The Mouse Castle Lounge 02-26-2015 - Disney Animator James Lopez, Part One

By Tim Callaway

Animator James Lopez

I like James Lopez for a number of reasons, not the least of which is when he was a kid, he was a master of the video game Dragon’s Lair. That was the laserdisc arcade game created by Don Bluth in the early 1980s after Bluth had departed Disney Animation. Dirk the Daring, the evil dragon, Princess Daphne—I loved that game. Anyway, the beauty of if all is that as a young animator, James later worked for Bluth on the 1991 film Rock-a-Doodle. It's a nerd thing.

James attended CalArts and found early success in animation. He would go on to have a lengthy career at Disney. His animation credits include Timon in The Lion King, Wiggins in Pocahontas and Pain in Hercules. He also worked on The Emperor’s New Groove, Home on the Range, The Princess and the Frog and the Oscar-winning short Paperman.

James is a gifted artist who excels in 2D, hand-drawn animation. These days he’s keeping the art alive by animating and directing a personal project, the steampunk adventure Hullabaloo, which he successfully crowd funded last year on Indiegogo. But more on that next week. Today, in part one of our two-part conversation, James and I talk about his early career and how he literally had to learn his craft on the job. James Lopez is my guest today in The Mouse Castle Lounge. Enjoy!

Related: The Mouse Castle Lounge 02-26-2015 - Disney Animator James Lopez, Part Two

Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/themousecastle/TheMouseCastleLounge02-26-2015.mp3

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

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

Inside The Mouse Castle 02-23-2015 - The Oscars, Rising Ticket Prices and Walking to Walt Disney World

By Tim Callaway

Oscar winner Big Hero 6.

"Once upon a time, there was a freckle-faced little boy who told his mom and his dad that one day he was gonna work at Walt Disney Animation. And they did something amazing. They supported him and they believed him. And from the bottom of his heart, he thanks them."

--Big Hero 6 co-director Don Hall

It was a good night at the Oscars Sunday for Disney Animation. Big Hero 6 was named Best Animated Feature while Feast claimed the statuette for Best Animated Short Film. There were those other films too: Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Whiplash. Anthony and I cover it all in today's episode of Inside The Mouse Castle.

We cover a few other things too:

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales has started filming in Australia and we finally know what the story will be about. Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) crosses swords with "deadly ghost pirates" led by an old nemesis (Javier Bardem). Captain Jack's only hope is to obtain the Trident of Poseidon, the key to unlocking all the powers of the sea. POTC 5 will open in the summer of 2017.

Kevin Costner stars in Disney's inspirational sports film McFarland, USA.

• Kevin Costner's latest flick for Disney, McFarland, USA, opened to generally favorable reviews and pretty good box office numbers ($11.3 million) over the weekend. One day, Anthony and I might even be talked into watching it.
• Disneyland and Walt Disney World upped their ticket prices on Sunday. The world did not end.

Lauren Passell wins the Disney Princess Half Marathon.

• A year ago, Lauren Passell thought she might never run again due to a broken hip. Sunday, she beat a field of over 20,000 runners to win the Disney Princess Half Marathon at Walt Disney World. 
• The Cobb family from Houston, Texas, is on a cross-country hike from Disneyland to Walt Disney World to raise money and awareness for cancer treatment and to honor the memory of their daughter, Julia Cobb. In 2013, Julia died of Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare bone cancer, at the age of eight. The family's 4,000-mile journey began on August 4th last year and they are currently just past the halfway point in east Texas. To find out more about the Cobb family and how you can support their cause, visit www.jucanfoundation.org. 
• Last year on Inside The Mouse Castle, we talked about the frivolous lawsuit filed by author Isabella Tanikumi, who claimed Disney stole the idea for their mega-hit Frozen from Tanikumi's autobiographical book Yearnings of the Heart. Last week, U.S. District Judge William Martini granted Disney's request to dismiss the lawsuit. In his ruling, Judge Martini wrote, "The setting, plot and characters have no close similarities. No lay person could find that Disney improperly appropriated from Yearnings of the Heart."

Enjoy!

Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/insidethemousecastle/InsideTheMouseCastle02-23-2015.mp3

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

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

The Mouse Castle Lounge 02-19-2015 - At the 87th Academy Awards

By Tim Callaway

Neil Patrick Harris hosts
the Oscars on Sunday.

We were going to talk to Neil Patrick Harris in this episode of The Mouse Castle Lounge, but we just couldn't make time for him. No, really. Listen to the show. Everything we said is true. Most of it. Okay, some of it. But Neil Patrick Harris was really there. No he wasn't.

What did happen is Team Mouse Castle descended upon Hollywood this week for our annual Oscar preview show. It's the one show each year where we depart from our usual Disney obsessions to indulge in our movie obsessions, sharing our knowledge, insight and lame-ass opinions about who we think will win in the major categories at the Academy Awards. 

This year, I was joined by my good friends Anthony Reynolds, Christi Andersen, Jennifer O'Brien-Chavez and Tina Joplin at Trastavere at Hollywood & Highland. We dined Italian and drank copious amounts of wine just steps away from Hollywood Boulevard where red carpet preparations were underway. We also spent some time on the red carpet itself, where I managed to get in the way of just about everyone who was working there. I am not proud of this.

For those of you playing at home, here are the categories we cover on today's show. Who are your Oscar choices? Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Enjoy!

Best Picture
American Sniper
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

Best Director
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game

Best Animated Feature
Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Best Actor
Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
Bradley Cooper, American Sniper
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Michael Keaton, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Best Actress
Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Best Supporting Actor
Robert Duvall, The Judge
Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
Edward Norton, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Laura Dern, Wild
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
Emma Stone, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods

Neil Patrick Harris will host the 87th Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood this Sunday. The show will be televised on ABC beginning at 4 p.m. Pacific time. So far as we know, Neil is still waiting to talk to us.

Team Mouse Castle at the Oscars.
(l. to r.) Christi, Tim, Jennifer, Tina and Anthony

Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/themousecastle/TheMouseCastleLounge02-19-2015.mp3

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

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