Sometimes the future can be treated rather shabbily.
Imagineering Realism And Fantasy
To realize his Disneyland vision, Walt Disney assembled a talented team of Imagineers, who would transform ideas and dreams into reality. Looking up at the second-floor windows along Disneyland’s Main Street, you can see painted signs with the names of people and their businesses. While the businesses are somewhat fictitious, the people are not. These are names of Imagineers—such as Harper Goff, Ken Anderson, Herb Ryman, and Sam McKim —and others who played significant roles in making Disneyland happen. Even Walt Disney’s father, Elias Disney, has a window with his name painted on it with “Contractor Est. 1895” listed.
Goff, with his background in designing movie sets, would lend a hand with Main Street and the Jungle Cruise ride. Anderson, trained as an architect and all-around designer, worked on many last-minute Disneyland projects. Ryman, a versatile artist who rendered the dazzling overview of Disneyland in 1953, would later help conceptualize New Orleans Square. McKim, a multitalented artist, rendered concept sketches for Disneyland and other Disney projects.
These and many other Imagineers to follow helped dream and bring Disneyland into existence.
VISIONS: Imagineers in Search of the Future
Gary Dehrer
The Futurist
March-April 2011
http://www.wfs.org/content/visions-imagineers-search-future
Eight Principles of Imagineering
According to Disney historian Alex Wright and contributors to The Imagineering Field Guide to Disneyland, Imagineering consists of the following eight basic principles.
1. Area Development: “The interstitial spaces between the attractions, restaurants, and shops. This includes landscaping, architecture, propping, show elements, and special enhancements intended to expand the experience.”
2. Blue Sky: “The early stages in the idea-generation process when anything is possible. There are not yet any considerations taken into account that might rein in the creative process. At this point, the sky’s the limit!”
3. Brainstorm: “A gathering for the purpose of generating as many ideas as possible in the shortest time possible. We hold many brainstorming sessions at WDI [Walt Disney Imagineering], always looking for the best ideas.” The rules include remembering that there is no such thing as a bad idea and that nothing should stifle the flow of ideas.
4. Dark Ride: “A term often used to describe the charming Fantasyland attractions, among others, housed more or less completely inside a show building, which allows for greater isolation of show elements and light control, as needed.”
5. Elevation: “A drawing of a true frontal view of an object—usually a building—often drawn from multiple sides, eliminating the perspective that you would see in the real world, for clarity in the design and to lead construction activities.”
6. Kinetics: “Movement and motion in a scene that give it life and energy. This can come from moving vehicles, active signage, changes in lighting, special effects, or even hanging banners or flags that move as the wind blows.”
7. Plussing: “A word derived from Walt’s penchant for always trying to make an idea better. Imagineers are continually trying to plus work, even after it’s ‘finished.’”
8. Show: “Everything we put ‘onstage’ in a Disney park. Walt believed that everything we put out for the Guests in our parks was part of a big show, so much of our terminology originated in the show business world. With that in mind, ‘show’ becomes for us a very broad term that includes just about anything our Guests see, hear, smell, or come in contact with during their visit to any of our parks or resorts.”
Source: The Imagineering Field Guide to Disneyland by Alex Wright and the Imagineers (Disney Editions, 2008).
Now Is the Time for the Future
At the entrance to the original 1955 Tomorrowland, the first attraction to come into view was a tall clock structure. This was the Clock of the World, which declared that now is the time for the future. This clock was intended to symbolize the incredible futuristic world about to be entered. Standing more than 17 feet tall, the clock looked much like a squeezed soda can topped with a half sphere, gold-spiked anodized aluminum sun and a stylized silver crescent Man in the Moon face. The blue tiles encircling its base depicted the vast universe.
Few passersby stopped to notice that the timepiece showed not only the time in Anaheim, California, but also around the world. Other than serving as a convenient place for parents to meet their kids, the clock rapidly faded into obscurity. The towering red-and-white TWA Rocket was a much more-remembered symbol of Tomorrowland.
The Clock of the World is now gone, with only some first-generation Disneylanders able to recall it. The clock continued to faithfully perform its timekeeping duties until it was removed in 1966, along with the widespread demolition of the original 1955 Tomorrowland. The exiting of the clock was captured in a photo showing the timepiece, minus its top ornamentation, being hauled away with the lower edge of its blue “universe” mosaic tiles broken off at the base.
Sometimes the future can be treated rather shabbily.
Imagineering Realism And Fantasy
To realize his Disneyland vision, Walt Disney assembled a talented team of Imagineers, who would transform ideas and dreams into reality. Looking up at the second-floor windows along Disneyland’s Main Street, you can see painted signs with the names of people and their businesses. While the businesses are somewhat fictitious, the people are not. These are names of Imagineers—such as Harper Goff, Ken Anderson, Herb Ryman, and Sam McKim —and others who played significant roles in making Disneyland happen. Even Walt Disney’s father, Elias Disney, has a window with his name painted on it with “Contractor Est. 1895” listed.
Goff, with his background in designing movie sets, would lend a hand with Main Street and the Jungle Cruise ride. Anderson, trained as an architect and all-around designer, worked on many last-minute Disneyland projects. Ryman, a versatile artist who rendered the dazzling overview of Disneyland in 1953, would later help conceptualize New Orleans Square. McKim, a multitalented artist, rendered concept sketches for Disneyland and other Disney projects.
These and many other Imagineers to follow helped dream and bring Disneyland into existence.
VISIONS: Imagineers in Search of the Future
Gary Dehrer
The Futurist
March-April 2011
http://www.wfs.org/content/visions-imagineers-search-future
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Depp: Disney Hated His 'Gay' Jack Sparrow
http://www.deadline.com/2010/11/depp-disney-hated-his-gay-jack-sparrow/
Depp: Disney Hated His 'Gay' Jack Sparrow
NIKKI FINKE | Tuesday November 30, 2010
Johnny Depp was interviewed by Vanity Fair on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and had one interesting revelation: “They couldn’t stand him. They just couldn’t stand him,” Depp says of Disney’s reaction to his controversial interpretation of Sparrow. “I think it was Michael Eisner, the head of Disney at the time, who was quoted as saying, ‘He’s ruining the movie.’ Depp reveals that he remained unfazed by the studio’s hysteria. “Upper-echelon Disney-ites, going, 'What’s wrong with him? Is he, you know, like some kind of weird simpleton? Is he drunk? By the way, is he gay?…' And so I actually told this woman who was the Disney-ite… ‘But didn’t you know that all my characters are gay?’ Which really made her nervous.”
Disney Town Sees Death For 2nd Time In A Week
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131747877
Disney Town Sees Death For 2nd Time In A Week
CELEBRATION, Fla.
December 3, 2010
The owner of a failed security business barricaded himself in his soon-to-be foreclosed home, shot at deputies and then killed himself in this well-groomed Central Florida town built by Disney.
The 14-hour standoff came just days after the town's first-ever homicide, unsettling residents who moved to the community for its safety and small-town values even though authorities said the two were not connected.
Craig Foushee, 52, barricaded himself in his home Thursday for more than 14 hours, according to an Osceola County Sheriff's Office report. He shot at deputies several times, but they never returned fire because they couldn't get a clear shot. No deputies were injured.
Court records show Foushee was in the middle of a divorce, and it was apparent that his life was unraveling, neighbors said.
Early Friday, deputies deployed tear gas, entered the home and found Foushee dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
On the unusually crisp winter morning, the smell of the tear gas hung in the air on the upscale cul-de-sac. All of the second floor windows — including the third-floor dormers — were either broken or had bullet holes the size of baseballs. At least one streetlight in the shape of a lantern appeared to have been shattered by gunfire.
"Just because this is Celebration doesn't mean everyone's perfect," said Eva Medved, who lived across the street from Foushee. "People die, people get divorced, people get in trouble."
Medved, who warned her two children not to get too close to the house for fear the lingering gas would harm them, said all of the neighborhood kids, including Foushee's children, played in the street and on everyone's porches.
"This kind of puts a damper on all of that," said Medved, who has lived in Celebration since the master-planned community's founding in 1996.
With 11,000 residents, Celebration was built by Disney as a walkable, family-friendly small town. Crime is unusual in the town, which also boasts some of the highest median incomes in the area.
Court records show that Foushee had been on a downward spiral for the past year.
His wife, Kimberly Foushee, filed a domestic violence petition last June, but the injunction was dismissed in August after a hearing. Kimberly Foushee had filed for divorce in September 2009, and the couple reached a mediation settlement agreement last month.
Foreclosure proceedings were initiated against Craig Foushee in 2009, and efforts to reach a mediation agreement with the bank were canceled in September. The records also show he filed for bankruptcy in April.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Twis Lizasuain said there was no connection between Foushee and Matteo Patrick Giovanditto, who was found slain in a condominium Tuesday.
Giovanditto lived alone with his Chihuahua and was killed over the long Thanksgiving weekend, authorities said. Neighbors hadn't seen him for days, so they filed a missing person's report, then went into his condo a day later and found him.
Details were still emerging in the second death, but state records list Foushee as the owner of a security business, Reliant Protection Group. Online searches show it was a security training and threat assessment company.
Online records from the Florida Division of Corporations showed that the company was dissolved in September of this year. Foushee also had ties to other companies, including a custom home and construction company that dissolved in 2006.
A Facebook profile for a Craig Foushee in Celebration, Fla., showed him describing his three daughters as "my treasures." In April, he posted that he "went from being married to single."
Photos also depict men at a firing range. One has the caption: "Dept. of Defense Pre-Deployment Tactical Training."
A LinkedIn profile said Foushee was a pilot for American Airlines for nearly 20 years and an Air Force pilot.
"He was just a really nice guy," said Simone Wynne, a family friend who placed a bouquet of flowers on Foushee's porch Friday morning. "He was well-known and respected. This was a tragedy that escalated."
———
Associated Press writers Michael Schneider and Suzette Laboy contributed to this report.
Disney Town Sees Death For 2nd Time In A Week
CELEBRATION, Fla.
December 3, 2010
The owner of a failed security business barricaded himself in his soon-to-be foreclosed home, shot at deputies and then killed himself in this well-groomed Central Florida town built by Disney.
The 14-hour standoff came just days after the town's first-ever homicide, unsettling residents who moved to the community for its safety and small-town values even though authorities said the two were not connected.
Craig Foushee, 52, barricaded himself in his home Thursday for more than 14 hours, according to an Osceola County Sheriff's Office report. He shot at deputies several times, but they never returned fire because they couldn't get a clear shot. No deputies were injured.
Court records show Foushee was in the middle of a divorce, and it was apparent that his life was unraveling, neighbors said.
Early Friday, deputies deployed tear gas, entered the home and found Foushee dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
On the unusually crisp winter morning, the smell of the tear gas hung in the air on the upscale cul-de-sac. All of the second floor windows — including the third-floor dormers — were either broken or had bullet holes the size of baseballs. At least one streetlight in the shape of a lantern appeared to have been shattered by gunfire.
"Just because this is Celebration doesn't mean everyone's perfect," said Eva Medved, who lived across the street from Foushee. "People die, people get divorced, people get in trouble."
Medved, who warned her two children not to get too close to the house for fear the lingering gas would harm them, said all of the neighborhood kids, including Foushee's children, played in the street and on everyone's porches.
"This kind of puts a damper on all of that," said Medved, who has lived in Celebration since the master-planned community's founding in 1996.
With 11,000 residents, Celebration was built by Disney as a walkable, family-friendly small town. Crime is unusual in the town, which also boasts some of the highest median incomes in the area.
Court records show that Foushee had been on a downward spiral for the past year.
His wife, Kimberly Foushee, filed a domestic violence petition last June, but the injunction was dismissed in August after a hearing. Kimberly Foushee had filed for divorce in September 2009, and the couple reached a mediation settlement agreement last month.
Foreclosure proceedings were initiated against Craig Foushee in 2009, and efforts to reach a mediation agreement with the bank were canceled in September. The records also show he filed for bankruptcy in April.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Twis Lizasuain said there was no connection between Foushee and Matteo Patrick Giovanditto, who was found slain in a condominium Tuesday.
Giovanditto lived alone with his Chihuahua and was killed over the long Thanksgiving weekend, authorities said. Neighbors hadn't seen him for days, so they filed a missing person's report, then went into his condo a day later and found him.
Details were still emerging in the second death, but state records list Foushee as the owner of a security business, Reliant Protection Group. Online searches show it was a security training and threat assessment company.
Online records from the Florida Division of Corporations showed that the company was dissolved in September of this year. Foushee also had ties to other companies, including a custom home and construction company that dissolved in 2006.
A Facebook profile for a Craig Foushee in Celebration, Fla., showed him describing his three daughters as "my treasures." In April, he posted that he "went from being married to single."
Photos also depict men at a firing range. One has the caption: "Dept. of Defense Pre-Deployment Tactical Training."
A LinkedIn profile said Foushee was a pilot for American Airlines for nearly 20 years and an Air Force pilot.
"He was just a really nice guy," said Simone Wynne, a family friend who placed a bouquet of flowers on Foushee's porch Friday morning. "He was well-known and respected. This was a tragedy that escalated."
———
Associated Press writers Michael Schneider and Suzette Laboy contributed to this report.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
MGM film studio headed for bankruptcy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/oct/30/mgm-film-studio-rescued-bankruptcy
MGM film studio headed for bankruptcy
Studio famous for Wizard of Oz and Singin' in the Rain faces bankruptcy after creditors vote for reorganisation under deal with Spyglass
Edward Helmore in New York
The Guardian, Saturday 30 October 2010
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the legendary film studio famous for classic movies such as The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind and Singin' in the Rain, is set to file for bankruptcy within days. The move comes after creditors approved a plan to restructure its $4bn (£2.5bn) debt under the protection of insolvency courts and place the company under new management.
Resolution of the long-running saga of the studio's finances came after creditors rejected an aggressive takeover bid by corporate raider Carl Icahn. A reorganisation will require MGM to declare a chapter 11 bankruptcy in order to renegotiate its mountain of borrowing.
Icahn, who holds as much as $800m of MGM debt, had been campaigning for Lions Gate Entertainment to take over the firm. Yesterday Lions Gate sued Icahn claiming he was planning to buy a stake in the company and was offering to buy debt from other MGM creditors in an effort to gain control of the studio's fate himself.
Spyglass Entertainment, a small production company half-owned by private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, is now set to take over the company.
Under the new management, MGM is expected to make just four to six movies a year, most with modest budgets of $50m. Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, founders of Spyglass, have said they aim to be ruthless about costs, outsource distributing films to theatres and focus on the TV business and online services .
But the plan is considered a gamble. MGM faces bankruptcy in part because the DVD and film catalogue business attached to its 4,100-title film library no longer generates enough to service the firm's debt.
A plan earlier this year to bring in director Ridley Scott to serve as creative head along with his brother, Tony Scott, was seen as incoherent and was rejected.
But Spyglass's budget movie plan is considered risky by Hollywood veterans who warn against trying to run a studio on the cheap.
"Part of MGM's problem has always been that many of its owners are financial players more focused on the short term," Clark Hallren, a consultant and former banker for MGM, told the LA Times. "Being in the entertainment industry is typically a long-term play because of the nature of distribution and massive amounts of capital needed."
Joe Roth, ex-head of Walt Disney Studios, said MGM's rescuers had to be bold. "You either compete head-on or not at all," he said. "By making half-efforts, you never get the right product or talent."
MGM film studio headed for bankruptcy
Studio famous for Wizard of Oz and Singin' in the Rain faces bankruptcy after creditors vote for reorganisation under deal with Spyglass
Edward Helmore in New York
The Guardian, Saturday 30 October 2010
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the legendary film studio famous for classic movies such as The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind and Singin' in the Rain, is set to file for bankruptcy within days. The move comes after creditors approved a plan to restructure its $4bn (£2.5bn) debt under the protection of insolvency courts and place the company under new management.
Resolution of the long-running saga of the studio's finances came after creditors rejected an aggressive takeover bid by corporate raider Carl Icahn. A reorganisation will require MGM to declare a chapter 11 bankruptcy in order to renegotiate its mountain of borrowing.
Icahn, who holds as much as $800m of MGM debt, had been campaigning for Lions Gate Entertainment to take over the firm. Yesterday Lions Gate sued Icahn claiming he was planning to buy a stake in the company and was offering to buy debt from other MGM creditors in an effort to gain control of the studio's fate himself.
Spyglass Entertainment, a small production company half-owned by private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, is now set to take over the company.
Under the new management, MGM is expected to make just four to six movies a year, most with modest budgets of $50m. Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, founders of Spyglass, have said they aim to be ruthless about costs, outsource distributing films to theatres and focus on the TV business and online services .
But the plan is considered a gamble. MGM faces bankruptcy in part because the DVD and film catalogue business attached to its 4,100-title film library no longer generates enough to service the firm's debt.
A plan earlier this year to bring in director Ridley Scott to serve as creative head along with his brother, Tony Scott, was seen as incoherent and was rejected.
But Spyglass's budget movie plan is considered risky by Hollywood veterans who warn against trying to run a studio on the cheap.
"Part of MGM's problem has always been that many of its owners are financial players more focused on the short term," Clark Hallren, a consultant and former banker for MGM, told the LA Times. "Being in the entertainment industry is typically a long-term play because of the nature of distribution and massive amounts of capital needed."
Joe Roth, ex-head of Walt Disney Studios, said MGM's rescuers had to be bold. "You either compete head-on or not at all," he said. "By making half-efforts, you never get the right product or talent."
Friday, October 29, 2010
Boo Ya: United Workers Aim for ESPN Zone
10/25/2010
Dave Zirin
edgeofsports@gmail.com
When the ESPN Zone restaurant-chain shuttered most of its doors last June, eyebrows were raised in the business press. The restaurants had made bank ESPN brand with good food and of course, wall-to-wall sports. But as Rick Alessandri, senior vice president at ESPN put it at the time, "The economy has hit every facet of our country. We weren't immune."
ESPN’s mother-ship, the Walt Disney Company, made the decision to engage in some creative destruction and the ESPN Zones were just part of the fat that was trimmed. This included the very popular locale in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. But there was one problem with this hard-nosed business decision: the 150 workers in Baltimore, shocked that their high-traffic restaurant closed, were told with less than a week’s notice. Federal law, according to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires 60 days of notice and severance. Instead, the workers at ESPN Zone were given the bum’s rush. Even worse, many didn’t hear the wrenching news through their boss. Instead many found out their jobs were yesterday’s news in the Baltimore Sun or even on Facebook.
Now the workers are fighting back and fighting mad. On Monday, October 25th, the former employee filed a class action lawsuit against ESPN’s parent company Disney to get the Mouse to comply with the penalty associated with violating federal labor law. The penalty for violating the WARN Act requires that Disney pay workers for 60 days at the rate of their last paycheck. The severance that Disney offered, which is shameful, is separate from this penalty. Their attorney, Andrew D. Freeman said, “Disney’s severance payments were inadequate as a matter of law and as a matter of human decency.” The lawsuit also shines a spotlight on the most vulnerable people in today’s economy: people who live day in and day out working non-union, service industry jobs that can be here today and gone tomorrow.
A cook at the ESPN Zone, Winston Gupton, was put out on the street after losing his job. Speaking at a June 30th press conference, Gupton said, “I never thought that a place that I dedicated myself to for 7½ yrs would reciprocate with such disrespect by shutting down with no notice at all. We were stunned. It was like walking through a dream. We were just devastated, and immediately, I had to figure out what I was going to do because I have a six year-old daughter that I take care of. I was even forced to find other living arrangements, because the income I was expecting during this busy summer season was now drastically diminished."
It would be comforting to think that the Winston Gupton story is his and his alone: a man who became collateral damage in this particular instance of cold corporate number crunching. But it's a story being told across the country. It is particularly common in the neighborhood where his former place of business rusts: Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The Inner Harbor is a collection of high brand, national restaurant-chains like the Cheesecake Factory and Phillips Seafood, built to capitalize on tourist dollars and close proximity to the publicly funded Oriole Park at Camden Yards and the home of the Baltimore Ravens, MB&T Bank stadium
There is a movement afoot to turn this tourist zone into a “Human Rights Zone” and it’s being led by the same people who issued the class action suit on behalf the ESPN Zone employees: a group called the United Workers. The UW is an organization of low-wage workers that was founded by homeless day laborers in 2002. Today they have a membership of hundreds of workers trapped in that world between steady work and abject poverty. Their goal is to enter agreement with the restaurant chains to ensure basic human rights standards for workers across the harbor, including living wages, healthcare, and education. When a chain abruptly shuts its doors, like they did at the ESPN Zone, the UW wants to be treated like workers and not disposable equipment. As Debra Harris, a former ESPN Zone cook said,
“We are sending a message to Disney, ESPN Zone and Inner Harbor developers that private gain should not take precedence over human life. Corporate executives think they can break the law and just get away with it, because harbor developers do not enforce any human rights standards, but we are human beings and we have the right to dignity and respect.
Organizing the service industry has proven nationally to be a Sisyphean task for the AFL-CIO. But the independent United Workers have been successful in the past by waging highly visible grassroots campaigns, with the workers themselves in positions of leadership. They also relish taking on powerful corporations with national brands like ESPN and Disney, because they think by exposing the brand, they can get a seat at the table. Every corporation has a bottom line. The United Workers want to make sure there is at least some justice, dignity, and humanity in the process.
Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Dave Zirin
edgeofsports@gmail.com
When the ESPN Zone restaurant-chain shuttered most of its doors last June, eyebrows were raised in the business press. The restaurants had made bank ESPN brand with good food and of course, wall-to-wall sports. But as Rick Alessandri, senior vice president at ESPN put it at the time, "The economy has hit every facet of our country. We weren't immune."
ESPN’s mother-ship, the Walt Disney Company, made the decision to engage in some creative destruction and the ESPN Zones were just part of the fat that was trimmed. This included the very popular locale in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. But there was one problem with this hard-nosed business decision: the 150 workers in Baltimore, shocked that their high-traffic restaurant closed, were told with less than a week’s notice. Federal law, according to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires 60 days of notice and severance. Instead, the workers at ESPN Zone were given the bum’s rush. Even worse, many didn’t hear the wrenching news through their boss. Instead many found out their jobs were yesterday’s news in the Baltimore Sun or even on Facebook.
Now the workers are fighting back and fighting mad. On Monday, October 25th, the former employee filed a class action lawsuit against ESPN’s parent company Disney to get the Mouse to comply with the penalty associated with violating federal labor law. The penalty for violating the WARN Act requires that Disney pay workers for 60 days at the rate of their last paycheck. The severance that Disney offered, which is shameful, is separate from this penalty. Their attorney, Andrew D. Freeman said, “Disney’s severance payments were inadequate as a matter of law and as a matter of human decency.” The lawsuit also shines a spotlight on the most vulnerable people in today’s economy: people who live day in and day out working non-union, service industry jobs that can be here today and gone tomorrow.
A cook at the ESPN Zone, Winston Gupton, was put out on the street after losing his job. Speaking at a June 30th press conference, Gupton said, “I never thought that a place that I dedicated myself to for 7½ yrs would reciprocate with such disrespect by shutting down with no notice at all. We were stunned. It was like walking through a dream. We were just devastated, and immediately, I had to figure out what I was going to do because I have a six year-old daughter that I take care of. I was even forced to find other living arrangements, because the income I was expecting during this busy summer season was now drastically diminished."
It would be comforting to think that the Winston Gupton story is his and his alone: a man who became collateral damage in this particular instance of cold corporate number crunching. But it's a story being told across the country. It is particularly common in the neighborhood where his former place of business rusts: Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The Inner Harbor is a collection of high brand, national restaurant-chains like the Cheesecake Factory and Phillips Seafood, built to capitalize on tourist dollars and close proximity to the publicly funded Oriole Park at Camden Yards and the home of the Baltimore Ravens, MB&T Bank stadium
There is a movement afoot to turn this tourist zone into a “Human Rights Zone” and it’s being led by the same people who issued the class action suit on behalf the ESPN Zone employees: a group called the United Workers. The UW is an organization of low-wage workers that was founded by homeless day laborers in 2002. Today they have a membership of hundreds of workers trapped in that world between steady work and abject poverty. Their goal is to enter agreement with the restaurant chains to ensure basic human rights standards for workers across the harbor, including living wages, healthcare, and education. When a chain abruptly shuts its doors, like they did at the ESPN Zone, the UW wants to be treated like workers and not disposable equipment. As Debra Harris, a former ESPN Zone cook said,
“We are sending a message to Disney, ESPN Zone and Inner Harbor developers that private gain should not take precedence over human life. Corporate executives think they can break the law and just get away with it, because harbor developers do not enforce any human rights standards, but we are human beings and we have the right to dignity and respect.
Organizing the service industry has proven nationally to be a Sisyphean task for the AFL-CIO. But the independent United Workers have been successful in the past by waging highly visible grassroots campaigns, with the workers themselves in positions of leadership. They also relish taking on powerful corporations with national brands like ESPN and Disney, because they think by exposing the brand, they can get a seat at the table. Every corporation has a bottom line. The United Workers want to make sure there is at least some justice, dignity, and humanity in the process.
Dave Zirin is the author of “Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love” (Scribner) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Mickey's Halloween Party at Disneyland Park
http://disneyland.disney.go.com/special-offers/mickeys-halloween-party/
Mickey's Halloween Party at Disneyland Park
The popular Mickey's Trick-or-Treat Party from Disney California Adventure Park has been transformed into a bewitching event at Disneyland Park! Scare up your favorite costume for an evening of spirited attractions, treats, and more!
Event Dates
•October 1, 5, 8, 12, 15, 19, 22, 26, 29 and 31
Times
•Tuesday Nights: 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
•Fridays and Halloween Night: 7:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.
Advance Purchase Ticket Prices*
•$49 Special Discount for These Dates
October 1, 5, 12, 19 and 26
Day-of-Event Ticket Prices*
•$54 If Purchased and Used on These Dates:
October 1, 5, 8, 12, 15, 19, 22 and 26
•$59 If Purchased and Used on These Dates:
October 29 and 31
All Dates
•Ages Two and Under: No Charge!
Special Annual Passholder Prices
Buy your tickets now and print them at home or call (714) 781-4400. Guests under age 18 must have parent or guardian permission to call.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Mickey the Mason
http://www.ocweekly.com/2003-02-20/food/mickey-the-mason
Mickey the Mason
Behind the door of Uncle Walts exclusive Club 33
Dan Kapelovitz
Thursday, Feb 20 2003
Deep in the heart of the Happiest Place on Earth, Disneyland's semi-secret restaurant Club 33 beats like a pacemaker. Officially, the club is located at 33 Rue Royale in New Orleans Square, near the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. A decorative "33" and an intercom next to a French Quarter-style door are the only markers of the club's entrance. Disneyland's info line says 33 is the product of Walt Disney's "vision of a quiet, elegant place where he could entertain special guests." Sadly, Jesus had other plans, and Mickey Mouse's pappy ascended to that Magic Kingdom in the sky five months before the club's 1967 completion.
With Walt gone, it was decided to allow the public to dine there—or, rather, some of the public. Only card-carrying Club 33 members and their guests can enter the exclusive club. Individual gold memberships run $7,500, plus $2,500 in annual dues. Even if one does have this kind of excess income, there's a multiyear waiting list.
Luckily, W.B. Shaffner and Ana Medina—former owners of Archaic Idiot, a groovy, since-shuttered East Hollywood oddities shop—number among their many ex-customers a Club 33 member. They obtained passes for themselves and psychedelic-sex-cult priestess Giddle Partridge, Death in June front man Douglas Pearce, and noise-music pioneer/Disneyland fanatic Boyd Rice. And me.
After buzzing us in, the hostess directed us to the second-floor dining facilities, decorated with 19th-century antiques and reproductions. There's an oak telephone based on the one in the 1967 Disney film The Happiest Millionaire. Ornate, iron-railed balconies overlook the park's "Mississippi River." In the women's bathroom, ladies sit on an actual throne strategically placed over a waiting toilet. At one time, the club featured hidden microphones and speakers. Although it's rumored that these were installed so Walt could eavesdrop on guests, officially they allowed a Disney performer to entertain dignitaries by talking to them through one of several animatronic birds.
The number 33 is omnipresent; even foil butter wrappers are ordained with the mystical number. Disney literature insists the number is derived from the address. Yet pseudo-addresses on faux streets are obviously whatever Disneyland wants them to be. So why 33? One theory is that Walt Disney was a 33rd Degree Freemason, the order's highest level. And that number's significance? It's the age Jesus was said to have been when he was crucified. However, the Internet urban-legend debunkers at Snopes.com give their own elaborate explanation: after Walt passed away, 33 of the 47 amusement-park participants voted to create the semi-public club. This seems even less likely than the Freemason theory. Could Snopes.com be part of an elaborate Masonic conspiracy? Rice, an avid student of religious symbolism who has dined at the club a few times, says he looks for overt Masonic imagery whenever he's there. The closest he has found to Masonic masonry is at the top of the windows, where there are designs that are almost shaped like an eye.
The staff is superfriendly in that Disneyland way. One extra-supernice waiter dressed in the blue Club 33 uniform told us '70s pop idol Bobby Sherman is a long-standing member who visits often and brings presents to club employees. His autobiography, Bobby Sherman: Still Remembering You, suggests the guy is obsessed with Disneyland. The former star of such TV shows as Here Come the Bridesand Getting Togetherhas made three elaborate scale models of the amusement park, the first when he was only 13.
The cuisine is by far the best in all the land of Disney, which, in itself, isn't saying much. We each ordered the all-you-can-eat buffet—tasty cold cuts, chicken, fruit, beef, a variety of salads, artichoke hearts and pasta dishes prepared by a chef any way you desire. The buffet costs $47, but club guests receive free admission to both Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. Wine, however, is extra.
Delighted to be in the only place in Disneyland that serves alcohol, Pearce ordered bottle after bottle of chardonnay. Luckily, the Goth rocker from Down Under had plenty of cash in his kangaroo-testicle pouch. We paid the bill and left the heavenly serenity of Club 33 for the reenacted hell of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
Club 33 is located at 33 Rue Royale, New Orleans Square, Disneyland. It's members-only.
Mickey the Mason
Behind the door of Uncle Walts exclusive Club 33
Dan Kapelovitz
Thursday, Feb 20 2003
Deep in the heart of the Happiest Place on Earth, Disneyland's semi-secret restaurant Club 33 beats like a pacemaker. Officially, the club is located at 33 Rue Royale in New Orleans Square, near the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. A decorative "33" and an intercom next to a French Quarter-style door are the only markers of the club's entrance. Disneyland's info line says 33 is the product of Walt Disney's "vision of a quiet, elegant place where he could entertain special guests." Sadly, Jesus had other plans, and Mickey Mouse's pappy ascended to that Magic Kingdom in the sky five months before the club's 1967 completion.
With Walt gone, it was decided to allow the public to dine there—or, rather, some of the public. Only card-carrying Club 33 members and their guests can enter the exclusive club. Individual gold memberships run $7,500, plus $2,500 in annual dues. Even if one does have this kind of excess income, there's a multiyear waiting list.
Luckily, W.B. Shaffner and Ana Medina—former owners of Archaic Idiot, a groovy, since-shuttered East Hollywood oddities shop—number among their many ex-customers a Club 33 member. They obtained passes for themselves and psychedelic-sex-cult priestess Giddle Partridge, Death in June front man Douglas Pearce, and noise-music pioneer/Disneyland fanatic Boyd Rice. And me.
After buzzing us in, the hostess directed us to the second-floor dining facilities, decorated with 19th-century antiques and reproductions. There's an oak telephone based on the one in the 1967 Disney film The Happiest Millionaire. Ornate, iron-railed balconies overlook the park's "Mississippi River." In the women's bathroom, ladies sit on an actual throne strategically placed over a waiting toilet. At one time, the club featured hidden microphones and speakers. Although it's rumored that these were installed so Walt could eavesdrop on guests, officially they allowed a Disney performer to entertain dignitaries by talking to them through one of several animatronic birds.
The number 33 is omnipresent; even foil butter wrappers are ordained with the mystical number. Disney literature insists the number is derived from the address. Yet pseudo-addresses on faux streets are obviously whatever Disneyland wants them to be. So why 33? One theory is that Walt Disney was a 33rd Degree Freemason, the order's highest level. And that number's significance? It's the age Jesus was said to have been when he was crucified. However, the Internet urban-legend debunkers at Snopes.com give their own elaborate explanation: after Walt passed away, 33 of the 47 amusement-park participants voted to create the semi-public club. This seems even less likely than the Freemason theory. Could Snopes.com be part of an elaborate Masonic conspiracy? Rice, an avid student of religious symbolism who has dined at the club a few times, says he looks for overt Masonic imagery whenever he's there. The closest he has found to Masonic masonry is at the top of the windows, where there are designs that are almost shaped like an eye.
The staff is superfriendly in that Disneyland way. One extra-supernice waiter dressed in the blue Club 33 uniform told us '70s pop idol Bobby Sherman is a long-standing member who visits often and brings presents to club employees. His autobiography, Bobby Sherman: Still Remembering You, suggests the guy is obsessed with Disneyland. The former star of such TV shows as Here Come the Bridesand Getting Togetherhas made three elaborate scale models of the amusement park, the first when he was only 13.
The cuisine is by far the best in all the land of Disney, which, in itself, isn't saying much. We each ordered the all-you-can-eat buffet—tasty cold cuts, chicken, fruit, beef, a variety of salads, artichoke hearts and pasta dishes prepared by a chef any way you desire. The buffet costs $47, but club guests receive free admission to both Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure. Wine, however, is extra.
Delighted to be in the only place in Disneyland that serves alcohol, Pearce ordered bottle after bottle of chardonnay. Luckily, the Goth rocker from Down Under had plenty of cash in his kangaroo-testicle pouch. We paid the bill and left the heavenly serenity of Club 33 for the reenacted hell of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
Club 33 is located at 33 Rue Royale, New Orleans Square, Disneyland. It's members-only.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Donald Duck takes on Hitler
http://www.dangerousminds.net/index.php/site/comments/donald_duck_takes_on_hitler_to_the_tune_of_der_fuehrers_face/Donald Duck takes on Hitler to the tune of Der Führer’s Face
12.06.2009
Richard Metzger
Tags:
Nazis
Disney
propaganda
WWII
Spike Jones
Adoph Hitler
Donald Duck
Der Fuehrer’s Face is a 1943 propaganda cartoon from the Walt Disney Studios, starring Donald Duck. It was directed by Jack Kinney as an anti-Nazi piece for the American war effort. The song, of course, was later made famous by the great Spike Jones and his City Slickers. The short film won the 1943 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film (the sole Donald Duck short to do so) and in considered one of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time, as voted on by animators.
The German oom-pah band is comprised of Emperor Hirohito (Showa), Hermann Göring on piccolo, Joseph Goebbels on trombone, and Il Duce himself, Benito Mussolini on bass drum.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YroTk6Vobww
Friday, November 20, 2009
After Mickey’s Makeover, Less Mr. Nice Guy
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/business/media/05mickey.htmlAfter Mickey’s Makeover, Less Mr. Nice Guy
By BROOKS BARNES
November 4, 2009
LOS ANGELES — For decades, the Walt Disney Company has largely kept Mickey Mouse frozen under glass, fearful that even the tiniest tinkering might tarnish the brand and upend his $5 billion or so in annual merchandise sales. One false move and Disney could have New Coke on its hands.
Now, however, concerned that Mickey has become more of a corporate symbol than a beloved character for recent generations of young people, Disney is taking the risky step of re-imagining him for the future.
The first glimmer of this will be the introduction next year of a new video game, Epic Mickey, in which the formerly squeaky clean character can be cantankerous and cunning, as well as heroic, as he traverses a forbidding wasteland.
And at the same time, in a parallel but separate effort, Disney has quietly embarked on an even larger project to rethink the character’s personality, from the way Mickey walks and talks to the way he appears on the Disney Channel and how children interact with him on the Web — even what his house looks like at Disney World.
“Holy cow, the opportunity to mess with one of the most recognizable icons on Planet Earth,” said Warren Spector, the creative director of Junction Point, a Disney-owned game developer that spearheaded Epic Mickey.
The effort to re-engineer Mickey is still in its early stages, but it involves the top creative and marketing minds in the company, all the way up to Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive.
The project was given new impetus this week with the announcement that, after 20 years of negotiations, the company has finally received the blessing of the Chinese government to open a theme park in Shanghai, potentially unlocking a new giant market for all things Mickey.
Disney executives are treading carefully, and trying to keep a low profile, as they discuss how much they dare tweak one of the most durable characters in pop culture history to induce new generations of texting, tech-savvy children to embrace him. Disney executives will keenly watch how Epic Mickey is received, to inform the broader overhaul.
Keeping cartoon characters trapped in amber is one of the surest routes to irrelevancy. While Mickey remains a superstar in many homes, particularly overseas, his static nature has resulted in a generation of Americans — the one that grew up with Nickelodeon and Pixar — that knows him, but may not love him. Domestic sales in particular have declined: of his $5 billion in merchandise sales in 2009, less than 20 percent will come from the United States.
“There’s a distinct risk of alienating your core consumer when you tweak a sacred character, but at this point it’s a risk they have to take,” said Matt Britton, the managing partner of Mr. Youth, a New York brand consultant firm.
In Epic Mickey, the foundation of which a group of interns dreamed up in 2004, the title character still exhibits the hallmarks that younger generations know: he is adventurous, enthusiastic and curious. “Mickey is never going to be evil or go around killing people,” Mr. Spector said.
But Mickey won’t be bland anymore, either. “I wanted him to be able to be naughty — when you’re playing as Mickey you can misbehave and even be a little selfish,” Mr. Spector said.
In many ways, it is a return to Mickey at his creation. When the character made its debut in “Steamboat Willie” in 1928, he was the Bart Simpson of his time: an uninhibited rabble-rouser who got into fistfights, played tricks on his friends (pity Clarabelle Cow) and, later, was amorously aggressive with Minnie.
Epic Mickey, designed for Nintendo’s Wii console, is set in a “cartoon wasteland” where Disney’s forgotten and retired creations live. The chief inhabitant is Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a cartoon character Walt Disney created in 1927 as a precursor to Mickey but ultimately abandoned in a dispute with Universal Studios. In the game, Oswald has become bitter and envious of Mickey’s popularity. The game also features a disemboweled, robotic Donald Duck and a “twisted, broken, dangerous” version of Disneyland’s “It’s a Small World.” Using paint and thinner thrown from a magic paintbrush, Mickey must stop the Phantom Blot overlord, gain the trust of Oswald and save the day.
Consumers will not be able to buy the game before fall of next year. Anticipation is intense. “Wow! This is amazing,” said Eli Gee on GameInformer.com. “I’m really... REALLY excited.”
Other observers are less impressed. “The approach warrants a lot of caution given the difficulty that publishers have had gaining traction on the Wii,” said Doug Creutz, a media analyst at Cowen and Company.
Industry veterans with experience in the family niche think that the Disney brand can overcome such hurdles.
“This is a huge opportunity to create more relevancy for Mickey and pull him into the fastest-growing entertainment medium,” said Jim Wilson, the chief executive of Atari’s North American business. “If it’s a good game — and given the strength of the developer and I.P., the likelihood of that is high — people are going to buy it.”
Not that the idea is not radical. “I was told to withhold judgment until I had seen the whole pitch,” said Graham Hopper, executive vice president for Disney Interactive Studios.
Disney has big video game ambitions, spending at least $180 million on their development this year alone. It has had successful spinoff titles, but no true self-published blockbusters. Disney generated about $86 million in retail sales from January to September in the United States, according to NPD data. Nintendo of America, the leading seller of games, had about $1 billion in sales.
Mr. Iger solved a right problems with the game by making a deal with NBC Universal in 2006. In the negotiations, Mr. Iger persuaded NBC Universal to trade the Oswald rights for rights to Al Michaels, the sportscaster. NBC wanted Mr. Michaels for its new football franchise and Mr. Michaels wanted to go, but Disney held him in a longtime contract through its ESPN unit.
In the interim, Mr. Spector has struggled with the correct 3-D model of the mouse, consulting with animators and John Lasseter, the Pixar co-founder.
Considerable effort has gone into instilling a backdrop of choice and consequence. Players can either behave in an entirely happy way and help other characters — and have an easier go of it in the wasteland — or choose more selfish, destructive behavior with a harsher outcome, including a Mickey that starts to physically resemble a rat.
“Ultimately,” Mr. Spector said, “players must ask themselves, ‘What kind of hero am I?’ ”
When it comes to Mickey, Disney is asking it, too.
A version of this article appeared in print on November 5, 2009, on page A1 of the New York edition.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Comic Book Creator Seek to Recapture Copyrights
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125349626919226359.html
Heirs of Comic Book Creator Seek to Recapture Copyrights
By LAUREN A.E. SCHUKER
SEPTEMBER 21, 2009
The heirs of late comic-book creator Jack Kirby served 45 copyright-termination notices to Marvel Entertainment Inc., Walt Disney Co. and other Hollywood studios relating to comic-book characters and stories created by Mr. Kirby, including "X-Men" and "The Fantastic Four."
Mr. Kirby's four children are seeking to recapture as early as 2014 copyrights to characters he created. Those creations and co-creations are currently owned by Marvel. But if the heirs gain control of the copyrights, they could license them without Marvel's permission, or at least secure a share of the profits generated by those characters.
The heirs served the notices under the auspices of the U.S. Copyright Act, which permits authors and their heirs to terminate old copyright grants after a long waiting period, allowing them to recapture the rights for their own use.
A spokeswoman for Disney said: "The notices involved are an attempt to terminate rights seven to 10 years from now and involve claims fully considered in the acquisition."
Disney last month agreed to acquire Marvel for $4 billion.
In a federal court lawsuit that hasn't been fully resolved, the heirs of "Superman" co-creator Jerry Siegel recently recaptured limited rights relating to the original "Superman" from Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. and DC Comics.
—Ethan Smith contributed to this article.
Write to Lauren A.E. Schuker at lauren.schuker@wsj.com
Heirs of Comic Book Creator Seek to Recapture Copyrights
By LAUREN A.E. SCHUKER
SEPTEMBER 21, 2009
The heirs of late comic-book creator Jack Kirby served 45 copyright-termination notices to Marvel Entertainment Inc., Walt Disney Co. and other Hollywood studios relating to comic-book characters and stories created by Mr. Kirby, including "X-Men" and "The Fantastic Four."
Mr. Kirby's four children are seeking to recapture as early as 2014 copyrights to characters he created. Those creations and co-creations are currently owned by Marvel. But if the heirs gain control of the copyrights, they could license them without Marvel's permission, or at least secure a share of the profits generated by those characters.
The heirs served the notices under the auspices of the U.S. Copyright Act, which permits authors and their heirs to terminate old copyright grants after a long waiting period, allowing them to recapture the rights for their own use.
A spokeswoman for Disney said: "The notices involved are an attempt to terminate rights seven to 10 years from now and involve claims fully considered in the acquisition."
Disney last month agreed to acquire Marvel for $4 billion.
In a federal court lawsuit that hasn't been fully resolved, the heirs of "Superman" co-creator Jerry Siegel recently recaptured limited rights relating to the original "Superman" from Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. and DC Comics.
—Ethan Smith contributed to this article.
Write to Lauren A.E. Schuker at lauren.schuker@wsj.com
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Disney to expand Fantasyland at Disney World
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE58B25O20090912
Disney to expand Fantasyland at Walt Disney World
Sat Sep 12, 2009
Gina Keating
ANAHEIM, California (Reuters) - Mickey Mouse's house and his Toon Town world will make way next year for a vastly larger Fantasyland, in the biggest-ever expansion of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida, Walt Disney Co said on Saturday.
The Fantasyland expansion, whose price tag was not disclosed, will open in two stages in 2012 and 2013 and builds on the popularity of the Disney Princess and Fairies franchises, which have topped $4 billion in global retail sales.
Disney theme parks Chairman Jay Rasulo said the Fantasyland project, which breaks ground next year, will be paid for from funds designated for the theme park division's annual capital expenditures.
Plans call for four Disney Princess characters -- Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle from "Beauty and the Beast" and Ariel from "The Little Mermaid" -- to be featured in "fantasy lands" where park visitors engage in dancing, storytelling or a birthday party with costumed characters from the films.
The expansion includes two new dining spots -- Gascon's Tavern and the 552-seat Beast's Castle. A new underwater ride based on "The Little Mermaid, will be built both in the Florida Fantasyland and at the ongoing expansion of California Adventure in Disneyland.
The second phase of the Fantasyland expansion will be an oversized world based on the fairy world of Pixie Hollow from "Peter Pan," but no other details were available because the attraction was still in early development stages, Rasulo said.
As part of the Fantasyland expansion, Disney plans to double the size of the popular Dumbo ride to add a covered "three-ring circus" waiting area with interactive games and a play area.
Disney Imagineers, who design rides and attractions, said the Toon Town attraction would be dismantled and its popular Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse houses relocated to another section of Walt Disney World.
Rasulo also announced an upgrade to the Star Tours rides at Disneyland in Anaheim and Disney's Hollywood Studio in Florida to open in 2011.
Star Tours simulates a ride through space aboard spacecraft like those in the original "Star Wars" film.
The updated version features new digital 3D effects and projectors that let ride operators vary "destinations," as well as upgrades to the Star Speeder cabins, Rasulo said.
(Editing by Peter Cooney)
Disney to expand Fantasyland at Walt Disney World
Sat Sep 12, 2009
Gina Keating
ANAHEIM, California (Reuters) - Mickey Mouse's house and his Toon Town world will make way next year for a vastly larger Fantasyland, in the biggest-ever expansion of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida, Walt Disney Co said on Saturday.
The Fantasyland expansion, whose price tag was not disclosed, will open in two stages in 2012 and 2013 and builds on the popularity of the Disney Princess and Fairies franchises, which have topped $4 billion in global retail sales.
Disney theme parks Chairman Jay Rasulo said the Fantasyland project, which breaks ground next year, will be paid for from funds designated for the theme park division's annual capital expenditures.
Plans call for four Disney Princess characters -- Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle from "Beauty and the Beast" and Ariel from "The Little Mermaid" -- to be featured in "fantasy lands" where park visitors engage in dancing, storytelling or a birthday party with costumed characters from the films.
The expansion includes two new dining spots -- Gascon's Tavern and the 552-seat Beast's Castle. A new underwater ride based on "The Little Mermaid, will be built both in the Florida Fantasyland and at the ongoing expansion of California Adventure in Disneyland.
The second phase of the Fantasyland expansion will be an oversized world based on the fairy world of Pixie Hollow from "Peter Pan," but no other details were available because the attraction was still in early development stages, Rasulo said.
As part of the Fantasyland expansion, Disney plans to double the size of the popular Dumbo ride to add a covered "three-ring circus" waiting area with interactive games and a play area.
Disney Imagineers, who design rides and attractions, said the Toon Town attraction would be dismantled and its popular Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse houses relocated to another section of Walt Disney World.
Rasulo also announced an upgrade to the Star Tours rides at Disneyland in Anaheim and Disney's Hollywood Studio in Florida to open in 2011.
Star Tours simulates a ride through space aboard spacecraft like those in the original "Star Wars" film.
The updated version features new digital 3D effects and projectors that let ride operators vary "destinations," as well as upgrades to the Star Speeder cabins, Rasulo said.
(Editing by Peter Cooney)
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Disney to buy Marvel for $4 billion
http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/31/news/companies/disney_marvel/
Disney to buy Marvel for $4 billion
Walt Disney Co. will purchase the comic book company behind X-Men and Spider-Man, pending shareholder approval.
David Goldman, CNNMoney.com staff writer
August 31, 2009
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Walt Disney Co. announced Monday that it has agreed to purchase comic book and action hero company Marvel Entertainment for about $4 billion.
If Marvel shareholders approve the deal, they would receive $30 per share in cash and 0.745 shares of Disney for each share of Marvel that they hold.
"We believe that adding Marvel to Disney's unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation," said Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger, in a statement.
Marvel has launched a large number of action-hero movies over the past decade, including last summer's Iron Man blockbuster, which was fully financed by by the comic book company. Marvel also holds the rights to popular action hero characters like Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and Thor.
"Disney is the perfect home for Marvel's fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses," said Marvel Chief Executive Ike Perlmutter. "This is an unparalleled opportunity for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties by accessing Disney's tremendous global organization and infrastructure around the world."
Shares of Marvel soared 27% in morning trading. Shares of Disney were flat.
Disney to buy Marvel for $4 billion
Walt Disney Co. will purchase the comic book company behind X-Men and Spider-Man, pending shareholder approval.
David Goldman, CNNMoney.com staff writer
August 31, 2009
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Walt Disney Co. announced Monday that it has agreed to purchase comic book and action hero company Marvel Entertainment for about $4 billion.
If Marvel shareholders approve the deal, they would receive $30 per share in cash and 0.745 shares of Disney for each share of Marvel that they hold.
"We believe that adding Marvel to Disney's unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation," said Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger, in a statement.
Marvel has launched a large number of action-hero movies over the past decade, including last summer's Iron Man blockbuster, which was fully financed by by the comic book company. Marvel also holds the rights to popular action hero characters like Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and Thor.
"Disney is the perfect home for Marvel's fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses," said Marvel Chief Executive Ike Perlmutter. "This is an unparalleled opportunity for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties by accessing Disney's tremendous global organization and infrastructure around the world."
Shares of Marvel soared 27% in morning trading. Shares of Disney were flat.
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