MousePlanetWatch Disney News

This and other news can be found in this week's Walt Disney World Park Update.

Disneyland News

• Lots of details were presented on the major reworking of the troubled Disney's California Adventure park. The complete Disney press release is here. The Orange County Register has a nice overview map of the areas to be rebuilt.
• Rumors are flying regarding possible Candlelight Processional dining packages being offered tyhrough Tickets.com.
• The SunCal-backed Committee to Protect and Defend Anaheim is collecting signatures to place their Anaheim Voter Empowerment initiative on the ballot this year.
• Disneyland's Holiday Time tour begins November 17 this year.
• Disneyland's new purchase-with-purchase offer features four holiday-inspired retro tin places. Photos of the plates are on the Disney Gallery web site.
• Much of MousePlanet's California-based contingent will be at Walt Disney World for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 6.5K and 13K races this weekend, weather permitting. If you'll be there, be sure to stop by our post-race meet to say hi.

This and other news can be found in this week's Disneyland Park Update.

The Walt Disney Company News

• Disney is using the "World's Biggest Treasure Hunt" to promote the December 21 release of National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets.
• If you can't afford to go see the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert tour in person, Disney will be releasing it as a Disney Digital 3-D movie.
• Touring with Hannah/Miley are the Jonas Brothers, who will be releasing a "Bonus Jonas Edition" of their debut Hollywood Records album next Tuesday, including two additional songs on the CD, plus an additional DVD with videos and concert footage.
• There's a bit of controversy being generated by the conservative media over asking Promenade Pictures to remove the words "chosen by God" from an ad for the movie "The Ten Commandments." While the media was up in arms about "removing God from a Bible story," it seems that the request was made because ad's wording was a bit confusing over who exactly was chosen by God, whether it was the voice actors or a character in the movie.
• Game pieces sold at Target stores earlier this year along with Cars-themed backpacks have been recalled due to magnets becoming detached and posing a hazard to small children.
• The Los Angeles Chapter of the American Jewish Committee honored Disney Studios chair Dick Cook with the Dorothy and Sherrill C. Corwin Human Relations Award for his professional and civic endeavors to help promote tolerance, understanding and cooperation.
• Firefly Mobile is now offering a free phone to Disney Mobile subscribers who switch to the service.
• A group of major media players released guidelines for protecting copyrights on user-generated content on sites such as MySpace. This is in conflict with the site-filtering technology recently announced by Google's YouTube subsidiary. Multiple standards rarely work, so we'll have to wait to see if this is an exception.
• Disney is celebrating the one-year anniversary of their Healthy Kids food initiative with spots on the Disney Channel and other venues.
• The Kirstie Kelley Disney bridal line has expanded again with the "Blossoms" line for flower girls.
• Roy Disney's latest activist-shareholder move comes against tax-preparer Jackson Hewitt.
• The New York Times is reporting that France is starting to warm to The Walt Disney Company, partly on the heels of Ratatouille.
• Disney has produced a new film for the U.S. State Department to show at Customs for all arriving international tourists. It includes a remixed/rearranged version of the Illuminations soundtrack.
• Disney has placed three movies in the top ten at the box office this past weekend, with The Game Plan holding on in third place, Miramax's Gone Baby Gone opening in sixth place and the rerelease of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in Disney Digital 3-D coming in at number eight.

Administrative stuff

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We also wanted to remind you that we have now scheduled our MouseFest meet for the podcasts. The MouseStation Hustle-tini Meet will begin at 5:30 p.m. at Classic Concoctions in the Everything Pop food court at Disney's Pop Century Resort for Bluetinis to get our nerve up to get up and boogie. We'll make sure that we're in the lobby before 6 p.m. so that we can do The Hustle, then return to Classic Concoctions or elsewhere to record some more for the podcast. For more information on the Hustle-tini or any other MousePlanet-sponsored meet at MouseFest, check out our MouseFest information page.

Wrapping up

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