Mickey Mouse is Back: New Shorts to Air on TV

Mickey Mouse is back.  Whether this is the reinvention that Disney execs promised years ago remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: Disney’s most famous character is going to be a star yet again.  Mickey’s returning to his roots, in a series of animated shorts to debut on the Disney Channel and Disney Online this June.  Entertainment Weekly has the details. Disney Television Animation has been hard at work creating 19 new shorts starring the famous mouse, his girlfriend Minnie, and surely many of his other most popular cohorts, all to reintroduce Mickey to fans young and old.  … Continue reading

Adventures by Disney: New Destinations for 2012

Earlier this year I wrapped up my look at the travel offerings of Adventures by Disney, the Mouse House’s vacation planning and tour organization. Now for 2012 AbD has added several new trip options to their list, most new tours of previously visited sites and one venturing to a new realm for the first time. The completely new destination now offered by AbD is Greece. The majority of the Greek trip focuses on the ancient country’s rich history: take a guided tour of the Pananthinaiko Olympic Stadium in Athens and hear stories while exploring the Acropolis. Travel to the oracle … Continue reading

The Return of the Dark Fairy Tale

When studying the feminist evolution of the Disney princesses I came to the conclusion that it was time for Disney to once again reinvent the fairy tale for contemporary audiences. It seems that might be happening, though perhaps not in the way I’d expect. In the past year or so I’ve read a number of reports indicating that one of the latest trends in proposed films is the “dark fairy tale.” Several studios are green lighting movies that take classic fairy tales and “de-Disneyfy” them, supposedly turning them back to their darker roots. Whether or not the true sources of … Continue reading

Disney D23 Expo Report, Pt. 2

The hottest panels at D23 were for companies Disney recently acquired, like Pixar and Marvel On Tuesday I looked at the exciting news about Pixar’s next projects that came out of Disney’s D23 convention. Today I’m going to wrap up my examination of the reports from D23. Now it’s time for the Muppets. D23 didn’t tell us a lot about the film that we don’t already know from the movie’s many trailers, but the two previewed clips cement what we’d suspected: that this is the most Muppet-y Muppets film we’ve had in a long time. The first clip expanded on … Continue reading

Disney D23 Expo Report

D23 has come and gone, and with it all the latest news of Disney’s upcoming features. As I anticipated, despite not announcing anything about them very far in advance, D23 offered some fantastic sneak peak at the Mouse House’s most anticipated upcoming films. Entertainment Weekly has the scoop on the new films. The Expo was packed with Pixar previews. We got tidbits of what to expect from “Monsters University”: expect Mike and Sully to be a little thinner, less shaggy, and with some orthodontia. The movie focuses on how the two form their friendship. They’ve actually known each other all … Continue reading

Disney Printables

My husband and I have been living in our house for seven months now and I have yet to hang up any of our decorations. I admit that laziness is a contributing factor, but a main reason why I haven’t done so is that I’m not very good at anything crafty, decorations included. It’s hard for me to look at a blank wall and know what should go where, so I have the same problems scrap booking, designing room layouts, or even decorating cookies. That’s probably why I never noticed just how many cool craft features Disney has on its … Continue reading

Muppets Movie Trailers

The start of summer saw the release of four Muppet movie trailers. The tone of those trailers, though they contained many of the same scenes, taught us a lot what the new Muppet movie will feel like. Isn’t that any diehard Muppets fan’s biggest complaint: that most of the Muppet movies released in the 1990s didn’t feel like Muppet movies? Something about them didn’t contain that unique Jim Henson sense of humor. It’s not that we expect they could, since Henson’s passing. That raises the question, however, of whether Muppet movies should continue if they couldn’t remain true to their … Continue reading

Lilly Diabetes – Disney Partnership

Learning to live with diabetes, especially type 1, is a hard adjustment for anyone. But it might be the hardest for children. Now suddenly kids have an adult responsibility in watching what they eat while most other children around them consume whatever they want. Enter the Lilly Diabetes organization’s new partnership with Disney. Stitch Kingdom reports on the measures the diabetes awareness and research company has taken with Disney Online and Disney Publishing to raise public cognizance of the disease and to help families who struggle with it. The Lilly-Disney partnership takes two forms: a new subset of the Disney … Continue reading

Disney D23 Expo 2011

The time has arrived: with the D23 Disney Expo just around the corner on August 19-21, the full schedule of events has finally been released. Chances are you know by now whether or not you’re going, but just in case I’ll go over the highlights of the Expo today. I wanted to present the details sooner, but unfortunately Disney didn’t release them until now. Each day is absolutely packed, so if you want to view the entire schedule visit the official D23 Expo website. I’ll present the best looking options for each day here. 2011 is the year for Disney … Continue reading

Visit the House from “Up” in Real Life

In further proof of the emotional resonance and technical mastery of Pixar’s “Up,” a building company in Utah has constructed a replica of Carl and Ellie’s home from the 2009 movie. The Salt Lake Tribune has the full story. As Blair Bangerter of Bangerter Homes watched “Up” one night with his family, he was struck by the “incredible lengths the masters at Disney/Pixar had gone to in creating such a wonderfully presented house and felt like a true to life version could be attempted,” according to a Bangerter Homes press release quoted in the Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City, … Continue reading