Disney News and Information — by fans, for fans

Are things looking up for Walt Disney Animation Studios. All signs that I’ve seen point to yes! Honor Hunter over at Blue Sky Disney has his own bothans in Burbank and he concurs in this important update on changes at WDAS. From the next film “Bolt” to “The Princess and The Frog”, “Rapunzel”, and “The King Of The Elves”, Honor lets us in on the progress we can expect.

Eden Espinosa, Disneyland entertainment alum, will be coming to a movie screen near you in her role of Maureen in RENT. But wait you say, hasn’t the movie version of RENT already hit the cineplex? Indeed it has. This will be a one time event that will capture the Broadway version of the hit stage musical as it makes its final few performances on the great white way.

Before we go any further - a confession. I am a RENThead. From the first night I saw the Original Broadway Cast, to my 9 times seeing the show (6 times via the RENT line) when it was on tour in LA in 1997 (Neil Patrick Harris was an amazing Mark Cohen, btw), to multiple viewings of the film version; I watch with glee, sing all the songs, and find myself constantly inspired by Jonathon Larson’s powerful work and tragic early death.

It so happens that during the same time frame, I was a frequent audience member at some of the best entertainment options Disneyland has ever offered. The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Festival of Fools, The Spirit of Pocahontas, and before those Beauty and the Beast set the bar for quality stage entertainment at Disneyland. Since Disneyland was located so near to Hollywood, the level of talent in these shows was often quite high, which made it easy to be a fan of the shows and of certain performers.

Alright, back to RENT. Idina Menzel originated the role of Maureen in her Broadway debut. I saw Idina in the original Broadway cast of RENT back in 1995 and fell in love with the show. Beginning at about the same time, Eden Espinosa was a featured performer in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Spirit of Pocahontas, and, even later, Animazement!. I remember thinking then that Eden could easily play Maureen in RENT. So it was no surprise to me that Eden’s first Broadway role was as understudy to Idina Menzel’s Elphaba in the musical WICKED. That’s not to say that Eden is any less of a talent than Idina, Eden’s breakout role in BKLYN and subsequent work on her own shows she is a talent worthy of additional leading roles all her own. I expect to see a lot more from Eden as time goes on.

Now, I can’t wait to see Eden in the role of Maureen in RENT. If I had known that she was on stage in NYC in the role, I would have made every effort to get up there earlier. But this special film version is a happy surprise and now I must hope that when the Sony Pictures owned “The Hot Ticket” picks locations, it includes one in Orlando (otherwise I may come begging to sleep in your house if it’s playing near you).

Any other Disney fans out there share my love of RENT?

See more at Playbill and The Hot Ticket.

Brad Brevet at Rope of Silicon, a movie news website, had never seen the original Tron movie before. Hard to believe I know. But it provides him a unique (non-fanboy) perspective on TR2N, aka Tron 2.0, after watching the original for the first time.

one thing the first film does do is set up the sequel with many avenues to go down. Tron was something of a man against the system story, and it opens the door to a man against man inside the system story; it’s just a matter of whether or not man will continue to die while inside the system and how much effect the Disney production factor will have on the film’s storyline.

Obviously The Matrix already ripped off a lot of what Tron brought to the table initially, but in a far more elastic way. Tron is set in a very controlled environment, but it appears there is some leeway for a rogue program inside the system, which essentially is what Neo and Morpheus were when they jacked into the Matrix.

Lots of other interesting ideas there too.

I’m really jumping ahead a bit here, But the proof of concept footage leaked from Comic-Con showed me that TR2N could easily become another Walt Disney Pictures epic trilogy along the likes of Pirates Of The Caribbean or Narnia for Disney.

The basics rules for the rich world of Tron are already established, they just need to be fleshed out to a world wide level. There are also plenty of heavy issues involved with computers and their influences on our lives that haven’t been addressed since the original TRON was released. The original Matrix touched on it, but the sequels took another direction.

With some great screenwriters I think we could be loving this new world of TRON for years to come.

(link)

So far all three of the big theme parks are open today. Disney World, SeaWorld, and Universal are operating as normal (Disney actually opened an hour early) with everything subject to changing weather conditions. Wet-n-Wild is closed and it’s probably not going to be much fun at any of the other water parks since they close quickly when extreme weather and lightning are near.

Most of the smaller attractions have closed for the day. Cypress Gardens, Kennedy Space Center, and Port Canaveral have announced closures for the day. If you have an airflight today, check with your air carrier for status. If you have to travel on the roads, drive carefully leaving extra distance between yourself and the car ahead of you. If the roads are flooded, do not enter standing or moving water. You don’t know if the road has been washed out our not.

As for the track of Tropical Storm Fay, it is over land and has shifted east now and weakened considerably from when it was in the gulf. It should be back in the Atlantic this evening sometime where it will likely strengthen a bit and then make a turn west back over land in northern Florida or Southern Georgia. The main result will be a couple buckets full of rain and some possible flooding.

Hopefully everyone prepared for a serious storm. It’s better to be prepared and not to have to act, than to have to act at the last minute with no preparations. Stay safe everyone!

Walt Disney World has announced that guests will be able to get in a few extra early hours at its parks before the worst of the Tropical Storm Fay is scheduled to hit. All four theme parks will open at 8 a.m., with DisneyQuest at 9 a.m. and the AMC Theaters at Downtown Disney at 10 a.m.. The movie theaters are a popular destination during stormy weather.

Remember not all ride operations and other show elements are guaranteed to be functional in bad weather, but the low in-park numbers should help make up for that. Most rides should be walk-ons. (Of course, that is if all the Osceola and Orange County school kids who get a day off don’t decide to go to the parks.)

SeaWorld has also chimed in that it will be open as normal tomorrow. However, Discovery Cove will not be open in the afternoon. Universal has also reported that it will be open as normal tomorrow.

The great little Walt Disney World webcam that sat on the Swan and Dolphin for the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes and let viewers keep an eye on the ‘Epcot’ sign atop Spaceship Earth, appears to be out of commission.; Although their website still links to it, the weatherbug website shows it as black.

That doesn’t mean you can’t see how the weather looks at Walt Disney World, you just have to tap into the Orlando area Traffic Camera network instead. This web cam gives you a look at the Downtown Disney Hotels that line I-4.  It doesn’t auto-refresh, but if you hit refresh you’ll get a new shot every few minutes.

If anyone has a link to a web accessible camera with a better view of the Walt Disney World property, please let us know in the comments. Thanks!

Disney is ramping up its preparations for the arrival of Fay. So far, no announcements as to when or if parks are closing.  In the past Disney has chosen to be overly cautious when the resort was show to be in the path of an oncoming major storm. They will often close the parks in the morning with the option to open them later if the storm damage is light.

Stay tuned for further announcements later today either here or at The Orlando Sentinel.

Want to see what Jake Gyllenhaal looks like as the Prince of Persia? JustJared has the on-the-set pictures. Based on the popular video game, the film is set to come out in May 2010. So we have a while to wait to see the final product.

Back in 1908 Emile Cohl created Fantasmagorie. It debuted on August 17th, 100 years ago today.

It may look like animated chalk drawings, but it’s actually black lines drawn on white paper and then printing in negative to make it look like chalk drawings. The whole picture used 700 drawings.

Fantasmic! Meet and Greet

Originally uploaded by wallyspam

I just discovered Flickr user wallyspam. She has a real eye for some of the faces and characters that make Walt Disney World entertainment so special.

In this photo you’ll find a very special Fantasmic! meet and greet photo with 14 characters from the show’s finale. Check out the large size version where you can see how much detail goes into each costume even though the average guest will never be close enough to know the difference. I particularly like how some costume elements are exaggerated so they’ll stand out that much more from a distance.