Wraithkelso's Disney Blog: Goofy, Fireworks, Muppets, Cars, and Pirates making bank!!!

Sorry its been so long since I updated the blog but I have been very busy lately with other things. Lots have things have been coming out from the Disney side, while the Stargate side has been fairly lack luster lately, but we'll get to that later.

Pirates makes more then A Billion

Lets start off with one of the biggest pieces of news from the Disney cannon of films. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides crossed the billion dollar mark on Saturday, July 2nd. From Disney's press release:

>> Eighth film in history to reach the $1 billion threshold.
>> Third Disney film in less than 18 months to gross $1billion globally ("Alice in Wonderland" was the other).
>> The Walt Disney Studios’ fourth title to earn $1 billion.
>> No. 3 film of all time at the international box office.
>> Crossed the $500 million international threshold in a record-setting 14 days.
>> Crossed the $800 million global threshold in only 20 days, the second fastest ever to reach this milestone.
>>Set a new industry speed record by crossing the $700 million global threshold in only 16 days
>> Disney’s biggest international release ever.
>> The biggest "Pirates of the Caribbean" installment in 58 territories.
>> Highest-grossing Disney film ever released in China and Russia.
>> Nearing $100 million in Japan, where it’s been No. 1 for all six weeks of release.

Pirates has so far earned an estimated $1,008,900,000 (Box Office mojo). And if you look strictly at the movies profits from the franchise as a whole so far the franchise is estimated at $2,777,764,165 and counting (profits only). I have a feeling that a fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie will be out in 2013, 2014 at the latest. Our hats off to you Captain Jack!

Goofy's Sky School and Paradise Gardens

On July 1st Disney California Adventure opened up the re-modeled Paradise Gardens restaurants and Goofy's Sky School. While Goofy's Sky School is ostensibly just a new coat of paint and some new flats from what was Mullholland Madness, what used to be Burger Invasion and Pizza Oom Mow Mow have taken dramatic changes for the better. Many of the folks on Micechat are saying that this area rivals New Orleans Square for theming, and some have gone so far as to say it is at least as good as areas of Tokyo Disney Sea, if not better, so an Huge A+ goes to the imagineers involved with this part of the DCA makeover.

Meanwhile, over in the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, Russel and Dug from Disney/Pixar's Up have found a new home for meet and greets. While Koda and Kenai were great to have around, I don't think they'll be very missed. They have re-themed the area to being a Wilderness Explorer Camp. I think everyone is glad this happened.

Jumping back to Paradise Pier for a new World of Color pre-show that ran July 1st-4th to honor Independence Day. Micechat's The Forbidden Eye got a video of the pre-show from front and center, take a look:

Looking ahead at the Disneyland Resort we know that in Spring/Summer 2012 the finishing touches of DCA Phase 1 will open up both the new Buena Vista Street as the park entrance and the beacon being Carthay Circle Theater, and the main part that Disney enthusiasts have been tracking for more then a year now.... Cars Land. Check out this recent photo from Blue Sky Cellar taken from a Tower of Terror balcony, this area will be super impressive when completeed:

The Muppets

There isn't much to say about the Muppets except that they are coming back in a big way. They have a new movie that I'm sure most of you know about already. Here are all of the trailers I have been able to find for the new movie:

Cars 2

Well, I haven't seen the movie yet, but I plan to go soon, and hopefully a showing late enough that kids will be asleep and not at the theater ;) What I can say is this, it looks like a nice popcorn flick, but not nearly as thought provoking as previous Pixar films. To put this in perspective I was in line for the midnight premiere of Toy Story 3, and I plan to see Brave on Opening day next year. And speaking of Brave, the trailer was released alongside Cars 2, here it is:

Brave will be Pixar's first story about a princess, lets see how they do with it next year.

Stargate's Future

Recently Dean Devlin (writer/director of the original movie) stated that he is still interested in doing 2 sequels to his movie bringing back Kurt Russel and James Spader as Col Jack O'Neill and Dr Daniel Jackson. With the end of the tv shows he thinks now might be the time to do it. I don't know about the rest of the Stargate fans, but to basically ignore all of the mythology we have been given over the past 14 years feels like a massive slap in the face aimed at Brad Wright & co, and the fans.

Alaina Huffman was caught on camera at a convention giving a reason why the movies (SGU finale, SG1 #3, SGA, and a combo all star movie) didn't see the green light. "Spyglass isn't interested in Stargate"