MY FAVORITE HALLOWEEN MOVIE

"I have been called brave. What is brave? Let me clarify this..."

The January 20th 1966 film, "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken", starring Don Knotts is undisputably my favorite Halloween movie.

"Attaboy Luther!"

It stars Don Knotts as Luther Heggs, Joan Stanley as Alma Parker, and Liam Redmond as Mr. Kelsey.

When the 20-year anniversary of the murder and suicide of Mr. and Mrs. Simmons comes around, article writer Luther Heggs is given the job of spending the night there in the murder house by himself. Strange things start to happen and he becomes the talk of the town as everyone tries to solve the mystery of what really happened that night.

It is a hilarious comedy and a a great movie for getting spooked.

Well, sorry gotta go...

"I'm Having Chicken Noodle Soup with Alma!"

History of the Haunted Mansion

I found this video on You Tube and found it appropriate for my blog.

Enjoy!

Anything cool you learned from these videos?

Dumbo

Yesterday was the 70th anniversary of the release of Walt Disney's fourth animated feature film, Dumbo.

This big eared wonder flew for the first time on October 23rd 1941. It was directed by Ben Sharpsteen, written by Otto Englander, Joe Grant, & Dick Huemer, and starred Edward Brophy as Timothy Q. Mouse, Verna Felton as Mrs. Jumbo and the elephant Matriarch, Herman Bing as the Ringmaster, Sterling Holloway as Mr. Stork, and Cliff Edwards (who also provided the voice of Jiminy Cricket in 1940's Pinocchio) as Jim Crow. It was narrated by John McLeish, best known for narrating Goofy's "How To..." cartoons.

It contains 7 songs by Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace. Produced by RKO Radio Pictures, it is one of Walt Disney's shortest animated feature films at a running time of only 64 minutes long! It was made on a budget of $813,000, and generated $1,600,000 at the box office, making it Disney's most successful film of the 1940's.

Fun Facts:

1. Dumbo was intended to be on the cover of the December 1941 cover of Time Magazine, but the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th kinda changed their plans...

2. The film was re-released theatrically four more times in 1949, 1959, 1972, and 1976.

3. Dumbo, along with Alice in Wonderland, was the first Disney film to be released on home video with a VHS release in 1981, a Laserdisc in 1982, again on VHS in 1985. Then, for it's 50th Anniversary in 1991, it was remastered and again released on VHS and Laserdisc, and again in 1994 as a part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection. A 60th Anniversary VHS and DVD was then released in 2001, and AGAIN on DVD in 2006 as the "High Flying Big Top Edition." Lastly, and most recently, it was released on HD Blu-Ray disc, DVD, and Movie Download on September 20th 2011 for the film's 70th Anniversary.

4. It won the award for "Best Scoring of a Musical Picture" and was nominated for "Best Song" (Baby Mine) at the 1941 Oscars. In 1947, It won "Best Animation Design" at the Cannes Film Festival.

5. Over at Disneyland, Dumbo inspired the Dumbo the Flying Elephants Attraction, which opened August 16th 1955. Originally, the elephants were to be pink, representing the Pink Elephants sequence from the film.

6. When President Harry Truman, a Democrat, visited Disneyland in 1957, he refused to ride Dumbo the Flying Elephant, saying that it evoked too much Republican party symbolism.

Here's to another 70 "High-Flying" years to you Jumbo Jr.!

Haunted Mansion Facts 2: Seance Room

Did you know...

 

 

In the Seance Room of the Haunted Mansion (with the crystal ball containing the floating head of Madam Leota) there is a little spellbook sitting in the view of the guests passing by.

On the book's open page...

 

 

The picture is small, but it says,

"A Spell to Bring to Your Eyes And Ears One Who is Bound In Limbo: KREE KRUH VERGO GEBBA KALTO KREE!"

 

Those Disney fans who remember this 1968 Walt Disney comedy...

 

 ...starring Peter Ustinov, and Dean Jones...

 

...will remember that this is the spell that Steve Walker, the new track coach at Godolphin college, unknowingly uses to summon the spirited spirit of Capt. Blackbeard.

 

Interesting, huh?

 

 

Haunted Mansion Facts: Ghostly Organ

Did you know that the organ in the ballroom of the Haunted Mansion is originally from the 1954 Walt Disney film "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"?

Yes, it's the same one that Captain Nemo played "Toccata and Fugue in D-Minor" on in the film. The pipes are different and it's not the same bench, but the front keyboard part is there.

Pretty cool, eh?

Go Animate "Dot-Com"

If you read the Blaze, you may have seen an article about a website called GoAnimate.com. I tried it out and this is what I did...

(Watch it here) http://goanimate.com/movie/0sMe0RoZ13lQ/1

I thought it was pretty cool, so I did this one...

http://goanimate.com/movie/0nmg2Q0o7KHI/1

I think they turned out pretty cool. All you do it type in the dialogue, and choose the characters and setting. They're kinda monotone and wierd, but I've got the last guy doing an impression of Captain Kirk!

Mom posted these to Facebook, and Amy's made some too.

Try it out!

Happy 100th to Mary Blair

Today, October 21st 2011, is the 100th birthday of one of Walt Disney's greatest artists Mary Blair. You may not know her name, but you definitely know her work.

Among the Disney films she is noted for working on are Peter Pan, Song of the South, The Three Caballeros, Saludos Amigos, Dumbo, Lady and the Tramp, Alice in Wonderland, Fun and Fancy Free, So Dear to My Heart, and Cinderella.

Around Disneyland, she is most known for her extensive art design in it's a small world, and also for creating the old children murals just inside the entrance to Tommorrowland.

(Pictured left to right: Marc Davis, Walt Disney, Mary Blair)

She died of a crebral hemorrhage on July 26th 1978 and was named a Diseny Legend in 1991.

Finding Nemo on Blu-Ray?

Disney has released this teaser for the imminent release of Finding Nemo on Hi-Def Blu-Ray Disc.

This is interesting because Finding Nemo has been on the list of upcoming Blu-Ray releases for a LOOOOOONG time. It is the last classic Pixar film waiting to be released on Blu-Ray.

Still no release date has been announced, but I suspect that it will cooincide with it's theatrical release in September...

Toy Story Toon: Hawaiin Vacation Sneak Peek

Alright. For those of you who haven't seen this short, I have here an official sneak peek of one of some of Pixar at it's best.

Enjoy!

Only 1 Month Away!

My countdown officially begins today!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 comes out on Blu-Ray and DVD on November 11th.

Included bonus features on the set are...

1. Maximum Movie Mode with the cast and crew (Featuring 9 Featurettes)

2. A Conversation with J. K. Rowling and Daniel Radcliffe

3. The Goblins of Gringotts

4. The Women of Harry Potter

5. Additional Scenes

6. Warner Bros. Studio Tour London

7. Pottermore Preview

While I'm waiting, I'm having lots of fun on Pottermore.com!

I highly reccomend it to anyone who is a fan of the Harry Potter books! Remember... It opens to the public at the end of this month! I'll do a post about it when I find out the exact date.

Only 31 Days!



Bob Iger Retiring

Bob Iger, CEO of the Walt Disney Studios, is reported to be stepping down in 2015 or 2016.

Who knows who will replace him, and how the company will be affected by this change. Only time will tell...

My Take on Cars 2

Yesterday, we saw Cars 2. Well, "You Might Think I'm Crazy", but there were things I loved about this Pixar film, and others that I didn't.

It was cool to see all of the characters together again for another Pixar adventure. Also it was awsome to have more unforgettable "Mater Moments". The film pretty much starred Mater and his hilarious exploits. It was interesting to see how the spy story became intertwined with the racing story of Lighning McQueen.

Overall, it was a great film. I mean, there was an amazing voice cast, and come on! It was directed by John Lasseter!

The drawbacks of the film as a whole though, were that...

1. It villified Big Oil and old cars that run on Gasoline, and promoted new "Green" "Clean" "Safe" hippie Allinol alternative fuel.

2. The story as a whole was not well-developed. It was almost like one of those quick, simple Cars Toons blown up on a HUGE movie-scale. (Nothing wrong with the cars short films, just they're meant to be SHORT!!!)

3. The series of events was very disorienting. Everything happened really fast and it was hard to understand completely the whole time, even though I had pretty good pre-background knowledge of the plot.

Probably my favorite part of the Movie-Going experience I had yesterday was the Toy Story cartoon "Hawaiian Vacation" that played before the film.

Bonnie, the toys' new owner, is off to Hawaii for the winter, and Ken and Barbie think they are going along. It follows the events of they toys trying to cheer them up. It starred the same cast of characters as Toy Story 3, and overall, it was probably better than Cars 2 was! It's nice to know that Toy Story still lives on in these short films.

To sum it all up, I hope that Pixar learns from this hiccup, and cleans up their act for the films coming up such as 2012's "Brave"...

...and 2013's Monsters Inc. Prequel, "Monsters University."

Any thoughts?

This Day in Pixar History

Today, the man who helped found Pixar Animation Studios, and the Former CEO of Apple has passed away.

- Steve Jobs -

February 24th 1955 - October 5th 2011

Thank You Steve.

Disney-Pixar films 3-D Theatrical Release Dates

Breaking News from D23's website!

The release dates below are for the future films to be released in the near future following the success of the 3-D release of Disney's "The Lion King"...

January 13th 2012 - Beauty and the Beast

September 14th 2012 - Finding Nemo

January 18th 2013 - Monster's Inc. (Before the summer release of the prequel "Monster's University")

September 13th 2013 - The Little Mermaid

The full story can be read at this Link. All I can say is I am very excited!

Thoughts?