Theme Park Favorites Photoshoot
Austin and I decided to break the Theme Park Favorites out of their open window cages and take them around Downtown Disney for some photos.
Red Car Trolley Rolls Out at California Adventure
While it isn’t Walt Disney World related, we are currently out at California Adventure covering the opening of Cars Land and Buena Vista Street for Disneyland News Today and figured this might be interesting to share with the Florida crowd. I’m beginning my plea for Disney’s Hollywood Studios to add a running Red Car Trolley after experiencing the attraction’s grand opening this week in California. Here’s a video so you can see for yourself:
For complete and continuing coverage of everything going on at the Disneyland Resort, please visit DisneylandNewsToday.com/DCAlive now through June 20th.
Pixar 1: Sneak Peak at the 11 Figures
We were sent this picture of a wrapped (presumably the display figures) set of 11 Pixar 1 figures:
This does confirm the the 4 rumored figures we have not seen yet. From top left: Dug, Chuckles, King Fergus, Filmore, Nemo, Captain McCrea, Mr. Incredible, Remy, Flick, Mike and Jackalope. The set releases on November 16 at D-Streets, Online and presumably Disney Stores.
Dirk Wallen’s 6/17/12 Downtown Disney Photo Report
WDWNT Reporter Dirk Wallen visited Downtown Disney on Sunday and has a few newsworthy photos to share with us from his trip:
The new volcano rises at Rainforest Cafe
Adventurer’s Club still closed…
Work continues on Splitsville at Downtown Disney
Cool new shirts
FATHER’S DAY DUFFY
Another cool pair of shirts
Extended Hours for November 2 WDW Trade Night
Update: 11/01/12 Since we first brought you this news about extended hours, the Vinylmation Events page has re affirmed the 4-9pm trading hours and the apparent use of all the Ballrooms (plural). Again we ask why? A good thing for sure, but is it just for extra room or some kind of entertainment, artist signing or release? I’m also thinking maybe a larger mobile store with on sale Vinyls to sell off extra D-Street inventory?
We have been waiting since Mickey’s Circus four the Walt Disney World’s next trading night on November 2nd, and according to Disney’s pin blog, the hours have been extended to give guests two extra hours of trading! The event will now take place from 4-9pm at the Contemporary Resort. As always, these bi-monthly trading nights are FREE to all guests and select Vinylmation and Pins should be on sale. This is the first time I’ve seen the hours extended like this. I wish the extension went an hour or two later as opposed to earlier. Due to work, the extension doesn’t help me, but will you be getting there earlier to trade? Will you try to make it the entire five hours? Come early, take a break and go back for the end? Just so you know this was not a misprint, they specifically called out the time extension:
“In order to provide more hours of fun, we are starting the November 2nd pin trading night event at 4:00pm!”
Also of note, and this one may be a misprint, they say the event will take place at: “Disney’s Contemporary Resort – Fantasia A-G Ballroom.” A-G? Are they extending the trading space for us?
Barney’s Electric Holiday Backlash
As November approaches and as I already see TV shows inundated with Christmas commercials, the Disney / Barney’s Electric Holiday partnership we talked about a few months back sprung to mind. In that announcement, we learned about a couple Vinylmation and other merchandise designed with a high fashion theme in mind.
For more on the Vinylmation and the product line itself, please check out Zoe’s article here. The reason I’m bringing this up today is because I decided to Google the line to see if i could find any updated information about the November 14 expected release date. I did not. Instead, what I did find, were a ton of columns from various blogs and news sites that talked about people’s negative reaction to this Minnie Mouse design that is used in the product line.
The critiques say this promotes an unfair version of the female form that can negatively impact a child’s self esteem. I sincerely do understand the concerns of parents, but the above is purely meant to be a fun art style giving Disney fan’s classic characters in forms they are not used to. It should not be pulled from the campaign as many suggest. It is a very creative and stylistic design that has many Disney fans excited for something new. And in fact, as Zoe brought to my attention when I showed her these articles, this is not something entirely new. Minnie has been characterized similar to this before. And the merchandise is sold at Disney Stores and Parks.
Here are some new images Disney/Barney’s released. They include scenes from the video the public will see on November 14. Disney and Barney’s felt they needed to show more about this ad campaign and put it all in context.
Closing scene from video
You can Google “Barney’s Electric Holiday Minnie” to see the opposition news articles I am talking about, but I wanted to post both Barney’s and Disney’s response to the critiques. It is a bit of a shame that they had to unveil the end of the November 14 video early just to try to quell some of the opposition.
From the Disney Post; The Official Blog of the Walt Disney Company:
(October 12, 2012) In August, we announced “Electric Holiday,” a project with Barneys New York. The one-time holiday promotion includes a moving art video that was designed to be a playful interpretation of the fashion world where Minnie Mouse briefly imagines what it would be like if she and her friends were a part of that high fashion world. The images shown during the brief dream sequence in the moving art video are highly stylized interpretations of these artistic characters. In the end, the video concludes with Minnie returning back to her classic self happily wearing a Lanvin designer dress.
We know many of our fans were intrigued with this news, and we wanted to give the behind-the-scenes story firsthand and provide insight into how we developed the creative concepts. I sat down with Luis Fernandez, senior vice president of global creative at Disney Consumer Products, to give us the scoop.
Nidia: Luis, we know that fans all over the world have an emotional connection to Disney characters. What can you tell Disney fans about how these stylized looks for “Electric Holiday” came to be?
Luis: “Electric Holiday” is a fun and colorful campaign that gave our character artists the creative liberty to do something artistic and completely unique. The elongated poses of Disney characters, including Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Goofy and Cruella de Vil, are dramatically stylized. They’re creative interpretations from a fashion lens, and only appear for a few seconds in this video. Their true form remains as classic as ever in every aspect of the company. A project like “Electric Holiday” is the kind of creative challenge which forces one to stretch the imagination while proceeding with caution. We know we have to be respectful of who these characters are and what they mean to us and to millions of people.
N: There is a scene in the moving art video when Minnie Mouse is transported into a fantasy world where literally anything is possible. Can you elaborate on that?
L: As we see Minnie gazing at a Paris travel poster, a dream sequence takes us into her mind – a fantasy world where she imagines herself as a fashion model on a Paris runway show, and we see her getting styled by the best in the fashion industry. Although Minnie is in her classic form for most of the piece, she does go through a dream portal at one point where she takes on this stylized fashion model form for just a few seconds. In the end, we see her happily back to her classic form still wearing her designer dress, designed by Alber Elbaz for Lanvin.
One of our more difficult challenges was bringing the two separate worlds of Disney and couture fashion together in a believable manner. Our solution was to have the characters pass through a magical portal as they step out onto the runway.
N: Sounds like a labor of love – a lot of passion, imagination and creative integrity went into the development process. What else is in store that fans can look forward to?
L: “Electric Holiday” will also feature a range of exclusive, limited-edition Disney holiday gifts that is just as magical as the creative itself and includes Vinylmation figures designed by Paul Smith and Diane von Furstenberg, Mickey Mouse ears designed by Rag & Bone and L’Wren Scott, and smaller items such as holiday ornaments, edible sweets, and much more. We also created original and exclusive artwork that will be featured on special Barneys shopping bags available with all in-store and Barneys.com purchases during the holiday season.
From The Window; Barney’s Official Blog:
The “Electric Holiday” campaign is to feature a video in which Minnie fantasizes about modeling in Paris.
Most of the video’s three minutes, Barneys has said, will show Minnie with her familiar proportions. But for a 5-second dream sequence on the catwalk, Minnie is stretched tall and thin because, as Barneys Creative Director Dennis Freedman initially explained, “The standard Minnie Mouse will not look so good in a Lanvin dress.” Mickey, Goofy, Daisy and other Disney characters will be refashioned similarly.
In August, Barneys New York announced Electric Holiday, a special holiday project with the Walt Disney Company. The one-time only holiday program includes a moving art video that is conceived to be a playful interpretation of the high fashion world, where Minnie Mouse briefly imagines what it would be like if she and her friends were a part of a European fashion show. The 3-minute video maintains Minnie in her classic self, aside from the brief dreamlike runway sequence. Our intention was to keep the end of the short a surprise until its release on November 14th, but we can reveal it ends happily with Minnie—in her classic form—wearing the same designer dress she models on the runway.
We assure you Minnie is empowered throughout the video, seen throughout Paris in her classic form being photographed by legendary fashion photographers, styled by renowned hair and makeup artists and dressed by a top fashion designer.
While it is unfortunate the sketches that were intended to be concept art have been taken out of context, Barneys New York is fully committed to the magical spirit of “Electric Holiday.” We stand by the statement released by Disney and Barneys New York and we are confident our lighthearted holiday project along with the video’s positive message will be embraced by not only the fashion world, but Disney fans alike.
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm, Check Out Noah’s Festival of the Masters Custom
The 2012 Festival of the Masters takes place November 9-11 at WDW’s Downtown Disney. Once again, Noah will be among the artists with work on display and for sale. That collection of work will include some custom Vinylmation.
Noah calls his latest creation “Crash Test Dummy.” As you can see, it comes on a custom road sign base. There will be twelve 9″ versions available for $650 each and twelve 3″ versions for $150 each.
Andy’s Toys Arrive For U.S. Play Date
Today, the series of 4 Vinylmation designed to look like Andy’s crayon drawings from the Toy Story films where released at D-Streets.
They retail for $12.95 each and were originally available in Japan to commemorate the opening of Tokyo’s Toy Story Midway Mania attraction. Also released today was the 9″ Park 11 Grizzly Peak designed by Casey Jones.
It is an LE 800 and retails for $44.95.
Picture of New Passholder Figure is Floating Around the Web
Thanks to a friend for pointing us toward this photo of the previously unknown Annual Passholder 3″ figure that is due out on November 2 for $14.95 at both D-Streets.
This same picture has been used in a few eBay pre-sale auction already. The photo is not credited but appears to be taken at the D-Street Orlando upcoming figures display case. You can see Walt Disney World printed on the balloon, I would assume the DLR version is identical except for Disneyland printed on it. This figure represents a gathering of the iconic Mickey head shaped balloons inside a balloon sold on Main Street USA.
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DLR Passholder Variant Revealed
Like we conjectured on the podcast (which isn’t even out yet!) Disneyland will be getting a variant of the WDW Passholder vinylmation. Not only will the writing be changed to reflect the other park, the top balloon will also be a different color! The DLR one is yellow, the WDW is blue.
What do you think of these vinyls? Will you get both? Only one? Will the other parks get these too, like the Celebrations First Visit Balloons?