Annie Leibovitz’s Tiana

Two days ago, Disney Parks Blog revealed the newest addition to the Disney Dream Portrait series.  This time, Jennifer Hudson is magically captured as Tiana by Annie Leibovitz.

Image from the Disney Parks Blog post.
All credit goes to Disney and Annie Leibovitz.

This scene looks to be Anne's inspiration.
Image from mouseinfo.com after Google search.

Disney Parks Blog also released this behind-the-scenes look at the photo shoot both on the blog and on their YouTube account.  It’s pretty cool that Jennifer is connected to Disney in so many ways, and that now she gets to portray a Disney Princess!

Video from YouTube.

I’d really like to see how Annie takes the photos and makes them look so magical.  Also, I love the Naveen frog prop!

On a side note, I’m leaving tomorrow for another year of college...  As soon as I feel comfortable with my new schedule, I’ll be up and blogging again.  So expect a short (about a week-long) break here at the Blog!

Until next time, ttfn!

Muppets, Muppets, Muppets!

I grew up watching Sesame Street.  I never watched anything else related to the Muppets (though Sesame Street and the Muppets are technically separate from each other).  But last night at Bestie’s house, I watched The Muppet Movie (the 1979 film).  Not to be confused with 2011’s Muppet Movie.

But actually, speaking of Muppet Movie, a lot of the hullabaloo lately has been about its (semi-) sequel: Muppets Most Wanted, which comes out March of next year.  Below is the teaser trailer.

Videos from YouTube.

Yes, Disney owns the Muppets.  Only officially since 2004, but even in the 1980s, “Jim Henson entered discussions with The Walt Disney Company, in which the latter would acquire Jim Henson Productions and in turn, own The Muppets franchise.  However, due to Henson's death in 1990, solid negotiations never materialized” (Wikipedia).

Right before Henson’s death, he and Disney paired up to film The Muppets at Walt Disney World, "part of an awareness campaign to promote the planned merger of The Jim Henson Company with The Walt Disney Company” (The Muppet Wiki). 



Print ad image from vintagehenson.tumblr

As part of The Magical World of Disney, the TV special aired on NBC on May 6, 1990 – literally 10 days before Henson’s death.

The best part of this TV special is when a little girl (played by a young Raven-Symoné) sings “Rainbow Connection” to Kermit to help cheer him up.  “I don’t believe this,” Kermit says.


Image from a Google search.

At the end of the TV special, Kermit takes his Muppet friends to visit Mickey Mouse (animated version, voiced by the brilliant Wayne Allwine), who invites them to put their "names and footprints into the cement...Welcome to the family."  If that doesn’t tell you what was planned for the Muppets, I don’t know what does.



Two of the most iconic characters, together.
Image from the Disney Wiki.

See you all real soon!

Welcome to Disneyland’s Magic!

I seriously mean it when I say that the video below is one of the most amazing and most beautiful things I have ever seen.  Trust me on this.

Image from The Disney Blog post.

From John Frost at The Disney Blog: “Welcome to the Magic is a Disneyland Timelapse by Matt Givot and Dan Douglas, both Orange County based photographers. They took over 20,000 images to showcase Disneyland and Disney California Adventure using timelapse photography.”

The way that Givot and Douglas captured the magic of Disneyland in the lighting, crowd scenes, and colors is just breathtaking.  And personally, I love the little touch of Pogo’s “Wishery'” remix.

Trust me, you will not regret hitting the “play” button.


Welcome to The Magic - A Disneyland Timelapse from Givot on Vimeo.

As Douglas told The Disney Blog, “’If this makes people smile, then we’ve done our job.’”

I certainly smiled.  Didn’t you?

ttfn!

The New Prince is Born!

It isn’t every day that a young prince is born, you know.

One of Walt’s most celebrated classics, Bambi celebrates its 71st anniversary today!

Who doesn’t love the memorable animated classic about a young deer’s journey through life, love, and loss? 

To celebrate, here are some of my favorite moments from the film.  Of course, it would be best to just link to the entire film, but I can’t – even so, I included many moments below!

"My little Bambi..."
GIF from cocolamimi.tumblr

The Great Prince of the Forest.
This was always basically my favorite part as a child.
Image from owlcaps.tumblr



That moment when we know they are
going to be best friends.
GIF from stuffuwanttosee.com

Just look at that face!
GIF from noliesjustlove26.tumblr

Bunny attack!
GIF from bitterstar88.tumblr

Cuteness overload.
GIF from whatshouldglotzbachcallme.tumblr

Bambi's face.  Lol.
GIF from gif-able.tumblr

GIF from Oh My Disney

Bird or butterfly?
GIF from a-less-ordinary-life.tumblr

Thumper's so cute when he's being smart.
GIF from doesnfit.tumblr



We are introduced to Flower, who is probably
the sweetest little skunk you will ever meet.
GIF from rejpmi.tumblr

The start of one of the most amazing pieces
of animation, I think.
This GIF and the one below both from
heckyeahdisneygifs.tumblr

Simply breathtaking.  Imagine the hours put in.

And of course, Bambi's first meeting with Faline.
GIF from laurawrasaurus.tumblr.com

Bambi meets his father for the first time.
Image from owlcaps.tumblr

Bambi discovers snow...so cute!
GIF and GIF below both from magda-lennah.tumblr

 

 

And Bambi learns about death.
Image from the Disney Wiki.



Ahh, the "twitterpated" scene never failed to make me laugh!
Image from nicetry-stephenfry.tumblr

Friend Owl explains about twitterpated-ness.
Adults now, Bambi, Thumper, and Flower all declare they
will never become twitterpated.
GIF from capturing-kawaii.tumblr

But Flower is the first to fall in love.
Image from onemystery.tumblr

And then Thumper...
GIF from miamikkelsen.tumblr

 

Followed by Bambi, of course, after
he receieves a kiss from Faline.
This GIF and the following one
are both from laurawrasaurus.tumblr



After defeating a rival buck, Bambi proves his love to Faline.

"Two of them!"
Image and one below both from the Disney Wiki.

Aw, the tears, the tears!
"I just love happy endings." - Flora

Happy birthday to Bambi and all the rest of his forest friends!

See you all real soon!

Disney Animation News from D23!

So this past weekend, I was up north at my grandma’s house.  But over in California, something else, something much more amazing, was happening.

The D23 Expo.

For those of you who don’t know, D23 is the ultimate Disney fan club, and they now have free membership by the way!  (Which for some reason, I cannot seem to be able to buy, and it’s really frustrating me to no end.)

Now, a lot happens at the D23 Expo, so I’m not going to cover it all.  But I am going to cover what I think is one of the most important events: the animation panel.  This is when Disney reveals the upcoming animated films, which for me is very exciting.

So let’s dive in!

On Running Away and Loving Mickey Mouse

I am going to be posting a video and pictures soon featuring one of my dorm friends, Bridget.  But today, I’m going to talk about Bridget’s first roommate, who wanted to be anonymous.  But this friend and I are what you could call Mickey friends.

You see, she and I both absolutely adore Mickey Mouse, so we would often well, fangirl over him.  And because she loved Mickey so much, she was very accepting of my huge love for Disney.

So much that she printed these off for me on really nice photo paper.

Do not remove watermark.

Mickey Mouse or running away to Disney World.  I don’t know which is better.

Well, I guess Mickey Mouse is at Walt Disney World, so I suppose they go hand-in-hand.

See you all real soon!

A Life-Size WALL-E!

Okay, this is seriously one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

Video from YouTube.

I’m not geeky enough to understand all the technical building stuff, but McMasters’ WALL-E is simply spectacular!  Can you imagine all the dedication he had to go through to get the final robot?

I do want to point out that Disney Imagineers created an animatronic version of WALL-E, a lot like this one, and have had him appear at D23, but the fact that a regular guy created WALL-E basically just because he wanted to is amazing.  Wow!

Where can I buy one?

Or I guess, who wants to help me build one?

Interesting to note, I thought it was funny how Michael McMaster, when referring to WALL-E,  called it “the first movie”.  Possible hint?  Nah, I think it was just a honest mistake.

ttfn!

Presenting…Me! (Face Reveal!)

So because of a special contest entry I’m hoping to do with TDM, I had to ask The Beast to lift my face ban…just mine, not my siblings.

The result?

Get This Off My Chest...

(NOTE: Before you continue, read this post.  You won’t understand what I’m about to say (er, criticize) unless you read the post I'm linking to.)

At Comic-Con this year, ABC announced that their hit TV series Once Upon a Time will return for its third season and revealed a preview trailer, which you can view below.

Both videos are from YouTube.

ABC also showed a clip at Comic-Con verifying that a certain ginger mermaid will appear in the series…

I don’t want to repeat my beliefs about Once Upon a Time as I previously stated them in this post, but I’m not happy with this decision for four basic reasons.

Earlier Version of “The Sword in the Stone”

A few hours ago, USA Today released an exclusive video on their website which shows a glimpse into an alternative opening to Disney’s The Sword and the Stone.

As The Sword and the Stone is being released to DVD and Blu-ray for it’s 50th anniversary this year, Disney decided it was time to show us just how different the film might have started out being….

Here’s the video they posted showing an alternative opening.

Video from Usatoday.com article.

And for those of you who have forgotten, here’s the original opening leading up to Wart’s mission into the forest.

Video from YouTube.

What do you think of the alternative opening?  I personally find it interesting – Madam Mim appears slotted to be an even bigger antagonist than she is in the final version.  And the mentioned black knight… Was he changed to the random stranger at the end of the film? 

Your thoughts?

ttfn!