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Live With Kelly And Mark host, Kelly Ripa reunites with her old co-host to make new memories. While the reunion was beautiful on its own, Kelly simultaneously became a legend.

Kelly Ripa Is Mia

On Monday, August 12, Kelly Ripa was missing from Live With Kelly And Mark. Instead, Maria Menounos sat in and hosted alongside Mark Consuelos. However, Kelly was back on Tuesday after being out for several days. While she took a little leave, she came back with a huge smile after acquiring “Legend” status.

Kelly Ripa – YouTube Kelly Ripa Reunites With Old Co-Host And Becomes A Legend

Although America missed seeing Kelly Ripa on Live With Kelly And Mark, many caught the co-host in a sweet reunion on Sunday, August 11. She attended the Disney Legend event in Anaheim, CA. During the award ceremony for people of significance in the company for 2023, Kelly took the stage with old co-host,...

Miley Cyrus was crowned a Disney Legend on Sunday night, and used the moment to show some love to her Hannah Montana days.

At Disney’s D23 fan event in Anaheim, Cyrus was one of 14 honorees recognized for their impact on the company’s legacy. The star led the hit Disney Channel series for four seasons between 2006 and 2011, and took the stage after Lainey Wilson led a performance of her breakout song, “The Best of Both Worlds.”

“I’m definitely going to cry,” Cyrus told the crowd, admitting she wrote two speeches for the night: “One long, if I’m the badass that I’m supposed to be, and one short, if I get scared.”

Lainey Wilson performs “The Best of Both Worlds” while presenting Miley Cyrus’ Disney Legends tribute at #D23 pic.twitter.com/DbfVcHeznA

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) August 12, 2024

“In 2005, Disney was on a mission to rebuild and...

Disney’s splashy Legends ceremony brought a cavalcade of A-listers to Anaheim’s Honda Center on Sunday evening during the conclusion of the Mouse House’s D23 Expo.

Disney’s Legends awards program is a hall of fame for individuals who have had a significant impact on the Disney legacy. Past honorees include Christina Aguilera, Stan Lee, Betty White and Oprah Winfrey.

Angela Bassett was recognized for three decades of work with Disney, including her role in Touchstone’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” narration of National Geographic’s The Flood and the Disney+ docuseries “The Imagineering Story,” and, most recently, her Oscar-nominated performance as Queen Ramonda in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”

“Black Panther” director Ryan Coogler remembered being inspired by Bassett’s work as a child as he introduced her. “To see her and what she does is truly a gift,” he said, telling the crowd the...

She’s got the best of both worlds: Miley Cyrus became a first-time Grammy winner this year, and now she’s been named a Disney Legend.

Lainey Wilson took the stage to introduce Cyrus, performing her own lively rendition of the “Hannah Montana” classic “The Best of Both Worlds.” After the song, she told the singer, “Miley, I want to thank you for never being afraid to step outside the box, always staying true to yourself, and most importantly, always kicking butt.”

“I’m gonna let everybody get on a little Disney Legend secret. I’m the one that tells you what you’re not supposed to know. And what I want to say, is that legends get scared, too. I’m scared right now, but the difference is we do it anyway, and all of you can do that every single day. It’s legendary to be afraid and do it anyway.

Oscar nominee Harrison Ford has been officially declared a legend — a Disney Legend that is.

On Sunday at the D23 Expo, Ford was honored with the hall-of-fame-style award from the Walt Disney Company. Because Lucasfilm is owned by Disney, Ford’s most famous roles — like Han Solo from “Star Wars” and the adventuring archaeologist Indiana Jones — cement him as one of the studio’s most iconic actors. Next February, Ford continues his legendary run at the studio by starring in Marvel Studios’ “Captain America: Brave New World” as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, the U.S. President who memorably transforms into Red Hulk.

Bob Iger took the stage to present Ford with the first award of the night. “Before he was the captain of the Millennium Falcon or a globetrotting archeologist, Harrison Ford was, like so many, an aspiring actor who came to Hollywood to pursue their dreams,” Iger teased to thunderous applause at the Honda Center.

Updated with full lineup: Disney has revealed the full scope of its D23 fan event for 2024, and it is truly massive.

The company announced at CES this year that it would break new ground this year with its biennial fan convention, streaming portions of it on Disney+ for the first time and expanding to international markets, but the just-revealed schedule gives the first substantial overview of exactly how big the August 9-11 confab will be. The list of events that dropped today is easily twice as larger as it has been in recent years.

See the full schedule and ticket details below.

Among the highlights at the Anaheim Convention Center are interactive floor experiences including a new Avatar pavilion, a Marvel Tva walkthrough experience, a Parks Imagineering pavilion, a Disney+ pavilion, talent photo ops with casts of such shows as Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Wizards Beyond Waverly Place,...

Disney Animation’s showcase of new clips from the upcoming “Moana 2,” screened Friday at the Annecy Animation Festival, included the return of the coconut-like Kakamora tribe; Moana’s parents, Chief Tut and Sina; and, of course, Dwayne Johnson’s Maui.

During the presentation, directors David Derrick Jr. and Jason Hand also included clips featuring new characters like Moana’s baby sister, Simea, and the crew for her next adventure: engineer Loto, farmer Kele and enthusiastic Maui superfan Moni.

“It’s about connection, to who we are, where we came from,” explained Derrick of the new story, which is set three years after the events in the 2016 Oscar-nominated original movie. This story finds Moana and her crew in search of the lost island of Motufetu, which once connected the ocean, now hidden by a jealous God of Storms.

In all, Disney showed roughly 15 minutes of work in progress from the upcoming movie.

The biennial D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event is set to take place this year with another fun-filled weekend that concludes with the Disney Legends Awards Ceremony, which honors artists and visionaries throughout the Walt Disney Company’s history who have pushed the envelope of creativity, challenged conventional wisdom, and broken the restraints of the status quo in search of new possibilities and excellence.

This year’s honorees include Kelly Ripa, Angela Bassett, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Miley Cyrus (“Hannah Montana”), among others. The ceremony will take place on Sunday, August 11 at 5:00 p.m. Pt from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Ryan Seacrest, the host of American Top 40, as well as “American Idol” and “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” on ABC, will host the 2024 Disney Legends Awards Ceremony that will be filled with heartwarming tributes to each of the honorees, along with special guests,...

Each year Disney honors various important Disney-related people by making them Disney Legends. According to Disney, they try to find those who have” pushed the envelope of creativity, challenged conventional wisdom, and broken the restraints of the status quo in search of new possibilities and excellence.”

The award is presented as part of the D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event that takes place in Anaheim, California. This year, several individuals are being honored, including legendary Imagineer Joe Rohde.

Joe Rohde has been a fan favorite for years. He left the Walt Disney Company on January 4, 2021, over three years ago. Rohde worked at Disney since 1980, starting out as a model designer and scenic painter for Epcot. He also worked on Captain Eo 3-D, the Norway pavilion, and the Adventures Club bar in Pleasure Island. He later became the lead designer for Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Aulani in Hawaii.

Rohde...

Disney has revealed key details about its biannual D23 fan event coming to the Anaheim Convention Center and the Honda Center on August 9, 10 & 11. The company promises “the best of Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and more. This year’s event will feature Disney+ integration with some presentations streamed live, musical performances with world-class artists, special content presentations, a new interactive app, and one-of-a-kind shopping experiences.”

The ticket tiers present a dizzying array of price points and options, starting at $79 for a single-day entry and running to $2,599 for the 3-Day Ultimate Preferred Pass with premium seating. The event typically sells out and you must be a D23 member to purchase tickets.

The Honda Center is a new addition to D23 this year and Disney says it “will be home to three nights of marquee showcases—Disney Entertainment, Disney Experiences, and Disney Legends—allowing us to bring bigger shows with more magic...

The D100 Edition of Disney Lorcana introduces six alt art cards, including Mickey Mouse, Elsa, and Genie, featuring illustrations from talented artists who have worked for Disney. Mickey Mouse: Friendly Face is a powerful questing card with 3 lore generation and ink cost reduction ability, despite its low strength. The artwork is by Mark Henn, a veteran Disney animator. Elsa: Gloves Off is a questing-focused card with decent stats and Challenger ability. The artwork is by Brittney Lee, a visual development artist for Disney who worked on Frozen.

The Disney100, or D100, Edition of Disney Lorcana adds six alt art cards to the game, arriving alongside the newly announced Rise of the Floodborn expansion. As a fresh addition to the collectible trading card game market, Disney Lorcana is moving full steam ahead in spite of some serious supply issues plaguing its recent launch. Following a similar approach to the Gift Set...

Burny Mattinson, a Disney Legend who served as an animator, producer, director and story artist in his nearly 70-year career with the studio, died Monday at the age of 87 following a short illness. Disney announced his death on their official website.

The story goes that Mattinson, who was born in San Francisco in 1935, was transformed when his mother took him to see Walt Disney’s “Pinocchio” at the age of 6. He knew what he wanted to do. As Don Hahn, who produced some of Disney’s most beloved movies during the Disney Renaissance, said of Mattinson’s life: “His life could be a Disney movie: teenaged kid shows up at the Disney gate with his portfolio under his arm and stays for 70 years. He was our story sensei, a brilliant draftsman who showed us what it was like to grind on a story until it was right.”

Mattinson’s first...

For the first time in nearly 95 years, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit has returned to Walt Disney Animation Studios in an all-new animated short.

Titled “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit,” the short was created by Disney Animation’s hand-drawn animation team in celebration of Disney’s 100-year anniversary next year. Veteran animator Eric Goldberg (“How to Stay at Home (Starring Goofy),” “Pocahontas,” “Fantasia/2000”) directed the short, with Dorothy McKim producing.

“Oswald is such a plucky scamp. We wanted to bring Oswald back, and in the short, he literally returns to his original home, the movie screen,” Goldberg said in a statement. “We wanted to have Oswald do all of the ‘squash-and-stretch,’ ‘rubber hose’-animation style, celebrating that first generation of Walt Disney’s artists.”

“On the eve of Disney’s 100th anniversary, it was such a joy to create the first new Oswald short from our studio since 1928,” McKim said. “Our hand-drawn...

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is hopping back onscreen. As part of Disney’s 100 Years of Wonder anniversary celebration, the hand-drawn animation team has launched a new short film titled “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit” featuring the beloved vintage character 94 years after the studio’s last “Oswald” cartoon.

Famed animator Eric Goldberg directs the short film, with Emmy Award-winning producer Dorothy McKim (“Meet the Robinsons”) producing. The minute-long short is now available on the Walt Disney Animation Studios’ YouTube channel.

“On the eve of Disney’s 100th anniversary, it was such a joy to create the first new Oswald short from our studio since 1928,” producer McKim said in an official statement. “Our hand-drawn animation team – including our hand-drawn legends Mark Henn, Randy Haycock, and Eric Goldberg, as well our wonderful team of 2D apprentices, had a ball animating in the style of Oswald’s era.”

Director Goldberg added, “Oswald is such a plucky scamp.

As Disney prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its joyful iron grip on the entertainment industry, it's a safe guess to say we're all in store for some blasts from the past. While the form this celebration will take is yet unclear, it appears one of the first things that's happening is a throwback to one of Disney's original and most forgotten stars.

We all know Mickey Mouse, the smiling and shirtless rodent at the head of Disney's empire. For probably your entire lifetime, you've known Mickey as the most famous of the cartoon mascots. His presence and likeness is ubiquitous in Disney branding, theme parks, and media. When it comes to a mouse who's become as recognizable as the Coca-Cola logo, most people probably assume that he's always been Disney's top guy. But that is not the case.

Before a young Mickey burst onto the scene in 1928 in the short film "Steamboat Willie,...

This review originally ran March 19, 2022, in conjunction with the film’s world premiere at SXSW.

It is easy, perhaps, to take Mickey Mouse for granted, both as an icon and a character. His image, as Disney parks fans will tell you, is everywhere: on the sides of buildings, in nooks and crannies, on t-shirts, in flower beds, up in the clouds.

Though omnipresent, Mickey has had a rich, tumultuous journey, on and off screen, and Jeff Malmberg’s new documentary “Mickey: The Story of a Mouse” takes viewers on a winding road through Mickey’s almost 100-year-old journey.

In 1928, a pioneering little critter manned a river steamboat in a charming little animated musical titled “Steamboat Willie” — the first of its kind to be set to sound. He was industrious, charming and whimsical, without being conniving, precocious or silly. This was Mickey Mouse, who’d been previously introduced in a short called “Plane Crazy,...

"Mickey is a thing we all share. There aren't many of those around…" Disney has revealed the full-length official trailer for a documentary film titled Mickey: The Story of a Mouse, one of their latest in-house doc offerings for streaming on Disney+. This originally premiered at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival earlier this year, and also played at the Long Beach Film Festival during the summer. Once upon a time, there was a mouse… Mickey Mouse is one of the most enduring symbols in human history. Those three simple circles take on meaning for virtually everyone on the planet. So ubiquitous in our lives that he can seem invisible, Mickey is something we all share, with unique memories and feelings. Over the course of his nearly century-long history, Mickey functions like a mirror, reflecting our personal and cultural values back at us. This doc explores his history. Featuring appearances by Eric Goldberg,...

The history of the world’s most famous mouse unfolds in Mickey: The Story of a Mouse. The Won’t You Be My Neighbor? team of director Jeff Malmberg and producer Morgan Neville dive into the origin of Mickey and examine the mouse’s lasting cultural impact.

Mickey Mouse’s story arrives on Disney+ on Mickey’s birthday, November 18th.

Interview subjects include Eric Goldberg, Mark Henn, Randy Haycock, Floyd Norman, Carmenita Higginbotham, Rebecca Cline, and Kevin Kern. Meghan Walsh and Chris Shellen are involved as producers, and Caitrin Rogers executive produces.

Disney+ released the following description of Mickey: The Story of a Mouse:

“One of the world’s most beloved icons, Mickey Mouse is recognized as a symbol of joy and childhood innocence in virtually every corner of the globe. Dreamed up at a low point in Walt Disney’s burgeoning career, Mickey became an overnight sensation when he...

Mickey Mouse’s birthday is coming up, and Disney is celebrating the occasion with the release of Mickey: The Story of a Mouse, a documentary chronicling the creation and legacy of the character that started it all for the unstoppable studio. To create hype for the documentary, Disney released a Mickey: The Story of a Mouse trailer detailing the impact Mickey has had on generations of fans and how the character stands as a symbol of hope in dark times.

Jeff Malmberg directs Mickey: The Story of a Mouse, with Morgan Neville, Meghan Walsh, and Chris Shellen producing. Caitrin Rogers executive produces, with Eric Goldberg, Mark Henn, Randy Haycock, Floyd Norman, Carmenita Higginbotham, Rebecca Cline, and Kevin Kern participating in the feature presentation.

Here’s the official description for Mickey: The Story of a Mouse:

One of the world’s most beloved icons, Mickey Mouse is recognized as a symbol...

Twenty years ago, “Kim Possible” creators Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle introduced the world to a high school cheerleader who saved the world in her spare time alongside her best friend Ron Stoppable and his naked mole rat, Rufus.

The series turned the damsel in distress trope on its head, putting a heroine on the small screen at a time when most of the world-saving characters we knew were men (and they still are). Schooley and McCorkle told TheWrap that the original inspiration for the iconic character came from their daughters.

“When we were growing up, we would have these action heroes that we would worship. We looked at them and said, ‘Well, you know, it was always effortless for them.’ And it’s like, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to have a heroine where it’s effortless like that?’” McCorkle said. “There’s never a point where it’s like,...

The new series “Sketchbook” from Disney + takes animation fans and aspiring animators inside the world of creating some of the studio’s most beloved characters. From Olaf to the “Aladdin” Genie, animators share their life experiences and work within the studio as they are captured drawing these characters.

Animators Hyun-min Lee (“Frozen’s” Olaf) and Mark Henn (“The Lion King’s” Simba) share what it was like to be a part of this series.

What was it like to both be a part of this series and take us inside your world?

Mark Henn: It’s really neat because it’s such a fresh take on this age-old process of how to draw something. Both of us have done various incarnations of how to draw a character but this particular series really did it well. It’s more than just how to draw, it pulls the curtains back and goes...

Disney+’s new documentary series “Sketchbook” (now on Disney+) takes you inside the process of some of Disney’s most talented artists, watching them working and hearing their stories.

In some ways it’s not unlike the experience guests used to get at The Magic of Disney Animation that was a key part of Disney-mgm Studios (now Disney’s Hollywood Studios) in Florida. The attraction was the guest-facing extension of the Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida outpost, which was responsible for some of the animation in “The Lion King” and “Beauty and the Beast” and all of the animation for “Mulan,” “Lilo & Stitch” and “Brother Bear.”

One of the animators responsible for the success of the Florida studio was Mark Henn, an extremely gifted Disney animator who on “Sketchbook” shows you how to animate Young Simba. After the Florida studio closed up shop in 2004, he returned to Burbank and...

“Sketchbook,” Disney’s six-part documentary series devoted to the art of hand-drawn animation (streaming April 27 on Disney+), arrives as the studio embarks on the welcome return of traditional 2D — just ahead of its 100th anniversary in 2023. Produced by the team behind “Chef’s Table” and Walt Disney Animation Studios (via executive producer Amy Astley), the series provides an intimate look at six Disney artists and their distinctive talents and passions as they draw favorite iconic characters. It’s more than instructional — it’s a journey into their styles and personalities and overcoming personal obstacles. Story artist Gabby Capili (“Encanto”) draws Kuzco from “The Emperor’s New Groove,” 2D animator-director Eric Goldberg draws The Genie from “Aladdin,” 2D animator Mark Henn draws Simba from “The Lion King,” visual development artist Jin Kim draws Captain Hook from “Peter Pan,” supervising animator Hyun Min Lee draws Olaf from “Frozen,” and story artist Samantha Vilfort...

Sketchbook Trailer — Disney+‘s Sketchbook (2022) TV mini-series trailer has been released. The Sketchbook trailer stars Eric Goldberg, Samantha Vilfort, Hyun Min Lee, Gabby Capili, Jin Kim, and Mark Henn. Crew Name Leanne Dare, Andrew McAllister, and Jason Sterman directed Sketchbook. Michael Dean Parsons and Scott Michael Smith created the music for the film. [...]

Continue reading: Sketchbook (2022) TV Mini-series Trailer: The Disney Doc Provides an Insiders Look at Animators & Their Craft...

There are few figures in popular culture that carry as much raw emotional power as Mickey Mouse.

As a character, Mickey Mouse has engendered love and laughter from countless viewers for more than 90 years in popular culture. As a corporate symbol, Mickey Mouse has elicited more complicated emotions. Both are grappled with in “Mickey: The Story of a Mouse,” a new documentary that will debut at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, on Saturday and will be headed to Disney+ later this year.

Director Jeff Malmberg wrestles with the uber-Mickey – the Mickey that embodies the American ideals of optimism and kindness, and the Mickey that stands for some occasionally iffy practices by a multinational corporation. Along the way, he also dips into the ways that Mickey has changed throughout the years, from his feisty early years to having his edges sanded off as he became an icon more than...

Starz has unveiled the trailer and key art for “Gaslit,” its limited series that tackles the Watergate scandal. The show focuses on the perspective of Martha Mitchell (Julia Roberts), the wife of Richard Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell (Sean Penn). “Gaslit” will debut on Starz’s digital platform at midnight on April 24, with a linear debut the same day at 8 p.m. Et.

Roberts is on fire in the trailer, Arkansas accent and all, as a political storm swirls around her, and Penn is nearly unrecognizable in his prosthetics and hair pieces. At one point, John slaps Martha across the face, to which she responds by slapping him back, adding, “My momma slapped me harder than that.”

Martha was the first person to publicly blow the whistle on Nixon’s involvement in the infamous scandal, which kicked off an avalanche of political and personal consequences. John was Nixon’s close advisor and friend,...

Anyone who has ever been enchanted by a Disney animated film at a young age has also probably tried to draw their favorite character from that film, to admittedly mixed results. Disney+’s new documentary series “Sketchbook” aims to instruct viewers on how to draw those classic Disney characters, with the lesson being given by the animators themselves.

The new series, from “Chef’s Table” production company Supper Club and “Into the Unknown: The Making of Frozen 2” producer Amy Astley, in partnership with Walt Disney Animation Studios, centers on various characters from a range of periods in Disney history – newer characters like Mirabel from “Encanto” and Olaf from “Frozen” and more classic characters like the Genie from “Aladdin” and Captain Hook from “Aladdin.” Plus Kuzco from “The Emperor’s New Groove” (a deliciously out-of-left field choice).

Among the animators chosen for the documentary are Disney legends like Eric Goldberg and Mark Henn,...

Brittney Lee has become something of a rock star artist for Walt Disney Animation Studios. Joining the studio 10 years ago on the strength of a design portfolio she put together in her off-time while working as an animator on an online multiplayer game, she’s worked on most of the studio’s features and shorts since 2011’s “Wreck It Ralph.” “Frozen,” however, holds a special place in the Pennsylvania native’s heart. In addition to her work on the 2013 Oscar-winner, she brought a mix of mid-century art influences as well as an interest in paper-cut art, aka quilling, to the first feature, a “Frozen” children’s book she illustrated, and to “Frozen II.” The visual development artist and production designer also jumped into the unknown waters of Vr as production designer on the Ves Award-nominated “Myth: A Frozen Tale.”

What are your artistic influences?

Oh, it’s all over the place.

CineMovie sat down with The Little Mermaid's director Ron Clements and animation supervisor and Ariel's creator Mark Henn to talk about the 30th anniversary of the Disney classic coming to Walt Disney Signature Collection. During our day at Disney, we learned that Ariel was almost blonde and Flounder's big character arc was eventually deleted. The duo reveal the behind the scenes reasons for those changes. Watch below. ...

In “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” Ralph (John C. Reilly) and Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) come to the realization that they each have different needs and that the world is quickly changing around them, including the Millennial role of the Disney Princesses.

Similarly, Disney Animation is coping with change as well, led by Jennifer Lee as the new chief creative officer, who succeeds the legendary yet embattled John Lasseter. Though continuing to balance legacy with innovation, there’s now an important opportunity to embrace greater inclusion and diversity at the studio, breaking up the old boy’s club by empowering more women and people of color from top to bottom.

“I think there is great change going on at the studio,” said “Ralph” director Rich Moore. “It’s that feeling of ‘we’re still trying to do the same things, but different.’ Jen is doing a great job as our creative leader...

The hilarious sequence from “Ralph Breaks the Internet” (November 21), where spunky Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) bonds with the beloved Disney princesses, has already withstood controversy, but remains a standout, meta moment.

It brilliantly pokes fun of the legacy while making the princesses more relatable as misfits like Vanellope. However, a fan backlash ensued with the release of a publicity still in August showing Tiana (“The Princess and the Frog”) with lighter skin color and a thinner nose compared to what the she looked like in the original hand-drawn feature. But after meeting with actress Anika Noni Rose (who voiced Tiana) and members of Color of Change, which champions proper racial representation, Disney responded immediately and reanimated Tiana to better resemble her original appearance.

The transition from 2D to CG was already tricky, along with variable lighting. Plus the fact that the princesses were further stylized in the manner of the Oh My Disney online site.

Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 has come under fire for making the skin tone on Princess Tiana lighter and giving her a smaller nose from the original animated version in The Princess and the Frog. Fans noticed right away that Tiana did not look the same and started criticizing the studio on social media. It had been rumored that Disney was going back to fix the problem after the complaints started to roll in, and voice actress Anika Noni Rose has confirmed that the studio is in the process of reanimating her Princess Tiana character to get her back to normal.

Anika Noni Rose posted a lengthy message on social media to announce that she was working with Disney to fix the problem, which is featured in the popular Disney Princesses scene from Wreck-It Ralph 2. The studio agreed to redraw Princess Tiana after lightening her skin and changing her facial features.

Actress Anika Noni Rose released a statement Tuesday revealing that approached Disney about changes made to Princess Tiana’s skin color and facial features for “Wreck It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet.” Last week, Disney announced that it restored Princess Tiana’s original features following massive public outcry, but it is now clear that Rose played a pivotal role in affecting that change. Introduced in 2009’s “The Princess and the Frog,” Tiana is the first and only black Disney Princess. Her likeness was based on Rose herself, as she revealed in a statement made on Twitter.

“While making “The Princess and the Frog,” she said, animator Mark Henn based the character’s look on Rose, and asked her if there were any features she wanted Tiana to have. “Among the first things I said were a round nose, full lips, and that she be left-handed,” said Rose. She added...

The voice behind Princess Tiana is speaking out about the controversy surrounding her beloved character’s skin tone in the new Wreck-It Ralph movie.

Anika Noni Rose, who voiced Tiana in 2008’s The Princess and the Frog, posted a lengthy message on her Instagram late Monday night explaining how she was “as surprised” as fans were to see Disney’s first African-American Disney princess with “lighter skin and much sharper features” in a teaser for the new movie, Ralph Breaks the Internet.

“Aside from my personal feelings, I noted how people felt online (and in my dms) and I was...

Annecy, France — In one of the week’s most highly-anticipated presentations, “Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2,” Disney presented five previously unseen clips from Disney’s upcoming blockbuster at the Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival.

In the first installment of the series, released in 2012, Ralph starts our as the maligned baddie in the fictional classic arcade game “Fix it Felix,” where it is his job to destroy buildings before the much-loved hero Felix can repair them.

Not content with his dastardly role, Ralph sets out to become a hero, and along the way meets the glitchy Vanellope Von Schweetz. The two share a series of adventures and become BFFs through their shared adversity.

In the second film, the action kicks off when the now seemingly-perfect world that Ralph and Vanellope have built for themselves is threatened by a broken steering wheel on the Sugar Rush game Vanellope calls home. If...

Simon Brew Dec 18, 2017

With new exclusive behind the scenes pictures, director Kevin Lima takes us through Enchanted, as it hits its 10th birthday.

It’s been ten years since the terrific Enchanted arrived in UK cinemas, just under two months after it premiered at the London Film Festival. The film made a star of Amy Adams, brought back 2D animation from Disney to the big screen, and has a songbook that sits happily alongside the top end of Disney work. Plus, the film remains a flat out family treat.

“It has been a long time” Lima chuckled, apologising in advance if he couldn’t recall all the answers I was after. Turns out he didn’t do too badly. He spared me some time to look back over the film, the challenges of making it, and what happened next…

I’ve only just discovered that Enchanted actually had its premiere in the UK!

When it comes to The Lion King, two words immediately come to mind: Hakuna Matata! It means no worries for the rest of your days while also symbolizing a Disney movie that quickly became a classic after its release back in 1994. As the D23 Expo continues at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim this weekend, event organizers are celebrating the film as excitement only builds for the remake hitting theaters in 2019. The panel appropriately titled "Celebration of an Animated Classic: The Lion King" will feature producer Don Hahn, director Rob Minkoff, animators Tony Bancroft and Mark Henn and many more special guests. Before the party kicks off, we decided to take a look at just how...

The Walt Disney Studios presents an exclusive look at its unparalleled film slate at D23 Expo 2017 in Anaheim, California, taking place July 14-16. At two marquee Hall D23 presentations, the Studio will give fans a behind-the-scenes glimpse at its upcoming releases, with animated films from Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios showcased on Friday, July 14, and live-action projects from Disney, Marvel Studios, and Lucasfilm taking the stage on Saturday, July 15.

Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm are responsible for some of the world's biggest movie hits, including recent blockbusters such as Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and The Jungle Book; Walt Disney Animation Studios' Zootopia and Moana, Pixar Animation Studios' Inside Out, Finding Dory, and Cars 3; Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Doctor Strange, and Captain America: Civil War; and Lucasfilm's Star Wars: The Force Awakens...

Moana is the story of a young Polynesian heir ineffably drawn to the one thing that her community opposes: venturing out into the ocean, like the little mermaid was so drawn to land, like a monster to Boo, and like an ambitious rat was to the culinary arts.

Moana Head of Animation Hyrum Osmand (Zootopia, Frozen, Wreck It Ralph, Tangled) and Story Artist David Derrick Jr. (How To Train Your Dragon, Flushed Away, Bee Movie) talked with the press in a roundtable before speaking to the visual arts students at the University of Denver. Tucked away in a corner of the university, David tapped into what made Moana so personal to him, allowing him to segue easily into the film’s themes of Polynesian ancestry and culture while Hyrum explored the unique challenges this particular film offered Disney’s elite animators.

Q.Michael J. Casey [Boulder Weekly]: On the Oceanic Story Trust.

A quarter-century ago, Disney gave book-lovers a leading lady they could really relate to. Belle became an immediate favorite for any girl who, like Belle, would rather have her nose stuck in a book than doing just about anything else. Beauty and the Beast is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with a new home video release of the film. On that edition, there are over five hours of bonus materials from previous releases and a handful of new featurettes — including a couple that the folks who are bookworm Disney fans will particularly enjoy. One featurette spotlights Walt Disney’s two-month trip to Europe in 1935, where he bought 335 books; many of them are those tales as old as time: fairy tale collections that are still in Disney’s archives and that inspired later Disney films. In another featurette, called “Menken & Friends: 25 Years of Musical Inspiration,” Beauty and the Beast’s...

The premiere of Disney’s live-action take on Beauty and the Beast is just over six months away, and the new Belle has yet to have a face-to-face encounter with the original Belle. Paige O’Hara, who voiced the kindhearted, book-loving Disney princess in the animated movie, hasn’t met Emma Watson, but she told me, “I can’t wait to meet her,” when I interviewed the Disney icon last week. Most of my chat with her and Belle lead animator Mark Henn was about the 1991 film for its 25th anniversary (I’ll have more of that interview to share with you later), but we also looked forward to the upcoming live-action movie. “She’s perfect casting,” O’Hara gushed about the Harry Potter alum. Watson got her predecessor’s stamp of approval earlier this year when O’Hara told BuzzFeed, “She’s got the outward beauty, but she’s...

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs is a true Hollywood classic. Released for the first time in December 1937. the first full-length Disney feature is a brilliant portrayal of the brothers Grimm’s chilling tale of an evil queen and the beautiful Snow White. The film reflects many of the social conditions of the time; the depression had just passed and songs such as “whistle while you work” were intended to promote a strong work ethic to the young children of America. The budget of the film was a staggering $500,000, around double the cost of an average film, yet the payoff was huge as this was the film that launched Disney’s decades-long domination of the animated features market.

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs arrives on Blu-ray February 2nd in a new two disc set packaged in a slipcover that replicates the artwork beneath. This is not the first release of the film.

Disney is bringing their treasure trove of their short films from the last deacde and a half to blu-ray/DVD for you and your family to enjoy together in one complete set. Come inside to learn more about the shorts being collected!

With each new release, Disney continues their tradition of having a short animated film play before their movies, and now they're brining all of their latest (including this year's Frozen Fever) together in one collection on Blu-Ray/DVD...and it's available Now!

From Walt Disney Animation Studios comes an extraordinary new collection of award-winning and beloved short films featuring the never-before-released Frozen Fever, starring Frozen's Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Sven and Kristoff, and the Oscar®-nominated Lorenzo. The Short Films Collection features contemporary shorts starring classic characters, including the 2012 groundbreaking Mickey Mouse cartoon, Get A Horse!, holiday treats like Prep & Landing: Operation Secret Santa as well as hailed Oscar® winners Paperman and Feast.

(Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)

Filmmakers from Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios introduced D23 Expo 2015 fans to an array of new stories and characters—from a lost dinosaur to a master wayfinder, a scheming fox to a forgetful fish.

The audience of 7,500 was treated to sneak peeks, musical performances and appearances from stars like Ellen DeGeneres, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, Ginnifer Goodwin, Dwayne Johnson, Randy Newman and Ty Burrell, among others.

John Lasseter, chief creative officer of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, led the presentations, calling on a host of filmmakers from both studios to introduce the upcoming slate of films. “We really have an unbelievable range of movies in production at our studios right now,” said Lasseter. “The stories are dynamic, fresh and so much fun; the characters new and old are so appealing. I’m excited to share some of our long-held...

Just a heads up -- in case you can't get to Walt Disney's D23 Expo in Anaheim, CA from August 14-16 -- heaps of new Lucasfilm, Pixar, Marvel and Disney movie intel will be coming out of the event, so put yourself on standby for cool previews.

Disney just shared a press release with the 2015 schedule. You'll see it's noted that "a bevy of special guests will be on hand to offer a look at an unparalleled slate that includes Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Jungle Book, Marvel's Captain America: Civil War, Star Wars: The Force Awakens-and much, much more." Also, "Filmmakers will unveil never-before-seen footage from Pixar's upcoming The Good Dinosaur and Finding Dory and Disney Animation's Zootopia and Moana." So if those movies, and all Disney/Pixar projects, are of interest to you, just know some good teases should be coming out of this.

Here's the...

Walt Disney Studios offers an exclusive look at its upcoming projects from Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm at D23 Expo 2015, taking place August 14-16 at the Anaheim Convention Center. The Studio will unveil its animation and live-action film slates via two huge Hall D23 presentations featuring surprise guests and many unforgettable moments. Other not-to-be-missed events include a Frozen FANdemonium musical celebration with Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez and the 20th anniversary celebration of Disney Pixar's Toy Story with John Lasseter and the original Pixar crew.

Hall D23 Presentations:

Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios: The Upcoming Films, Hosted by John Lasseter - Friday, August 14, 3:00 pm - Hall D23

After meeting the Emotions inside the mind of an 11-year-old, taking a trip to San Fransokyo, where a boy genius and his robot save the world, and falling in love with a queen with icy powers who wants to "let it go,...

Big Hero 6, Disney’s all new animated film based off of the comic book series published by Marvel Comics, is set to release on November 7, 2014 but Wamg was lucky enough to get a sneak peek. A few weeks ago, I attended an early press day for the film where a small group of journalists were shown scenes from the film. While there, we also talked with Chris Williams (Director), Don Hall (Director), Jin Kim (Character Design Supervisor), Kyle Odermatt (Visual Effects Supervisor), Lorelay Bove (Visual Development Artist), Mark Henn (Lead 2D Animator), Michael Franceschi (Animation Supervisor), Michael Kaschalk (Head of Effects), Nathan Curtis (Effects Production Supervisor), Nathan Engelhardt (Animation Supervisor), Paul Briggs (Head of Story), Paul Felix (Production Designer), Robert L Baird (Screenplay By), Roy Conli (Producer), Shiyoon Kim (Lead Character Designer) and Zach Parrish (Head of Animation) about their role in bringing the story, characters and world of Big Hero 6 to life.

Walt Disney avoided mixing religion and film, but the company is starting to embrace more Christian undertones

A Southern Baptist university professor in Texas is suggesting that Disney's animated feature Frozen, now doing well at the box office and just nominated for two Academy Awards, "might be the most Christian movie that I have seen this year". In fact, he says, it may be "a better allegory for the Christian gospel than Cs Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" – borderline blasphemy for many believers.

Collin Garbarino, assistant professor of history at Houston Baptist University, acknowledges that if he were to press his point of view of the film, which is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Snow Queen, his faculty colleagues "might run me out of the university on a rail".

The reason his take on Frozen is potentially incendiary, and at least ironic, is...

I really don't put much stock in the International Animated Film Society's 2013 Annie Awards, which is why I didn't rush to report on their results on Saturday. One year Disney and Pixar boycott the event, feeling there was an unfair advantage paid to larger contributing sponsors, DreamWorks being the primary example. So with such a nasty stench over the event what good does it do to pay it much mind? That said, I'll be brief in mentioning Wreck-It Ralph topped Saturday night's winners with five awards, including Best Animated Picture. The awards have something like a 75% streak when it comes to helping predict the eventual Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature and as the days have gone on, it's looking more and more like Ralph will be this year's winner (see my predictions here). Pixar's Brave, Laika's ParaNorman and DreamWorks' Rise of the Guardians each took home two awards in lesser,...

Disney's "Wreck-It-Ralph" was the big winner at the 40th Annie Awards held Saturday taking home the Best Animated Feature award. It is now officially the Oscar frontrunner in the Best Animated Film category.

Here's the complete list of winners/nominees; for winners/nominees of other award-giving bodies this season, click here:

Animated Feature

"Brave" . Pixar Animation Studios

"Frankenweenie" . Walt Disney Studios

"Hotel Transylvania" . Sony Pictures Animation

"ParaNorman" . Focus Features

"Rise of the Guardians" . DreamWorks Animation

"The Pirates! Band of Misfits" . Aardman Animations

"The Rabbi.s Cat ". Gkids

Winner "Wreck-It Ralph" . Walt Disney Animation Studios

Animated Special Production

"Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1" . Warner Bros. Animation

"Before Orel" . Trust . Starburns Industries, Inc.

Winner "Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem" . Illumination Entertainment

"Disney Tron: Uprising . Beck.s Beginning" . Disney TV Animation

"Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury" . DreamWorks Animation

"Justice League: Doom" . Warner Bros. Animation

Animated Short Subject

"Brad and Gary" . Illumination...