Brodie is a illustrator, comedy writer, and Disney fan. He runs the excellent tribute site WorldFamousJungleCruise.com. Brodie has decided to take on Disney’s Princess divas and re-imagine them as superheroes drawing inspiration from super-fashions of around the same time their animated movies came out. The result, excellent covers like these:

See the other imaginative covers on Brodie’s blog. I would love to see at least a mini-series of full comics on this theme.

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Princess Superheroes
The Disney Blog - Disney News and Information -- by fans, for fans

                          

For the last couple weeks, I’ve been hinting of an exciting new project. I’ve been working behind the scenes to get everything show ready and now I’m ready to draw back the curtain. “Dispatch from Disneyland: The Fireworks Spot and Other Tales” is a collection of short stories, essays, and rare trivia written in and about my favorite place on earth – Disneyland. I will be publishing this collection in a book in time for the holidays.

These stories came from a desire to share my favorite place on earth, Disneyland, with those who couldn’t regularly be at Disneyland as often as I could. Ironically, I now live thousands of miles away from the Happiest Place on Earth, so I’m my own target audience now.

I want this to be the best book it possibly can. A great book requires copy-editing, design, review copies, and some distribution fees. All that costs money, which is where I can use the support of the community.

I’m going the ‘Crowd Funding’ direction via KickStarter.com to help me complete the last few steps of this journey. KickStarter is an all or nothing proposition. Either the crowd funds your project or no one’s card is charged. You won’t have to worry about refunds if the support isn’t there. However, I am confident the “Dispatch from Disneyland” project will reach it’s goal and when the project is funded, there are real tangible benefits you will receive.

What are those benefits? Besides knowing you’ve helped a member of the Disney community reach his dream, I’ve arranged a range of intriguing rewards.

I accept pledges of any amount, but if you’re willing to contribute just $10 you’ll get a premiere edition “The Disney Blog” button (this is the first button ever). At $20 you get a signed copy of the book once it’s published and your name on the thank you page. These “pre-orders” will make the difference in bringing this project to its completion and let you share in the final product. There are additional rewards for pledges above $20 too for those feeling especially generous.

Please become part of the project and help me push the “Dispatch from Disneyland” book over the finish line. I’ve set the crowd funding portion of the book project to end on my birthday, September 4th. So please help me have the most awesome birthday ever and pledge your support today. Thank you for your consideration.

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Dispatch from Disneyland: my exciting new project
The Disney Blog - Disney News and Information -- by fans, for fans

                          

Congratulations, you made it to Wednesday. Here’s are a couple funny videos to get you over the hump and moving toward the weekend.

The Incredible Deflating President Lincoln

I don’t know about you, but that had me laughing for a good five minutes. Alas, that was an older model Audio-Animatronic, so don’t expect to see him malfunction in exactly that same way in the future.

Two more funny vids below the jump:

Wardrobe Malfunctions just don’t happen at the Super Bowl

Poor Beast!

Another wardrobe malfunction. Don’t know why these are so funny, but they are!

That’s it. I hope your funny bone has been tickled.

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Hump Day Humor
The Disney Blog - Disney News and Information -- by fans, for fans

                          

Stephen McPherson who came to ABC in 2004 and is credited with leading the network to great ratings and excellent TV programs (like LOST and Modern Family) has abruptly resigned from the Walt Disney Company. This comes on the eve of ABC’s presentation of its fall schedule to advertisers.

It’s not clear if McPherson resigned for personal reasons, which he claims, or to avoid getting fired after lack luster results from last season and the summer series. It probably didn’t help that “No Ordinary Family” fell flat at Comic-Con. That show was supposed to be a tent-pole property for ABC.

ABC Family lead Paul Lee will now take over ABC Studios and the ABC Entertainment.

More at the NY Times and Deadline.com which had the scoop.

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ABC’s chief departs just before fall slate is announced
The Disney Blog - Disney News and Information -- by fans, for fans

                          

Former participants and winners from Survivor, Amazing Race, and Big Brother assemble at SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove

A large group of past winners, heroes and villains of Survivor got together at Discovery Cove in Orlando for a day of outwitting, outplaying, outlasting and out-and-out relaxing. Discovery Cove focuses on providing the type of memories you can only get by up close and personal visits with marine life and other animals.

Survivor Winner Natalie enjoys SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove

Swimming with dolphins and rays and hand feeding exotic birds were Survivor’s first winner, Richard Hatch; the game’s only two-time winner, Sandra Diaz-Twine; villains Russell Hantz and Courtney Yates; and players Yau-Man Chan and Terry Deitz.

Popular Survivor player Yau-man at SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove

Also at the park were players and winners from The Amazing Race and Big Brother, including Amazing Race winner, Jordan Pious.

The winners and players were in Orlando to benefit Give Kids the World, a non-profit organization that exists only to fulfill the wishes of all children with life-threatening illnesses and their families from around the world to experience a memorable, joyful, cost-free visit to Central Florida’s best-loved attractions, and to enjoy the magic of Give Kids The World Village for as long as there is a need.

More photos below the jump:

Former Survivor winner Todd Herzog at SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove

Two time Survivor winner Sandra with Yau-man at SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove

Former participants Terry Deitz at SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove. I’ve met Terry and his wife before, both extremely nice people.

Possibly the best Villain and worst strategic player of Survivor, Russell Hantz at SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove

The first winner of Survivor Richard Hatch.

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Survivor Reunion visits Discovery Cove
The Disney Blog - Disney News and Information -- by fans, for fans

                          

A visit to the Studio Ghibli museum is definitely on my bucket list. The museum, which animation master Hayao Miyazaki created to showcase the art and architecture of his films, is located outside of Tokyo, Japan which makes it the perfect add-on to a trip to Tokyo Disneyland.

Mark from BoingBoing recently visited Tokyo and took a day to venture out to the suburbs for a visit to the museum. He’s posted a couple pictures (mostly exterior as inside photos are discouraged) and some insights into his trip.

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Studio Ghibli Museum
The Disney Blog - Disney News and Information -- by fans, for fans

                          

The 911 tape for the heavily reported on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey evacuation has been released. On it, one of the ride’s passengers claims they had been kept waiting 15 minutes in an uncomfortable position without any notice from ride attendants when help would come.

Leaving aside how accurate the 15 minute claim was, I think the incident poses an interesting question to consider. How long is too long to wait for an evacuation? Should a theme park be required to have enough staff close at hand to evacuate a building in 2-3 minutes in case of a fire or similar problem? 3-5 minutes?

What are your thoughts? I’m interested in a serious discussion about guest safety here.

First the decision has to be made to evacuate after a ride-stop. Standard operating procedure might require a whole series of checklists to check for safety concerns before a ride operator can know if the attraction needs to be evacuated or if it can be just restarted. An evacuation at the end of the night, as this one was, is likely to make hundreds of park guests waiting in the queue very unhappy as they won’t get a change to ride before the park closes, so every effort was probably made to get things restarted without an evacuation. But how long is too long?

In a related issue, once an evacuation is decided, how long should that take? Obviously, safety of cast and guests is the primary concern. But what if there is an emergency or risk of injury? Airlines are required to affect a complete evacuation of the plane in 90 seconds. For the most part theme park attractions aren’t sitting on containers full of fuel or accelerants. So 90 seconds is probably too strict, but even smoke or burning sets can quickly make an attraction a death trap. (Aside: Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean is essentially one big tinderbox of plywood and two-by-fours.) What about ride vehicles that require external assistance to evacuate?

Once again, I’m surprised there is no official body that requires these sort of safety standards for theme park and amusement attractions.

Previously: When is it okay to call 911 when stuck on an attraction.

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When you evacuate an attraction, how long should it take?
The Disney Blog - Disney News and Information -- by fans, for fans

                          

Here’s the new TRON: Legacy trailer that was shown at SDCC.

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TRON: Legacy – New Trailer
The Disney Blog - Disney News and Information -- by fans, for fans

                          

Potentially interesting news from the excellent organization Monorails.org, mentions a new spurline to be added near the Ticket and Transportation Center. This short track extension will contain a new switch, a place to house a work tractor (used to push/pull trains that have lost power back to the shop), and enough room to park a reserve train to be held for when demand requires it.

Whether this is a reaction to an aging fleet that seems to require more maintenance and downtime every day, preparation to an expanded Monorail system, or perhaps a little of both, remains to be seen. Either way, it’s cool to see the first expansion to the monorail line since 1982′s EPCOT Center loop was added.

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Very Short Monorail Expansion planned at Walt Disney World
The Disney Blog - Disney News and Information -- by fans, for fans

                          

Patricia Zohn, author of the recent Vanity Fair profile of Disney’s Ink & Paint women, has dug up another gem. This video produced by the Walt Disney Studios to promote CalArts has rarely been seen. CalArts, of course, was given a big financial and creative push by Walt Disney. He wanted to support the arts, of course, but it was also a great place to find future talent for the Walt Disney Studios.

This film was uploaded by staff at CalArts and contains some interesting facts, like that the school was originally supposed to be built down the road from the Walt Disney Studios in Hollywood, not in Valencia where it ended up. That would have made the commutes of a lot of artists a lot less stressful.

Zohn goes on her in article to lobby for continued support of Arts in our society. That’s a cause I think everyone who wants to honor Walt Disney’s legacy could get behind.

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The CalArts Story
The Disney Blog - Disney News and Information -- by fans, for fans