walt disney Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It will have been 28 years after the original Tron when Tron: Legacy arrives, but the nearly three-decade gap hasn't dulled Steven Lisberger's enthusiasm for the project. He wrote and directed the first movie, spending much of his own money in the development process, until he and his team finally found a studio to say yes. Even after that, it wasn't easy getting the movie made. People were skeptical about using computers to do special effects, and, in the end, Tron failed to win a special effects Oscar ... because the Academy said they "cheated" by using computers. Oh, the irony.

These days, Lisberger more closely resembles The Dude, Jeff Bridges' character in The Big Lebowski. He has long hair, a bushy goatee, and a very laid-back attitude about life. He doesn't give short, bite-sized, media-ready answers that the internet loves, but instead he takes the time to pause and give thoughtful answers to questions both simple and complicated. Read on after the break for the full interview, where he compares Tron: Legacy to the Wright brothers' flight attempts.

We sat down with Sean Bailey, the producer working on Tron: Legacy at Disney's D23. We couldn't get him to spill the beans entirely, but he does give up a few details. They still have more than a year's worth of work to do in post-production on this movie, so really this interview is only going to serve to get you very excited for a movie that you're going to have to wait on for quite awhile.

Luckily, it still sounds exciting. Thankfully, they aren't making the internet the focus this time around, which would have been disastrous. Just imagine Tron standing on the edge of a glowing neon valley and uttering the words "information superhighway." If they'd made this movie back in early 1990s, that's what you might have had. In Legacy, the system from the first movie is separate from all things online, so you won't have to worry about rogue programs running loose in HTML.

Slip on your patience hats, pop the original Tron into your DVD player, and read the full interview just after the break. There's a few secrets waiting on you.

The coolest stuff at Disney's D23 Fan Expo is ... stuff we can't take pictures of. They've assembled a small fraction of the items from the Walt Disney Archives into an exhibit, but it's marked "NO PHOTOGRAPHY" with huge signs, and there are Disney thugs inside ready to beat you down with mouse ears if you so much as haul your cell phone out of your pocket.

It's a real shame, because they have things in there like: Mary Poppin's costume, Jack Sparrow's pirate duds, Tron's original suit and disc, a huge model of the Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, the jewel-encrusted book from the opening of Sleeping Beauty, a full-scale V.I.N.C.E.N.T. and Maximilian from The Black Hole, and both Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus outfits. I know you're definitely wondering about those. I'll save you the time, she's tiny.

We did get photos from the rest of the show, and you can browse the 100+ pictures in the gallery below. Highlights include the above light cycle from the new Tron: Legacy, costumes from The Prince of Persia and Herbie, The Love Bug (thankfully Lindsay Lohan-free). We'll be checking out some of the upcoming Disney and Pixar films throughout the weekend, so stay tuned for more info.

One of the odder moments during this morning's Walt Disney Studios presentation at D23 didn't involve Johnny Depp dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow. No, it involved Nicolas Cage (with brand-new hair and a sharp little goatee) talking about The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which he's starring in as well as producing. Apparently he watches Fantasia every year, calling it "the most beautiful movie ever made" and he had the idea to pull out Mickey's Sorcerer's Apprentice portion and make it into a modern day film.

However, things went a bit ... goofy when he was asked what it was like to produce the movie. He explained that 9/11 really puts his movie into perspective: "A day like September 11th kind of puts into focus everything that I want to accomplish as a producer. I make films for the children. When times get tough it is increasingly important that we put a smile on faces all over world and entertain the entire family and I think that's what The Sorcerer's Apprentice was all about."

So, there you go.

At Disney's D23 they kept the movie surprises coming for nearly two hours, announcing a slew of new information about their upcoming slate of films for the next couple of years, and they trotted out John Travolta, Robert Zemeckis, Jerry Bruckheimer, Nic Cage, Miley Cyrus, and ... Johnny Depp in full costume as Captain Jack Sparrow. Yes, we're not kidding, and boy do I hate the "no cameras in the arena" rule that Disney busted on us. Of all the things to miss a photo of.

So yes, Pirates 4 is coming out in Summer 2011. That's probably the biggest news. What else did they announce? Check it out below ...

• Disney's The Princess and The Frog will be screened at the Disney Studio in Burbank, which is being opened to the public for the first time ever, from November 25th through December 13th.
• The new Muppets movie will be called The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made. Interestingly, this is the same title as a concept for a Muppet film that Jim Henson, Jerry Juhl and Frank Oz had back in 1985. It was revived in 2000 by Frank Oz, but died in development hell. We're assuming this is the new Jason Segel Muppet project.
• Disney is remaking The Beatles' Yellow Submarine as a 3D film, complete with new motion capture and the original songs from the soundtrack, directed by Robert Zemeckis.
• Disney's Pirates 4 will be called Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and will be released in Summer 2011. Depp came out as Jack Sparrow, and asked if anyone had seen a talking frog. Well, stranger things have happened.
• We should also point out (thanks to commenter Dan) that On Stranger Tides is the name of a Pirate-related book by Tim Powers. Is Disney adapting the book for the fourth movie? Did they swipe the title? What's the connection there, because there definitely has to be a connection.
  

Dick Cook, chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, announced a new label in conjunction with Guillermo del Toro, Disney's Double Dare You. It's a line of animated films, books, and merchandise meant to capture the immersive Disney E-ticket experience, according to del Toro. "I remember visiting Disneyland for the first time over 40 years ago, when they used to use alphabetical tickets. The E-tickets were the highly immersive, story-driven experiences, and that's what we hope to bring you."

Del Toro, via a video message from New Zealand where he's working on The Hobbit, said the first film under the label will be an original idea of his called Trollhunters, with an additional feature to be announced soon, "that you will be very familiar with." Del Toro will produce all films under the new label. Our money is on a horror version of That Darn Cat. Finally.

It's a shocking deal no one saw coming in a million years. According to an official press release from the Walt Disney Company, Disney has bought Marvel Entertainment for the hefty price of $4 billion. Under the deal, Disney gains control of more than 5,000 Marvel characters, and Marvel gains their massive marketing infrastructure.

"This transaction combines Marvel's strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney's creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories," said Robert A. Iger, President aof The Walt Disney Company. "Ike Perlmutter and his team have done an impressive job of nurturing these properties and have created significant value. We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney."

So, there you have it. Marvel is now a Disney brand in all senses of the word. Obviously, this has just been announced, but the big question looms: What will this mean for all those upcoming Marvel movies? We've all marveled at the creative networking Marvel Entertainment has been doing, and the way Kevin Feige has been building little bridges of creative continuity throughout their cinematic universe. So far, they seemed to be doing everything right by fans, and creating movies that could draw in newcomers and hardcore geeks. What is it going to mean for the films when a behemoth like Disney takes control? Family friendly, mythology-be-damned, direct-to-DVD offerings? Or will it just mean a lot more Slurpee cups and action figures? Time will tell, but something tells me the future of the Marvel cinematic universe might have become a little less bright.

If Walt Disney ever got around to churning out his own version of Lord of the Rings, perhaps it would've been close to this fan-made version featuring some of Disney's iconic characters in the roles of Frodo, Legolas, Gimli and Gandalf. (But where's Aragorn?) Funnily enough, there's all sorts of stories and urban legends online that tell of Walt Disney's attempts or non-attempts to adapt Lord of the Rings. Some indicate that Disney held the film rights to J.R.R. Tolkien's masterpiece for 10 years before giving up and selling them over to United Artists. Others argue that Disney wanted to animate The Hobbit at one time, but couldn't get past the fact that the story didn't contain the ideal, humorous family-friendly vibe that Disney wanted for all his films.

None of these tall tales ever came with any hard proof, though, and the funny thing about it all is that Tolkien apparently despised Disney. In a letter discussing illustrations inside the American publication of The Hobbit, Tolkien noted that he would " . . .veto anything from or influenced by the Disney Studios (for all whose works I have a heartfelt loathing)." For much more on the Disney-Tolkien love (hate?) affair, check out this pretty detailed resource. View a larger version of the image above in the gallery below.



[via Superpunch]

Even the weirder artists of the twentieth century have been attracted to the allure of Hollywood filmmaking, and Salvador Dali was no exception. In the fall of 1941, the surrealist painter hosted a masquerade party at Pebble Beach during one of his regular visits to the town. Called "Surrealism Night in An Enchanted Forest," the fundraising event, intended to assist European refugee artists, brought out a number of stars, including Bob Hope and Ginger Rogers. It was here, the story goes, that Dali became attached to a major studio production called Moontide. The great German emigre Fritz Lang was hired to direct the movie, and asked Dali to create a three-minute nightmare sequence for the film. Unfortunately, after the incident at Pearl Harbor later that year, Twentieth Century Fox deemed the project too bleak. Lang was replaced, and Dali's nightmare sequence went with him.

Although inspired by the movies, Dali didn't always have the easiest time making them. He would get another chance to inject his hallucinatory vision into American cinema with the hypnosis scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound, but it's his unrealized projects that truly indicate the scope of the painter's ambition. So many ideas, such little time. Dali: Painting and Film, a breathtakingly unique exhibit currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, surveys Dali's completed cinematic works in addition to tidbits from the ones that never came to fruition. Marvelously structured to show how his paintings were intentionally cinematic, the exhibit contains all the obvious highlights from Dali's movie career alongside lesser-known productions. The importance in film history of his collaborations with Luis Bunuel remain uncontested; two large screens in separate rooms showing Un Chien Andalou (where the opening eye splicing retains its original gross-out impact) and L'Age D'Or attest to that. Fewer visitors, however, might know about Dali's collaboration with the Marx Brothers on a deliriously strange movie that sounded too good to be true.

I don't remember how old I was the first time I saw Walt Disney's 101 Dalmatians, but I do know that I fell in love with the film from the first time I saw it. I didn't know, as a kid, that the abstract line art and blocks of color used in the film were a ground-breaking departure for Disney's animation department, or that the film was the first to use a Xerox copier to transfer the animator's line art onto the cells for the film.

I didn't appreciate, back then, the incredible amount of work it took to put all those little black spots in just the right places, or the sheer artistry of the brilliant opening credits sequence. Back then, I saw the film as my own kids see it today -- just a great story, full of suspense and humor, full of cute, cuddly spotted puppies, and anchored by one of the greatest villains ever to grace a cinema screen, Cruella De Vil.