Pirates of Caribbean 5 Title will be "Dead Men Tell no Tales"

So, it seems that Pirates of Caribbean 5 title will be "Dead Men Tell no Tales", which seems appropriate for a POTC movie, isn't it? What really surprises me is that they didn't used this quote as a title before! That said, i sincerely hope that the script of this POTC 5 will be better than the one of the POTC 4 movie. So far, for me the best remain the first one. There was good things in the 2 and 3 but i still think they should have done one movie with the POTC 2 and 3, instead of two.

Anyway, in the meantime you can have a look at this Pirates of Caribbean fan film which is quite well filmed in islands locations, even if the script is in my opinion a bit weak. It last 9 minutes and it's in french but with english subtitles.

Pixar "Inside Out" Characters Revealed !

The five characters that you see above are - along with the little girl named Riley - the ones which represents the different emotions in Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera's next Pixar animated movie "Inside Out" , a film which explores Riley emotions and how she react.

From Upcoming Pixar: "Amy Poehler voices Joy, the leader of the group; Lewis Black is Anger, Bill Hader is Fear, Mindy Kaling is Disgust, and Phyllis Smith is Sadness. They all work in tandem at a headquarters of sorts, watching Riley’s POV on a screen, adjusting her emotions, and storing her memories. Other areas of the mind, including Dream Production, Long-Term Memory, and Imaginationland, are connected to the headquarters by a literal Train of Thought."

"Things go awry when Joy and Sadness are forced out of the headquarters, leaving Anger, Fear, and Disgust to operate Riley. An extended sequence showed the trio struggling with this task as Riley interacts with her parents. Turns out we don’t just see inside Riley’s mind; her mother and father also have unique groups of emotions. The three teams play off of each other in a fast-paced dinner table scene that got a ton of laughs at the D23 panel."


Picture: copyright Disney - Pixar

"Escape from Tomorrow" To Be Released Oct 11 in Limited Theatres and in VOD !

May be you remember my previous article about "Escape from Tomorrow" , this indie movie which was screened at the Sundance film festival a few months ago. It's called "Escape from tomorrow", it's filmed in gorgeous black and white by director Randy Moore, and everybody - including U.S major newspapers - was talking about it. Why? Not only because apparently the movie seems to be good but also because the film was filmed almost entirely at Walt Disney World and Disneyland Anaheim, and without Disney authorization. 

Well, the movie will finally be released in limited theaters on October 11 in the U.S - as well as in VOD - and it seems that Disney finally decided to don't send his lawyers against the movie, which is good news as i'm really curious to see it.

And what the film is talking about, you ask? Well, as i was not at Sundance and did not watched "Escape from tomorrow", here is how the L.A Times describes the storyline in its excellent article: "Basically, the film is about a down-on-his luck fortysomething father (Roy Abramsohn) on the last day of a Disney World vacation with his henpecking wife and their two angelic children. As he takes his children to various attractions, the father is haunted by disturbing imagery; he is also, in the meantime (and with his children in tow), tailing two young flirtatious French girls around the park". What the L.A Times forgot to say in their synopsis is that the father learn by a phone call on the last day of his WDW vacation that he's fired from his job. And, even if he is suddenly shocked and depressed, decides to don't tell it to his wife and children. 

So, for the L.A.Times "Ultimately, Escape from tomorrow is a character study about a man who seems to have lost any sense of optimism in a place that’s overrun with it". But apparently it's also more complicated than that with a third act which "takes on an increasingly macabre tone. And though the movie borrows tropes from horror movies (think young girls running out of sight and creepy smiling dolls) and 1950s futurism, it most often evokes David Lynch, both in its deadpan tone and its utter inscrutability". 

Below, a first clip from the movie showing a sequence in a swimming pool. But, for obvious reasons, you won't see any WDW buildings in this clip. Also, although that the way the father is looking in this sequence at the two young "lolitas" may seem "transgressive" Roy Abramsohn, the actor playing the father, insist that the father is not a pederast, that seeing the girls makes him realize how his youth is gone forever, and he became obsessed with them a bit like the character played by Dirk Bogarde in Luchino Visconti's 1971 Death in Venice.  

How they succeed to filmed a whole movie at WDW without any cast-members noticing that they were filming is also an interesting question. This other L.A Times article will learn you more about how they did it but basically the movie was shot with a small Canon camera and a crew "guerrilla style" with no script in the hands of anyone, the director and actors communicating by messages through their smart phones to avoid anyone suspect they were shooting a movie. Below, two interviews videos, one with Roy Abramsohn who plays the father and the other with the director, Randy Moore.







You can watch another good video interview from the L.A Times of both Randy Moore and Roy Abramsohn HERE.


Of course the big question now is how Disney is going to react to this movie and will they try to stop it to be released in theaters? So far, "It's unclear if Disney will have legal objections to the movie that might prevent it from being shown beyond the festival, in movie theaters nationwide or on DVD or video-on-demand... so far, no distributor has picked up the film". Normally, the corporate logic would be that Disney don't like at all "Escape from Tomorrow". That said, according to Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia University who watched the movie at a screening last weekend: "I think on both copyright and trademark fronts their (Disney) case would be pretty weak". "It's a film that falls pretty squarely in the territory of fair use, which addresses copyright," added Wu, who specializes in intellectual-property issues. "And to establish trademark infringement they'd have to prove that a reasonable person would think Disney is endorsing the movie, and I think they'd have a hard time doing that." Wu also added that although "Randy Moore and his cast and crew could be guilty of trespassing because they violated the terms of the passes sold to them by Disney, that probably would only be a misdemeanor and does not tend to result in large punitive damages".

So, what Disney should do? Personally, as i've said, i've not seen the movie so it's always difficult to talk about a movie you haven't seen yet, but i have the feeling that it's a good, and even an interesting movie. And the fact that it was chosen to be part of the Sundance Film Festival is also a good sign. So, personally i think that Disney should do nothing, that they should released a statement saying something like "Although the WDC don't endorse or approve any ideas include in the "Escape from Tomorrow" movie and forbid any unauthorized filming in Disney theme parks, the WDC accept the right to free expression as defined in the constitution of the United States of America". This would be much smarter than to spend a huge amount of money in lawyers to stop the movie to be released, and specially now. Why? because last year has been a fantastic year for the WDC, movies were successful, it's a kind of new golden age for Disney theme parks, etc... everybody has a good image of the WDC, so may be it's not the right time to remind everyone that the WDC is also a big corporation ready to sue a small indie film. I think Disney has much more to lose than to win to try to stop "Escape from Tomorrow" being released, i think it's a kind of corporate trap that they will create themselves. And Randy Moore has said that "he's not trying to shut Disney down or hurt them", that "This was the story, and WDW was the only place I could tell it". We can perfectly understand why Disney could have a corporate reaction to "Escape from Tomorrow", but in this case i think Disney should try to be, if i can say, "more intelligent than corporate". 

Part of text: copyright L.A Times

Escape from Tomorrow poster picture: copyright Randy Moore

Disneyland Paris Update : Ratatouille Ride Area Pictures , and more...

There we go for a new Disneyland Paris update thanks to Max Fan, D&M contributor and DLRP Welcome web master who come back with the latest pics of the Ratatouille ride works. But before going to the Walt Disney Studios some short news about DLP Magic Kingdom.

According to Max,  when he was at the park a few days ago the Frontierland Depot train station was closed with a sign saying that all departures of the DLP Railroad were done from the Main Street Station.

The most surprising is that the trains were doing all the stops, i.e that you could go down at Frontierland Depot but not get in the train as apparently there was no cast members in the station. please, don't tell me that it's to save money... specially considering that we are mid-August in the middle of the summer vacation season...

But, wait, there is worst. The same day Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain were closed from park opening at 10 a.m  until 1 p.m. Of course, the guests rushed when the two rides re-opened but there was a 90 min wait at BTM and 1 h 40 min at Space Mountain. And Max also mention that WDS Rock and Roller Coaster had to be evacuated at 10.20 a.m the same morning for a ride breakdown.

At noon on the same day Space Mountain, Big Thunder and Indiana Jones Temple of Peril were closed for breakdown - i.e the three roller coasters of the park! - and, by checking the DLP mobile App, Max realized that Pirates of Caribbean has been also closed for several hours. It seems that breakdowns are happening a bit too often recently and although it's possible to have a day where everything goes wrong i think DLP must really do something to prevent this kind of problem to happen. Having four major rides, including the three coasters attraction in breakdown in the middle of the vacation season is just ridiculous, isn't it?

By the way, some DLP fans who are really upset by the situation created a petition with an open letter that they intend to send to Bob Iger once the 5000 signatures will be reached. They almost have the number of needed signatures but still need  a few hundred more and you can read the letter and sign electronically the petition by going HERE. Not sure that the petition will change a lot of things but it's worth to try.

In the "maintenance and refurbishing section" some cobblestones are on the way to be changed in Main Street U.S.A...

...and the new Armaggedon sign at the WDS is now in place.

Okay, it's more than time to have a look at the works on the Ratatouille ride, so here are the latest pics. Thanks God, this year the summer in france is a real one, meaning that it's hot, which is always good when you have some painting works as of course the painting dry quickly. For the workers, though, the heat is of course less agreeable but in three months the winter temperatures will be back so i suppose it's a bit a rush to end the facades theming before the winter arrive.

After shooting pictures from the top of the TSP Parachute Drop ride Max shot others pics "from the ground" from what will be the entrance to the Ratatouille area for the guests coming from Toy Story Playland. What you see in the foreground is what will be the merchandise shop of the new Parisian area, under the red canvas.The metallic structures on the ground will be used to support the fake facades.

One last stop with a look at the refurb on the Disney Village entrance. If you remind my previous update the column at the entrance were in really bad condition. They look now brand new, or almost. Below a picture showing how they looked before...

...and how it looks now. Still some works to do on some of them, apparently.

That's all for this DLP update and I remind you that the Disneyland Paris book - in which you have the whole park in 320 pages with 750 photos including 250 WDI renderings - is still available but that unfortunately there is now less than TEN copies of the Disneyland Paris From Sketch to Reality book available in its ENGLISH collector's edition - the FRENCH edition is also available - so if you don't own the book yet, it's really now or never! 

And there is a special price right now with a $45 / 40€ discount on the normal price, so order your collector copy while there is still copies available as it's really the last english collector copies. You'll find below a one click Paypal button as well as a video showing the whole book. Also, you can have more infos about this gorgeous 320 pages book HERE.

Choose between french or english edition -Price include shipping

1 copy ENGLISH edition Disneyland Paris book, include shipping €100.00 EUR 1 SIGNED copy FRENCH edition Disneyland Paris book, inc shipping €115.00 EUR 1 NON SIGNED copy FRENCH edition Disneyland Paris book +shipping €90.00 EUR

Click on the image below to jump to the book presentation.

Picture: copyright Max Fan - DLRP Welcome

Fresh News About Hong Kong Disneyland Future !

We didn't talked about Hong Kong Disneyland since the opening of Mystic Manor and here is an update about HKDL future. So, is there anything new in the plans for HKDL in the years to come?  Yes! HKDL is planning plenty of new things for the coming years which they will announce officially later this year or early next year. 

First, HKDL will ask Hong Kong legislative council to approve the capital for building the awaited third HKDL hotel, which would be a high-end hotel. And HKDL is also investigating the possibility for a fourth and fifth hotel afterwards. But the Hong Kong Disneyland Downtown project is still in "Blue Sky" mode as they want to carefully choose the brands and restaurants which will be part of it, as these would need to attract both the locals and Chinese guests at this HKDL Downtown District.

In the park itself now: HKDL have plans until 2017. The park will have in 2014 its first time ever Night Parade ( if we don't count the Halloween night parade ) and for HKDL 10th Anniversary in 2015 a new day parade is expected and a new attraction - which will amaze little kids - will probably open for the 10th Ann Celebration on September 12, 2015. 

Although not officially announced by Disney, last February Hong Kong city’s financial chief John Tsang Chun-Wah announced that a Marvel attraction will come to HKDL. And i've been told that it has received the green light and should be indeed the next expansion of Tomorrowland with an opening in - or before - 2017. Don't count, though, on a Marvel "land" but more on a Marvel "experience" with a E-Ticket Marvel ride, and more on a Marvel theme, the whole thing being part of Tomorrowland. So, it seems that Hong Kong Disneyland will be very probably the first Disney theme park in the world to open a Marvel attraction!

And, yes, HKDL is also now planning for the expansion from 2018 to 2022, so there will be more to come in the future at HKDL! 

Pictures: copyright Disney and more, Park Lane, Marvel

All Aboard For a Disney Cruise With Legendary Imagineer Bob Gurr !

What could be better than meeting a legendary Imagineer during a convention? 
Hey, to be on a Disney Cruise with him! Our good friends at Mice Chat have booked legendary Imagineer Bob Gurr on their upcoming Disney Fantasy cruise this October 19th.

Bob Gurr is beloved by the fan community and the folks who will join on the cruise will be able to have dinners, cocktails and story time with this amazing gentleman. It's a golden opportunity for a small group of folks to really get to know an Imagineer!

If any of you would like to join on the cruise ( and aren't already booked ), please write to micechat@fairygodmother.com   or jump to the Mice Age page right HERE.

Picture: copyright Mice Chat

" In The Way, Guy " : When a Ruined WDW Shot Becomes Viral

Here is a true funny story for the week-end. It all started at Walt Disney World with a a man who intended to ask his girl friend if she will agree to marry him. A friend of the couple was there to take a picture to immortalize  the scene in the middle of Main Street U.S.A with Cinderella castle in the background. So far, just a cute declaration of love.

But something will happen that happened to each of us when we shoot pictures: a guy coming out of nowhere walk in the way right at the moment we shoot the picture... and ruin the shot inadvertently. It could have stayed like this, one more ruined picture, but it didn't. Later, the guy doing his marriage proposal posted on Reddit what should have been the picture of the most important moment in his life, and suddenly everything became viral. 

370000 people saw the pic and someone had the idea to create a "meme" and to have the "in the way guy" being responsible of ruining all the important pictures in photo history! I have to say that the walking guy is just perfect as you can see that he suddenly realizes that he is in the  way and try to feel sorry at the same time - it's almost as we can hear him saying "ooops, deeply sorry, folks..." 

So plenty of people began to create "meme" pictures including the guy in famous shots that we all know, like the one with the marines raising the U.S flag at Iwo Jima...

...or in the famous picture of the Yalta conference with Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, at the end of WW II...

...or at the historical moment of Neil Armstrong shooting a picture of Buzz Aldrin on the Moon...

...or during the famous shot of a Mohammed Ali victory by knock-out...

...and even during the shooting of The Beatles Abbey Road LP cover photo...

...or early last century in this famous shot of workers building a skyscraper...

...but also in a movie scene like this one from Star Wars Episode 4...

...and even recently when William and Kate presented their baby to the world!

The one who is now known as the "in the way guy" is now "responsible" to have ruined every famous shot and even the Bat signal!

But, because they were at Walt Disney World the story had a happy ending for the couple as their friend did another try and finally succeeded to have the perfect shot of the wedding proposal!