Disney movies & television

Blue Sky Disney has a list of live-action and animated feature films that the Walt Disney Company and its movie studios will likely release in the next two years. Among these movies are Pixar’s next CGI film Wall-E (2008), video-game based Prince of Persia (2009) and Jungle Cruise (2009), another adaption of a classic Disneyland ride. Most of the 23 films on the list are already in pre-production and are likely to make it to a theater near you. Read more

NDTV reports that the Walt Disney Company is quickly securing deals in India to get ready for the release of its Hollywood blockbusters there. Earlier Disney already tied up with Yash Raj films for its animated feature Roadside Romeo. The latest deal is with Shankar Ehsaan Loy for a Bollywood touch on High School Musical. Read more

The Walt Disney Company’s first non-Hollywood movie made more than $1 million at Chinese box offices in its first week. “The Secret of the Magic Gourd”, a mix of live action and CGI animation, is based on a famous Chinese children’s story by the late Chinese children’s writer Zhang Tianyi. It is about a boy who’s troubled by his magical vegetable, which steals from others to please him. Hong Kong special-effects studio Centro Digital Pictures, which worked on “Kill Bill,” made the movie.

In an interview with Daily Variety, John Lasseter, chief creative officer at Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Feature Animation, has said that the studio is dedicated to creating more original short films, but would also like to release classic Disney cartoons as preludes to animated features shown in theaters. Lasseter hasn’t said which titles he’d like to see back up on the big screen, but the sentiment is in keeping with his reported desire to bring Disney back to it roots and thrust 2D back into the spotlight. More »

Disney/Pixar’s Cars was nominated for two oscars today, in the categories best animated feature film and original song for Randy Newman’s “Our Town”. Two of Disney’s animated shorts were also nominated: Pixar’s ‘Lifted’ and Roger Allers’ The Little Matchgirl (view on YouTube). More »

This Saturday the Science Museum in London sees the opening of Pixar: 20 years of animation, with hundreds of artworks, models and digital paintings from the Pixar studios, as well as two amazing audiovisual experiences unique to the exhibition, which will run from 1 April to 10 June 2006. More »

After Disney’s acquisition of Pixar, new animation head John Lasseter is rounding up the animation talent that Michael Eisner had worked so hard on chasing away. This week Disney announced that it has signed on Alan Menken, John Musker and Ron Clements, who were behind such hits as The Little Mermaind and Aladdin. More »

Two years after Disney reported Home on the Range would be its final traditionally hand-drawn animated feature film, the company is reportedly returning to the art with their forthcoming feature, Enchanted, due to be released in 2007. More »

Disney released a trailer for their upcoming animated feature film The Wild, which comes out in the U.S. on April 14th (see other release dates). In this flm, a teenage lion is accidentally shipped from the New York Zoo to Africa. Now running free, his father, played by 24’s Kiefer Sutherland, and zoo pals must put aside their differences to help bring him back.

Along with Walt Disney Company’s first quarter results on February 6th, Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger announced that Pixar will take over production of Toy Story 3, and that Disney plans to release two Pixar films each year — an increase over Pixar’s earlier goal of one per year. More »