The nation’s favourite Disney song has been revealed!
In a countdown put together by ITV, film fans voted for their favourite Disney musical number ever.
The programme, called The Nation’s Favourite Disney Song funnily enough, featured celebrities and their kids talking about their favourite Disney movies.
Lorraine Kelly, Jamelia, McFly’s Harry Judd and Tom Fletcher and Tina O’Brien were some of the famous faces reminiscing and trying to remember the lyrics.
So what came in at number one?
Where did Let It Go come in the list? (Picture: Disney)
You might be surprised to hear that it wasn’t Frozen anthem Let It Go, which has infiltrated everything from Christmas lights to Channing Tatum since its release.
So is it The Circle Of Life from The Lion King? Nope. Colours Of The Wind from Pocahontas? Sorry.
In fact the nation’s favourite is…The Bare Necessities from The Jungle Book.
The classic song, sung by Baloo the bear, comes from the last film Walt Disney made before his death in 1966.
Actually we admit that it is still a pretty great song. Still surprising, though.
Let It Go came in fourth place, with The Circle Of Life coming second.
(Picture: Disney)
The Bare Necessities trumped other Disney classics such as When You Wish Upon A Star from Pinocchio (3rd), A Whole New World from Aladdin (5th) and A Spoonful of Sugar from Mary Poppins (6th) – the only live action Disney film to feature on the list.
Disney are currently working on their next animated feature Moana, which features the first Polynesian Disney Princess.
Theme parks are a big deal at Disney(NYSE:DIS), and understandably so. The world’s undisputed champ in amusement parks generated $16.2 billion in revenue and more than $3 billion in operating profit through its gated attractions in fiscal 2015.
The media giant’s largest resort is Disney World in Florida, attracting 51.5 million guests through its four parks last year according to industry watcher Themed Entertainment Association. Let’s go over a few things that the House of Mouse got right through 2015.
1. Star Wars is everywhere
Disney has owned Lucasfilm for three years, knowing all along that it would culminate in last week’s record-setting debut of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This has also given Disney time to plan out a strategy to cash in on the mega franchise at its theme parks.
It could’ve acted sooner with permanent game-changing attractions. The world would’ve been camped out at Disney’s Hollywood Studios if the 14-acre planned Star Wars Land expansion were open by now instead of several years from now. However, Disney World’s least visited park has done a capable job of loading up Disney’s Hollywood Studios with a lot of temporary Star Wars-themed experiences. From short film screenings detailing the saga and making of the new movie to meet-and-greet experiences and themed menu items available throughout the park, the “Force” is strong. I’ve been to Disney’s Hollywood Studios a couple of times over the past week, and it seems as if every other person is carrying around a BB-8 souvenir cup being sold at the park.
2. A big price hike may be bad for guests, but it’s great for shareholders
Annual increases are the norm at Disney World and Disneyland. It now costs more than $100 to buy a single-day ticket to Disney World. However, Disney did shock the industry in October by pushing out double-digit rate increases for its Disneyland and Disney World annual passes.
It’s a pretty brazen business decision, but it’s being done to regulate crowds. The dramatic annual pass increase is a move to get locals and other regulars to opt for value-minded passes with blackout dates during peak travel periods. The parks are too crowded over the holidays with day guests that pay more per day than annual pass holders, and this move will either smooth that out or make the theme park operator a lot of money if die-hard regulars pay up for the pricier premium passes.
3.Disney Springs has sprung An unheralded piece of Disney World is the shopping entertainment district that until just a few weeks ago was known as Downtown Disney. It is now Disney Springs. It updated many of the stores and eateries, and several more are on the way including the multi-level NBA Experience themed restaurant.
Perhaps more importantly, Disney also recently opened a massive parking garage and an I-4 off-ramp, helping ease the traffic and parking nightmare that Downtown Disney had become.
Downtown Disney was always an adequate entertainment district once you licked the patience-challenging access issue. Now it’s raising the bar with nifty retro theming that’s more fitting of what a Disney-run shopping and dining hub should be.
Families panicked after people said they heard gunshots at Disney World
Parents grabbed their children and ‘ran for their lives’ during the stampede
Police said it was a false alarm and that a fistfight was mistaken for gunfire
Scare comes after Disney tightened security following recent terror attacks
Families were caught up in a stampede at Disney World on Christmas Day after people mistook a fistfight for shots being fired.
Parents described grabbing their children and ‘running for their lives’ after panic suddenly broke out at the resort in Orlando, Florida.
People hid inside shops and restaurants as police swept Downtown Disney for a shooter, but officers quickly realized that it was a false alarm.
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Families were caught up in a stampede at Disney World on Christmas Day after people mistook a fistfight for shots being fired. Pictures, families huddle together during the scare
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People hid inside shops and restaurants as police swept Downtown Disney for a shooter, but officers quickly realized that it was a false alarm
Fistfight at Disney Springs misinterpreted as gunshots
Mother Melissa Paz was on a Christmas Day out at Disney World when ‘mass hysteria’ erupted.
‘There was a stampede at the Lego store at Disney Springs,’ she said.
‘Luckily we were only on the outside area of the store and were able to shield the kids from the mob. Shaken, but not a scratch on us.
‘Scared the s*** out of us! Apparently a fight broke out, shots may have been fired but no one was shot.’
Jessica James was also at the resort and said: ‘We got more excitement than we bargained for tonight when we found ourselves smack dab in the middle of a panic triggered by a rumored gun-related altercation.
‘Heavy police, EMS, and aerial presence and great crowd control saw us safely out of the area after a brief period of huddled confusion inside a nearby restaurant.
‘I do believe they were and will continue to downplay the seriousness of the incident but we were witness to the level of panic shown by those closest to the action.’
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Panicked visitors to Disney World said they heard there were gunshots before running for their lives
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Parents described grabbing their children and ‘running for their lives’ after panic suddenly broke out at the resort (file picture) in Orlando, Florida
Footage taken moments after the scare shows parents huddling inside a restaurant with their children as a commotion appears to be going on outside.
Orange County Sheriff Office spokeswoman Deputy Lourdes Clayton told the Orlando Sentinel that the fight started on the second floor of the Bongos restaurant.
She said the confrontation created a loud noise that may have sounded like a gunshot.
Clayton added that one person was arrested in relation to the fight on a charge of disorderly conduct.
Reedy Creek Fire and Rescue Deputy Chief Eric Ferrari said it was a ‘total false alarm’.
‘Everyone is on edge in general. I guess it started a mass panic,’ he said.
The fright came just a week after Disney announced that it was stepping up security measures at its parks in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and California.
Visitors now have to go through metal detectors and the sale of toy guns – including squirt guns – has been banned. Guests cannot bring their own with them either.
Children over the age of 14 are no longer allowed to wear costumes, even on Halloween, Disney said.
Disney woke up to a nice gift this Christmas morning as its animated family film The Good Dinosaur became the studio’s sixth film this year to cross the $100M mark. The not-so-little critters now step into the same club as Cinderella, The Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Inside Out, Ant-Man and, of course, Star Wars: The Force Awakens (which has the distinction of reaching the $100M mark faster than any film in history). The latest Star Wars crossed that plateau in Friday matinees after making history with the biggest preview night ever (logged by Disney as $57M).
The Good Dinosaur is the 92nd title to reach $100M in Disney’s long history. And with The Force Awakens expected to cross $500M on Sunday (they already had a $5B global box office first for the company last week) how happy are Disney chairman/CEO Robert Iger and Walt Disney Studio chairman Alan Horn?
Peanuts, Han Solo and The Chipmunks aren’t the only classic characters making a comeback this holiday season.
Disney has been quietly reviving Oswald The Lucky Rabbit – Walt’s original cartoon movie star, before Mickey Mouse back in the 1920s – in various media since re-acquiring rights allowing them to do so back in 2006.
Just in time for holidays, IDW Publishing (current licensor of the Disney comic books) has released this past week Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #726 featuring Oswald on the cover (by artist Amy Mebberson) and inside an eight page story, “Just Like Magic”, written by IDW’s Archival Editor David Gerstein and drawn by former Disney animator Mark Kausler.
What a treat! This is funny stuff and affectionately written and drawn. Bravo to the creative team of Gerstein and Kausler – both are dyed-in-wool Oswald fanatics and this comic strip tribute shows it.
Originally created for a Norwegian Disney Christmas annual Walt Disney’s Julehefte in 2011, this IDW publication marks “Just Like Magic” first US publication.
Here are the first three panels (to whet your appetite):
Though Oswald had been featured in Walter Lantz comic books in the 1940s and 50s – this is the first time, apart from Epic Mickey video game spinoffs, the Disney version/1920s persona was ever captured for the comics page.
IDW’s monthly Disney comics can be ordered online from various sources, as well as found at most larger comic shops. IDW also publishes trade paperback reprints of its Disney comics, aimed at Amazon and regular bookstores, each trade paperback collecting three issues’ worth of comics. In a few months, the Oswald story will be reprinted in this one.
The Disney Comics line includes Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories, Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck, and Mickey Mouse, all published on a monthly basis, put together for IDW by Sarah Gaydos, Editor, and David Gerstein, Archival Editor, with a team of domestic translators/writers that includes Jonathan Gray, Thad Komorowski, Joe Torcivia, Gary Leach, and Maura McManus.
Walt Disney World is introducing Club Villain in January, a new after-hours party in Hollywood Studios that will pair New Orleans cuisine and “fiendish” cocktail concoctions with Disney’s best bad guys.
Hosted by Dr. Facilier (thePrincess and the Frogwitch doctor better known as the Shadow Man), there will be visits by popular villains including Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty), the Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland), the Evil Queen (Snow White) and Cruella de Vil (101 Dalmatians).
The $99 ticket price includes a New Orleans-inspired dinner and drinks, including alcoholic drinks. It’s not technically a party for adults only, but there’s no discount price for kids for this one and the inclusion of alcohol seems to encourage getting a babysitter.
The ticket price does not include admission to Hollywood Studios.
Club Villain will set up shop in the Sunset Showcase, a new structure near the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. The current schedule calls for just six dates: Jan. 16 and 23, then every Saturday in February, with the party starting at 7:45 p.m.
Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger took a slight pay cut in 2015, with his total compensation package falling 3.4% to $44.9 million, according to public filings.
The media and entertainment chief earned $46.5 million in salary, bonuses and stock awards a year earlier. That represented a big boost from Iger’s 2013 package of $34.3 million.
It was a year that saw Disney climb box office heights with the return of the “Star Wars” franchise, but one that also saw its shares take a hit amidst investor concerns about the long-term future of ESPN. There are worries that cable subscriber defections could negatively impact the sports channel’s financial model. For the most part, investors profited from their investment in the company behind Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm. Disney’s stock rose by 18% during the fiscal year.
Iger’s compensation includes $2.5 million in salary, $22.3 million in incentives, $8.9 million in stock and $8.4 million in options.
In terms of Disney’s leadership, COO Thomas Staggs, who assumed his post in February, earned $20 million in total compensation. That includes just under $2 million in salary, $8.6 million in incentives, $4.6 million in stock and $3.4 million in options.
CFO Christine McCarthy, who was appointed in June, received $7.1 million in total compensation. That included $869,712 in salary, $4.3 million in incentives, just over $1 million in stock and $652,018 in options. Former CFO Jay Rasulo, who stepped down last winter after being passed over in favor of Staggs, received $15.1 million in compensation.
Right now, we are watching business chess at the grandmaster level.
Leaders must be supremely confident about where they’re taking their organization, or at least look like they are, in order to be effective. Who wants to follow someone who’s lost? One of the most engaging parts of studying leadership is watching leaders decide where to go – the process of forming grand-scale strategy. It plays out over years, highlighted by moments that brightly illuminate the giant forces that leaders must judge and contend with. For leaders in two industries, we’re in one of those moments now.
As everyone who wasn’t in a coma is well aware, Walt Disney’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens just had the greatest opening weekend of all time. Disney CEO Robert Iger looks like a genius for his big investment in the Star Wars franchise. But the world barely noticed something else that happened last weekend: Disney’s stock price plunged. From the market opening on Friday to the close on Monday, the stock dropped about 5%. What gives?
While most people were watching the box office numbers (or the movie), investors were focused on big-picture strategy. On Friday morning, analyst Richard Greenfield of BTIG Research downgraded Disney stock to “sell” because he’s worried that ESPN, the locomotive that drives Disney’sDIS0.28% profits, is headed for long-term trouble. ESPN extracts billions of dollars annually from cable TV subscribers who are forced to buy programming in bundles that include ESPN regardless of whether they want it. But cable TV is in trouble as millions of viewers cancel their service (or never sign up) in favor of buying exactly the programming they want online. This “over the top” model was widely dismissed as insignificant just a few years ago. Now Reed Hastings’s Netflix NFLX-0.70%, delivered over the top, has about the same market cap as Jeff Bewkes’ Time Warner TWX-0.16%. In the business that we used to call TV, who sees where they’re going most clearly?
Several media outlets are now reporting that Google and Ford are in talks about developing autonomous cars. A source has told Reuters that Ford F-0.35% CEO Mark Fields and Google GOOGL-0.35% co-founder Sergey Brin met earlier this month in California to discuss the possibility. The idea of self-driving cars was widely dismissed as impossible only a decade ago, and even two years ago several mainstream “experts” said it was decades away. Google’s Brin, CEO Larry Page, and former CEO Eric Schmidt saw where they were going more clearly than any auto industry CEO. Fields looks smart for possibly getting in on the trend with the leading player, but we don’t know if any deal will happen. Nor do we know what Apple’s Tim Cook may be thinking; he hasn’t even commented on widespread reports that Apple AAPL-0.56% will introduce an autonomous car in 2020 or so. But it’s already clear that no auto industry CEO saw that one day a car’s software would be more valuable than the physical vehicle.
This is business chess at the grandmaster level. We rarely get to glimpse what’s going on in the minds of leaders as they decide where to take their organizations. It’s a lot of fun when, at moments like these, we do.
BAHAMAS WASTE MANAGEMENT COLLECTS THE USED COOKING OIL DIRECTLY FROM DISNEY CRUISE LINE SHIPS AT THE PORT OF NASSAU AND THEN CONVERTS IT INTO BIODIESEL FUEL.
NASSAU, Bahamas, Wednesday December 23, 2015 – Disney Cruise Line has donated more than 60,000 gallons of used cooking oil to Bahamas Waste Management to help power their fleet of vehicles in Nassau over the past four years.
Bahamas Waste Management collects the used cooking oil directly from Disney Cruise Line ships at the Port of Nassau and then converts it into biodiesel fuel – a nontoxic and biodegradable fuel that drastically reduces engine emissions in comparison to traditional petroleum diesel.
Now, approximately 25 of Bahamas Waste Management’s vehicles are fueled by biodiesel and the organization has future plans to expand to its entire fleet.
“We value our partnership with Bahamas Waste and the opportunity to contribute to improving the environment here in the Bahamas,” said Barda Kosovrasti, Disney Cruise Line Manager of Corporate Citizenship.
“Bahamas Waste’s efforts align with Disney Cruise Line’s commitment to minimize waste and our impact on the environment.”
On a weekly basis, more than 1,000 gallons of used cooking oil are offloaded Disney Cruise Line ships and recycled in ports of call around the world.
Disney Cruise Line’s recycled oil programme is one of many environmental initiatives focused on utilizing new technologies, increasing fuel efficiency, minimizing waste and promoting conservation worldwide.
So you got the kids a new tablet, computer, or a smartphone for Christmas. Now comes the fun part: Keeping your children safe from the dark underbelly of the Internet, while preventing them from spending every waking moment glued to that new screen.
When kids are little, this is relatively easy. But as they get older, it gets increasingly difficult. By the time they’re full-blown teenagers, it can turn into all-out war (which you will probably lose).
Now a company called Circle Media is partnering with Disney to offer an easy-to-use, $100 network device that can help in that battle. Circle with Disney can track where your kids go on the Net, block sites you don’t want them to see, limit their screen time, and turn the Internet off at night. It requires absolutely zero technical expertise to set up, and you can manage all of it from an app on your iPhone. It also provides a smattering of family-friendly content provided by the Maus Haus.
For parents, this sounds utterly awesome. (For teenagers, not so much.) The question is, does Circle actually work as advertised? To find out, I installed it on my home network and used it for several weeks.
My conclusion: Overall, I have to say I was impressed. Circle is amazingly easy to set up and use, and is the best home-filtering solution I’ve seen since the late lamented Skydog router (which was acquired by Comcast in June 2014 and has never been seen again). But Circle is far from perfect; it doesn’t block everything you might want it to, and it suffers from some technical limitations, which means you won’t ever be able to just set it and forget it.
Sublime setup
The initial setup couldn’t be easier. You start by plugging Circle (which is actually cube-shaped and slightly smaller than a box of Kleenex) into a power outlet. That’s right: You don’t have to wire it to your router or your modem, which means you can place it almost anywhere in range of your Wi-Fi signal.
Next you download the app from the iTunes Store, which then walks you through the setup process. You log onto Circle’s own mini-Wi-Fi network from your iPhone, provide Circle your Wi-Fi network name and password, then log out of Circle’s Wi-Fi and back onto your home network. Enter your username, email address, and phone number; Circle sends you a verification code via text message. Plug that in, upload a photo, tell Circle what level of filtering you desire (adult, teen, or young’un), and you’re done. Total time elapsed: 5 minutes, give or take.
can track where your kids go on the Net, block sites you don’t want them to see, limit their screen time, and turn the Internet off at night. It requires absolutely zero technical expertise to set up, and you can manage all of it from an app on your iPhone. It also provides a smattering of family-friendly content provided by the Maus Haus.