NETCOT.com

As the final hours of 2009 and the decade pass by us, we here at Netcot.com wanted to share with you what we thought were the top stories (or news areas) of the year from around the Disney Company:

1) Transportation Woes

(July 17) Two WDW Buses collide. The driver of one bus failed to stop on time and ran into the other.

(July 6) Monorail Pink crashes into Monorail Purple. At 2 am, Monorail Pink was moving into the TTC when it ran into the Purple Monorail, which was stationary. The driver of the purple monorail was killed. After the crash, Disney made several changes to improve monorail safety and combined the two wrecked monorails into one: Monorail Teal.

(September 18) Bus system crippled by a bomb scare. After further inspection, it was revealed that the device was a tracking device that had been placed on the bus a number of years ago.

(September 30) Monorail system halted by smoke. After an electrical board short circuited at a platform in the Magic Kingdom Monorail Station, passengers were escorted off the train before the train was taken back to the Monorail Barn.

2) Company Expansion

(February 9) Disney acquired Dreamworks SKG. Under the deal with Steven Spielberg’s wing of Dreamworks, 6 films per year will be produced under the Touchstone films label.

(March 11) Disney Cruise Lines expanded its hold on the deep blue sea. Two new ships, the Disney Dream (which will host the water-coaster “Aquaduck”) and the Disney Fantasy, will be anchored in Port Canaveral from 2012 to 2014.

(May 14) Disney/PIXAR expanded into Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The new studio will focus on short films and non-feature products that feature previously established characters (a.k.a. legacy characters).

3) Memorable Deaths

(May 20) The 3rd voice of Mickey Mouse died. Wayne Allwine passes away at age 62.

(December 16) Walt Disney’s nephew, and savior of the Disney kingdom, died. Roy E. Disney passes away at age 79.

4) The Great Movie Update

(September 11) Disney wants to dare you and take you on a submarine ride. Guillermo del Toro and Richard Cook announce a new film label, Disney’s Double Dare You, that will be animated family films with a bit of horror mixed in. Robert Zemeckis will helm the 3D Performance Capture version of the Beatle’s classic Yellow Submarine.

(October 7) Disney trades in its management. In a strange twist of events, Richard Cook suddenly resigned from the Walt Disney Studios only to have Richard Ross (former President of the Disney Channel) promoted to the position (he’s already axed a number of projects that Cook had on the stove and has another few in limbo).

(December 18) Captain EO returns posthumously. Disney announced that the Captain EO film will be returning to Disneyland in the Magic Eye Theater.

5) Disney Parks & Resorts Expand

(August 4) The Contemporary Resort gets a sibling. After many months of rumors, Disney finally announced and opened Bay Lake Tower next to the Contemporary.

(September 16) The Swiss Family Robinson would be proud. After many years of being left alone, it was finally announced that the Treehouses near Saratoga Springs would be refurbished and turned into DVC Villas.

(September 12) The Fantasyland Expansion. Walt Disney World’s Fantasyland will be receiving a makeover much like Disneyland’s DCA is in the midst of a makeover. Both involve the placing of The Little Mermaid Ride, but WDW’s expansion will give each princess her own area. All classic rides will remain (save Dumbo which will increase its ride capacity). Both projects are set to be finished by 2012.

6) New Investments

(February 16) Disney tries to reel in young male viewers. In an interesting move, Disney replaced Toon Disney with Disney XD, a channel devoted to boys with shows like Aaron Stone and Zeke and Luther.

(April 2) Disney joins Youtube. They use the site to release trailers and other short-form features.

(April 16) Disney helps the blind see. With an innovative new device, people who are deaf can see captioned text of audio being spoken in rides and people who are blind can hear descriptions of rides.

(April 30) Disney buys into Hulu. With a 27% investment, Disney officially became a partner in the online video-streaming site. After the buy in, only CBS remains the main network to abstain from Hulu (NBC and Fox were two of the first partners).

(December 31) Disney powers up with Marvel. In the 4.3 billion dollar purchase, Disney has bought the rights to over 5000 characters (many of the more well known names are tangled up in contracts with Sony or Universal)

7) Strangest Story:

(May 28) Woman “abducted” to Walt Disney World. A Pennsylvania mother faked a call to 911 saying that she and her daughter were thrown in a car trunk when, in the real world, she dropped her daughter off with her mother and continued down to Orlando, where she checked into the Grand Floridian.