News Update: Monday June 2nd 2014

Lots of major breaking news this week, and here we are trying to keep track of just some of the major news unveiled by Disney this week around the globe with breaking news from many films and theme parks across the Disney company.

Earlier today Disney/Lucasfilm unveiled more details on the cast of Star Wars Episode VII. Today actresses Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave) and Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones) are joining the cast of actors starring in the latest installment of the Star Wars saga. Previously announced were original actors, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker, along with new-comers Andy Serkins, Oscar Isaac, Domhall Gleeson and Max von Sydow.

The announcement was made on the official Star Wars website earlier today. As we speculated earlier, it as rumored that Nyong'o will be playing the character of Asaaj Ventress from The Clone Wars series. This has yet to be confirmed if there is any truth to it.

James Cameron  gave a few more details on the upcoming Avatar expansion in Disney's Animal Kingdom. The land is supposedly be called Pandora: The Land of Avatar and will feature brand-new lifelike Audio-Animatronic and gave some other details on the expansion: (Source: Slashfilm.com)

It’s going to have floating mountains. It’s pretty cool. I’ve seen the model and the design work the Imagineering people have done is spectacular. They’ve got a quarter inch to the foot scale model of the whole park and I’ve looked at all the sight lines…it’s not a park, it’s a land within the park but a land is not just a ride. There will be several rides and a number of other attractions. It’s really just a place you’re gonna wanna go and hang out. It’s gonna be gorgeous. Of course it’s gonna be gorgeous at night and they’re using every new trick, every new bit of technology that they’ve created. The animatronics for the Na’vi characters are gonna be fantastic. For example, their early animatronics would use 12 axis of motion and I think the most they’ve ever done was 32 axis recently. I think they’re up to 64 just in the face of the Na’vi characters. So it’s gonna be remarkable. They really see it as a major, major attraction.  

Disney still has yet to officially announce this, but this is the current name according to Avatar director James Cameron. Pandora: The Land of Avatar is scheduled for a 2017 opening.

In order to make way for Avatar, Animal Kingdom closed up Camp Minnie-Mickey in Animal Kingdom, which included the popular Festival of the Lion King stage show. Don't worry: The show was only moved temporarily and just opened up for it's first showing at the New Harambe theater in the Africa section of Animal Kingdom. Showtimes are daily and vary depending on time of visit, but it's back and has shows almost daily as it did before the Avatar expansion began construction. The show has remained unchanged.

Maleficent opened in theaters this week in North America at #1 with $70 million total in weekend estimates. The opening amount is similar to 2013's Oz the Great and Powerful which also recieved $79 million it's opening weekend, but far from 2010's Alice in Wonderland which opened to a mighty $116 million. In case you missed it, read our review of the film.

DisneyToon's Planes: Fire and Rescue soars into theaters July 18th nationwide. Walt Disney Films Quebec (a division of Walt Disney Films Canada) announced that Canadian Olympic participants Chloe, Justine, and Maxime Dufour-Lapointe will be lending their voices to three different characters in the French Canadian version of the film. With a stunning performance at the 2013 World Championships, Chloe currently holds the title of world champion FIS moguls. Justine, the Olympic champion, has meanwhile won the bronze medal at the 2013 World Championships FIS moguls. Maxime debuted in the World Cup in 2007 and is a regular competitor u on the circuit since 2008. She also finished 4th in moguls in 2014 making themselves a house-hold name throughout all of Canada during the entire Sochi Winter Games.

In French, the film is titled The Aircraft: The Fire From The Sky.


A few weeks ago Disney Interactive unveiled details about the mega-Marvel addition to Disney Infinity. This week, they unveiled that Merida from Pixar's Brave and Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty) will be joining the cast of characters available to play in the game. Video was released by Disney Interactive earlier this week.

In Theme Park news, Universal Orlando continued to unveil details on the Diagon Alley expansion of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter with an all new video, sharing some insight on the creation of the attractions included in the expansion:

Seaworld responded to the controversial documentary Blackfish once again this week, with "69 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Believe Blackfish". You can read the entire list here. 

Did you enter our giveaway for a free copy of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Around the Clubhouse World yet? There's only one more day to enter, so be sure to enter right here before time runs out! Good luck!

That's it for your news this week! Have a magical week! 

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com