Category: Disney News

A closer look at permits give an idea of what Disney Springs’ The Edison restaurant may look like.

The Disney permits show the layout of The Edison, scheduled to open in 2016, including the location of its rooms, such as the Tesla Lounge, the Patent Office, Telegraph Lounge and the Radio Room.

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These Disney Springs permits show the layout of The Edison and the possible layout of the… more

The theme of the restaurant is an industrial gothic-designed eatery, a concept from Patina Restaurant Group and Kinetescape’s Andrew Meieran, that will offer American food and cocktails with cabaret-style entertainment.

Next to the Edison is another venue that is rumored to be Walt’s, another restaurant themed after Walt Disney. The permits have fewer details for that area, except for one area called The Office.

Most interesting, the permit also shows an unknown underground area that sits just beneath the guest walkway area at Disney Springs. The area has multiple restrooms, but there’s no clear indication if that will be accessible by tourists.

However, several food bloggers have long-rumored that area to be something called Neverland Tunnel, an underground bar. The permit map shows a large area that seems to have multiple bars and an area that could be used for a lounge or dance floor.

The transformation of Downtown Disney into Disney Springs has brought on a slew of new venues for guests. Multiple new restaurants have come along, and the destination is working to continue to grow that offering and gain even more buzz for Orlando.

Last year, the Orlando area welcomed more than 62 million visitors — making us the top-visited destination in the world — who contributed more than $60 billion in economic impact for the region.

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It is described as “a grown-up alternative to juice and pop at parties”
Disney has discontinued a Frozen-themed children’s drink in champagne-styled bottles after U.K. alcohol awareness groups expressed concerns that the product targeting kids could encourage underage drinking.

The non-alcoholic “party drink” is described on U.K. discount store Home Bargains as a “grown-up alternative to juice and pop at parties” for “little princes and princesses across the land who want to be more sophisticated.” The store defended its decision to stock the beverage, reports Mashable, saying that the product is “clearly labelled as a non-alcoholic soft drink.”

Alcohol awareness activist believe the product normalises alcohol consumption, causing them to experiment with it. “Too often alcohol is sold as if it was a normal commodity and alcohol-like products are used to entice people into the world of alcohol,” Jackie Ballard, the chief executive of Alcohol Concern, told Mashable.

A Disney spokesperson said in a statement that the product will stop being produced from April 2016. In the future, they plan to “no longer license Disney images to a product that is packaged to look like alcohol.”

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Disney‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens,’ a playset for ‘Disney Infinity 3.0.’

My girlfriend got me “Disney Infinity 3.0” for Christmas — specifically, the “Star Wars: Twilight of the Republic” starter pack for my Microsoft Xbox One games console.

“Disney Infinity,” if you don’t know, is a video game that’s brilliantly addicting.

Indeed, Disney believes that “Disney Infinity” will be a billion-dollar business before too long.

And I fell for it. Hook, line, and sinker, taking me from “zero” to “collector” in less than 12 parsecs.

The way “Disney Infinity” works, across video game consoles, smartphones, PCs, and even the Apple TV, is both simple and amazing.

Buy an actual plastic action figure, at an MSRP of $15 a pop, and place it on the USB-connected “Infinity Base” that comes with the game’s starter sets, and use that character in the game. Place Darth Vader on the base, and Darth Vader he shall appear.

Which is to say, the more you spend on “Disney Infinity,” the more you can do with it. Which means that the knowledge that mowing down Stormtroopers as Iron Man, Han Solo, or Captain Jack Sparrow is only a cool-looking $15 action figure purchase away always lingers over you while playing.

None of this would matter if the game weren’t fun. But “Disney Infinity 3.0” and its “Star Wars” content is a total blast. Playing through the new “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” for instance, is both all-ages friendly and just an enjoyable and exciting, if undemanding, video game.

In fact, I’ve already dropped $100 of my own money on “Disney Infinity” toys. It would have been more, but I made judicious use of sales this week at Toys ‘R’ Us and Target to cut down my bill.

Disney InfinitiThe whole Star Wars gang in Disney Infinity 3.0

The different characters have different skills, strengths, and weaknesses — being a Jedi is all about lightsaber combat and the Force, while Han Solo and Finn, from “The Force Awakens,” are focused on accuracy with a blaster. Oh, and it has a two-player mode on the same console, which is increasingly rare and nice to find.

And, better yet, all of the characters you buy and all of the missions you complete unlock more stuff for the game’s “Toy Box” mode, where you can rearrange and remix Disney-iffic elements to make whatever levels and games you want.

“Star Wars” podracer versus “Tron” lightcycle in a deathrace through Aladdin’s Agrabah? It’s on. You can even share your Toy Box levels and challenges online. The game’s unique art style makes it so even the “Star Wars” characters based on people, like Han Solo or Princess Leia, look at home next to Disney princesses and Pixar toys.

Matt Weinberger/Business InsiderMy modest ‘Disney Infinity’ collection.

So-called “playsets,” which usually retail for around $35, hold two figures and an additional game piece that unlocks a campaign in the game starring those characters.

The starter set my girlfriend got me, for instance, came with Anakin Skywalker (the future Darth Vader) and his apprentice Ahsoka Tano. An included plastic piece slots onto the base, loading up an adventure that pits them against the sinister Darth Maul during the era of the “Star Wars” prequel trilogy.

Indeed, the focus of “Disney Infinity 3.0” is squarely on Star Wars. The other playsets available for this release include campaigns based on the original “Star Wars” trilogy, and one that adapts this year’s “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens” — making it the only official video game adaptation of that movie, to date.

There’s also an “Inside Out” playset for “Disney Infinity 3.0,” based on this year’s excellent Disney/Pixar movie.

Previous versions of “Disney Infinity” dipped even deeper into Disney’s stable of intellectual property.

DisneyFinn, hero of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens,’ in ‘Disney Infinity’ figure form.

The first release, 2013’s “Disney Infinity,” had figures focused largely on Disney/Pixar movies, alongisde then-current releases like “Wreck-It Ralph,” “Frozen,” or the notorious Disney flop “The Lone Ranger.” The genius bit for Disney is that any “Disney Infinity” character, from that original 2013 release to now, will also work in “Disney Infinity 3.0.”

But for me, right now, it’s all about the “Star Wars,” plus a “Guardians of the Galaxy” set I got for cheap on clearance at that Toys ‘R’ Us.

The figures you buy also include codes to enter in the iPhone and Android versions of “Disney Infinity” to unlock the characters there, too.

For now, though, if you need me, I’ll be trying not to think about how much I’ve already spent on figures, while I talk myself out of buying a Kylo Ren figure. And a Chewbacca figure. And Iron Man. And Captain America. And…

Disney’s research arm has been quietly churning out impressive, occasionally unnervingexperiments for some time now, and its latest is a particularly inspired bit of engineering: a small, four-wheeled robot with the uncanny ability to climb up walls.

The robot, VertiGo, was created through a partnership between Disney Research Zurich and the university ETH Zurich. By rolling up to a wall and adjusting two propellors attached to it, the robot can climb up and continue moving at a surprisingly brisk pace. “By transitioning from the ground to a wall and back again, VertiGo extends the ability of robots to travel through urban and indoor environments,” the researchers write about the project. “The robot is able to move on a wall quickly and with agility.”

It’s not clear exactly what Disney might want the concept for, but it’s a neat enough trick that it’s not hard to see it showing up in some kind of consumer product down the road.

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Passport to Dreams Old in New is the absolute king-hell best Disney design criticism blog, written by Foxxfur, a former cast member who is thoughtful, encyclopedic, and razor-sharp in her observations of the Disney theme parks, especially Walt Disney World.

She’s written her end-of-year summary of the year at Walt Disney World — a significant year, with preparation for the new Star Wars and Avatar lands underway, the new RFID-based book-six-months-in-advance fastpass bracelets, and the new Fantasyland fully operational.

As always, it’s the most insightful work you’re likely to read on the design considerations behind (or at odds with) the business decisions made about the Disney parks. The section on the castle, for example, is just brilliant:

The trees served a real purpose besides looking nice. What I think happened is that the designers of Magic Kingdom noticed that from a distance, the bottom of Cinderella Castle looks flat as a board:

But the minute you shift off to the left or right, the forced perspective of the towers kicks in, and you end up with an incredibly dynamic looking structure:

Basically by planting the trees where they did, WED was forcing you to approach the castle to get the closer view from the best possible angle. When you’re climbing the ramps to walk through the castle, the way the towers shift and seem to grow and loom over you almost induces vertigo. It’s a really remarkable effect that too few are allowed to see today.

As I’ve covered extensively on this site before, the trees came down, and while I’m not willing to call the sight lines necessarily better or worse, they are different, and they changed the way the Hub felt. The Hub had previously been open lawn with a forest in the center, and it was now open lawn and a lot of concrete. It was unbearably hot nearly all the time, and almost never pleasant. And worse, it became a gridlock constantly, especially at night during fireworks. Experienced Magic Kingdom goers knew very well to just sit down in Liberty Square or something and wait.

Passport to Dreams 2015 Year-End Review [Foxxfur/Passport to Dreams Old and New]

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“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” may have destroyed every record in its path and driven the domestic and international box office into unprecedented territory, but Wall Street still isn’t impressed.

Disney’s shares closed up $1.39  (1.3 percent) Monday but are still down from the $1.72 mark they were at when “The Force Awakens” rolled out on Dec. 18, and the stock of the major theater chains has fallen roughly two percent on average since then.

That’s hard to figure, since a movie could hardly do more business. Disney’s juggernaut has taken in more than $1 billion at the box office globally in record time. The fourth quarter’s box office was down six percent from last year before “The Force Awakens” debuted, but has risen to nearly 10 percent ahead of 2014 since the opening — and with four days left in the year that will only go higher.

But Disney shares lost nearly 2 percent last week and have dwindled by more than 10 percent in the last month. What’s the deal?

Two factors have prevented “The Force Awakens” from translating to a stock surge for Disney investors, according to most analysts.

The first is perceived overspending on ESPN and sports rights combined with the cable sector’s weakening long-term prospects. The second is that the shares rose so much in anticipation of “Star Wars” — roughly 15 percent since the start of last year — that a boost had already been realized.

“Even The Force cannot protect ESPN,” is how Richard Greenfield of BTIG Research put it, citing what he saw as Disney’s “overpaying for sports rights based on overly aggressive multichannel video subscriber projections.” He downgraded the stock to “sell” and forecast a dip of around 16 percent next year on the day “The Force Awakens.”

The pre-release hype ahead of the opening not only drove the stock up, it distracted investors from the serious problems faced by ESPN, Business Investor Editor Hilary Kramer said Monday.

“The fact that Disney stock is swimming upstream against the cord-cutting mega-trend is enough for me to want to take my money elsewhere,” she said.

Benjamin Swinburne of Morgan Stanley doesn’t see a “Star Wars” boost either, and suggests the stock will remain flat for the next year or so.

“Lower estimated ESPN revenue growth and tough licensing (comparisons) against ‘Frozen’ fully offset” the positive projection for ‘The Force Awakens’,” he said.

Not everyone’s view is so grim. Moody’s take the long view stresses that Disney’s Lucasfilm will in time turn  things around.

“The Star Wars franchise is uniquely multi-beneficial to Disney and clearly the evergreen intellectual property further diversifies and strengthens the company’s foundation alongside its most important franchises,” said Moody’s.

Meanwhile, an analyst at B. Riley sees the movie theaters’ recent skid as an opportunity, and is recommending “buy” for all of the major chains.

He attributes the recent dip to the perception that Disney’s share of movie ticket revenue on “Star Wars” is higher than normal –“north of 60 percent,” he estimates — and weakness early in the quarter. The good news is, from Wold’s perspective, both of those ills can be cured by ongoing “Star Wars” success.

“We fully expect the leading exhibitors Regal, AMC, Cinemark and Carmike to exceed expectations,” he said Monday, citing major boosts from 3D, IMAX and Premium Large Format surcharges and concession revenues.

He believes that investors focused on the theaters’ reduced “Star Wars” cuts were not seeing the big picture, and said The Force would be boosting the first quarter of 2016 as well.

“Major films released in the final two weeks of the fourth quarter (after 12/15 of each year) generated an average of 46 percent of their total domestic box office revenues in the first quarter of the following year,” he said.

“We estimate that ‘Star Wars’ could easily reach $800 million to $1 billion in domestic box office, which would indicate the potential for $370 million to $460 million in box office to be generated in Q1,” Wold said.”This would provide a relatively healthy three percent to four percent boost to 2016 annual box office trends at the start of the year.”

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ANAHEIM, Calif. – Disneyland is set to close multiple attractions and eateries next month to make room for the new “Star Wars”-themed land in the Orange County theme park.

The 14-acre project would be Disney’s largest single themed land expansion, CEO Bob Iger said when he announced the project in August at the D23 Expo, KTLA reported.

Groundbreaking is scheduled to take place in 2016 at Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida, which was also planning to build a 14-acre “Star Wars”-themed land.

Starting Jan. 11 at the Anaheim park, Big Thunder Ranch – which includes Big Thunder Ranch Barbecue, Big Thunder Ranch Petting Farm and Big Thunder Ranch Jamboree – will be permanently closed, according to Disney’s blog.

Meanwhile, attractions along the Rivers of America will be temporarily closed once the operating day on January 10 ends. These include the Mark Twain Riverboat and Sailing Ship Columbia, Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer Island, Davy Crocket Explorer Canoes and the show “Fantasmic!”

Additionally, the Disneyland Railroad will also be shut down for an undetermined amount of time, as will all of its stations.

The closures represent roughly 14 percent of Disneyland’s attractions, while the areas they represent make up nearly a quarter of the theme park’s 85 acres, according to theLos Angeles Times.

In total, 14% of the park’s attractions will be closed either permanently or temporarily in an area that represents nearly a quarter of Disneyland’s 85 acres.

It was not immediately clear when those attractions and rides would reopen. Disney has not announced a completion date for the new land, but industry experts told the Times they anticipated an opening date was at least a year away.

Once completed, the “Star Wars”-themed land would have two signature attractions, one offering a “thrilling battle experience,” and another that puts guests behind the controls of the Millennium Falcon, according to a Disneyland news release.

“We are creating a jaw-dropping new world that represents our largest single themed land expansion ever,” Iger said, according to the release. “These new lands at Disneyland and Walt Disney World will transport guests to a whole new Star Wars planet, including an epic Star Wars adventure that puts you in the middle of a climactic battle between the First Order and the Resistance.”

To coincide with the December release of the newest installment of the popular franchise, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” Disneyland debuted all-new experiences related to the film last month.

The Season of the Force, which started Nov. 16, included updates to the Star Tours ride; Hyperspace Mountain,” a reimagined update of the classic Space Mountain ride; Star Wars Launch Bay, which offers guests opportunities to visit with characters from the films, as well as sneak peaks from the newly released film; and a new twist on the “Jedi Training” experience by the Tomorrowland Terrace restaurant.

Special themed food and beverages, along with merchandise and other entertainment, would also be offered for a limited time at the park. An end date has not been announced.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” had the best opening weekend ever at the box office last week, and industry analysts predicted it would rake in between $150 million and $180 million this weekend, according to CNN.

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RJ and Suzanne Ogren of Naperville can talk for hours about their vibrant careers in the early days of Walt Disney World — the art and entertainment, the celebrities and camaraderie, the amazing Disney magic.

But they can’t talk about it to everyone — they’re too busy acting in Wheaton Drama productions, writing novels about zombies and time-travel and illustrating for local businesses. So they’re letting their new book do the talking.

In “Together in the Dream: The Unique Careers of a Husband and Wife During the Early Decades of Walt Disney World,” the Ogrens give the perspective of an artist and a performer working at the storied resort and making its fantasy come to life.

RJ, a St. Charles native, is the artist.

He worked for four years in the 1970s in audio animatronics, which is Disney jargon for creating 3-D animated characters that move and speak. He completed artwork for Magic Kingdom theme park attractions like Peter Pan’s Flight, Pirates of the Caribbean and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea — even using his skill as a SCUBA diver to paint while underwater.

The job wasn’t robotics, nor was it typical animation. It was combining art, motion and sound, and working to make sure the painted outer layers on characters inside Disney rides stayed in top shape.

“We took figures already in the attractions and made sure the skins looked good,” RJ said. “We’d split up and make sure everything was in working order. If not, we could shut a ride down.”

Other times, the show would go on while RJ was fixing artwork, carefully keeping his brush moving to prevent the acetone-based paint from drying and ruining the piece. Using heat and careful color mixing in a process that took six months to learn, RJ worked shifts starting early each morning to get each character’s hue exactly perfect.

He repaired bullet holes in the Haunted Mansion, replaced the head of Dopey the Dwarf when it was stolen and learned to paint images that look normal in room lighting, glow brightly in black lighting and jump off the wall when seen through 3-D glasses. The 71-year-old still calls upon his black-light and 3-D painting techniques, recently completing black-light work for the Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

This isn’t the first book to tell the story of working at Disney World, but the Ogrens say it offers a look further into the park’s history.

Suzanne, 70, tells the tale of being a performer.

She became a member of the “dwarf unit” when she got a gig portraying Sleepy in parades and dance shows.

Suzanne first worked as a monorail operator for 18 months while she and RJ pestered Disney decision-makers to give her an audition as a dancer.

Even becoming a monorail driver was a challenge. The Ogrens first moved from Miami, where they met in high school and later got married and started a family, to Orlando, as they said Disney only considered locals for hiring. With college degrees, they were seen as overqualified for jobs loading guests onto rides, but RJ was able to join the crew as a monorail operator.

When a job as an artist opened up, he was quick to take it. Still on the sidelines, Suzanne wanted in. Both Ogrens say they’re lifelong Disney fans who always dreamed of working for the entertainment giant.

“Now I’m jealous,” Suzanne thought once RJ got his post as an artist. “I want to make my Disney dream happen.”

She lived that dream for 14 years, eventually moving into entertainment management, where she planned conventions and events such as wine festivals.

Once the Ogrens’ Disney World days were over, they moved to Virginia then to the suburbs, where they’ve lived for 11 years.

“Together in the Dream” is available at themeparkpress.com and Amazon and soon will be sold at Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville.

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Ariana Grande recorded a cover of “Zero to Hero” from Disney’s animated film Hercules for the We Love Disney album released in October, and she returned to the annual Disney Parks Christmas parade and celebration to perform the song live for the first time.

Accompanied by a choir, the singer belted out the tune while wearing Mickey Mouse ears on a stage set up in front of Cinderella’s castle at Walt Disney World. She also sang her latest single, “Focus.”

This was Grande’s second year in a row as a featured performer for Disney’s Christmas special, which was filmed at the Florida theme park in November and aired on the morning of Dec. 25. Jason Derulo, Tori Kelly, and Reba McEntire were among the other guests to make an appearance.

On Dec. 17, Grande released a new EP, Christmas & Chill, which features original holiday songs.

Watch her performances of “Zero to Hero” and “Focus” live from Walt Disney World below.

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