Mousekingdom Blog

As several readers (Thank You!) of the coverage for the return of “Captain EO” to Disneyland Paris on DLP.info have pointed out the official blog for the Disney Parks, operated by The Walt Disney Company, has just provided the  first official, public(!) confirmation for the return of “Captain EO” to both, EPCOT and Disneyland Paris!

The post event releases what at this point should be the official opening dates. Based on the blog guests of EPCOT will be able to visit Mickey Jackson fighting for peace and love as of July 2, while guests at Disneyland Paris only need to wait till June 12 (so even earlier than the prior rumored June 25 date). For Tokyo the opening according to the post is June 30, however, the official press release of Tokyo Disney Resort listed July 1st as opening date. (more…)

The musical space adventure starring Michael Jackson in the 3D movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola featuring two original songs by Michael Jackson and a score by James Horner has been attracting guests at the original Disneyland in Anaheim, USA, in droves since it returned as “Captain EO Tribute” earlier this year to replace (temporarily) the aging “Honey, I Shrunkt the Audience” movie (short: HISTA). Also reports on various websites indicate that the merchandise (even so limited in scope) is flying off the shelves.

Therefore, fans who had wondered about a possible return of the movie to the other Disney parks it originally played in were wondering, whether or when the resorts in Orlando, Tokyo and Paris would follow the lead of Anaheim. The answers are now coming in. Disneyland Paris will close its Imagination Institute showing HISTA according to a leaked internal memo on May 3rd to start the transformation and then open “Captain EO” either in mid-June or July (for details check out our coverage on DLP.info).

On Monday, local time, the Oriental Land Company as operator of the Tokyo Disney Resort also confirmed with a press release that it will close HISTA as of May 10th for the return of” Captain EO”. Note that the press release does only speak of “Captain EO” – the “Tribute” tag-on used by Disneyland Anaheim isn’t mentioned here (btw neither is the leaked internal memo from Disneyland Paris). While Disneyland only stated that the run of the movie would be limited, Tokyo Disney Resort announces exact dates. Apparently the show will only be featured from July 1st, 2010 till June 30th 2010. As the resort expects high guest demand and the 17 minute movie is shown in a theater with just 369 seats they will even offer FastPass service for it! For comparison: the Magic Eye Theater at Disneyland Anaheim (in which the movie plays) has seats for 575 guests, the theaters at Disneyland Paris and EPCOT each about 600 seats.

This only leaves Walt Disney World as the final remaining Disney resort in which “Captain EO” was originally featured… (more…)

UP didn’t win the Oscar for Best Picture, but it had some tough competition and it would have been a surprise if it would have made it in that category. The Hurt Locker took the Oscar home and can add it next to all the other prices it already won. Up was also nominated for Writing (Original Script), but again it was The Hurt Locker that won the Oscar.  Sound Editing was another category Up was in, but could not get the Oscar for.

There is good news for Disney – Pixar too as it’s no big surprise that it would walk away with the Best Animation Oscar. Disney had 2 chances, with The Princess and the Frog also competing for the Oscar, but it was UP who finally got the biggest honors. It wasn’t the only Oscar for UP. Michael Giacchino was given the Oscar for Music (Original Score).

In the category Music (Original Song), The Prince and the Frog could not get the Oscar. It was nominated twice, for the songs “Almost There” and Down in New Orleans”, but it was “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart” that got the precious gold.

The full list of all winners can be found here!

Picture copyrights Disney

The British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) winners are known and PIXAR was able to get both of their nominations transformed into winners. UP got the price for best animated film. Only up against two other nominations, namely “Coraline” and “Fantastic Mr Fox”, it was no big surprise UP would nail this one. The second win is for best music. This one wasn’t that easy as competition was a little more fierce here. Michael Giacchino was up against James Horner for instance. James Horner was nominated for his music for the movie Avatar. The other nominations for best music where Crazy Heart -  T-Bone Burnett, Stephen Bruton, Fantastic Mr Fox- -Alexandre Desplat and Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll – Chaz Jankel.

A full list of all other winners can be found on the British Academy of Film and Television Arts website.

Depsite having received a nomination for the Razzies Joe Jonas seems to have a growing interest in becoming an actor and not “limiting” himself to his career in music. The member of all brothers’ trio The Jonas Brothers whichDisney made into the latest pop-phenomenon for the audience of The Disney Channel and Radio Disney (after they had failed to come out big when Sony released their debut album), is going to guest star in one of ABC’s big Sunday evening shows: Brothers & Sisters. Whether one likes the music of The Jonas Brothers or has any interest in the brothers it is just amazing how well the various segments of The Walt Disney Company group manage to work together to create and now sustain the success of this band and even branch it out into new markets, as “Brothers & Sisters” surely is not the regular tv-fare of the fans of the band.

Joe Jonas should be showing up in two episodes later this season as the show (airing in the USA right after Desperate Housewifes) is preparing a two-part flashback in which viewers will be traveling back in time to meet the Walker siblings as young teens. So obviously the big question was who was going to play the younger versions of the family members of the Walker family around whom the show evolves. Which brings us back to Joe Jonas… (more…)

The OSCAR nominations have been made public and “UP” is going for the big one. “UP” has been, as was rumored before, nominated for the Best Picture award. This time the competition is even more fierce as the years before as for the first time since 1943 10 movies will have to battle it out to win the prestigious movie award. The other nominees are “Avatar”, “The Blind Side”, “District 9″, “An Education”, “The Hurt Locker”, “Inglourious Bastards”, “Precious”, “A Serious Man” and “Up in the Air”. It will not be an easy task for “UP” with a powerful list like this.

The more obvious nomination for “UP” is in the “Best Animated Feature” category. Here it is up against “Caroline”, “Fantastic Mr. Fox”, Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” and “The Secret of Kells”.

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It’s that time of the year again … not Christmas time … it’s award season! This Sunday the Grammies were handed out and once again congratulations can be extended for the work on one of the soundtracks from the Disney stable. In this case the congratulations go to Michael Giacchino as the composer of the score for the Disney Pixar hit “UP” for which he was awarded with the Grammy in the category “Best Score Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media” (which is award to composer(s) for an original score created specifically for, or as a companion to, a current legitimate motion picture, television show or series or other visual media). To win this award Michael Giacchino die beat out Alexandre Desplat (The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button), Nicholas Hooper (Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, Danny Elfman (Milk) and himself (for Star Trek). But wait … there’s more … (more…)

In 1992 Whoopi Goldberg as loung singer Deloris hiding from mobsters by pretending to be a nun and in the course of the action turning the live of the convent she is hiding in up side down was a smash sucess at the boxoffice for Disney’s Touchstone Pictures – and till today the songs from the movie, such as  Mary Wells’ “My Guy” turned into “My God” make smiles magically appear when ever played. Considering the huge sucess of the movie (which resulted in a sequel in 1993) as well as the soundtrack, the infectious comedy and the great songs “Sister Act” was often mentioned as one of the movies that could be turned into Disney musical show … however, nothing happened and when something finally happened in 2006 Disney Theatrical wasn’t the one who did it. (more…)

The OSCARs won’t be awarded till March 7 (that is for the non-technical OSCARs) but the voting by the Academy members is already underway to determine the nominations. Disney certainly was hoping that its return to classic style 2D animation for the big screen, “The Princess and the Frog”, would garner as many nominations as possible – which, in the tradition of the latest sucessful string of animated Disney features from the early 90s should include nominations as Best Animated Feature, Best Score as well as maybe even several nominations in the Best Song category – after all Disney hired in Randy Newman a seasoned score composer and songwriter, who had not only a long list of pop hits under his belt as well as already worked on various movies (including for several of the Disney Pixar features) but also one his first (and so far sole) OSCAR for a song from a Disney Pixar movie (in 2002 for “If I Didn’t Have You” from Monsters, Inc.). However, the executive committee of the Academy’s music-branch have decided to throw a wrench into the plans of Disney early this week. (more…)

Roy Edward Disney, the nephew of Walt Disney, has died after loosing his battle against cancer. He died this morning. Roy has been a protector of the Disney brand, first helping his brother Walt to build the company and later in revolting against the powers  of two of the company’s chief executives from the Disney company. Roy has fought hard for the Disney values set by his brother over the years. Some of these battles brought great and wonderful results for the Disney company and himself. He has been the driving force to convince the company to invest in new technology for their animation department. He work on the new Fantasia movie and devoted 20 years of his life on making nature movies.

He will be truly missed, but remembered by many. Thank you Roy, for looking after the Disney magic.

The opening of the Walt Disney Family Museum is very near. 1st October is the big day where fans, Disney addicts and the regular public will have access to all the beautiful Disney treasures. Just before opening day we have two more preview galleries to show you. Once you seen these little gems make sure to book your tickets for the museum in San Francisco. (more…)

Ready for another treat coming straight from the Walt Disney Family Museum? Well here it is. The second gallery will again host some amazing Walt Disney treasures, including the telegram send by Roy to Walt which read “Don’t worry everything OK will give details when arrive”.

There is also picture of the marriage license and certificate of Walt and Lillian and a great drawing of Oswald from 1927. Feast your eyes on these gems in this second preview…

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Many of you might know that in the 15th century Italy gave birth to the “reneaisance movement”.Great landlords like De Medici, Pope’s and Kings shaked the world by commissioning Michelengelo, Raffaello, Leonardo and many others great forms of arts.one of these forms was Music.

For sure in the last 5 centuries music has evolved, but it has always had a certain link to theatres.In the last century theatres and music had a certain change in the way they where received thanks to Musicals, these wanted to unite dramatic opera’s to easier and lighter plots with less complex music.Great one’s like Andrew Llyod Webber and Cameron Mckintosh gave us classics like Phantom, Cats, Les Miserable as well as many others.

Any Disney fan would certainly say that Disney came into the game in an important way in the 1990′s, pulling out of their hat a few hits, and a few flops, but the few hits where really REALLY BIG hits!Lion King and Beauty and the Beast immediately come to mind!And With these Alan Menken, Disney legend and great composer, is at the center of it all.

He and his late partner, Howard Ashman, gave in the late 80′s and 90′s a deffinite (more…)

Instrumental music playing through (more or less) hidden speakers placed all over the Disney theme parks and even the areas outside the theme parks accessible to guests in the Disney resorts is one of the key elements in setting the atmosphere and making sure guests are totally immersed in the world of Disney. Frequently guests do not even notice the music except unconsciously as it is (mostly) cleverly selected for the different areas to fit the theme of each area. However, once it is noticed guests frequently fall in love with the music selections and enquire with cast members in the area or (in the Disneyland Park) City Hall whether the music is available for sale in the park. Unfortunately the answer is mostly no – even so in particular at the Disneyland Resort Paris CD releases such as “Frontierland en musique” and “Disneyland Resort Paris en musique” at least include a few selected background / area music tracks.

The problem with the majority of the background / area music however is, that it is not recorded specifically for Disney but is so called “needle drop” material, meaning tracks taken directly from other (in most cases: commercially available) record releases. So one would hope, that the resorts are maybe able, to provide a list which tracks are playing in which area (in other words: in which music loop) and from which sources they are. However, the information cast members have at their disposal is very limited in msot cases. This certainly does apply to the Disneyland Resort Paris. Therefore, one of the frequent questions asked on the web is: “Which music is playing in the background loop at ____? Anyone knowing where I can get it?” Luckily there is an answer as far as where to get the information…

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I have the sad obligation to write the second obituary on the Mousekingdom Blog in less than 24 hours as Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, died yesterday at the age of 50 in his home at Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, CA. While the cause of his death has not been confirmed and an autopsy is underway, speculations (also fueled by a statement of the families attorney apparently) indicate medication or maybe a misuse of such could have played a role. Michael Jackson was currently preparing for his comeback concerts planned in London but recent rumors had indicated that he had suffered various injuries and attacks of weakness hampering the rehearsals.

Michael Jackson is certainly remember for what most probably will stay forever the best selling pop album of all times, Thriller, but had various worldwide smash hits around the globe in the course of its career before it faltered in the last years. He started performing professional at the young age of five with his brothers as “Jackson 5″ (who had amongst others the hit “ABC”). Michael Jackson was also one of the best known Disney fans worldwide who frequently visited in particular the original Disneyland as well as the Disneyland Resort Paris, where he signed the underside of the couch table in the Sleeping Beauty suite. A visit of his to the Disneyland Resort Paris in 1992 (opening year) can be seen in the you-tube clip embedded below.

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