Disney World

The U.S. Army is paying Disney $800,000 to run a series of four-hour training sessions that are designed to “revamp attitudes” at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, according to The Washington Post.
“A year after a scandal erupted over the long-term treatment of soldiers at the hospital, the Army has turned to Disney for help,” the paper says. “‘Service, Disney Style’ is newly required for all military and other government employees at Walter Reed.”
The program, based on the principles that have worked so well at Disney’s attractions, focuses on improving customer service. Last month, the commander discussed the training on her blog. “Some of the team are getting a leg up on the training by reading If Disney Ran Your Hospital – 9 and ½ Things You Would Do Differently by Fred Lee, and Be Our Guest by The Disney Institute,” Col. Patricia Horoho writes.
After initial skepticism, some health care workers tell the paper they’re now believers in what the Disney Institute calls “the business behind the magic.”
“It’s a good thing that we desperately need at Walter Reed,” nurse Dorothy Clinton tells the paper. “Everybody who works here at Walter Reed realizes that there are issues, and this is a good indication that the command recognizes that.”

ABC said Monday it will release hit shows like “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” for free over video-on-demand cable services, with the hitch that viewers will have to sit through commercials without being able to fast-forward. The Walt Disney Co., parent company of the network, is aiming to profit from ads sold for the video-on-demand offerings while expanding its digital strategy beyond programs distributed on its Web site, abc.com. “We’re trying to drive everyone back to television but very much understand that with everybody’s lifestyles, they can’t necessarily watch that way and we don’t want to lose them altogether,” Disney spokeswoman Karen Hobson said. The announcement follows an agreement between ABC and its more than 200 affiliate stations around the Affiliates had in the past limited the amount of content ABC could redistribute in nontraditional ways because of their concern about the ratings impact on stations. But the video-on-demand deal offers them a financial incentive to participate. Under the deal, local affiliates will be able to sell one 30-second ad on the content, while ABC will sell from four to nine other commercials to national advertisers. That amounts to two to five minutes of commercials for an hourlong program, compared with 17 minutes or more for a show on regular TV, Hobson said. The agreement initially involves cable provider Cox Communications Inc., which has some 6 million subscribers, of which 3.1 million have digital set-top boxes that allow them to access video-on-demand services. The deal follows a monthslong trial for Cox subscribers in Orange County. Some 93 percent of the users found the ads acceptable in exchange for the free service, the companies said. Cox spokesman David Grabert said the customers mainly wanted more content. “Anything we can do to bring greater convenience to our customers is better for us,” Grabert said.It’s not the first time for a network to redistribute its shows for free over a cable company’s on-demand service.CBS Corp. announced a deal with Comcast Corp. in November 2005 to offer previously aired shows on-demand. It even sold new ads for the repurposed content to corporate sponsors, such as to automaker General Motors Corp. for old episodes of “CSI.”NBC Universal, a joint venture of General Electric Co. and Vivendi Universal, cut a similar deal with Comcast in March 2006, selling some prime-time programs for 99 cents at midnight following their broadcast and offering others for free.ABC signed an on-demand deal with Comcast in November 2006 but limited its deal to seven markets that were both served by Comcast and had stations that were owned and operated by the ABC network. Monday’s announcement would expand the on-demand offerings across the country. Comcast, with 24.1 million subscribers, including 15.2 million who can access on-demand services, said its on-demand offerings have helped reduce its churn rate, or the percentage of customers who drop or downgrade service after purchasing it. “What we’ve seen is that the churn rate is cut in half when the customer subscribes to digital cable,” said Comcast spokeswoman Jenni Moyer. “When that customer uses on-demand that churn rate gets cut in half again.” Such aftermarket resales of content are becoming a larger revenue stream for show creators like Disney, said Global Crown Capital analyst Martin Pyykkonen. He expected that within a few years, such digital strategies would reach 5 percent of Disney’s revenue, which topped $35.5 billion last fiscal year, at a relatively low cost.

Pixar-Disney film “Ratatouille” about the kitchen capers of a rat who dreams of becoming a top Parisian chef won the best animated feature film Oscar at the 80th Academy Awards here Sunday.Pixar’s box-office hit tells the tale of a rodent named Remy, with a fine palate and delicate taste buds, who by chance is let loose on a classy Parisian restaurant and succeeds in winning over the city’s top food critic.

The film pipped the other nominees “Persepolis” and “Surf’s Up” for Sunday’s award.

Scripted and directed by Brad Bird, who won two Oscars for Pixar’s “The Incredibles,” the almost two-hour long film was some six years in the making.

Produced in California by 500 people, the “Ratatouille” project was the most ambitious yet realised by Pixar, which was purchased by Disney for 7.4 billion dollars in 2006.

Operations at Disneyland, the granddaddy and cornerstone of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, is being placed into the hands of Michael O’Grattan, currently vice president of Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Following a report earlier today on Chad Emerson’s Theme Law blog, Disney officials confirmed that O’Grattan is returning to Disneyland, where his career began in 1972, to be the next head of operations there.
Also confirmed: that Rilous Carter, general manager of Epcot Food & Beverage, will succeed O’Grattan in running Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Carter began his Disney career in 1997 as a manager in food and beverage operations. He spent five years as resort general manager at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge and Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground, as well as Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort.
Earlier in his career Carter held a number of hotel management positions, most recently as an assistant general manager at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel, a major downtown-Cleveland landmark hotel.
At Disneyland, O’Grattan replaces Greg Emmer, who was senior vice president of operations at Disneyland until he retired earlier this year.
O’Grattan’s Disney career has focused largely on entertainment. In the past year he has overseen a makeover of the 19-year-old Orlando Disney studios park, which was renamed from Disney-MGM Studios. With the name change has come a slight change in the park’s theme, broadening more into pop culture, with fresh entertainment, a new Toy Story Mania! dark ride due to open this spring, and a new American Idol! theme park show attraction set to open in the fall.

A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit against Walt Disney World aimed at forcing the company to allow disabled visitors to ride two-wheeled Segways in its theme parks.
U.S. District Judge Gregory A. Presnell dismissed the suit from U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on Wednesday after agreeing with Walt Disney World’s contention that none of the three people who sued had any standing to do so, because none of them demonstrated any intention to visit the resort in the near future.
“We asked for dismissal and the court agreed it was appropriate,” Disney World Acting Vice President Jacquee Polak stated this morning. “We provide a variety of accommodations to guests with disabilities, which allow them to fully enjoy our theme parks.” The three plaintiffs — a man and woman from Illinois and a woman from Iowa — sued in November, contending that Disney violates the Americans with Disabilities Act by forbidding guests from using the upright scooters within its parks. One of them has multiple sclerosis, another has Lou Gehrig’s disease and the third lost his foot in a 1999 accident; all cannot walk and say they now rely on Segways for mobility.
None of their lawyers was immediately available this morning to comment on Presnell’s order. The three had been seeking class-action lawsuit status, which could have potentially opened the case up to thousands of Segway users nationwide.
Disney says it has safety concerns about allowing Segways to maneuver through its often-crowded parks and that it has no practical way to gauge whether a Segway user entering a park is adequately trained on the scooters. SeaWorld Orlando also bars Segways.
Both theme-park companies say they make other accommodations for disabled customers by allowing motorized wheelchairs and conventional motorized scooters.

Like a family with a station wagon full of kids, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers keep coming back to Disney World each summer.
The Bucs and Wide World of Sports, according to NFL sources, have finalized an agreement to return to Central Florida this July and stage a seventh consecutive training camp at the 220-acre facility. Dates for the three-week camp won’t be determined until the NFL releases its 2008 schedule next month, but players likely will have to report July 24 and begin two-a-days July 25. “We believe we’ve created a great winning environment for our football team and our fans,” General Manager Bruce Allen said Wednesday upon arriving in Indianapolis for the NFL scouting combine. “What we have there in Orlando and with the hospitality of the people at Disney would be very hard to duplicate in another type of setting.” The Bucs made it clear after the 2007 camp broke Aug. 15 that they wanted to come back to what Coach Jon Gruden always has called the “first-class” accommodations at Wide World of Sports and the team’s camp quarters at the Celebration Hotel. They did so, however, with a precursor.
“If there is a negative, it would be the heat issues,” Gruden said at the time. “I know that’s something that’s out of everyone’s control, but selfishly, you’d like to have the ability to go inside and practice a full practice.”
Over their 21-day stay last summer, seven of the scheduled 31 practices were canceled or moved inside because of thunderstorms or heat-index conditions that reached 110 degrees. On those occasions, the Bucs worked out in the Milk House on WWS property or went 5 miles down Interstate 4 to practice in an Omni Hotel ballroom at ChampionsGate.
Reggie Williams, former vice president of Disney Sports Attractions, said last August the Bucs and Disney officials would explore indoor practice options that would benefit both parties. An air-conditioned bubble would be an ideal (and expensive) solution, but Allen hinted that indoor-option talks have progressed to each side’s satisfaction. Of the NFL’s 32 teams, 13 have access to indoor facilities with turf surfaces for camp.
“We have some thoughts and some ideas we feel will be addressed,” Allen said.
The two parties have five months to work things out.
Last year, 20,263 fans came through the Disney gates to watch the free practices.

The Montana madness continues! Now that the writer’s strike is resolved, Variety reports that Disney is the latest studio to revamp their schedule and stake out some prime release dates.Among their 2009 and 2010 releases will be The Hannah Montana Movie, to be released on May 1st, 2009 and pitted against 20th Century Fox’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Wolverine versus Hannah Montana. I’m laughing just thinking about it. I want someone to make a comic book cover of this right now. (Seriously. I will frame it.) My money is on Wolverine to actually win that battle, but who knows what incredible powers Montana may possess.
All sarcasm aside, I imagine this will actually be a very good move by Disney. Moms and daughters can go watch Hannah Montana, while their fathers and brothers go see Wolverine. The whole family wins! Now, just to clarify, what is currently in theatres now (and causing some scandal) is not really a Hannah Montana movie. That was a live concert. This is a two hour version of the television show. That’s why it’s The Hannah Montana Movie and not, say, Hannah Montana II: Montana Strikes Back. I know, it seems like there’s been ten movies already.
Do you think the Hannah Montana craze will still be going in 2009? Young fans can be so fickle. Disney was less confident in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and is releasing it a month earlier on June 16th, 2009, rather than on July 10th. This saves it from being released in the wake of Paramount’s Transformers 2 (June 26th, 2009) and Ice Age III (July 1, 2009). This has to lower expectations for Prince of Persia if Disney fears competition from Ice Age III. Thankfully, this isn’t the only thing on Disney’s schedule. April 10th, 2009 will be claimed by Old Dogs, director Walt Becker’s follow-up to Wild Hogs. Despite the rhyming titles and presence of John Travolta, Old Dogs is not a sequel to the middle aged motorcycle caper. Travolta will be joined this time by Robin Williams, playing middle-aged friends and business partners left caring for 7 year old twins. I am sure there will be many hilarious misunderstandings that they are a gay couple.
Thanksgiving 2009 sees the release of Surrogates, a sci-fi thriller starring Bruce Willis as a cop in a world where humans live in isolation and interact via surrogate robots. Willis is forced to leave his home to investigate the murder of several surrogates. Amazingly, this film lacks a Blade Runner comparison.
But the biggest and most interesting film Disney dated was Tim Burton’s 3-D Alice in Wonderland, which is set to be released on March 19th, 2010. If only this was the film Disney was moving up instead of Prince of Persia! Still, it is comforting to know that if we can all just survive Hannah Montana, there will be something truly (potentially?) awesome on the horizon.

Disney Channel wants to expand in Asia by localizing its television content to appeal to children in the region, and plans to develop more programs outside the United States to feed global audiences.
The Walt Disney Co channel, known for its squeaky-clean programming, is aiming to tap into the high-growth markets of China and India, Gary Marsh, president of entertainment, Disney Channel Worldwide, told Reuters this week.
Disney Channel, popular with teens and pre-teens, is known for its television series “Hannah Montana” and “That’s so Raven” as well as the hit “High School Musical”.
“There is huge opportunity for expansion in the Asian market, certainly in India and China. What we tried to do is deepen the connection with our audiences by customizing the content,” Marsh said.
Disney Channel, which airs in most Asian countries including India, Indonesia, Singapore and Australia, has a reach of 380 million in the region, compared with 95 million in North America.
GO LOCAL, GO GLOBAL
Marsh cited the production of a short television series, “As the Bell Rings”, which started in Italy and now has local versions running in the UK, the United States and Australia, as an example adapting content to local audiences.
Singapore’s version will premiere in March this year and China is also filming a version of the program, he said.
“When we develop an idea, the programmers in every other country around the world comment on it,” he said on Tuesday.
Disney Channel has a tie-up with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV and other Chinese broadcasters to show Disney content. It has a reach of 260 million viewers a week in China and is looking to gain exclusive channel rights there.
Marsh said the next step for the Disney Channel would be to form creative teams in countries such as China, Japan and South Korea to come up with local content which would then be fed to a global audience.
Despite the potential of localized programs, the success of shows such as “High School Musical” and its sequel hinged on the universality of the ideas, Marsh said.
“Asian kids are no different from American kids when it comes to the notion of following your dreams and expressing yourself.”
The movies, which chronicle the lives of singing students at a high school, form the cornerstone of one of Disney’s most lucrative franchises for preteen girls, and a third installment is planned for release to theatres this year.
The two movies racked up more than 30 million in DVD and soundtrack CD sales worldwide and have spun off numerous other merchandise. They were made into a concert and an ice show, and won two Emmy Awards in 2006.
The original was watched by 18.1 million people in Asia and the soundtrack went platinum in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and triple platinum in Philippines and New Zealand.
“If we create programs that embody the right themes and have the appeal our audience wants, it crosses gender, cultural and geographical boundaries,” Marsh said.

The director of a Norwegian museum claimed yesterday to have discovered cartoons drawn by Adolf Hitler during the Second World War. William Hakvaag, the director of a war museum in northern Norway, said he found the drawings hidden in a painting signed “A. Hitler” that he bought at an auction in Germany. Did Adolf Hitler draw Disney characters?
The Snow White characters Bashful and Doc, which the museum director William Hakvaag
believes were drawn by Hitler, along with a sketch of Pinocchio He found coloured cartoons of the characters Bashful and Doc from the 1937 Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which were signed A.H., and an unsigned sketch of Pinocchio as he appeared in the 1940 Disney film. Hitler tried to make a living as an artist before his rise to power. While there was no independent confirmation yesterday that the drawings were the work of the Nazi leader, Hitler is known to have owned a copy of Snow White, the classic animated adaptation of a German fairy tale, and to have viewed it in his private cinema. Mr Hakvaag, who said he had performed tests on the paintings which suggested that they dated from 1940, said: “I am 100 per cent sure that these are drawings by Hitler. If one wanted to make a forgery, one would never hide it in the back of a picture, where it might never be discovered.” The initials on the sketches, and the signature on the painting, matched other copies of Hitler’s handwriting, he claimed. “Hitler had a copy of Snow White,” he said. “He thought this was one of the best movies ever made.”
How about that: Weird news from around the world Discoveries of Nazi-era memorabilia have repeatedly turned out to be mistaken or the result of a hoax. However, art attributed to Hitler continues to sell at auction, even if its provenance is far from complete. Nineteen watercolours and two sketches said to be by Hitler were sold in Britain two years ago for a total of £118,000. The auction firm Jefferys said the seller did everything possible to authenticate the works. The pictures of cottages and rural scenes were found in a farmhouse in Belgium and were believed to have been painted while Hitler was a young soldier in the country during the First World War.

Following the integration of Disney’s European program sales and channel distribution operations unveiled this week, newly installed division head Tom Toumazis on Thursday promoted Simon Amselem to senior vp channel distribution across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In a related move, Disney Channels Worldwide also announced the promotion of six executives to manage its continental expansion under Disney Channel Europe head John Hardie. Amselem will head the integrated channel distribution team and build revenue across Disney’s channel brands throughout the region, which includes Disney Channel, Cinemagic, Playhouse Disney and ESPN International. Amselem, head of Disney Channel France, also will exploit opportunities in VOD, digital terrestrial, Internet and mobile, taking up the London-based post on April 1. Following its move to basic tier distribution, Disney Channel’s footprint has jumped from 14 million to 32 million homes across the continent. Under Hardie, Disney is creating dedicated regional and management teams to manage the scale of growth. Michael Cairns has been appointed vp and GM of Disney Channels U.K. and Ireland and will relocate from Sydney, where he is head of Disney Channel Australia. Discovery Networks Germany channel head Lars Wagner will take over as head of Disney Channel Germany, following the departure of nine-year company veteran Michael Kreissl. Helene Etzi has been promoted to vp and GM in France, and Casper Bjorner has been promoted to vp and GM Disney Channels Scandinavia and emerging markets, overseeing Scandinavia, Poland, the Middle East and South Africa. Nicolella Gelli becomes vp brand marketing across Europe, and Anna Hill becomes executive director of marketing, Disney Channels EMEA. “These executives bring experience, skill and leadership to the job as Disney’s kids TV business continues to expand across the region,” Hardie said.