While visiting the Magic Kingdom yesterday, WDWNT Reporter Joe Hogarty couldn’t help but notice that the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was being tested with trains full of weights. With more of the construction walls coming down yesterday, we can get a clear look at the trains running through most of the outdoor portion of the ride and see how they will swing and sway with guests inside:
Running now through May 14, 2014, Disney’s Best Moment Ever sweepstakes is now accepting entries from fans competing to win a trip for 4 to The Walt Disney World Resort. All they have to do is share a photo and a caption of one of their favorite moments.
Every Disney Princess has had their best moment ever. Merida was able to change her fate, Tiana realized her dream of opening her own restaurant, and Rapunzel finally made it to see the sky lanterns. Now, you can share your best moment ever for a chance to win a Walt Disney World Resort vacation and participate in the Disney Royal Family 5K.
To enter, submit a photo that portrays a moment of achievement in any activity (recreational, educational or a significant moment in time). Along with your photo, submit a caption that best describes your moment in less than 140 characters. You can check out examples in the Best Moment Ever Photo Gallery and for more detailed instructions, visit Disney.com/BestMomentEver and read the official rules.
Entrants will have a chance to win 1 of 5 prizes:
1 GRAND PRIZE WINNER will receive a 4 days/3 nights Disney Parks Vacation for 4 to The Walt Disney World® Resort:
1 FIRST PRIZE WINNER will receive a $1,000 Disney Store shop card
3 SECOND PRIZE WINNERS will receive a $100 Disney Store shop card
Go to Disney.com/BestMomentEver to submit your entry today.
The Walt Disney Studios has released a new featurette from the upcoming live-action film Maleficent, which releases May 30, 2014.
Check out the featurette, titled “The Legacy” that explores the filmmaker’s and Angelina Jolie’s approach to creating the back story of Maleficent:
Maleficent stars Angelina Jolie as Maleficent, Sharlto Copley, Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple and Lesley Manville and is directed by Robert Stromberg,
If you’ve been to Epcot over the last few days, you probably couldn’t help seeing this…
When this strange pattern started to appear on the exteriors of the Innoventions buildings, we assumed they were testing paint schemes they might be interested in. It seems this may actually be the desired result…
It’s definitely on the odd side, but I don’t think it looks terrible. It will certainly be interesting to see what the final product looks like…
What do you think?
Amateur pitchers everywhere will have a chance to prove they have the fastball skills to win a $1 million prize in a competition to celebrate the opening of Disney’s Million Dollar Arm which releases May 16, 2014.
Million Dollar Arm is an incredible true story about two young men who went from never throwing a baseball to getting a Major League tryout.
Contestants will be able to test their skills at the Downtown Disney District in Anaheim, Calif., ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at the Walt Disney World® Resort in Florida or the Tribeca Family Festival in New York on April 25 & 26 from 7:00a.m. to 6:00p.m. The three contestants from each location who throw the fastest pitches will advance to the finals and have a chance to compete for a $1 million prize at the world premiere of Disney’s Million Dollar Arm in Hollywood on May 6.
Official contest rules are available on Disney.com’s Million Dollar Arm website located at http://disney.com/PitchingContest
Based on a true story, Million Dollar Arm is the story of how sports agent JB Bernstein (Jon Hamm) finds that business has changed and things aren’t going well for his career. In a desperate effort to save his livelihood he concocts a scheme to find baseball’s next great pitching ace. Hoping to find a young cricket pitcher he can turn into a major league baseball star, JB travels to India to produce a reality show competition called “The Million Dollar Arm.” With the help of cantankerous but eagle-eyed retired baseball scout Ray Poitevint (Alan Arkin), he discovers Dinesh (played by Madhur Mittal from Slumdog Millionaire) and Rinku (played by Suraj Sharma from Life of Pi), two 18-year-old boys who have no idea about playing baseball, yet have a knack for throwing a fastball. Hoping to sign them to major league contracts and make some fast money, JB brings the boys home to America to train. While the Americans are definitely out of their element in India, the boys, who have never left their rural villages, are likewise challenged when they come to the States. As the boys learn the finer points of baseball, JB, with the help of his charming friend Brenda (Lake Bell), learns valuable life lessons about teamwork, commitment and what it means to be a family.
Directed by Craig Gillespie, Disney’s Million Dollar Arm stars Jon Hamm, Aasif Mandvi, Bill Paxton, Suraj Sharma, Lake Bell and Alan Arkin. Disney’s Million Dollar Arm will be released in the United States on May 16, 2014.
On May 1st, 2014, Disney’s Hollywood Studios will celebrate its historic 25th anniversary in style with a plethora of exclusive commemorative merchandise items. Soundstage 1 between the Studio Backlot tour and Toy Story Midway Mania will be turned into a special merchandise location for the day and all of the following will be available:
Here are the men’s, women’s, and children’s shirts (including a polo shirt)
Keychain, pre-dressed Duffy the Disney Bear, messenger bag, logo pin, and “I Was There” pin
An assortment of other pins and pin accessories including an annual passholder pin and some open edition pins that will be available throughout 2014
A mystery pin collection featuring Disney characters
The Disney Parks online store will also carry the four shirts pictured in this story from May 1-5, 2014. The shirts will ship in 6-8 weeks once orders are completed (express shipping is not available). To order the shirts starting May 1, visit http://www.DisneyStore.com/ParkEvents.
WDWNT will be covering all of the festivities for the 15th anniversary of Disney’s Hollywood Studios on May 1st, so stay tuned!
With the anniversary of Disney’s Hollywood Studios just around the corner, we would like some help from you, our fans!
Over the past 25 years we’re sure you’ve made some memories or had something amazing happen at the Studios. We’d like for you to record yourself or write a paragraph describing a favorite memory or moment you’ve had at the Studios for us to play on WDWNTunes in celebration of this momentous occasion. If you submit a write-up of your memory, someone from WDWNT will record it for you.
Please include your name, where you’re from, and try to keep it to 2-3 minutes in length if you can. We’ll add some background audio and things of that sort for you. Please send all submissions to dhs25@wdwnt.com.
Thanks so much!
Disney finally released a video giving us our very first look at some of the audio-animatronic characters we will see when the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train opens in New Fantasyland next month. They are fairly amazing…
Similar to the Cars characters that appear in Radiator Springs Racers, the characters have fully audio-animatronic bodies, but the facial movements are all done via projection mapping (similar to the Celebrate the Magic show on Cinderella Castle). If these figures are any indication, we’re in for a true sleeper-hit.
The Walt Disney Studios has released a trailer for Disneynature’s eighth True Life Adventure – the follow-up to 2014’s Bears – titled Monkey Kingdom, that will be released for Earth Day in April 2015.
Check out the clip below:
Monkey Kingdom spotlights the gripping reality of a newborn monkey and its mother, struggling to survive within the competitive social hierarchy of the Temple Troop, a dynamic group of monkeys who live in ancient ruins found deep in the storied jungles of South Asia, alongside a rich cast of forest characters. It will take a lot of ingenuity and hard work if this little family hopes to change their place in the world.
Monkey Kingdom is directed by Mark Linfield and co-directed by Alastair Fothergill.
The Walt Disney Studio has released two new clips from the upcoming Disneynature film Bears, which releases on April 18, 2014.
Check out the two new clips below:
“Digging Up Clams”
“First Steps”
Bears is the fifth theatrical release for Disneynature, which is the first new Disney-branded film label from The Walt Disney Studios in more than 60 years. The label was launched in April 2008 to bring the world’s top nature filmmakers together to capture a variety of wildlife subjects and stories.
Disneynature’s Bears, a new True Life Adventure, is an epic story of breathtaking scale that showcases a year in the life of a bear family as two young cubs are taught life’s most important lessons. Set against a backdrop teeming with life, their journey begins as winter comes to an end and the bears emerge from hibernation to face the bitter cold. Bears captures the fast-moving action and suspense of life in one of the planet’s last great wildernesses—Alaska!
Directed by Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey, and narrated by John C. Reilly, Bears arrives in theaters April 18, 2014, to celebrate Earth Day.
