Saturday, March 5, 2011

Charlie and the Apple Factory



Here is a fun "off Disney" short animated for the week-end. The guys of College Humor did this short movie based on "Charlie and the chocolate factory" except that the Willy Wonka character is replaced by...Steve Jobs! You will quickly understand that they're having fun about Apple and Steve who, by the way, appeared in good condition this week during the presentation of the iPad 2.




The same guys did a TRON legacy parody - non animated but real movie, inspired too by The Big Lebowski in which Jeff Bridges was also playing - and you can watch it HERE.

Video: copyright College Humor

Friday, March 4, 2011

20000 Leagues : Rare pictures of the Giant Squid scene



After the LIFE Magazine underwater pictures posted last week, we'll go today over the water for rare and beautiful B&W pictures of the giant squid attack in Disney's 20000 Leagues under the sea.

As you probably know, a big part of 20000 Leagues under the sea was shot in a huge studio filled with water, as you can see on the picture below.



Then arrived the moment to film the giant squid scene. I mean, that squid:



In the movie, the giant squid attack sequence happen during a storm and generally the color images that we have in mind looks like this one...



But the pictures that you will see below are rare and beautiful B&W pics with, on most of them, James Mason as Captain Nemo fighting the squid.





The above and below pictures were shot during the first shooting with a sunset sky. But Walt Disney and Richard Fleischer thought that it was not good enough, that the cables which animated the giant squid tentacles were too visible, and decided to re-shoot the whole scene with a night sky and a storm effect to hide the cables. If you look well at some the pictures you will see the cables.







A last B&W picture, not from the same series - but coming from a theatre still.



All pictures: copyright Disney

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Visionarium "From Time to Time" - The full Tokyo Disneyland show



After the making-of videos of the Visionarium attraction that i posted two days ago and the debate in the comments about the differences between the DLP and WDW versions, i thought it might be interesting to have a look at the Tokyo Disneyland version of the show.

Also an extinct attraction at TDL, The show cas called "Visionarium "From time to Time", i.e the DLP and WDW attraction titles put together. As a matter of fact the movie was the same version than the one we had in Paris - including the sequence with Gerard Depardieu which was deleted at WDW - and also featured the same music than the DLP version. But the pre-show movie - part one of the videos below - had a lot of differences so don't miss this one. Of course, all is in Japanese language but that's not the problem as we all speak Japanese, don't we? (just kidding).

Below, a picture of the WDI Timekeeper model. And i have a little gift for you after the videos, so don't go away, and enjoy the show!










Here is a little gift for you with a perfect scan of the "Conference on the Future" poster - by artist Darren Gilford - which was inside the pre-show area of the Visionarium attraction at DLP and related to the "conference" that Jules Verne and H.G Wells are supposed to have...



...before Verne being sent into the future by NineEye. The flying car in which you see Verne in the last sequence, flying over Paris and the Eiffel Tower, was displayed at the entrance of the show at DLP. It was called the "Reinastella" and designed by Renault, the car manufacturer, and the Imagineers. Depending of the versions it was a french or american or, like in the TDL videos, a japanese family supposedly from the audience who were "teleported" inside the car to join Jules Verne in the final scene.



Pictures: copyright Disney

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Pixar's short "Hawaiian Vacation" Teaser !



The new Pixar's short "Hawaian Vacation" will be the first installment in the new Toy Story Toons short animated movies. Pixar released the synopsis of what should be another fun short movie from Pixar: "Set in new owner Bonnie’s bedroom, Hawaiian Vacation features Woody (voice of Tom Hanks) and Buzz (voice of Tim Allen) and the rest of the favourite Toy Story 3 toys as they create the ultimate Hawaiian vacation for Ken (voice of Michael Keaton) and Barbie (voice of Jodi Benson)".



It seems that the reason why they're creating a Hawaiian Vacation in Bonnie's bedroom (Bonnie is the new "owner" of the toys) is because Bonnie is getting ready for vacation in Hawaii. The toys will create an illusion of an Hawaiian vacation in Bonnie’s bedroom...all this in the middle of a Midwest winter. Have a look to the 30 seconds teaser below!




Hawaiian Vacation is expected to premiere in front of Cars 2 on June 24 and a second Toy Story Toons short will be attached to the new Muppets movie, late 2011.

Pictures and Video: copyright Disney-Pixar

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Disneyland Paris " Le Visionarium " making-of documentary



The beloved Disneyland Paris attraction "Le Visionarium" is now an extinct attraction. Since the opening of the park in 1992, and until it was replaced by the "Buzz Lightyear laser Blast" ride, everybody loved it. The music score was one of the best ever written for a Disney attraction, the Time Keeper and Nine Eye Audio-animatronics were just perfect, and the circlevision movie was awesome - a special award to legendary french actor Michel Piccoli who played the best Jules Verne ever seen in a movie.



The attraction opened years later at WDW Magic Kingdom - it was called "From Time to time" - but was less popular than it was at DLP. For an inexplicable reason, the music was changed in the WDW version, and i'm sorry to say that the new score was not as good as the original one at DLP who - literally - was giving an incredible epic energy to any DLP guest. A few years ago the last place on Earth where it was possible to see - i should say "live" the attraction - was at Tokyo Disneyland's Tomorrowland but it also closed at TDL to be replaced by....Buzz Lightyear!



We will have a closer look to how this great Circlevision movie was done, thanks to a wonderful making-of documentary in three parts, partly in english, partly in french. Making-of documentaries of Disney attractions are pretty rare, we saw recently "Shoot for the Moon", the one filmed during the making of DLP's Space Mountain, and this one is just as good. Enjoy it!










All my thanks to the very good Imagineering Files site who had the good idea to download it on Daily Motion.

Pictures and Video: copyright Disney

Monday, February 28, 2011

How i had a GREAT evening last night, watching the 83rd Academy Awards



Last night, at the 83rd Academy Awards, Toy Story 3 won the Best Animated Feature Film Award as well as the Best Original Song Award for Randy Newman. Congratulations to everyone at Pixar who contributed to create this wonderful movie and of course to Randy and the film's director Lee Unkrich. They had without a doubt a great evening last night, and so did I and i will explain to you why.



ABC and the Academy released recently this great application for the iPad called "Oscar Backstage Pass" which gave "all access" to the Academy Awards ceremony and beyond. This interactive "all access" feature was also available on computer but not if you were not living in the U.S.

Boy, how great this Backstage Pass was. Not only they didn't lie, you could really see everything but i was amazed how technically they succeed to provide a total interactive experience of the event with images of very good quality. As you will understand in a few seconds, it was not that simple to do it.

So, how did this amazing app worked? Well, it all began with the first part of the evening, the red carpet and the arrival of the guests. Once you launched the application you could see this - see picture below - and as you can see you had on the screen a map with the choice of different cameras all filming from different point of views. Whether it was the "fashion cam" showing the arrival of the guests or the "fan camera" showing you the scene from the point of view of fans in the stands.



Now, the great idea was that you were able to choose the camera you like and changed of angle of view whenever you wanted, just like if you were the one doing the editing of the broadcast! As you can see on the picture above and below you had the choice in the bottom part of the screen between the "map view" and the "camera grid" which show pictures of all running cameras. You simply touched the one you like to move from a camera angle to another one. And it worked like magic! Considering that we were probably hundred of thousands of people in the world doing the same at the same time - changing of "camera" angle - i was stunned to see how it worked well with no technical problems, all night long.



Not only you could watch the red carpet from different angles, but you could see the guests in the Kodak Theater staircase thanks to a 360 degrees camera...



...Or watch them at the the bar drinking champagne, thanks to the "champagne cam".



Then, the ceremony began and the second part of this interactive evening too. The bottom part of the screen changed with a new map giving the choices of several cameras allowing you to see what was happening backstage, something you normally don't see when you watch the ceremony. Of course the ceremony itself is the most interesting part but it was fun to look at it on TV and to have at the same time my iPad to see what is happening when Academy Awards winners go behind the curtains. I had the choice between the "backstage cam", the "winners walk cam", the "thank you cam" (yes, winners are making thanks again to others cameras when they go off-stage!)...



...but also the "winners photo cam", and the "press room cam" (where winners answer to questions from the press). Additionally you also had the choice of three others cameras, one showing the broadcast control booth, and two showing the audience (amazing to see how many people are moving from their seats during the breaks!).



You might think that this interactive experience ended when the ceremony was over, but no, the best was yet to come and the icing on the cake was the last part of the evening: the "Governor's Ball". We all know that guests are moving to Hollywood party after the ceremony but TVs usually don't broadcast it. During this third part, the bottom part of the app screen changed again and as usual you had the choice between different cameras. Before entering the Governors Ball you could see the "Oscar Engraving" for the winners...



...the guests arrival at the Governors Ball (the image turned full screen in iPad landscape mode)...



...like Natalie Portman who won the Best Actress Award last night for her performance in "Black Swan"...



...and of course the Governors Ball with its magnificent decor and buffets.





The "Governors Ball camera" was also zooming in the room, allowing you to see, here Francis Ford Copolla eating with friends, here producer Harvey Weinstein in big conversation with Jesse Eisenberg (who plays Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network). and you had the feeling to be like a little mouse in the ball room, watching in silent the private party of Hollywood giants!



It was fun to see great actors like Kevin Spacey (below, on the right of the lamp) with some friends shooting picture of themselves with a mobile phone (they had to do it three times to get a good shot!)...



...or to see, later, John Lasseter leaving the Governors Ball party.



As you probably understood this amazing "all access" application gave the unique feeling of entering the intimacy of Hollywood biggest event of the year. Great experience, really, and wonderful evening!

Pictures: copyright ABC and A.M.P.A.S.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Disneyland Paris will introduce next June the "Mickey’s Princesses & Pirates Party"



Last week, in my previous DLP update, i let you know about the upcoming Peter Pan show in Adventureland as well as the new Princess meet and greet in Fantasyland. Well, in addition to these, Disneyland Paris will launch in June a new kind of party, the "Mickey’s Princesses & Pirates Party".

These Mickey’s Princesses & Pirates Party will happen on June 1, 10, 17 and 24th between 8pm and 11pm. Just like the big Halloween party these new Princesses & Pirates Party will be special evenings (if i can say, considering that sunset in June is not before 10.30pm) and will begin after the park closed for normal guests who don't have special tickets for the party. Ticket price will be 25€ per guest, free for children under 3.



The title - Mickey’s Princesses & Pirates Party - is a tribute to WDW “Disney’s Pirates & Princesses Party” event, although it won't be comparable. In an answer to guests requests DLP has decided to create an event more adapted to young children who will be able to meet their favorite Disney characters as well as Jack Sparrow in an intimate and family evening. The party program has been thought for young kids with no attractions which have a height limit to make sure all children will have a magical evening.

In Adventureland, children will have fun with Captain Hook, Monsieur Mouche, Peter Pan, Wendy and the pirates during 20 minutes sessions and will also meet Jack Sparrow near Pirates of Caribbean. In Fantasyland, the "Royal Academy" will teach them all that a young children needs to know to behave in a royal manner, and kids will receive a "royal diploma". The evening will end with a surprise private parade with five floats of the afternoon parade and all the beloved characters.

All along the evening Disney characters will also meet the guests in Aventureland and Fantasyland, and this include: Minnie (Princesse Costume), Dingo (Pirate), Donald (Costume Pirate Costume), Aurora & Prince Philip, Ariel & Prince Eric, Belle, Pocahontas & John Smith, Tiana & Prince Naveen, Raiponce & Flynnd, Snow White and her Prince, Alice & the White Rabitt, Mary Poppins & Bert, Mulan, and Tinkerbell. Each children will also receive a special book that he will have to fill with special stickers and characters autographs all along the evening.



Here are the ride which will stay open during these party, until 11pm: Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan’s Flight, It’s a Small World, Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups, Dumbo the flying elephant, Les Voyages de Pinocchio, Snow White, Le Carrousel de Lancelot.
If you're planning to visit the park in June with young children these new Mickey’s Princesses & Pirates Party might be fun for them!

Pictures: copyright Disney