By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 8/18/2015
Alexander Jones reported on the new Star Wars attractions, so here are the main points: Each will occupy 14 acres. (Picture halls A-H in San Diego, plus the Sails Pavilion) In Florida, it will be located in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. (But there isn’t much land available…maybe they’ll move the parking lot to the other side of […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 8/17/2015
At D23 in the Anaheim Convention center this morning, Disney revealed a short clip and some concept art for the biggest single ‘land’ expansion of Disneyland yet: Star Wars Land. The new area based on the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens film and will be built in 2017 around the Big Thunder Ranch area and […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 8/16/2015
D23 gives gamers tons of Star Wars to cheer about on its last day.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 8/15/2015
I’m not at D23 this weekend, and I’ll reserve any of the “on the scene” impressions for Beat contributors Alex Jones and Victor Van Scoit, who are both there in person. But that doesn’t mean I won’t report on the biggest announcements that are worthy of attention and discussion, and when it comes to Disney […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 5/7/2015
This August the D23: The Official Disney Fan Club announces the lineup of the most highly anticipated presentations at D23 EXPO 2015, August 14–16. It all starts on Friday Aug 14 with the Disney legends awards ceremony hosted by CEO Bob Iger. Later that same day Disney Animation and Pixar will show off their upcoming projects Zootopia and Finding Dory. On Saturday morning, The Walt Disney Studios will preview the coming slate of live-action films from Disney such as Alice Through the Looking Glass and The Jungle Book along with the latest from Marvel and Lucasfilm. Then on Saturday afternoon, fans will get a preview of what’s in store at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts during a presentation hosted by Parks Chairman Bob Chapek.
To showcase these Expo favorites, Disney is creating “Hall D23,” a new 7,500-seat venue located in Hall D of the Anaheim Convention Center, so that more guests than ever can see the presentations live and in person.
With Marvel Studios not having an SDCC Hall H presentation this year, D23 could be the place for their fan service moments this year. No word yet on if the publishing side of Marvel will have a presence at D23, but more details about the show are sure to roll in soon.
Tickets for D23 EXPO 2015 are available at a discounted price for a limited time. Until June 30, 2015, tickets are $67 for a one-day adult admission and $48 for children 3–12. Tickets for members of D23: The Official Disney Fan Club are $58 for a one-day adult admission and $42 for children. Multi-day money-saving tickets are also available. D23 Members can save as much as $188 off the price of admission, based on the purchase of four three-day tickets at the D23 Member rate. For more information on tickets and the ticket pricing structure for D23 Members and general admission, visit D23EXPO.com.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 4/28/2015
When the “House of Mouse” bought the “House of Ideas” in 2009 it opened up infinite synergy possibilities we’re only seeing the cusp of in film,television, and publishing. Without Disney; things like the Big Hero 6 movie or the new flood of Star Wars comics have a harder time getting made, maybe even impossible. One area that the deal has yet to see noticeable fruit in is the Disney theme parks.
Outside of a rumor about the possibility of a Marvel themed roller coaster we haven’t heard much about future plans for incorporation of their characters to the happiest place on earth. Before the closure of Hall of Innoventions inside Tomorrowland, the only signs of Marvel inside Disneyland were meet-and-greets with cast memembers dressed as Captain America and Thor. Note, if you ever want to be weirded out and amazed at the same time then meet Captain America at Disneyland. The cast members do a tremendous job of having an in character conversation with kids and adults alike; it’s the next level of taking pictures with someone in Cosplay.
I’m not the Disneyfile that most of my friends are, in fact I only have an annual pass to the parks because of peer pressure. Before Thor and Captain America were brought in there wasn’t really anything about the parks that felt like it was for me. From the first time I waited in line for the Marvel characters, I knew these were my “princesses” and now I want Disneyland to bring even more Marvel in. In the spirit of waiting for Avengers: Age of Ultron to hit theaters Friday, here’s 5 Marvel attractions Disney needs to bring to Disneyland:
1. Spider-Man’s “Swinging Over New York”
In the tradition of Disney California Adventure’s “Soaring Over California” ride, Marvel could be incorporated in a similar attraction that Mary Jane’s the audience on Spidey’s back as he web swings all over the city of New York. The 5 Burrows, Coney Island, The Brooklyn Bridge; all are just part of what could be an adventure that connects you with Spider-Man like never before. This could even cameo various heroes from across the Marvel Universe. You could pop over the X-Mansion, Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, or Stark Industries tower. Plus, how cool would it be to swing over Hell’s Kitchen and glimpse Daredevil beating the tar out of some mugger. Probably not the most kid friendly moment but you get the idea. This ride could even take a page from Star Tours and change up between different scenarios giving it a lot of repeat value.
2. Inhumans: Find Your Gifts
We don’t know anything about the upcoming film. From what we’ve seen so far in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Marvel wants the Inhumans to have Guardians of the Galaxy level of appeal with audiences. One of the quirky things about Disney parks that’s always good for a kick are the exhibits that let you “find your spirit animal” or tell you “what disney character” you are. The Terrigen Mists are the perfect delivery system for an exhibit that let’s kids and adults find out what Inhuman power they’d unlock. You’d walk through the mist and have exhibits where one (through the magic of Disney imagineering) could lift a car, teleport, shatter a piece of the planet with a whisper, or just have deadly hair. Attilan could definitely rise at Disneyland.
3. Deadpool’s “4th Wall Break”
Sure it would be hard to justify Disney building a ride that would –in a round about way– promote a Movie they’d have nothing to do with, but this is all just hypotheticals. So let’s build a Carsland Racers style ride that takes you through the inner madness of Deadpool with twist and turns traversing the characters funniest moments right before a drag race that shatters a giant comic page at the end of the ride.
4. Marvel Midway
If Marvel attractions were built into California Adventure by the pier area they could take over the midway carnival games section. Imagine characters like the Punisher running the shooting gallery, or the test of strength with Mjölnir. We could even have Professor X guess your weight. A carnival atmosphere complete with Marvel prizes and Hulk cotton candy. Here’s another novel approach for something like this; publishing could even operate a newsstand style Marvel comics shop here complete with their own Skottie Young variants and all where kids could get exposed to the latest comics after they see the movies.
5. Captain America and Friends Character Breakfast
One of the best ,and albeit, most expensive things to do in Disneyland is the Minnie and Friends character breakfast at the Plaza Inn. It’s an all you can eat breakfast buffet, but what really makes it special are the costumed characters that roam around greeting you and taking pictures with you while you dine. It’s a value for anyone who hates waiting in long lines to meet Disney characters and the interactions feel more personable. Marvel has over 700 plus characters in their library that could rotate on different days of the week. Though I don’t think I’d want to look at MODOK while I eat breakfast. I definitely wouldn’t mind having the Hulk playfully try to steal my waffle or Black Widow greet me as I’m scarfing down my bacon and ham omelet. Even the food could be themed, if they can make waffles in the shape of a Mickey Mouse head, a Captain America shield should be no problem. Maybe even give the villains some love with Green Goblin eggs and ham, or Baron Zemo biscuits & gravy. Also you could have this…
With the D23 Expo this August in Anaheim, we might finally get new information on any plans Disney has to incorporate more Marvel themed attractions at the parks. In the meantime I’ll say this “Make Mine Disney Marvel!”
What are some of your ideas for a Disney Marvel themed attraction?
By: Jerry Beck,
on 3/1/2012
Time for another round-up of recent reads I can highly recommend (How’s that for alliteration?). First up, a magazine: Disney Twenty Three (Special Issue, Spring 2012), the “exclusive magazine of D23: the official Disney Fan Club”. I have not been tempted to subscribe to this publication, despite it’s lavish production values and occasional in-depth articles – but this latest special edition (sent to me for review) may change my mind. Its theme is “75 Years of Disney Animated Features” and its a must-have for all Disney aficianados. It is 64 oversized pages (in color) and loaded with articles and images by many of my favorite Disney historians: John Canemaker on the milestones of Disney feature animation; David Gerstein on The Six Older Men, the animators (Ub Iwerks, Les Clark, Ben Sharpsteen, Fred Moore, Norm Ferguson and Hamilton Luske) who mentored the famous “nine”; Jim Fanning takes a fresh look at the famed story meeting notes; Didier Ghez on Disney’s merchandising man, Kay Kamen (this piece is particularly well illustrated with rare materials); Greg Ehrbar on the music and songs of the great Disney Features; Don Hahn on “The Morgue”, where the studio keeps its original animation art; Max Lark on inspirational artist Tyrus Wong; and much much more. Did I mention the cover contains a removable facsimile Snow White animation cel. This commemorative issue is being sold through Barnes and Noble and other retailers, as well as availble through DisneyStore.com.
Stop Motion has certainly made a comeback (with three stop-mo features being released this year alone) and books about the technique keep on coming. The latest is Tom Gasek’s Frame-by-Frame Stop Motion: The Guide to Non-traditional Animation Techniques. Gasek, a professor at R.I.T. and former animator at Laika and Aardman, concentrates his book on alternatives to puppetry and model animation: pixilation, collage, time lapse and other down-shooting techniques. The book is peppered with pratical advice by top pros and animation artists like PES, Joan Gratz, Jim Blashfield, William Kentridge, Caroline Leaf, Dave Borthwick and others. An excellent reference and text book. If stop motion is your thing, you need this book.
Okay, this one really isn’t about animation – but it’s so much fun I know you’ll want it. Author Kirk Demaris (SecretFunSpot.com) has unearthed the secrets behind ALL those products sold in comic book and monster magazines of the 1960s and 70s. Remember the X-Ray Spex and Amazing Live Sea Monkeys? This
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By: Brian Minter,
on 8/19/2011
We hope you had a good weekend. We sure did! We went to D23, the annual gathering of the world’s Disney fans, in Anaheim, Calif., where are friends at Disney announced that they were donating 8 million new books to First Book. And we will put every single one of those books into the hands of kids in need.
Eight million books is a lot of books. To give you some idea of just how many, if you laid them all end-to-end, you would definitely give up and go home long before you were done. To give you an even better idea, First Book distributed 8 million books altogether last year; Disney’s incredible donation will allow us to double that.
To top it off, Disney also made a donation of $500,000 to First Book, which will help us cover some of the many expenses involved in getting all those books out to schools and programs serving kids from low-income families around the country.
So a big THANK YOU to our friends at Disney, from all of us at First Book, and from all of the kids in all of the 27,000 programs in the First Book network!
Remember, if you work for a school or program that serves children from low-income families, or if you’d like to help your child’s teacher or program leader get new books, sign up with First Book.
By: Anastasia Goodstein,
on 9/14/2009
Kanye behaving badly (during Taylor Swift's acceptance speech deemed rude, but exactly the type of "controversy the VMAs openly crave." The singer apologized via his blog, but the incident still upstaged other noteworthy moments including Madonna's... Read the rest of this post
By: Anastasia Goodstein,
on 3/11/2009
Friday Night Lights may be renewed (for two more seasons. Fingers crossed. Nick says Kids can no longer choose Chris Brown and Gawker has the memo.) (Entertainment Weekly)
- D23 (new site for Disney-files. Plus Idolator on Miley's memoir. And the... Read the rest of this post
Construction might start in 2017, but Disney doesn’t put an opening date on attractions, to avoid bad publicity from delays.
Cars Land was announced in October 2007, started construction in July 2009, and opened in June 2012.
Ambitious and very interesting! If it’s half as good as the Harry Potter stuff in Orlando, I’ll be there in a heartbeat!