Promotional image from The Muppets, image copyright Disney
Walt Disney Pictures released ten feature films in 2011, including three foreign films and the re-release of the animated smash The Lion King (1994) in 3D. The films were a mixed bag of big budget spectacles and nostalgic charmers. Mars Needs Moms bombed, On Stranger Tides was critically panned (but grossed more than $1 billion worldwide), and The Muppets and Winnie the Pooh were two of the most acclaimed films of the year.
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=2690
Disney doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to science fiction movies, especially not in recent years. In 2000, Mission to Mars suffered middling critical reviews and made a scanty $110 million worldwide on a $100 million budget. By 2002, the Disney Renaissance had come to an end, and the animated Treasure Planet was a total flop, grossing only $110 million on a $140 million budget. And this year’s Mars Needs Moms was an even bigger disaster, grossing only $38 million on a $150 million budget.
Promotional image for John Carter (2012), image copyright Disney
With so many sci-fi failures in so few years, it’s surprising that the upcoming John Carter (2012) got made at all, but perhaps Disney thinks that the fourth time will be a charm. Unlike Treasure Planet and Mars Needs Moms, John Carter is a live action adventure film based on A Princess of Mars (1912), the first novel in the 11-book Barsoom series by author Edgar Rice Burroughs. Burroughs is best known for creating the character Tarzan, but it is his century-old Barsoom series that inspired countless science fiction writers to write in the genre and encouraged scientists to focus on space exploration and the search for extraterrestrial life.
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=2602
Earlier this month, Rapunzel was inducted as the tenth official Disney Princess in a coronation ceremony at Kensington Palace in London, England. To celebrate her crowning, Disney Publishing Worldwide released a brand new Disney Princess Royal Party app for the iPad.
Screenshot of the Disney Princess Royal Party app for the iPad, image copyright Disney
The Disney Princess Royal Party app is currently priced at $4.99 (Special Introductory Offer) and features a range of activities centered around Rapunzel and the other Disney Princesses, including puzzles, coloring pages, a cupcake recipe, and a new Tangled adventure story.
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=2588
This summer, I watched a Make It Or Break It marathon on Netflix where all 40 episodes of the ABC Family drama about elite gymnasts-in-training are available to Watch Instantly. When I was a tweenager, I was obsessed with the “Magnificent Seven” 1996 Olympic Gymnastics Team and their quest for real-life Olympic gold, and 15 years later, Make It Or Break It is my perfect guilty pleasure.
Promotional image for Make It Or Break It, image copyrighted ABC Family
The series centers on four gymnasts: newcomer Emily Kmetko, uber-focused Payson Keeler, diva Kaylie Cruz, and manipulative backstabber Lauren Tanner, who are frenemies at the Rocky Mountain Gymnastics Training Center (The Rock) where they compete to make the National, Worlds, and (eventual) 2012 Olympic gymnastics teams. I first gushed about the series this past June, with my take on the series’ PROS (solid acting, excellent gymnastics, melodrama) and CONS (preachiness, predictable storylines, melodrama).
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=2576
ABC’s Once Upon a Time debuted last week as one of two new primetime series with a fairy tale twist (the other being NBC’s Grimm).
Pinocchio and Geppetto from ABC's Once Upon a Time, photograph by Jack Rowand and copyrighted ABC
In Once Upon a Time, fairy tale characters, including Snow White, Geppetto, Rumplestiltskin, and Little Red Riding Hood, have been cursed by the Evil Queen and are now trapped in the real world in a town called Storybrooke, Maine, with no memories of their past lives. Only Snow White’s daughter Emma escaped the curse, and she has returned to the town 28 years later to break the curse and restore the characters to their happy endings.
Read More: http://www.disney-blog.com/?p=2503
