Yesterland: The Casablanca Plane Myth - Not A Myth After All?

Impressive detective work by Werner Weiss.

I don't think we'll ever have a definitive answer, but this makes sense.

First Thor Trailer

What an odd duck of a movie.

The trailer isn't very good, but I'm still enthusiastic about the finished film.

The 3D conversion is worrisome, though. The early work shown at Comic-Con San Diego back in July was pretty terrible.

Disney's Tangled Passes $100 Million in Domestic Box Office Receipts

Tangled's performance so far has been good, but it will be tested this weekend when the new Chronicles of Narnia film opens and jockeys for 3D screens.

Tangled has a listed production budget of $260 million, which is pretty ridiculous. That means it has to make about $500 million dollars to break even.

Gummi Bear 25th Anniversary Web Reuinion

Tomorrow, 11 December 2010, from 5-7 PM PST.

Jymn Magon:

As part of my “Restless Nights and Disney Afternoons” category, I am presenting my first live interview webinar – and this one is a doozy. It’s a reunion of the talented folks who helped create “Disney’s Adventures of THE GUMMI BEARS.” A 2-hour LIVE web event, featuring interviews plus unseen Gummi materials (photos, sketches, etc.)

Registration is $20 and limited to 50 participants.

I can't believe it's been 25 years.

Mickey's Toontown Fair Closes 11 Feb

To be honest, I wasn't sure they were ever going to close Mickey's Toontown Fair.

The area will become almost like a Dumbo mini-land, so it will be interesting to see how much of the tent structures are demolished or changed. My hope is that it will all be torn down, but it will not surprise me to see some remain.

Thor One-Sheet

First teaser poster for next year's Thor.

CALIFORNIA Letters to be Removed Starting 04 Jan, Buena Vista Street Construction to Begin in Earnest

I have heard the letters will be used somewhere in Southern California, outside of the Disneyland Resort.

Twilight Producer Signs Overall TV Deal at ABC

Deadline.com:

Temple Hill, producer of the hugely successful Twilight movie series, is making a big move in television, signing a two-year overall deal with ABC Studios. This is the first TV pact for Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen's Temple Hill, which will mark its fifth anniversary in February. Under the deal, Temple Hill will be developing and producing series projects for ABC Studios. First off is a contemporary re-imagening of Alexandre Dumas, pere's The Count of Monte Cristo.

ABC Reaches $200 Million, One-Year Agreement With Netflix

The Los Angeles Times' Company Town blog:

The Disney licensing arrangement would significantly broaden the entertainment options available to Netflix subscribers, allowing them for the first time to watch previous seasons of a number of ABC shows including "Grey's Anatomy," "Brothers & Sisters," and "Ugly Betty." In addition, Netflix will add the final season of "Lost," for which it previously streamed the first six seasons.

The video service will also have shows from the ABC Family and Disney Channel networks, including some shows that initially aired as recently as 15 days prior.

Cable and satellite companies must be clutching their hearts.

Jon Favreau Talks Magic Kingdom

I don’t think it’s going to be mixing all the other movies. I think it’s going to be its own thing; I don’t think it will be like Night at the Museum. I want to make it a little bit spookier like the old Disney movies were and try to really capture that tone...

Both this and Iron Man 3 are scheduled for 2013. Favreau isn't under contract for a third Iron Man film and, obviously, he can't do both.

Disneyland Paris in the Snow

Beautiful photos of Disneyland Paris covered in snow, plus some construction and news updates if you can read French.

The Original Disneyland Carousel of Progress Ending

From the video description:

The original ending to the Carousel of Progress as it was at Disneyland from 1967-1973. It was nearly identical to the 1964-1965 World's Fair ending.

Disney Moves New Muppet Film From Christmas to Thanksgiving

Press release via Deadline.com:

BURBANK, Calif. – December 8, 2010 – The Walt Disney Studios announced today that it has moved the release date for its upcoming The Muppets Movie to November 23, 2011. Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie the Bear, Gonzo, Animal and the rest of the gang will reunite in theaters just in time for the 2011 Thanksgiving holiday weekend. "Disney has had incredible success opening films over the Thanksgiving weekend, and thanks to Tangled, we have the top three Thanksgiving openers of all time,” said Chuck Viane, president of global distribution for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. “I have spoken with The Muppets, and we all agreed this comedy is a great fit for the holiday 2011 time frame.”

Pre-Visualization Work for Rapunzel Unbraided

A pre-visualization reel from 2005 from what was then called Rapunzel Unbraided. Work by Tony Hudson under the direction of Glen Keane.

You can see that the original version of the film shared a lot in common with Enchanted, released by Disney in 2007.

Earlier in 2007, Keane's film was scrapped and the film we now know as Tangled began to take shape.

AVClub: ABC News Names New President, The Guy Who Wrote Charlie St. Cloud

Ben Sherwood, former producer of Good Morning America, author of Charlie St. Cloud and total douche bag.

AV Club:

For those unfamiliar with Sherwood, over the summer The Awl had a comprehensive overview of all the reasons that people hate him, following the “child of privilege deeply disliked by his classmates” who earned the enmity of his entire Harvard class for his relentless résumé-building and “cynical social-climbing,” then moved on to exploiting his family connections to land jobs at the Los Angeles Times and CBS (“where he added Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather to his résumé as references”), and finally ended up writing novels about how life is just a game of catch with your dead ghost bro that became Zac Efron movies.

Disneyland Paris' First Christmas

Video from the official Disneyland Paris YouTube channel highlighting the Park's first Christmas in 1992.

Little Box of Treasures

Imagineering Disney:

Humor me as I share what might look like a pile of garbage. For me, this garbage represents a whole lot of theme park ingenuity and memories of getting my hands dirty early, early in the morning...

Tangled Drops 56%, Still Manages #1 For The Weekend

Decent, but not great.

$200 million is out of the question, but $150 is doable.