Mousekingdom Blog

Comics! I love them (and collect them), so I am very excited with the news that we will get some Disney/Pixar comics that will give us new stories about the characters we love. We will get Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Wall-E and the one I am most looking forwards too; The Incredibles.

If you are in San Diego right now make sure to visit the Comic Con where a first exclusive preview book is on sale at the BOOM! Booth (#2543)

To commemorate this historic partnership, BOOM! will be releasing a special preview book featuring sneak previews of upcoming projects using the characters from TOY STORY, FINDING NEMO, and MONSTERS, INC. Featuring commentary by Waid, this preview will give comic fans and interested parents a look at the quality comics BOOM! will be producing for a younger audience by the end of the year. (BOOM! Blog)

Picture Copyrights BOOM! Studios

Planning your Walt Disney World visit right now? Ready to call in for restaurant priority bookings? Want to be among the first to call when the lines open to secure a place at Cinderella’s Royal Table? Then you better be warned: since past Sunday (March 9) the US has switched forward to Daylight Saving Time (aka “summer time”)! Since Europe will only move into Daylight Saving Time on March 30 for the time being the US is one hour less behind Europe than “normally”. Just something to keep in mind when scheduling your calls in time for the opening of the hotlines each morning.

If you follow the economic development of theme / amusement parks a bit you frequently will get across the various calculations showing what a large part of the profit is actually not generated by the ticket prices but all the small and not so small extras guests open their wallet for. One of the main costs that come on top of the ticket price certainly are food and drinks - whether it is a small snack, fast food or an outstanding dinner at a table service restaurant.

But how big the food business is for theme / amusement parks is still missed very often. Sure the total numbers are released by some companies - but how do they compare to other food locations. Well here comes an answer…

The German magazine “Food-Service” (a business magazine for the food industry) demonstrates the importance of this business factor with its recently released of the Top 100 system gastronomy businesses in Germany according to total revenue. Certainly such companies as McDonald’s are leading the list, but there are three amusement parks with their gastronomy in the top 100 as well!!

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The High School Musial franchise has become a jack of all trade for The Walt Disney Company. It all started with an innocent, small made for tv musical movie on the Disney Channel which then become a ratings juggernaut around the globe, has seen a record breaking sequel, makes it’s move to the big screen with the third movie this fall, has occupied top spots in the download and CD charts around the globe with various CD and single releases, moved countless additional merchandise items and has resulted in concert, ice show and theatrical shows plus widely popular theme park streetaculars in Disney’s California Adventure, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the Walt Disney Studios (at Disneyland Resort Paris). And now the next chapter is being prepared:

According to the VARIETY website ABC (also part of the Disney empire but so far not involved in the HSM franchise) is developing a concept for a “High School Musical” casting / reality show!

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We all heard of themWe all know Walt Disney’s first company with Ubbe  Iwerks was called Laughogram inc, but how many of us actaully ever saw those classic Alice Commedies ? We here you have a good link for some of them on youtube http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=alice+commedies&search_type have fun (I’m still surfing through them and adore it) 

Just one more ghost….. Yeah!http://cdn4.libsyn.com/insidethemagic/TokyoHalloweenParade.mp4  Sometimes it is difficult to discribe why TokyoDisney resort is so much better than anything else entertainment (and attraction wise) but I guess this video of there 2007 Halloween parade describes it pretty well!enjoy and shout ONE MORE GHOST! 

Yes as much as it might seem as “Disney balsfemy” to say that anything even compares to Animal kingdoms new star attraction i have to state clearly that Italys number 1 themepark, Gardaland, after several years of doing “wrong” things has finally come to senses and is opening on the 19th of March a pretty good version of an artic roller coaster.The story line here is that an expedition to the north pole has uncovered a frozen Mammuth  which…well..appears not to be that much frozen.From there the story starts; you board your train and glide , ride and scream through glaciers, stalagtaties, stalagmites , forzen galcier till you come face to face with the real thing: the big M; himself!Check out the model on the parksmania website; http://www.parksmania.it/news_eng.php?nid=3241just to state that it is an obvious crosse between big thunder Mountain and Everest (no surprise; Gardalands lead designer, Carlo Mazzoli, was tranied by Claude Coats and worked rubbing elbows with Tony Baxter in the late 70’s and 80’s right up to the EPCOT Center opening. Speaking of second gates, check this interview with Gardalands new Managing Director Aldo Vigevani (ex commercial manager) http://www.parksmania.it/news_eng.php?nid=3258In it Vigevani speaks about the new Sea Life center opening next door to Gardaland and future plans for the park, following the acquisitin by Merlin entertainment, for things like Legoland etc 

Ok, so you are visiting the magical worlds of Disney theme parks, you stay “in the magic” by lodging in Disney hotels in the Disney resorts, you sail the seas on a Disney cruise ship, you have bought into the Disney version of vacation time shares (the Disney Vacation Club) - and now you think you have gone to the maximum regarding spending time in themed environments? Well, think again - what about LIVING in a themed environment??

No, I am not talking about a “do it yourself” project to theme your own flat. Neither am I talking about Celebration, the village developed by Disney near Orlando. I am talking about actually living on a film set (and not in a “Big Brother”- way)! (more…)

Just an hour ago I posted the story, that according to Jeffrey Katzenberg his DreamWorks Animation studio was still contractually barred from releasing any movies on BluRay instead of HD DVD. How fast a story can change … According to the reliable German technology website heise, DreamWorks is “off the hook” and usesd his new won freedom to cancel the already announced release of ”The Bee Movie” on HD DVD scheduled for March 11.

BUT heise fails to give any source for the statement, that DreamWorks is “off the hook“. Until we get more information I’d be cautious, since the cancellation of the HD DVD release of “The Bee Movie” does NOT imply that there will be a BluRay release anytime soon or that DreamWorks would be allowed to make such release (whether anyone really would miss such a release is a different story - but let’s not get into bashing any bees, afterall they are important insects who are not responsible for DreamWorks movie). Anyway, DreamWorks might just have decided to cut the losses here that the production of the HD DVD discs could have caused.