TWO great features today: The new Disney Cruise Line Toy Story musical, and right below, don't miss the Phantom Manor article! It reveals amazing facts about the origin of Phantom Canyon Audio-animatronics!

Brand New Musical Aboard Disney Cruise Line Brings “Toy Story” to the Stage for the First Time

The new Disney Cruise line Toy Story musical began yesterday, and here below are some high-res pictures and the official press release:

Disney Cruise Line transforms one of the most beloved animated features of all time into a stage spectacular at the Walt Disney Theatre aboard the Disney Wonder cruise ship with the debut of “Toy Story-The Musical”. This is the first time the popular Disney•Pixar classic has been adapted for the stage.

Preserving the humor and heart of the original “Toy Story” film from Pixar Animation Studios, “Toy Story-The Musical” explores the true meaning of friendship as Buzz Lightyear and Woody transform from jealous adversaries to best friends with an unbreakable bond. The show’s elaborate costumes capture the vibrant colors and playfulness of the animated characters. Guests of all ages will delight in an original collection of show tunes that retell the story in a fun and energizing way.



“World-class Disney entertainment is an important hallmark of Disney Cruise Line that sets us apart from the rest of the cruise industry and one of the reasons guests sail with us again and again,” said Disney Cruise Line President Tom McAlpin. “ ‘Toy Story-The Musical’ represents the next generation of staged entertainment for Disney Cruise Line and a great enhancement to our incredible array of entertainment aboard the Disney Wonder."

Following the storyline of the original Disney•Pixar film, “Toy Story-The Musical” gives guests a toy’s eye-view of life in Andy’s room. The musical opens with an introduction to Woody, a pull-string talking cowboy who has long been six-year-old Andy’s favorite toy.



But Andy’s birthday brings a new arrival – Buzz Lightyear, the coolest action figure in the universe. Woody’s jealousy gets the better of him and he schemes to get rid of his new rival, but things go dreadfully awry. Woody and Buzz find themselves outside of Andy’s room and in a hostile world. Working together and overcoming their differences, they find their way back to Andy – along the way developing an appreciation of one another and creating a friendship.

“The ‘Toy Story’ film offered us a rich story and some incredible visual elements to build upon,” noted Jim Urry, vice president of Entertainment for Disney Cruise Line. “The team we assembled created costumes, set designs and a whole new musical score to literally transport our guests into the middle of the whimsical world of Buzz and Woody.”

Taking audiences into that world was no small task. Larger-than-life show sets help transform the 977-seat Walt Disney Theatre into a toy-sized world of fun and adventure.



Using Randy Newman’s Oscar nominated hit song “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” as a departure point, this production has a new seven-song score that brings the story to life. New York-based Valerie Vigoda and Brendan Milburn from the band GrooveLily blended together pop, rock and folk music to create a contemporary score that truly captures the heartfelt whimsy of the animated tale.

The costumes for “Toy Story-The Musical” are some of the most complex ever developed for a Disney Cruise Line production. Costume designer Ann Closs-Farley created an extraordinary vision for what the characters would look like on stage. With a combination of articulated puppets and inflatable costumes, the “Toy Story” characters come to life – including a nearly 9-foot-tall version of Rex the dinosaur and a 4-foot-round Hamm the piggybank.



In all, “Toy Story-The Musical” represents one of the largest productions ever developed for a cruise ship. This is just the second time a Pixar animated feature has been adapted for the stage by Disney Creative Entertainment.



“When we first thought of bringing ‘Toy Story’ to the stage, there was a great deal of excitement about the project,” said Anne Hamburger, Disney Creative Entertainment executive vice president. “Everyone on our team could immediately see how the heart and comedy of these characters could come alive in a memorable way that is unique to musical theatre.”

Here is a short making-of of this new DCL musical!



Photos and text: copyright Disney

You will never believe the real origin of Phantom Canyon's inhabitants !

All of of you, Disneyland Paris fans, who ride Phantom Manor again and again may think - thanks to all the "Phantom Manor" fans' websites - that you know all about it. But today you will learn amazing secrets you've never heard before.
Phantom Canyon is the last part of the ride, after the doom buggy has been through the skeletons' section. In a way, it's the grand finale for the entire attraction. Its design was changed from that of a cemetary, as with the other Haunted Mansions, to a surreal, other-worldly ghost town. This ghost town is not deserted, but has some rather unique Audio-animatronic inhabitants, to be precise. And it's their story I will reveal now.

When the park was being built in the early 1990's, it was in the backstage shops of Walt Disney World where most of the Audio-animatronic figures were made for Phantom Manor. At that time, Jeff Burke, DLP Frontierland's show producer had to choose the "faces and bodies" of Phantom Canyon's future inhabitants. For the skeletons in the previous scene, WDI purchased plastic skeletons from a company that normally supplies these "bony creations" to medical schools and colleges one or two at a time.
For the "underworld" of Phantom Manor, the skeletons were purchased in bulk and in different dimensions - larger for men "crypt characters", smaller for the women.



And the largest skeleton acquired in multiples was 6' 3" for the infamous Phantom figures.



But for the "human" characters of Phantom Canyon, it was another challenge entirely.

Now it's not well known, but sometimes instead of adding the expense of sculpting new heads and bodies for a different configuration of AA figures, Imagineers can cleverly select from masks and molds made for figures featured as AA characters from previous attractions. With the magic of figure finishing and new costumes, a whole new cast appears. For instance,some of the ghosts of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion first showed up in Pirates of the Caribbean. It's not only simpler and less expensive, but the budget savings can be utilized to enhance lighting, special effects and other production values of the attraction.

Now, let's get back to Jeff Burke, WDW construction shops and the town's folk of Phantom Canyon. If you've been on the ride at DLP, you remember the bank robber and his donkey. Well, his face and body are from a mask and mold first used for a character in EPCOT's World of Motion, as well as the donkey!



And the face and body of the scared sheriff hiding behind the lampost, is also featured as a skinny pirate onlooker in the auction scene of WDW Pirates of the Caribbean.



Mind you, Jeff's first choice was to have used the terrified groundskeeper standing at the cemetary gates in Haunted Mansion's final scene. By the way, from that same scene, a howling dog among the tombstones has been turned into a snarling "hound from hell" lunging toward your doom buggy after you leave the Bride's bedroom.

Other inhabitants of Phantom Canyon including the piano player...



...the bartender, the saloon girl...



...and the druggist, they all made their debuts in various scenes of the World of Motion.



But perhaps the least expected surprise comes from the character of the mayor who welcomes us to Phantom Canyon. He's the one who greets you by not only removing his hat but his head as well. You're not going to believe who he is - REALLY! Believe it or not the mayor of Phantom Canyon is the Imagination Pavillion's....DREAMFINDER!



Quite frankly, I've never noticed by myself before, but indeed he IS the Dreamfinder character of EPCOT's Journey into Imagination attraction. And the voice of this macabre mayor wishing you, "Welcome, foolish mortals..." is none less than the talented Paul Frees, who serves as the voice of your " Ghost Host" throught out Disneyland's Haunted Mansion.

So next time you ride through Phantom Manor and your doom buggy approaches Phantom Canyon, don't forget to wave a warm "Hello!" to the "Dreamfinder" mayor and all the other characters who are versatile enough to be currently frightening you, while they are also entertaining guests at other Disney Parks.

Attraction poster: copyright Disney Enterprises Inc

Photos: Alain Littaye

Director Andrew Stanton introduce this new WALL-E featurette, including new movie scenes !

Disney has released this four minutes WALL-E featurette, presented by director Andrew Stanton.

This featurette includes new shots from the movie, never seen before, so, warning, spoilers ahead!



Photo and youtube video: copyright Disney - Pixar

Walt Disney's Nine Old Men : A tribute to Ollie Johnston

The last of Walt Disney's Nine Old Men, Ollie Johnston, has passed away yesterday at the age of 95.

He was a fantastic directing animator at Walt Disney Studios from 1935 to 1978 and contributed to nearly all of Disney's classic animated movies including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Bambi, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, The Sword in the stone, 101 Dalmatians, The Jungle Book, and many more. In the video documentary below, he will introduced you to all the great characters he animated.



Born in Palo Alto, California, Johnston attended Stanford University- where he worked on campus humor magazine the Stanford Chaparral with fellow future animator Frank Thomas - then went on to the University of California, Berkeley, and Chouinard Art Institute.

Ollie married a fellow Disney employee, Ink and Paint artist Marie Worthey, in 1943.
Here, below, a picture of Ollie Johnston working on "Johnny Appleseed" in the 1940's.



His last full work for Disney came with The Rescuers, which was the last film of the second golden age of Disney animation that had begun in 1950 with Cinderella.

Johnston co-authored, with Frank Thomas, the classic reference book The Illusion of Life. This book helped to preserve the knowledge of the techniques that were developed at the studio in its golden age.

Ollie's lifelong hobby was live steam trains. Starting in 1949, he built a 1" scale backyard railroad, with three 1/12th scale locomotives, now owned by his sons. This railroad was one of the inspirations for Walt Disney to build his own backyard railroad, the Carolwood Pacific Railroad, which again inspired the building of the railroad in Disneyland.



But who better than him could tell you the story of his life as a Disney animator? So, join him in this three-part video, a wonderful documentary where Ollie tells us his secrets in animation!







Videos: copyright Disney

Many many thanks to Loosetoon for the great youtube links

The Disney and more Tower of terror contest - Three great prizes to win ! - Concours Tour de la terreur - Trois grand prix à gagner !

NOTE: THIS ARTICLE IS IN ENGLISH AND FRENCH LANGUAGE
NOTE: CET ARTICLE EST RÉDIGÉ EN FRANCAIS ET EN ANGLAIS

Hello, considering that everyone seems to had fun with the previous contest, here is a new contest, a little bit more easy, and the questions are centered on the Tower of terror - not only the Walt Disney Studios version but all versions around the world - and also about the Twilight Zone original series.

So, this is a contest to celebrate the Tower of terror opening, and the prizes are the rare TOT collector's brochure that were not won last time, as only two winners found the right answers to all 12 questions. You can have a look to this collector brochure HERE

There is THREE prizes, so there will be three winners, and each prize is the TOT collector's brochure - which was given to VIP and press but never sold in the park, so pretty rare.

There is this time 13 questions and to be a winner you have to find the good 13 answers . If there is multiple winners, an “innocent” hand will choose three of them.

If there is no winners or not enough winners for the three prizes, the same “innocent” hand will choose someone in those who found only 12 good answers, so each prize will be won.

Who can play; Everybody but not WDI imagineers ( it won’t be fair! ), and only one time.

How to play: Once you’ve found what you think are the good answers, send them to me by email with your name at: lawrence55@wanadoo.fr
NOTE: For each answer, don’t tell me only the “number” of the answer, but also the name who goes with it.

Deadline : All answers must be sent before May 4, 2008

This is just a game, no financial compensation can be ask.

Finally, i am going to help you a bit: you can find the answers to most of the questions either on Disney and more, on my "guests column" articles on miceage.com, or on the DLP press release for the TOT opening.

Okay, everybody understood? Now, have a look at the questions below, good luck for each of you, and have fun!

French version: Bonjour, étant donné que tout le monde semble avoir pris du plaisir à jouer au précédent concours, et que les lots de la TOT collector brochure ne furent pas gagnés, voici un nouveau concours "Tour de la terreur", plus simple que la dernière fois, et les questions sont axés à la fois sur les différentes versions de la TOT existant dans le monde, ainsi que sur la série TV originale The Twilight Zone.

Il y a trois prix, et chacun des prix est un exemplaire de la rare brochure collector non vendue dans le parc offerte aux VIP et à la presse pour l'ouverture de la TOT. Si vous ne l'avez jamais vue, vous pouvez découvrir la brochure ICI

Il y a 13 questions cette fois ( Thème TOT oblige! ) et pour gagner il faut trouver les 13 bonnes réponses. En cas de multiples vainqueurs, une main innocente choisira au sort trois d’entre eux.
Si il n'y a pas de vainqueurs suffisant pour que les trois lots soient attribués, la mème main "innocente" choisira une(s) autre personne(s) dans ceux qui auront répondus de façon correcte à 12 questions sur 13. Donc, cette fois-ci, tous les lots seront distribués.

Qui peut jouer: Tout le monde, sauf les imagineers de Disney ( ce ne serait pas du jeu! ) et une seule fois.

Comment jouer: Une fois que vous pensez avoir trouvé les douze bonnes réponses, vous me les envoyez par email à: lawrence55@wanadoo.fr
NOTE: Pour chaque réponse, ne m’indiquez pas uniquement le “numéro” de la réponse, mais aussi le nom qui va avec.

Fin du concours: Toutes les réponses doivent ètre envoyées au plus tard le 4 Mai 2008.

Ceci est juste un jeu, aucune compensation financière ne peut ètre réclamée.

Enfin, je vais vous aider un petit peu: les réponses à la plupart des questions peuvent ètre trouvées soit sur Disney and more, soit dans mes articles sur miceage.com ( dans "guest columns ) soit dans le communiqué de presse de DLP pour l'ouverture de la TOT.

Tout est bien clair? Alors, allez plus bas pour trouver les questions, bonne chance à tous, et amusez vous bien!

Here are the questions!

Question 1: How many floors the Walt Disney Studios Tower of terror is supposed to have?

Combien d’étages est censé faire la Tour de la terreur aux Walt Disney Studios?

1) 12 floors / étages
2) 11 floors / étages
3) 10 floors / étages
4) 13 floors / étages

Question 2: The shots with Rod Serling that one can see in the pre-show movie in the library are coming from an original episode of the TV series. What was the title of the episode?

Les images de Rod Serling, le créateur de la série The Twilight Zone visibles dans le film du pré-show dans la bibliothèque proviennent d’un épisode de la série TV. Quel était son titre ?

1) What a good day
2) It’s the good time
3) It’s a good life
4) It’s a good afternoon

Question 3: On which TV channel the original Twilight Zone series were aired between 1959 and 1964?

Sur quelle chaine américaine la série originale The Twilight Zone fut-elle diffusée de 1959 à 1964 ?

1) ABC
2) CBS
3) NBC
4) The Disney Channel

Question 4: How many episodes of the original Twilight Zone series were aired between 1959 and 1964?

Combien d’épisodes en tout furent réalisés pour la série originale The Twilight Zone entre 1959 et 1964?

1) 159
2) 157
3) 156
4) 158

Question 5: In 1959, Rod Serling the creator of the original Twilight Zone did a TV interview - that you can see on Disney and more. What was the name of the anchor man?

En 1959, Rod Serling, le créateur de la série Twilight Zone accorda une interview - visible sur Disney and more . Quel était le nom du présentateur?

1) Walter Cronkite
2) Johnny Carson
3) Mike Wallace
4) David Letterman


Question 6: In the storyline of the attraction at the WDS, which year the Hollywood Tower Hotel is supposed to have open its gates for the first time?

Dans le scénario de l’attraction aux WDS, en quelle année le Hollywood Tower Hotel est-il censé avoir ouvert ses portes pour la première fois?

1) 1927
2) 1926
3) 1928
4) 1929

Question 7: In the storyline of the attraction at the WDS, from which day the time is supposed to have been “stopped” inside the Hollywood Tower Hotel?

Dans le scénario de l’attraction aux WDS, depuis quel jour “le temps s’est-il arrété” à l’intérieur du Hollywood Tower Hotel?

1) 31 octobre 1938
2) 31 octobre 1939
3) 31 octobre 1936
4) 31 octobre 1935

Question 8: The face of Mr Hightower in the Tokyo Disney Sea version was inspired from the face of an imagineer. What is the name of the imagineer? ( see below the picture of Mr Hightower )

Le visage du personnage de Mr Hightower dans la version de Tokyo Disney Sea, a été inspiré de celui d’un imagineer, lequel? ( ci-dessous la photo du Mr Hightower )

1) Michael Sprout
2) Tony Baxter
3) Marty Sklar
4) Joe Rhode



Question 9: In the Tokyo Disney Sea version, as the japanese don’t know the Twilight Zone TV series, another storyline was imagined by the imagineers, and it is a statue which is supposed to be responsible of the curse of the hotel. Is it:

1) An african statue
2) An Asian statue
3) A Polynesian statue
4) An Inca statue

Dans la version de Tokyo Disney Sea, les japonais ne connaissant pas la série Twilght Zone, un autre scénario a été imaginé ou une statue est responsable de la malédiction de l’hotel. Est-ce:

1) Une statue africaine
2) Une statue asiatique
3) Une statue polynésienne
4) Une statue inca

Question 10: In which land of Tokyo Disney sea is located the Tower of terror?

Dans quel land de Tokyo Disney Sea est situé la Tour de la terreur?

1) Mysterious Island
2) Arabian coast
3) American waterfront
4) Port Discovery

Question 11: A tribute has been done by the imagineers to an episode of the original series in one of the windows of the Franklin department store on the Hollywood Boulevard of the Walt Disney Studios. What was the name of the episode?

Un hommage à un épisode de la série originale est rendu via un mannequin situé dans une des vitrines du Franklin department store sur le Hollywood Boulevard des Walt Disney Studios. Quel était le nom de l’épisode original auquel est rendu cet hommage?

1) After midnight
2) After hours
3) After eight
4) After you

Questtion 12: In the first concepts of the Disney-MGM Studios Tower of terror, the Twilight Zone room - where the vehicule get out of the elevator - was not envisioned at the top floor. At which floor was it envisioned?

1) At the first floor
2) In the basement
3) At the second floor
4) At the ground floor

Dans les projets initiaux pour la première version de la Tour de la terreur aux Disney-MGM Studios, la scène de la Twilight Zone room ou le véhicule sort de l’ascenseur n’était pas situé au sommet de l’hotel. A quel étage était-elle situé?

1) au 1er étage
2) au sous-sol
3) au 2ème étage
4) au rez-de-chaussée

Question 13: In one of the previous projects for the Walt Disney Studios, another attraction - a show - was supposed to be build at the place where now is standing the Tower of terror. Was it a:

Dans un des projets pour les Walt Disney Studios, une autre attraction - un show - avait été envisagé pour ètre construit à l’emplacement ou se trouve maintenant la Tour de la terreur. S’agissait-il d’un:

1) Lion king show
2) Aladdin show
3) Jungle book show
4) Pixar show

Good luck to everyone ! Bonne chance à tous !

The Miyazaki "Little Nemo in Slumberland" animated movie that never was

You all know the famous Winsor Mc Cay comic strip "Little Nemo in Slumberland", don't you? These stories of a little boy and his journey into imagination were published early last century, and were, on a certain point, at the origin of the comic book art.

And you all know, too, legendary animated movie japanese creator Hayao Miyazaki, right?

Well, in 1984 famous Miyazaki animator-director Yoshifumi Kondo directed a test sequence, supposedly filmed in 70mm. And, very unfortunately, the project was stopped.

So, if you want to know what a Miyazaki version might have look, have a look below at this short test and prepare yourself for a two and a half minutes jaw-dropping sequence!