Disney’s Miramax Label is No More
The offices of Disney’s Miramax label closed in New York and LA over the weekend, according to The Canadian Press. Although the offices have closed, there are about six films left to be distributed from the Miramax label by Disney through 2011. After that, it is not clear if Disney will hang on to the label or sell it. If they go for the latter option, one of the front runners would be Bob and Harvey Weinstein (who came up with the company’s name by combining their parents’ first names, Miriam and Max) from whom Disney bought Miramax in 1993 for $80 million.
Mother of Monorail Driver Sues Disney
The mother of Austin Wueenenberg (21) who was killed in July 2009 after a crash involving two monorails at Walt Disney World, has filed a lawsuit against the Disney company.
Christinie Wuennenberg claims that Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Inc., her son’s employer, was responsible for his death because of negligent conduct.
The NTSB report on the incident stated that the crash happened when a switch failed to change position. According to WESH2 news, a number of negligent activities were at fault resulting in the crash including Disney knowing the front (and rear) of monorails were unable to protect against a head-on collision; the MAPO safety alert system being disengaged and drivers not occupying the rear of the monorail (an apparent safety procedure that is required when the MAPO system is off-line), and the supervisor in charge of the area was not on-site, rather in a nearby restaurant.
Both OSHA and the National Transportation Safety Board have said that the switch did not happen properly, and that they found no evidence of mechanical error in the equipment involved.
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Disney’s ESPN In Talks About Streaming Live Video On Xbox
The New York Times is reporting that Microsoft and Disney have had ‘in-depth talks’ about streaming ESPN content to the Xbox 360. Sources have indicated that ESPN could provide live streams of events, like what is available on ESPN 360, to Xbox users including interactive games about the event.
Netcot #157 – VIDEO – Top 7 Differences between Disneyland and Disney World
Netcot takes a look at the top 7 differences between the Disneyland resort in California and the Walt Disney World resort in Florida.
This video is available in the normal Netcot Podcast feed in iTunes and also available at YouTube.
Hannah Montana to End
Hannah Montana, star of the hit Disney Channel Series, will sing her swan song at the end of the fourth season, The New York Post reports. The 3rd season will conclude in March with an episode titled “Is Miley Saying Goodbye?” with the fourth season ending sometime in early 2011.
Top 7 Stories of 2009
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.
Marvel-Disney Merger Approved
Marvel shareholders approved the merger with Disney. Back in August, it was announced that The Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Entertainment Inc. for about $4 billion in cash and stock bringing 5000+ characters. Disney indicated that Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share plus 0.745 in Disney shares for every Marvel share they have.
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Captain EO is Returning to…
It’s official. Disneyland has announced that Captain EO (starring Michael Jackson) will return to Walt’s first theme park for a limited engagement. Beginning in February of 2010, the 3D film can be found in Tomorrowland. ”Honey, I Shrunk the Audience” is scheduled to go down sometime in the next few weeks to make way for Captain EO.
Netcot #155 – Untouchables
News, stories and links featured in this week’s show:
- Disney CEO Bob Iger says that some of the deep Marvel characters might make their way to DisneyXD or the web as a test before making it to a feature film.
- Disney’s “Princess and the Frog” is doing well as the only 2D style film since 2004.
- A Mass. woman stole $1.2 million from her employer and used it to furnish a lavish lifestyle including trips to Walt Disney World.
- Patrick Disney Miller was arrested on suspicion of illegal gun possession.
- New carts are appearing at Disneyland’s Downtown Disney.
- Disneyland Paris’ Downtown Disney will soon get an Earl of Sammich.
- Link to the video trailer for the new Disney “Sourcer’s Apprentice” movie.
Note from Van:
THANK YOU to everyone who visited my article on theinfoboom.com – especially to those of you who joined the chat and posted a response. The article was a huge success and I’m very thankful to each of you for your help!
Disney’s Magic Makers: Roy E. Disney
Roy Edward Disney was born to Roy Oliver Disney and Edna Francis Disney in Los Angeles on January 10, 1930 (and is their sole child). As a child, he traveled to the Studio where he viewed the films the animators were working on (i.e. “Snow White”, “Pinocchio”) and acted as a sounging board to his father’s (and his uncle’s) workers. He graduated in 1951 from Pomona College with a Bachelor’s degree in English. Once out of college, he returned to the entertainment industry as an assistant film director on “Dragnet” before returning to the Walt Disney Studios in 1954.
Once back at the Studios, he worked on “The Living Desert” and “The Vanishing Prarie” (two True-Life Adventure films that won Academy Awards) as an assistant editor. He continued writing and working on television series like “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color” as well as “Zorro”.
He formed his own production unit in 1964 to write, produce, and direct other television and theatrical productions (i.e. “Varda, the Peregrine Falcon”, “Mustang!”, “The Owl That Didn’t Give a Hoot”) before joining the Company’s Board of Directors in 1967.
He left the company in 1977 (after 23 years with the Studios) to become an independent producer/investor because he didn’t agree with the direction of the company. However, he still retained his seat on the board of directors.
In 1984, Roy used his swagger on the Board to oust his cousin’s husband (Ron Miller) and brought in Michael Eisner as CEO and Frank Wells as COO. In this same year, he became the Vice Chairman and head of the animation department (where he oversaw “The Little Mermaid”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Lion King”, and most of the Golden Age films). His favorite movie ever to oversee was Fantasia 2000-the long awaited sequel to his uncle’s Fantasia.
While Disney was head of animation, his department was extremely successful. He also had enormous power over most of his colleagues (even Eisner) which allowed his department to have some artistic freedom.
Towards the end of Eisner’s reign, Disney’s influence started to wane as Eisner appointed high posts to “Suits” that were more loyal to him, not the Disney family. On November 30, 2003, Disney resigned from the company (after the board of directors rejected his request for an extenstion of his term as a board member) based on differences of opinion about the management style and direction within the company.
After his resignation, Disney continued to actively work on forcing out Eisner as CEO (he and Stanley Gold created SaveDisney.com). In 2004, 43% of Disney shareholders voted to oppose the re-election of Eisner to the corporate board of directors, but he retained the CEO title (much to Disney and Gold’s dismay). As criticism against him increased (especially for being dissatisfied with PIXAR), Eisner annouced his resignation from the company on September 30, 2005. To this day, Eisner still holds 1.7% of Disney stock (2nd largest owner) while Roy Disney holds 1% (the 3rd largest owner).
Roy Disney and Stanley Gold have become the Chair and CEO (respectively) of Shamrock Holdings which manages Disney’s personal investments. Disney is also a well known sailor (he set the monohull time record from Los Angeles to Honolulu with 7 days, 11 hours, 41 minutes, 27 seconds) and produced the film “Morning Light”.
Roy E. Disney was named a Disney Legend in 1998 and lost his battle with cancer on Dec. 16, 2009.
{Author’s Note: Upon the news that Roy E. Disney had passed away, I found it only appropriate to learn more about his life. We’ll resume our look at some comic strip artists next week}
Roy E. Disney Passes Away at 79
Roy Edward Disney, son of Roy O. and nephew of Walt, who led two revolutions that changed the company has passed away at the age of 79. Roy E. started as a director of nature films with the Disney Company before taking an administrative position after his uncle and father died, but was declined. He quit the company in 1977, but remained on the board of directors. He successfully de-throned Ron Miller and Michael Eisner, both whom he thought were ruining the Disney image as CEOs.
A more detailed biography of Roy E. Disney can be found here.
More Monorail Troubles for Walt Disney World
Last night a computer issue on the express monorail track left a monorail stuck between the Transportation and Ticket Center and the Contemporary Resort and took about 30 minutes to repair. The train had to be towed to the next stop along the beamway. This comes just three days after a major power outage knocked out the monorails and stranded 300 guests on the trains.
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News, trivia and fun related to the Walt Disney Company, Disney Parks (Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland).
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