Disney Dreamworks Trip: Inside Disney Animation Studios

I still have so much to write about from my trip to LA for the CARS 2 premiere, like for instance, the Winnie the Pooh screening and The Help screening, both of which I am sworn to secrecy about until it gets closer to the release date (Winnie the Pooh hits theaters July 15th and The Help hits theaters August 12!)

However, there are a few things I can talk about that I am super excited about and for those things I will break them up into several installations and I do this mostly for my own insanity because there is just so much cool stuff to write!

When I was in LA, I went quickly through what Day One was like, but here I'll go a little further and break the trip down a little:

• Part one: Inside Disney Animation
• Part two: Inside the Animation Research and Archives
• Part three: Cool CARS 2 STUFF!!
• My interviews with the cast and directors are mostly posting at 5 Minutes for Mom but I will include them at the bottom of these posts.

So here we go:

Inside Disney Animation Studios

The first full morning we were there, we headed to Disney Animation Studios where they gave us some breakfast (and coffee!) and we went in and immediately saw the screening of Winnie the Pooh. On the way out, we saw a Jonas brother. It was unmistakably a Jonas, although I can't tell you which one. I had to tweet that I saw a Jonas.

Working at Disney Animation must be a dream come true, honestly. It makes me want to know how to
draw something other than square houses with the chimney with the little loopy line of smoke twirling out of it.

It turns out that there are two pods in which the writers and artists, directors, producers, etc work.

Each pod is set up to look like a set out of the movie they are working on. They change it for every movie they are doing. They decorate the walls, they literally bring the movie into the office and the movie is the office and vice versa.

It's awesome.

If I could change my office to reflect every project I am working on, inspiration would seep from my pores for sure. I was able to take pictures of the Winnie the Pooh area but had to put my camera away for the other area because it's a super-secret project. Below is the live-set within their work area that looks just like Christopher Robin's bedroom.

Fun fact: We also learned that "Piglet" is wearing a onesy. Who knew?

Giant Hunny Pot

After the movie and interviews with the producer and director, we got to try our hand at drawing Piglet, which I already wrote about, and then we got to see how they make the watercolor looks for the movie.

They don't paint anymore. They use Photoshop and it.is.unbelieveable how close it is. Down to making it look like paint has seeped into the grain of the paper, like a watercolor would.

That was a demonstration we got to see with one of the artists who worked on the movie. I can't believe how few pictures I took of that. I must have been captivated.

Then we got to meet Burny Mattinson, one of the original Disney animation artists who actually worked with Walt Disney. He's holding an original Winnie the Pooh that his wife made for the classic featurettes, but it never made it in.

Winnie finally gets his shot though, in this movie. Hooray for Winnie!

That was an amazing interview (more to come on that). After the interview with him, we got to talk to the voices behind Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Rabbit (Jim Cummings and Tom Kenny, also more to come on those interviews, which were HILARIOUS!)

Then we were off to go have some lunch. Yes, there was even a pretty menu for it.

The cupcakes and shortribs were to die for. I could not work here permanently because of this.

See? I told you.

Lunch was in sort of a common area and Spongebob, er, Rabbit, er, Tom Kenny came out and chatted with all us mom bloggers (and observed how much influence mom bloggers have! Very insightful that was indeed!) until it was time for me to put down the short ribs and go voice Piglet, which I wrote about in previous Winnie the Pooh post too. They will be sharing that clip of animation of us voicing Piglet and I'll post it here too when they do. (In sum, I had trouble finding my inner Piglet.)

After we were finished at Disney Animation, we headed over to the Animation Research Library, a little-known, very valuable gem of Disney... That's coming up next in Part II! Day one was a PACKED DAY as you can see.

* * *
You catch some of my other posts here:
My official CARS 2 Review
Interview with John Lasseter (Insight on CARS 2, the plot, family life and thoughts on violence)
Summer Craft or Birthday Party Fun with Cars 2
Pictures from the Red Carpet
One Thing I Learned at Disney
The Help: Now THIS MOVIE Looks Good

Lord Vader On Whirlwind Autograph Tour

Menacing

We have one autograph in our Disney autograph books and it's not Mickey. It's not Minnie. Not Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto, Cinderella, Woody, Buzz, any of the Einsteins (am I missing anyone?)

No.

It's Darth Vader.

It seems a little weird to have Darth Vader on the first page of our little Mickey autograph books, even before Mickey himself, but it was Star Wars weekend at Hollywood Studios and all the characters were out.

Menacing

And it was no big deal to see the other characters signing autographs, but honestly I couldn't help laughing at Darth Vader, all tall and menacing in his dark cloak with his scary heavy breathing and all, standing there signing Mickey and Princess books.


Not Menacing

There was just something about it, I can't put my finger on it. He spent the day being both menacing and not menacing.

It was confusing!

Next you're gonna tell me he's starring on a Disney on Ice show.

Wait.

He really is starring in Disney on Ice?

Oh, whew. You scared me.

For a second I pictured Darth Vader skating around in his long black skirt all flowy and whatnot and I think any menace, force or authority he has in the universe would be promptly removed by the skates themselves and perhaps the triple sow cow in the choreography. Unless of course the Emperor got a final say on the choreography and struck any triple toe loops out of the program.

I know it's super exciting for the kids to wait in line for an hour to get Darth Vader's autograph but I wish there was a more menacing delivery for the autograph. Like perhaps ordering a Storm Trooper to do it after he gave them the "force hand claw" thing or something.

That might be cool.


Not really menacing but acceptable

Because honestly, Darth Vader, how can we take you seriously after this?

This is just silly.

(ps. There is a pretty interesting Caption Contest going on with the above picture  at my Facebook page. Sorry, no actual winner, just a lot of funny answers.)

Winner of Toy Story 3 Tickets!

The winner of the Disney on Ice: Toy Story 3 Tickets is Jennifer Dion! Please email me your snail mail information asap! Congratulations!! christieo at averagemomswearcapes dot com.

Congrats! Thanks to everyone for entering!

Disney On Ice: Toy Story 3 (A Giveaway Post!)

Disney on Ice's Toy Story 3 is coming to Tampa!

When I first saw the commercial on tv I was so psyched!

My boys are five and three and we are without question a Disney Pixar House! They LOVE all three Toy Story movies, they dress up as Buzz and Woody all the time, they both have crushes on Jessie, they have Buzz and Woody pajamas...

I love those Woody pajamas. Picture taken during one of our notorious sick-day campouts.

We have gone to Disney and rode the Toy Story rides countless times at both Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, we've eaten at the Pizza Planet, it's a borderline obsession.

I'm sure we're not the only ones who are on our second copy of Cars because we wore the first one out.

It's starting to sound like we watch a lot of movies around here and actually and as I write this I'm thinking that we probably do, in fact, we had Toy Story 2 on all week while the kids were sick and we were all homebound. Movie day turned into movie "week" this week.

Yes we do other things in life I promise but we do love our movies. I can't say I mind really though because I love animated films and would watch them on my own (and have. And do!)

I am so totally bummed that the weekend that Disney on Ice's Toy Story 3 is coming to town is the weekend I will be in Baltimore for Fitbloggin! So I will not get to go! My husband is very lucky though -- he gets to take them (and he's taking lots of pictures and guest-blogging about it when he does. I love a good husband guest post, we're due for one!)

All of the characters will be there, skating along (without me.)

However, (here's the really cool part) I am giving away a family FOUR-PACK of tickets to Disney on Ice's Toy Story 3 so YOU can take YOUR kids!

The tickets are for the 7 p.m. show on May 19th at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, so where are all you Florida bloggers and friends, are you out there???

Here are the rules of this giveaway!

1. Leave a comment telling me if you saw Toy Story 3 and what your favorite part was. (This entry is mandatory). I totally bawled like a baby at the end. Also, I was pretty sure that was Sid as the garbage man.
2. For an extra entry: Tweet this giveaway, using the link and hashtag #DisneyOnIceMedia, then leave a comment telling me you tweeted it.
3. For another entry, share this giveaway on Facebook!
4. For another entry, follow my blog as a subscriber or by using that "follow" button on the left right there.
5. Finally, for another entry, "like" my Facebook page: Average Moms Wear Capes! You can get to it on the left right there. (see it? right there?)

Soooo that means you get up to 5 entries! Note: you must leave a comment here with each entry to be eligible for each extra entry. (If you are a non blogger, make sure you leave an email address in the comments or a way for me to contact you!)

This contest will close Tuesday night at 11p.m. Eastern time and I will announce the winner early Wednesday morning on May 11th and I will email you! You will have 24 hours to respond so I can submit the winner's name, and if I don't hear from you that day, I will draw another winner.

Good luck! I am so jealous that everyone will see this but me! (Tell my husband and the kids I say hi!)

Disclaimer: Average Moms Wear Capes was not compensated for this post. The kind folks at BSM Media provided the tickets for this giveaway. The opinions expressed in this post are my own.

How Going to Disney is Like Running a Marathon

We are freshly back from our two-day Disney excursion where I realized that going to Disney World with the family is a lot like running 26.2 miles through the Disney parks itself.

We had a big group of us, my best friend and her family, some of their friends, one day with my husband and one day without and in the end 7 LITTLE BOYS, roughly the same age. We were completely outnumbered.

If you've run a marathon and gone through the trials and tribulations of such, then you will completely identify (I think) and if you haven't, then there is only one thing to do: run a marathon! (Obviously!) Just kidding.

Anyway, besides the fact that the scenery is mostly the same (except that the run does not go through Space Mountain like I got to!) here are the similarities to a day at the park and a day running through the park.

Like in the marathon, you have a good breakfast first.

Then you start out slow and get the feel of it because you're not quite sure yet what to make of it.

You have a great time along the way, you see lots of characters, take pictures and everyone is having a blast.
You're starting to feel comfortable now.


There is both running and walking.

You do all sorts of things you have never done before (like BE A PIRATE!)

You battle your demons.

And you find out what you're made of.

Sometimes you feel like you're flying.

And sometimes you feel (and look) like a super hero.

You find safety in numbers because you're all in it together.

Then there is some pain involved because you're doing this for a long time and therefore, you find aches and pains in odd places. Sometimes for days afterward (Like today. Because I was mama sherpa carrying everything and everyone.)

You hit the bathrooms a lot. You are sweating. Profusely. For most of the day.

You're becoming a hot mess.

Eventually you and everyone around you get pretty tired. You're not sure you can keep going.

But you dig deep and rally. Because hello! It's Disney! It's the happiest place on earth! Of course you have more left!

So you have some more fun. Which in the end always outweighs the work you put in to get there.

And when all is said and done, the day was pretty long, you're all sorts of exhausted and definitely a bunch of sweet hot messes and inevitably there is crying at the finish.

And usually it's the ugly kind.

But going to Disney (like the marathon and also even like labor if we're being honest) becomes only this fantastic memory in your mind and you forget all the pain there might have been involved along the way because of the wonderfulness of the end product, which is awesome, in and of itself.

Even if at some point something came over you and you did try to poke Mickey's eye out, stunning the crowd and workers around you.


Luckily, Mickey forgave you. He knows you're not yourself once you finish a long day like this.


But yes, in the end, you absolutely most definitely no question about it without a doubt, would do it all over again.

Workout Wednesday: Race Recap + Shrinkvivor

It feels pretty good to have finally had a great half-marathon I am still riding that high. My official time was 2:22, beating out San Diego's half marathon which was 2:36.

SQUEE!

I went with two girls from my tri group and we just had so much fun. There were so many people at the Disney Wine & Dine Half-Marathon, it was like Woodstock. Only without the mud and the drugs. So I guess not at all like Woodstock, but still.

We had our tutus, our stripey socks and our blinking tiaras.

It was a little weird doing a race at 10 at night because what on earth do you eat all day?!

I tried my best to pair protein with carbs and then around 5, we stumbled upon a Sweet Tomatoes which was magically delicious! A little salad, a little pasta... perfection!

We had to take a bus from the hotel to the start of the race where we got warmed up (and tutu met porta-potty) and then it was race time.

I don't have much to say about the race because I feel like I danced through the whole thing. I had my music on and I sang and at the mile markers I threw my hands in the air (and got tangled in my tiara once) and around mile 9 when it started to hurt, I ate a gel and put on some hardcore music and then at mile 11 when it got hard again, we were going through Hollywood Studios and we were passing all the stops and attractions I had made earlier in the year with my family and best friend's family and so my family and friends kept me going through mile 11 in my head.

The last mile I sprinted as hard as I could and got choked up because I knew I had beaten my other times by far (no porta potty stops during the race will do that) and I cried at the finish.

Hurrah!

And that picture, by the way is not at all how I felt inside.

After I crossed the finish, they lost my bag that I checked and my stomach was really angry with me and I couldn't take part in the wine or the dine part of the race. My insides were wrecked (you're welcome). But those things don't matter! I was still on some sort of a high no matter what.

They eventually found my bag (Dear Disney, better organization system for next year for 12,000 bags, m'kay? Bags laying all over the floor does not work.) And we hit the sack by 4:30 a.m.

The next day (or the same day, rather) there was a late checkout and a Shoney's breakfast buffet involved.

The end.

Which ironically brings me to the Shrinkvivor challenge. I'm up a pound. I won't blame the race, I'll blame the bacon.

My bad.

Looks like I'm staring at a trip to Exile Island.

But I'm ok with that. I have just over 4 weeks to go to Miami-Man and soon after that I'll be finished training for the Disney Marathon so things are just getting started for me, really. Onward down the road to Disney!