Wednesday, September 26, 2012

A Good Beginning, A Great Middle, And A So So Ending...

You must become an idea...





The end has come for the tale of Bruce Wayne from Christopher Nolan's perspective...

The Blu-Ray/DVD box set (British version pictured here) of the release of all three the films will be on December 3rd.  For all Batman fans it's a must have.  Arguably the best adaptation of any superhero, the film series sets a bar that all superhero films will have to strive for (both Marvel and DC).

While I wasn't exactly happy with the last film; it's first hour drags, there are plot points with Bruce Wayne, Alfred that are characteristically flawed, etc., the series a whole is an amazing accomplishment.  Nolan, Bale, Caine and company did an amazing job bringing from the page to the screen an incredible deep and textured story that anyone could relate to.

Now, all we have to do is wait four years for the reboot...

Nice Threads...

Classy tees to please... 









If you've ever gone to a Disney theme park, then you've seen all those shirts...


There are hundreds to choose from, but many seem like safe, within the box designs, and sometimes you just wonder what it would look like if someone from outside could/would make a Disney shirt.  For instance, I love Mondo's posters and banners, and believe that they do a better job of marketing the films than many within their own marketing department.  It seems that the Suits and Bean Counters work like with the safe walls of what they believe the public will accept.  Now, when it comes to clothing the same could be argued.

Now comes Threadless.  They held a t-shirt design contest with Disney's blessing and now the top fifteen designs have been placed on their website for sale during a limited time.  So get them while they're available.  Some of them are extremely cool (I love the Aladdin shirt).

And imagine the Disney Geeks you'll be the envy of...

Hat Tip to /Film.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Disney On Demand...

Choosing the future, with a mouse... 




The Mouse's long list of films and television are ripe for the Netflix Generation...

The video on demand model of watching entertainment content is becoming more and more of a preferred mode of spending your leisure time.  It's a supposedly large component of Apple's "Apple TV/iTV" strategy that has yet to be revealed.  It's largest models right now are Netflix, HBO Go, and Hulu Plus, but there are other media companies that are thinking about heading into this model.

The Hollywood Reporter has an article that says the Walt Disney Company is perfectly set up to exploit this kind of distribution model.  Once the deal with Starz ends in a few years, the entire distribution channel for Walt Disney entertainment content will likely change forever.  That could have affect the entire industry.

After all, would it be nice to pull up an app/program/website that displays all of the Mouse's films, television shows, interactive projects all at your fingertips.  From "Phineas & Ferb" to "The Reluctant Dragon," the possibilities are tailor made for an audience of Disney fans.  While other film studios have a large collection of their own content (Warner being the most obvious, with Universal to a lesser extent), no one studio has the cache of the name Disney.

Imagine the possibilities, come 2015...

Friday, September 21, 2012

First Time In The Middle...

What a grand adventure we are about to partake... 










Seventy-five years ago today the world made its first journey to Middle-Earth...

On this day in 1937, J.R.R. Tolkien released a small run of a children's book, based on stories that he had told his four children.  It was an instant classic.  It was an instant hit, and sold well beyond his wildest dreams.  The public and his publisher naturally began asking him to write a sequel to the story.  And Tolkien slowly started working on the sequel to his fantasy tale.  It would take him seventeen years from the publication of that book until its sequel.

And that book would be an epic tale that was no children's book.  A book so big that it would have to be divided into three parts, and released over time so that the public could slowly digest the larger world in which he was introducing it to.  Over the years this book/books began to overtake the original in the mind's of the public.  It became more known and popular than the original: something that rarely happens to a story that was so universally loved.  But it's still a classic tale by which all modern fantasy is judged today.

Happy Birthday to "The Hobbit" for the world it let us all walk inside...

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Classic Wreckage...

Does anyone here speak eight-bit... No long after I mentioned that this would likely happen, it did...








 









A few days ago Walt Disney Animation Studios released a one-sheet for their new animated feature "Wreck-It Ralph" that showed off a lot of classic cameos in the background.  I mentioned that we might be seeing more of these in the coming weeks, and literally days later that has happened. 








Above and below you'll see a lot of childhood friends saying: "Hi, remember me?"  And we will.  Not to mention, some audience will ask why they don't remember seeing this game in their arcade back in the day.








 And the buzz for this film is getting better...


Know Flakes...

Deck the halls, just not before November...





The Holidays are the best time of the year in Disneyland, but not everything goes according to plan...


No sooner had the digital ink dried on our post about the decorations for Halloween than the Suits and higher-ups in Disneyland Entertainment decided to put a halt to the theming for this year.  The plan to slowly add layers of theming to the park, particularly Buena Vista Street and Cars Land is still on, but this year, since most of the prep has gone toward Christmas, the plans were scrapped.

Apparently the minimalist plans for the front entrance and Radiator Springs were too minimalistic.  They will add more and more detail to the holiday theming, but the Suits wanted to have a bit more for the areas and not look as though they were skimping.  They actually start planning for these things almost a year ahead, and the main plans have always focused on Christmas, with much less on the Halloween decorations.

It was determined that the focus for DCA's rebranding shouldn't have anything that looks as an afterthought, so the designers are hard at work focusing on a grander, more elaborate and period themed, spooky decoration extravaganza for 2013.  Fear not, it'll be grand, but it won't be here this Halloween.

Now, with that done, the Christmas decorations over in Buena Vista Street and Cars Land as well as other areas are going to shine.  You will truly walk back into a 20's/30's Los Angeles during the winter holidays.  The way Walt would have celebrated it, had you been around to see it.  The music, decorations and characters are going to make DCA a place to be.  California Adventure was never in competition with Disneyland over the past decade during X-Mas.

This year, that will not be the case.

The garlands, lights and music when you walk down that early 20th century street way toward the beauty of the Carthay Circle Theater will take you out of the problems of the modern world and pull you into a nostalgic view of what this great city could have/would have been like at this time.  That circular area in front of Elias and Company?  That's where the new Christmas tree will go, all bright and lit up to stun guests.  Walking into Elias, you'll get the feeling you've entered an early Macy's store, complete with a display set up for that jolly old man himself.  That's right, Santa will now be located inside the main store on BVS, instead of being in that little gazebo on Paradise Pier.  It will evoke a very Macy's Christmas feel and Mr. Claus will have plenty of elves around him to greet kids young and young at heart.

Cars Land will have a toon themed Christmas that could only exist in a world populated by cars.  The theming will correspond to each character and how they celebrate this holy holiday, from Mater, to Filmore, to Lightning.  Everyone will have their own decorations.  And wait until you see how Radiator Springs musically celebrates the holiday with the entertainment offerings.  Walking down the Mother Road with the songs playing and the decorations surrounding you will be accentuated by the color theming of the Cadillac Mountain Range as it envelopes you and creates that Yuletide feel.

The rest of the park will have decorations as well, but not to the degree of these two new lands, but the plan, as was the Halloween plan, would be to add more and more detail to the other areas of the park as the years go by.  World of Color will help ring in the holidays as well, but the planners have not yet decided if a pre-show celebrating the holidays or the full out Christmas themed show that some creatives want.  But DCA will be a memorable alternative to the original park this year.


It won't be an afterthought as guests will finally have a choice for their holiday experience...

Friday, September 14, 2012

New Wreckage...

Gonna wreck that poster... 













Well, Walt Disney Animation Studios is out with another poster to go with that new trailer...


It shows Ralph with several classic video game characters.  I hear the marketing campaign is going to play up this so you can probably expect more of this stuff.

November is closer than you think...

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Rebellion...

It's all in the details...




On this day Thirty-three years ago, Disney animator Don Bluth wrecked havoc with Walt Disney Productions...

Frustrated over the declining quality of animation and growing frustrations with Disney Suits, he leaves/quits the company. Along with him goes almost one third of the animation department. This caused quite a public relations problem for the Mouse. With Walt Disney gone for over a decade, bean counters and creatively soulless executives had grown entrenched in the management of the company. Bluth along with many others had tired of dealing with middle management and their inability to understand what makes Disney, Disney.

And the shocking results of this were part of the catalyst that slowly started to turn the ship around. It would take several years, but this was one of the first shots that were fired that told the world, everything in the Disney world wasn't going in the right direction. It became clear that something had to be done. And it was up to the new talent to take the studio in a new direction.

It would take a couple years for this to come to a boil and the search for new leadership with a new direction...

More Wreckage...

New box office wreakord...




The new trailer for "Wreck-It Ralph" is out...

It's got more of the story, and explains how the film unfolds in a much better way than the first trailer. Overall, it's an improvement over a good trailer for a very entertaining film.

It's going to be interesting to note that this will be the first year in a long time since a WDAS film did better than a Pixar film. Still, it's fine. They're brothers fighting over who is better.

But they're both family, they're both Disney...

The Entertainer...

Now appearing at the Golden Horseshoe...






On this day Ninety-two years ago, the mold of entertainment in Disneyland was filled...

Wally Boag (the original Wally B.) was born today. He would go on to perform in Disneyland and create the standard of high excellence that guests have come to expect from Disney Entertainment. He not only would go on to make many a fan of the people seeing his routines, but would inspire many Cast Members (including a young Steve Martin, who idolized him) as well.

The joy that you experience in the parks is a result of the talent and hard work of this creative and kind man...

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Art Of An Uprising...

Artful direction...




One the things I love about film/television is the actual making of them...



The design of the characters, the building of the worlds in which they inhabit, and the artwork that provided the DNA for the story. Animation as an art form has much of this since it's all design. There is only pen and pixel, no actual humans other than voices of course, are a part of it. It's fascinating to see what was conceived of, and what made it to the final form that is the result.



I love the world that Walt Disney Television Animation has thought up for the animated series "Tron: Uprising." They've taken the bones of "Tron: Legacy" and built real muscles on to that frame; enhancing an already fascinating world with more layers to fall in to. It's going to be interesting to see how the ratings for this show hold up, because the future of TR3N will actually be partially judged on the success or failure of this Disney XD show. So if you like it, watch it, and if you value it then let the Suits know. The Grid is depending on you.



And speaking of the Grid, let's look at some of the beauty that was designed and poured into this series.















































































And then we have to wonder what will become of a season two, or uprising 2.o...