It seems most TV series can be watched online for free now, so why not also stream episodes of a program like ABC's Wonderful World of Disney? Sure each episode is actually a feature-length Disney-made film, but a TV show is a TV show. Fortunately, Disney seems to agree, as they're putting this summer's crop of WWoD films online for free. Typical of Disney, though, and unlike ABC.com's library of episodes, each film will only be available for a limited time. Basically, each title will screen on ABC on Saturday night, then it will be up on Disney.com (specifically the WWoD page) the following week, from Monday through Friday only. Currently, Finding Nemo, which appeared on WWoD June 7, is being offered.

Other movies on the schedule this summer include Monsters Inc., Freaky Friday, The Haunted Mansion, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. Peter Pan will be the last to air and then stream, during the first week of August. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the one movie making its world premiere on the program, Camp Rock, will also (or is it only?) stream for 24 hours on June 23, on a separate page, after airing a few times on ABC and ABC Family the weekend prior.

I am almost totally caught up on the films of 2007. The only major awards contender I haven't seen yet is Pixar's Ratatouille. Damn you Netflix and your "Very Long Wait" status! I've heard great things though, and now I've got an added reason to check out the DVD. Over at JimHillmedia, a Disney-focused news site, a reader wrote in: "Can you please help me win a bet at work? A co-worker of mine says that WALL-E makes a brief cameo appearance in Ratatouille. More importantly, this guy has bet me $100 that I'll never ever be able to find that robot in this movie." (WALL-E is the title character of Pixar's next film -- WALL-E.) The post answers that question and adds a really neat compilation of lots of the "cameos," in-jokes, and easter eggs in Pixar shorts and features.

It seems there are all kinds of callbacks and interconnections in the Pixar universe, and you fans of the films should definitely check out the site. It will help you watch the movies with fresh eyes. Some of the crossovers are very fast and will require a pause button. For example, the birds from the Pixar short "For the Birds" appear in Cars...for a tenth of a second. Others are much easier to spot. Look carefully at those toys in Monsters, Inc. and you'll see some old friends. A boy at the dentist in Finding Nemo is reading an Incredibles comic. And did you know that a "Pizza Planet" truck drives through each and every Pixar feature? Oh, and by the way, it sounds like that guy who wrote in to the site was duped. if you want to find WALL-E, he's not in Ratatouille, just the disc's special features. Rats!

With Toy Story 3 coming to theaters in 2010, I keep wondering why Pixar didn't plan sequels to any of its other hits. I guess we kinda got a follow-up to Monsters, Inc., but I'd love to see another whole feature with Sulley and Mike. I'd also like to see a full-length return of The Incredibles. If I had to choose, though, I'd much rather see new, original stories like the wonderful Ratatouille. And I most certainly would never, ever ask for a sequel to Cars. Unfortunately, I wasn't asked, and even if I had been, my answer wouldn't have mattered. Pixar would just go on ahead and make Cars 2. It isn't official, but someone informed the JV Pixar News blog that the sequel would be Pixar's next movie after Toy Story 3. JV has been following the story for a little while; back in June, the blog reported Cars 2 would come as early as 2009 and that a Cars short would be shown with next summer's Wall * E (apparently all these rumors/info originated from statements made by Paul Newman at this year's Indianapolis 500).

Cars was the first Pixar movie to really bore me. Hearing that it will be continued in a sequel is extremely disappointing, because I hate to miss anything the studio puts out. I'd probably eventually force myself to watch it -- maybe it could be an improvement -- but it would take a long, long time. I'd even rather see Finding Nemo 2, despite the fact that I didn't love the first movie (I liked it a whole lot more than Cars, though, that is for sure). Nemo would even make more sense to me as the movie to do a follow-up to. It made the most money of any Pixar movie and I believe it is more popular and more critically revered than Cars. Even The Incredibles made more than Cars. So, I don't get it; why would Disney be most interested in that one? It didn't even win the Oscar, for goodness sakes. In my opinion, it was something of a failure for both Disney and Pixar.

Last September, when Ellen DeGeneres was first announced as this year's Oscars host, I gave my opinion that she was all wrong for the job, that she isn't funny or hip enough for the young audience that ABC is hoping for. More than twenty comments were posted by readers that stated the opposite. I have begun to realize I could be wrong, although I'm getting very tired of that commercial featuring her and a bunch of animals. I admit that my judgment of DeGeneres is based primarily on my annoyance with her voice work on Finding Nemo. Otherwise I have been known to chuckle at her jokes from time to time.

This week DeGeneres spoke about her preparations for the February 25 telecast. She said that her concentration thus far has been on making sure there aren't too many industry-specific jokes because a lot of the audience hasn't seen the nominated films. She knows she won't please everybody, and she stated that she plans on just being herself and doing what she finds to be funny. Those who enjoyed her previous experience as host of the Emmys and the Grammys can probably expect to enjoy this, I figure.

DeGeneres will not be copying Billy Crystal with a musical number, though she is hopeful for something as spontaneous and surprising as the Jack Palance one-armed push-up incident, which allowed for a lot of fun improvisation from Crystal in 1992. That reminds me: considering Palance died this past November, it would be a good idea if all the winners this year pay him tribute by doing at least one push-up on stage. I bet Helen Mirren can even do the one-armed variety.

Just the fact that I had to check the spelling of the film seven times before creating the title of this post isn't a good sign of things to come for Disney and Pixar. Say what you want about this summer's crop of films (they're all sequels to sequels to sequels!), it's sure to go down as one of the most competitive in recent history. According to Jim Hill Media, it's that competition which is scaring the mouse poop out of Disney's marketing department, who are currently sweating bullets over how exactly to go about marketing the next Pixar film, Ratatouille, due out June 29.

Now, you're probably sitting there, saying to yourself: "But Erik, Cars was the second highest grossing film of 2006 with over $244 million at the domestic box office -- why should Disney be worried about how Ratatouille will perform?" Well, while that number is most certainly ginormous, it failed to meet the studio's internal financial projections and could not live up to the bigger figures produced by flicks like The Incredibles ($261 million) and Finding Nemo ($339 million). Add to that the fact that Cars had no real competition for at least six weeks, and you're looking at a combination of luck and positioning which helped it reach $244 million.

On the other hand, Ratatouille will have to fend off Transformers (July 4) and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (July 13) with a plot that revolves around a rat (not the cleanest of animals) who dreams about being a chef (great, a filthy animal who cooks food -- there's a pleasant image). Nemo had no real competition on the animated front, The Incredibles caught us at the peak of the superhero trend and Cars had the massive Nascar audience to feed off of. So, who does Ratatouille turn to? Rat lovers? Heck, Dreamworks' rat flick saw its box office figures flushed right down the toilet -- what's not to say the same thing won't happen to Ratatouille? And then who gets blamed for the Pixar acquisition? And what does that do to Pixar's rep?

And don't even get me started on which toy the kids would rather own -- a sweeet looking Transformer or a stuffed rat with a piece of cheese on its head??

Odds and ends to brighten/darken/muddle your Tax Day:

• William H. Macy has become the latest misguided actor to be persuaded by what must be an unimaginably large paycheck to appear in Wild Hogs, the John Travolta/Tim Allen/ Martin Lawrence buddy flick about suburban men who decided to recapture their youth by forming an informal motorcycle gang. The hilarity is nearly overwhelming, isn't it?

• Continuing the trend of completely illogical movies making the transition to the stage, a musical version of Finding Nemo is in the works. (And I mean really in the works. There are sets being built.) The fact that the movie takes place almost entirely underwater will, I'm sure, not be a problem at all. And there's no need for concern -- according to Disney representatives, the show will be a "dazzling production that combines puppets, dancers, acrobats and animated backdrops." So there. It opens later this year at Disney's Animal Kingdom -- get those plane tickets now. [via Luxo]

• Barrie Osborne (who produced the Lord of the Rings series, among copious other films) is already in talks to make a movie about the life of Korean director Shin Sang-ok, whose death we reported last week. While this seems to be happening obscenely fast, the real question is why it's taken this long -- I  mean, the guy was kidnapped by Kim Jong-Il, for the love of God. To make movies for him! Variety reports that Osborne got Shin's approval to make a biopic several years ago, but the production obviously failed to movie ahead at the time.

• Disney has pushed black the release date for Mel Gibson's latest obscure foreign language epic, Apocalypto, from August to December of this year. While the company insists the change is due to some ever-popular production delays (the weather has been bad, apparently), the move conveniently changes the film's competition from The Ant Bully, which is likely to open big just because parents will take their kids, and potential box office bonanza Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby to We Are Marshall (mmm ... movies about tragic, real-life events) and The Holiday, which I know nothing about, apart from the fact that it apparently involves Jude Law. God bless production delays.
  

Today on Fill-in-the-Blank: Blockbuster accuses Netflix of playa hatin', studio heads refuse to cough up the stats on their bling, and Jennifer Aniston is, apparently, the saddest girl in all the world. Got more name suggestions? Drop 'em as though they were of a significantly high temperature in the comments.

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Hosts
Karina Longworth

Editor
Randall Bennett

Music
Love as Laughter - I'm a bee

Format
5:30, 40.5 MB, MPEG4 (iPod / PSP compatible)

Program
00:00 - Netflix v. Blockbuster
01:56 - Hollywood resists SEC recommendation
02:49 - Avenue Q and Disney teaming up for Nemo musical
03:52 - Breakup ending changed because people love Jennifer Aniston

You may not have heard, but a new Harry Potter movie was unleashed on DVD this week. Actually lots of them were: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire bowed in four different editions, all of which were bought by lots and lots (and lots) of eager beaver Potter fans. Taken together, sales of the single disc, double disc SE, four disc gift packs, and rental editions amounted to a total of five million units sold. IN ONE DAY. I think I need to sit down.

What's even more mind-boggling about this number is that it's not a single-day record - in fact, it's not even close. (Back in 2003, eight million copies of Finding Nemo were sold on its first day in release.) The five million is, however, a record for the Potter series. Oddly, in its two years of release, the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban disc has sold just over twice that number - total. Hmm. Well, I guess if every fan is leaving their local retailer with all three public editions of Goblet of Fire, that goes a long way towards bumping up the sales totals.

According to an article in The Washington Post (via Variety), Disney and Pixar are reuniting...and it feels so good. The two are very close to announcing a new distribution pact that will provide further shelter for Pixar within the house that mouse built. Specifics of the deal have not been discussed publicly (think along the lines of Disney retaining distribution rights on all Pixar films, including sequels)and executives on both sides are remaining quiet, possibly until after the holidays.

Word on the street is that one of the reasons why Pixar has had a change of heart is because their executives have been given unprecedented access to "Circle 7;" a secret Disney division formed under Michael Eisner. This super top secret division is said to be specifically in charge of producing Pixar sequels of mass destruction. Now, if that's not supposed to freak you out, I don't know what is.

Currently, production has already started on Toy Story 3, and there will soon be an announcement regarding another sequel which will be chosen amongst several scripts. So far it seems the frontrunners include Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc.

[via Moviehole]