The Man Himself

On December 5, 1901 Walter Elias Disney was born and little did the world know all the great that he would bring. During these couple days Disney has highlighted some of the achievements and accomplishments he has achieved. One major achievement Walt accomplished was turning a cartoon into a full length feature film. Cartoons were invented before Walt was born, but they only played short cartoons before movies. His vision of creating a full length feature cartoon film has led to many amazing films including Beauty & the Beast and Disney Pixars Cars. Another of Walt's dreams was too create a theme park that children could go to and not worry about drinking and wild adults and teens. His dream then turned into reality when Walt Disney World opened. He also is the one who brought us the one and only Mickey Mouse. These are just some of the achievements that he has had and Disney continues to grow and expand on Walt's dream. To think of a World without Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Pluto, and many other characters that we have all come to know and love is almost to hard to imagine. Walt has helped to create another world where people can go and experience their childhood over and over again no matter how old they are.

Lion King-Disney Studio-Tink & Paris Hilton

Casting has begun for the show of the Lion King to be performed January 2, 2009 to February 8,2009. It will be performed on the ASU Gammage stage in Tempe, Arizona. This is one of seven productions running worldwide of The Lion King. The others are London, Lamburg, New York, Tokyo, Paris, and Fukuoka. This morning Disney Studios in Burbank opened its gates from 11:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. to numerous fans who have been waiting for years to get a glimpse of what goes on behind these gates. Fans were able to find bargains of Disney memorabilia Saturday as well as Sunday between the hours of 10:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M. On Saturday a lunch was also offered. Also Disney is thinking about creating a Tinkerbell movie with a human cast. They want to tell a story of how Tink longs to be a real person and finally gets her chance and the struggles and triumphs she goes through. In recent news Paris Hilton stated that she would like to try-out for the part as Tink which many are finding ironic given the case that her dog was given that name.

Disney Vacation Club

Disney Vacation club is a vacation ownership program that helps families enjoy flexibility and savings in decades to come with vacationing. RCI which is a global leader in vacation exchanges and Disney Vacation club members recently announced today a new affiliation. It is planning on opening up more vacationing opportunities to members. Starting the 1st of this coming year 2009 RCI will become a 3rd party enrolling the 135,000 families that are members of the Disney Vacation Club into RCI's global network. Members will be allowed to vacation in 6 continents and 25 countries. They will also have the opportunity to go to resorts with all-inclusive offers. With RCI bringing Disney vacationers into their network Disney will also be bringing in RCI members providing them with offers to Disneyland resorts.

Volun-EARS & 20 questions disney style

In New York City this past week members known as Volun-EARS dedicated their time to helping make and serve a Thanksgiving dinner to those who could not afford one. They worked in shelters and salvations army shelters to put together meals to help the homeless and less fortunate. On disney.com they released an online game similar to the hand held game that has become quite popular in the past year or so 20 Questions. The hand held game lets you think of anything and will guess what you are thinking after asking 20 questions. On disney.com the game is the same exact thing except it will guess any disney related thing that you ask it.

Releases

Tomorrow Tuesday November 18th Disney releases Wall-E onto DVD and Blu-ray. Wall-E is the story of a robot all alone stranded on earth after everyone went to live in space and he was stuck to clean up there mess. He finds life and meets another Robot named EVE. It's a very cute and fun movie that is definitely worth purchasing. Tomorrow Disney also releases Hannah Montana season 1 on DVD. Another thing that Disney will be releasing tomorrow is the soundtrack to the new Pixar movie Bolt being released in theaters on Friday.

Bolt

Disney Pixar is preparing for the release of there new animation Bolt set to hit theaters on November 21. Bolt is a story about a K9 TV star who believes that all his tricks and powers are real. However, when he breaks free from the set he soon finds out that being a hero dog isn't always true. Along his journey he befriends a black stray cat and a humorous hamster trapped in a hamster ball. Bolt's voice over is done by no other than the great John Travolta. Miley Cyrus, one of Disney's up in coming celebrities, is also featured in the movie. Bolt is not only a film by Disney Pixar, but it is one that they have decided to turn in 3D in selected theaters across America. They hope that the action fun filled pooch will make a popping apperance to its huge Disney fan base.

HSM 3 & Alchemy of Animation

On October 25h Disney released High School Musical 3 in theaters across the U.S. This is the first of the 3 movies made that has been turned into a theatrical film. Disney also is gearing up for this Christmas with a release of a new Disney volume book called The Alchemy of animation. This book has never before seen pictures from the Disney archives. It also has something for everyone. Sections are broken up into stories of chapters dedicated to children, tweens, and hopeful vacation goers. There's also a section that discusses the in's and out's of Disney World and the imagination that goes behind it. It teaches readers where secrets that are hidden all throughout Disney World are so on your next visit you can stop by and find some.

Sailing, Fairy Music, & Wonders in the Sky

This week in Disney Roy E. Disney, Walt Disney’s nephew, is about to begin a sailing adventure. The 77 year old has enjoyed sailing since his 20’s and is looking forward to the next voyage. This trip wasn’t just for a joy ride though; they are filming a documentary called “Morning Light.” Roy said he wanted “audiences to experience this through the eyes of kids who’ve never done this before.” The kids in the film aren’t actors they simply just wanted to sail a boat. Roy said he enjoyed the trip and watching the kids who participated grow as individuals. "We didn't want to make a film about boats or racing ... we wanted to make a film about people. I hope audiences take away a sense of hope and optimism about the future of our young people. Our goal is to give all of you landlubbers a better sense of what goes on between two ports without making you seasick in the process. You identify with these kids as you cross the ocean with them. It changed their lives ... maybe it'll change yours too."
This week Disney also released a Tinkerbell soundtrack on Tuesday October 14th. The songs were all from or related to the Tinkerbell feature film. Two popular singers that can be found on the CD are American Idol star Katharine McPhee and Disney teen star from the TV show Wizards of Waverly Place Selena Gomez.
On Disney Insider a guest from Pittsburgh, PA talked about how they enjoyed the Flights of Wonder show at Disney Animal Kingdom. This week their question was answered which was “One of my favorite things at the Animal Kingdom is the Flights of Wonder show. The birds are magnificent. Has this show been part of the Animal Kingdom from the beginning? What can you tell me about the birds and the trainers?” When they responded they told her that the Flights of Wonder show consists of 20 different species of birds in the show. The show started in 1998 and every show since had been unique because every show is made up of a different variety if birds that all can do different tricks.

Hannah Montana Sweet 16, Cheap Music, & Selena Gomez

Miley Cyrus, also known as the famous Hannah Montana, celebrated her 16^th birthday party at Anaheim, California’s Disneyland on October 5, 2008. Her actual sweet 16 isn’t until November 23^rd, but the celebration seemed to still go off as a hit. The theme park closed down and featured a fireworks show, 16 inflatable candles, and 4 performances by Miley. About 5,000 people attended that event which cost $250 a ticket. Disney used this event to help promote their “What Will You Celebrate.” This will begin in 2009 and it will gain free theme park admission to any person who has identification stating that it is in fact their birthday.

During the event guests also got the opportunity to play one of Disney’s upcoming video games called Ultimate Band. Disney wanted to find a way to allow people to experience Guitar Hero and Rock Band without the high costs. By doing this Disney has created a system that will allow Wii owners to use the remote and Nun chuck to play the drums and guitar. They also have a system set up where you can not only play the songs which are programmed into the game, but you can create music of your own and record and save it. Disney hopes to have this released in time for the Holidays so keep an eye out for anything around Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Selena Gomez of Disney channel’s “Wizards of Waverly Place” was announced as spokesperson for Trick-Or-Treat for the UNICEF (The United Nations Children Fund) campaign. This campaign supports promoting American children to help other children around the world with celebrating and enjoying Halloween.

DVD Releases and High School Musical

Disney has recently released one of its famous movies The Nightmare before Christmas collector’s edition on DVD and Blu-Ray disc on August 26^, 2008. This edition features a commentary with producer and writer Tim Burton. It was digitally restored and remastered with state of the art technology. Disney has also released a The Nightmare before Christmas CD called Nightmare Revisited release on September 3, 2008. The CD is complete with 20 tracks with some well known artists. Some include Plain White T’s, Korn, All American Rejects, and Marilyn Manson.

Disney is also gearing up for their new smash hit release of High School Musical three to be released in the states on Friday October 24^th. On Tuesday October 8^th they had their grand premiere in the United Kingdom. Stars of the show Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Efron, Ashely Tisdale, and Corbin Bleu were all there. The first High School Musical was shown on the Disney Channel in January 2006. The following summer they released sequel to the movie also released on the Disney channel. High School Musical 3: Senior Year is the first of the trilogy to be released on the big screen. With the third movie already planned to be a hit work has already begun on High School Musical 4.

Disney’s Classic Sleeping Beauty has been released from the vault for its 50^th anniversary. It has been remastered and is available for the first time on DVD and Blu-Ray disc. Along with the DVD if you go on Disney.com Disney is having a Sleeping Beauty sweepstakes now until January 31^st. The Grand Prize is a one night stay in the Dream Suite in Disneyland for four and then a two night stay in a Disneyland resort. Other prizes are also available by entering the giveaway.