NEWS UPDATE: April 25th 2014

Starting off the news this past week is the (official) fiftieth anniversary of Disney's It's A Small World attraction which first appeared at the 1964-65 World's Fair on April 22nd. To celebrate, Disney held a celebration across the globe, and this video appeared on Good Morning America. This was posted a week ago, but we forgot to share it earlier. Celebrate fifty years of the happiest cruise that ever sailed with this wonderful video:

Got a good baseball arm? Today might be your lucky day. Disney is offering $1 million dollars to any amateur baseball players who can throw a ball at 100 mph in promotion for their next film, Million Dollar Arm, which hits theaters May 16th 2014. More info is available at http://movies.disney.com/million-dollar-arm/special-event

As of this week, Disney World is adding the option of including one extra FastPass for their new FastPass+ system, now moving the limit from three FastPasses per day up to four, but only if you already used all three FastPasses that you reserved on that day. This is great news for fans of the old system of FastPass, and hopefully Disney World will continue to raise the limit on FastPasses throughout the park. 

"The 7D" is set to premiere on Disney XD on July 7th, Stitch Kingdom Reports. Joining the cast is Whoopi Goldberg ad Jay Leno. "The 7D" is a modern re-design of the classic Seven Dwarfs from the famous Snow White story (character design for the series can be seen below)This quite possibly is a tie-in to the opening of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in Disney World is just a few weeks, but we can confirm that the Dwarfs in the attraction look the same as they did in Snow White in 1937. It is unclear why Disney XD chose not to go with the original designs for the series, but the show airs July 7th 2014 on Disney XD. 

Seven Dwarfs Re-designed for 7D series

Speaking of the Seven Dwarfs, the construction walls have come down surrounding the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, speculated to open sometime in the next month. The entrance area in front of the attraction has been revealed, and the good folks over at Inside the Magic got the full scoop. Read the article right here. 

"Feast" an all new short from Disney is set to premiere before Disney's next animated film, Big Hero 6. The short shows one man's love life through the eyes of his dog, and revealed bite-by-bite of the meals they share. The short and the film release in North American theaters November 7th 2014. 

Disney's Hollywood Studios is celebrating 25 years since park opening back in the year of 1989, where it opened under the name of Disney's- MGM Studios. Many other attractions came to open in that time and built up to what it is today. Of course, in true Disney fashion, this calls for a major celebration! On May 1st, here's the things you can see and do if you're in the park: 

• At 10 a.m., Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse will take the stage with Disney’s Hollywood Studios Vice President Dan Cockerell honoring members of the 25-year cast members at a re-dedication ceremony. 

• “Stars of the Studios”, a brand new special motorcade, will make its way down Hollywood Blvd. beginning at 7 p.m. and feature Mickey and Minnie, Captain Jack Sparrow, Darth Vader, Doc McStuffins, Wreck-It Ralph, Venellope, Sofia the First and stars featured throughout the park. 

•  Special merchandise (although it has not been announced what specific merchandise will be for sale.  

• After the motorcade, the front of the park’s Sorcerer Hat Stage will host a special dance party and a fireworks show finishes the day at 9:30 p.m. The pyrotechnics show, which will be high in the sky above the Sorcerer Mickey Hat, will pay tribute to 25 years of show business stories that have been told throughout the park.

 There you have it! Happy Birthday MGM- er, Hollywood Studios! 

Frozen is unstoppable. Every week, Frozen gets higher on the highest grossing film list, and at the moment of this report, it is currently at the sixth highest grossing film mark of all time, tickets prices un-adjusted, recently surpassing films such as Lord of The Rings: Return of the King and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Congratulations to the entire team who worked on Frozen! 

And for the final bit of news this week: Idina Menzel is hosting a live chat on Frozen's Facebook page later today, Friday April 25th 2014. Visit https://www.facebook.com/DisneyFrozen to submit your questions for Idina Menzel to answer. The chat will start at 6 PM EST/ 3 PM PST. 

That's all for now. Have a magical week! 

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com

News Update: February 28th 2014

Mitchell Stein- Another jam-packed week! Will there ever be a week without any Disney news?

Starting off this week with Muppets Most Wanted! With the movie only 20 days away, the promotion for the movie has been all over the place with brilliant ads and commercials. Lots was released this week, so head over to our sister site, The Muppet Mindset to read all about it!

Plus, the Muppets teamed up with Lipton Tea for this great ad, which clearly proves that New York is full of Animals.

In Frozen news, a brilliant parody has gone viral this past week of Frozen's popular song "Let It Go"!
A local traffic reporter in Cincinnati named Bob Herzog has released a parody named "Just Don't Go" warning people of the terrible weather during the winter. It's brilliant and hilarious so check it out right here:

The Disney Parks Blog held another live chat/video this past week for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train which is set to open in Spring. They released an entire video of the current ride-through compared next to the concept video shown at the D23 Expo. Not all the effects are added yet, so keep in mind all that will be added in the next couple of weeks before opening date. 

Rumors are surrounding The American Idol Experience, at Disney's Hollywood Studios which report of that the show will leave after this summer. Again, these are just rumors, and it is unknown if it would be replaced with another show (The Voice? X-Factor?) or these are just rumors. 

If you hadn't noticed, Thor: The Dark World was released on Blu-Ray and DVD this past Tuesday! Along with the Blu-Ray, you can purchase an awesome new print from the film's Head of Visual Development, Charlie Web as seen below! See more details here!

To tie in with the digital release of Frozen, Disney announced their new digital service, Disney Movies Anywhere! Now, by purchasing Disney films on iTunes, you will also receive Disney Movie Rewards along with your purchase. Linking up the app to your iTunes account, you'll be able to watch all your purchased films anywhere you go, as long as it's in the U.S. Sign up now and receive a free copy of The Incredibles! 

The Academy Awards of 2014 airs live on Sunday at 8 PM hosted by the very-funny Ellen Degeneres, who has quite a big amount of Disney connections. Many Disney films are up for Oscars, including Frozen, Saving Mr. Banks, Monsters University, The Wind Rises and The Lone Ranger. Be on the lookout for upcoming Disney movie TV spots. 

Frozen is on Blu-Ray on March 18th 2014, and to make you even more excited than you already are, we've been provided with a clip of The Making of Frozen, a musical behind the scenes featuring the cast of the movie. 

In the final and in the biggest news this week from Walt Disney World are plans to expand the Cinderella Castle courtyard, also known as The Hub to create more space for fireworks viewing and to create more space for busy parks. To get an idea of how much will actually be added, look at an aerial before and after photo, courtesy of Inside The Magic. Have no fear, the partners statue featuring Mickey and Walt will remain. 

MORE NEWS UPDATE: The good folks over at Stitch Kingdom have reported this morning that Disney will hold another major 24-hour extravaganza in the North America parks, called "Rock You Disney Side" following in the #DisneySide campaign that Disney Parks is promoting this year. 

A photo was released by Disney Parks this morning featuring a hashtag with 140 characters in it. We gotta hand it to you Disney, that was brilliant. 

Read about the 24 hour party on StitchKingdom.com!

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

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com

News Update: January 9th 2013

Big news this week!
In Star Wars news, it was announced that Disney would be switching the properties of the Star Wars comic book from Dark Horse Comics to Marvel in 2015, the same year Episode VII is released.
Dark Horse has been publishing Star Wars comics since 1989 with their first Star Wars comic Dark Empire. 

Dark Horse released an offical statement on the matter:

“All things come to pass. So too, do all licensed deals,” said Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson in a statement on Friday. “It is ironic that this announcement comes at a time when Dark Horse is experiencing its most successful year ever. For obvious reasons, we have prepared for this eventuality by finding new and exciting projects to place on our schedule for 2015 and beyond. Will they take the place of ‘Star Wars?’ That’s a tall order, but we will do our best to make that happen. In the meantime, 2014 may be our last year at the helm of the ‘Star Wars’ comics franchise, but we plan to make it a memorable one. We know that fans of the franchise will expect no less. The Force is with us still.”

 It was announced that the Clone Wars franchise will also see an ending, courtesy of Dark Horse and will be released sometime later this year. The script was intended to be a four-part finale special but was obviously never produced. Dark Horse is taking that script and putting towards this comic.

Also, Disney appointed a team to decide of what Star Wars canon should exist in the many years to come. By this meaning that they will decide to replace some Star Wars comics or possibly movies from the official canon to simplify things to the future Star Wars movies so that things do not contradict previous Star Wars works. What is being left out is unknown at the moment.

Continuing in Disney's line of celebrities posing as Disney characters, today Disney released a photo of Jessica Chastian as Pixar's Princess Merida from the 2012 film Brave. Check it out here!

Adam Sanderson, has been promoted as Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications of the Walt Disney Company, which oversees D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Club, Disney Corporate Creative Resources and The Walt Disney Archives. Sanderson started with the company in 1977 when working on Disney Channel and later becoming the vice president, marketing for the ABC Cable Network Corporation. 

If there's anything that the Muppets were known for in promotion for their last movie, it's the brilliant marketing strategies they pulled. They parodied very popular films that drew lots of attention to the film when it was released in November. It looks like Disney is pulling slightly the same move in this year's marketing for Muppets Most Wanted.  

Not parodying anything in particular, but the style of Academy Award-nominated TV spots you might have seen on TV. They even parodied the Twitter-review element of these spots. See the video to the right. 

In other Muppets Most Wanted news, it was announced that a Monsters University short, titled "Party Central" will be shown before the film.
The short was originally intended for Pixar's The Good Dinosaur, which was pushed off until November 2015, so it was decided to switch that for Muppets' March 21st release date.

The Walt Disney World Resorts in Orlando, Florida offered a great sneak peek at the upcoming attraction, The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in the New Fantasyland section of the park. See the video below!

      

If that wasn't enough, Disney World also released a CG picture of what the ride will look like. No official date on opening, but it's been promised sometime in 2014. I'll bet it'd be right before the busy days of the summer. 

Now, in the biggest news this week, Disney proudly announced The Marvel Experience, a travelling show featuring the popular, box-office smashing Marvel properties, including Iron Man, Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America and more. 

In partnership with Hero Ventures, Marvel is bringing the action around the world with the new Marvel experience. The experience will take place in a temporary S.H.I.E.L.D mobile command center as seen in Thor, and inside will feature 4D Experiences, 3D Short films, virtual simulators, character meet and greets, and a whole lot more surprises. 

The tour schedule has not yet been announced. 

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com

Disney Animation Reviews #1 - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Today marks the first entry in a 53-part series of reviews of every animated feature from Walt Disney Animation Studios. Two reviews will be posted every week until we finish. We're excited to share our opinion of some of the greatest films of all time!

Disney Animation Review - 1/53: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Ryan Dosier - Last night I watched Walt Disney’s 1937 classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. If you don’t know, Snow White was the first animated feature film ever produced, Disney or otherwise.

So there’s your history lesson. The film itself is a product of a bygone era which is almost entirely unable to connect in modern times. From her very first scene, Snow White is as obnoxious as Jar-Jar Binks and Councilman Jamm combined. (Yes, I did just reference Star Wars and Parks and Recreation while reviewing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.) In fact, Snow White is barely a character. She is a device with zero motivation, no faults, and absolutely nothing interesting about her. In a world where we have dynamic characters like Rapunzel, Jessie the cowgirl, and Merida, it’s even more jarring to watch the ultra-pathetic Snow White prance about.

Thankfully, substance finally comes to the film about 20 minutes in with the introduction of the Seven Dwarfs, who are instantly and infinitely more interesting than Snow White. Grumpy, Dopey, and Doc are particularly fun characters with humorous quirks and quips. Grumpy is perhaps the most broadly drawn (pun intended) of the Dwarfs, but they are all fun in doses. In fact, the only scenes in the film that I legitimately enjoy are the Dwarf’s mining scene and the Dwarf’s party scene. They’re fun, silly, energetic, and showcase the beautiful animation of Disney’s team of expert animators better than any other scenes in the film.

Then there’s the Evil Queen. The first Disney villain is interesting but lacks the depth and quirk of a truly great villain. She is nothing but pure vanity, greed, and hate. Maybe her character could have developed into something better if she had more screen time. The Evil Queen is briefly present in the first few minutes, then disappears until 45 minutes in. It’s bizarre and you completely forget she’s a threat. Although, by the end of the film, I did find myself more interested in the Evil Queen as a character because she exhibited flaws and interesting character traits.

Unfortunately, Snow White keeps hitting with drawback after drawback. The voice acting is distinctly unremarkable. There is no character whose voice adds depth or Disney magic, a la Jiminy Cricket or Aladdin's Genie. The most interesting thing I noticed on this viewing is just how painfully long sequences in the film last. The sequence of the Dwarfs discovering Snow White in their home lasts an incredibly long time and plays out like one of Disney's “Silly Symphonies” shorts. It certainly stands out in today's fast-paced film world. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is odd.

All in all, Walt Disney’s first feature film is obviously a labor of love by Disney and his unmatched team of animators. The animation is beautiful, the colors are vibrant, and the layouts are some of the best. If only the story department would have been up to par with the rest of the crew, it could have been so much better. But still, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs deserves to go down in history as one of the most important animated films of all time because of what it brought about, not because of what it is.

And hey, it’s still an infinitely better movie than Snow White and the Huntsman.

3.5/7 Dwarfs

The Mickey Mindset, mickeymindset@gmail.com