Although there’s been little disclosed about Pixar’s 13th feature (and 10th non-sequel), Brave, scheduled for release on June 22nd, 2012, the film is already eagerly anticipated. Pixar is branching into new territory with its first ever fairy-tale film, and if it’s anything like Disney’s recent Tangled or any one of Pixar’s mega-hits, it’s going to be fantastic.
Concept art from Pixar's Brave, copyright Disney-Pixar
Pixar’s 16-year track record is exceptional, and even its weakest installment, Cars, garnered a respectable 74% approval rating on RottenTomatoes, a higher score than 60% of the Disney animated features released in the last decade. It’s hard to find fault in a production company that dedicated to the quality of its storytelling and so consistently excellent that it produces hit after lovable hit. But one thing that’s always vexed me is that not one of Pixar’s eleven features (twelve, if you count Cars 2) has a female protagonist as the central character.
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=788
On April 30th, the current Blu-ray and DVD releases of three animated classics: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Diamond Edition, Pinocchio: 70th Anniversary Edition, and Fantasia/Fantasia 2000: 2 Movie Collection Special Edition are going back in the Disney Vault.
On April 30th, 2011, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, and Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 return to the Disney Vault
In the 1940s, the Walt Disney Company began to theatrically re-release its animated features every few years as a way to introduce these beloved classics to new generations of children. The re-issued films performed well at the box office, earning hundreds of millions of dollars while helping to recoup losses from some of the company’s less successful films. The re-issues also helped several Disney films climb the ranks of the All Time Domestic Box Office Chart (Adjusted for Inflation), including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (#10), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (#11), and Fantasia (#21).
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=719
Friday, April 22nd marks the 41st anniversary of Earth Day, a yearly tribute to the preservation of Earth’s natural environment and celebrated by more than 500 million people in 175 countries worldwide.
In Theaters
Since 2009, Disneynature, an independent division of the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, has released a nature documentary on Earth Day in U.S. theaters, beginning with Earth in 2009, a film which chronicles the migrational journeys of polar bears, African bush elephants and humpback whales, and followed by 2010’s Oceans, an exploration of the mysteries and dangers of the deep.
Every year, Disney pledges environmental contributions that are contingent on the success of the films. Past pledges were to protect 35,000 acres of coral reef in the Bahamas based on Ocean‘s opening week ticket sales and to plant 2.7 million trees after 2.7 million people saw Earth in its opening week.
Excerpt from Disneynature's film poster for African Cats, copyright Disney
This year’s film, African Cats, which opens today, tells the true story of a family of cheetahs and a family of lions as they struggle to survive in the wild African savanna, with narration by Samuel L. Jackson.
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=701
The High School Musical franchise has launched three High School Musical films, a reality series (High School Musical: Get in the Picture), a concert tour, a stage musical, an ice tour, a book series, numerous video games, and now a direct-to-DVD spin-off film starring Disney Channel darling Ashley Tisdale who reprises her role as ambitious blonde diva Sharpay Evans.
Screenshot from Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure, photograph by Ben Mark Holzberg, copyright Disney
In Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure (out today on DVD and Blu-ray), Sharpay is finally Broadway-bound after a producer scouts her dog Boi during a musical performance at the Lava Springs Country Club. Sharpay moves to New York City, convinced that fame, fortune, and a fabulous penthouse apartment await, only to realize that the Big Apple is a dog-eat-dog world and the path to stardom is not an easy one. As one of the main antagonists in the first two High School Musical films, Sharpay is the narcissistic prima donna that everyone loves to hate, and the spin-off presents a new challenge for Tisdale to show the softer side of Sharpay… which should be a cinch for the actress who spent three years as lovable candy-counter girl Maddie Fitzpatrick on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=695
In the wake of the overwhelming critical and financial success of Toy Story 3 (which scored two Oscars at the 2011 Academy Awards), the once sequel-adverse Pixar Studios is looking pretty sequel-snuggly. Pixar’s Cars 2 will hit theaters this summer on June 24th, and rumors have circled about other sequels in the works, including The Incredibles 2. Fans of The Incredibles will be disappointed that Pixar has yet to go public with the fate of the heroic Parr family, but a 2012 release has been secured for a sequel of an equally beloved, soon-to-be franchise: Monsters, Inc. 2, set to debut on November 2nd, exactly eleven years after the original hit theaters.
Logo for Pixar's recently announced Monsters University (2012), sequel to Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=630
