Disney will reveal some new “never before seen content” for its upcoming movie, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” exclusively on Twitter later this week.
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Archive for Scott
The Surprising Best (And Worst) Times To Visit Disney World
Most of us know the obvious—weekends are busier than weekdays at any Disney theme park, and the week between Christmas and New Year’s is considered to be a sugar-induced holiday haze of teeming masses and long lines.
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24th Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival Welcomes Spring with New Outdoor Kitchens, Topiaries and Entertainment
Celebrating 24 years when it kicks off March 1, 2017, the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival will jump-start spring with gardens of earthly delights plus new character topiaries, entertainers and food and drink offerings.
The festival, which expanded to 90 days in 2016, will open with an irresistible array of fresh surprises and new treats:
- Fresh, farm-market food and beverage flavors will debut at two new Outdoor Kitchens that will join 13 returning Outdoor Kitchens. Guest can sip and savor their way around Epcot, enjoying chef-inspired noshes and refreshing libations with or without a kick.
- The new generation of princess topiaries (Snow White, Anna and Elsa – the first to be designed and created with topiary facial features) will welcome a brand-new Belle topiary as fans remember her from the Oscar-winning Disney film, “Beauty and the Beast.” Located outside the France pavilion with the Beast topiary, Belle will come to life with sculpted facial features and her yellow ball gown created with golden blooming Joseph’s Coat plants.
- Another festival first will be a 6-foot-tall topiary of Figment, the feisty dragon mascot of the park’s Imagination! pavilion, perched atop a 5-foot-diameter ball fashioned from yellow Joseph’s Coat.
- The brand-new Epcot front-entrance topiary garden inspired by a vintage Walt Disney short film will spring to life with a floral-festooned maypole featuring Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Daisy and Pluto.
- The popular Garden Rocks concert series will expand to four days each week, with three concerts each Friday through Monday presenting pop musicians that span multiple genres over four decades.
- New Garden Rocks Dining Packages will be available on select days at a number of Epcot restaurants.
- Reimagined interactive play gardens will include a new take on the “Cars”-themed garden introducing a new character topiary from the June 2017 release of the Disney•Pixar sequel, “Cars 3.” Music Garden Melodies play area will return with new garden and topiary elements.
- For the first time, the event’s Festival Center will extend operating hours from Wednesday, March 1 through Sunday, March 5. Throughout the rest of the festival, the center will be open each Friday through Sunday with an entertaining mix of gardening seminars and DIY workshops.
One of the popular Outdoor Kitchen gardens, Urban Farm Eats, will return with savory bites, sweet treats and ideas for planting produce that can inspire growing numbers of guests who want to learn to grow their own edibles.
“A lot of people, including young children, are serious foodies now, and they have lots of questions about gardening,” says Eric Darden, festival horticulture manager. “We’re getting more and more people in their 20s and 30s asking, ‘How can I grow this?’ I think we’ll be creating more gardeners because people can see what’s possible.”
The 2017 festival forecast will be sunny with colorful floral bursts by day and a nighttime landscape aglow with twinkling lights:
- Topiaries of Donald Duck and nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie will share Future World space in front of Spaceship Earth with Chip and Dale for a “Fresh Epcot” selfie and family photo opportunity.
- Anna and Elsa topiaries will return to the Norway pavilion festival landscape in celebration of the park’s new Frozen Ever After Nearly 100 festival topiaries in all will include up to 70 character creations such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Lady and the Tramp, Simba, Timon and Tinker Bell.
- Guests will encounter garden surprises and special appearances related to Earth Day and other spring activities.
- The Butterflies on the Go garden will return with the story of the Monarch’s epic journey across the continent and featuring butterflies emerging from their chrysalises.
- On the way to the new Soarin’ Around the World film at the Soarin’attraction in The Land pavilion, guests can discover gardens featuring edible flowers, plants that benefit health and healing, and a pollinator paradise.
Dozens of Disney-crafted “flower towers” and beds of multi-colored blooms will transform the park’s landscape. At least 70,000 bedding plants will surround the Future World east and west lakes alone; on the water, 220 mini-gardens will be set afloat.
For more information about the 24th Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, call 407/W-DISNEY (934-7639). As the festival nears, more details will be available at epcotinspring.com. The festival, including all gardening programs and exhibits, is included in regular Epcot admission.
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7 amazing Easter eggs you probably missed in Disney’s ‘Moana’
Disney delights in hiding its most beloved characters in plain sight. The studio’s latest masterpiece, “Moana,” does not disappoint — it’s jam-packed with Easter eggs.
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Annie Awards: ‘Zootopia’ with 11 Nominations Takes Lead in Oscar Race
Disney’s zeitgeist-grabbing Oscar-frontrunner, “Zootopia,” racked up 11 nominations in ASIFA-Hollywood’s 44th Annie Awards race (including best feature and every other category except music),….
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The Huge Star Wars Decision Disney Is Planning To Make In January
While we know that Disney has big plans for Star Wars for the long term, beyond Star Wars: Episode IX, we don’t really know exactly what those plans entail. It turns out, Disney may not be so sure either.
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Box Office: Walt Disney’s ‘Moana’ Sets Sail With $81M Thanksgiving Debut
Walt Disney now owns nine of the top ten Thanksgiving debuts of all time. Now, to be fair, the Thanksgiving weekend has often been dominated (or at least topped) by the second weekend of a given Harry Potter/Twilight/Hunger Games offering going back to 2001.
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Ethan Allen, Disney bring the Magic Kingdom to your castle
It takes a minute, but then you see him — his black ears, the white-buttoned red shorts and the bright yellow shoes. It’s not your typical image of Mickey, but it’s a clever and subtle depiction of what might happen if the world’s most famous mouse transformed into an entryway storage hutch.
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Disney Launches Global Online Coding Event with New Disney’s Moana Hour of Code Tutorial
Disney launched “Moana: Wayfinding with Code,” a free online tutorial that offers an introduction to the basics of computer science, featuring characters from the upcoming Disney animated film, Moana. In conjunction with the launch of “Moana: Wayfinding with Code,” Disney also announced activations across the world that invite millions of students to learn the basics of coding. Created in close collaboration with Code.org, the “Moana: Wayfinding with Code” tutorial will be available in more than 180 countries and 23 languages, including Samoan Polynesian, giving children all over the world the opportunity to learn the basics of coding.
“Today’s students are tomorrow’s storytellers and with this tutorial we’re working to introduce them to the technological skills they will need to bring their stories to life,” said Jimmy Pitaro, chairman, Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media (DCPI). “By bringing together Code.org and Disney filmmakers, we’ve created a program that we hope will inspire kids all over the world to try coding for themselves.”
Over the past two years, Disney has hosted two Hour of Code tutorials, featuring characters from Disney’s Frozen and from Star Wars. In total, almost 40 million students have participated in these tutorials to learn the basics of coding.
“We’ve found that kids are much more likely to try computer science if it contains topics they are interested in, like their favorite Disney stories and characters,” said Hadi Partovi, CEO of Code.org. “Our work with Disney over the past two years has helped Hour of Code reach record numbers, inspiring millions of children of all ages to try coding and pursue an education in computer science.”
Disney Hour of Code Events:
Disney is working with leading organizations to host events around the world in an effort to reach millions of parents and students during CS Education Week (December 5-11) to introduce kids to coding. These events include:
Apple Stores: All 487 Apple stores worldwide will host block-based coding for young coders workshops featuring the “Moana: Wayfinding with Code” tutorial during their Hour of Code session December 5 through 11.
Code.org: Code.org will feature “Moana: Wayfinding with Code” tutorial on its site and will educate thousands of teachers and community leaders about how to use the Disney tutorial in their lessons. Register participation in a Disney Hour of Code here: HourofCode.com/Disney.
Family Code Night: “Moana: Wayfinding with Code” will also be part of direct family engagement in home and school learning. Parents and educators eager to bring new coding education to their kids can sign up today to receive the free “Moana Family Code Night Event Kit,” shipping in January. Family Code Night is a delightful high-impact elementary school event at which children and their parents do their first hour of coding, together, as part of a whole-school evening program that any school can put on. Celebrating family engagement in CS education, the Moana Family Code Night Event Kit will let any parent help their principal and school or youth group put on this family computer science learning event with a theme inspired by the film. Sign up for the free Kit today at http://www.familycodenight.org/Moana.
Disney Network: Disney will promote the “Moana: Wayfinding with Code” tutorial across its global channels in an effort to reach millions of families. Tutorial and toolkit found here: Disney.com/HourofCode.
Moana: Wayfinding with Code Tutorial:
The story of the “Moana: Wayfinding with Code” tutorial centers around Moana and Maui as they sail through unknown territory across the ocean. As students follow Moana and Maui’s travels, they learn basic coding commands that help steer the boat. Along the way, students are introduced to conditionals, sequences and loops while they master the art of navigation. When Moana and Maui are suddenly attacked by the Kakamora – coconut-clad warriors, they must use their coding skills to dodge their pirate projectiles and penetrate their defenses.
“The artistry and innovative technology used to create “Disney’s Moana” is rooted in the types of skills that kids will develop by learning the basics of computer science,” said Osnat Shurer, producer of Disney’s Moana. “We hope that Moana’s fierce determination and sense of adventure encourages children to try this tutorial and learn the skills they need to become future filmmakers and storytellers.”
Disney’s Hour of Code uses a visual programming language with “Blocks” that kids simply drag and drop to write code. This visual programming language is a fun and easily understandable way to teach basic coding skills. This type of visual programming lays the foundation for text-based programming.
For educators, parents and leaders looking to host their own hour of code event in their communities, they may access the tutorial and download the Disney Hour of Code Digital Toolkit at Disney.com/hourofcode in both English and Spanish. Events may be registered at HourofCode.com/Disney.
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Disney World Wants to Turn EPCOP Into EPCOT
Disney ‘s slowest-growing Florida theme park will be getting a makeover. Imagineers may be hard at work getting Pandora — The World of Avatar ready to open next summer at Animal Kingdom and breathing new life into Disney’s Hollywood Studios with Toy Story Land and Star Wars Land in the coming years, but Epcot appears to be the theme park giant’s next target for rejuvenation.
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