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Inside The Mouse Castle: Disney News, Information and Commentary

From July 2014 to April 2021, Disney geeks extraordinaire Tim Callaway and Anthony Reynolds commented, analyzed and generally made a shambles of Disney news "Inside the Mouse Castle." Relive those embarrassing days here as they talk about Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Walt Disney Studios, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Disney Publishing, Disney Consumer Products and the Disney/ABC Television Group. You've been warned. www.TheMouseCastle.com
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Now displaying: June, 2015
Jun 30, 2015

Last week, Anthony visited Disneyland, rode the Lilly Belle, previewed Ant-Man, and finally saw Paint the Night, but who cares? Because all we want to do is talk about selfie sticks.

 

The sometimes useful, mostly annoying camera accessories will be banned from all Disney theme parks--including DisneyQuest and the water parks at Walt Disney World--effective June 30th.

 

And while Anthony and Tim ponder how to take pictures of themselves with their short arms, they also focus on these fascinating stories:

  • Disneyland could be investing $1 billion in the Anaheim resort in return for the City of Anaheim extending an existing tax exemption on park ticket sales. This seems kind of a purposeless trade since Disney will probably spend that much on expected expansion projects in Tomorrowland and Hollywood Land anyway.Annual passholders have gotten a sneak preview already, but the general public will finally get a look at the newly refurbed Peter Pan's Flight at Disneyland starting July 1st.
  • We know for certain Captain EO is making another nostalgic return to Epcot on July 19th, but could Michael Jackson's space hero also be coming to Disney Infinity 3.0? We're hearing rumors.
  • Like a little Disney magic with you text messaging? You've got to get the new Disney GIF app for iOS. It's a super fun keyboard extension and it's free. Get it here.
  • Is there a creative partnership pending on the horizon between Disney and gaming giant Nintendo? Once again, we're hearing rumors.
  • In August, Pixar will have a bigger presence than in the past at the D23 Expo. For the first time, the animation studio will have an exhibit on the show floor. We're especially looking forward to the display of John Lasseter's custom Hawaiian shirts based on most of the Pixar films. Order your Expo tickets now before prices go up.
  • It's been a busy week for Disney in the land of lawsuits. They settled out of court with filmmaker Kelly Wilson over similarities between her animated film The Snowman and the first teaser trailer for Frozen. Then, a disgruntled former member of Club 33 filed suit saying he was wrongly ousted from the club. Disney is claiming he repeatedly violated membership rules.

Enjoy!

www.TheMouseCastle.com

Jun 24, 2015

After weeks of wild speculation, Marvel and Sony finally announced Tom Holland will be the new Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Jon Watts will direct the next standalone film for the web slinger. We expect that Holland will also appear as Spidey in next year's Captain America: Civil War.

 

In other movie news, Inside Out couldn't beat Jurassic World at the box office over the weekend, but that didn't stop it from scoring the second biggest opening in Pixar history. Tim gives his review of the Pete Docter-directed film while he and Anthony get in touch with their emotions in this week's episode of Inside The Mouse Castle.

  • Maleficent made over $750 million worldwide last year. So, umm, yeah, there's going to be a sequel. Linda Woolverton is currently penning the script. No confirmation yet whether Angelina Jolie is on board, but come on, why wouldn't she be?
  • Zuri's Sweet Shop has opened at Disney's Animal Kingdom and it's serving poop candy. That's really all you need to know.
  • Also at Animal Kingdom, Starbucks has opened up shop. Meanwhile, down the road at the soon-to-be demolished Walt Disney World Speedway, we've learned that the space is destined to become a parking lot.
  • Our condolences to the family and friends of JoAnn Dean Killingsworth, who passed away Saturday at the age of 91. The long-time actress and ice skater was an original Disneyland employee in 1955 and the park's first Snow White.
  • Historian Didier Ghez is a good friend of The Mouse Castle and we're very excited about his upcoming book, They Drew as They Pleased: The Hidden Art of Disney's Golden Age. It's the first in a series of books Didier is writing about the great concept artists of the Walt Disney Studios. It will be out on September 8th.
  • Disney and musical artist Deadmau5 have settled their legal differences over Deadmau5's performance headgear, which bears a striking resemblance to a certain cartoon mouse. The terms of the settlement have not been released (and probably won't be), but the two sides are now playing nice.

Enjoy!

www.TheMouseCastle.com

Jun 16, 2015

 Inside Out had its Hollywood premiere last week, gearing up for its U.S. wide release this Friday. On this week's episode of Inside The Mouse Castle, we hear from the film's director, Pete Docter, and the some of the voice cast including Amy Poehler, Bill Hader and Lewis Black.

 

Tim expects Pixar's journey into the mind of an 11-year old girl to be a sure-fire hit while Anthony thinks the film, as good as the early reviews are, is going to under-perform at the box office. It won't do as bad as Tomorrowland, though, not by a long shot. The Brad Bird film starring George Clooney is having a dismal run in theaters and could put Disney in the red $140 million or more.

 

And, Disney or not, no movie conversation this week is complete with mentioning Jurassic World, so we'll touch on that too, plus these other mind-bending topics:

  • In the story that won't die, is Asa Butterfield really out of the running to be the next Spider-Man? Are Tom Holland, Charlie Plummer and Matthew Lintz the new favorites? Who knows? Because apparently Marvel and Sony can't agree on anything concerning the franchise.
  • We now know the voice cast for Pixar's The Good Dinosaur. After a series of production delays, including a director change and a reworking of the story, the film will open in the U.S. on November 25th.
  • Have you seen the new teaser trailer for Zootopia yet? Tim thinks it looks cute. Anthony, not so much.
  • Frozen Ever After is coming to Epcot's Norway pavilion next year, taking over the space once occupied by Maelstrom. Guests will be able to experience a "Winter in Summer Celebration" courtesy of Queen Elsa in the kingdom of Arendelle. That includes a trip to Elsa's ice palace.
  • Two new restaurants are coming to the Disney Springs (aka the revamped Downtown Disney at Walt Disney World): The Edison and STK Orlando. They're the latest in a long list of new shopping and dining establishments being added to the area. Is it starting to be too much of a good thing? Disney Springs is a far cry from the quaint Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village us old-timers remember from the 1970s and 80s.
  • Star Wars will be in Hall H of this year's San Diego Comic-Con. Marvel will not. Next.
  • Goodbye, Phineas and Ferb. We'll miss you. Well, we'll be missing new episodes. We're sure you'll be rerunning on Disney Channel and Disney XD for a long time to come.
  • J.K. Simmon is joining the voice cast of Gravity Falls. We hope he doesn't throw a chair at Grunkle Stan.

Enjoy!

www.TheMouseCastle.com

Jun 9, 2015

Tim and Anthony return to "Inside The Mouse Castle," where music will abound during August's D23 Expo in Anaheim. "Disney in Concert: A Silly Symphony Celebration" will screen some of Walt Disney's great musical cartoons of the 1920s and '30s accompanied by a 32-piece orchestra. The massive fan gathering will also welcome Disney on Broadway's "The Originals," celebrating Disney's great theatrical shows and starring Ashley Brown ("Mary Poppins"), James Monroe Iglehart ("Aladdin") and Josh Strickland ("Tarzan").

Also in this week's episode: Disney will produce a live action film based on the "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence from "Fantasia" and, at the same time, cancel all plans for "Tron 3"; the Disneyland Resort is testing guest opinion about tiered daily ticket prices; laid off tech workers at Walt Disney World weren't happy about being replaced by immigrants with temporary work visas; Jay Rasulo resigns as CFO of the Walt Disney Company in a move that surprised no one; a new documentary about the life of Walt Disney will air on PBS this fall; "Tangled" will become an animated series on the Disney Channel in 2017; a collection of recently released Disney animated shorts will be available on demand and on Blu-ray in August; and Playmation is a new hi-tech toy coming out this fall that will send kids on numerous adventures in the worlds of Marvel and "Star Wars."

www.TheMouseCastle.com

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