Walt Disney World's Peter Pan Gets a Cool New Queue

Peter Pan's Flight at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom has gotten a cool new queue.

No, really. It's air conditioned.

In "testing phase" for a little over two weeks now, the queue has new interactive elements to keep guests occupied during what can often be a long wait for one of the park's most popular rides. 

You can get doused in pixie dust, interact with magical shadows and see Tinker Bell flit about the Darling children's nursery. It's really fun.

Inside The Mouse Castle 02-02-2015 - The Patriots Go to Disneyland, the Annie Awards and Disneyland's Diamond Celebration

By Tim Callaway

Malcolm Butler and Julian Edelman
cruise Main Street with Mickey.

Disneyland and the Super Bowl go together like bacon and eggs, Chip and Dale...

Tim and Anthony.

New England Patriots star players Julian Edelman and Malcolm Butler were feted on Main Street, USA at Disneyland Monday after appearing in the traditional "I'm Going to Disneyland" commercial following Super Bowl XLIX. Edelman caught the touchdown pass that gave the Patriots the lead for good and Butler made the goal line interception against the Seahawks in the closing seconds that secured the win. Edelman and Butler were given a ceremonial ride down Main Street accompanied by Mickey Mouse and were showered with confetti as fans cheered them on.

This was the 48th time the "I'm Going to Disneyland/Walt Disney World" promo has been aired. It has traditionally followed major entertainment and sporting events (especially the Super Bowl) since 1987 when New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms first uttered the famous line following Super Bowl XXI.

Anthony and I talk about the Super Bowl, Disneyland and a few other things in this week's edition of Inside The Mouse Castle.

• We got a new look at Tomorrowland during the Super Bowl. The sci-fi action-adventure starring George Clooney, Hugh Laurie and Britt Robertson opens May 22nd.

• Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Chris Evans (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) made a little Super Bowl bet about who was going to win the game. And it really didn't matter who won after all because, in a classy move, both guys have agreed to pay up. Pratt will visit Christopher's Haven, a cancer care center for children in Boston dressed as Star-Lord while Evans will visit Seattle Children's Hospital dressed as Captain America. You guys are awesome!
• Honoring the best in animation, the Annie Awards were handed out Saturday night in Los Angeles. How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Disney Mickey Mouse were the big winners, but we loved the special award presented to the Walt Disney Family Museum and the tipsy acceptance speech given by Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch.

• Disneyland announced some of their plans for the upcoming 60th anniversary celebration. New parade...check. New fireworks...check. New World of Color...check. New Hatbox Ghost...wait, what?

Elena of Avalor

• Disney is introducing a new Latina princess. Elena of Avalor will make her debut on the Disney Junior show Sofia the First in 2016 before spinning off into a series of her own.
• We love the new Disney coffee mugs that are blowing off the shelves at Starbucks locations at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, but a purple mug featuring Epcot's Spaceship Earth and the Monorail has disappeared entirely. We explain why.
• Want to own a piece of Disneyland history? Van Eaton Galleries in Southern California is auctioning off over 1,000 items from Disneyland's early days. The collection is astounding and includes an original skeleton animatronic from Pirates of the Caribbean, an animatronic bird from Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, a doll from it's a small world, plus all manner of vintage artwork and ticket media. Items will go on display at the gallery on February 7th and the online and live auction will occur on February 28th and March 1st. Get out your credit cards.

Enjoy!

Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/insidethemousecastle/InsideTheMouseCastle02-02-2015.mp3

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

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

Annie Awards: 'How to Train Your Dragon 2,' 'Disney Mickey Mouse' and the Walt Disney Family Museum Honored

By Tim Callaway

Dear ASIFA-Hollywood: Please allow Garfunkel and Oates to host the Annie Awards again, preferably the whole show and not just the first portion of it. The comedy-folk music duo of Riki Lindhome (Garfunkel) and Kate Micucci (Oates) were quirky and funny and rescued a show that started 20 minutes late and experienced wonky teleprompters. Garfunkel: "I want to thank God and my parents for the teleprompter."

How to Train Your Dragon 2

Saturday night's awards, presented at UCLA's Royce Hall, honored the best in animation and were dominated by How to Train Your Dragon 2. Dreamworks Animation's successful sequel took home six Annie Awards including Best Animated Feature and Outstanding Directing for Dean DeBlois. DeBlois, noting the recent layoff of 500 employees at Dreamworks Animation, said in his acceptance speech, "We've had kind of a tough week at Dreamworks, but I think it's moments like this where we get to celebrate the incredible work that goes into these projects and makes a lot of us look really good."

On the television side, Disney Mickey Mouse also landed six awards including nods for director Aaron Springer and veteran voice actor Bill Farmer. Disney claimed additional awards for their films Feast (Best Animated Short Subject) and Big Hero 6 (Animated Effects) and for the TV series Wander Over Yonder (Character Animation and Character Design) and Gravity Falls (Best Children's Production). Gravity Falls series creator Alex Hirsch was surprised and admittedly inebriated when he accepted his Annie. Brandishing an alcohol flask, he said, "Nothing sobers you up like looking at hundreds of people at once."

Former Disney animator, 101-year old Don Lusk, was a recipient of the Winsor McCay Award. This lifetime achievement award is presented to noteworthy artists for their "career contributions to the art of animation." Lusk spent nearly 30 years at Disney, working on such notable animated films as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. In the 1960s, he left Disney to work for other studios including Hanna-Barbera.

Ron Miller accepts a special Annie Award
for the Walt Disney Family Museum.

Among the highlights of the evening was a Special Achievement Award presented to the Walt Disney Family Museum in recognition of their "unique and significant impact on the art and industry of animation." Disney Legend Richard Sherman and filmmaker Leslie Iwerks presented the award to Ron Miller, husband of the museum's late founder, Diane Disney Miller, and himself the former president and CEO of Walt Disney Productions. Of Diane, Ron Miller said, "She was on a mission: to tell the fascinating and inspiring story of her father, Walt Disney. Through this, she hoped the museum would be a center for inspiration and creativity for present and future generations of animators, artists and innovators. Receiving this special achievement accolade here at the Annie Awards pays testament to the determination, hard work and talent of Diane and our team at the Walt Disney Family Museum."

For the complete list of this year's Annie Award winners and nominees, visit http://annieawards.org/nominees.