Inside The Mouse Castle 05-11-2015 - The Hatbox Ghost Returns, 'Tomorrowland' Premieres and the D23 Expo Expands

By Tim Callaway

George Clooney, his wife Amal and his niece Mia join
Bob Iger and his wife aboard the Monorail.

Last weekend was crazy busy at the Disneyland Resort. Brad Bird's new movie Tomorrowland had its world premiere at Downtown Disney followed by an after-party at the real Tomorrowland. On hand were the film's stars George Clooney, Britt Robertson and Raffey Cassidy, along with a host of other celebrities.

But wait, the weekend also saw the running of the Tinker Bell Half Marathon as well as the return (finally) of the Hatbox Ghost to the Haunted Mansion. Anthony and I talk about all that (okay, we skipped the Tinker Bell Half Marathon, sorry) plus these other fascinating stories in this week's Inside The Mouse Castle.

• Now that Brad Bird has just about put Tomorrowland in his past, what's next? We know (and Bird has officially confirmed) that The Incredibles 2 will be his next film project, but could he also be lining up a deal to helm a Star Wars movie?
• The Avengers 2.5, or as it's also known, Captain America: Civil War, has begun shooting in Atlanta. 
• Avengers director Joss Whedon closed his Twitter account. Was it because he's too busy, or was the Twitterverse just being too mean to him?
• Disney's live action Cinderella has passed $500 million in worldwide box office, making it the third highest grossing film of the year so far. Avengers: Age of Ultron (surprise!) leads the pack at close to $1 billion. 

Jason Bateman will voice the cunning fox, Nick Wilde, in Zootopia.

• Disney Animation announced Jason Bateman and Ginnifer Goodwin will voice the lead characters in Zootopia. Bateman will be a "scamming fox" named Nick Wilde while Goodwin will voice "optimistic bunny" Judy Hopps. The film will open in the U.S. on March 4, 2016.
• The big presentations at the D23 Expo will get a bigger venue this year. Traditional popular draws like the Disney Legends Award Ceremony and the Walt Disney Studios and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts presentations will move from the 5,000-seat arena at the Anaheim Convention Center to a new "Hall D23" that can handle 7,500 people. The D23 Expo will be held August 14-16.
• Disney California Adventure's nighttime dance party, the Mad T Party, returns on May 22nd. Break out your Bedazzler, though, because now it's going to be the Diamond Mad T Party.

Enjoy!

The Hatbox Ghost

Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/insidethemousecastle/InsideTheMouseCastle05-11-2015.mp3

Listen and subscribe to Inside The Mouse Castle on iTunes, Stitcher and SoundCloud.

RSS Feed: http://insidethemousecastle.libsyn.com/rss

Inside The Mouse Castle 04-27-2015 - 'Avengers: Age of Ultron,' 'Tomorrowland' and 'Descendants'

By Tim Callaway

Avengers: Age of Ultron opens Friday. Fist bump.

The most anticipated movie of the year (at least until that other movie opens in December) opens in U.S. theaters Friday and we couldn't be more excited. Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron is already racking up big money internationally, taking in over $200 million at the box office overseas this past weekend. 

But, that success hasn't come without a little bit of controversy. Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and Chris Evans (Captain America) all caused a stir on the press junket tour last week. RDJ walked out on an interview with BBC Channel 4 after being asked some awkward questions about his troubled past by interviewer Krishnan Guru-Murthy. Meanwhile Renner and Evans jokingly slut-shamed Scarlett Johansson's character Black Widow in a conversation with Digital Spy. A lot of people didn't see the humor in it, so Hawk and Cap both issued apologies.

Anthony and I try to avoid the name calling, but we're still pretty awkward in the latest episode of Inside The Mouse Castle.

• Marvel is doing the best it can to distance its upcoming Spider-Man film from the films that came before it at Sony. The rumored working title of the new MCU project is Spider-Man: The New Avenger. We like it.
• Does Avengers: Age of Ultron director Joss Whedon want to cross lines and direct a DC superhero movie one day? Sure, why not? 
• At CinemaCon in Las Vegas last week, Disney announced its full slate of movie releases through 2017, including everything from Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm. This wasn't really news as we pretty much knew the release dates for all these films. But, how exciting to see 24 titles packaged together? Disney is going to dominate in theaters over the next three years.

George Clooney in Tomorrowland.

• Who wants to meet George Clooney at the premiere of Tomorrowland at Downtown Disney? Oh please, who doesn't?
• Trader Sam's Grog Grotto officially opened at Walt Disney World's Polynesian Village Resort this week. That means you can now officially wait two hours to get in.
• World's collide. Past episodes of the BBC series Doctor Who starring Tenth Doctor David Tennant will be shown on Disney XD in May.
• Disney Villains have kids who grow up to be troubled teens. Complications ensue. That's the premise of Descendants, a new Disney Channel movie coming out this summer. There's a new trailer for it. We aren't impressed.

Enjoy!

CORRECTION: In The Mouse Castle Lounge, we incorrectly refer to the title of the Disney Channel movie as The Descendants. The title is just Descendants.

Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/insidethemousecastle/InsideTheMouseCastle04-27-2015.mp3

Listen and subscribe to Inside The Mouse Castle on iTunes, Stitcher and SoundCloud.

RSS Feed: http://insidethemousecastle.libsyn.com/rss