I have been a Netflix subscriber since 2005, long before most of the company’s 23 million+ subscribers opened their own accounts. When I first signed up, there was no “Watch Instantly” feature, and a 3-DVD plan cost $19/month. When Netflix first started offering digital streaming as an option, the meager selection of movies and disappointing streaming quality left a lot to be desired.
My, how times have changed.
Over the past year, Netflix has focused most of its energy on expanding and improving its digital streaming selection, and the efforts are really paying off. There are thousands of new movies and TV series available to Watch Instantly, and more are being added every week as Netflix works out distribution deals with production companies and distributors.
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=2026
When I went to Disney World last September, one of the hottest rides at Disney’s Hollywood Studios was Toy Story Mania! (also known as Toy Story Midway Mania!), an interactive 4-D ride through a midway of classic carnival games hosted by Toy Story characters.
In Toy Story Mania!, riders are given special 3-D glasses and are challenged to play a series of five midway games, earning points by tossing virtual eggs, darts, baseballs, rings, and suction cups at a series of virtual targets. The attraction is similar to Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, but with huge technological advancements that allow for more sophisticated targeting and gameplay.
| Midway Games in the Toy Story Mania! Attraction |
- Pie Throw Practice Booth (pie toss target practice game, a no points introduction)
- Hamm ‘n Eggs (egg throw game now featuring Buttercup from Toy Story 3)
- Rex and Trixie’s Dino Darts (dart throw game; once Bo Peep’s Baa-loon Pop)
- Green Army Men Shoot Camp (baseball throw / plate breaking game)
- Buzz Lightyear’s Flying Tossers (ring toss game)
- Woody’s Rootin’ Tootin’ Shootin’ Gallery (suction cup shooting game)
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Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=1952
Thanks to glamorous movie premieres, red carpet events, and tabloid magazines, movie stars always get a lot of attention, and everyone knows a star’s drawing power can make or break a film at the box office. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (and subsequent franchise sequels) wouldn’t have made as big of a splash in theaters without the hugely talented Johnny Depp, and it is unlikely Disney’s Bedtime Stories would have surpassed $100 million at the box office without likable star Adam Sandler.
Disney DVD Sequels, image copyright Disney
The success of animated films is less dependent on its stars than live action films, but that hasn’t kept Disney and Pixar from filling their such famous talents as Robin Williams, Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Eddie Murphy, John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Whoopi Goldberg, Matthew Broderick, James Earl Jones, Glenn Close, Alfre Woodard, Paul Newman, Bob Newhart, Eva Gabor, Jeremy Irons, Danny DeVito, Michael J. Fox, Minnie Driver, and Angela Lansbury.
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=1925
Disney animated sequels are generally considered to be inferior to the originals (some substantially so), and most go straight to home video instead of receiving theatrical releases. In the past fifteen years, Disney has produced sequels to Pocahontas (1995), The Lion King (1994), Fantasia (1940), The Little Mermaid (1989), Lady and the Tramp (1955), Cinderella (1950), 101 Dalmatians (1961), Peter Pan (1953), The Jungle Book (1967), Mulan (1998), The Fox and the Hound (1981), Bambi (1942), and even a planned sequel to Dumbo (1941) that was later scraped.
Screenshot from Bambi II, image copyright Disney
Bambi II was first released on home video in the United States in February, 2006, 64 years after the original Bambi (1942) premiered in theaters. The film is actually a midquel, meaning that the events of the story take place within the timeline of the original film, in this case when the young, newly motherless Bambi is getting to know his father, the Great Prince of the Forest.
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=1902
Calling all Disney Fairies fans! For those of you who can’t get enough of Tinker Bell and her friends, you’ll be happy to know that the fairies are starring in a brand new animated feature, Tinker Bell and the Pixie Hollow Games, which is set to debut on the Disney Channel in October, followed by a DVD and Blu-ray release later this year.
Introducing the Garden Fairy Chloe, screenshot from disney.go.com/fairies/
In The Pixie Hollow Games, all of the fairies of Pixie Hollow are gathering to compete in an Olympic-style sporting event which will pit the garden fairies, tinker fairies, sparrow men, and others against the reigning champion storm fairies. At the games, the garden fairies are plagued by a legendary losing streak that new fairy Chloe (voiced by The Suite Life‘s Brenda Song) is determined to end. Find out more about Fairy Chloe here.
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=1850
