Brand new Wood-E doll

Could you call this Wall-E's Woody costume? Impressive.

Wall-E blows up!

So I went to see Wall-E last week at the AMC Pleasure Island 24. Since this is the theatre located on Disney's West Side entertainment complex, you know they were going to do a BIG promotion for the new Pixar flick, Wall-E. I just didn't expect it to be this huge.

Pixar Studios at Hollywood Studios

I took a stroll down the new Pixar Studios overhaul of what used to be Mickey Avenue at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Aside from the new Toy Story Midway Mania and an indoor meet and greet for Woody and Buzz, there were a few more props added along the way. Yesterday I posted a shot of the Lightning McQueen/Mater Meet and Greet.

Enjoy the photos.

Toy Story Midway Mania FastPass

New Parade, Show Coming to California Adventure

ANAHEIM (Orange County Register) – The expansion of Disney’s California Adventure may be years away. In the meantime, visitors to the theme park will soon find two new attractions – a parade and live show. On March 14, both the “Pixar Play Parade” and the revamped “Playhouse Disney Live on Stage” show will debut.

• The “Pixar Play Parade” will feature characters from Disney Pixar movies: “Toy Story,” “a bug’s life,” “Monsters Inc.,” “Finding Nemo,” “The Incredibles,” “Cars” and “Ratatouille.” Some of the dozen parade floats will reach up to two stories high. More than 100 cast and crew members will whirl, spin and do acrobatics in the procession.
• The 23-minute “Playhouse Disney Live on Stage” show will have a new cast with characters from Disney Channel shows aimed at preschool-aged children: “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse,” “Little Einsteins” and “Handy Manny.” Children are encouraged to sing along, dance and clap as live performers, puppets, projections and special effects are incorporated into the plot invvolving characters planning a birthday party for Minnie Mouse. The first “Playhouse Disney Live on Stage” began in 2003, but new characters have been added over the past five years.

Disney officials also plan to give a sneak preview of the Toy Story Mania ride on the 14th. The ride is set to open this summer.

Disney/Pixar’s Ratatouille Kicks Off “Big Cheese Tour”

LOS ANGELES (Business Wire) – Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios will celebrate this summer’s most original animated-comedy, Ratatouille, by bringing a mouthwatering experience to cities across the country with “The Big Cheese Tour.” The tour kicked off on Friday, May 11, 2007, at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, FL. It will continue to cross the country stopping at many events and major food festivals throughout the summer.

• Inspired by Disney/Pixar’s Ratatouille – a hilarious comedy about a rat named Remy who dreams of becoming a great French chef – the interactive experience will be highlighted by a thrilling “Big Cheese Slide,” which will give kids an exciting ride down a 25’ wedge of cheese.
• Audiences will also be treated to a special sneak peek at Ratatouille inside the 30’ state-of-the-art “Eiffel Tower Digital Theater.”
• A Center Stage area features daily cooking demonstrations with a real chef featuring Tasty Treats and Healthy Snacks for busy families as well as daily shows featuring Ratatouille Video Game demonstrations, radio promotions and an inside look at how the animation for Ratatouille was created.
• Tour goers will also be able to see multiple making-of pieces at various kiosks.

The tour is being supported by an impressive lineup of promotional partners. Tour goers can interact with Intel Corporation’s roaming ambassador chefs, equipped with Intel Centrino Duo processor technology-based laptops using Intel Core 2 Duo processors, where they can take photos with the Ratatouille characters superimposed into the picture, play an interactive game or register for a chance to win an array of prizes. The tour chefs will feature recipes from the General Mills’ portfolio of brands and attendees will be able to sample Chocolate Chex cereal as available. Samsung is providing all of the appliances on stage and plasma screens throughout the tour. THQ will provide video game demonstration kiosks where consumers get a chance to sample the latest game. Ratatouille opens in theaters nationwide on June 29, 2007.

At Disney, a Comeback for Hand-Drawn Animation

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Hand-drawn animation, out of fashion in the computer age, experienced a rescue worthy of a fairy tale on Thursday, when Walt Disney animators announced they would bring the art form back to the big screen. “We will be bringing back hand-drawn films,” said Edwin Catmull, the president of Pixar and Disney Feature Animation. Animators refer to hand-drawn animation as “two dimensional,” as opposed to computer-generated animation, referred to as 3D. Speculation has swirled over whether Mr. Catmull and John Lasseter, the chief creative officer, who took control of the ailing Disney animation facility, would reestablish the art form that made Disney the world’s pre-eminenent animator. When Disney bought Pixar to try to revive its flagging animation program, Mr. Catmull and Mr. Lasseter took charge of both studios, which are run separately. Mr. Catmull and Mr. Lasseter gave the first descriptions on Thursday on how they reshaped story lines of Disney films already in production, canceled others and restructured how the Disney artists work. “Pixar is still Pixar – nobody left,” Mr. Catmull said. “At Disney, you have these remarkable artists there. ...they were not kneaded together in the right way. At the heart of it there has to be a director and the director has to have a vision.” Mr. Catmull said there were no plans to merge the studios or to limit them to a certain type of animation. “We always believed that quality is the best business plan,” he said. He and Lasseter showed clips from upcoming films, including "Ratatouille," "Meet the Robinsons," "Wall-E," "American Dog" and "Toy Story 3."

Clues Say Toy Story is Next Big Ride at Disney-MGM Studios

ORLANDO (Orlando Sentinel) – Toy Story Mania, Midway Mania, Toy Story's Midway Mania – whatever the name of Disney-MGM Studios' next big ride, Walt Disney World may be having trouble containing details long enough to hold a big announcement scheduled for next week. Even Disney World's parent company, the Walt Disney Co., may be leaking details. Wednesday night the corporation posted the glossy version of its annual report on the Internet, and it included an unidentified artist's rendering of a ride called "Toy Story Mania." At Disney-MGM Studios, a new ride is under construction that unofficial Disney sources have described as having a similar name and look to the one in the picture. The sources told the Sentinel a ride called "Midway Mania" is going into the building that housed the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire – Play It!" game. It is supposed to be similar in concept to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin at Magic Kingdom and Men in Black at Universal Studios. Those rides take people in tracked cars through a maze of indoor scenes with robotic characters and special effects, and let them interact with weapons and other features. For months, independent, Disney-oriented Internet blogs and message boards have weighed in, saying the ride would be based on the Toy Story movies. The annual report's "Toy Story Mania" picture shows cars with pairs of seats facing in opposite directions, moving through a Toy Story scene, while riders wearing what appear to be 3-D glasses drive and shoot. But the Disney-MGM Studios ride under construction has been a secret venture that Disney officials have never publicly acknowledged, and on Thursday no one at Disney was willing to confirm or deny the picture's relevance. They pointed to Walt Disney Co. CEO Robert Iger's letter to shareholders in the annual report. He wrote, "What you are about to see is conceptual artwork of projects we are building, developing or still just dreaming about. Some will be open soon, some may never be built." Other pictures in the report included renderings of a possible theme park and possible rides in other parks. "And if any of the blue-sky concepts that are shown in the annual report do become reality," said California-based spokesman Donn Walker, "we will let you know at the appropriate time."

Disney/Pixar's WALL• E Revealed

(comingsoon.net) – In a letter to shareholders, Disney's Robert Iger has revealed this first photo from Pixar's WALL• E, opening in theaters in June of 2008. The letter stated: We're also excited about Pixar's next animated movie, Ratatouille, which will be released this summer. And I'm pleased to give you an exclusive first look at the title character of their next movie, WALL• E (pictured here), which will be released the following year. Oscar-winning director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) helms the animated film.

Cars Breakdown Part 1 of (many)

Pixar's Cars came out on DVD last week. What a treat. Another Pixar hit, yada, yada, yada. We can read all the press releases all over the place. Let's get to the good stuff. Sure, you can probably read everything I'm about to write somewhere else by now too, but I've got a little something different in mind for the packaging.

Let's breakdown the inside jokes in this masterpiece, one at a time. Upcoming articles will showcase the cars and their backgrounds, as well as side by side comparisons to their real life counterparts/inspirations, but today we're going to start small.

Keep in mind, I have no sympathy for you if you haven't seen the flick yet. There will be spoilers for sure, so go buy it now and watch it. I'll wait . . . . . . . . . . . Pretty good, eh? Some crazy good talent was used on this film.

Yet, I digress. So we find Lightning McQueen on his way to California for the big race around the 17:44 mark in the film. Pause it. If you timed it right you should be looking at this:


If you are a Pixar fan and you have seen with their animated shorts, this will look familiar.


These are the same pompous birds from the Academy Award winning short, For the Birds, part of which you can watch here.


Pixar does this a LOT, and we're going to track down as many as we can. They drop references to their past work in their current work, and it makes the films that much more fun to watch, over and over again.

Stay tuned. I'll be back with more detailed illustrations of the secrets of Pixar's Cars soon.

The Upside of Ego

(Newsweek) – Michael Eisner transformed the Walt Disney Co. from a studio with a couple of theme parks to a global entertainment behemoth worth more than $50 billion, in his 21-year reign that ended last year. Under Eisner's leadership, the company became a major player in everything from television to baseball, book publishing, retailing and Broadway shows. How did he transform Disney? Simply, by making decisions. During the 18 years between Walt Disney's death in 1966 and Eisner's ascension to Disney's top job, a simple question would arise with every possible move: "What would Walt do?" It was not a recipe for strong decision making. Eisner took over a moribund company in the shadow of its once-towering reputation. Its biggest problem was that Disney executives had no idea what "Walt" would do. Eisner set about changing the "old media dinosaur," at that point capitalized at just $2.8 billion. The year before he joined, it had made just three films. So Eisner brought in Jeffrey Katzenberg to run movies, and soon they were making 40 films a year culminating in animated classics like "The Lion King". It led to one of the most sustained share price runs in US corporate history, with annualized returns in excess of 25 percent. But Eisner’s iron grip on Disney made him enemies. In 2003, Walt's nephew, Roy Disney, resigned from the Disney board, accusing Eisner of turning Disney into a "rapacious, soulless" company. At various points, Eisner also fell out with Katzenberg and the legendary one-time Disney president, Michael Ovitz. Disney's campaign culminated in a shareholder revolt, and after initially resigning the chairmanship, Eisner severed all ties with the company in September 2005. Nick Tabakoff of NEWSWEEK's partner publication in Australia, "The Bulletin," spoke with Michael Eisner about life after Disney, new media and old-fashioned Hollywood politics. Excerpts:

THE BULLETIN: Web-distribution companies like Google are making hundreds of millions of dollars on the content of entertainment companies like Disney. Does the emergence of new media pose a threat to the established media and entertainment groups?

Michael Eisner: Well, I think every platform is going to need content. As long as Disney, Warner Brothers and Paramount concentrate on creating great content, they will be the ultimate survivors. It's always been that way. The distribution chains come on, get a lot of power, press, money, and go away 20 or 30 years later and end up not being the winners. The winners are the content companies.

Your name is still synonymous with Disney. What do you see as your greatest achievement there, and your greatest regret?

I can't really give you a greatest achievement. We did everything from winning a baseball World Series to creating a whole new era of animation to many movies, Academy Award-winning movies; new theme parks in Florida, California, Japan, China and Europe; 30,000 hotel rooms; 80 new buildings; sports networks; broadcast networks. All these things feel like pretty good achievements. Setting up Broadway shows, watching the "Lion King." We had a good run on Broadway, we still do. But they're all part of the whole — which is to try to make really quality products to play around the world where there is an audience.

What about a greatest regret?

That it all goes so quickly. I think I was in grade school about 10 minutes ago.

How important are egos in Hollywood? And is there an upside of ego?

I think ego is important in Hollywood only to the degree that you write about it in the press. There is as much ego on a farm in Kansas as there is on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. It's just the media puts the spotlight on the process of making content because everyone's so interested in it. And that's a very big positive, it's a compliment. No one would be interested in our movies if everybody in the world was ego-less, passionless and completely and totally discreet.

I saw an article that commented on your relationships with some of the men you once clashed with as the head of Disney — (Michael) Ovitz and (Jeffrey) Katzenberg and Roy Disney. It said you're now friends with some of these guys. Are these clashes part of the rough and tumble of Hollywood politics? Is it like a soccer game — where at the end of it, you're mates again?

I'm still friendly with the guy in high school who stole my girlfriend. It's life. I mean, people are competitive, and people say and do stupid things, and life goes on. And if you're not a person that holds grudges, you move on.

On the Disney takeover of Pixar, it seems you weren't really keen to go ahead with it when you were Disney CEO.

I don't think there's anything about this acquisition that you can find me being quoted about. I really feel that it would be inappropriate. Bob Iger is CEO of the company, the board chose to make that deal, and I support it.

What about Rupert Murdoch? Do you think there's more he can do to secure his seat in the big time, or is he already there?

Well he's clearly in the big time, and the only fight he's going to have is his own age, because he's brilliant. I would say he is amongst the best, maybe the best, in the top two or three in the world.

Since leaving Disney, you've been keeping busy. You're said to be scouting the world for a variety of opportunities in content production. Can you tell me more?

There is no more. Scouting the world is a good way to put it, and I'm enjoying the opportunity of looking at every possible thing. And I have no idea where it ends up.

I read that you have a $630 million fortune, so what's the motivation for you now?

Well I have no idea if any of that is true. My motivation never has been about money, from the day I was an usher at NBC in New York. ... I don't care about the money. I care about the work. I like the creative process. I like the fun of it. It's like being at a party all the time. There are a lot of people who crash the party, and are too drunk at the party, but the party is still fun to be at. I want to be in the party. I want to be in the sober part.

I saw that you grew up going to Broadway shows. Given what you later achieved at Disney — and with Disney helping to transform Broadway — did that give you the impetus to become perhaps America's most successful showman?

Not that I was aware of. Growing up in New York, the thing you did every birthday — at least in my home environment — every birthday, every anniversary, every event, you went to a Broadway show. So I saw probably every show from the time I was five years old till when I went away to school. However, I was a pre-med — I was going to medical school — what did I know about Broadway? So I guess when I got to college, and this girl in the theater department wouldn't date me, I wrote a play with her as the star, [so] she would date me and thought that would be an effective way to impress her. So I did, I wrote the play. I impressed her, she was in the play, the play did very well — and she still wouldn't date me. So that's how I got going.

What was the play called?

"To Stop a River." I don't know what happened to it. Forget it.

Was entertainment in your blood at that point?

I wasn't worried about my blood. I was worried about dating her. Actually, I haven't thought of her name — Barbara Eberhart — for I would say about four years.

So wanting to date Barbara Eberhart was ultimately what led you on a path to becoming head of Disney?

By the way, I can give you about a thousand other examples about how that part of one's life does drive a certain amount of momentum. If she had been less attractive, maybe I'd have been a doctor today. And not a good one, because I didn't like the sight of blood.