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Tag: Walt Disney

  • Bob Chapek Replaces Bob Iger As Walt Disney CEO

    Bob Chapek Replaces Bob Iger As Walt Disney CEO

    Closing out one of the most successful runs as CEO, Bob Iger is stepping down and being replaced by Bob Chapek as head of Walt Disney.

    Iger has been CEO of Walt Disney for 14 years, and helped the company grow to one of the biggest entertainment powerhouses in the world. Under his leadership, Disney purchased Pixar, Marvel Entertainment and Lucasfilm, bringing some of the most beloved franchises and entertainment properties under Disney’s umbrella. More recently, the company unveiled its own streaming service, which has already been a hit with consumers.

    “With the successful launch of Disney’s direct-to-consumer businesses and the integration of Twenty-First Century Fox well underway, I believe this is the optimal time to transition to a new CEO,” Mr. Iger said. “I have the utmost confidence in Bob and look forward to working closely with him over the next 22 months as he assumes this new role and delves deeper into Disney’s multifaceted global businesses and operations, while I continue to focus on the Company’s creative endeavors.”

    Mr. Iger continued: “Bob will be the seventh CEO in Disney’s nearly 100-year history, and he has proven himself exceptionally qualified to lead the Company into its next century. Throughout his career, Bob has led with integrity and conviction, always respecting Disney’s rich legacy while at the same time taking smart, innovative risks for the future. His success over the past 27 years reflects his visionary leadership and the strong business growth and stellar results he has consistently achieved in his roles at Parks, Consumer Products and the Studio. Under Bob’s leadership as CEO, our portfolio of great businesses and our amazing and talented people will continue to serve the Company and its shareholders well for years to come.”

    To help ensure a smooth transition, Iger will take on the role of Executive Chairman and lead the company’s Board, as well as creative endeavors, till the end of 2021.

  • Annette Funicello Dies of MS at 70–but Three Years Ago

    Annette Funicello Dies of MS at 70–but Three Years Ago

    Annette Funicello–one of American’s favorite original Mouseketeers–is making headlines three years after her death from MS. Many, who clearly don’t pay attention to the news-or at least didn’t back in 2013–are mourning Annette Funicello’s death.

    Snopes reports the problem stems from a new website called Health Cure Portal that published an article titled Annette Funicello Dies at 70 After Long Battle with Multiple Sclerosis, and that article closely mirrors an identically titled one published on a site called Health of Women. Both sites appear to be the kind that garner clicks for revenue.

    Neither of the rehashed articles mentions the date of Annette Funicello’s death, leading some readers to believe she only recently passed away.

    Twitter users have gotten in on the Annette Funicello death craze.

    Not all Twitter users are in the dark, however. Some are trying–likely in vain–to convince others Annette Funicello died almost three years ago.

    For those mourning what they believe is the recent passing of Annette Funicello, here are some highlights of her career.

    1. She was probably the most beloved Mouseketeer of all time, appearing on the original Mickey Mouse Club (black and white TV), and was one of very few to be selected by Walt Disney.

    2. She starred alongside Frankie Avalon in the 1960s in the Beach Party movies.

    3. She starred in several Disney movies including The Shaggy Dog, Babes in Toyland, and The Monkey’s Uncle.

    4. Annette Funicello wasn’t just an actress. She had several pop record hits in the 1950s and early 1960s, too, although she didn’t enjoy singing the way she loved acting.

    So there you have it. The beloved Annette Funicello was, in fact, a longtime actress and singer. She battled Multiple Sclerosis for more than two decades–finally succumbing to the disease on April 8, 2013.

  • Disney World Monorail Evacuated After Power Outage

    According to a Disney World spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler, dozens of people had to be evacuated from one of the park’s monorails after a power outage on Sunday, July 13.

    Apparently the weather surrounding the Florida amusement park was getting unpredictable when the monorail halted. However, Wahler says that they do not think lightning was the cause of the outage.

    “When we sat there, we heard a lot of thunder and saw a few bolts of lightning,” 15-year-old Lily Mock, who attends the park on a regular basis, said. Lily went on to explain that, while they were 30 feet in the air, the train suddenly stopped. “It wasn’t a jolting stop, but it did stop really fast — the monorail glided to a stop,” Lily said.

    When the power shorted, so did the air conditioner, leaving the approximately 120 passengers in a heat trap. Despite the rising temperatures, Lily said no one seemed to panic and she and the other passengers passed the time, as they waited for the firefighters to rescue them, by creating small talk with one another.

    Although the firefighters were able to open the top hatch of the monorail, they were able to get each passenger out safely through the main doors with the help of a mechanized lift. “I kind of wanted to go through the top, I thought it’d be fun,” Lily said.

    “Due to weather, there was a power outage on the monorail. There’s currently one train on the system without power and all the guests are now off the train,” Wahler said in a statement.

    No passengers were hurt during the incident, and they were all given free passes for the inconvenience.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Meryl Streep Calls Walt Disney A “Gender Bigot”

    Meryl Streep Calls Walt Disney A “Gender Bigot”

    On Tuesday, when Meryl Streep got on stage at the National Board of Review Awards Gala, the audience was probably expecting a thoughtful, short, congratulatory speech. She was presenting actress Emma Thompson an award for her role in the movie “Saving Mr. Banks”. Streep read a beautiful poem to honor her friend, but she also took a few minutes to blast American business magnate and animator, Walt Disney, calling him an “anti-Semite” and a “gender bigot”.

    Some in the audience were a bit taken aback when she described the man as having “racist proclivities”. According to the LA Times, Streep described Disney as a man born in his time, and was also part of an anti-Semitic, anti-communist group that consisted of big names such as Ronald Reagan, John Wayne, Clark Gable and others. The group was officially known as the “Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals”.

    In her rebuke of Disney, Streep also quoted late Disney animator Ward Kimball by saying “Disney didn’t trust women or cats.”

    Disney biographer Neal Gabler concluded that “He (Walt Disney) willingly allied himself with people who were anti-Semitic, and that reputation stuck. He was never really able to expunge it throughout his life.”

    On Thursday, Today.com highlighted a tweet by the Walt Disney Museum, an organization dedicated to the animator. The tweet fires back at Streep by linking to an insightful blog post by former Disney animator turned blogger, Floyd Norman.

    Norman entitles his blog “Sophie’s Poor Choice”, referencing a film for which Streep won a Best Actress Oscar in 1982. In his blog post, Norman acknowledges that women in the 30’s and the 40’s weren’t provided with equal employment opportunities as men but that by the 50’s that inequality had diminished greatly. However, he also pointed out that talented women were employed at Disney and that some of the women who worked there told him “they’d never had a better job”. He also mentions that there were Jewish and African-American workers too, and that Disney recognized that talent had no color or ethnicity.

    Image via YouTube

  • ‘Mary Poppins’ Author Conflicted with Walt Disney

    Helen Lyndon Goff, who is more popularly known as P.L. Travers the author of Mary Poppins and the focus of Saving Mr. Banks, is responsible for bringing the world the beloved, upbeat hit. However, Travers did not like the 1964 musical cinematic portrayal, which is now being released in a special 50th Anniversary Edition. She considered the song Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious to be ridiculous and was opposed to any cartoon element being present in the film though her protestations were ultimately unsuccessful.

    According to Marc Eliot, who is the author of Walt Disney: Hollywood’s Dark Prince, “Disney brought her to Hollywood and decided he would charm her into making this film, but she wasn’t very charm-able. She was a tough woman, not quirky or cute. She didn’t like American movies, and she hated animation more than anything else.”

    Walt Disney was not willing to listen to insight from P.L. Travers. “Disney had no creative respect for this woman. He wanted a property, and once he got it he completely ignored her input and all the restrictions she had agreed to, and that’s how the film got made. That revisionist history, that’s part of the myth of Walt Disney,” Eliot said.

    Travers was born on August 9, 1899, in Maryborough, Australia. She was well-known for her stubborn streak as well as her independent mind when making life decisions. Travers never married, dated both men and women, and socialized with talented British poets while working as an actress, writer, and journalist. Her fascination with mythology influenced the six Mary Poppins novels.

    Travers died in 1996 at the age of 96, and kept her feisty persona until the very end. At the age of 94, when questioned about knowing all the answers old age claims to provide, Travers quipped, “Here I am, sitting in my chair, and I don’t think I’m going to know all the answers. I’m human.”

    [Image Via Wikimedia Commons]

  • ‘Saving Mr. Banks’ Tom Hanks, Emma Thompson Shine

    Saving Mr. Banks showcases both Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson as they help tell the story of Walt Disney and his beloved and final film, Mary Poppins.

    Walt Disney’s daughters loved the original Mary Poppins book, so their father promised them he would bring the nanny to life on the big screen. He had no idea the obstacle that was P.L. Travers, the author of the book. She was dead set against his making a film from the book–saying he was going to trivialize her tale. The two argued over this for years until finally–and because she needed the money–Travers conceded.

    Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers are the perfect combination, according to a review from The Daily Mail. She is called ferocious to his accolade of ‘majestic.’

    The artistic differences Disney and Travers argued over come to life brilliantly on the big screen in Saving Mr. Banks. And even though the script isn’t completely accurate, it is certainly quite entertaining.

    Check out the trailer for the film that opens on December 20th.

    This Twitter fan can’t wait to see the movie.

    Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson may get rave reviews from The Daily Mail, but the film itself doesn’t get such high acclaims. The review alludes to mistakes like too many flashbacks. It even hints at the Disney Corporation using one of its founder’s most beloved tales as a means to make money.

    Will you be checking out Saving Mr. Banks when it hits theaters on December 20th? Do you fear it might ruin your beloved memories of Mary Poppins or do you think it might heighten your love of the Disney film instead?

    Image via Facebook

  • Diane Disney Miller Dies At Age 79

    Diane Disney Miller Dies At Age 79

    It was announced yesterday that the eldest daughter of the famous Walt Disney, Diane Disney Miller, had passed away at the age of 79 due to injuries sustained during a fall in September.

    Miller strived to make a difference in the world, much similar to her father, when she founded the Walt Disney Family Museum that opened in 2009 in San Francisco. According to the statement released by the museum, “the museum was established to promote and inspire creativity and innovation and celebrate and study the life of Walt Disney.”

    Miller spent the later part of her life documenting the life and accomplishments of her late father. Walt Disney was subjected to many rumors and false documentaries, which is why Miller and the Walt Disney Family Foundation released “The Man Behind the Myth”, which was an accurate documentation of his life, including interviews from his friends and family. She was also the president of the board of directors of the Walt Disney Family Foundation that ran the museum.

    She went through life with a determination to inspire and entertain. She was her father’s daughter, a creative force with the perseverance to follow dreams and make a difference,” the statement read.

    Miller was also the main supporter of Frank Gehry as the architect for the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. In September, Miller chaired a gala that was celebrating the 10th anniversary of the concert hall.

    “I wanted something that would bear my father’s name, that would come from his wealth but not be commercial,” she said. “That would be just a wonderful thing for the city, for the spirit, for the soul. I think we achieved that.”

    The current Disney CEO, Robert Iger, said, “Diane holds a special place in the history of The Walt Disney Company and in the hearts of fans everywhere. She will be remembered for her grace and generosity and tireless work to preserve her father’s legacy, and she will be greatly missed by all who knew her.”

    She is survived by her husband, seven children, thirteen grandchildren, and one great grandchild.

    Image via waltdisney.org

  • Star Wars VII Will Hit Theaters on December 18, 2015

    In a galaxy far, far, away…

    It won’t be long now. The highly anticipated Star Wars: Episode VII will be coming to a theater near you starting on December 18, 2015. Pre-production for the seventh installment of one the most famous science fiction film collections has already commenced. Alan Horn, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios said, “We’re very excited to share the official 2015 release date for Star Wars: Episode VII, where it will not only anchor the popular holiday filmgoing season but also ensure our extraordinary filmmaking team has the time needed to deliver a sensational picture.”

    Episode VII is part of the third planned trilogy. The story would pick up some time after the events of Return of the Jedi (Episode VI). However, as of now, no plot details have been released by Disney.

    Here’s a top ten list from WatchMojo.com of their top ten Star Wars Moments:

    The film will be directed by J.J. Abrams, the mastermind behind the television show Lost, and director of big budget blockbusters Mission: Impossible III and Star Trek. Lawrence Kasdan, who co-wrote the screenplay for Return of the Jedi and The Empire Strikes Back, will join Abrams in crafting a new script for Episode VII.

    If you’re wondering where George Lucas is in all of this, he sold Lucasfilms to Disney for $4.05 billion last October. So it will be a brave new Star Wars world out there, one without its original creator who dreamed up the schematics for the first six episodes and crafted the storyline over the past several decades. However, Lucas will act as a consultant for this film and other future Star Wars projects.

    Image Via Wikipedia

  • Disney Unveils Cars Land For First Time

    Disney Unveils Cars Land For First Time

    A few years ago Disney decided to make a big push and let its team of engineers known as the Walt Disney Imagineers go to work on the Cars portion of the California Adventure. This was due in part to the massive success of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando! The attention to detail at that park is so great that it justifies the money spent.

    The results are nothing more than amazing. The Imagineers have been able to recreate Radiator Springs and the surrounding area to near perfection. The photos which were posted on the Disney Blog show the amount of pure amazing that they pulled out of their hat. From the Cozy Cone Motel, to the Vistas in the distance, things look picture perfect to the Pixar film franchise that has made Disney over a billion dollars.

    I reached out to a Disneyland employee who has seen the new edition personally and asked him how it was. “Very cool,” he said. It feels like it should, every detail is great!”

    Am I the only one amazed by this? Ok, now I want Disneyland to truly team up with Star Wars and make a complete recreation of Mos Eisley. I think it would kill! Star Tours is pretty freaking cool, but a fully functional Star Wars world with storm troopers walking around would take the cake!

    Check out this video of Imagineer Kathy Mangum leading us on a semi tour of the new part of the park in Southern California. It also features another Imagineer, Lisa Girolami, walking us through another new part of California Adventure called Buena Vista Street:

    Here are a bunch of pictures of the new park and check out a bunch of highlights you can expect to see after the pictures:

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    For some information about the new park go to the Disney Blog to about what you can expect at the park.