Mousekingdom Blog

I finally managed to see “Enchanted” in the German version last night. See, here in Germany we dubb all the movies. Whether this is good (young children can enjoy a Disney movie) or bad (if there would be subtitles they would learn English playfully) is up to everyone. I personally do see some problems, especially if they choose a very unique voice to dub a certain actor / part. But hey, that even can be in favor of a character, as a different speaker can also positively influence a performance. Where it does get IMHO very problematic is with songs…

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Mickey Mouse has a big impact on American history, an impact that goes far beyond American boundaries. Just look at the theme parks around the world, the movies playing in thousand theaters and the millions of toys in the shops. Even if you don’t have a Disney holiday, most likely you will still encounter some sort of Disney on your trip (or near your home). You can also ask what cartoon character is the most known in the world; I am pretty confident that Mickey Mouse will make it on the top spot as most well known cartoon character. Mickey (and his friends) are everywhere, even making an impact on our daily lives.

But what about the impact on Mickey Mouse and Disney from the outside? It’s a question that popped up in my head, more specifically the impact of today and in the (near) future! Let’s have a look at some possible theories (I think) that has have impact on the mouse and that might form the future look of Disney. Let’s do so starting with the biggest influence at the moment; PIXAR!

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As reported earlier today the Narnia Chronicles keep Disney rather busy right now with all the promotion going on for the second installment of the series (Prince Caspian), which opened only past weekend, but also with the pre-production for the third movie of the series “The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader”. John Griffin of The Gazette now got the first scoop on the 2010 Narnia movie from Andrew Adamson, director of the first two installments of the series (as well as Dreamwork’s Shrek and Shrek 2 - which the article accidentially credits to Disney <g>)…

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… I am not talking about the singer with the ever changing name (why should I say hail to him?) … I am talking about Prince Caspian, the second installment of the “Chronicle of Narnia” series of Walt Disney Pictures, which premiered in the US and selected international numbers before the weekend. The results? First spot in the movie charts on its opening weekend - but that is only part of the story …

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A short update thanks to the TAG Blog on the current production status of Disney’s first feature length 2D animation film in years to be released on the big screen, The Princess and the Frog: apparently the experimental phase has ended for the movie’s first act and actual animation work is taking place. Accordingly more and more artist are joining the crew.

Disney is doing very well again with a better than expected 22% rise in profit. Especially the movies National Treasure: Book of Secrets and the fairy tale “Enchanted” together with Disney theme park attendance are taking care of the big profits in their last quarter.

Even with the frightening economic situation at the moment, Disney seems unstoppable boosting their profits and making their shareholders happy.

“All of the big media companies are doing fundamentally very well and the market just refuses to acknowledge it,” (Reuters)

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Disney has released the poster for the upcoming third part in the High School Musical series. The success of the previous two movies made it possible to release the third part in the theater. No choice as to go and see it for myself (as my son will drag me into the cinema to see it), but I hoped the franchise would end here. What more can they tell about the group and friends after they left school.

But the success of the series will be used to start another movie with new kids. So I think we are in for High School Musical IV and V and…

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Disney has started a new film label to produce nature documents from world top documentary filmmakers. The label, named DisneyNature, will release movies about the beauty of our planet. On of them called simply “Earth” (April 22, 2009)., a movie that will be produced an directed by the award winning British Alastair Fothergill who already gave us the “Blue Planet” and the “Planet Earth” series. Darth Vader, oeps, I meant James Earl Jones will be the narrator of this new production.

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We are still waiting for the May 16 opening of the second installment of the “Narnia”-series, titled “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” (or even longer for some of us here in Eruope, where at least in Germany the movie won’t open till July!) … but the powers at Disney and Walden (the partner of Disney for this franchise) already proof all the gloom sayers on the internet wrong by announcing, that Disney and Walden are NOT abandoning the franchise!!

While some popular sites already declared the series dead or nearly dead unless the second movie did outstanding business the partners used the Comic Con in New York to announce that filming for the third movie in the series will commence as early as October of this year!

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Pixar continues to astonish the market by collecting award after award (not counting high presitge nominations here) not only for its movies but also for its various members of the creative staff. The latest addition to this collection goes to Pixar writer / director Brad Bird. He already collected the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film earlier this year for Ratatouille. However, this time the 50 year old (birth name: Phillip Bradley Bird) didn’t receive an award for any specific work of his … instead the Writers Guild of America West’s Animation Writers Caucus (AWC) has awarded him its 10th annual Animation Writing Award for lifetime achievement. He will honored with the award at the Guild’s 2008 Honorary Awards Luncheon on April 23 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles

Congratulations … and one appeal: please keep that lifetime achievement growing, the public wants more
Information found via the Deadline Hollywood Daily blog.

If you are living or are going to be in or around Newport Beach during the Newport Beach Film Festival and you’re a Disney animation fan you might want to check out a special Evening of “Disney Animation Rarities” presentation. Many of the clips are treasures not available on DVD or have never been released in the cinema’s

Join noted filmmakers and Academy Award nominees Roy E. Disney and Don Hahn as they present an unforgettable evening of rarely seen Disney animated shorts and experimental films. Roy and Don will screen a collection of short animated films that had limited theatrical presentations, many of which are not available for viewing on DVD. (Newport Beach Filmfest)

Screening of “An Evening of Disney Animation Rarities with Roy E. Disney and Don Hahn” will take place on Wednesday April 30 at 7:30

Disney released their plans for the next 12 animated movies they will release. Some of theme have already been shown in the past but these, namely Toy Story I and II, will be converted in 3-D. The next movie to be release is WALL-E, and together with the hand drawn animated “The Princess and the Frog” will be the only two not undergoing the 3-D treatement.

The following list has all 12 titles and their expected release dates on it.

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Disney picked Orlando Bloom for the lead in their next trilogy, Prince of Persia. Other actors interested in the role where Zac Efron from the High School Musical fame and David K. Zandi who is a member of the Persian royal family and (if this rumor/news is correct) claims that he, during a campaign for the role, won a poll of 17 million viewers.

At this time the first part of the trilogy is titled “Prince of Persia; the Sands of Time”

Update: Disney says Orlando Bloom not in Prince of Persia (thank you Daniel for pointed that out)

Comic fans might not need the introduction to the New York Comic Con, but Disney fan should also take note of this convention as there will be some special “Narnia; Prince Caspian“ and “WALL-E” footage being shown. There will also be a Q&A with some of the actors and the producer of the Narnia movie…

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN and WALL-E: One year later for the Pevensie siblings. 1,300 years later in Narnia. Watch exclusive new film footage from this epic adventure series and join Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian), William Moseley (Peter Pevensie), Peter Dinklage (Trumpkin), and producer Mark Johnson for an exclusive audience Q & A. (Superherohype)

Picture Copyrights Disney

Disney / Pixar recently managed to fill all five spots in the all time top 5 list for the opening weekend grossing, pushing out Dreamworks’ Shrek. But last weekend Fox / BlueSky Animation (the studio behind Ice Age as well as Robots) moved into this “Disney / Pixar only territory”. As USA Today reports Fox’ “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!” managed claim the highed weekend opening of the year for any movie with $-US 45.1 million (in the US, excluding the international box office). With this performance, which was way more than projected, it moved into the top 5 on rank 5.

The new Top 5 of the hiest opening weekend grossing in the US consist of Finding Nemo, Monsters, In.c, Cars, Ratatouille and finally “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!”. It will be interesting to see, whether Disney manages to reclaim total control of the Top 5 with the upcoming Wal-E release and how Dreamworks’ next Shrek release will fare…