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Tag: disney (Page 36 of 44)

Special screenings for Disney’s ‘The Princess and the Frog’

September 21, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Disney’s The Princess and the Frog is being released everywhere December 11th; however, Disney is currently offering a special offer for discounted tickets to the exclusive screenings in Los Angeles and New York starting November 25th to December 13th.

Each ticket gets one person into the screening, as well as access to The Ultimate Disney Experience, featuring all nine of the Disney princesses, fun games for the whole family, and much more. The Walt Disney Studios will also be hosting studio tours for Los Angeles ticket holders.

For more information and to purchase tickets visit facebook.com/theprincessandthefrog and click on the “Exclusives” tab.

More ‘Toy Story 3’ casting news

September 13, 2009 / / 0 Comments

John Lasseter of Disney/Pixar today announced that John Morris, the voice of Andy in both Toy Story 1 and 2, is set to return for the 3rd film. Morris, 24, will voice an 18-year-old Andy who is off to college. Lasseter also announced that previous Pixar collaborators Jeff Garlin (Wall-E) and Bonnie Hunt (A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc., Cars) will also join the cast of Toy Story 3, while Whoopi Goldberg will make her Pixar debut. No word on what characters they will play, but rest assured we’ll let you know as soon as news breaks.

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Robert Zemeckis to remake The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine

September 11, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Walt Disney Studios has made a deal with Apple Corps Ltd. to develop a new 3D performance capture adaptation of the 1968 hit animated film Yellow Submarine to be written and directed by Robert Zemeckis, it was announced today at the D23 Expo by Dick Cook, chairman, The Walt Disney Studios. The film will be created by ImageMovers Digital, Disney’s state-of-the-art performance capture animation studio operated in conjunction with Zemeckis and his partners, Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey, who will serve as producers on the project.

Zemeckis will incorporate the 16 Beatles songs and recordings from the original motion picture licensed from Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC and EMI-Capitol Records, respectively. The songs include All Together Now, All You Need Is Love, Eleanor Rigby, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and With A Little Help From My Friends while combining his unique vision and style to bring the tale to life.

In making the announcement, Cook said, “This is truly an inspired collaboration, and a wonderful opportunity to revisit one of the most imaginative and memorable musical fantasies of all time. To be working with the amazing folks at Apple Corps, and to have Bob helming the sub is truly as good as it gets. With all those incredible Beatles songs and imagery, the spectacular vision of Bob and his pioneering team at ImageMovers Digital, and a classic adventure full of wit and action, we’re sure that moviegoers are going to have a great time on this latest trip to Pepperland.”

Zemeckis said, “Yellow Submarine is one of the greatest fantasy films of all time, and making this new 3D performance capture movie is a dream come true for me. With the latest advances in technology, we will be able to take moviegoers on a voyage unlike any other, and bring new excitement and dimension to Pepperland and the various sea worlds they encounter. I’m thrilled to be working with the good folks at Apple Corps and our partners at Disney on this epic retelling of one of my all time favorite films.”

The original motion picture (released in the U.S. on November 13, 1968) based on the music of The Beatles was directed by George Dunning and featured the inspired art direction and design of Heinz Edelmann. The movie is set in Pepperland, an undersea paradise inhabited by music lovers who live in peace and harmony and are protected by Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. That is until they are threatened by the music hating Blue Meanies. It’s up to John, Paul, George and Ringo to set off on a magical adventure in their yellow submarine and bring music and harmony back to Pepperland.

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Guillermo del Toro partners up with Disney

September 11, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Walt Disney Studios, in collaboration with director Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth,” “The Hobbit”), is launching a new production label called Disney Double Dare You, to create new animated films full of chills and thrills for audiences of all ages, it was announced today at the D23 Expo by Dick Cook, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. All films will be produced under the guidance of del Toro, who originated the concept and the design of DDY and who will also direct certain projects. The first project in development for the new label is called “Trollhunters,” an original del Toro story which he will produce.

Commenting on the announcement, Cook said, “Guillermo is a brilliant and visionary filmmaker, and we’re excited to be launching this new label with him. His knowledge and appreciation for Disney films, along with his penchant for creating worlds of fantasy, presented a great opportunity for us to explore a whole new genre of filmmaking for moviegoers of all ages. We have admired Guillermo’s imaginative approach to filmmaking for some time, and now we’re proud to be working with him to create films full of imaginative delights and lots of thrills at the same time.”

Del Toro added, “As a director, I love to take audiences into fantastic new worlds and provide them with some anxious moments in the process. It is part of the Disney canon to create thrilling, unforgettable moments and villains in all their classic films. It is my privilege for DDY to continue in this tradition. To partner up with The Walt Disney Studios, with the support of Dick Cook and John Lasseter, is to belong to a storytelling partnership that I admire deeply. It is a true honor. I look forward to coming up with fresh and original stories that will take Disney films in a whole new direction. The emphasis is on fun, and we have some great ideas already on the storyboards.”

Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth received six Academy Award nominations in 2007, including one for his original screenplay, and went on to win three awards. That film also received a BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English language. His other directing credits include “Hellboy,” “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” “The Devil’s Backbone,” “Cronos,” and “Mimic,” among others. Del Toro is currently directing back-to-back feature film adaptations of the Tolkien classic, “The Hobbit,” for release in 2011 and 2012.

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Disney/Pixar details Toy Story 3, Cars 2, The Bear and the Bow

September 10, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Tons of Disney and Pixar news today so let’s get to it. First up, Disney has announced that Mandy Moore will voice the title role in the upcoming 2D-animated film “Rapunzel,” while Zachary Levi, star of NBC’s Chuck, will play the role of a bandit who takes Rapunzel on an adventure. So we can now assume that Rapunzel being stuck in the tower will merely serve as the intro to the film, with the story following her on her adventures as she discovers what she’s been missing.

Next up is Pixar’s Toy Story 3 news. While speaking at a Disney presentation in London, John Lasseter announced that Timothy Dalton and will play the role of a toy porcupine called Mr. Pricklepants.

A clip of the film was show as the presentation which reveals some plot points. Empire Magazine describes the clip: Clearly the toys end up being sent to a daycare centre, where they are horribly abused by the little kids – and after that it’s time for a break-out attempt to find a safe haven, and hopefully a new owner, in a cruel world.

Pixar also revealed the plot for Cars 2. The lead characters are Lightning McQueen and Mater, with a new car thrown into the mix, an Aston Martin named Finn McMissile. According to Empire, Mater is caught up in a case of mistaken identity and becomes embroiled in a huge spy thriller, though nobody believes him.

Let’s move on to Pixar’s other project, The Bear and the Bow (now known as Brave). Pixar announced that Julie Walters is joining the cast an evil witch, antagonizing the 10th century Scottish royal family, voiced by Reese Witherspoon, Emma Thompson and Billy Connolly. The movie will focus on the mother-daughter relationship between Merida (Witherspoon) and her mother, the Queen (Thompson).

Lastly is Disney’s upcoming Winnie the Pooh feature film. It was revealed that the film will mimic the watercolor style of the books and will combine five unfilmed stories as its plot.

Via the fine folks at /Film.

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Disney to acquire Marvel for $4 billion

August 31, 2009 / / 0 Comments

The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment in a stock and cash transaction, the companies announced today.

Based on the closing price of Disney stock on Friday, August 28, the transaction value is $50 per Marvel share or approximately $4 billion.

Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Marvel including its more than 5,000 Marvel characters.

This new deal, however, does not affect the current movie deals that Marvel has set up with Sony and Paramount. Those deals are still in effect, but once they expire, Disney hopes to be the sole distributor of any future Marvel films.

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Roundtable discussion with Toy Story 3 director, Lee Unkrich

August 24, 2009 / / 0 Comments

The folks over at HitFix recently participated in a roundtable discussion with Lee Unkrich, director of next year’s Toy Story 3. The interview touches upon a variety of subjects including whether or not the visual style of Toy Story will carry over to Toy Story 3.

Unkrich responds, “We couldn’t make a “3” that looked completely different than the first two; however, as a studio and both technologically and artistically, we’ve made great strides over the last fifteen years. I mean, you look at “Ratatouille,” it’s just a gorgeous, gorgeous film. And so you want to take advantage of that, but at the same time, you want the world to feel familiar, so that was one of our big challenges at the beginning, working… luckily I had Bob Pauley who was the original production designer for the first “Toy Story”. He designed Buzz Lightyear. He’s my production designer on this film. We all worked very hard to have the world… and it’s a constant challenge to have the world feel familiar, but to take advantage of what we can do now artistically. So if you look at “Toy Story” and then “Toy Story 2,” there was a big leap in the look of the film. You know, just to be geeky, we were able to use depth of fields, which is something we couldn’t do on the first film at all. Suddenly we could use focus and depth to augment our visuals. We’ve made even more exponential leaps doing “3”. We had to rebuild everything. It’s not like these characters were sitting on a disk somewhere waiting to be used again. We had to rebuild them completely from scratch, and along the way we were able to give them more sophistication in their look and in their controls.”

Read the rest of the interview at HitFix.

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Pixar’s “Up” and “Monsters, Inc.” coming to Blu-ray November 10

August 7, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has announced that both “Up” and “Monsters, Inc.” will be released on Blu-ray November 10th. Up will also be released on DVD the same day.

Up Blu-ray special features include:

* Cine-Explore (BD exclusive)
* Global Guardian Badge Game (BD exclusive)
* Geography Game (BD exclusive)
* 8 Documentaries (BD exclusive)
* Doug’s Special Mission animated short
* Partly Cloudy animated short
* Directory commentary
* Adventure is Out There – documentary chronicling the filmmakers’ journey to South America
* The Many Endings of Muntz – Witness the demise of Charles Muntz with an unseen alternate take
* DVD copy of the film
* Digital copy of the film

Monster’s Inc Blu-ray special features include:

* Monster’s Inc Ride and Go Seek: Building Monstropolis in Tokyo (BD Exclusive)
* Filmmakers’ Roundtable with director Pete Docter, co-director Lee Unkrich and producer Darla Anderson (BD Exclusive)
* Roz’s 100-Door Challenge Game (BD Exclusive)
* BD-Live Features
* All special features from the previous DVD release
* DVD copy of the film
* Digital copy of the film

A limited edition “Up: Luxo Jr. Collectible Desk Lamp Set” which includes a replica Luxo Jr. desk lamp with Blu-ray storage base, will also be released on the same day.

Click here to check out the cover art at our sister site, BlurayWire.

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2nd ‘Ponyo’ trailer

July 31, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Hayao Miyazaki’s latest movie Ponyo, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, will be in theaters August 14, 2009. It will be released on 800 screens across the country — the most for any Miyazaki film yet. It stars Noah Cyrus, Frankie Jonas, Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cloris Leachman, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin and Betty White.

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