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The Muppets at Disney World

December 3, 2011 By Alison Leave a Comment

The Muppets have had a permanent home in Disney World with their own theater for the show Muppet Vision 3D in Disney’s Hollywood Studios since 1991. If you haven’t yet seen The Muppets new movie then I highly recommend that you do. I admit that although I watched The Muppets as a child and always enjoy Muppet Vision 3D I was rather reluctant to go the the movie theater to see the new movie. But my kids really wanted to go. And I am really glad that they did because this really is a great movie for all the family.

Photo by expressmonorail

The Muppets movie story is that the old gang has long since split up and gone their separate ways. Walter, a pupppet, his brother Gary played by Jason Siegel (definitely not a puppet) watch old episodes of The Muppets. They decide to take a road trip to LA with Gary’s girlfriend May (Amy Adams). The most important stop on their itinerary is the old Muppet Theater which is now very run down and neglected.

Walter learns of an evil plot to tear down the Muppet Theater. The only way to save it is if the old gang get back together for one final show. There are lots of funny moments which work for the kids and the grown ups. Walter and Kermit go on a quest to find The Muppets. Fozzie is in a tribute act The Moopets, Gonzo is a very successful businessman, and of course Miss Piggy has a very high profile job in the fashion world. It is just one of those movies which makes you smile, and even laugh out loud.

So I wonder how this will impact on the Muppet presence in Disney World. Muppet Vision 3D is a great attraction at Disney Hollywood Studios. It is popular but rarely is the wait more than 20 minutes as the capacity of the theater is usually enough to handle the amount of guests waiting in line. Guests are treated to a very funny pre show and then make their way into a replica of The Muppet Theater. Then a 3D movie featuring all your favorites, and of course Statler and Waldor heckling from the balcony.

Perhaps the success of the movie will mean the show at Disney Hollywood Studios becomes even more popular. This movie will have brought The Muppets to the attention of a whole new generation. The most likely effect will be longer wait times and more merchandise in the stores. There is already a small part of the store next to the attraction which is devoted to The Muppets but likely with the success of the movie Disney will have more merchandise in other stores around the parks. Hopefully they will be featured more. That would be great for Muppet fans young and not so young!

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Disney Pixar Brave Trailer

November 17, 2011 By Alison Leave a Comment

The much anticipated Disney Pixar Brave trailer has just been released. Brave is all set for release on June 22nd 2012 and it looks as though it will be one of Disney Pixar’s best movies to date.

For the last few years the Disney Pixar studios have released sequels to already successful franchises. First we had the brilliant Toy Story 3, and this year we saw the visually excellent but disappointing story line of Cars 2. Brave looks as though it is going to combine the brilliance of the visual art of animation with some good old fashioned story telling. A potentially wonderful combination. The Brave trailer certainly has us convinced that the animation will be ground breaking and breathtaking in it’s quality.

But what of the story of Disney Pixar Brave? Here is the synopsis from the Disney Brave UK site

“Merida is a skilled archer and impetuous daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson). Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the uproarious lords of the land: massive Lord MacGuffin (voice of Kevin McKidd), surly Lord Macintosh (voice of Craig Ferguson) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (voice of Robbie Coltrane). Merida’s actions inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric old Wise Woman (voice of Julie Walters) for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to discover the meaning of true bravery in order to undo a beastly curse before it’s too late”.

It looks as though Merida will prove to be the strongest Disney Princess ever created. Merida, a Scottish Princess, is determined to break free from convention and carve out her own destiny. Sounds pretty strong willed to me. Truly a Princess for the 21st century. Merida is following the path of more recent stronger role model Princesses which started with Pocahontas and most recently was seen in Rapunzel. Gone are the days of the compliant damsel in distress who needs a Prince to save her. Thank goodness.

The Cast list for Brave largely reflects the Scottish heritage of the movie.

Merida Kelly Macdonald
King Fergus Billy Connolly
Queen Elinor Emma Thompson
Wise Woman Julie Walters
Lord McGuffin Kevin McKidd
Lord Macintosh Craig Ferguson
Lord Dingwell Robbie Coltrane

Anyone else noticed that the cast list looks like a Harry Potter movie reunion? Kelly Macdonald (Helena Ravenclaw) Emma Thompson (Professor Trelawney), Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) and Julie Walters (Mollie Weasley) all starred in the most successful movie franchise of all time.

The movie score is composed by Patrick Doyle who said of the task “I want to make it accessible but to honour the Celtic traditions if I can. It’s a real fable set in Scotland. I could possibly use the bagpipes as a drone or something that gives atmosphere, but I will resist instantly using them until I see what’s going on … they are extremely loud”.

In a tribute to the Scottish heritage of Brave the movie will be released in Scotland on 3rd August 2012 prior to it’s general UK release on 17th August 2012. This will be the 13th movie release for Pixar.

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Lightning McQueen to Appear in Lights Motors Action

June 21, 2011 By Alison Leave a Comment

Lightning McQueen will soon be appearing in Disney Lights Motors Action! Extreme Stunt Show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. With all the excitement building around the new Disney Pixar Cars 2 movie this is sure to be a very popular move.

No date has yet been given for Lightning McQueen’s first appearance but it is anticipated to be some time in summer 2011. Lightning McQueen’s arrival will mean that Herbie will be retired to the Hollywood Studios Backlot Tour.

Disney guests will be able to meet Lightning McQueen and Mater in the Winner’s Circle. Apparently McQueen will have an updated international look which ties in with the Cars 2 movie.

Many guests will of course miss Herbie, but with an international superstar such as McQueen available it is easy to see why Disney is making the change. The Disney Cars merchandising franchise is one of the most successful in the history of movie making. In the last 5 years Disney Cars has generated worldwide sales of around $10 billion. It will be a long time before Lightning McQueen joins Herbie on the Backlot!

Photo by Disney

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Disney Princess Ceremony in Kensington Palace

June 15, 2011 By Alison 1 Comment

It has just been announced that Rapunzel will be formally recognized as a Disney Princess in a ceremony to be held at Kensington Palace in London on October 2nd 2011. So a real royal palace is to be used as the setting for the ceremony! Kensington Palace has been home to members of the British Royal family since the 16th century. Queen Victoria was born there, and of course it’s most famous and beloved resident was Princess Diana. It was recently announced that Prince William and his new bride The Duchess of Cambridge will soon be moving in to the Palace.

Here is the official announcement from Disney:

“Once Rapunzel becomes an official member of the Disney Princess court, she will be celebrated and recognized as such across Disney, and will be included in all Disney Princess products featuring multiple characters, in addition to her own merchandise line. Plus, across all Disney Parks, Rapunzel will for the first time wear her royal tiara, stolen from the kingdom by Flynn Rider in the Tangled film,” said Mary Beech, vice president of girls franchise development and marketing at Disney Consumer Products. “With London knowing a thing or two about bringing royal celebrations to a worldwide audience, it seemed only fitting for the city to become the stage for the celebration to welcome Rapunzel into our own Disney Princess royal court. We are inviting girls from across the globe to welcome each Disney Princess character to the Palace and celebrate with Rapunzel on her special day.”

Independent charity Historic Royal Palaces has joined with Disney to help stage the event, in a collaboration that aims to encourage children all over the world to explore the stories behind the real kings, queens, princes and princesses alongside Disney’s. “Our aim is to help everyone explore the stories of how monarchs and other royals have shaped society, in some of the greatest palaces ever built,” said Ruth Gill, Head of Interpretation at Historic Royal Palaces. “Kensington Palace has always been a place of spectacle, beauty and majesty, and home to many inspirational real-life Princesses. We are therefore delighted to celebrate our relationship with Disney by hosting this magical event that will welcome Rapunzel as the 10th member of the Disney Princess royal court.”

All ten Disney Princess characters will take part in the royal celebration and will be joined by VIPs, celebrities and little princesses from across the globe in festivities including a procession through Hyde Park, party activities and a welcoming ceremony”

I am guessing that the newest resident of Kensington Palace the Duchess of Cambridge will not be part of the ceremony. Of course she really isn’t eligible as the former Kate Middleton is not actually a Princess unlike Rapunzel and her royal friends! I would assume that the Queen had to give her permission for this. This is most definitely a bold sign that the British Royal family is moving with the times. Although some would no doubt say moving too far!

Filed Under: Movies, Tangled Tagged With: , ,

Disney Cars 2 New Trailer

May 24, 2011 By Alison 1 Comment

As the excitement builds in the lead up to the release of Disney Cars 2 on 24th June here is a brand new trailer featuring Lightning McQueen and his friends. It is an exact recreation of the original Cars 2 trailer created using Lego Bricks.

It took 3 months to make and was created using thousands of Lego bricks. It is filmed at 24 frames per second which is just like the movie so it has more of the feel of the original than would usually be expected for stop motion animation. Well so my animation obsessed children tell me anyway!

Merchandising was huge for the original Disney Cars movie and no doubt sales of toys, Lego and the expected pre Holiday release of the dvd will be excellent. Lego has released 12 different sets which include Radiator Springs Lightning McQueen Lego and LEGO Cars Flo’s V8 Café

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Disney Tangled DVD Released

March 30, 2011 By Alison Leave a Comment

Disney’s Tangled movie is now available on DVD with lots of extra features to enjoy. This re imagined story of girl with 70 foot long hair meets boy is based upon the classic Rapunzel fairytale. The title was changed from Rapunzel to Tangled as Disney wanted to give it a broader appeal than just aiming at the Disney Princess fan audience.

Tangled is Disney’s 50th full length animated feature and also it’s most expensive, costing $260 million to produce. It has been a great box office success with revenue in excess of $500 million worldwide.

The story is a classic fairytale. Rapunzel has spent all of her life hidden in a tower, imprisoned by the magnificently evil Mother Gothel who needs the power of her magical hair to keep herself young. But Rapunzel’s life changes when the handsome thief Flynn Rider climbs into the tower looking for a place to hide. Will true love shine through? Is this a Disney Princess movie?

The Tangled Blu Ray DVDhas lot’s of extra features including deleted scenes, extended songs and a documentary about the making of the movie.

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Disney Cars 2 Movie Trailer

November 20, 2010 By Alison Leave a Comment

Lightning McQueen and his friends are back and you can catch a preview of the first Disney Cars 2 Movie Trailer. Due for release on June 24th 2011 the Cars 2 movie will see Lightning McQueen and his tow truck friend Mater set out on a journey of adventure on the first ever World Grand Prix. The challenge is to find the world’s fastest race car. But of course things don’t run according to plan and our Cars heros are caught up in a world of international espionage.

Of course Cars 2 is likely to be the big hit movie of summer 2011. The original Cars movie grossed over $250 million and cost an estimated $120 million to produce. Huge revenue came with merchandise sales which are estimated to be in excess of $5 billion! So guess what is going to be the best selling DVD of Christmas 2011?

All images are copyright of Disney Pixar.

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Mickey Mouse Celebrates His 80th Birthday

November 18, 2008 By Alison Leave a Comment

Mickey and Minnie Mouse made their movie debut on 18th November 1928 – so they are both 80 years old today!  Still looking good, although they have both seen a lot of changes through the years.

Mickey Mouse was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. Disney had been having a difficult time as his previous successful character Oswald the Rabbit was owned by Universal Studios.  Walt Disney learned by this experience that he must always own the rights to his creations.

Walt Disney described how the character of Mickey Mouse emerged and how influential he was in creating the ideas for Disney’s future enterprises:

“We felt that the public, and especially the children, like animals that are cute and little. I think we are rather indebted to Charlie Chaplin for the idea. We wanted something appealing, and we thought of a tiny bit of a mouse that would have something of the wistfulness of Chaplin a little fellow trying to do the best he could. When people laugh at Mickey Mouse, because he is so human; and that is the secret of his popularity. I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing: that it was all started by a mouse”.

Photo by armadillo444

Filed Under: Disney Parks, Movies

Wall-e Movie

June 30, 2008 By Alison 2 Comments
  • The Wall-e movie. After all the build up would it be worth the wait? I have been doing a lot of writing and research about the Wall-e movie so I couldn’t wait to see the movie.

    • Well the wait was worth it. The Wall-e movie is another amazing creation from Disney Pixar. How can you imagine a world where humans have done so much damage that we can’t live on Earth any more? The Earth was taken over by a giant corporation and consumerism just got completely out of control – the junk became overwhelming. So humans had to leave, and create their own new world on a space ship Axiom. How do humans evolve? To be so large and unfit that they can hardly move anymore. And so detached from humanity that they do not know how to have relationships with each other or the artificial environment in which they live. The scary thing about this is that it doesn’t seem completely beyond the bounds of reality.

    But the Wall-e movie does this in such a touching, memorable and exceptionally entertaining way. Your 2 year old will love Wall-e because he is so child like. Of course all my kids want the Wall-e Merchandise too. But even you might be tempted by the Wall-e and Eve toy robots – I sure am!

    Wall-e has no idea how humans were and what the things they left behind really are. Wall-e is lonely and becomes fascinated with reaching out to any other soul – he learns from the movie Hello Dolly that to reach out and hold each other’s hand is something that was important to the human race. But Wall-e is lonely. Until Eve arrives. The sleek, sophisticated robot – who has a great problem trusting any one or anything.

    But Wall-e falls in love with Eve. He will do anything for her. He follows her across the universe in one of Disney Pixar’s greatest love stories. Will their connection save the human race?

    If you describe the Wall-e movie it sounds strange. Barely any dialogue. A love story with robots. About how humans have messed up the Earth so much they have to leave and get robots to clear up the waste for them. But the concept is brilliant and the Wall-e movie is one of those which will stay with you for a long time. Your child will love it because they love Wall-e and Eve. They will love it because they love the Wall-e characters. They may also understand the real meaning behind it – children sometimes seem more concerned about protecting the Earth than we do. And you will love it because it entertains you. It looks magnificent.

    You will enjoy the Wall-e movie. But more than that. I hope Wall-e makes you think.


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