Dog Days of Summer
Welcome to all of our new subscribers, and I would like to say thank you to all of our returning readers!
This has been a busy week for Disney news, and for life in general. Many of us are wrapping up our summer breaks and soaking up the last little bit of sunshine before returning to school.
I originally intended for this article to be short, but I kept finding more things to write about. Get cozy with a cup of coffee and tuck in for a long read!
"When you’re curious, you find lots of interesting things to do." - Walt Disney
This Week in Disney Pop Culture
It’s The Final Countdown - Loki Season 2
On July 28th at 4:20 PM Eastern Standard Time, Marvel Entertainment released a new poster for its limited series, Loki 2, and tweeted T-minus 100,000 minutes until #Loki Season 2.
Set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Loki Season 2 sees Loki working with Mobius M. Mobius, Hunter B-15 and other members of the Time Variance Authority (TVA) to navigate the multiverse in order to find Sylvie, Ravonna Renslayer and Miss Minutes.
Reprising their roles from the first season are Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Sophia Di Martino as Sylvie, Wunmi Mosaku as Hunter B-15, Tara Strong as Miss Minutes, Jonathan Majors as Victor Timely and Owen Wilson as Mobius M. Mobius. Loki Season 2 is set to premiere on October 6, 2023, streaming excusively on Disney+.
Epcot Food & Wine Festival 2023
This weekend the 2023 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, presented by CORKCICLE, opened at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.
This year the festival will feature over 25 Global Market Places, offering classic and innovative twists on delicious dishes from all over the globe.
"I only eat my food Mickey-shaped." — Unknown.
The Noodle Exchange Marketplace was very good last year, and I’m looking forward to enjoying the Thai Shrimp bowl with basil coconut-curry broth.
Food Items include:
Shaved Beef Ramen with shiitake mushrooms, pickled carrots and daikon radish, shaved peppers, and a soy egg in citrus-sesame broth
IMPOSSIBLE Pork Ramen with shiitake mushrooms, pickled carrots and daikon radish, baby bok choy, and a soy egg in savory chicken broth
Thai Shrimp with rice noodles, shiitake mushrooms, and basil in coconut-curry broth
Tofu Ramen with shiitake mushrooms, pickled carrots and daikon radish, shaved peppers, and baby bok choy in citrus-sesame broth (Plant-based)
Beverages:
Parish Brewing Strawberry Mochi Berliner Weisse (New)
Pacific Rim Solstice Vineyard Old Vine Riesling (New)
Here is a link to the complete foodie guide for the 2023 Epcot Festival.
On September 22, 2023, four new global marketplaces will open, in addition to the 25 returning marketplaces already featured at the festival.
Char & Chop: offering savory bites.
Wine & Wedge: pairing wines with artisanal cheeses.
Bubbles & Brine: offering indulgences in champagne and seafood.
Swirled Showcase: satisfy your sweet tooth with refreshing sips, paired with soft-serve ice cream, like the Frozen Apple Pie.
This year, Professor Bunsen Honeydew, from the Muppets, and his assistant Beaker have taken over the Brew-Wing Lab at the Odyssey Center in Epcot. Guests can taste test some innovative flavor combinations, such as: peanut butter and jelly sticky wings or a frozen fusion featuring Twinings Pomegranate and Raspberry Herbal Tea infused with orange ice cream molecules (pictured below, bottom right).
Brave guests (with iron clad stomachs) can try a vanilla and dill pickle Milkshake. I have heard mixed reviews on the dill pickle milk shake, but the concept of a Muppet Taste Lab sounds very fun.
There are some cute videos and media about the Muppet Lab on the Disney Parks Blog. Here is a video of the Swedish Chef covering song Pöpcørn. This video is from a few years ago, but it feels like a “chef’s kiss” to kick off the 2023 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival. Enjoy!
Auli’i Cravalho in Evita in London’s Westend
Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tony Award-winning musical Evita returns to the West End this summer on July 31, 2023, for a limited run at the iconic Theatre Royal Drury Lane, accompanied by the 30-piece London Musical Theatre Orchestra.
Auli’i Cravalho, the voice of Disney’s Moana and star of The Little Mermaid Live, will make her West End debut in the title role of Evita, alongside West End leading man Matt Rawle (Martin Guerre, Miss Saigon, Zorro) who returns to the role of Che.
Rounding out the cast are Jeremy Secomb (Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera), Nathan Amzi (Heathers the Musical, Jesus Christ Superstar) and Emily Lane (Frozen the Musical).
Angourie Rice (Betty Brandt from Spider-Man: Far From Home) and Auli’i Cravalho (Moana) will star in an upcoming film adaptation of the Broadway musical, Mean Girls Musical (TBD). Angourie Rice will be playing the role of new girl, Cady Haron, and Auli’i Cravalho will play social pariah, Janis Ian. The film is slated to premiere on Paramount+ but does not have a release date at this time.
Here is the link for those wishing to purchase tickets to Evita in Concert.
This Week in Disney History: July 30th-August 5th
July 30, 1932: Disney's First Color Animated Film Flowers and Trees Premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theater
On July 30, 1932, Disney's first color animated film (and the studio's first Technicolor cartoon), Flowers and Trees premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California. In the theaters, Disney's Flowers and Trees preceded the MGM feature film Strange Interlude (1932).
In May 1932, the first three-strip Technicolor camera was completed. Herbert Kalmus wanted to test it but couldn't find any interested animators. Finally, Walt Disney agreed to try it as an experiment on his latest short film, Flowers and Trees (1932). The film was already in production in black-and-white, but Walt reordered the cartoon to be redone in color. The color animation caused the production to run over budget, potentially ruining the Disney Studios financially, but the cartoon proved so popular that the profits made up for the budget overage.
Flowers and Trees is considered a landmark in Disney animation and earned Disney the first Academy Award ever given for Best Cartoon Short Subject.
In 2021, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
July 31, 1929: Disney's Ninth Mickey Mouse Short, The Karnival Kid, is Released
Disney's ninth Mickey Mouse short, The Karnival Kid, is released in theaters. Mickey Mouse has his first spoken line in this short, which is "Hot dogs! Hot dogs!". The voice of Mickey Mouse was provided by composer Carl W. Stalling instead of Walt Disney. This would later serve as a basis for Mickey's catchphrase "Hot dog!"
Midway through the film, there is a moment where Mickey tips the top of his head, as one would a hat, when he meets Minnie. This scene is reminiscent of the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon, Rival Romeos, where Oswald does the same thing when he meets Ortensia.
This scene is also cited as the inspiration for the concept for the Mickey Mouse Ears hats that were worn on the original Mickey Mouse Club TV show. They were developed by Disney artist Roy Williams. The ears were a hit with audiences, and are still sold at the Disney theme parks around the world today.
August 1, 1951: The Short Film, How to Catch a Cold, is Released
How to Catch a Cold is a 1951 American animated educational short film which shows how to avoid catching a cold. An updated version of this short was released in 1986 with live-action segments. The project was sponsored by Kleenex Tissues.
Voice actor Bill Thompson voices the character of, “the common man” in the film. Bill Thompson is best known for voicing iconic comedic Disney characters, such as: Mr. Smee from Peter Pan (1953), White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Professor Owl from Toot, Whistle, Pluck and Boom (1953).
In the film, an average guy gets lessons from his common sense on how to treat a cold (mainly, rest and avoid behaviors that would spread it) and how to keep from getting sick in the first place.
August 2, 1998: Disney Cruise Line’s Castaway Cay Welcomes Its First Guests
Passengers aboard the Disney Magic's maiden voyage become the very first Disney guests to set foot on Disney's private island, Castaway Cay.
Castaway Cay is a private island in the Bahamas which serves as an exclusive port for the Disney Cruise Line. Located 225 nautical miles from Disney's home port of Port Canaveral, Florida, the island stretches 3.1 miles long and 2.2 miles wide.
Originally called Gorda Cay, the island was used for filming the Touchstone feature Splash (1984), where Tom Hanks first encounters Daryl Hannah on the beach.
Disney is said to have spent $25 million US to develop and outfit the island. Construction took 18 months and included dredging 50,000 truckloads of sand from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. The pier and its approaches were constructed to allow the Disney ships to dock alongside, thus removing the need for tenders to get the passengers ashore.
To create the mooring site for the ships, workers dredged sand and used explosives to blast coral, and form a 1700-foot (520 m) channel about 35 feet (11 m) deep and ranging from 200 to 400 feet (120 m) wide. The island is still largely undeveloped: only 55 of the 1000 acres (4.0 square kilometers) are being used.
August 3, 1990: DuckTales The Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp Premieres in US Theatres
The animated feature film, DuckTales The Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp is released in the U.S., under the Disney MovieToons label.
Based on the TV series DuckTales, the film is produced and animated by Walt Disney Television Animations. Scrooge McDuck travels to the far ends of the earth in search of the elusive buried treasure of legendary thief, Collie Baba.
Actor Alan Young voices Scrooge McDuck, Christopher Lloyd voices Merlock, Rip Taylr voices the Genie and Disney Legend Russi Taylor voices Scrooge’s nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie. Russi Taylor was the official voice of Minnie Mouse from 1986 until her passing in 2019.
Alan Young, the lead actor voicing Scrooge McDuck, would joke that given the treasure hunting story, this movie would be the closest he'd get to playing Indiana Jones. If you pause the film at the right moment, someone dressed like Indiana Jones is briefly seen at the Explorer's Club.
DuckTales The Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp is the first Disney animated movie to be spun off from a television series. It was also the first Walt Disney film released to theaters that was animated, not by the Disney "Feature Animation" division, but by the "Television Animation" division. This explains the notable difference in the style and quality of the animation.
August 4, 1941: The Walt Disney Studios Signs an Agreement with the National Film Board of Canada
A letter of agreement is signed between the Walt Disney Studios and the National Film Board of Canada. The agreement resulted in a series of World War II propaganda films.
Over the next few years, the Walt Disney Studios will make movies for the Government of Canada such as a series of films for the War Savings Committee and an anti-tank gun training film for the Canadian military titled Stop That Tank!.
With the outbreak of a global war, Walt Disney felt a great pinch in the Studios’ finances due to the loss of much of the European market - further limited by the Nazi invasion of France in 1940.
In March 1941, Walt Disney invited over three dozen representatives of various national defense industries to a lunch meeting, in an attempt to solicit work from them. He followed this luncheon with formal letters offering work. Here is an excerpt from the letter.
“For national defense industries at cost, and without profit. In making this offer, I am motivated solely by a desire to help as best I can in the present emergency.”
In response to Disney's efforts, John Grierson, the head of the National Film Board of Canada, entered into a co-production agreement for four animated films to promote the Canadian War Savings Plan. In addition, a training film for the Canadian Army was commissioned, eventually becoming Stop That Tank!.
The film was directed by Ub Iwerks and Dick Rikard, director of Ferdinand the Bull (1938). One of the film’s animators, Peter Carter Cage, narrated the film and Walt Disney gives an uncredited performance as The Cow. Key animators on the film were Ward Kimball, Fred Moore and Peter Carter Cage.
Stop That Tank! was released on May 18, 2004, in Walt Disney Treasures: Walt Disney on the Front Lines.
August 5, 2010: The Via Napoli Restaurant has it’s Grand Opens at Epcot
The grand opening ceremony and media event for Epcot’s newest restaurant Via Napoli was held at the Italy pavilion, at Epcot. Vice President of EPCOT Dan Cockerell and the CEO of the Patina Restaurant Group, Nick Valenti, delivered speeches welcoming guests to the event, and the ceremony featured a pair of boisterous Italian women stomping grapes. Mickey and Minnie Mouse arriving in grand style via a horse-drawn carriage and the atmosphere was very festive.
After the ribbon-cutting, everyone in attendance was invited to explore the restaurant, sample the food. and marvel at the unique pizza ovens.
Despite Via Napoli holding its grand opening on August 5th, the restaurant wouldn’t open for day guests for another month.
Located in the Italy pavilion at Epcot, Via Napoli features various Italian tastes, focusing on pizzas cooked in unique volcano-themed ovens, named after the 3 active volcanoes in Italy—Mount Etna, Mount Vesuvius and Stromboli.
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Stay optimistic and see you real soon!
Sincerely,
Harper