Disney fan and Design by Me Disney t-shirt finalist Jasmine Contois unearthed this poster from the now-defunct Discovery Island at Walt Disney World, and it features someone very, very familiar.
It’s not often that I see something Disney-related that surprises me, but this most certainly did. More at this link
Friends, I’ve gotten a scoop on the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie! I’m so excited to be able to share this new info with you. I, for one, am super excited to see this on the big screen.
Here’s the synopsis:
Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, written by Terry Rossio and again directed by Rob Marshall, Pirates of the Caribbean: Skull and Bones is the fifth installment of the hit film franchise based on the Disney Parks’ attraction of the same name.
Jason Statham joins the cast as Captain Paidear.
In addition to returning stars Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Penelope Cruz and Kevin McNally, Skull and Bones will introduce Jason Statham as pirate Odhran Paidear, captain of the Crimson Lass. Paidear, who has sailed under both Sparrow and Barbossa, has been fighting on the side of the Irish in its conflict with England and is now interrupting East Indian Trading Company traffic from England to the Northeast U.S., sailing with a crew of escaped criminals, who took over their captors on the voyage to Australia.
Djimon Hounsou joins the cast as the African pirate Dechontee Tamba.
Dijmon Hounsou joins the film as African pirate Dechontee Tamba, Captain of the Kamaria Obi. Crewed with African men rescued from slave ships on the high seas, Tamba continues to chase slave ships, and send them to the depths.
The film will revolve around all 4 captains sailing to a river in the mid-Atlantic portion of America called the Little Dagger to search for a buried treasure called the “Devil’s Breath,” a piece of Viking history said to allow the owner control of the winds. Each captain has their reasons for wanting the treasure, but it will bring them all together in ways they could never dream of. And leave them changed forever.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Skull and Bones will take the audience from Africa to Ireland to New Orleans to the U.S. Eastern seaboard and introduce them to native Americans, Irish banshees and a very strange voodoo witch-doctor.
Legends of Irish banshees go back hundreds of years. In legend, a banshee is a fairy woman who begins to wail if someone is about to die. Most consider them an omen of death.
Expect to see Captain Jack search for an antidote to the voodoo doll Angelica still holds, Barbosa to follow Jack for the Black Pearl and all to join together to fight the East India Trading Company for control of the seven seas.
Jerry Bruckheimer has produced all 4 Pirates films, and other Disney flicks such as The Sorcerer's Apprentice and the Prince of Persia.
In a recent interview in Europe, Bruckheimer tells fans to “…sit down and hold on, this will be the most epic and exciting ‘Pirates’ film of them all. We’re excited to have Jason and Djimon join the cast. And we’re all looking forward to getting back out on the water to have another adventure with Jack, Barbossa, Gibbs and the rest of the cast and crew.”
Johnny Depp behind the scenes on Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Ok everyone, that’s it! Excited? I am. Expected release is Summer of 2013, with filming beginning on the West coast of Africa later this month.
Hello all. We lead off today with a an announcement: today is my 16th wedding anniversary to my lovely bride Jenny! We met in SoCal, so of course I immediately took her on a date to Disneyland. We waited until our daughter was 3 to go back to Disney World, but we haven’t stopped since. The photo is from our February trip with my favorite, Stitch. Happy Anniversary dear. Love you.
Keith Richards returns to the POTC as Jack’s father, Captain Teague. This has been reported as the first look at Richards, but I’m not sure. He popped up in the first teaser trailer. Image here. Thanks to Stitchkingdom.com for the image. More photos here.
Above is what we’re told is the new Blu-Ray box for Star Wars: The Complete Saga. The set, released on September 16 of this year, will feature all 6 films plus over 40 hours of extras. More here. I’ll just say one thing: this box art is not how you say ‘good.’
These adorable Mickey and Minnie ‘cake pops’ were found on Etsy today. Cute! More here.
A great blog post from Mouse Planet about pet peeves in the Disney Parks. While I tend to turn a blind eye to a lot of these, kids are kids and when you load them up on sugar and throw ’em into an amusement park, they’re bound to be a little hyper, I did agree with a few of them. The enormo-backpacks are a pain, especially in line for Big Thunder Mountain. But mine would be the ‘It Used to be Better’ people. I know ‘Alien Encounter’ was awesome, and I miss the Sky Buckets too, but I love Stitch and my daughter likes ‘Great Escape.’ Fantasyland NEEDS to be expanded, and frankly, ‘Test Track’ is fraking awesome. You changed over the past 20 years, why shouldn’t Disney?
Happy Birthday to the Norway Pavilion at Epcot, opening this day in 1988. I love this Pavilion! A great ride, fantastic food, beer and what I’m told from female friends at work, the cutest guys in Epcot.
And your wicked-awesome Disney tattoo of the day
We lead off with this year’s Stars Wars Weekends poster.
I don’t post a lot about new Vinylmations, but this new set is astounding. It’s the Vinylmations Bento Box, complete with ginger, wasabi and chopsticks. More here.
New Summer movie toys were previewed over the weekend, including Cars 2 and POTC. More here.
A LEGO Captain Jack from the LEGO Store in New York City.
Pirate Brands has introduced a line of products to tie-in with the new POTC movie. Proceeds go to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
I stumbled onto these beautiful Disney shots on Flickr. More here.
Behind the Scenes of the first TMNT movie with Jim Henson. Henson’s workshop designed the animatronic heads.
Behind the Scenes on 'The Empire Strikes Back'
Hoth in your freezer. From The Chive.
From this week’s Post Secret.
And today’s Disney tattoo:
A fantastic interview with a current Magic Kingdom custodian, Kevin. Jeff Heimbuch does a great job.
A new featurette on Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides here. And some saucy POTC mermaid shoots here.
And a new X-Men: First Class trailer with new footage here. Great footage so far, am interested in hearing Banshee’s scream however. Havoc, always my fav X-Man, looks cool.
And some more Disney tattoos. More info here:
Did you know you and your children can meet many Disney characters face-to-face at Walt Disney World? Of course you do. Do you know where they are? Maybe not.
One of the more surprising things about my recent trip to the Walt Disney World resorts in February was the number of character meet-and-greets in all 4 parks. My family and I have been 4 times since 2006, one trip to Disneyland, and when I lived in Southern California, we went to Disneyland at least once a month. I can honestly say I never saw the number of characters interacting with park goers be as many as in 2011.
I can speculate as to why, but firmly believe that John Lasseter’s overseeing of the Disney Parks has a lot to do with it. When I first took my daughter to Walt Disney World in 2006, the only characters we saw were either at the EPCOT Character meet, during early Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom, or at the Character meals. During all my trips to Disneyland, I can only remember one Character interaction: Captain Hook and Smee on Thanksgiving morning when the park was EMPTY.
We should all write Mr. Lasseter a letter thanking him for what he's done for Disney and the parks.
Flash forward to 2011. In addition to the regular cast of characters at Hollywood Studios, which are very approachable by the way, we got to see Mike and Sully from Monsters, Inc. and Minnie Mouse in a nurses uniform filming something in front of the Brown Derby. Plus, Handy Manny at the Animation Courtyard. At EPCOT two hours after opening, we ran into both Stitch and Daisy Duck, with very short lines, at the front of the park. The EPCOT Meet-and-Greet indoor area was full with all the top-tier names.
Here I am accosting Evie Starlight. She was very gracious. And very thin.
Ms. Mouse getting her close up.
Magic Kingdom saw Pluto, Chip and Dale, Fairy Godmother, the Evil Stepmother and Step sisters, Mary Poppins at the Carousal IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY. Tigger and Pooh. Peter Pan, alone, and with no line. Woody and Jessie together, Capt. Jack, Jasmine, Frontier Donald, Buzz Lightyear and Future Chip and Dale. But the most surprising of all was Mickey and Minnie at Splash Mountain AND Space Mountain for over 4 hours! Both days we were in the park. This is in addition to the Celebration parade with a revolving cast, including the Mad Hatter, Baloo, Mr. Incredible, Mickey, Goofy and Mike Wazowski, plus the Castle show. And the talking trash can in Tomorrowland.
Thanks to Disney Nerd Stacey Lantz for the pic!
At Animal Kingdom, Goofy was outside at the gates, then inside Dinoland with Pluto. Flik, who I’ve never seen before, in between Africa and Asia, Lilo and Stitch near the Lion King and all the spots at Camp Minnie Mickey were full. We saw both Brother Bear, from, um, ‘Brother Bear’ and Terk from Tarzan.
Speaking of a Bug's Life, did you know Dot was voiced by Hayden Panettiere?
This is Terk. From Tarzan. Voiced by Rosie O'Donnell.
So all in all, a great experience. My guess is that cast members are swapping out turns so the characters are in the parks longer. There was a noticeable size difference in Stitch at Animal Kingdom from when he went in for his pineapple juice to his return.
As far as I know, all the characters will give autographs. And of course Disney just happens to sell autograph books with your favorite characters on them. But, I saw two things that I highly recommend. First, a pillowcase and a permanent marker. We got one of these for our daughter’s 7th birthday slumber party. All the kids signed it. It’s STILL on her bed, long after the gifts have been forgotten. Second, a large, blank Vinylmation. I saw this in someone’s window at POP Century with about 10 autographs, I almost knocked on the door to congratulate them on such a fabulous idea. This year, my little girl used her ‘Up’ Adventure Book (just like Ellie!) and some of the characters drew little doodles. Squee!
This is a Vinylmation. It's blank. Get it signed. Live a long a prosperous life 😉
Can you look at this and not get a tear? I can't. Bless Pixar for making such compelling characters.
Now, how to find them. For the most part, they were out in the open, if a little tucked off to one side. Mickey and Minnie were well off the beaten path, next to the rest rooms at Splash Mountain and in between the rest rooms and Space Mountain in Tomorrowland. Fairy Godmother was behind Cinderella’s fountain in Fantasyland, where as Peter Pan was next to Philharmagic.
Just announced today, Disney will offer FastPasses to meet Mickey in the Magic Kingdom this spring in side the referbed Exposition Hall area just inside the park.
There are some also some phone apps to help you find them, but I think you’ll do better taking your time in the parks, talking to cast members (they really are nice) walking those paths you’ve never been on before. As I like to say, to get the most from a Disney resort, you’ve got to get Just Off Main Street 🙂
For those of you who didn't already know, POTC 4 is based in this novel by Tim Powers.
Two spots ran on the Super Bowl last night, a 30-second and 60-second.
Barbosa working for England. Note the crutch on his left. I'm interested to find out how he lost his leg.
A beautiful shot. Note the relief skeletons climbing up the back of the captain's quarters. I have to say however, if the ship is going this fast, shouldn't the sails be full?
Pirate zombies. For fun....
My favorite pirate, Joshamee Gibbs. Played by Kevin McNally. McNally has worked in British TV and on the stage for years. His most notible role to Americans came in 1977 as a crewman on the HMS Ranger in 'The Spy Who Loved Me'. He has enjoyed a well-deserved new-found fame after starring in all four POTC films
Lovely mermaid skin.
As reported here in 2010, LEGO video game producer Traveler’s Tales will release Lego: Pirates of the Caribbean to conincide with the 4th Pirates film later this year. New video was released this week.
Some new shots added in this new featurette. Excited yet? Let me know
YouTube – Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides – [Featurette 1].
From the interwebs: “Disney has begun quietly telling cast and crew to set aside a major block of time in the very near future so they can shoot ‘Pirates 5’ and ‘Pirates 6.’ And, yes, once again, they will be shooting them back-to-back as one giant film, and then they’ll release them as two films.”
So, are 6 movies too much? Will Depp hang around? Will we see part 5 centered around one of the lesser pirates? Maybe part 6 will be about Napster?
Maybe these two?
or them?
Or this guy?
Send us your comments. I know some of you are POTC fans. Any other characters you’d like to see fleshed out?
Many thanks to HitFlix and wdwdailynews
Just Off Main Street 