Saturday, April 2, 2011

Disneyland Paris Disney Magical Moments Grand Opening Show - Now updated with new pictures !



Yesterday at Disneyland Paris was the launch of Disney Magical Moments new season and i will comeback about it with pictures and videos tomorrow monday. The guests invited to this special event also had the pleasure to see a fantastic show in the evening and below is the full video of it.



I consider it as the best show since the Tower of Terror grand opening show four years ago. The music was good - specially the "So this is Love" sequence, the dancers were good too, and the fireworks, video projections and laser effects were perfect. As a matter of fact it would make a perfect show for DLP 20th Anniversary!



However, please note that this show will unfortunately not happen during Disney Magical Moments season as it was a show only for DLP April 2 special event. Still, it's was a great show and i hope you will enjoy it. Play it full screen and see you tomorrow for much more!




Video: copyright Disney and more

Pictures: copyright Disney

Friday, April 1, 2011

Breaking News : Shanghaî Disneyland Special Event on April 8th ?

Apparently, an important announcement about Shanghaî Disneyland will happen on April 8th! This time, my friends, it seems to be the right one, the big final official announcement we're all waiting for! More details below from the very serious New York Times:

Disney Said to Have Cleared Hurdle for Shanghai Park

It appears that the Walt Disney Company has cleared the final hurdle in its decades-long bid to build a theme park on the Chinese mainland.

Invitations were sent late Friday to reporters for “a special event” to be held at a hotel in Shanghai on April 8. The invitation, sent jointly by Disney and a development company called the Shanghai Shendi Group, does not say more than that. A Disney spokeswoman declined to give more information.

A consultant working on the project said the company and Chinese officials would formally announce the beginning of construction on Shanghai Disneyland, which is expected to cost $3.7 billion to build and expected to open by 2016.
Disney wants to make Shanghai Disneyland into a megaresort on a par with Walt Disney World in Florida. But the initial phase will be more modest: a “Magic Kingdom-style” park with a castle surrounded by themed areas, like Tomorrow Land, two hotels, a shopping district and a lake.

The park will include replicas of well-known Disney rides, including Space Mountain and It’s a Small World, along with and new attractions based on Chinese history.
“It will be the Disney that people know but with a very strong Chinese cultural presence,” “said the consultant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid conflict with Disney."

Text: copyright Brook Barnes

Important warning to my D&M friends ( and to the rest of the world )

You will find below a POTC 4 Featurette but what is coming now is definitely a NON Disney topic. Don't go away right now as what i will talk about is really serious - and it's also NOT an April fools!

You know me as a Disney specialist and for sure i am one but there is other subjects that i know also extremely well. For instance i'm a big David Lean movies specialist and even filmed documentaries on some of Lean's most famous movies like Lawrence of Arabia or Bridge on the River Kwai. As a matter of fact i'm probably the last person on Earth who knows the exact - and beautiful - locations where these two legendary movies were filmed!

But that's not the point today as this week-end something potentially extremely explosive is going to happen. You see, among all my specialties there is one that i know really well and it's all about Astrology. For most of the people who have never study it astrology is generally a bad joke, and i can't blame them to think that as what is published each week in the magazines Horoscope section IS indeed a bad joke. 98% of them is just bullshit, there is no other way to describe it.

The problem is that astrology has nothing to see with all this and it's an extremely complex science/art (call it whatever you want) which really works - god knows why and how, but it works. And it's someone who have more than 30 years of observation / experiment behind him who is telling you this. The usual big mistake that almost anyone does about astrology is to think that it's going to tell you WHAT will happen. But that's not how it works. Most of the time astrology is telling us WHY things happen at the time they happen but not WHAT is going to happen. It would be too simple, right? In fact it all depends on the planets position in an astral theme and there is as many different astral themes as there is human beings on this planet, so you'll understand the complexity.

That said, sometime there is what is called a "conjunction" of planets which creates such a potentially explosive situation that it can affect really a lot of people. For instance since the last three months we have a conjunction between Uranus and what is called the "Black Moon" and this is what has created the revolutions in the Middle East. Don't get me wrong, the reason why it happened is mainly because the people were living under autocratic regimes but the reason WHY it happened NOW - and not 2 years before or after - is because of this Uranus - Black Moon conjunction.

Uranus is in essence the revolution (whether it's people revolution or a technological revolution, anything which breaks the rules) and the Black Moon (which also has to see with our part of animality) is, her, in the "all or nothing at all" logic. When both are allied it creates what we can see in arab countries, i.e people who no only stands for a revolution (in this case asking for democracy or a change of regime) but also who are ready to fight to the end, if necessary (and generally it is necessary).

Another example which will lead us to what i want to tell you: the same Uranus who was since six years in the sign of Pisces entered the sign of Aries last month. By doing so he is now doing what is called a "quadrature" with Pluto which is at the beginning of the Capricorn (because both are at a 90 degrees angle). Uranus, as i said, creates the revolutions but is also the master of the unpredictable (and generally, most of the time, it brings unpredictable bad news!). Pluto, in the mythology is the lord of the underworld, the keeper of hidden treasures and powers and, as his name indicates, Pluto is also in relation with nuclear power. When you have a quadrature between Uranus and Pluto it's a very explosive situation. Now, Uranus entered the sign of Aries on March 11, will stay in the sign many years, and the least we can say is that he did a spectacular entrance as on March 11 we had: a major 9.0 earthquake, a devastating tsunami AND the beginning of a major nuclear catastrophe. The sign of Aries is ruled by Mars, which is the "master" of the sign and, as we know the lord of war. One week after Uranus entered in Aries and the dramatic events in Japan, Europe and the U.S entered in war with Lybia. Okay, it's a half-war, but it's a war anyway.

And now, here comes the important warning. Additionally to the entrance of Uranus in Aries we have, also in the same sign, Jupiter - quite a protective planet normally when it doesn't have bad aspects with others planets, which unfortunately is the case here as Jupiter is also in a quadrature with Pluto in Capricorn. We have also the Black Moon which entered in Aries at the end of March. BUT, in addition to this (which is already explosive) Mars, master of the sign, will enter this saturday in Aries AND the Moon will also be in Aries for 2-3 days starting saturday evening. As we are early April this means that the Sun is naturally in Aries.

In two words we're going to have the next four days a conjunction Sun - Moon - Mars - Uranus - Black Moon - Jupiter all together in Aries. All of them will be in quadrature with Pluto in Capricorn and also opposite with Saturn, now in Libra, during all next week. But the "epicenter" (if i can say) of the conjunction, the most dangerous time will be between this saturday and next tuesday. You have to understand that such a conjunction is extremely rare and i warn all of you who are born in the first week of Capricorn (last ten days of December), or at the beginning of Libra (last ten days of September) or the beginning of Cancer (last ten days of June) to be extremely cautious in the next days and week because of the quadrature/opposite aspects these planets will do with these astrological signs.

As usual it's impossible to say from where the knock will come but beware of any agressive situation (and you might also be the one who can be agressive) or violent conflicts or any kind of accident (Mars is often responsible of car accidents but also with anything related with fire) and also be careful with electricity (because of Uranus which has to see with problems with electricity). No need to say that the warning is even more important for those of you who are born in Aries (last ten days of March) and SPECIALLY those of you born between the 20 and the 24 of March.

To be perfectly clear it's what we call "the perfect storm" and if you want to know if this conjunction of planets can have an effect on the rest of the world, yes it does. There is everything in place for anything explosive and destructive in this world whether it's riots and carnage or in the true meaning of the terms. And i really pray that our Japanese friends will not have a second service of another major catastrophe. Keep an eye also on Fukhushima nuclear plant as the quadrature Uranus-Pluto is unfortunately here to stay and not only for one month but for many years - which means that explosive revolutions (in all meaning of the terms) are here to stay for quite a while...

Some of you who have read this topic until this last paragraph might think that i'm totally insane, but believe me i'm not. And i wouldn't have take the hour it took to me to write all this if there was nothing really serious, would I? Whether you believe me or not, just give me the "benefit of the doubt" for the next days or weeks. Who knows, it might save your life.

Pirates of the Caribbean " On Stranger Tides " Featurette



Walt Disney Studios France released this POTC 4 featurette. Called "the inspirtion of the POTC saga" it begins by few images of Walt and the POTC attraction. But you will also see shots of the making-of of "On Stranger Tides"!

And a last good news aboujavascript:void(0)t Penelope Cruz as since yesterday she has her own "star" on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, right in front of the El Capitan Theatre!




Picture and video: copyright Disney

Thursday, March 31, 2011

New " Winnie the Pooh " Review



Winnie the Pooh will be released July 15th in the U.S but in France the movie will be in theatres...April 13th! It's the first time that i see a Disney animated movie released in France three months before the U.S and i'm certainly not going to complain about that! A press screening happened on March 23 but there was an embargo on all reviews until today April 1st. It's now April 1st in Paris, so i can post my review and it's not an April Fools!

So, did i liked Winnie the Pooh? Well, yes and no. First, i have to say that the animation is extremely good. It's great to see the different characters alive again, drawn the same way as they were in 1968. Whether it is Winnie, Piglet, Owl, Eeyore, Tigger, Christopher or all the others there is no difference with the original animation. Disney animators did a great job and also used the principle of a children book with characters walking through the pages, just like in the original movie. And i don't want to spoil anything but you'll see how the "letters" of the book are playing an important part in the story.



But - as there is a "but" - the story itself, in my opinion, is not as good as it was in the first animated film. In the original movie there was three different chapters, each one with a different story. It's not the case here. Warning: Spoilers from now! The beginning is a bit weak and looks too much as it was in the first movie - with Winnie desperately looking for a Honey pot - but after a few minutes the real story begins. Christopher has disappeared and a message deciphered by Owl seems to indicate that he is the prisonner of a kind of monster. Winnie and his friends are decided to capture the monster and to set free Christopher...but everything is not gonna work as they've imagined.

Basically the whole movie is the story of a misunderstanding. Disney animators are playing with the (voluntary) absurdity of the situation and sometime it works and it's fun, sometime you think that it would have been better with more "madness", if they had pushed the "absurdity" of the situation to the end. But we must not forget that Winnie the Pooh is a movie for very young children which probably mean some limits in the storyline for a perfect understanding by 3-4 years old kids.



Talking about the story, the other problem is the length - not of the movie which is quite short as it last 62 minutes only but of the story itself. As i've said, in the original movie you had three different stories of approximately 20 - 25 minutes each, and in my opinion it worked better. Here, it's not that the story is bad, it's just that the story is not strong enough to last one hour or 55 minutes if we except the beginning of the movie.

So, is Winnie the Pooh as good as the first and beloved original film? In terms of animation, definitely yes. In terms of storyline, the original movie was i think better. And from what i've heard from the others journalists who were at the press screening i'm not the only one to have this opinion. However, if you're a Winnie the Pooh fan don't miss this new animated as you'll find back a big part of the charm of the original film. Also, when you will watch it in theatres, definitely stay until the end of the credits as there is a not-to-be missed scene at the very end! In the meantime, have a look below to a clip that Disney just released!




And here is a different clip, with Eeyore, this time from the french version.




We also had the good surprise to see the short animated "Ballad of Nessie" which will play in theatres in front of Winnie the Pooh.



The Ballad of Nessie is a great short in the grand Disney tradition of short animated films - it looks like a Disney short who could have been done 40 or 50 years ago. Here, not only the animation is perfect - excellent animators like Andreas Deja worked on it - but the story is very good. There is a genius idea in the storyline and don't worry, i'm not going to spoil it. The Ballad of Nessie has a lot of charm and although it's not totally fair to compare it with Winnie the Pooh as they don't have the same length, "Nessie" is probably more "perfect". Personally i enjoyed more "Nessie" than "Winnie" but it's only my opinion and you will tell me what you think of both when they will be released in theatres.

Finally, a little gift for you and specially for those of you who have children with this children "activity kit" which should be given in theatres to young kids. But if you wish, you can download it right now here:
http://www.disney-television.com/cinema/winnie/winnie_kitactivites.zip

Pictures and videos: copyright Disney

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

New " Brave " concept-art reveals Princess Merida !



Pixar released a new concept-art and this one reveals for the first time the face of Merida, the Scottish princess and brave archer, hero of the animated movie!

Picture: copyright Diney-Pixar

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Pirates of Caribbean 4 : The Fantastic " Mermaids " Poster !



Disney just released a fantastic new Pirates of Caribbean "On Stranger Tides" poster. This one is all about the Mermaids who are playing, as we know, an important role in the story. The poster looks fantastic and here it is in high-res!

Picture: copyright Disney-Bruckeimer