Gnomeo and Juliet Won Weekend Box Office

This is the movie that might have legs! It was a slow box office weekend. But still, for a movie that was released 3 weeks ago, and was in 3rd place, Gnomeo and Juliet has slipped only a little in its box office take. It has now won last weekend's box office!

Disney’s Gnomeo & Juliet debuted two weeks ago in third place. Last holiday weekend it rose to second place, and this weekend, it took the box-office crown. At this pace, it’ll be running for President by next year, and five years from now, we’ll all be groveling at the feet of our new ornamental overlords. The animated musical won a decidedly slow weekend with $14.2 million, dropping only 26 percent and raising its cumulative gross to $75.1 million. Even though Gnomeo started the weekend in fourth place, it jumped a ridiculous 101 percent on Saturday thanks a strong turnout from families. Not too shabby for a film Disney inherited from its now-sold Miramax Films production company.

I will put it to you that even Disney is not expecting this. They may yet have to scramble and figure out of they can squeeze merchandising and other stuff out of it. Remember folks, "franchise"! Lawn Gnomes with Mickey Ears hat!

Speaking of movies, congratulations to Toy Story 3 and Alice in Wonderland. Each won 2 Oscars at last night's Academy Awards, with Toy Story 3 winning, as expected, the Best Animation movie award.

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Disney Jazz, Volume 1: Everybody Wants to be a Cat

I first saw this CD on the Disney Movie Rewards webpage as one of the merchandise I could redeem my points for. So I went to check it out both on iTunes, and on Amazon. The review posted on Amazon was outstanding. The snippets of the tunes that I listened to on iTunes confirmed that impression.

This review gives a too-brief of a description of the CD. Still, I've already made up my mind to get this. The only question is on whether I'm going to wait till I have enough DMR points (I've just redeemed a huge amount for a Donald Duck pin set), or just go ahead and buy it.

Since it says "Volume 1", one would expect that there'll be more in this series. BTW, I'm not sure why it is Volume 1, since this isn't the first time that Disney's music has been "jazzed". There is an amazing CD titled "Disney Adventures in Jazz" that was produced in 2001. I have that CD and I highly recommend it.

Edit: more reviews have come in for this CD.
Review 1
Review 2

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Dates Announced For Disneyland Resort's New Attractions and Parades

Disney had announced the debut dates for upcoming new attractions and parades at the Disneyland Resort.

Mickey's Soundsational Parade: May 27
Star Tours: June 3
The Little Mermaid – Ariel's Undersea Adventure: June 3

This video shows a bit of the behind-the-scenes preparation for the Mickey's Soundsational Parade. It looks impressive.



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La Hacienda

The new restaurant, La Hacienda, at the Mexico Pavilion at Epcot. It looks a lot better than the sorry excuse for Mexican fare that was there before this. I might just try this.



As with my general "complaints" about food being served at World Showcase, I truly wish that they would get it as authentic as possible. I know that this would probably turn off a lot of the guests who can't stomach the exotic dishes from many of these places, but that's the whole point of these pavilions. There has to be something unique with the food. Or else, we could simply get it elsewhere, and for those of us who live in large cities, we could have just stayed home and get the same thing.

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Height Requirement for AquaDuck Lowered

Looks like more kids will be able to ride Disney Dream's AquaDuck!

MousePlanet.com first reported and a DCL spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that the minimum height requirement for kids will drop from 48 inches to 42 inches.

To ride alone, however, the height requirement increases from 48 inches to 54 inches. Also, kids must be at least 7 years old to ride alone. Otherwise, they must ride with someone 14 or older.

From all indications, this appears to be a rather tame ride.

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New (Temporary?) Animated Hitchhiking Ghosts At Magic Kingdom's Haunted Mansion

Whoa! I had a huge scare with this one, and it wasn't because the ghosts scared me.

This video shows animated hitchhiking ghosts at the Haunted Mansion attraction at the Magic Kingdom. At first, I couldn't figure out where they would have such a long stretch of black background to project such a thing. Then when I read the synopsis of the video (copied below), I realized that this was at the end when we see the hitchhiking ghosts. My first reaction was "NOOOO!!!!!! Don't replace that!!!!!"

Well, obviously, if you've read the synopsis closer than I did the first time around, you would have noticed that they're simply working on the hitchhiking ghosts animatronics, and this is a temporary thing until those animatronics are back. PHEW!!! That part is one of the best part of the whole attraction, and so they'd better not touch that!

Here's the video, and the synopsis accompanying it.

The Hitchhiking Ghosts have been (temporarily?) replaced in The Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom by projected, animated, computer-generated versions of themselves, floating by. It appears, at the moment, that these are temporary replacements while the Audio-Animatronic figures behind the black projection screens are enhanced.

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Random WDW Picture

On Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride at Adventureland, The Magic Kingdom.

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Disney's Believe

This is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Disney's Believe, the new stage production on the Disney Dream cruise ship.



It looks quite amazing, especially the set design. I'll get to see this first hand come this December, which can't get here fast enough.

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"Gnomeo And Juliet" Showing Staying Power

This tells you how much I know about the movie business (which is NONE).

"Gnomeo and Juliet" is showing incredible staying power at the US box office this weekend, coming in a strong second, and possibly take the lead after the 4-day holiday weekend tally is in.

However, despite its current No. 1 position, Unknown may wind up losing the four-day holiday weekend to Disney’s Gnomeo & Juliet. The G-rated animated musical nearly doubled its Friday gross with $8.4 million on Saturday, and is estimated to finish the three-day weekend with $19.4 million — a scant 24-percent drop from last weekend. The family film is projected to lead today’s box office, and with kids out of school for Presidents’ Day, it should top Monday’s chart as well. Both Gnomeo and Unknown are on pace for a four-day tally of around $26 million — it could very well be a photo finish.

It's the little gnomes that could. While it may not be a runaway blockbuster, the movie might give Disney a nice tidy profit.

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Where In Walt Disney World?

Hum.. the last "WIWDW" that I posted a couple of weeks ago was harder than I thought. No one made any comment on where that is. It is Olivia's Cafe at Old Key West.

Hopefully, this one is easier. I there's there's a hint in there if you are not sure where this is. So where in Walt Disney World is this?

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Staying At A Disney Resort More Expensive?

This is a rather interesting article that looks at the cost of staying on property versus off property at Walt Disney World.

So if all you care about is dollar value off the special Disney amenities, a non-Disney hotel theoretically has to cost at least $36 less than a Disney hotel for you to break even.

I think the article, in general, stated that it is cheaper, on average, when comparing similar type of resort, to stay at a non-Disney resort.

The question here is whether other resorts have the same range of period as Disney on when they consider their cheaper season versus more expensive season. If they are not in synch, then it is not a fair comparison for either of them. Disney's expensive season might not coincide with other resorts, and since the comparison was done for a specific date and month, one doesn't know who is having what.

The other thing here is that Disney tends to offer vacation packages. So if you include the room and tickets as part of the whole thing, then is this more expensive than a package that one gets at an off-Disney resort when one factors in the ticket prices for that length of stay? I'm guessing that many, if not most, Disney resort guests don't pay "rack" prices.

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Toy Story Gang To Live On

We have news from Disney/Pixar that the Toy Story gang will ride again in 2 motion picture short films.

The first one, titled "Hawaiian Vacation", will be shown with "Cars 2", while the other still untitled short, will be shown with "The Muppets" that will be released around Thanksgiving.

So toys we've come to know and love will live on.

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Disney To Focus More On Franchise

Disney is shifting even more resources to nurture franchise movies and merchandise.

"Franchises drive higher returns for the company," said Jay Rasulo, Disney's senior exec VP and chief financial officer. Rasulo noted that while only 40% of the studio's feature production dollars were spent to make franchise films last year, the results generated 60% of its overall revenue. This year, 80% of its production spending will be devoted to franchise features.

However, his comparison between Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" and "Toy Story 3" is not quite a fair comparison.

While the live-action "Alice" has raked in more than $1.6 billion since its release in March, most of that was collected at the B.O., since the Tim Burton pic offered little opportunity for consumer products. Licensed merchandise homevideo and TV sales made $400 million.

"Toy Story 3," on the other hand, earned more than $1 billion at the B.O., plus $650 million on homevideo, $250 million from books, $220 million from videogames and $7.3 billion in other merchandise sales, while launching park rides and cruise ship shows, turning it into a $10 billion property.

"Toy Story 3" is already a part of Toy Story franchise. It was already selling. "Alice", on the other hand, isn't part of an existing franchise.

While I see the economic sense out of something like this, I hate to think that movies such as "Alice" would not have been made under the current proposed schemed. I'm sure the people at Pixar never consider merchandise and franchise possibilities when they make their movies. Yet, this is implicitly the criteria that appears to be used to finance new stand-alone projects. One can only hope that the remaining 20% of the Disney Studios production doesn't have that pressure of producing a franchise. Just produce good movies!

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Disney's "Nextgen"

Hum... what could it be? Devoid of any official word from Disney, rumors are circulating on what Disney's Next Generation of experience for the guests would be.

Details of the project, dubbed within Walt Disney Parks and Resorts as "next generation experience" or "NextGen," are being closely guarded. But there is widespread speculation among former Disney executives and bloggers who follow the company that at least part of the project involves wireless-communication technology that could be used in concepts ranging from keyless hotel-room doors to rides and shows in which the experience varies based on an individual guest's preferences.
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Just before Christmas, Disney assigned oversight of the project to Nick Franklin, head of global business and real-estate development for the company's theme-park unit. Franklin's newest title is "executive vice president of next generation experience." At Walt Disney World, the project is being led by Jim MacPhee, a vice president who once ran the Epcot theme park. MacPhee's title was changed last month to vice president of park operations and next generation experience.

But then we read this new ability of guests to not only check-in from home, but also to reserve ride time, character meet-and-greet, and other activities.

"Our new tools will help them better understand all that we have to offer and better plan their time with us," Staggs said. "They'll be able to create a personalized itinerary that gives them the exact Disney vacation they want."

Visitors will be able to create vacation itineraries from home: reserve times for attractions, character greetings, shows and meals. Hotel guests could arrive with their room keys in hand, avoiding check-in lines.

Could this be part of the Nextgen project?

Disney is certainly doing a lot of technological enhancement for guests experience. But I'm just a bit apprehensive with all of this, because if it gets to the point where everything has to be done and planned in advanced, the spontaneous visit to the theme parks, especially by the locals, will be a lot more of hassle because all of those experiences will either be booked, sold-out, unavailable, or full. A bit of planning, yes. But over planning to the point that you can even reserve ride time, etc., that might be a bit too much.

Zz.

Disney Recalls Kids Watches

Yowzah! Disney is recalling certain kids watches that can cause burns.

The children's light-up watches, featuring either Buzz Lightyear, Tinker Bell or the "Cars" character Lightning McQueen, were sold at Disney's theme parks from November to January for about $30.

The watches were also sold at Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line ships and the Magic of Disney Shop at Orlando International Airport.

Disney, along with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said the batteries in the watches can interact with the stainless steel backing, causing the burning.

Oy vey. And you thought that, when your kids were complaining that they were getting hot this past summer, they were exaggerating!

Zz.

Disney Cruise Line Online Check-In

For those of us who don't know about this and who will be embarking on a Disney Cruise, this online check-in process might be something we want to do before getting to the big ship!



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The Fierce Animation Competition in Oscar 2011

LA Times has an interesting piece on how far animation movies has come as far as Oscar respect is concerned.

Ten years on, the competition has become much fiercer: This year, the three films vying for the prize are all critical darlings that had to beat out two other well-reviewed box-office hits to earn a nomination.

The three nominees are Pixar's "Toy Story 3," the highest-grossing animated movie of all time and the culmination of a franchise that revolutionized the way animated films are made; DreamWorks Animation's "How to Train Your Dragon," another computer-graphics blockbuster that set a new benchmark for 3-D with its sweeping flying sequences; and "The Illusionist," an independently produced French film with very little dialogue that's a love letter to the waning art of hand-drawn animation.

While it used to be that getting an animated movie to be nominated for Best Picture is already a huge accomplishment, it is good to see that now, there is a serious push that such a movie should have a legitimate chance to WIN in that category. Of course, I still don't see it happening anytime soon simply due to the fact that the actors branch makes up the largest percentage of the Academy. But at least now, just getting nominated is no longer good enough for many of the animated movie studios and producers. This medium is being taken seriously as a legitimate story-telling medium.

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Mickey's House at Toontown

Here's another video to keep as nostalgia. It is a walkthrough of Mickey's House at Toontown, and a character Meet-and-Greet. It is of course no longer around with the closure of Toontown due to the expansion of Fantasyland.



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Random WDW Picture

Sunset at World Showcase Lagoon in Epcot.

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Don "Ducky" Williams Draws Donald Duck

Don "Ducky" Williams is an amazing artist. Here, you get to see him whip out a sketch of Donald Duck is no time at all! In the video, he talks about the sketches he has done throughout Walt Disney World, including what he did at Tony's Town Square restaurant.



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