Posts for 'Disney movies' Category

Hollywood's 3-D Movies Drive Sales As Fans Resist Prices: Hollywood’s focus on big-budget films and 3-D effects that command higher ticket prices will likely drive box-office sales to a record $11 billion this year even as some fans shun the rising cost of a night at the movies.

A surcharge for 3-D movies may push revenue past last year’s $10.6 billion, Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com Box-Office, said in an interview.

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The whiz kids at Pixar Studios continue a stellar strike record (13 good titles, no bad) with Toy Story 3, the third and final instalment in a trilogy of films that take the concept of personification to delightfully literal extremes, capturing the life, personalities and even politics of toys that come alive when humans aren’t watching.

By now general audiences are familiar with Sheriff “reach for the sky” Woody and Buzz “to infinity and beyond” Lightyear, the two favourite toys of a young boy named Andy, but what they aren’t likely to see coming is a third cinematic outing that not only expands the stories of the two personable playthings and their pals but does so – strange though this may sound – in the context of a prison escape drama.

Woody, Buzz and their motley gang of tender-hearted thingamajigs find themselves relocated to the Sundale Daycare Centre, a place that seems at first like a toy utopia of smiles, rainbows and cuddles but turns out to be a hellish haven for rambunctious little shits. Instead of being tenderly lulled into playtime retirement the toys discover Sundale is their Guantanamo Bay equivalent – a place of unspeakable horrors; a goo ga gulag.

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Imax Corp. and Walt Disney Studios said Wednesday that they have agreed on a deal to release three more 3D movies to Imax theaters next year. The movies are "Mars Needs Moms," which is scheduled to be released next March; "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," set for release in May; and "Cars 2," which is scheduled to be released next June.

Disney had previously agreed to release five 3D films with Imax. Many moviegoers experienced Imax for the first time when they saw "Avatar," which in turn boosted both the number of the company's new repeat customers and demand for 3D films in huge-screen format. Imax shares fell 14 cents to $16.16 in afternoon trading, while shares of Walt Disney Co. rose 2 cents to $34.37.

You want to see Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers over and over on repeat? Well the release date for the Disney Channel movie Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam will be coming to DVD and Blu-Ray on September 7th which is a few days after we get to see it on the Disney Channel September 3rd per Amazon.  Not that we do not think that it could slide a bit.

If watching them on the television is not real enough for you, remember that they are coming to a town near you.  You can also check out an unofficial track listing for the Camp Rock 2 soundtrack here and make a guess at what your favorite song will be.  It’s On is a favorite of mine so far, we will see if it holds up when the full soundtrack is out.

Disney has used mythology, historical characters, fairy tales and fables as the foundation for some amazing animated films. But, curiously for such an American icon, its also drawn on the diverse world of English literature for some of its most successful projects.


Alice In Wonderland (1951)

Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures In Wonderland became the first animated Disney feature to use classic English literature as a bedrock. In the Disney version, elements from both the original Alice adventure and the sequel Through The Looking-Glass were combined to give a strong flavour of the Carroll's perversely warped universe.

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Attention Disney fans! You may now create male fairies in Pixie Hollow, the online gaming/social networking site hitherto occupied only by Tinkerbell and female cronies. I went to sign up to check it out, but am apparently already an 'existing fairy!' Nope, no recollection at all! Here's Salon on how the kids forced the company's hand:    Children are pretty resourceful little gender warriors.

The open secret around the Hollow has long been that if you make your fairy tall, with short hair, and give her an ambiguous name like Jamie, she can pretty quickly establish a reputation as a he. Hey, Mom and Dad, we've got your rigid gender roles right here. Nonetheless, Disney appears to have taken some measures to prevent the most obviously interesting forms of thoughtcrime. For example, male fairies aren't called fairies, but "Sparrow Men."

Walt Disney Pictures hit movie “Alice In Wonderland” opened in Japan on April 17th and managed to bring in 700 million yen ($7.5 million USD) just that day! That’s double what “Avatar” brought in opening day in Japan.

Did you know that both director Tim Burton and actor Johnny Depp promoted “Alice In Wonderland” in Tokyo on March 22nd for the Japanese premiere? Very cool!

As the title says folks, the first poster has now been released for Disney’s other big-budget live action film, THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE, and it rocks! If nothing else, the fact that this film stars an on-form Nicolas Cage, going head to head with Alfred Molina should be enough to get bums on seats. And despite my high hopes for that other live action Disney movie, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, dare I say that I think this one…looks..better?

That’s an affirmative, and the poster isn’t bad either. It’s more a teaser than a full-on one sheet and it features Cage’s character, Balthazar Blake, sporting a pretty cool looking Dragon ring. Take a look below and let us know what you think:

Dreamworks Animation has a pretty nice streak going as they open How to Train Your Dragon this weekend with the studio's last three movies (Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar 2, and Monsters vs. Aliens) combining to make more than $1.6 billion globally. Sure, that's not quite Pixar money, but it is way ahead of what Walt Disney Animation or other animation studios have done during the same period. It's a nice bonus that the movies have been moderately well received by critics as well.

The pattern of Dreamworks's long-term success has been a decidedly contemporary sentimentality with most titles chock-a-block with pop culture jokes and parodies. The more recent trend is action and adventure, and How to Train Your Dragon continues this with dragon battles and hyperkinetic flight scenes.

Missing, however, is the pop cultureand the result is quite a lot of fun while at the same time feeling more timeless. It is a bit of a relief to know that seeing this movie again in a decade or two won't require "Pop-Up Video"-style annotations to explain the jokes.

For those familiar with the book of the same name, be warned that this movie is a very loose adaptation of the book, introducing a much heightened level of conflict. No longer is the goal of the Viking village to capture and ride dragons, but rather to kill and if possible, eradicate them.

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Over the past 13 weeks all the hyperbole in box-office circles has been reserved for Avatar, so it would be remiss not to praise the achievements of Alice in Wonderland. After less than two weeks in release, Disney's fantasy has already crossed $200m (£133m) in North America, becoming the first 2010 release to do so.

It is also single-handedly propping up the box office: thanks to Alice's commercial heft, box-office revenues are running about 9% ahead of the same period in 2009 – which, lest we forget, was a record year. Incidentally, combined with its international run, Alice has already amassed more than $420m worldwide.Summit's decision to re-release its multi-Academy Award winner The Hurt Locker is paying small dividends.

Because the movie has already completed its theatrical run and gone out on DVD, cinemas won't accommodate a wide release, ie more than 600 cinemas. However, nobody's grumbling about $828,000 from 349 venues. That puts Kathryn Bigelow's best picture winner on $15.7m. It's still the lowest grossing best picture winner since the dawn of time, but if it can get to $20m that would be a nice round number for financiers who think box-office grosses are all that matter.

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