hello-kitty-virus-protection-thumb-200x219.jpgYesterday at Boing Boing Gadgets, we dreamed of hordes of puppy sized robots to mow our lawns and glass ray guns for smoking spacey drugs. As a belated head nod to the fourth of July, we looked at fireworks packaging aimed at toddlers.

The problems with ebook readers were discussed, while Brownlee proved completely incompetent at using a hot rod style espresso maker, ultimately perambulating off to Dunkin' Donuts while muttering "Go to hell, Europe" under his breath.

Joel was impressed by the symbolic gesture of putting even inefficient and expensive solar panels on a Toyota Prius; Rob discovered an eBay slot machine.

Beschizza dismissed a dreadful MacBook Pro rumor with a single, well chosen word, then used a grocery store advertisement to prove why Apple wouldn't redesign the MBP radically. Meanwhile, the Wall-E GameCube mod was utterly gorgeous, and XBMC for the Mac is coming along swimmingly, even under its new name, Plex.

Finally, we marveled over Darth Vader bobbleheads, NES cartridges that can play themselves and Hello Kitty virus protectors.

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If you’ve seen WALL-E then hopefully you’ve also seen the delightfully wacky short that proceeded it–Presto! Well, you’ll be happy to hear that it’s now available to buy on iTunes along with a host of other Pixar and Disney animated shorts.
Presto

Originally posted on The Disney Blog.

Pixar’s short film Presto now on iTunes

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Sound design of Wall-E

July 8, 2008    Category: Uncategorized   No Comments »

It's a promotional video but interesting all the same - Ben Burtt, famed sound designer of the Star Wars series, created the sonic world of Pixar's Wall-E. The video even shares a bit of his acoustic sources @ 1.5min in.

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Disney News Link Roundup

July 8, 2008    Category: 0 Disney Pipe   No Comments »

Here’s a quick Disney news roundup, this time it’s the “I should be sleeping edition”:

  • Disneyland Resort has a hero on its staff. A scenic painter rescued a truck driver from a crash and then reported to work covered in fuel and cuts and bruises of his own? Read what Disney’s response was.
  • Wil Wheaton has an interesting reaction to the coming closure of Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. ST:TE has been remarked upon by some of Disney’s top Imagineers as the best non-Disney attraction out there.
  • MSNBC has a great story on WALL-E and EVE’s cousins of today and the near future.
  • After suspending Security Guard Edwin Sotomayor, Disney has now officially fired him for bringing a firearm in his car. Well more accurately for interferring with an investigation, but I’m sure Edwin doesn’t feel there is a difference.

Originally posted on The Disney Blog.

Disney News Link Roundup

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Editor’s Note: I’d like to welcome Jenn (aka Sleeping Beauty’s Sister (@SBSister)) to The Disney Blog. She’s kicking off a new column that will cover the ever growing world of Disney Fan Podcasts. We look forward to your feedback.

This Week on the BIG 3!!

Lou makes his BIG announcement on WDWRadio. Ricky shows his dark side on Inside the Magic. And Paul gets quick, wet and bare- err bear on A Window to the Magic. All this and more on This Week on the Big 3!

This week we re-join our intrepid adventurer, Lou Mongello, for another trip around the WDWRadio dial. George Taylor from ImagiNERDing.com joins Lou to discuss 3 more books for the Disney geek library. The underlying theme of the books is Disney Theme Park architecture. Designing Disney’s Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance is a compilation of various articles put together by Carol Ann Marlin. Designing Disney was written by the venerable John Hench. Building a Dream: The Art of Disney Architecture was written by Beth Dunlop. For a complete run down check out Lou and George’s discussion this week on the show.

In keeping with the Adventure theme, Lou is joined by the Disney fan communities answer to Indiana Jones, Steve Barrett from HiddenMickeysGuide.com. Steve and Lou discuss some fun Hidden Mickeys in Adventureland, including two very intriguing ones on Pirates. To hear all the details be sure to check out this week’s episode. Here’s a fun one Steve mentioned from Toy Story Mania (yeah, I know, not in Adventureland but you’ve gotta listen to the show for those), in the queue on the wall down by the floor look for our pal Mickey in purple paint.

And finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for, Lou’s BIG announcement. In honor of the release of Lou’s newest Audio Guide to WDW, Lou is launching the Adventureland Challenge on July 21st. For all the dirty details be sure to check out this week’s episode but here’s a sneak peek. There will be three rounds of play, each more challenging than the one before. Only 25 will advance too Round 2 with three from those 25 going on to Round 3. The Ultimate Adventurer will win a Grand Prize that you have to hear to believe! I can definitely say that I was amazed at all the goodies involved.

Be sure to check out WDWRadio # 74 for more on these great topics.

Next we turn to Inside the Magic. It’s apparent to me that Ricky may have had a bad holiday weekend. If there could be a Grinch of the 4th of July, Ricky may have taken the title with this week’s show.

We jump right into the News from Around the World. Florida has decided that it’s OK for you to keep your pistol locked in your car while you’re at work. Hmm, a gun in a vehicle out at the employee parking lot. A long hot walk to the employee lot, Is that going to stop a disgruntled Pooh from getting his gun and sending people on many adventures to the ER? I don’t think so. Personally, I’m glad Walt Disney World found a loophole to get around it. Monorail Red has started its regular service. Monorail Blue is in testing. I say, what about Monorail Fuchsia? Let’s give the girls something fun.

Now, what about the dark side you may be asking? Well, here goes. Ricky delights us with his review of the new Disney-Pixar movie Wall-E. To say that he didn’t like it is a HUGE understatement. I get the impression he may have left his heart at home. How could anyone not love Wall-E in some way? He wanted to love it but according to Ricky; “It was a fantasy-romance movie disguised as a sci-fi movie. Where’s the movie the trailers were advertising?” Uh, on the screen in front of you. He found the characters, animation, plot and love story were totally lost on him. On a positive note, the end credits and the musical score were the best. He made no mention of the short before the movie. I guess little Presto escaped the boiling pot. To hear more of Ricky’s review check out this week’s show.

The biggest controversy on ITM this week would have to be Ricky’s discussion about the closing of Pleasure Island with Paul Barrie from Window to the Magic. In a nutshell, Ricky says “Good Riddance” and Paul screams “NO!!” Paul made a valiant attempt to persuade Ricky that the Adventurer’s Club should be saved. Ricky did agree to go see it before it closed, but didn’t sound too serious about it. I personally have not been to the Adventurer’s Club myself but it’s quite obvious how much fun this place is. Paul’s ideas for saving it are good ones. Of course, I won’t give them away. You know where to find them.

This week’s ITM ends with a short interview with the guys from Backstage Pass and an even shorter Cruisin’ the World, some listener feedback and a quick discussion about the video of the week. I usually find Inside the Magic enjoyable, Backstage Pass and Cruisin’ the World are my favorite segments. This week it seems someone may have dosed Ricky’s holiday beverage with an ugly pill.

And last but most definitely not least, WTTM 1-5-5. (I love when Paul says that.)

In true Window to the Magic fashion we start our audio adventure at Magic Kingdom on the Hillbilly Hill Climb Meet at MouseFest ‘07. We join Paul, Tairy and the LTAD crew on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. There’s no need to wonder if Jana is having a good time. Do you get the impression Paul is not to terribly thrilled to be on Splash Mountain? Needless to say a lot of hilarity ensues. Does Paul escape the deluge? Tune into the show to find out.

After a brief intermission we re-join Paul at The Great Grizzly Hunt, the meet Window to the Magic hosted at MouseFest ‘07. We get to enjoy a sweet moment between Paul and his best girl Tairy, aww. Then it’s on to the show. Did the cast member say what I think she said? Does Paul realize he’s repeating the show verbatim? Who won the trivia challenge? (Ok, that question isn’t answered but I needed a third.) His enthusiasm for his favorite attraction enhances the audio piece and proves yet again how much Paul loves those darn Bears. Listening to the audio from The Country Bears reminds me of the last time I saw it. What a sad state of disrepair that attraction is in. I truly hope Disney rehabs it soon.

And then, just as the audio ends and you expect the soothing sounds of Nature’s Wonderland, your ears are assaulted by the overacting of Jonathan Dichter as he plugs the latest All About the Mouse. Yikes!! I don’t enjoy Surrounding Myself with His Theatrics. All in all Paul’s show is exactly what you expect from him; lots of great park audio, put together by someone who loves his craft. It’s the main reason Window to the Magic is one of my favorite shows.

And so this first edition of This Week on the BIG 3 comes to an end. Have questions or comments feel free to contact me. Tune to The Disney Blog to see what the BIG 3 have in store for us next week. Until then, See Ya Real Soon!

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Originally posted on The Disney Blog.

The Disney Fan Podcast Review

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The El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood is the pinnacle of the Disney movie watching experience. It is old Hollywood meets new, with restorations to both the exterior and interior, and equipped with Dolby SR-D digital sound, film and digital projectors, and 3-D capability. It is a Disney stage production. It is excellent ice cream. What’s not to love?

The El Capitan is located in the heart of Hollywood, right across the street from the Kodak Theatre- you know, the Academy Awards place. It originally opened in 1926 as “Hollywood’s First Home of Spoken Drama.” In the ten years following its opening it featured over 100 stage productions starring the likes of Will Rogers, Joan Fontaine and Clark Gable. In 1941 Citizen Kane made its World Premiere at the El Capitan Theatre. Basically, the place has history.

Then there is the ice cream. Disney’s Soda Fountain and Studio Store features an old fashioned ice cream parlor (with actual soda jerks!) serving Bakersfield’s famous Dewar’s and homemade candies. They also make a mean peanut butter and jelly sandwich (Mickey-shaped, of course).

The store portion is basically a small Disney Store with DVDs and character merchandise, but with a strong emphasis, including theming, on the film currently featured in the adjacent theatre.

We saw WALL-E (my review here, and my kids’ review here).

One of the cool things about the theatre is that they overlay everything to fit the movie, and by everything I mean from the marquee to the ATM (it was space-themed, not a robot). This is carried next door into the ice cream parlor where my son and I shared a WALL-E sundae, and by share I mean I had two bites and he went into a sugar-fueled eating frenzy (see above).

For WALL-E the El Capitan teamed with NASA and JPL. The lobby was decorated in models and information regarding various satellites, robotics, and other milestones of space exploration. It was out of this world (sorry, I couldn’t resist). WALL-E runs through August 27th.

Prior to WALL-E there was a live stage show that incorporated scenes from classic Disney/Pixar movies into dance numbers featuring the characters from the corresponding films. The show is called “Disney’s Flight of Fantasy” and the crowd went wild.

My family and I had a blast and I can’t recommend the experience enough. If you’re visiting for a Disneyland Resort vacation you should really consider adding this to your itinerary, and if you’re local you’ll appreciate this: clean bathrooms in Hollywood. That’s the Disney touch.

Upcoming shows include Sleeping Beauty, TinkerBell, Beverly Hills Chihuahua (Chihuahua!), The Nightmare Before Christmas (3-D), High School Musical 3: Senior Year, and Bolt (3-D).

You can call 1-800-DISNEY6 or visit www.elcapitantickets.com for tickets and information.

Originally posted on The Disney Blog.

Disney’s El Capitan Theatre, Hollywood

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One NY Times columnist, in his opinion piece “WALL-E For President“, believes the film should be required viewing for all, especially for Presidential Candidates:

Mr. McCain should be required to see “Wall-E” to learn just how far adrift he is from an America whose economic fears cannot be remedied by his flip-flop embrace of the Bush tax cuts (for the wealthy) and his sham gas-tax holiday (for everyone else). Mr. Obama should see it to be reminded of just how bold his vision of change had been before he settled into a front-runner’s complacency. Americans should see it to appreciate just how much things are out of joint on an Independence Day when a cartoon robot evokes America’s patriotic ideals with more conviction than either of the men who would be president.

Ouch. But if the shoe fits.

Btw, WALL-E rolled into second place at the box office this weekend with an additional $33.5 million. That brings his domestic box office total to $128 million and well on the path to a $200 million domestic total and $400 million overseas, which is just above average for a Pixar flick these days.

Way to go WALL-E!

(via CartoonBrew)

Originally posted on The Disney Blog.

How Important Is WALL-E?

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Even more WALL-E News

July 3, 2008    Category: The Disney Portal   No Comments »

Experts are predicting the 4th of July holiday weekend box office to be huge as families choose to stay close to home instead of taking the traditional road trip. The Will Smith superhero flick “Hancock” is predicted to do over $100 million for the holiday weekend. Pixar’s WALL-E looks likely to bring in $35 million. I plan to get out their and add my families $27 to the total.

Good stories about Pixar’s WALL-E continue to flow in. Remember that “I watch WALL-E” Youtube Video of the woman who cried while watching the the WALL-E trailer? Well the folks at Pixar saw that video too and were inspired by it. As thanks they sent a few gifts to her and invited her to the movie’s Wrap Party. How cool is that. She’s written up her experience on her blog. [ via Cinematical]

Remember that line from “The Incredibles” - “When everyone is special, no one is”. Columnist Paul Edwards sees elements of that same strong individualist message in WALL-E. Edwards takes an anti-liberal slant to his article, I think he might be confusing liberalism with lack of personal responsibility which can be found in every wash of life. There might be a few other facts wrong about the movie too.

Meanwhile, Christianity Today interviews Director Andrew Stanton about some of the religious themes in the movie. [ via CartoonBrew]

Cory Doctorow on BoingBoing humorously points out that WALL-E is a copyright criminal. Wait, wouldn’t the copyright have expired 700 years into the future? Maybe not if Disney gets its way in congress.

IO9, the sci-fi blog, has a long but somewhat pessimistic view of WALL-E in it’s review.

If you’re a fan of toys “Captain Toys” has reviewed a number of WALL-E Toys with more detail than you could possibly want.

Finally, Jason Kottke, whose opinion I find myself agreeing with alot, gave WALL-E a perfect 5.0 out of 5.0 rating.

Below the cut check out this great featurette on how close modern day robotics is to creating a real WALL-E.

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Originally posted on The Disney Blog.

Even more WALL-E News

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More WALL-E News

July 2, 2008    Category: 0 Disney Pipe   No Comments »

This film continues to stir up conversations. Here are a few of the best articles I’ve found recently.

By the way, I hearby predict the eventual opening of WALL-E World, a new theme park dedicated to the lonely robot in all of us. Of course it must be closed when the Griswold’s arrive.

Originally posted on The Disney Blog.

More WALL-E News

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Before we get down to business, can I indulge in a bit of shameless self promotion? Thanks. If you’re interested in my take on WALL-E, follow that link for my review.

Okay, now to tonight’s episode of The Mole.

Now that Victoria has left the show, I am completely in the dark as to who The Mole could be. So I am back to where I was in week one. Well, I do have one advantage. Now I’m trying to guess who it is from seven players instead of twelve.

Tonight’s episode opens in Lispallata, Argentina. (You’ve got to love a DVR to get details like how that is spelled.) The remaining players arrive at an abandoned train station where prisoners were chained together.

The seven players were chained by their ankles to bars behind them. There is enough slack that one person can reach the key in a cage opposite them. Every 10 minutes, they will have a one minute window to get the key. The person who gets the key can only free themselves. Once you are free, you get a nice bed, a warm fire, and good meal. If all the players leave, they get $25K for the pot. However, there is also an exemption card next to the key. If someone takes that, they get the exemption, but those still chained have to stay there over night and no money gets added to the pot.

Before we begin, I’ve got to say I hope Craig goes first since he’s cold and still sick. And Paul will grab that exemption card.

Shall we see if I’m right?

Well, Craig did use the health card and convinced everyone else to let him go first. True to his word, he took the key, unlocked himself, and split.

But things immediately fell apart after that. After bitter arguing, Clay was stretching out a sleeping bag. But eventually, Kristin was allowed to get the key during the next window.

Paul immediately starting campaigning to be next, swearing on his daughter he would take the key. He claimed this was the only time he could be trusted. And sure enough, after trying to fake them out by reaching toward the exemption, he did take the key.

The last four were starting to bicker. They don’t trust each other to not take the exemption after they have left. Heck, Mark was getting so bitter that Clay began to question their alliance. But he still went, as did Nicole.

So we were down to Mark and Alex. Alex went, leaving Mark, who no one was willing to trust, for last. All alone, he has to decide what he will do when the window goes up. And he took the key. Not only did no one take the exemption, but they did it in about an hour. I figured they’d be out there longer before everyone went. And I really did think Paul would sentence most everyone to stay out all night.

Instead, the pot gets $25K.

At this point, they did get new journals. That wasn’t enough to make Mark happy. But it did make the others happy.

From there, the team traveled to Mendoza, known as the Napa Valley of Argentina. Paul and Clay got into it during the driving there. I’m with Craig; this game is bringing out the worth in people. Craig switched cars, but at that point, Clay threw a lemon at Paul. At which point Clay and Kristin switched places.

Things haven’t improved the next morning. Paul is still mad, but Clay is trying to get beyond it. Craig isn’t feeling completely better, health wise, either, even though they are at a lower elevation in warmer weather.

The next mission involves traveling about 5 miles in 45 minutes to a statue in the middle of town. The seven players will be divided into teams of two. The odd person out is the transportation captain, and was chosen at breakfast. The first player to say the word exemption, which happened to be Craig, was the captain. He gets to divide them into teams and he gets to designate the teams’ mode of transportation.

And yes, there is an exemption on the line. If none of the teams get to the statue on time, then Craig gets one. Of course, no money is added to the pot.

Craig goes for the exemption and humor. In fact, he was upfront about that with everyone else. Here’s what he chose:

Alex - Conquistador leading a donkey.
Mark - Dressed in scuba including the flippers.

Clay - Unicycle
Kristen - Stilts

Nicole - Head of llama costume
Paul - Back of llama costume

No one was happy about that, but Nicole was extremely bitter.

Mark once again refused to try. And he led a mutiny, with Kristen right behind him. Alex wasn’t ready to give up, thinking there might be a twist along the way. No one would take responsibility for the decision once they made it and drove to the finish line, however. They also refused to admit that Craig earned that exemption. Frankly, I thought it he was trying to earn that exemption, he did it brilliantly. It wouldn’t have been impossible, but it would have been hard for any one team to make it there. It did make everyone furious with him, however.

Which leads us to the quiz. Once again tonight, there was a tie. The difference in time? One second.

Tonight’s victim was Kristen.

As I watched tonight, I tried to focus on who The Mole could be. And you know who I thought it might be? Kristen. Oops.

That leaves Nicole and five men. That will make for an interesting mix.

So I actually took the quiz tonight (before I found out who left, so I look like a fool) at abc.com. The majority of the people who took it seem to think Mark is The Mole. I think that’s too obvious. I would hope The Mole is more subtle than that. But I really don’t have a clear suspect at this point.

Any theories?

According to my TV Guide, The Mole is off for a week so that The Bachelorette can finish up. Assuming that is correct (and I plan to double check when it gets closer), we’ll see you in two weeks.

Mark

Originally posted on The Disney Blog.

The Mole: Traveling in Chains

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