Disney stars enthrall Delhi kids

New Delhi: The world famous Disney characters enthralled children in Delhi today and kept them spellbound through their half-an-hour performance.

The stars visited the national capital as a part of their tour to the country in association with Make-A-Wish Foundation of America to offer help to terminally ill children.

Walt Disney Television International (India), as part of its tie-up with Make-A-Wish Foundation of America to fulfil wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy, is touring worldwide with its most popular characters.

“Make-A-Wish Foundation is a very popular community service organisation in India and we have an international tie-up with them in the US to fulfill the wishes of the Make-A-Wish Foundation kids. We've just extended that relationship in India. Disney has a worldwide outreach programme and we have an association with Make-A-Wish Foundation starting with this tour in India. We're touring six other cities in the country with these characters and we've identified places where we can take them and meet children suffering from life threatening illnesses and spread some smiles on their faces,” said Tushar Shah, director marketing and communication, Walt Disney, India.

The characters began their India tour with Mumbai's Tata Memorial and later did some kite flying with kids in Ahmedabad. Delhi was their third destination in India.

The stalls at the venue were colourfully decorated with balloons, festooned everywhere and Mickey mouse caps being distributed. The stalls also had competitions for children, who enjoyed thoroughly.

“These competitions give the children so much confidence. By participating with them, they can win a cap which makes them so happy and also boosts their confidence so as to participate again and again. They have to eat toffees at the stalls and they get a gift and there are also lucky draw, which makes them so happy,” said Nandita, mother of a five-year-old son.

“I love the series on television as it has all the stars in it like Cindrella, Mickey mouse, Mini mouse and Pluto. I just love Mickey mouse,” said Ashita, a nine-year-old.

Children during the programme enjoyed a lot even though they could not understand the seriousness behind the visit of their favourite characters.

Alpenglühen on Matterhorn

Alpenglühen on Matterhorn, originally uploaded by Michael_CH.

The sun is real.

WTO meets Mickey Mouse in HK

mouse6(a), originally uploaded by kennethinshanghai.

Disney could learn a few things about cost cutting in the character department.

ABC's 'Lost' Finds 20 Million Fans

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Let's get "Lost" – that's what 20 million fans did Wednesday night as ABC served up its first fresh episode of the drama series since November 30. "Lost" pulled in 20.5 million viewers and an 8.4 rating/20 share in the adults 18-49 demographic at 9 p.m., according to preliminary esti-mates from Nielsen Media Research. At 8 p.m., a "Lost" clip special dubbed "Lost: Revelation" garnered a healthy 13.5 million viewers. ABC's momentum ebbed at 10 p.m., however, as rookie drama "Invasion" (9.6 million, 3.8/10) plunged from its "Lost" lead-in. CBS' "Criminal Minds" (15.8 million, 4.8/11) performed well against "Lost" in the 9 p.m. hour and posted a growth spurt from its 8:30 p.m. lead-in, comedy "Yes, Dear" (9.1 million, 3.2/8). At 10 p.m., it was a tighter race between CBS' "CSI: NY" (13.1 million, 4.3/11) and NBC's "Law & Order" (12.9 million, 4.0/10), which spiked from its 9 p.m. lead-in, "The Biggest Loser" (6.6 million, 2.7/6). Fox was barely on the radar with its repeat of "That '70s Show" (5.2 million, 2.5/7), a fresh episode of "Stacked" (4.4 million, 2.0/5) and 9 p.m.'s "Nanny 911" (5.3 million, 2.2/5). For the night, ABC led with an aver-age of 14.5 million viewers and 5.8/14 in adults 18-49. CBS was No. 2 with 12.7 million viewers and 4.1/10.

Stranded on an island for how long? and Hurley still hasn't lost any weight?

Disney Paid Eisner $10.1 Million in 2005

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Michael Eisner, former chief executive of The Walt Disney Co., received $10.1 million in compensation last year, including a $9.1 million cash bonus, according to the company's annual proxy statement filed Wednesday. Eisner left the company on Oct. 1 after serving as CEO for 21 years. He was succeeded by Robert Iger, who serves as president and CEO. Iger received total compensation of $9.7 million in 2005, including a cash bonus of $7.7 million. He will be paid an annual salary of $2 mil-lion, plus a cash bonus in his new role. Eisner was also paid an additional $1 million, the salary he would have received if he had served through the end of his contract, which would have expired this October. He will also continue to receive an annual bonus of $7.5 million through 2008, in accordance with the terms of his employment agreement, the filing said. The bonus, payable for 24 months after his contract would have ended, will only be paid for 12 months if Eisner takes a job "with another major entertainment company other than as an independent producer within 12 months after the conclusion of his employ-ment." Eisner recently was hired to host a talk show on the cable channel CNBC. He also began drawing an annual pension of $297,779 from Disney, plus an additional pension of $579 per year from his 10 years working for ABC. He remains one of the company's largest individual shareholders. Eisner holds 14,239,863 shares, or 1.8 percent of outstanding shares, according to the filing.

Jupelo goes to Disney..all year

You see, I fly down to WDW every week (usually for about 6 days - I like to get 1 day at home), stay in a Disney hotel, go to the parks, ride the rides, watch the shows, shop in the stores, eat in the restaurants, etc. In other words, if you can do it at WDW, you'll eventually see me do it on this site. And I chronicle almost every second of my days via lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of photos.


Click Here To See What Jupelo Is Doing!

OBITUARY : George Walsh

MONTEREY PARK, Calif. (AP) – George Walsh, a longtime newsman and announcer for the "Gunsmoke" radio and television programs, died Dec. 5 of congestive heart failure. He was 88. He became the "Gunsmoke" announcer in 1952, introducing the live, weekly radio series with the following words: "Around Dodge City and in the territory out West, there's just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that's with a U.S. marshal and the smell of 'Gunsmoke.'" He remained the announcer when the show moved to television in 1955. In the Los Angeles area, Walsh was a longtime fixture at KNX-AM radio, serving as an interviewer, sports reporter, newscaster and announcer from 1952 to 1986. His voice also was used in the Smokey Bear forest fire prevention campaign and on the now-closed Disneyland rides Flight to the Moon and Mission to Mars.

Prime-Time Nielsen Ratings

(AP) – Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Jan. 2-8. Listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses. An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.

1. (X) "Rose Bowl: Southern California vs. Texas," ABC, 35.6 million viewers.
2. (1) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 27.2 million viewers.
3. (X) "Rose Bowl Pregame," ABC, 24.5 million viewers.
4. (2) "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 23.7 million viewers.
5. (X) "NFL Playoff: Jacksonville vs. New England," ABC, 22.6 million viewers.
6. (X) "NFL Postgame Show," CBS, 22.3 million viewers.
7. (X) "NFL Pregame Show," ABC, 22 million viewers.
8. (3) "Without a Trace," CBS, 20.9 million viewers.
9. (X) "Fiesta Bowl: Notre Dame vs. Ohio State," ABC, 20.6 million viewers.
10. (X) "Orange Bowl: Penn State vs. FSU," ABC, 18.6 million viewers.
11. (16) "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," ABC, 17.5 million viewers.
12. (9) "60 Minutes," CBS, 17.5 million viewers.
13. (X) "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 17.5 million viewers.
14. (5) "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 16.3 million viewers.
15. (8) "Cold Case," CBS, 16 million viewers.
16. (13) "Law & Order: SVU," NBC, 15.2 million viewers.
17. (X) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (Thursday, 8 p.m.), CBS, 14.5 million viewers.
18. (19) "ER," NBC, 14 million viewers.
19. (28) "Numb3rs," CBS, 13.9 million viewers.
20. (X) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 13.9 million viewers.

When ABC does well, this is fun to read. Usually, it doesn't look this 'rosy'.

Disney Draws Record Traffic

ORLANDO (Orlando Sentinel) – Walt Disney Co., the world's largest theme-park operator, set a holiday-season attendance record at its Walt Disney World resort in Florida. "Parks had a great holiday season," Chief Financial Officer Thomas Staggs, 45, said Tuesday at a Citigroup media conference in Phoenix. In attendance, "we actually set a record at Walt Disney World." A marketing campaign to promote the 50th anniversary of Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., boosted attendance throughout Disney's parks and resorts unit, Staggs said. Walt Disney World overcame disruptions and closures caused by hurricanes. "We really had a nice end to the quarter," Staggs said. "We had a little bit of a slow start due to the hurricanes." Staggs didn't disclose attendance figures or first-quarter sales at the parks and resorts division, which had revenue of $9.02 billion in the fiscal year ended Oct. 1. Crowds were so heavy at Disney World the week after Christmas that the Magic Kingdom parking lot was closed briefly one day as it reached capacity in the early afternoon. Overall, 2005 was a strong year for attendance at Disney World's four theme parks, with the Magic Kingdom coming in again as the most-visited park in North America and the world. More than 16 million people visited the park, a 6.5 percent increase, according to figures from Amusement Business, a trade publication.

Disney Deal with Pixar is Likely - But Not a Merger, Analysts Say

  LOS ANGELES (AP) - The more time that passes without a new distribution deal between The Walt Disney Co. and Pixar Animation Studios, the greater the speculation, including a theory that Disney is angling to buy Pixar and install its CEO Steve Jobs as Disney's chairman. Analysts believe a new distribution deal is likely – and soon. But they dismiss the notion that Disney would buy Pixar. An outright purchase would be too expensive, analysts say, and would not be wise for either company in the long term. Still, guessing the terms of a deal has become a bit of a sport on Wall Street, with speculation pushing Pixar shares higher in recent days. Most analysts who cover both companies believe Pixar will soon announce a new deal that has Disney distributing its highly popular – and profitable – animated films. Renewed speculation about a deal helped drive up shares of Pixar nearly 8 percent to $58.16 last Wednesday. Another possible trigger for the sudden jump was the expansion of an earlier deal between Disney and Jobs' other company, Apple Computer Inc., to provide more entertainment for download on Apple's iPod. Shares dropped back to $56 the next day and have been trading around that price since. "Something has to happen soon," Marla Backer, an analyst at Research Associates Llc, wrote in a recent report. The current Disney-Pixar deal expires with the June 9 release of "Cars." Marketing plans for Pixar's 2007 release, tentatively titled "Ratatouille," must be made soon. The most likely reason for the delay is that a new deal with Disney is complex, despite the mutual respect that has developed between Jobs and Disney CEO Robert Iger. Animosity between Jobs and former Disney CEO Michael Eisner led to the two sides breaking off talks in 2004. "There are a lot of moving parts here," said David Miller, an analyst with Sanders Morris Harris. "It's not as simple as slapping together an extension of the current agreement."

Technorati Tags : Disney, Deal, Pixar

BVHE Announces Lineup of Blu-ray Disc Titles

Buena Vista Home Entertainment (BVHE) will begin releasing titles beginning this summer on the Blu-ray Disc format in conjunction with the hardware manufacturer's release of Blu-ray Disc products. The announcement was made by BVHE President Bob Chapek.
"The Blu-ray Disc represents a major technological advance in our industry, and just as DVD revolutionized home entertainment, the Blu-ray Disc promises to be the next step in our ability to satiate the consumer's appetite for entertainment by providing the ultimate user experience," Bob said. "The possibilities are endless, and we've just begun to bridge the future of digital entertainment."
Blu-ray Disc is the next generation home entertainment medium featuring storage capacity five times greater than current DVDs, a picture compressed in full high-definition 1080p resolution (1920 x 1080) and superior audio that offers an experience equal or superior to that of theatrical feature presentations.
In addition to film, the Blu-ray Disc will also support music, gaming and other digital entertainment. The following titles will be the first to be released:

• Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1
• Award-winning Hero
• Dark Water starring Jennifer Connelly
• Ladder 49 starring John Travolta and Joaquin Phoenix
• The Brothers Grimm starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger
• The Great Raid starring Benjamin Bratt
• Armageddon directed by Michael Bay and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer
• Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
• Walt Disney Pictures' Dinosaur
• the documentary Everest narrated by Liam Neeson.

BVHE's Blu-ray titles will feature seamless pop-up menus which will allow for a continuous movie play experience; high-definition picture; up to 7.1 channels of surround sound; new layering coating technology which provides a scratch resistance surface; and new sleek packaging.

Former Disney Head Eisner to Host CNBC Show

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Michael Eisner, loved and loathed as former chief executive of Walt Disney Co., will begin the next chapter of his career in the entertainment industry, this time as a talk show host for business news channel CNBC. Eisner, credited with steering Disney through a period of extraordinary growth and criticized later for his management style, will host a bimonthly, one-hour show called "Conversations With Michael Eisner." The program's premiere date has yet to be announced. The network said the program will focus on the importance of creativity and innovation in business, politics, entertainment and other subjects. In October, Eisner was tapped as a guest host for PBS's Charlie Rose, when he interviewed InterActiveCorp. CEO Barry Diller and actor John Travolta. Eisner joins a number of executives who have parlayed careers into television talk show hosts, including advertising executive Donny Deutsch and former hedge fund owner Jim Kramer. And real estate magnate Donald Trump scored a major hit with NBC's "The Apprentice," albeit in a different format from TV talk shows.

Brazilian Wins His 3rd Disney Marathon

LAKE BUENA VISTA (St. Petersburg Times) – Adriano Bastos of Sao Paulo, Brazil, broke away from a field of more than 10,000 at the start of Sunday's Walt Disney World Marathon to win with a time of 2 hours, 19 minutes, 44 seconds.

Bastos, 27, danced at the finish line along with many cheering Brazilian fans after becoming the first three-time winner in the 13-year history of the marathon, adding to his titles in 2003 and '05. Tim Keller, 24, of Park Rapids, Minn., was second in 2:31:36.

• Paige Higgins, 23, of Littleton, Colo., was the top female finisher in her marathon debut, with a time of 2:51:38. Last year's winner, Amy Shertzer, 28, of Monument, Colo., placed second in 2:59:14.
• Renzo Martinez, 41, of Boca Raton won the male wheelchair division in 2:24:11 and Kristen Messer, 18, of Austin, Texas, won the women's wheelchair division in 4:09:11.
• Josh Eberly, 25, of Rochester, Mich., won Saturday's 13.1-mile Walt Disney World Half Marathon in 1 hour, 8 minutes, 12 seconds. The women's winner was Melissa White, 25, of Rochester, Mich., in 1:18:33.

Race officials said the temperature was 38 degrees at the 6 a.m. start at Epcot. The route wound through the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Disney-MGM Studios, ending back at Epcot.

Longoria Helps Chrysler Show Off Cars

DETROIT (AP) – “Desperate Housewives" actress Eva Longoria was on hand Sunday to help Chrysler Group executives show off their latest concept cars, including a sleek sedan with a sumptuous interior based on the popular 300C. She sauntered across the stage as DaimlerChrysler AG Chief Executive Of-ficer Dieter Zetsche and Tom LaSorda, who replaced Zetsche as president and CEO of Chrysler, warmed up the crowd of journalists. And she rolled up with LaSorda as they brought the Imperial concept, which sported the look of a highly refined 300C, on stage for a second showing. "I'm desperate for one of these cars," she quipped. Chrysler also showed its Dodge Challenger concept, which was inspired by the 1970 version but updated with a 6.1-liter, 425-horsepower Hemi engine.

Technorati Tags : Longoria, Chrysler

Expedition Everest

'Jimmy Kimmel Live' & ABC Team Up to Create Ultimate Super Bowl Experience

LOS ANGELES (PRNewswire) – In a unique marketing and television broadcast partnership, popular late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel will move his entire production team and show to make the historic GEM Theatre in downtown Detroit his temporary home for Super Bowl XL. "Jimmy Kimmel Live" will pro-duce shows beginning Tuesday, January 31 and run through Friday, February 3, as well as produce a Super Bowl special to air after the game. Kimmel and ABC Television Network have teamed up with Bragman Nyman Cafarelli (BNC) – a marketing and public relations agency – to create the hottest VIP and broadcast venue in Detroit during the Super Bowl XL. The concept is designed to offer clients and sponsors the opportunity to become a part of the "Jimmy Kimmel Live" broadcast through unique and in-tegrated content partnerships as well as the opportunity to host exclusive VIP and celebrity events at the GEM Theatre leading up to Super Bowl Sunday. Pontiac is the first partner aboard with the show and will be creating a national promotion around the launch of the brand's G6 Convertible Coupe. Disney and ESPN Media Networks with Comcast has also partnered with the show and the venue and will host two events early in the week at the GEM Theatre. Located directly across from Ford Field in Downtown De-troit, the GEM Theatre is equipped with state-of-the-art audio and visual capabilities, a 450-seat theater, a separate concert stage, several rooms for entertaining and lounges for private events as well as on-site parking facilities.

Cookies Take the Cake on Disney Cruise

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (The Birmingham News) – Kathy Sagan wrote to tell about her recent experience aboard the Disney Magic which sails from Port Canaveral. "I recently took a Disney cruise on the Magic with my twin 7-year-olds," she reported. "We had a terrific time. They loved the kids' club, the shows, the characters, the computer lab, the Pirates' night – everything," she wrote before ending with her reason for writing. "But proba-bly most of all," she noted, "they loved the chocolate chip cookies that they serve every day.” During a typical cruise, the ship's pastry chefs (18 in all) use 620 pounds of chocolate and serve 720 cakes in 85 flavors. Guests eat the most cookies – oatmeal, sugar and chocolate chip – on the day that the ship docks at Disney's private island in the Bahamas. It's there that guests have an entire day for sun, surf, feeding stingrays, para-sailing – and food, including hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken. The chocolate chip cookies are "definitely the most popular cookie," said Herbert Lindner, an Australian who works as the ship's pastry chef. Cookie-baking starts daily at 2 a.m., with enough oven space to allow as many as 300 cookies to bake at one time.

Buena Vista Home Entertainment Announces Line-Up of Blu-ray Disc Titles

BURBANK, Calif. (PRNewswire) – Buena Vista Home Entertainment president Bob Chapek today announced that BVHE will begin releasing titles beginning summer of 2006 on the Blu-ray Disc format in conjunction with the hardware manufacturer's release of Blu-ray Disc products. Titles will include Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1; award-winning Hero; Dark Water starring Jennifer Connelly; Ladder 49 starring John Travolta and Joa-quin Phoenix; The Brothers Grimm starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger; The Great Raid starring Benjamin Bratt; Armageddon directed by Michael Bay and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer; Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back; Walt Disney Pictures' Dinosaur; and the documentary Everest narrated by Liam Neeson. These ten titles mark the first wave of an ongoing release strategy from BVHE which will support the Blu-ray format. Blu-ray Disc is the next generation home entertainment medium featuring storage capacity 5 times greater than current DVDs, a picture compressed and authored in full high-definition 1080p resolution (1920 x 1080) and lossless audio (bit-for-bit directly from the sound stage) allowing for the first time a pristine digital audio and video home entertainment experience equal or superior to theatrical feature presentations. In addi-tion to film, the Blu-ray Disc will also support music, gaming and other digital entertainment

Pixar Stock Surges on Deal Rumor

(LA Times) – Pixar Animation Studios shares soared to a record high Wednesday amid speculation that the company behind "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles" is on the verge of a new deal with – and possibly sale to – longtime partner Walt Disney Co. The nearly 8% jump in Pixar's stock, to $58.16 a share, comes as Chief Executive Steve Jobs and Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger have been negotiating to extend their companies' long-term distribution pact that ends this summer with the release of Pixar's "Cars." Recent talks have focused increasingly on Disney acquiring part or all of Pixar, two sources close to the matter said Wednesday. In that scenario, Jobs would become a major Disney shareholder and possibly the company's chairman. The sources would not speak on the record because talks were ongoing. The sale speculation became feverish Wednesday afternoon on Wall Street, causing Pixar stock to jump $4.20 in heavy trading. That increased the value of Jobs' controlling stake by $250 million to nearly $3.5 billion. "The activity in the stock today indicates to us that the market believes that some type of announcement is imminent, whether it's a new distribution deal or something broader in scope," said media analyst Michael Savner of Banc of America Securities. Disney spokeswoman Zenia Mucha said that negotiations were continuing between the two companies and that there was "nothing new to report." A Pixar executive declined to comment.

That would be awesome. After 15 years of flat Disney gains, it's nice to see movement in a stock that covers way too much of my holdings.

Spielberg's Poppins

(News Interactive) – When Bert said "Goodbye, Mary Poppins, don't stay away too long" back in 1964, who would have thought it would take this long for a remake to surface. In an age when remakes are king – consider Dukes Of Hazzard, King Kong, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Bewitched, and House Of Wax among those reworked this year alone – it might worry some to hear that the Disney family classic Mary Poppins may be facing a celluloid makeover of its own. Contactmusic.com reckons Hollywood director Steven Spielberg is apparently planning to remake the 60's classic children's musical, which starred Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Sir Richard Eyre, director of the London stage show, has reportedly been approached by Spielberg to helm the project. Eyre's stage show is inspired both by the movie and the P.L. Travers books on which the film itself was based. Contactmusic.com quotes Eyre as saying: "Spielberg wants to make a new film of Mary Poppins and we've talked about it a lot. It will be hard to outdo the original but kids love the story and I'm sure that the remake will be a real success." There is no official word from from Dreamworks (or rather Paramount) as yet on the project. Mary Poppins won five Academy Awards out of 13 nominations in total and marked Walt Disney's single most successful night at the Oscars.

Christmas Tree Catches Fire at Disneyland Hotel

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) – A 35-foot Christmas tree caught fire in the lobby of the Disneyland Grand Californian Hotel early Wednesday but nobody suffered serious injuries. The hotel's sprinkler system kept the 3 a.m. blaze in check and firefighters were able to quickly put it out, said Maria Sabol, a spokeswoman for the Anaheim Fire Department. The 745-room hotel in the center of the Disneyland Resort was at full capacity with about 2,300 guests, said Rob Doughty, the resort's vice president of communications. They were evacuated to three locations in and around the park, and hotel officials hoped to get them back into their rooms by 7 a.m. Pacific Time, he said. Guest Lee Crice of Phoenix told KTLA-TV that he saw the top six feet of the tree were ablaze as he fled through the hotel lobby after being awakened by the fire alarm. Television footage showed firefighters spraying water on the artificial tree and gray smoke wafting through the cavernous lobby. About 18 firefighters responded to the alarm, Sabol said. The cause of the fire is under investigation, she said. Two guests were treated at the scene for minor injuries and released, Doughty said. One complained of a strained back and the other of stress symptoms from the evacuation.

Disney Parks Increase Market Share

(LA Times) – Propelled by the 50th-anniversary promotion of its flagship Disneyland theme park, Walt Disney Co. increased its share of the North American theme park market this year. All six US Disney theme parks logged gains in attendance, with Disneyland growing the most of any of the major North American attractions, according to estimates released Monday by trade journal Amusement Business and consulting firm Economics Research Associates.

• About 14.5 million visitors passed through Disneyland's gate, an 8.5% jump from 2004. Only its Orlando, Fla., cousin Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World had greater attendance, with 16.1 million visitors, a 6.5% gain.
• Disney's California Adventure, Disneyland's younger sibling in Anaheim, was the nation's seventh-busiest park, logging 5.8 million visitors, a 3.6% rise.
• Universal Studios Hollywood drew 4.7 million visitors, 6% fewer than last year. Its sister parks in Florida also lost attendance.
• Mostly because of Burbank-based Disney, attendance at North America's 50 most popular amusement parks rose 4.2% to an estimated 176 million visitors in 2005.

"Throughout the lean years following 9/11, Disney continued to invest at a heavy pace in its parks as it anticipated this turnaround in the market," said James Zoltak, editor of Amusement Business. In Anaheim, for example, Disneyland opened a completely rebuilt Space Mountain roller coaster, added a "Toy Story"-themed Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride and unveiled its most elaborate fireworks display. During the last month, a "Monsters, Inc."-themed ride quietly opened at California Adventure and will be heavily promoted in the new year. Disney also has opened or will open new rides at each of its Florida parks this year and next. Disney also juiced its attendance with heavy spending on both coasts for its 50th-anniversary celebration. Disney, however, declined to comment on the attendance estimates except to confirm that the numbers were up.

Disney, Pixar Reportedly Close to Renewal

LOS ANGELES (UPI) – Insiders say an announcement is imminent that Disney and Pixar have renewed their distribution pact, it was reported Sunday. Neither side would comment on the report, however, Daily Variety said. Sources point to a new, closer relationship between the former rivals with Pixar's top executives gaining unprecedented access to the "Circle 7," a secret division formed under for Disney Chief Michael Eisner to make sequels to Pixar films. Disney has already started production on "Toy Story 3" and the division will soon announce a second sequel from among several scripts in development. Variety predicted the choice will be between "Finding Nemo 2" or "Monsters, Inc. 2." A renewal would ensure Disney's distribution rights to Pixar films and also keep the sequel production rights in the House of the Mouse, Variety said.

Disney Launches Web Personalization with Zazzle

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Walt Disney Co.'s online shopping site on Wednesday launched its first "You design it" feature in a move aimed at riding the fast-growing trend toward giving choosy Internet shoppers exactly what they want. Disney partnered with online customization site Zazzle.com, which li-censes thousands of images from Warner Bros., Marvel Comics Inc., Lucasfilm Ltd. and 20th Century Fox, among others, and also allows users to sell their own art for use on personalized T-shirts, greeting cards and postage stamps. It took Disney, which aggressively protects its copyrights, about two years to figure out how to open its vast art archives, while controlling how consumers could use its characters. Zazzle's Disney boutique, which can be accessed via disneyshopping.com and disneyinkshop.com, allows con-sumers to select a Disney character, T-shirt style and color and to add a name or phrase from an ap-proved list. The 4,000-plus Disney images can also be used on stamps or greeting cards on Zazzle. Sales of Disney personalized products were expected to rise 25 percent to 35 percent over last year's holiday quarter. Personalized products made up 10 percent to 12 percent of Disney Shopping's overall business last year and were expected to grow to 15 percent. The partnership with Zazzle allows Disney to market its secondary characters, which usually are not licensed by traditional retailers and to tap into emerging, consumer-driven trends.

Is it my imagination, or hasn't Disney had a Zazzle shop for a while now?

Fire Damages 'Big Bamboo'

KISSIMMEE (Orlando Sentinel) - The future of the Big Bamboo Lounge, a quirky bar on the West US Highway 192 tourist strip that closed late last year, is even more up in the air after a fire nearly destroyed the building last week. Osceola County fire officials are calling the bar a "total loss," though the walls didn't collapse. One of the owners, Nancy Duggan, said Tuesday that although she would still like to reopen the "Boo," she doesn't know what's going to happen. Duggan said she hadn't seen the lounge or a Fire Department report about the damage, although she plans to visit the bar this week. Housed in what was once a doctor's house, the Big Bamboo became a hangout for Walt Disney World employees and curious tourists. It was decorated with Disney employee name tags, business cards, newspaper clippings and foreign money and featured swing and jazz music and bartenders wearing Hawaiian shirts. Only cash was accepted, and there was no air conditioning. Out front sat a vintage military ambulance and a watchtower. Disney animators sometimes entertained other patrons by drawing Mickey Mouse and other characters on cocktail napkins. A fire report says homeless people trying to keep warm may have started the fire. Clothing was found inside, indicating people were living in the vacant building. It's unclear whether the building - which also was damaged during the 2004 hurricanes - can survive the most recent assault.

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Walt Disney Concert Hall, originally uploaded by smorum.

From flickr.com

Elephant Family Grows Again at Disney's Animal Kingdom

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (PRNewswire) – The Walt Disney World Resort's animal care team welcomed a 233-pound bundle of joy to Disney's Animal Kingdom earlier this week. The female African elephant calf arrived early Monday morning, and joins her 21-year-old mother Donna after 21 months in the womb. The calf has not yet been named. Both the calf and her mother are doing well according to veterinarians and elephant managers, who are cautiously optimistic about the calf's likelihood for survival. The first-time mother experienced a very short labor, lasting approximately 16 minutes. With assistance from the animal care team, the newborn became comfortable using her "newly-discovered" legs and began nursing successfully from Mom soon after her birth. She is already feisty and very active. Going forward, the focus of the elephant managers and veterinarians at Disney's Animal Kingdom will be on the health and welfare of the calf and her mother. In the near future, Guests will be able to see the calf's progress on camera monitors at Rafiki's Planet Watch at Disney's Animal Kingdom. It will be several weeks before the calf and her mother will join other elephants on the savanna. Breeding African elephants is a challenging process, so it is especially exciting that this is the third African elephant to be born at Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park. A male calf, Tufani, was born in May 2003 and has gained nearly 1,500 pounds in his first two and a half years, and Kianga, a female born in July 2004, has gained more than 500 pounds in her first year. Because many of the elephants giving birth in zoos and wildlife parks are first-time mothers – just as several of the elephant cows at Disney's Animal Kingdom are – it is not unusual for the animals (both in the wild and in wildlife parks) to lose their first calf. Animal care experts at DAK are optimistic that observation and interaction with Tufani have helped the other elephants gain additional maternal knowledge, thus improving the success rate for the Animal Kingdom breeding program.

RUMOR : Pleasure Island May Get Makeover

(Orlando Sentinel) – Don't be surprised if the new year brings some changes to Disney's Pleasure Island. Rumor has it that Mouse officials are reviewing the nighttime entertainment complex with the idea of some updates. Given the competition from places like Universal's CityWalk, that's understandable. Among the things under consideration, I'm told, is opening a bowling alley and dropping the every-night-is-New-Year's-Eve theme, which has been around since 1990. And, for certain, the West End stage on the Island, where a deejay is often found, is going away to make entering the island easier. Earlier this year, Disney got rid of the admission charge to the Island, replacing the $20.50 gate charge with individual covers at the clubs.


This is long overdue. I've been lamenting the lack of a bowling alley at Walt Disney World for years. I thought they would build a standalone one near All-Star or Pop Century, however.

You'd think a bowling alley would have been there since 1970. The Rock N Roll Beach Club started life at PI as a roller-rink, fer cryin' out loud.

RUMOR : Harry Potter Theme Park in the Works?

(Cinematical) – Does Disney have a Harry Potter theme park in the works? That's the whisper through the (animatronic) trees, thanks to a series of conversations that Jim Hill has been having with his readers. It all started with the announcement that the so-called Mouse House was planning to delve into "site-based entertainment", possibly starting with a $3.1 billion casino/indoor theme park in Singapore. "Back up!" you say. "What the hell is this 'site-based entertainment' of which you speak?" Good question. Hill explains that whilst it would be "far more ambitious" than the DisneyQuest concept, and "on a much grander scale", he likens the SBE to a "theme-park-in-a-box", likely involving "an ornate structure that occupies a full city block which is at least six or seven stories tall. With 15 different full-sized rides, shows and attrac-tions all intertwining inside that building." After posting about the general concept and receiving gobs of (mostly hateful) reader mail, Hill went on to post a follow-up, including a tip from a reader who claims to have some tangential familiarity with certain contracts currently floating around Warner Brothers – home, of course, to the Harry Potter film franchise. At the very least, he passed along an email from a friend in the WB department, who hints, "You didn't hear it from me. But there may be a certain wizard visiting the mouse kingdom in the future." Hill seems to buy the rumor, and is enthusiastic about the possibilities for its execution. But, he warns, the boy wizard may not represent the be-all and end-all of Disney's forays into SBE. "If this Harry Potter acquisition deal does fall apart," Hill writes, "I'm told that the Imagineers have another SBE concept that also might fly. One where each floor of this city-block-sized building would then celebrate a Pixar film."

Comrade Mickey

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The ultimate symbol of centuries of Russian power, the Kremlin, was taken over at the weekend by Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Cinderella and hundreds of excited Russian children as Disney came to town.

Russian guards in dark woollen coats and fur hats looked on as crowds packed the Kremlin for a "Cinderella Ball" thrown by the Walt Disney Co. as part of its campaign to expand into Russia's booming entertainment market.

"The Russians are hungry for entertainment, and that's why we're here," said Rob Jongmans, executive vice president and managing director of Walt Disney International for northern, central and eastern Europe.

"We are surprised by the popularity of the Disney brands here only 15 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain," Jongmans told Reuters. "Look at these kids and their dresses. Even the boys are in prince costumes. I've never seen anything like it."

Outside, the Kremlin's golden domes and red stars shimmering under a gentle snowfall themselves looked part of a Disney fairy tale. But inside the Kremlin ballroom hosting the party, the scene was enough to make Lenin spin in his Red Square tomb nearby.

At the ballroom of the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, a concrete and marble triumph of Soviet 1960s architecture, girls accompanied by mothers in designerwear sat at Disney beauty stands, having their hair sprayed with sparkles and adorned with Cinderella tiaras.

On the parquet dance floor a colourful mix of Disney characters danced with children in prince and princess outfits.

Champagne flowed for parents while children were served from tables piled high with pink cakes and candies served on glass stands -- all for free.

Jongmans said the event, attended by some 2,000 people, cost up to $1 million (564,000 pounds).

Disney characters -- which have generated some $3 billion in worldwide consumer retail sales since 2000 -- are familiar in the West. But they are relatively new in Russia, which discouraged them under 70 years of Soviet rule.

SLEEPING GIANT

Disney has achieved massive revenues from character and brand licensing as well as lucrative merchandising to extend its brands. Now, it is seeking to make a business out of entertaining 150 million Russians.

Jongmans said Russia's entertainment market was the fastest growing in the world. "We think Russia will overtake China in the next five years," he said.

A recent report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers said Russia's entertainment and media market is the fastest growing in Europe, surging 27.4 percent last year. That compares to flat growth in most Western developed countries.

The Russian market including film, video, Internet products, print media, sporting events and theme parks hit $12.45 billion last year, PwC said in a study of global entertainment industry.

That is just a fraction of the global $1.3 trillion market but growing fast, driven by the film and advertising industries and fuelled by higher disposable incomes on booming oil prices.

Jongmans said Walt Disney saw big opportunity in local entertainment and productions with a Russian cast.

"We shall look at the retail market too," he said. "The Russians are family-oriented and have a lot of spending power. We think this market is a sleeping giant."

THINGS ARE PRETTY HERE

THINGS ARE PRETTY HERE, originally uploaded by deleteyourself.

from flickr

Wider Sunset on Epcot Ball

Wider Sunset on Epcot Ball, originally uploaded by sigsegv.

From flickr

Rumor Has It Prince Caspian Is a Go

(FilmForce) – Aslan and The Chronicles of Narnia roared into theaters in North America and numerous international markets last week, enjoying the year's third-largest opening-weekend box office haul. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe pulled in $65 million ($107 million worldwide) – an excellent start towards recouping the $180 million that Disney and Walden Media spent on the film. The movie also fared well among critics, earning a 76% approval rating among professional film reviewers, according to Rotten Tomatoes. There's no doubt that the studios will go ahead with the next film in the series if LWW continues its strong run. In fact, NarniaWeb already has a source claiming that Prince Caspian, the logical next book to adapt, has been greenlit for production. It's a good bet that Andrew Adamson will return to direct the second one, although this is not confirmed. Since much of the complicated technical preparations – such as the work put into Aslan – is already done, filming could get underway as early as this summer. A movie based on Prince Caspian would return all four Pevensie children back to Narnia in another age, and another time of need. Narnia is under the rule of the neighboring Telmarines, and the Pevensies can help Caspian, rightful heir to the throne, lead a revolt for Narnian independence. An official announcement on Prince Caspian could come at any time during the next month or so.

Airport Revises Rules in Response to Disney Shuttle

ORLANDO (Orlando Sentinel) – The chairman of the board that governs Orlando International Airport said Wednesday that the airport made "mistakes" when it agreed to support Disney's Magical Express. Jeffry Fuqua, chairman of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, said the airport should have required Walt Disney World to operate the free shuttle and baggage service from both sides of the terminal instead of one. The airport also should have limited how many people could ride the service during the 18-month pilot period that began in May, he said. "Yes, we made some mistakes," Fuqua said. "Pilot means pilot. It [Magical Express] should have been capped." The comments came after months of criticism from other ground transportation companies at the airport that say their businesses have been damaged by Magical Express' success. The free Disney shuttle averages about 10,000 people each day, according to Disney figures. On Wednesday, the airport board voted to revise some of the rules for ground transportation companies, including changes that some board members indicated could be unfair to Disney.

• The new rules say that Disney cannot post "greeters" on the second level of the airport, where most transportation companies meet their customers near baggage claim. Instead, the rules say, Mears Transportation Group – the company that operates the shuttle for Disney – can post its employees there to meet Magical Express riders. "To say to them [Disney] you can't have your two employees there, but you can have two employees of the company you hired to do this work, is really splitting hairs in my mind," said board member and Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty.
• The new rules create a new category of ground transportation companies called "resort transportation service." Only Disney currently meets the definition of that new category. But, Fuqua said, it won't be long before more companies begin to follow Disney's lead. Already two more groups, including Universal Orlando, have expressed interest in creating a baggage and shuttle service.

Disney spokeswoman Kim Prunty said the company does feel "singled out" and would prefer a Disney employee greet its guests, but it "will follow the rules" as discussions continue on the future of the program.

Disney Exec Named President of Studio

LOS ANGELES (LA Times) – Alan Bergman, Walt Disney Studios' top business strategist and operations executive, has been promoted to president. Bergman will add business and legal affairs, as well as human resources, to responsibilities that now include finance and technology. He will continue reporting to Dick Cook, the studio's chairman. Bergman joined the studio in 1996. He helped structure Disney's settlement with Bob and Harvey Weinstein when they left Miramax Film Corp. and designed a new business plan for the specialty movie unit.

Prime-Time Nielsen Ratings

(AP) – Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Dec. 5-11. Listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses. An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.

1. (1) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 30.9 million viewers.
2. (3) "Without a Trace," CBS, 21.8 million viewers.
3. (X) "Survivor: Guatemala-Finale," CBS, 21.2 million viewers.
4. (8) "Survivor: Guatemala," CBS, 20.2 million viewers.
5. (12) "60 Minutes," CBS, 19.7 million viewers.
6. (10) "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," NBC, 16.3 million viewers.
7. (4) "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 15.7 million viewers.
8. (X) "A Charlie Brown Christmas," ABC, 15.3 million viewers.
9. (16) "E.R.," NBC, 15.3 million viewers.
10. (5) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 15.3 million viewers.
11. (X) "Survivor: Guatemala-Reunion," CBS, 15.2 million viewers.
12. (6) "NFL Monday Night Football: Seattle at Philadelphia," ABC, 15.1 million viewers.
13. (13) "Two And a Half Men," CBS, 14.1 million viewers.
14. (9) "NCIS," CBS, 14 million viewers.
15. (26) "My Name Is Earl," NBC, 14 million viewers.
16. (18) "NFL Monday Showcase," ABC, 13.6 million viewers.
17. (17) "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," ABC, 13.0 million viewers.
18. (30) "Close to Home," CBS, 12.8 million viewers.
19. (24) "Las Vegas," NBC, 12.6 million viewers.
20. (28) "Numb3rs," CBS, 12.5 million viewers.

Disney Defends Its Shuttle Bus Service

ORLANDO (Orlando Sentinel) – Walt Disney World executives say their free shuttle-and-luggage service between the resort and Orlando International Airport has boosted airport revenue by $1.6 million and helps move passengers so efficiently that it could delay the airport's need for a second terminal. The analysis prepared by Disney came in response to criticism of the 18-month pilot project, Disney's Magical Express, which began in May. Critics – mostly other ground-transportation companies at the airport – have said the service has cut deep into their business and that portions of Disney's original contract with the airport gave the entertainment giant an unfair advantage. Greater Orlando Aviation Authority Chairman Jeffry Fuqua declined to comment Tuesday on the figures provided by Disney. He said airport officials are working to prepare their own analysis of the shuttle service's effect on airport finances and operations. The recent back and forth between the airport and Disney is a rare public power struggle between two dominant forces in Central Florida tourism that typically work out their disagreements behind closed doors. Since Disney's Magical Express began seven months ago, the airport has changed several key parts of the service – over Disney's objections.

• In August, the airport reduced the number of parking spaces available to the shuttle service's buses from six to four.
• And in November, it banned Disney greeters – employees who wore oversize Mickey Mouse gloves – from the main level of the terminal because no other companies were allowed to meet customers there.
  

Disney's Magical Express, which is provided free to people staying at Disney-owned lodgings, is the first large-scale passenger-and-luggage service operating at a US airport and is changing the way airports operate, said Jerry Montgomery, a Disney senior vice president. "It's transformed, in a unique way, the airport experience for folks," Montgomery said. "When you change the paradigm in the market, there's going to be some shifts. There's no doubt about that." He said the airport's $1.6 million net increase in revenue from May to September when compared with 2004 is the result of rent Disney pays, a 50-cent-per-passenger fee, and fees generated by Mears Transportation Group, which operates the shuttle, and two luggage-transport services. Still in question is how much money, if any, the airport is losing because of downturns experienced by other businesses, such as rental-car companies and limo services. In addition to the revenue, Montgomery said, the Disney service is also extending the airport's capacity. Airport operations are streamlined by the bus service, he said, because about 20% of OIA's luggage is screened outside the main terminal, in space Disney rents from Delta Air Lines. That frees up space at airline ticket counters and within the terminal's baggage system, which in turn could delay the need for the long-talked-about south terminal by seven years, he said. Montgomery said Disney's Magical Express has done with private money what backers of a high-speed rail system had hoped to do with public dollars by "approximating a high-speed rail model" with a fleet of buses. Fuqua, the airport board's chairman, acknowledged that the Disney service is a form of mass transit – something the airport will need as it continues to grow.
Today, the airport authority will consider proposals that would keep Disney from greeting customers near the baggage claim, where transportation companies typically find their passengers. Airport officials want Mears employees, not Disney workers, to perform that role for Disney's Magical Express. Both Disney and Mears have objected to that change. Meanwhile, Disney officials are trying to come to terms with airport officials on how the service will operate after the pilot program ends in December 2006. Because it plans its vacation packages a year in advance, the company wants to know by early next year what the service will look like in 2007.

Disneyland Hong Kong Surpasses One Million Guests

HONG KONG (Ultimate Roller Coaster) – More than one million guests have visited Disney's newest theme park in Hong Kong since its opening in September according to a statement released from Disney. "When we build a resort, we do so with the expectation that it's a long-term asset lasting well beyond 50 years," says Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Jay Rasulo. "The bottom-line is this: attendance is ramping up well, which continues to give us confidence that we are on track to achieve our long-term at-tendance goals." The company also reports that guests are giving the new Hong Kong Disneyland high marks for cleanliness, cast member friendliness, hotel experiences and entertainment on surveys con-ducted at the theme park. Relying on positive guest feedback, Hong Kong Disneyland is already expand-ing and enhancing the park experience beyond today's top attractions. The first major new attraction to be added to the park since its opening will be the long-time guest favorite Autopia, debuting in summer 2006 and featuring battery-powered vehicles traveling a whimsical highway.

TARZAN BIOGRAPHIES

JOSH STRICKLAND (Tarzan) is a native of Charleston, S.C.. Josh recently completed the national tour of Rent where he performed the roles of Mark and Roger. Other credits include Guest Vocalist with Shania Twain. He has also been named Carolina Idol 2002, was a national finalist in Fox television’s “American Idol” and appeared on ABC’s season premiere of “Star Search 2004.” Josh has also performed with national jazz musician Kevin Mahogany at the International Spoleto Arts Festival USA and appeared as “Spirit of the Child” in the festival’s Opera Curly River.

JENN GAMBATESE (Jane) most recently starred on Broadway in All Shook Up as both ‘Natalie’ and ‘Ed’. Other Broadway: ‘Penny Pingleton’ in Hairspray, ‘Mouse’ et al in A Year with Frog and Toad, and ‘Urleen’ in Footloose. Off-Broadway: ‘The Statue of Liberty’ in Reefer Madness. Tours (Europe and North America): ‘Serena Katz’ in Fame. TV: “All My Children”. Film: upcoming in The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert DeNiro.

MERLE DANDRIDGE (Kala). Broadway credits include: Jesus Christ Superstar, Aida, Rent. Tours: Aida (First National: Aida/Nehebka), Ain't Misbehavin' (Europe), Smokey Joe's Cafe (U.S.). Chicago: The Kentucky Cycle (Midwest Premiere, Joseph Jefferson Award), Passion, As You Like It (Rosalind), Balm in Gilead (Ann). Television: “Third Watch,” “NCIS,” “Angel,” “The Edge” (UPN Pilot), “Pros and Cons” (ABC Pilot), “All My Children,” “Guiding Light”. Voice over: The PC/XBox game Half Life 2 (Alyx Vance/G-Phoria award for Best Female Voice Performance), Half Life2: Aftermath (Alyx Vance).

SHULER HENSLEY (Kerchak). Broadway: Jud Fry in Oklahoma! (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Olivier Awards), Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera, and Javert in Les Miserables. Off-Broadway: The Great American Trailer Park Musical. Regional: A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, The Most Happy Fella. Opera: Regina, Don Giovanni, La Boheme, and Carmen. TV: “Ed,” “Deadline,” “Gary Powers,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Criminal Intent,” “The Jury”. Film: Van Helsing, Monday Night Mayhem, Someone Like You, The Bread, My Sweet, The Legend of Zorro and the upcoming Opa. www.shulerhensley.com.

CHESTER GREGORY II (Terk) made his Broadway debut as Seaweed in Hairspray. This Gary, IN, native received numerous awards for his portrayal of Jackie Wilson in The Jackie Wilson Story. Other credits include Soul of Black Music (Black Ensemble, London), Scapin' (Court Theatre), Drowning Crow (Goodman) and Disney's Lion King Master Classes. Chester has performed for Michael Jackson and is working on a recording deal. His music is featured on ChesterGregory.net and Ahdae.com.

TIMOTHY JEROME (Professor Porter) most recently appeared in Broadway’s Phantom of the Opera. Nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Me and My Girl, he was also featured in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Grand Hotel, The Magic Show, Cats, Lost in Yonkers, The Rothschilds, Man of La Mancha, La Boheme and dozens of original plays and musicals in regional theatre companies. His films include Thirteen Days, Cradle will Rock, Billy Bathgate, Spiderman II, Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives, Celebrity, and Everyone Says I Love You. Tim is the Founding President of National Music Theater Network and The NY Musical Theatre Festival.

DONNIE KESHAWARZ (Clayton). Broadway: Taboo. Off-Broadway: Drifting Elegant (The Director's Company), Big Ole Washing Machine (Atlantic Theatre Studio). Regional: Homebody Kabul (Trinity Rep) The Memorandum (Guthrie), Fall (Berkeley Rep, Baltimore CenterStage) TV: “Lost,” “24” (recurring role), “The Sopranos” (recurring role), “Sex & the City,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Hack,” “As the World Turns” (recurring role). Film: Drifting Elegant, Growing Down in Brooklyn, Tony 'n Tina's Wedding (the movie).

DANIEL MANCHE (Young Tarzan at certain performances). Broadway: Nine (Young Guido); TV: “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” & “SVU,” “All My Children,” “Guiding Light,” “What's the Scoop?” Film: Headspace.

ALEX RUTHERFORD (Young Tarzan at certain performances) made his Broadway debut as Chip in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast after traveling with the national tour. His favorite pastimes are reading, wrestling with his Dad and brother, playing Playstation 2 and riding his bike

BOB CROWLEY (Director/Scenic and Costume Design) is an Associate of the National Theatre, for which he has designed The History Boys, Mourning Becomes Electra, His Girl Friday, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ghetto, Hedda Gabler, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Racing Demon, Murmuring Judges, The Absence of War, The Prince’s Play, Richard III, White Chameleon, The Sea, Night of the Iguana, Carousel, The Designated Mourner, The Cripple of Inishmaan, King Lear and Amy’s View. Royal Shakespeare Company: Designed over 25 productions, including: Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Tony nomination), The Plantagenetes, Henry IV, Parts 1 & II, King Lear, Hamlet. Field Day Theatre Company: Saint Oscar, The Cure at Troy (co-directed with Stephen Rea). Other set and costume designs: Donmar Warehouse: Into the Woods, Orpheus Descending. Almeida Theatre: Pinter’s Moonlight, No Man’s Land, The Iceman Cometh (Tony nomination), Cressida, The Judas Kiss. Royal Ballet Covent Garden: Pavane, Anastasia. Royal Opera House Covent Garden: The King Goes Forth to France, The Knot Garden, La Traviata. English National Opera: The Magic Flute. Chatelet Paris: The Cunning Little Vixen. Bavarian State Opera Munich: Don Giovanni. Lincoln Center Theater: Carousel (Tony Award), Hapgood, The Invention of Love (Tony nomination), Twelfth Night (Tony nomination). Public Theatre: The Seagull. Other Broadway: Paul Simon’s The Capeman (Tony nomination), Sweet Smell of Success, Disney’s Aida (Tony Award). Most recently: Mary Poppins (Prince Edward Theatre). Royal Designer for Industry Award.

PHIL COLLINS (Music/Lyrics) is one of today's most popular vocalists, songwriters and performers, and has been hailed as one of the best drummers in the world. Collins has won seven GRAMMY Awards and released solo albums with sales totaling more than 70 million copies. Among his accomplishments in film, he contributed songs to the GRAMMY-winning soundtrack of Disney's Tarzan, including “You'll Be In My Heart,” which was nominated for a GRAMMY and won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Song. Most recently, Collins wrote six songs and made his film score composing debut (in collaboration with Mark Mancina) on Disney's Brother Bear and also composed the score for Tarzan II. Factoring in his work with Genesis, Brand X, and a gallery of star groups and performers (including Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, John Cale, Quincy Jones, and Tony Bennett), Collins has left his mark on some 200 million records worldwide. His hit songs include “In the Air Tonight,” “One More Night,” “Sussudio,” “Take Me Home,” “Two Hearts” and “Another Day in Paradise.” Among his other accomplishments, Collins fulfilled a lifetime ambition by touring with his own 20-piece big band, which made its debut in London's Royal Albert Hall in the company of conductor Quincy Jones and vocalist Tony Bennett. Collins embarked on a solo career after taking a break from being front man and drummer for the band Genesis, with whom he played for 25 years. His solo albums include Face Value, Hello, I Must Be Going, No Jacket Required, …But Seriously, Serious Hits…Live!, Both Sides, Dance Into the Light, Hits, Hot Night in Paris and Testify. Collins most recently completed his successful Final Farewell Tour.

DAVID HENRY HWANG (Book) was awarded the 1988 Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and John Gassner Awards for his Broadway debut, M. Butterfly, which was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. For his play Golden Child, he received a 1998 Tony nomination and a 1997 Obie Award. His new book for the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Flower Drum Song earned him his third Tony nomination in 2003. He was also a book writer on Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida. Hwang’s other plays include FOB (1981 Obie Award), The Dance and the Railroad, Family Devotions, The Sound of a Voice and Bondage. His opera libretti include three works for composer Philip Glass, 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, The Voyage and The Sound of a Voice, as well as The Silver River with music by Bright Sheng and Ainadamar with Osvaldo Golijov. Hwang penned the feature films M. Butterfly, Golden Gate and Possession (co-writer) and co-wrote the song “Solo” with composer/performer Prince. His new play, Yellow Face, will premiere next season. Hwang serves on the Dramatists Guild Council.

MERYL TANKARD (Choreography) began her career as a classical dancer with the Australian Ballet. She later joined Pina Bausch's Wuppertaler Tanztheater as a soloist and became renowned for her performances in Kontakhof, Cafe Muller, 1980, Keuscheitslegende, Arien, Walzer and Bandoneon. Between 1989 - 1999 she directed her own dance companies in Australia creating over 15 full-length works including: Furioso, Possessed, Aurora, Songs with Mara and Inuk, which she toured internationally to New York (BAM), London, Tokyo, Amsterdam and Sydney. Since 2000, Tankard has worked freelance, creating works for Lyon Ballet (Bolero), Netherlands Dance Theatre (Merryland and Petrushka), Berlin Ballet (@ North), choreographing for Tiffany and Co. New York (Pearl) and Andrew Lloyd Webber (Beautiful Game); and creating/directing Deep Sea Dreaming for the 2000 Sydney Olympics Opening Ceremony. In 2003 she conceived and choreographed a full-length ballet Wild Swans for the Australian Ballet. In 2004 she was awarded an Australia Council Creative Development Fellowship, and is currently developing a film script and a musical.

PICHÓN BALDINU (Aerial Design) was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His professional career began in 1984, when, while studying at the Conservatorio de Arte Dramático, he co-founded La Organización Negra, the first underground theatre company in Buenos Aires. The quest for striking language coupled with the impact of post-dictatorship Argentina led to the creation of the theater group, UORC - Teatro de Operaciones (1986). Baldinu’s constant curiosity for new ways of expression encouraged him to experiment in non-conventional areas, including buildings and monuments throughout the city of Buenos Aires. La Tirolesa (1989) was created in this fashion. After dissolving La Organización Negra in 1993, Baldinu co-founded the De La Guarda Company, focusing on the search of a theatrical language that allowed him to move and excite audiences. Later on, De La Guarda presented five shows in an experiment called Doma (1998). This mega-show, performed in the open-air, was the greatest aerial show and production of the company.

NATASHA KATZ (Lighting Design). Recent Broadway: Aida (Tony Award 2000), Beauty and the Beast, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Sweet Smell of Success, Twelfth Night, Flower Drum Song, Dance of Death, The Capeman and Barrymore. National Theatre, London: Buried Child. Extensive designs Off-Broadway and for American regional theatres. Opera/dance: Cyrano (Metropolitan Opera), Die Soldatan (NYC Opera), Carnival of the Animals (NYC Ballet), Tryst (Royal Ballet), and Don Quixote (American Ballet Theatre). Concert acts: Shirley MacLaine, Ann-Margret and Tommy Tune. Permanent lighting installations: Niketown NYC and London and the Big Bang at the Museum of Natural History in NYC.

JOHN SHIVERS (Sound Design). Sound design credits include: In My Life, Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays, Julia Sweeney’s God Said ‘Ha’ and various productions of Savion Glover, Dionne Warwick and Gregory Hines. He is also credited as the associate sound designer/production sound engineer for Broadway and worldwide productions of Hairspray, The Producers, The Lion King, Aida, Titanic, Big, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The Who’s Tommy, Guys and Dolls and The Buddy Holly Story.

PAUL BOGAEV (Music Producer/Vocal Arrangements). Executive producer of the 2004 GRAMMY-winning soundtrack and music director of the 2003 film, Chicago. Broadway: Music supervisor and orchestrator, Bombay Dreams (2004 Tony nominee); music producer and arranger, Aida (2000 GRAMMY Award); music director, Sunset Boulevard, Joseph, Aspects of Love, Chess, Les Miserables, Starlight Express and Cats. Film: Connie and Carla with Nia Vardalos and Toni Collette. Currently: Julie Taymor's new movie with songs by The Beatles, and Dreamgirls with Jamie Foxx, Beyonce and Eddie Murphy. ABC television musicals: “Cinderella,” “South Pacific,” and “Annie” (2000 Emmy Award). Conductor: Barbra Streisand, Elton John, Michael Crawford and the silent film masterpiece Napoleon, presented by Francis Coppola. Disney films: Mulan (Music Director), song arrangements for Disney’sTarzan and The Lion King.

DOUG BESTERMAN (Orchestrations) A three-time Tony Award winner, Doug's Broadway orchestration credits include: Dracula, Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002 Tony Award and Drama Desk Awards) The Producers (2001 Tony and Drama Desk Awards), Fosse (1999 Tony Award), The Music Man (Drama Desk and Tony Award nominations), Seussical, Big (Drama Desk Award nomination), Damn Yankees (Drama Desk Award nomination), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Off-Broadway: Weird Romance, Jack's Holiday, Johnny Pye and the Foolkiller, The Gifts of the Magi, Godspell; also in New York: King David, A Christmas Carol, and the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. Film/television: The Producers, Chicago, Mulan, Anastasia, Pocahontas, Lincoln, Cinderella, Annie, Geppetto, South Pacific, and Superstar. Doug has also arranged for: Christine Andreas, Toni Braxton, Beyonce Knowles, Barry Manilow, Mandy Patinkin, Barbra Streisand, the LA Philharmonic, and the Boston Pops Orchestra.

TARZAN is officially cast

Full Casting Announced for 'TARZAN, The Broadway Musical'
Disney Theatrical Productions has announced the full cast for TARZAN, The Broadway Musical.
The production will star:

• Josh Strickland as Tarzan
• Jenn Gambatese as Jane
• Merle Dandridge as Kala
• Shuler Hensley as Kerchak
• Chester Gregory II as Terk
• Timothy Jerome as Professor Porter
• Donnie Keshawarz as Clayton, and
• Daniel Manche and Alex Rutherford will alternate in the role of Young Tarzan.

TARZAN will open May 10 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre; the theater is located at 226 W. 46th St. in New York. Previews begin March 24.
Here are the creative team members:

• Bob Crowley (Aida, Carousel), a two-time Tony Award® winner, will direct and design scenery and costumes for TARZAN
• Phil Collins, an Oscar® and seven-time Grammy® Award-winner, wrote the music and lyrics, expanding his songs for Disney's film into a complete theatre score
• David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly), Tony Award-winner, wrote the book, based on the novel, Tarzan of the Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the film, Tarzan
• Meryl Tankard did the choreography, with aerial design by Pichón Baldinu (De La Guarda)
• Natasha Katz (Aida), Tony Award-winner, designed the lighting
• John Shivers is the sound designer
• Paul Bogaev, music producer/vocal arrangements, and
• Doug Besterman, orchestrations.
  

"The creative team for TARZAN has re-imagined, and in some cases, reinvented characters from the original Edgar Rice Burroughs novel and Disney's animated film," said Thomas Schumacher, president of Disney Theatrical Productions. "We hope to bring a fresh perspective to the Tarzan legend, and we think that we have found a wonderful cast to make these roles their own."

POST 100! 'Survivor' Finale Pushes CBS Past ABC Sunday

'Survivor' Finale Pushes CBS Past ABC Sunday

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) – The end of "Survivor: Guatemala" proved a winner for CBS Sunday as the network dislodged usual champ ABC – whose "Desperate Housewives" had the night off – from the top of the ratings. CBS averaged a 12.1 rating/18 share in primetime. ABC was second at 8.1/12, and NBC took third with a 6.3/9. FOX, 5.1/8, came in fourth, and The WB finished a distant fifth at 1.5/2. Survivor" also helped CBS win among adults 18-49 with a 7.1 rating for the evening. ABC, 5.2, finished second, followed by FOX at 4.0. NBC averaged 2.4 and The WB 0.9.

w Late-ending NFL games and "60 Minutes" scored a 13.2/21 at 7 p.m. to give CBS a big lead. "America's Funniest Home Videos" averaged 5.6/9 for ABC, tying for second with FOX's "Malcolm in the Middle" and "King of the Hill" (or live football in some parts of the country). NBC was fourth with "Dateline." The WB got a 1.8/3 from the Christmas special "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer."
w The first hour of the "Survivor" finale posted a 12.6/19 for CBS at 8 p.m. ABC took sole possession of second with the first half of a two-hour "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," 7.2/11. "The West Wing," 5.3/8, gave NBC third in households, but "The Simpsons," 5.8/9, and "The War at Home," 4.5/7, brought in more total viewers for FOX. The WB aired the Family Television Awards.
w "Survivor" dipped slightly at 9 p.m., coming in at 12.0/17 as the show built to the announcement of Danni Boatwright as the $1 million winner. "EM: Home Edition" improved to 9.2/13 for ABC. A repeat of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" scored a 6.9/10 for NBC. Reruns of "Family Guy," 4.9/7, and "American Dad," 4.3/7, were fourth for FOX. A repeat of "Supernatural" on The WB trailed.
w At 10 p.m., ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," 10.5/16, tied the "Survivor" reunion show for first (CBS had an edge in viewers, but ABC won the hour in the 18-49 demographic). "Crossing Jordan" came in at 7.5/12 for NBC.

yay.

How Bob Iger Saved Network TV

Here is an excerpt from Mark Cuban's weblog. I say follow the money, and if he is spending his time here, then maybe we should too.

On the ITunes Store, you can buy the latest episode to Lost and some other shows the day after they air on Network TV. in this case ABC, for $1.99. Sounds simple and reasonable. Not anything earth shattering right ?

Content has been available for download for years and years. That content could be played on any number of devices, from computers to DVD players to PDAs. Being able to playback a video from the new Video Ipod just like you can play a song from a current IPod, certainly is not a technical marvel.

It is a business marvel. Bob Iger has gone contrary to what every current and previous TV network head has and would have done had Bob not turned the industry on its head with his announcement with Apple yesterday. Bob Iger has saved Network TV.

How ?

By completely changing the economic model.

...

Disney's ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ Opens as Top Film

(Bloomberg) – Walt Disney Co.'s “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” opened as the No. 1 film in US and Canadian theaters with an estimated $67.1 million in ticket sales, the second-best December debut ever. “Narnia” may give Disney and partner Walden Media, owned by billionaire Philip Anschutz, a chance to create a movie franchise similar to Time Warner's Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. The success of “Narnia” and “Chicken Little” may help Disney turn around its studio unit, which reported a $313 million loss in the company's fourth quarter. Its success “indicates there'll be a green light for the next one imminently,” said Brandon Gray, president of Box Office Mojo, an online movie publication and box-office tracking service. “It clearly struck a chord with audiences,” he said. “That's a key factor in ongoing success for the franchise.” The best December opener was “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” in 2003, with $72.6 million. “Narnia” will face competition next week from General Electric Co.'s Universal Pictures “King Kong,” directed by Peter Jackson.

ABC Takes 'Nine' Pilot to Bank

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – ABC has given the green light to production of a drama pilot about a bank robbery and its aftermath from "Without a Trace" creator Hank Steinberg. "Nine Lives," which Steinberg is co-creating with his sister, writer-actress K.J. Steinberg, for Warner Bros. Television, revolves around the experiences of a group of strangers who are caught in a 52-hour hostage crisis stemming from a bank robbery that goes bad. The series would follow the lives of nine of the people involved in the standoff as they struggle with post-siege traumas and re-evaluate their lives after the incident. There also is a great deal of mystery about events that unfolded during the standoff that will be revealed throughout the course of the season, Hank Steinberg said. "The show is really about what happens to these people after they come out of the bank," he said. "It's about how they have been affected in different ways and how they're forced to look at themselves in ways that they hadn't before. The idea of people coming out of the catastrophe like this feeling as though they've got a second chance at life – that's what's really interesting to me." "Nine Lives" marks the first development efforts from Hank Steinberg since he hit a home run in 2002 for CBS with "Without a Trace," the missing persons procedural that's now in its fourth season.

ABC Draws with 'Brown'; NBC Wins Tuesday

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – ABC packed 'em in with the holiday classic "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on Tuesday but NBC won the night with "My Name Is Earl" and "Law & Order: SVU." "Charlie Brown," the animated special now marking its 40th anniversary, averaged 15.4 million viewers and 5.5 rating/15 share in the adults 18-49 demographic from 8-9 p.m., according to preliminary estimates from Nielsen Media Research. Last year's show averaged 13.6 million viewers, and a 4.8/13. NBC didn't do much business at 8 p.m. with the return of "Fear Factor" (8.3 million, 3.2/8), which was topped by CBS' repeat of "NCIS" (14.3 million, 3.4/9). NBC spiked at 9 p.m. with "Earl" (13.9 million, 5.8/14) and ebbed at 9:30 p.m. with "The Office" (9.8 million, 4.3/10). CBS' "The Amazing Race" (11.1 million, 4.1/10) was fairly lackluster despite lessened competition from a repeat of ABC's "Commander in Chief" (10.5 million, 2.9/7) and the absence of "House" on Fox. Fox was in ho-hum territory with its 8-10 p.m. telecast of the Bill-board Music Awards (6.5 million, 3.2/8, down from last year's 6.9 million, 4.5/7). Even the American Music Awards two weeks ago did better, despite hitting all-time lows (11.67 million, 4.4/11). At 10 p.m., "Law & Order: SVU" (16.3 million, 5.9/15) ranked as the most-watched program of the night, easily besting CBS' "Victoria's Secret Fashion Show" (9.2 million, 3.8/10) special and ABC's "Boston Legal" (9.6 million, 2.6/7). NBC had no competition for the nightly bragging rights with an average of 12.1 million viewers and 4.7/12 in the key demo.


Holy crap! I watched the Charlie Brown special again this year and..WTF?! It was horrible! Almost unwatchable. It was so poorly put together I wanted to cry. I thought "Disney will pull the plug on this crap next year. It's just irrelevant next to today's more sophisticated animation and stories."

Bottom line: Don't hire me to program your December holiday shows. I am way out of touch.

Disney Lets Girl Into Winnie’s World

(USA Today) – Maybe it's just the impossibly cozy nature of the 'hood, but for 80 years there has been no change in the resident line-up of the Hundred Acre Wood. But as part of a barrel-full of Winnie the Pooh anniversary events, Disney is working on a new animated series that will replace Christopher Robin with a 6-year-old girl. To quote one loquacious Rabbit: "Oh my, oh my, oh my goodness!" Although the bear's party fare includes much Disney hoopla, the real bother is sure to be over tinkering with a classic. Details are sketchy on the as-yet-nameless new arrival, who will make her debut in the 2007 computer-generated series My Friends Tigger and Pooh. Disney execs say the idea is to bring an older audience to an iconic franchise born when British author A.A. Milne began musing about the imaginary world of his son, Chris-topher Robin. "We got raised eyebrows even in-house at first, but the feeling was these timeless charac-ters really needed a breath of fresh air that only the introduction of someone new could provide," says Nancy Kanter of the Disney Channel. The gamble could sweeten the pot of a company that already brings in $1 billion annually from Pooh merchandise, "more than all their core characters combined," says Thomas Ranese of marketing consultants Interbrand. There could be a side benefit to luring new kids to this idyllic forest. Because today's tykes often get introduced to literary characters through their cartoon counterparts, "the hope is this will bring more kids to (Pooh) books," says Rory Halperin, who covers en-tertainment for Child magazine. Disney's Kanter says the new cartoon represents not an abandonment of an old, familiar world, but rather an alternate universe for Pooh and his crew. "Christopher Robin is still out there in the woods, playing," she says. "We hope people will fall for this new tomboyish girl. The last thing we want to be is the ones who brought the franchise down."

Narnia Film Premieres, Aims to Match Potter, Rings

LONDON (Reuters) – Move over Pottermaniacs. Here come the Narniacs. In the battle of the fantasy film franchise, Disney's first Narnia installment aims to match the huge success of the four Harry Potter mov-ies and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" gets its royal world premiere at the Albert Hall in London on Wednesday, with Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla among those expected to grace the red carpet. No expense has been spared in one of the hottest box office battles in recent years. With an estimated production and marketing budget of $250 million, the first Narnia film is a must-win movie for the loss-making Disney Studios, and paves the way for up to six more films based on C.S. Lewis' seven-book series. A second film, based on "Prince Caspian," is expected to hit theatres as early as the summer of 2008. The parallels with the Potter and Rings mov-ies are clear. There will eventually be seven books in the best-selling J.K. Rowling saga, each of which is expected to be adapted to the screen. The four Potter films to date have grossed more than $3 billion in ticket sales worldwide. Peter Jackson's "Rings" trilogy has amassed $2.9 billion. Lewis knew J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings stories.

Is That Lion the King of Kings?

(USA Today) – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a beloved children's book about four British school-children who pass through the back of a wardrobe into an enchanted land where a witch has made it eternally winter. There they meet Aslan, the lion of the title, who offers his own life to the witch to atone for the treachery of one of the siblings. On Dec. 9, a $150 million movie version will open nationwide, reigniting an old debate: Is the world created by British author C.S. Lewis a rip-roaring piece of fantasy – or a fairy tale suffused with Christian imagery? The answer is both, and that raises a related question: Can Disney succeed by selling the movie on two tracks – as a sort of cross between The Lord of the Rings and The Passion of the Christ? If so, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe figures to be a holiday blockbuster. Walden Media made the movie, and Disney came in as a partner to distribute and sell it. A multi-tiered marketing cam-paign targets, among others, fantasy fans and churchgoers, groups not usually known for being on the same wavelength. "My reading of the situation is Disney came to realize, 'Goodness, we have a two-fer here,' " says Alan Jacobs, a professor at Wheaton College. "We can draw in those millions of people who want heroic fan-tasy, but then we can also tap into those thousands of churches that can sell out theaters." The cycle of seven Narnia books is approaching 100 million in sales since Wardrobe was published in 1950. The trick for the movie will be pleasing old fans, many of whom are drawn to the Christian imagery, while attracting new ones, some of whom could resent it. "I don't want to sound greedy or sound like a producer saying, 'We're for every-body,' " producer Mark Johnson says. "But we are. That's the genius of C.S. Lewis: The story works on so many levels."

The book has long charmed children of any or no religion. The movie is, in many ways, faithful to the book without sounding the horn of religious orthodoxy. Johnson says you will find Christian symbolism in the movie only if you found it in the book. But the book is no staid Sunday school lesson: It is a rousing adventure tale that stands on its own, with echoes of larger themes that reverberate in young minds even when children are unsure of the source of the echoes. Bruce Edwards, a professor of English at Bowling Green University, says, "With Lewis, the story is the thing. You ought to read the lines first. Then you can read between them."

The lion's share of the film's marketing budget – reputedly $80 million – has been spent on saturation TV ads, but lesser amounts have been spent on grass-roots marketing to schools, libraries and youth groups. Johnson says just 5% was spent wooing churchgoers, but the press coverage has centered on faith-based marketing. Motive Marketing, which promoted The Passion of the Christ to a $370.6 million box office take last year, is among the companies that have sold Wardrobe directly to churches as a sort of greatest children's story ever told, complete with Sunday school lesson plans. That spadework almost certainly ensures a big opening weekend. Plans are afoot for Prince Caspian, which will be the next Narnia movie if Wardrobe succeeds. The Christian symbolism becomes more obvious in some of the later books, particularly in the last one, The Last Battle, a retelling of Revelation. Near the end, Lewis makes it clear that in his cosmology heaven is open to the good of all faiths.Other surprises come near the end of The Last Battle – including perhaps the most auda-cious plot twist in children's literature. Bowling Green's Edwards, author of Not-a-Tame Lion, wishes moviego-ers could see the film as the books' original readers read them, with no prompting from marketers or preach-ers. "This movie deserves an audience that has an ability to have the characters and the themes sneak up on them – or, as in Lewis' phrase, sneak past their watchful dragons," Edwards says. "I think the dragons are way too watchful on this one." Andrew Adamson, the film's director, seconds that emotion. He read the books as a child in New Zealand and received no instruction on deeper meaning. He hopes American children will come to his movie similarly unencumbered. "I read the books before I even knew what allegory meant, and I enjoyed them purely as an adventure," he says. "That's how the film should be enjoyed, too."

Holiday Cruises are Pixie Dusted With Magic Aboard Disney Cruise Line

CELEBRATION, Fla. (PRNewswire) – A magical tree lighting ceremony with Disney characters, festive holiday decor, carolers, gingerbread house building and even "snow" that magically falls, await all those who board a Disney Cruise during the month of December. Just in time for the holiday season, both Dis-ney ships – Disney Magic and Disney Wonder – are decked with boughs of holly and filled with holiday themed entertainment and activities for the entire family. It all starts at Disney's private cruise terminal at Port Canaveral, Fla., where holiday decorations and Disney characters dressed in their season's best await all who board a Magical Holidays sailing. Onboard, guests find highlights including:

 A nearly three-deck-tall tree-lighting ceremony in the atrium lobby, where "snow" magically falls
 A Christmas Day visit from Santa Goofy, with surprises for all the kids
 International holiday caroling by crew members from around the globe
 Families joining together to design and decorate their own gingerbread houses
 A reading of T'was the Night Before Christmas by Mrs. Claus
 Traditional holiday feasts in Disney's three themed dining rooms
 Multiple faith and inter-denominational holiday services
 A ship-wide party to ring in 2006 and a New Year's Day tailgate party

The last stop for all Disney Cruises is the line's private island – Castaway Cay – where guests are treated to a "Magical Wonderland," a themed decor package that has transformed the sandy Bahamian island into a "snowy" holiday hideaway. In addition to "snow" flurries, guests enjoy seeing Christmas trees, Mr. and Mrs. Snowman (with shell noses and tropical shirts), carolers and a sleigh full of presents in the mid-dle of the Bahamas. Even the island's tram that transports guests across the 1,000-acre island has been decorated to resemble a reindeer, complete with antlers and tail. Rates for Magical Holiday sailings start at $429 (three-night), $499 (four-night) and $939 (seven-night) and are based on double occupancy.

G-Forces On Theme Park Thrill Rides Evaluated

ORLANDO (Local6.com) – In a first-of-its-kind investigation, Local 6 News teamed up with news partner Florida Today to evaluate G-forces riders experience on Central Florida's most popular thrill rides. Offi-cials said G-forces produced by the thrill rides are harmless for healthy riders. However, most theme parks refuse to release information about the intensity of their rides. So, using scientific equipment that measures G-forces, Local 6 News measured the powerful sensations rider's experience.

 The report found that Disney's Space Mountain is still one of the more intense rides in the area – showing more than 3.5 Gs. "Surprisingly, that is about the same maximum force as Central Florida's newest thrill ride – Universal's Revenge of the Mummy," Local 6 reporter Mike DeForest said. "Nei-ther one are super tall," American Coaster Enthusiasts spokesman Chris Kraftchick said. "They're paced very well. In other words, they don't sock you with a bunch of elements and then you go through a lull."
 The report found Disney's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to be the most tame steel roller coaster tested, registering at 2.5 Gs.
 Disney's Rock-N-Roller Coaster was found to launch riders to near 4.5 Gs in the first six seconds. "You can feel it, you can feel your body really being pulled back," Kraftchick said. "If you think about it, you're launching up what, 60 mph straight up into two inversions."
 The report found that The Hulk roller coaster at Universal's Islands of Adventure quickly changed G-forces. Going down a hill, riders feel weightless and then are pushed hard into their seats at 4.5 Gs. The Hulk coaster had the highest gravitational forces measured in the Orlando area.
 Disney's Mission Space ride, which gives riders the sensation of blasting off to Mars, produced the most surprising G-force readings. Although the spinning of the centrifuge may make some people sick, the ride itself generates just over 2 Gs, which is about the same amount as the Test Track ride located next door. However, unlike roller coast G-forces, which rapidly spike up and down, Mission Space produces long, sustained G-forces.

Amusement ride safety consultant Bill Avery said that based on G-forces alone, coasters that register more than 4 Gs like Universal's Dueling Dragons and Sea World's Kraken are typically harmless as long as the Gs are momentary. "The body can withstand G's to the 'four' level," Avery said. It is when coasters combine those high Gs with sudden directional changes that the risk of injure increases.

Number 1 in Billboard

(Billboard) – The top performers on the Album, Singles and Airplay, and Home Video charts as they appear in the current issue of Billboard. Shown are title, artist, and album or video label:

Album Charts
 Billboard 200 – “Confessions on a Dance Floor”, Madonna (Warner Bros.)
 Bluegrass – “Lonely Runs Both Ways,” Alison Krauss + Union Station (Rounder)
 Christian – “Wherever You Are,” Third Day (Essential)
 Classical – “Opera Proibita,” Cecilia Bartoli (Decca)
 Compilations – “Now 20”, Various Artists (Sony BMG / Zomba / EMI)
 Comedy – “Retaliation,” Dane Cook (Comedy Central)
 Country – “Some Hearts”, Carrie Underwood (Arista)
 Electronic – “Confessions on a Dance Floor”, Madonna (Warner Bros.)
 Gospel – “Hero,” Kirk Franklin (Gospo Centric)
 Heatseekers – “Back to Bedlam,” James Blunt (Custard / Atlantic)
 Holiday – “The Christmas Collection,” Il Divo (Syco Music)
 Independent – “Money is Still a Major Issue,” Pitbull (Diaz Brothers)
 Internet – “Confessions on a Dance Floor”, Madonna (Warner Bros.)
 Jazz – “Christmas Songs,” Diana Krall feat. The Clayton / Hamilton Jazz Orchestra (Verve)
 Kid Audio – “Kidz Bop 8,” Kidz Bop Kids (Razor & Tie)
 Latin – “P’al Mundo,” Wisin & Yandel (Machete)
 New Age – “The Disney Songbook,” Jim Brickman (Disney)
 Pop Catalog – “NOW That’s What I Call Christmas,” Various Artists (EMI / Zomba / Sony / Universal)
 Rap – “Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” Soundtrack (G-Unit / Interscope)
 R&B / Hip-Hop – “Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” Soundtrack (G-Unit / Interscope)
 Soundtracks – “Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” Soundtrack (G-Unit / Interscope)

Singles & Airplay
 The Hot 100 – “Run It!,” Chris Brown (Jive / Zomba)
 Adult Contemporary – “Lonely No More,” Rob Thomas (Melisma / Atlantic)
 Adult Top 40 – “Photograph,” Nickelback (Roadrunner)
 Christian – “Cry Out to Jesus,” Third Day (PLG / Essential)
 Christian Adult Contemporary – “Cry Out to Jesus,” Third Day (PLG / Essential)
 Country – “Come a Little Closer,” Dierks Bentley (Capitol)
 Dance / Club Play – “Hung Up,” Madonna (Warner Bros.)
 Dance / Radio Airplay – “Hung Up,” Madonna (Warner Bros.)
 Gospel – “Looking for You,” Kirk Franklin (Gospo Centric)
 Hot Digital Songs – “Hung Up,” Madonna (Warner Bros.)
 Hot Digital Tracks – “Hung Up,” Madonna (Warner Bros.)
 Hot Latin Songs – “La Tortura,” Shakira feat. Alejandro Sanz (Epic / Sony Discos)
 Pop 100 – “Run It!,” Chris Brown (Jive / Zomba)
 Pop 100 Airplay – “Because of You,” Kelly Clarkson (RCA)
 R&B / Hip-Hop – “I Think They Like Me,” Dem Franchize Boyz feat. Jermaine Dupri, Da Brat & Bow Wow (So So Def / Virgin)
 Rap – “Soul Survivor,” Young Jeezy feat. Akon (Corporate Thugz / Def Jam)
 Ring Tones – “My Humps,” Black-Eyed Peas (A&M / Interscope)
 Rock / Mainstream Rock Tracks – “Save Me,” Shinedown (Atlantic)
 Rock / Modern Rock Tracks – “DOA,” Foo Fighters (RCA)
 Videoclips – “Hung Up,” Madonna (Warner Bros.)


Video Charts

 Video Sales – “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (Warner Home Video)
 Video Rentals – “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (Warner Home Video)
 DVD Sales – “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (Warner Home Video)
 Kid Video – “Christmas!” (Nickelodeon Video)
 Video Game Rentals – PS2 : “Star Wars : Battlefront II” (LucasArts Entertainment)
 Music Video – “Bullet in a Bible” (Reprise Music Video)

Sanderson Out in Front; Disney's Pirates Pull Out

(The Independent) - World records fell as the Double Dutch marauders put pedal to the metal on the charge for home in the Volvo Race. Mike Sanderson's ABN Amro 1 went through 543 miles in 24 hours and was still climbing as he charged at full pelt south and eastwards, while his supposed junior partners on ABN 2, skip-pered by Sébastien Josse, hit 537 miles, both beating the record of 530 miles, set by Bouwe Bekking on an-other Volvo 70-footer, movistar. That is an average of over 22 knots for every one of the 24 hours, three times the speed of the average cruising yacht at its best. Grael was 114 miles adrift in third, Neal McDonald fourth, 139 mile astern in Ericsson, and Grant Wharington's Melbourne-based Brunel Sunergy fifth, 1,200 miles be-hind.

Meanwhile the Disney-backed boat, The Black Pearl, which is also a promotional tool for the launch next July of Pirates of the Caribbean 2, starring Johnny Depp, has imposed an almost total news blackout after re-tiring damaged from the leg after less than 24 hours. It was due to be shipped from Lisbon to Cape Town to complete major repairs last Friday.

Honor for Contemporary Resort

(Orlando Sentinel) – Walt Disney World's Contemporary Resort has been honored with a spot in Meetings & Conventions magazine's "Gold Awards Hall of Fame." The Hall of Fame recognizes meeting and convention hotel properties that have won the Gold Key Award 12 times, a distinction that ranks them among the finest properties in the world. In addition, Disney's five other convention resorts also received the Gold Key Award. Award winners are nominated and selected by the magazine's readers, who base their votes on the overall professionalism and quality of the property. Meeting planners selected their winning properties based on strict industry criteria from staff attitude to the range of recreational facilities.

Disney Fires Back at Hong Kong Disneyland Critics

HONG KONG (Los Angeles Business) – The Walt Disney Co. is shrugging off claims of low attendance at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, saying that the park has attracted more than 1 million guests in its first 100 days. The figure was the first actual attendance number released by Burbank's Disney since the park opened on Sept. 12. Rumors had circulated that attendance had been less than expected at the company's first foray into the Chinese market. The South China Morning Post reported Monday reported that its staff reporter counted far less than the expected average of 15,342 per day during two days in November. Disney fired back at the allegations in a statement. "The bottom-line is this: attendance is ramping up well, which continues to give us confidence that we are on track to achieve our long-term attendance goals. Average daily attendance calculations by the media, especially over a short period of time, have resulted in misleading and faulty con-clusions, and paint an oversimplified picture that doesn't reflect either performance or guest enjoyment of the Disney entertainment experience," Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Jay Rasulo said in the statement. The park's attendance has been spotlighted due to its unique investment structure, with the Hong Kong govern-ment chipping in roughly HK$25 billion, or US$3 billion, toward the park's construction. It has a 57 percent ownership stake in the park.