Jim Hill

Universal Orlando Resort gets ready for its 17th annual Mardi Gras celebration

Jim Hill — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:42:00 GMT

There must have been a few confused tourists at Universal Orlando earlier today. Given the whales ... ... and polar bears that were parked right outside of the entrance of Universal Studios Florida this morning ... ... you have to wonder how many tourists thought (at least for a moment) that they had accidentally arrived at SeaWorld Orlando instead of USF. But the whales & bears were outside of that studio theme park not because Universal likes confusing tourists. But -- rather -- because Universal...(read more)

Why Clint Eastwood was a last minute addition to Disney-MGM's "Great Movie Ride"

Jim Hill — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:26:00 GMT

Greetings from the woods of Northern Georgia. Nancy and I are still down in this neck-of-the-woods. Her Dad's funeral was on Monday, so we're still in the process of dealing with a lot of family obligations. And given that my laptop went belly-up on Super Bowl Sunday ... Well, filing new stories for this site has become even more challenging. Which is why -- until Nancy can get the chance to properly format the Samsung Notebook that we purchased yesterday -- I thought that I might reach back...(read more)

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Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:26:00 GMT

ABC's "The River" is a surprisingly solid, scary new hour-long drama

Jim Hill — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:08:00 GMT

Take ABC 's long-running hit " Lost " with its elaborate back story and mythology. Now fold that in with the found-footage gimmick which made " The Blair Witch Project " and those " Paranormal Activity " films so successful. Then drop those two elements into Joseph Conrad 's " Heart of Darkness ." What would you wind up with? " The River ," a surprisingly solid & scary new hour-long horror series from ABC Studios, which debuts tonight...(read more)

Steve Jobs bio reveals how Michael Eisner actively tried to derail Disney's 2006 acquisition of Pixar

Jim Hill — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:34:00 GMT

It's kind of a long drive from the woods of New Hampshire to northern Georgia. 1075 miles to be exact. But you can do in 19 hours & change if you drive straight through. That's what I wound up doing late last week. I climbed into our Ford Explorer just before 11 a.m. on Thursday and eventually reached my destination at 6:30 on Friday morning. Mind you, I wasn't alone in the car that whole time. I had the actor Dylan Baker with me ... sort of. To explain: Dylan was the narrator of...(read more)

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Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:34:00 GMT

A brief pause

Jim Hill — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:03:00 GMT

You may have noticed that it's been kind of quiet in this corner of the Web over the past week. Well, there's a reason for that. You see, though JHM has some wonderful contributors (Floyd Norman, Leon Holzer and Roger Colton among them), this website is basically a two person operation. With myself and Nancy Stadler churning out 90% of the crud that you read here. And for the past two weeks or so, JHM has been a one man operation because Nancy has been down in Georgia dealing with her Dad...(read more)

Green screen & CGI make ABC's "Once Upon a Time" 's fairytale settings seem real

Jim Hill — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:42:00 GMT

So are you watching " Once Upon a Time " yet? For Mouse House fans, half the fun of watching this acclaimed ABC Studios production is its funhouse mirror take on so many of Disney's animated classics. Take - for example - tonight's episode, "Fruit of the Poisonous Tree." Which introduced the Genie from " Aladdin " as well as some serpents from Agrabah that Jafar would have been proud of. Or - better yet - "Skin Deep," the episode of "Once Upon...(read more)

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Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:42:00 GMT

"Be Our Guest" features an unvarnished take on Disney Company history

Jim Hill — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:10:00 GMT

I have to admit that It's been kind of amusing to watch the reaction (both here and elsewhere around the Web) that Tuesday's "What's really behind the sudden change in Disney Parks & Resorts' facial hair policy" story has been getting. With all sorts of would-be Disney scholars weighing on whether The Happiest Place on Earth actually had an official policy in place in regards to personal grooming when this theme park first opened to the public back on July of 1955. The...(read more)

What's really behind the sudden change in Disney Parks & Resorts' facial hair policy?

Jim Hill — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:05:00 GMT

You're going to read a lot today about how - by revising their long-standing policy on facial hair - Disney Parks and Resorts is now turning its back on nearly 60 years of tradition. Which isn't entirely true. I mean, if Walt Disney himself really insisted that no one with a beard or a mustache be allowed to work inside of one of his theme parks, then how do you explain Sheriff Lucky and Black Bart ... Sheriff Lucky and Black Bart from Disneyland's 1957 souvenir guidebook. Copyright Disney...(read more)

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Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:05:00 GMT

Magic Kingdom presents an abbreviated "Dream," Blue Man Group regroups

Jim Hill — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:01:00 GMT

January used to be the start of the slow season at the stateside Disney Parks. How so? So slow that - immediately after New Year's Day -- Disneyland Park wouldn't even open on Mondays & Tuesdays. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved Which -- as far as the maintenance crew who worked at this Anaheim theme park was concerned - was a good thing. Given that - with no Guests in the Park underfoot for two days out of the week during the early Fall & late Winter ... Well...(read more)

Leaked plans for Universal's Harry Potter expansion totally upstaged Disney's Leap Year Day celebration announcement

Jim Hill — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:36:00 GMT

Upstage: (verb) To divert attention or praise from; force out of the spotlight This wasn't how The Walt Disney Company envisioned 2012 starting out. After weeks of broadly hinting that the Mouse had something big in the works for Leap Year, Disney's PR department thought that Twitter & Facebook would be ablaze on New Year's Day with people talking about how they planned on attending those 24-hour-long " One More Disney Day " parties which will be held at Disneyland Park...(read more)

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Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:36:00 GMT

Wander the Cartoon Wastelands with Warren Spector in "The Art of Epic Mickey"

Jim Hill — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:34:00 GMT

It's the rumor which has got the gaming community buzzing . That there's supposedly a "Disney Epic Mickey 2" in the works. Even better, that the next videogame in this critically acclaimed series (which will reportedly be available in the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii formats) will allegedly allow players to chose between single-player and 2-player split screen mode. But before we start parsing the various rumors that are currently making the rounds (i.e. That "Disney Epic...(read more)

"Phineas and Ferb - Time Shift" hints at a fun new direction for this animated series

Jim Hill — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:07:00 GMT

Back during the Summer of 2008, I got the chance to chat with Dan Povenmire & Jeff "Swampy" Marsh about their then-still new animated series, " Phineas and Ferb ." And as I was closing out our interview, before I turned off my digital recorder, I asked these very funny & talented men two quick questions: Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh. Photo by Rick Rowell. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved JIM: The "Phineas & Ferb" theme...(read more)

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Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:07:00 GMT

Why For did Disney-MGM visitors never get the chance to "Journey to the Center of the Earth"?

Jim Hill — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 04:19:00 GMT

In response to last week's "Universal Studios Florida's 'Jaws' attraction sails off into the sunset" article , A Bigger Boat wrote in to say: I really enjoyed your "Jaws" article. But I find it hard to believe that Universal would change the layout of their entire Florida studio theme park just because Disney was going to have a tram tour at MGM. The tram tour wound up being such a minor aspect of Disney-MGM . Why would something like that make Universal blink...(read more)

Updated edition of "Building a Dream" covers even more of Disney's world

Jim Hill — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:56:00 GMT

Wow. Has it really been 15+ years since Beth Dunlop wrote " Building a Dream: The Art of Disney Architecture " ? Obviously Disney's world has gotten a whole lot bigger since 1996. Which is why I think it's terrific that Disney Editions recently decided to revisit Dunlop's book. Doing an extreme makeover, if you will, of this hyper-detailed look at the architecture of the Disney Parks & Resorts . Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved So how does this completely...(read more)

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Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:56:00 GMT

Are the Imagineers taking another shot at getting a shoot-the-chutes built at a Disney theme park?

Jim Hill — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:51:00 GMT

It was supposed to be Disneyland 's first thrill ride: Monstro the Whale ... Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved Which - in much the same way that Dumbo the Flying Elephant ... Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved ... was just a Disneyified version of that amusement park favorite, the spinning rockets -- ... Disneyland's Monstro the Whale was supposed to have taken that classic early thrill ride, the shoot-the-chutes ... ... and given it a Pinocchio themed...(read more)