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

Maleficent Film Review

Mitchell Stein- We know the classic story of Sleeping Beauty, and the curse she was thrust upon as a new-born child, citing that on her sixteenth birthday, she will touch the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. The wicked fairy Maleficent cast this spell on her (for reasons unknown, but assumed at the time because she was not invited to the celebration) but Disney’s latest summer blockbuster Maleficent tells us the magnificent story we don’t know, and what you didn't think you needed to know.

The film takes us on a really exciting journey which by far was probably highly unnecessary, but entertaining regardless. The story shines much light on the wicked villainous Maleficent, giving us light on what series of events really caused her to “turn to the dark side” and become the wicked villainous person as she was seen in the events of Sleeping Beauty. I won’t go in-depth on any details in the story for this one, as there’s just an enormous amount of things to spoil in this one.

Angelina Jolie returns to the big-screen after a four year hiatus taking on the lead title role of the film, and she does an incredible job. Maleficent is by far one of the strongest villains in Disney cinematic history, so if there were any villain to deserve a film spin-off, she would win almost instantly. Jolie takes on the wicked role and plays her character so incredibly fantastic. She becomes the character you can’t decide whether you love or hate, (or both) creating such a complex character and pulling you in to find yourself actually caring for a Disney villain. Elle Fanning (Super 8) joins the cast as sixteen-year old Aurora which I thought was flawless. Aurora was a pretty boring one-dimensional character and Fanning really does a great job of playing this character a little better and what she should have been in the film. Keep in mind that this is a movie about Maleficent, and will therefore spotlight Aurora a lot less than in the 1959 film.

I found myself incredibly annoyed by Flora, Fauna and Merryweather in this film, who buzz around most scenes like a fly waiting to be swatted. In Sleeping Beauty the characters are goofy and slightly boring to watch, but in Maleficent they are just plain annoying. I really could not handle the high-pitched sounds of their voice which made them sound pretty ridiculous. There was nothing redeeming to be found in the case of the fairies, so I was pretty happy that they weren’t the main spotlight of the story.

The story is well handled. It begins with an interesting narrative that establishes some facts of the film, possibly a call-back to the 1959 film. It gives us a bit of a backstory of Maleficent’s previous history before meeting up with the events of Sleeping Beauty. There’s lots of story-changes along the way with twists on the classic story, mostly for the better sake of story and filmmaking, but I can totally see some major fans go up in arms about these changes. Don’t be fooled thinking you already know how the movie ends if you’ve seen Sleeping Beauty. There’s still a large amount of story much different from the original story and much of it was not expected.

But perhaps the most impressive feat of Maleficent was its incredible set design and cinematography. Throughout the entire film, beautiful and vibrant colors sparkle and shine, capturing every scene which had me floored the entire film. These designs are little bit reminiscent of James Cameron’s Avatar, in slight comparison, such as in the use of its lens flares and in its creatures. It doesn’t quite rank up there next to Avatar in all its filmmaking aspects, but in some of its designs.

Besides the cinematography, this film soars far above Disney previous two fairy-tale “spin-off” films, Alice in Wonderland and Oz: The Great and Powerful. Luckily, this movie manages to stay on course throughout the entire story and never falls short in its 97 minute run, which I felt can’t really be said about the former two, which felt weak to me at a certain point and they fall apart halfway through the film. If the fairy-tale remakes continue to be like this film, than I don't see myself having much of a problem with them. The trailers are extremely misleading to the movie aside from the story, but in terms of how dark this film really is and how friendly it will be for kids. It’s tamer than Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland remake/sequel, so if you felt that might be okay for your kids, I don’t think you have much to worry for this movie.

Overall, I really enjoyed Maleficent. It was a fun, exciting, and charming (and maybe a bit emotional) journey which was really well-done. I feel that this movie redeems the 1959 film which I always found to be rather boring (I’m going to get major backlash from the Disney fan community for saying that) but this is a more fresh take on the movie with better improvements to it, for the most part. I’d recommend it to most Disney fans, and especially fans of Sleeping Beauty. 

3.5/5 Spinning Wheels

Maleficent opens in North America today. Rated PG. 

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com

The Pirate Fairy Blu-Ray Review

Mitchell Stein- I have to say out of all the young children’s Disney franchises, the Disney Fairies franchise is the one I’ll never understand. I’m obviously not the target audience for these films and television episodes, but it’s not one that I find the most enjoyable.

In The Pirate Fairy, we are introduced to a fairy named Zarina (Christina Hendricks) a fairy who is amazed by the powers of the Blue Pixie Dust and takes her ‘experimenting’ a little too far and causes much trouble on the entire fairy community, she decides to leave Pixie Hollow and joins up with some ruthless pirates led by James (Tom Hiddleston) and promises the pirates some things that come to backfire in the end. 

The film isn’t bad by any means, but it’s by far not one of my favorite of the Disney children franchises. The film sort-of acts as a prequel to Peter Pan, as some characters will develop into the characters well-known from their performance in Peter Pan. It's actually quite surprising with the amount of productions that surround the world of Peter Pan, including Disney Junior's Jake and the Neverland Pirates. 

There’s a great cast of voice actors, including Tom Hiddleston, fresh off his performances in Disney films Thor: The Dark World and Muppets Most Wanted. There’s a brand new song by Natasha Bedingfield which is named “What I Am” which is a pretty enjoyable song and sets the mood for the film well. Overall, if you’re a fan of Peter Pan you may want to give this one a look, and if you or your younger ones are fans of Tinker Bell and the rest of the fairies, this new film will not disappoint. In all honesty, it's got a much more enjoyable story-plot than the never ending franchises of arrogant talking vehicles with eyes on their windshields. At this point in the franchise, it holds up the best than any other previous long-standing Disney franchises and stays true to it's predecessors.

The bonus features stack up well too. There’s a “Crock-U-Mentary” which is a short documentary of real-life crocodiles and alligators, and possibly even more entertaining than the actual film. There’s a few deleted scenes and animated shorts starring Tinker Bell and fairies, A Legacy of Never Land special, taking you on an adventure through Never-Land with stories and other wacky elements and a few sing-alongs on top of that. There’s lots of fun to be had in this for the fans of the Disney Fairies.

One thing that had me really puzzled, (and a head’s up to parents!) is the fact that Disney chose to put in a trailer for the upcoming film, Maleficent on the Blu-Ray and DVD. The film is rated PG-13 for violence and frightening scenes, so why they chose to include it on a film that’s geared towards very young children is beyond my understanding and was an awful decision if you ask me. I never find myself commenting on the choice of trailers on a DVD, but this one really had me scratching my head. Other than that, everything was G-rated on the release.

The Pirate Fairy is now available wherever Blu-Rays are sold

NEWS UPDATE: March 18th 2014

We don't generally schedule two Weekly News Updates in one week, but lots of brand-new exciting news announced this week, it would not be appropriate to address these super exciting announcements.

First off, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that sequels are in the works for Cars and The Incredibles at today's Disney Shareholders Meeting. No other info was included, but he did confirm that director Brad Bird is back at the helm for the second installment, and we can only speculate that the second film may pick up exactly where the first one left off. No release dates were released, but the earliest possibilities for these films would probably be 2017. 

Also announced was a basic time-line for Disney's next Star Wars film set to be released in 2015. Iger explained that the new film will take place 30 years after the Return of the Jedi film and would include familiar faces as well as new characters. We're bummed out this probably means no Yoda, but still, we're get excited. 

Disneyland Shanghai is set to open next year and a feature announced today was a "Pirates of the Caribbean" themed land named Treasure Cove along with the Pirates attraction, named "Battle of the Sunken Treasure" based off of all the films. The fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie is also set to release 2015.

Concept art

The next legendary D23 Expo, was officially announced! The dates for the bi-annual event will be from August 14th-16th 2015. Advance tickets will go on sale on August 14th 2014 (a whole year in advance) and will be available for purchase on D23Expo.com. 

Marvel is airing an exciting special tonight, named Assembling a Universe, which will offer lots of behind the scenes looks at Marvel films and sneak peeks at upcoming movies including Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, and even The Avengers: Days of Ultron. Be sure to watch it. It's at 8/7c on ABC, which is normally the time-slot for Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad reopened this week at Disneyland California after some renovation. We haven't had a chance to head down there ourselves to check it out, but Inside the Magic has, and they have a great new review on the latest update. 

Disney's Maleficent, an upcoming movie telling the story of the famous Disney villain released another trailer today. For the past few days, the Twitter account (@Maleficent) urged everyone to follow before it was too late. The Twitter account went private two days ago, and only previous followers can now see the tweets. The account was releasing new photos and videos to it's followers and they were the first to see Maleficent's "wings". 

The crew of Frozen went to visit the truly brilliant Hotel De Glace (Ice Hotel) in Quebec City, Canada. The Hotel had a special Frozen section built in celebration of the movie, and you can see video right here: 

Speaking of Frozen, you can now purchase the film on Blu-Ray Combo Pack along with Saving Mr. Banks, The Jungle Book 2, Doc McStuffins: DocMobile, and the Muppets Most Wanted soundtrack. Your wallets are about to get lighter. 

Read our review on the release of Frozen on Blu-Ray and DVD!

And what is in quite shocking news this week, a fish tank suddenly busted open in Downtown Disney's T- Rex Restaurant in Walt Disney World. The pipe had a rather large amount of water pouring out into the restaurant, and officials are still trying to figure out what caused the crack in the tank. You can watch an Instagram video of the leak here. Things did not go swimmingly (I'm sorry, I couldn't resist that pun). 

The Pirate Fairy an all new adventure from Disney's Fairies franchise features actor Tom Hiddleston, and a clip of Hiddleston voicing Hook was released a few days ago. See it below! 

Guests staying at Disney Aulani Resort in Hawaii were treated to a special screening of the movie with an appearance by Mae Whitman and producer Jenni Magee Cook! The Pirate Fairy will be available on April 1st 2014.

With Muppets Most Wanted coming out THIS Friday, we've got all the latest Muppet news covered in today's Muppet News Update on our sister site, The Muppet Mindset. Keep checking back for the latest news! 

That's all for this week! Have a magical week! 

News Update: January 31st 2014

Mitchell Stein- The Disney masterpiece Frozen, hits theaters again today with an all-new special sing-along version of the film! Over 2,000 theaters across North America are taking place in this all-new experience to Frozen. As the movie's soundtrack is heard in the film, a bouncing snowflake will follow the on-screen lyrics. The rest of the movie will remain untouched.

Along with that, a special version of Get A Horse! will accompany the Sing-Along at the El Capitane Theater in Los Angeles. The sing-along will also include appearances by Anna and Elsae and flurries inside the theater itself.

Check local listings to find a showing of Frozen Sing-Along near you!


Saving Mr. Banks the Disney biopic telling the story of how Walt Disney wooed P.L. Travers into the rights of her books Mary Poppins into a film adaption is to be released on March 18th 2014. The release date was made official by Amazon.com and the Walmart website but not yet confirmed by Walt Disney Home Entertainment.

Last week we reported that The Muppets would be starring in an all-new commercial alongside Terry Crews promoting The Toyota Highlander during the Super Bowl this year. Toyota released the entire ad online as well as a whole bunch of extra bonus videos. Read some more about it on our sister site, The Muppet Mindset.

The Muppets will also be appearing on Jimmy Fallon's final show on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon as announced last night. The final show will premiere February 7th on NBC as Fallon prepares to take over Jay Leno on The Tonight Show. 


Maleficent, the film based on the villain from Sleeping Beauty and starring Angelina Jolie released an all-new trailer this week, includes Lana Del Ray's rendition of Once Upon A Dream from the original Sleeping Beauty film. The trailer can be seen on the right.

Maleficent hits theaters May 31st, 2014.  The soundtrack will be released on May 27th.

With the Super Bowl approaching, be prepared to see several Big Game Spots for many upcoming Disney movies. So far announced was for Need For Speed, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Maleficent and probably many more. Be on the lookout for an ad for Muppets Most Wanted, The Wind Rises, and more.

Speaking of Captain America, an all new poster for Captain America: The Winter Soldier was released late last night. The poster showcases the return of Steve Rogers (A.K.A Captain America) Natasha Romanoff (A.K.A Black Widow) and S.H.I.E.L.D director Nick Fury.
The Winter Soldier arrives in theaters April 4th 2014.



Continuing in the promotion for Need For Speed, the Disney distributed film set under the Touchstone Pictures banner in partnership with Dreamworks, released yet another incredible behind the scenes look at how they filmed the movie. This week's video includes Dominic Cooper in "Driving School...Again."

Construction has already begun on Avatar Land in Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando. This week, John Rhode and John Landau held a press conference and explained lots of new info about the expansion. Here's video of the event, courtesy of Big Fat Panda.  

                                  That's it for this week's news! Have a great weekend! 

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com

Disney Animation Reviews #15 - Sleeping Beauty

Disney Animation Review: 16/53 - Sleeping Beauty

Ryan Dosier - Although it is one of the more widely popular Disney animated features, Sleeping Beauty is one of the weakest stories in the Disney classics family. There are some truly breathtaking aspects of the film, but the shoddy storytelling is absolutely not one of them.

The story of Princess Aurora is baffling because she is not the main character, she doesn’t change at all, and she causes nothing to happen. The true heroes of the piece are Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, the three fairies. They come up with the plan to save Aurora from Maleficent, they ruin the plan, and they are the ones who save Prince Phillip, fight all of his fights, and even give him the power to slay the dragon.

It makes one wonder why Aurora and Phillip were necessary to the story at all when the three fairies could have easily done everything by themselves. Both Aurora and Phillip are forgettable characters, sharing only one decent moment with the song “Once Upon a Dream.” Beyond that they fumble and falter and lose all characterization.

Maleficent, on the other hand, is Sleeping Beauty's strongest character by far. The mistress of evil lives up to her name and strikes with power and ferocity. She is deliciously evil, sarcastic, and cruel, which makes for the greatest Disney villain yet. Maleficent has power and inspires fear in everyone. Her demise was far too simple for such a powerful character.

The most impressive, striking, and breathtaking aspect of Sleeping Beauty is, by far, the layouts and background designs. The colors are so sharp and the details are so meticulous that each frame is worthy of a museum. There are stylistic liberties taken with trees and other background elements that make them simplistic yet detailed. It shouldn’t work but it does beautifully. I can’t say enough about the stunning artwork done for Sleeping Beauty. There is simply none better.

But again, the weak story and characters plague the movie horribly. The plot is so weak that the filmmakers had to insert random scenes of the kings drinking and the fairies cooking and cleaning. The entire first act of the movie could have been summed up in five minutes but it takes half an hour. Even the music of the film is lackluster. An unseen, operatic chorus performs most of the songs, which is distracting and bizarre. The only song that works is “Once Upon a Dream,” which makes for one of Sleeping Beauty's most perfect sequences.


Sleeping Beauty was an awkward transition from the 50s to the 60s for the Disney animation studio. The film loses the strong story elements of the 50s in favor of the strong stylistic elements of the 60s. It is unfortunate that they couldn’t come together to make a better film. Instead, Sleeping Beauty is a stylistic master class with a tremendous villain, a forgettable princess, oddly heroic fairies, a dull, pointless story, and lacks the magic and the impressiveness of Walt Disney in the 50s.

2/5 Blue Dresses