My Disney Blog

Disney Says Yes to Hulu

What a huge day for the Walt Disney Company, as they have just bought into the website called Hulu.com. Not sure if you have been to this site, but it is quickly becoming one of my favorite sites. The Washington Post notes that Hulu is rapidly inching up on the number 2 video site on the web, and has been growing rapidly. It is interesting, because it is a site that has always had profitability as a major component. Rather than building the site for the consumer, and then figuring out a way to monetize it, Hulu sought to quickly build the best video player it could (satisfying the customer), providing great content (satisfying the customer), and providing an ad solution that has a very high success rate (satisfying the companies that advertise and the studios that own Hulu). So far, the sites investors include News Corp (Fox content), NBC and now Disney/ABC.
 
The Washington Post notes that Hulu may be on its way to becoming a dominant force in the video streaming realm, although it still has a ways to go to catch up with YouTube. The Post indicates "Hulu streamed an estimated 380 million videos in March in the U.S., compared to 5.9 billion for YouTube." Pretty hard to believe, but with word-of-mouth and excellent content, Hulu is on a good road. YouTube has had a hard time figuring out how to monetize their model, and has been trying to integrate paid content, ads and studio work to help pay for their enormous bandwidth and storage costs.

The Los Angeles Times states:
Disney will offer full-length episodes of its most popular prime-time shows from its ABC network, including "Lost," "Grey's Anatomy," and "Desperate Housewives," as well as such cable offerings such as ABC Family's "Secret Life of the American Teenager" and Disney Channel's "Wizards of Waverly Place." It will also provide older episodes from ABC's library, such as "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" and "Dancing with the Stars."

So, three cheers for Disney/ABC tonight on their latest investment. As a proud Disney stockholder, I think it's a great thing. I would love to see more Disney/ABC programming online. I don't often watch TV, since DisneyDean is always on the Internet :) - so this would be great for me to have on in the background. I know some of this content is already available from the Disney and/or ABC websites, but it would be available on a combined platform with a terrific video interface.

How about you? Do you think this is a great investment for Disney? Do you think there are other opportunities that Disney could explore instead? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments section!

For more information on this breaking news story, check out the following articles:

Washington Post
Los Angeles Times
Wall Street Journal
Financial Times

--- Disney Dean

Friday April 24 2009: Magic Kingdom Update

Well, it was another bubbly magical day at the Magic Kingdom!! It started out at Buzz Lightyear, where I was a greeter. While there, I would fill the land with bubbles. The next location I went to was Monsters "photocell," where I would greet the humans as they would be entering into the Monsters world!! The next location I was at was Monsters "greeter," where i was again filling the land with bubbles. Suddenly, I heard a very unhappy princess who was unhappy because her mom had gone into the Stitch attraction and she was too short. So I walked over to her stroller/mobile throne and she was looking at me like "what are you gonna do." So, I started blowing bubbles and she stopped crying and she had a smile from ear to ear. Mom and grandma had bigger smiles. See you in the most magical place on earth. John aka the crazydisneydancer

--- CrazyDisneyDancer

CrazyDisneyDancer works in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom and is a guest author at MyDisneyBlog.com. We are so happy to have John here!! 
 

Walt Disney World Resort Now on the iPhone & iPod touch

I received some information on the following "notescast" the other day, and thought it sounded interesting. I don't have an iPod or an iPhone, but I know lots of people out there do. Thought this might be interesting information for you.

Now guests of Walt Disney World Resort can access a powerful new vacation planning and in-park guide on their iPhone or iPod touch.  At over 200 pages, including over 150 photos, they now can have all of Walt Disney World Resort in the palm of their hand wherever they go and whenever they want.

Portland, OR – TimeStream Software announces the release of the powerful new “Walt Disney World” Notescast® for the iPhone and iPod touch.

With over 200 pages of information, over 150 photos, and rich in-depth content, the new Walt Disney World Notescast is a comprehensive vacation planner and in-park guide covering nearly every aspect of the entire resort and all four theme parks, including the Magic Kingdom®, Epcot®, Disney’s Animal Kingdom®, Disney’s Hollywood Studios™ and more.

Now available from the Apple App Store, the new Walt Disney World Notescast contains a wealth of categories, including:

*  118 Walt Disney World Attractions
*  Walt Disney World Annual Events
*  Walt Disney World – Explore the Magic
*  Walt Disney World Parades
*  Walt Disney World Resorts
*  Walt Disney World Tickets
*  Walt Disney World Phone Numbers
*  Walt Disney World Tips
*  Walt Disney World Tours
*  Walt Disney World Vacation Packages
*  Disney's Magical Express
*  How to Plan Your Vacation
*  Hidden Mickey Tours
*  The History of Walt Disney World
*  Find Disney Characters
*  Guests with Disabilities
*  Vacation Planning Tips
*  What's New
*  What's Coming
*  And much more!

“This Notescast contains a phenomenal amount of valuable information.”, said Mike Westby of TimeStream Software.  “From in-depth descriptions of every attraction and the history of Walt Disney World, to phone numbers and even Hidden Mickey tours, I think users will be very pleased with the quality and value we included in this Notescast title.”

The Walt Disney World Notescast for the iPhone and iPod touch is available at the App Store. The Walt Disney World Notescast is also available for the iPod Classic, iPod 5th Generation and iPod nano at www.Notescasts.com.

You'll have to let me know your experiences with this! It sounds great, and it might just give me a reason to buy an iPod :)

Here is a screenshot of the notescast:

--- Disney Dean

The Great Green Challenge

Boy, did I ever drop the ball on this one! A while back, I received an email from Disney Family.com asking me if I would consider posting the following information. I was so excited to post this, but somehow I goofed up. The deadline for submissions is April 30th, which only leaves you a few days, but hopefully you will be able to participate in this if you haven't already. Come on Disney fans - I know you must have done something innovative in 'being green'!

Disney Family.com is asking for people to submit the most innovative way they are going green to The Great Green Challenge for a chance to win a vacation for four to Costa Rica!  Whether they have started a neighborhood recycling program or devote Saturday to collecting trash and planting trees, Disney Family.com wants to know about it.
 
The trip includes:

·         Airfare to and from San Jose, Costa Rica
·         Accommodations for 7 nights
·         A guided canopy and canyoning tour
·         Entrance to national parks and reserves
·         Canoe excursion with gear
 
In addition, two first prize winners will each win a $500 gift certificate to REI, the outdoor-store. It’s all part of Disney Family’s new ‘green a little, save a lot’ site, where you’ll find inexpensive and quick tips on going green, green must-haves for moms, a quiz on the impact of your carbon footprint, advice on when to buy organic and more.
 
To enter, visit the contest page and submit a photo of your great, green idea along with a description of the activity by April 30th.

--- Disney Dean

Ken Annakin Passes Away

Ken Annakin, a British director whose films include "Swiss Family Robinson" and other Disney classics has died at the age of 94, according to the Los Angeles Times Obituary. For Disney, Annakin directed The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men in 1952, followed by "The Sword and The Rose" the following year and "Third Man on the Mountain" in 1959 before helming Swiss Family in 1960. It's very sad that another classical Disney director has passed away, and what a fantastic film Swiss Family was! 

Anyway, I won't get too far into the story, but you can find more information at the following resources:

Los Angeles Times Obituary
Animation World Network

It is wonderful that his work will live on for generations, but so sad that another great Disney person has passed on.

--- Disney Dean 

Disney Hawaii Resort Update

KHON - channel 2 in Honolulu is reporting that Disney is there, and ready to stay on Oahu. The new development, under construction at the Ko Olina section of Oahu, is expected to be part hotel, part Disney Vacation Club, with 350 hotel rooms, and 480 vacation villas. Despite some concern from area residents about the state of the economy, Disney officials recently met to assure residents that they are very serious about their upcoming 22 acre resort.

According to the KHON2 story,
“It’s my time to let people know that we are here, we are proud members of the community and we're excited about the project finally getting started,” Disney Vacation Club vice president Djuan Rivers said.

Disney is promising a good deal of jobs, including some career-track opportunities at the resort, and across the globe. They are expecting to employ 1000 employees during the construction, and another 1000 at the resort property.

So, if you want to get an update on the new resort, head on over to the KHON2 article. Be sure to watch the video of the news story from KHON - some great imagery in the video.

--- Disney Dean

Boston Herald Earth Article

Just finished reading a very nice article from Stephen Schaefer of the Boston Herald, entitled "Disney's 'earth' covers old ground in new way." I think the article is really nice, and does a good job explaining the main premise and the potential impact of the movie. I am very hopeful for the future of Disneynature, and I really hope it is a good week for Earth.

I was also very excited to see that they've included MyDisneyBlog's YouTube trailer in the article! More than 50,000 people have viewed this trailer, and it just goes to show that nature films can go 'mainstream'. Anyway, check out the article at the Boston Herald.

Jake Brewer of the Huffington Post also included MyDisneyBlog's YouTube clip, and he has written a great article on Earth. Click here to go to Jake's article on the HuffingtonPost.com

--- Disney Dean

Disneynature's Earth OPENS TODAY

YAY - today is the big day! After a long wait, Disneynature's Earth opens today, April 22nd, 2009. Here's hoping people fill the movie theaters, and that Disneynature thrives! Like I said yesterday, I won't be able to see it today (in Kansas City at a class without a car), but I will hopefully get to see it this weekend! Remember, Disney will plant a tree in your honor if you see it opening weekend.

I know you may have seen some of the footage already in the Planet Earth series, but there is some new footage in Earth that wasn't in the Planet Earth series. ALSO, the big screen is an entirely different medium, and at the movie theater, you are more likely to really get the message that they're trying to tell because you are a 'captive audience'.

Anyway, congratulations to Disneynature on your first full length film, and best of luck on a phenomenal open!!!

--- Disney Dean

Interview with Earth Directors

A few weeks back, I was lucky enough to be on a conference call with Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, the co-directors of Disneynature's film entitled Earth. It was such a blast, and I actually gathered up the guts to ask them a question. I was sooo nervous! Anyway, I promised that I would release the official transcript of my question to the directors, and here it is!

Moderator                 
When I introduce the following participants, please follow up with your outlet.  Our next question comes from Disney Dean.  Your outlet, please?

Disney Dean
Yes, thank you.  My outlet is MyDisneyBlog.com.  Obviously I’m a huge Disney fan, Walt Disney fan especially, and then the classics and vintage Disney.  My question is, how did Walt Disney’s original films play into the methodology of how this film was designed, if it indeed did, and did you go back and look through the historical Walt Disney nature films?
 
Mark Linfield                 
Both Alastair and I were mad keen natural history nuts from a very young age, and I certainly know in my case that I remember watching some of those early true life adventures of … Perri the Squirrel, and a few of those early ones.  And I think, in so far as they were involved in enthusing me and certainly setting me on the path to becoming a wildlife filmmaker, they were involved.
 
I think that the early Disney stuff wasn’t directly involved in the shaping of this movie from a directing point of view.  But what we are both delighted about is clearly has led to the release of this new label after 60 years, I think the first new label in 60 years, and we’re so thrilled because we absolutely believe that the big screen is the place for natural history.  And as much as Alastair and I love making wildlife television, really if you want to transport people to the environments in which we film and give them a sense of what it’s like to be there, a sense of just the thrill it is to be watching some of these great things that we manage to film on earth, you absolutely need a big screen and surround sound and 90 uninterrupted minutes in which to achieve that.  
 
The fact that Disney has done this sort of quite brave thing, which is returning to their original heritage and releasing this new label to give us all a forum for putting natural history on the big screen, it was just wonderful for us, and we can’t wait to do more.  

Disney Dean 
Thanks, guys!

That concludes the transcript for the question that I answered. I was incredibly impressed by Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield. I wish I could have made it to the premier, but I had to work. Thanks so much for the invite and the opportunity!!!

--- Disney Dean

Earth Starts Tomorrow

I am just like a kid in a candy store (or a grown up in a candy store in my case), as the long wait is finally over for the launch of Disneynature's Earth. I have been waiting so long to see this. I can't believe the day has finally come (Wednesday, April 22nd). Unfortunately, I am in Kansas City with no car (at a training class), so I don't think I'll be able to see it right away. BUT, just knowing that it is finally out, and that people are enjoying it all over the country - makes me very, very happy. My first introduction to this movie was in the fall, when a Disney representative emailed me some very preliminary information. I was so excited, as I grew up watching the nature films that Disney used to create. I have watched the excitement grow for this movie, and it is gaining mainstream appeal.

Are you excited to see this movie? Be sure to go out in the first week, as Disney will be planting trees for each ticket sold (500,000 plus!).

For more information, check out the Earth homepage. Or, check out the official trailer on YouTube. Be sure to click HD once you get to the trailer if you have a high speed Internet connection - it will blow you away. Long live James Earl Jones!!

Would love to know what you think about the movie, and if you plan to see it!

--- Disney Dean