"Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue" Now on DVD

THE WORLDS OF FAIRIES AND HUMANS CONVERGE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN AN ALL-NEW MAGICAL ADVENTURE

Disney Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue

Debuts On Blu-rayTM Combo Pack, DVD, and movie download September 21

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Celebrates Spring Solstice with the Announcement of an Exciting New Adventure

BURBANK, Calif. March19, 2010 – Tinker Bell, the world’s favorite fairy, will be spreading her mirth and magic for audiences of all ages, as the worlds of fairies and humans meet for the first time in Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue. An all-new, original full-length CG animated film featuring breathtaking animation, spectacular music and an all-star cast of voice talents debuts September 21st, 2010 on Blu-ray Combo Pack (includes Blu-ray and bonus DVD of the film & movie download).

Before she was ever introduced to Wendy and the Lost Boys, Tinker Bell met Lizzy, a girl with a steadfast belief in fairies. Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue begins in summertime in the beautiful English countryside. An enchanting encounter unfolds when Tinker Bell is discovered by Lizzy, and as their different worlds unite, Tink develops a special bond with the curious girl in need of a friend.

As her fellow fairies launch a daring rescue, Tinker Bell takes a huge risk, putting her own safety and the future of the fairies in jeopardy. This action-packed adventure takes the fairies of Pixie Hollow on a daring flight to London to save Tinker Bell and all of fairy kind.

Produced by DisneyToon Studios, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue is a captivating and exciting adventure for all the family.

Disney Fairies has become one of the Walt Disney Company’s most successful franchises--driven on multiple platforms and across numerous business units of The Walt Disney Company, including Disney Consumer Products, Parks and Resorts, Disney Interactive Media Group, and Disney Channel.

STREET DATE: September 21, 2010
Suggested retail price: U.S. $29.99 DVD, $39.99 Blu-ray Combo Pack; Canada: $35.99 DVD, $44.99 Blu-ray
Feature run time: TBD
Rated: This movie is not yet rated
Technical specifications may only apply to feature
Aspect ratio: Family-friendly wide screen, 2.35:1
Sound: DVD: Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound
Blu-ray: DTS-HD
Languages: English, Spanish and French
Subtitles: English, Spanish and French


About Disney's Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack:
To provide consumers with unprecedented quality, value and portability of their favorite Disney movies, in 2008 Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment pioneered the Combo Pack – a Blu-ray Disc plus a DVD in a single package.

About Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Walt Disney Home Entertainment is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Worldwide Home Entertainment, Inc., a recognized industry leader. Walt Disney Studios Worldwide Home Entertainment is the marketing, sales and distribution company for Walt Disney, Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures, Miramax, and Buena Vista Blu-ray, DVDs and Digital Downloads.

About Disney Fairies
Disney Fairies is rooted in Disney's rich heritage of children's storytelling. The franchise builds upon the enormous popularity of Tinker Bell and introduces girls to her secret, magical world and a new circle of enchanting fairy friends – Fawn, Iridessa, Rosetta and Silvermist – each with an incredibly diverse talent, personality and look. Launched just a few years ago, the $1B franchise boasts a thriving publishing and lifestyle merchandising program. To date, over 675 Disney Fairies and Tinker Bell titles have been published in 57 countries and 31 languages, selling nearly 30 million copies; Disney Fairies magazines have sold over 7.5 million copies in 28 countries and an array of products from apparel and toys to electronics, home décor and stationery has extended storylines into many girls’ homes across the globe.

DisneyFairies.com is now available in more than 20 territories across North America, Latin America, EMEA and Asia Pacific. Fans have created more than 25 million personalized Fairy avatars to date that can take flight in the virtual world of Pixie Hollow. Disney theme parks have also launched a Pixie Hollow attraction where fans can meet the Disney Fairies. The Disney Fairies are highlighted in the production of Disney On Ice presents Worlds of Fantasy, and additionally, Tinker Bell is in four other Disney On Ice shows touring the world. Following the success of Walt Disney Pictures Tinker Bell on Disney Blu-ray and hi-def DVD, Disney released Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure in 2009 as the second title in the series.

Toy Story 3 Arrives on DVD November 2nd

THE WORLD’S BIGGEST ANIMATED RELEASE OF ALL TIME COMES HOME!

THE BIGGEST TOY STORY YET JUST GOT BIGGER WITH BLU-RAY™ COMBO PACK OFFERING THREE WAYS TO ENJOY!

DISNEY●PIXAR’S Toy Story 3

Buzz and Woody - Coming To Blu-ray™ Hi-Def and DVD - November 2, 2010

BURBANK, Calif., September 2010 – They’re back! Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios present the critically-acclaimed, global box office smash Toy Story 3, an exciting, heart-warming story filled with humor, adventure and surprises, that reunites America’s favorite animated toys, Buzz and Woody, and introduces a whole new set of favorites to audiences around the globe. The world’s #1 animated film in box office history and The Walt Disney Company’s second biggest film of all time, Toy Story 3 will be released on Blu-ray and DVD November 2 by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

Families won’t want to miss adding the Blu-ray Combo Pack, 2 Disc Blu-ray or the DVD edition of Toy Story 3 to their home movie collections. Fans of all ages who have come to love and cherish these unique characters, can explore them in a whole new way as the Disney●Pixar team provides a more in-depth look into Pixar Animation Studios and the creation of its characters with hours of exclusive bonus features on the Blu-ray Disc version of the film including filmmaker commentary with Director Lee Unkrich and Producer Darla K. Anderson, amusing views of life at Pixar, analysis of favorite scenes, the Toy Story Trivia Dash game, and much, much more!

Toy Story 3 marks Pixar veteran Lee Unkrich’s feature directorial debut and the return of Pixar’s favorite composer Randy Newman, with the addition of Academy Award®-winner Michael Arndt’s (Little Miss Sunshine) compelling original screenplay. Tom Hanks (Angels & Demons), Tim Allen (The Santa Clause), Joan Cusack (Confessions of a Shopaholic), John Ratzenberger (Up) and Don Rickles (Toy Story 2) reprise their roles as the voices of the iconic characters Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Hamm and Mr. Potato Head, respectively, and are joined by new characters voiced by Michael Keaton (Herbie Fully Loaded) as Barbie's romantic foil Ken, Timothy Dalton (Hot Fuzz) as the thespian hedgehog Mr. Pricklepants, and Ned Beatty (Rudy) as the cuddly Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear, among many others, as the toys face a new adventure as Andy prepares to go off to college.

Suggested retail prices for Toy Story 3 are $45.99 (US)/$52.99 (Canada) for the 4-Disc Blu-ray Combo Pack (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy), $39.99 (US)/$47.99 (Canada) for the 2-Disc Blu-ray, and $29.99 (US)/$35.99 (Canada) for the Single Disc DVD.

Also available on November 2 is an exciting Ultimate Toy Box 3-Movie Collection that contains all three TOY STORY releases on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital copy. Priced at $100.00 (US)/$115 (Canada), this release contains:
· Toy Story – 1 Disc DVD; 1 Disc Blu-ray; 1 Disc Digital Copy
· Toy Story 2 – 1 Disc DVD; 1 Disc Blu-ray; 1 Disc Digital Copy
· Toy Story 3 – 1 Disc DVD; 2 Disc Blu-ray; 1 Disc Digital Copy


TOY STORY 3 - Bonus Features:
DVD:
· Day & Night – The innovative and entertaining short from the imagination of Pixar artist and Director Teddy Newton.
· Toys! – A closer look at all of Toy Story 3’s beloved toys from updating the classic characters to the creation of the Sunnyside Daycare and Bonnie’s Room toys.
· Buzz Lightyear Mission Logs: The Science of Adventure – Produced in conjunction with NASA, this hybrid animation documentary of Buzz’s visit to the International Space Station focuses on research in zero gravity and Buzz’s triumphant return to Earth.
· Paths to Pixar: Editorial – Pixar editors, past and future share anecdotes about their careers.
· The Gang’s All Here – A touching look at the returning voice talent for Toy Story 3 and an introduction to the voices of the new characters.
· A Toy’s Eye View: Creating A Whole New Land – A sneak peek at the new Toy Story-themed playland at Hong Kong Disneyland.
· Studio Stories – A series of amusing animated anecdotes about life at Pixar.
“Where’s Gordon?” – An animator finds a hidden room at Pixar.
“Cereal Bar” – The majestic and expansive Pixar cereal bar is explored.
“Clean Start” – The Toy Story 3 animators shave their heads to mark the start of the film.

BLU-RAY COMBO PACK: Everything on the DVD plus…
· Toy Story Trivia Dash – This cool game challenges you to sprint to the finish with Woody, Buzz, Jessie and Rex as you quickly answer questions about all three Toy Story movies.
· Cine-Explore – Commentary by Director Lee Unkrich and Producer Darla K. Anderson.
· Beyond the Toybox: An Alternative Commentary Track Featuring Leads from Story, Tech, Art and Animation – Commentary by Story Supervisor Jason Katz, Supervising Technical Director Guido Quaroni, Production Designer Bob Pauley and Supervising Animators Bobby Podesta and Michael Venturini.
· Beginnings: Setting A Story In Motion – Screenwriter Michael Arndt analyzes successful opening scenes from Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles.
· Bonnie’s Playtime: A Story Roundtable – A roundtable discussion with Director Lee Unkrich and the story artists who brought the “Bonnie’s Playtime” scene to life.
· Roundin’ Up A Western Opening – The development of the movie’s exciting opening scene.
· Life Of A Shot – Toy Story 3 artists and technicians describe their contributions to a few of the shots in the film’s “Western Opening.”
· Goodbye Andy – An exploration of character design, acting and animation in the scene “Andy’s Goodbye.”
· Accidental Toymakers – By creating the Toy Story characters, the Pixar filmmakers found themselves in the unlikely role of toy designers. Meet the toy company that took a chance on manufacturing the now iconic toys and learn of their incredible success that began with a modest number of Woody and Buzz Lightyear toys 15 years ago.
· Making of Day & Night – The story behind the unique 2D/3D blended short.


About the Film:
Toy Story 3 welcomes Woody (voice of Tom Hanks), Buzz (voice of Tim Allen) and the whole gang back as Andy prepares to depart for college and his loyal toys find themselves in… day care! These untamed tots with their sticky little fingers do not play nice, so it’s all for one and one for all as plans for the great escape get underway. More than a few new faces—some plastic, some plush—join the adventure, including iconic swinging bachelor and Barbie’s counterpart Ken (voice of Michael Keaton), a thespian hedgehog named Mr. Pricklepants (voice of Timothy Dalton) and a pink, strawberry-scented teddy bear called Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear (voice of Ned Beatty). Directed by Lee Unkrich (co-director of Toy Story 2 and Finding Nemo), produced by Pixar veteran Darla K. Anderson (Cars, Monsters, Inc.) and written by Academy Award®-winning screenwriter Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine), Toy Story 3 is a comical new adventure!

About Disney Combo Packs:
To provide consumers with unprecedented quality, value and portability of their favorite Disney classics, in 2008 WDSHE pioneered the Combo Pack – a Blu-ray Disc plus a DVD and in some cases a Digital Copy of the movie in a single package. Current 2010 Disney titles available as Combo Packs include Alice in Wonderland, Ponyo, Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and Princess and the Frog.

About The Walt Disney Studios:
For more than 85 years, The Walt Disney Studios has been the foundation on which The Walt Disney Company (DIS: NYSE) was built. Today, the Studio brings quality movies, music and stage plays to consumers throughout the world. Feature films are released under four banners: Walt Disney Pictures, which includes Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios, Disneynature, Touchstone Pictures and Marvel. Through the Home Entertainment division, innovative distribution methods provide access to creative content across multiple platforms. Original music and motion picture soundtracks are produced under Walt Disney Records and Hollywood Records, while Disney Theatrical Group produces and licenses live events, including Broadway theatrical productions, Disney on Ice and Disney LIVE!. For more information, please visit http://www.disney.com/.

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Second Season of "Castle" Arrives on DVD

ABC’s SMART, WITTY DRAMEDY HIT COMES HOME TO DVD

CASTLE: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON

Available on DVD September 21, 2010

“The show has drama, suspense, and a smokin’ hot lead character.” – Cosmopolitan, February 2010

BURBANK, CA, July 2010 – The critically-acclaimed complete second season release of ABC’s smart, witty dramedy Castle showcases the unique partnership between “ruggedly handsome” crime novelist, Richard Castle (Nathan Fillian) and hard-nosed NYPD detective, Kate Beckett (Stana Katic)-- in a fantastic five-disc DVD set -- available on DVD September 21, 2010 from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

ABC’s Castle: The Complete Second Season invites viewers to dive into their real world crimes, and relive all the compelling second season cases in a great set that includes all 24 second season episodes; cool never-before-seen bonus features; on-set bloopers and behind-the-scenes access features that allow fansto go inside one of the network’s critically acclaimed and most exciting series!

Castle and Beckett’s unconventional partnership and banter creates humorous situations and romantic tension unlike anything on TV. During this past season, Castle and Beckett’s relationship has grown stronger as they’ve dodged bullets, captured killers, and solved countless murder cases in their unorthodox partnership. But by the Season Two finale, Beckett’s new relationship with a robbery detective has pushed Castle away, forcing them both to confront their feelings for one another. When Castle leaves to finish writing his second Nikki Heat novel, Naked Heat, Beckett has to watch him walk away, unable to express her true feelings and unsure whether he will return to the precinct.

Castle: The Complete Second Season also stars Ruben Santiago-Hudson as NYPD Captain Roy Montgomery, Tamala Jones as Medical Examiner Lanie Parish, Jon Huertas as NYPD Detective Javier Esposito, Seamus Dever as NYPD Detective Kevin Ryan, Molly Quinn as Alexis Castle, with Susan Sullivan as Martha Rodgers.

Bonus Features:
• On Set With Seamus & Jon — Go Behind The Scenes With Cast’s Resident Comedians, Seamus Dever And Jon Huertas, As They Reveal Secrets Of The Set
• On Location With Nathan — Nathan Fillion Introduces Us To Some Of His Favorite Crew Members And Demonstrates Some Interesting Tricks Of The Trade
• Manhattan‘s Most Unusual Murders — Discover How The Production Team Stages Murders Using Research, Props And Special Effects With Inside Stories From The Producers, Actors And Set Designers
• Deleted Scenes
• Misdemeanors: Bloopers & Outtakes

Castle: The Complete Second Season is priced at $45.99 SRP (US) and $54.99 SRP (CAN).
Street Date: September 21, 2010
DVD
Suggested Retail Price: $45.99 US; $54.99 Canada
Feature Run Time: Approx. 1018 minutes (24 1-hour episodes)
Rating: US: TV-14 DLSV
Canada: PG Not Recommended for Young Children, Violence
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (1.78:1)
Languages: English; Spanish and French subtitles

Jake Gyllenhaal on Prince of Persia

Jake Gyllenhaal, who plays Prince Dastan, talks about PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME in this interview provided by Disney:

QUESTION: You and Gemma Arterton have great chemistry on screen in Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time. That must have helped in the scenes where your characters banter together?

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: Oh definitely! Those scenes I think were the best written and the most fun to play. They came so naturally and we shot them so fast. It was unfortunate that the ended so quickly. We might spend a month on an action scene and half a day on that scene (with Gemma). We would nail it and move on. She and I had a sort of tit for that thing. The first time we met she looked at me as though she was unimpressed and I looked at her like…’You should be! Why aren’t you?’…(joked). So that was it from the beginning, there was no acting required.

QUESTION: The weather in Morocco during filming was supposed to be so hot and sandy that it was almost like having sand in your mouth all the time?

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: It was not that bad. It was ok. It was hot but it was fun. The desert is really cleansing…the sand exfoliates your skin….and there is a nice warm dry sun and you are sweating.

QUESTION: You must have been conditioned by Jarhead?

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: I was. I make a lot of movies about turning back time and a lot of movies in the desert. It’s a very strange thing.

QUESTION: You have been Spider Man and Batman. Now in Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time you have become a sort of super hero?

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: No! I am a video game adaptation. (jokes)

QUESTION: So how does it feel to finally have your own action figure?

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: That is like fulfilling the dreams that I had when I was eight years old. When he is playing with an action figure what young boy doesn’t think that maybe one day…You personify anyway as the action figure character that you are playing with, so to be one is incredible. If you were to go back to the eight year old me and say that one day you will be playing in a movie that looks a little like Indiana Jones, or The Goonies and a couple of other things and it is the video game that you are actually playing called the Prince Of Persia…I think that my head would have exploded.

QUESTION: What was your inspiration for the movie?

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: My primary resource was the video game. There were also books and different paintings of that time that were real inspirations. After I read the script I had a meeting with Jerry Bruckheimer and asked him what the movie was going to look like. Was it going to look like a video game or how I might imagine a typical Disney film? For instance, I wondered if I was to be wearing the red outfit for the whole movie. Jerry handed me this book (The Orientalist) and said that was how he wanted it to look. But apart from that there was not a lot of research. There was some research into weaponry and things like that. But I looked on it more like it was based on a fantasy world that was based on reality.

QUESTION: What is it like to make a big expensive special effects film like Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time?

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: The thing about a movie like this that is interesting is that people tend to only associate it with commerce. For me it was always that it was so much fun. It is differentiating the actor with the businessman and the actor who says that he wants to be a kid again and have a good time. It was so exciting! Every day I would drive to work and it was like going to a sporting event when you are the captain of the team. There were thousands of cars lined up along the road for five miles and there was an army of film crew and then the sets were 100 feet high – all built with perfect detail. I don’t think you see that any more on a film set. So often it is green screen effects that are done later. But we could shoot anywhere because the details were extraordinary and there were thousands of extras. And some more were added in later – to make it even bigger! I would get in there and every day I did feel like a kid.

QUESTION: After working with you in this film, Sir Ben Kingsley says you have the ability to seemingly be doing very little in front of the camera and yet it’s just right?

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: With this movie I always looked at it like I was reading a children’s book to a child. It was that kind of style of acting. Because of his years of theatrical work and his history of Shakespeare, Sir Ben has an attitude that there is a sense of telling a story clearly and even theatrically. At on point I told him I felt as though I was speaking to a child and he said….exactly! I always feel that if a movie is good then an actor should have to do very little.

QUESTION: What would you say was the greatest challenge, the physicality of it or speaking in a British accent?

JAKLE GYLLENHAAL: No doubt speaking in a British accent, that was the hardest part for me. It’s daunting trying to do any service as an American to such a beautiful fluid speech pattern that you all have. For me, it did help being surrounded by a primarily British cast and somewhat British crew. So I would speak every day, I would get out of the car and I’d have the accent on all day. And I would sort of journey from region to region around England with each different person I would talk to, I would mimic them and sometimes I would sound like them in takes and Mike [Newell] would say [adopts posh British accent and shouts]… ‘Dear boy! You don’t sound right! Do it again! Smashing!’. That’s my favorite line. ‘CUT!’. That’s when you know he was excited about a take. So yeah, I would say the accent was much more daunting, particularly in front of the British press.

QUESTION: How dangerous is it working with ostriches?

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: The ostrich scene was where I was the most terrified in the entire shoot. They are terrifying animals. Even in their innocence, they can tear out your eyeballs and rip out your heart. They seem like they have eyes similar to mine but they really don’t. They can really do dangerous stuff to you.

QUESTION: How much of the stunt work did you do and were you in the best shape of your life for this movie?

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: It depends what you mean by ‘best shape’. I cycle and I run long distances…10 or 12 miles. But I am not able to do that when I am the shape I was for the movie. I remember seeing lance Armstrong on the cover of a magazine and he was saying ‘I’m ripped!’ He was skinny and really gaunt but that was him ready for the tour. So that is being in shape in another way. But I was fit for doing almost any sport. I could avoid serious injury because I was strong and flexible enough. I am pretty athletic so I always feel pretty good and healthy.

QUESTION: What sort of injuries did you get?

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: My shoulders got pretty big so I couldn’t always grab on to something and sometimes there was a little pulling and tearing of tendons. There were some little muscle things and bruises and cuts…but no big deal. I accepted that aches and pains are part of the job. I want to go after the things that I want to do or I am inspired by

QUESTION: Did you feel you were chosen for Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time, not just for how you look but because you can handle deeper stuff?

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: I hope so. I hope that is why people choose actors. Obviously I know they don’t always do that. But I believe that you earn your stripes. I don’t believe that there is necessarily an order and that doing a bigger movie means you have to do a smaller movie. But I do feel that when you are cast in a movie you should have earned that thing – whether it is from an audition or other work you’ve done, or whether you have behaved well in a certain way or that you also do good work. Those things are important. Jerry [Bruckheimer] said he thought I was a good actor and [director] Mike Newell too. Mike had worked with my sister and had seen and respected my work. He didn’t just pick me out of the blue. I worked to gain their confidence and I feel that is how it should be.

QUESTION: As a child was it always the case that you would become an actor?

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: There is a very early entry in my diary, from when I was six years old. It says…Soccer is my life! I played AYSO soccer – school soccer. It became my obsession. Which position did I play? I played all sorts of positions. When you are playing soccer at five years old there isn’t really a position. You run after the ball, basically.

QUESTION: There are several Prince Of Persia stories. So how prepared are you to do another film as Dastan?

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: With a movie of this size that is something that becomes contractual even before you start it. There have been many movies in which I have been involved when there has been the potential for something else and it hasn’t happened. Or it has happened actually. But the thing is, I am totally game. I love the character and his world. I think it is super fun.

QUESTION: You must be pleased with your English accent in Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time because it is spot on.

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: Thank you very much. I worked really hard on it. It was planned from the very beginning to use an English accent. Jerry Bruckheimer said that he thought an English accent seemed to legitimize any time period. Particularly if it is in the past but even if it is in the future. It’s sort of strange but there is something about the accent. I don’t know what it is. There is an ancient quality and the Shakespearean theatrical thing that people can unconsciously relate to. Also since Mike Newell was shooting it in Britain, he wanted primarily to cast British. So the actor who was to play the part of Dastan would have to fit in.

QUESTION: How have you coped with fame? Have you become more comfortable as you have got older?

JAKE GYLLENHAAL: Up until now I have had an interesting perspective because I haven’t been so clear about all the things that I want to do or who I was. Now I think I feel much more comfortable with it because I am more comfortable with what I want to do and who I am and what I care about. A lot of this stuff is great fun, I have a good sense of humor and I enjoy laughing. I want to make movies that are like that and spend time with good people. This is our day so you should have a good time doing it. That is my perspective on it now.

PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME is now vailable on DVD and Blu-ray.

The Black Cauldron Trailer; Now on DVD

The Black Cauldron is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.  Here is the trailer for the "Special Edition" home release:

Mike Newell on Prince of Persia

Mike Newell, director of PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME talks about the film in this interview provided by Disney:

QUESTION: Did you reference old films like Korda’s The Thief Of Bagdad as you were making Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time?

MIKE NEWELL: I thought about movies that I had seen as a child, though The Thief Of Bagdad wasn’t one of them. But I did think about big cowboy movies that I had seen and obviously the movies of David Lean. With a film like this you know you are doing a genre which is called Bruckheimer and that takes a big canvas to produce and I was very aware of that.

QUESTION: Why did you film in Morocco at a time of the year that everyone advised against going there?

MIKE NEWELL: I’m afraid that is simply how the movies work. If you are going to do a film about the South Pole, the chances are that you will film it in Hawaii! Whatever is most difficult, you will get to do. That is just when everything happened. It was very hot! Some days it was 135 degrees! But it is very dry and so, you lose a lot of weight, which is good. Wet heat is what is exhausting and so I was fine. Also, it must be said, sometimes up in the mountains, we had absolutely torrential rain. Really serious rain, where we had to watch out for water courses getting washed away.

QUESTION: You never used rain in the movie. So did you stop when the weather got bad?

MIKE NEWELL: Yes, we stopped. And we stopped in vast confusion and disorganization – because nobody said it was going to rain! We simply weren’t prepared for it.

QUESTION: How hard was it to adapt the movie from a video game?

MIKE NEWELL: Jordan Mechner [creator of the video game and film scriptwriter] got on very well indeed. The reason was that he was the man who wrote the game and did the first graphic novel, and he is a research freak. He absolutely loves the ancient world and he loves doing his research. So there would be stuff in the story, which would be absolutely authentic – and I enjoyed that very much. It meant that I did not feel overwhelmed by the video game. Jerry Bruckheimer and I talked a lot about what our attitude to the game should be. Were we making the game or were we making a drama? Very clearly we said that we were making a drama. Then what happened was that during the making of the film, we became aware of at least one other new version of the game, which was much more visually sophisticated. I looked at that and I took some moves from that. The other big thing that we decided was that he had to be an action hero. But what were the seeds of what the character in the game does? What we discovered was that what it was about was this thing called parkour. Parkour was developed by the kids in the French housing estates. They would run up walls! So we watched tapes of this very dramatic stuff. In certain moves they do appear to be able to defy gravity…in just the way that the character in the game does. So the parkour people advised us in all sorts of ways. Like for the big sequence where Jake attacks the gate. They choreographed some of that for us, which was very useful. So there was a kind of overlap between parkour, the game and the making of a great big romantic widescreen experience. That was how it came together.

QUESTION: One of the film’s strengths is the comic banter, which seems like The Princess Bride?

MIKE NEWELL: The Princess Bride was one of the films we watched and were aware of. One of the reasons I wanted to make this film is that it is this new genre and Jerry [Bruckheimer] is a genre now. He does what he does. He is Pirates Of The Caribbean and The Rock and Bruce Willis going to defend the world from a crashing meteor. It is always a rich, high coloured mixture. I liked that a lot about the script. I liked that it was funny. I very much enjoy doing that stuff. Fred (Alfred Molina) and I had worked together before and I knew he would be wonderful. Then you do have that uneasy Beatrice and Benedict relationship between the boy and the girl where they absolutely loathe one another and then little by little they fall in love. So what you are doing is to make this great big collage of all sorts of things. It is no one movie. It is an entertainment.

QUESTION: The casting of Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton was crucial?

MIKE NEWELL: Yes. Jerry was very generous about that. He asked who I wanted and I told him very clearly that I had always thought about Jake. I wanted him to be American because this was a huge budget movie and the Americans deserve to see their own. At the same time I was encouraged to cast English. I was thinking about going to Bollywood for the girl. I saw a lot of Bollywood actresses. I saw a couple of sensational Iranian actress, an Israeli actress or two. I wanted a kind of exotic look. Then up pops Gemma Arterton from Gravesend, England and she was the one I settled on. I felt very strongly about both leads. Jerry saw them and agreed.

QUESTION: Ben Kingsley is a great villain. Had your paths crossed early in your careers when you both worked on the Uk TV soap, Coronation Street?

MIKE NEWELL: Apparently they did. Neither of us can really remember. But it was about the time that we were both working on the Street. I thought of him for this film because of films like Sexy Beast. I wanted somebody who would be believable as a good guy and would turn out to have this appalling second existence as the bad guy. So it was Gandhi on the one hand and Sexy Beast on the other. He was terrific. He puts out his hand and pulls the kid on to the horse and everything is going to be fine from that moment on. You trust him. Then you discover you must not trust him. I said to him that there were always going to be two movies. The movie that we were making and then the movie that his character was making, which was going to be different. And the one movie would twine round the other.

QUESTION: How did you work the balance between actual filming and the CGI effects?

MIKE NEWELL: This is the second time I have done one of these great big live action versus CG movies. We were in Morocco at the wrong time of the year and people were terrified that we would start to get sick, they were terrified that the level of competence that we would find out there was not as great as we needed. It was in fact superlatively more than we needed. They are really good at what they do out there. They were also afraid that we would get behind, that Morocco would turn into a swamp out of which we could clamber. It did not do that, by virtue of us removing certain sequences out of Morocco and putting them into stages in England. The biggest of those was the attack on the Eastern Gate. Originally we were going to build that part of the city in Morocco and we would then, with CG, have grafted the rest of the city all around it. I can see the magnificent location in my head right now. But we were very worried about the wind. In summer the wind out there gets very boisterous. We were afraid that the whole thing would get blown over and then we would be in Apocalypse Now land. So we decided to shift that out of actual production into CG production. That was a tremendous shift. We made the decision quite late not to shoot for real and so it was something that we were constantly running to catch up with. We always knew that there would be huge SFGX things with the dagger. That was quite clear. But several times what we did was to come out squeaky clean from the physical production by loading on to the CG side of the production. So we were constantly sprinting to catch up.

QUESTION: What is it like making a big film like Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time?

MIKE NEWELL: Making a movie like this is like being the Chief Executive of the Ford Motor Corporation. They bring you stuff and say these are our plans for next summer’s SUV. You say can we have it in blue? They reply of course, whatever color you like. And so on. You can see the analogy. These films are so huge that there are two other directors – the second unit director and the visual effects supervisor. The whole thing about what happens when you press the button on the dagger came from one of the visual effects houses in London. They showed us tests and we thought it was terrific.

PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME Available on DVD and Blu-ray 9/14/10

Jerry Bruckheimer on Prince of Persia and Producing

Super producer Jerry Bruckheimer talks about PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME in this interview provided by Disney:

QUESTION: You must get loads of film ideas pitched to you. What was the appeal of doing Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time?

JERRY BRUCKHEIMER: Ithink it’s a throwback to old movies, to Lawrence of Arabia. I love the old David Lean films and this is a fantasy version of it. Jordan [Mechner] did such a wonderful job, the game is so successful, and they gave us such a wonderful pitch that we fell in love with it.

QUESTION: Did you all play the game yourself? And will there be sequels?

JERRY BRUCKHEIMER: I had played the game prior to Jordan [Mechner] coming in, but not the one that he talked about when he first created it. It was a much more recent version of it.

QUESTION: How do you see your role on a movie, when you’re referred to as the most powerful man in Hollywood?

JERRY BRUCKHEIMER: That’s fiction by the media, it’s not really true. We just try to have a set that runs smoothly, where people can have a good time even though they’re working very hard. I think that’s because Mike and our actors handled the set so well. Everybody had a good time, and that’s what it’s about.

QUESTION: Was there ever a desire to make Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time in 3D? And how do you feel about the 3D revolution?

JERRY BRUCKHEIMER: I think we talked about it briefly, but Avatar hadn’t come out, so we couldn’t see the impact 3D would have. Plus Avatar was done all on a soundstage, pretty much, in a hangar and this picture was done in Morocco, the majority of it. So it was much more difficult, with the two cameras and the sand and the heat. But 3D is here to stay, it’s taking over cinema.

QUESTION: How do you feel looking back over your career – does it give you a sense of pride to think that you’re the man who made Top Gun?

JERRY BRUCKHEIMER: No, I always worry about the next one. It’s never the past. You learn from the past but I worry about this one and Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which is coming up next, and the next Pirates Of The Caribbean is about to start. So I’m always looking way beyond. I don’t look back too much. Maybe someday when I’m in a retirement home somewhere I’ll think ‘Oh wow, I did all these things?’. But not now.

QUESTION: It is said that you have 17 films in various stages of production, plus all your TV work. How do you manage to do all that you do and maintain the standard?

JERRY BRUCKHEIMER: It comes down to working with really talented people, this is a great example of the talent that we create. We create the same kind of talent behind the cameras, so we have a lot of people in our company who are enormously talented. And then the show owners in television run their business along with our executives. So it’s just finding great people to work with.

PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME Available on DVD and Blu-ray 9/14/10

Jordan Mechner Talks History of "Prince of Persia"

Jordan Mechner is the creator of the video game, Prince of Persia, and one of the writers of the film, PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME.  Walt Disney, through its press representatives, provided this interview with Mechner:

QUESTION: What were your feelings when you finally saw the film?

JORDAN MECHNER: Firstly the original Prince Of Persia was a character 40 pixels high on the Apple II screen, running and jumping. The technology at the time was quite primitive, I think in my mind I imagined a much grander spectacle, and to see Jake [Gyllenhaal] in the best shape of his life running around the rooftops of Morocco and doing parkour and all this stuff was more than I could imagine.

QUESTION: What initially drew you to the setting of Ancient Persia? And how does that culture and mythology inspire you?

Mechner: “I was inspired 25 years ago to make the game really by the tales of the Arabian Nights, and by old Persian legends like the Shahnameh, the Persian Book of Kings. And also those great old Hollywood swashbuckling movies like the 1940 Thief of Baghdad, by Alexander Korda. As a kid I must have heard those stories, the storybook versions are in all of our cultural DNA. We know of that world without really knowing exactly where or when we first heard it.

QUESTION: How did you start the world of Prince Of Persia?

JORDANMECHNER: You go back to 1985 when I was right out of college and I took my brother down to the parking lot across the street from the high school. He was in a pair of baggy trousers and I had him run and jump and climb and fall down and I video-taped him doing these moves. Then I set about the three year process of bringing these animations into the computer and that was the first Prince Of Persia.

QUESTION: How successful was the game and how come it has taken so long for the movie to be made?

JORDAN MECHNER: It was successful. This was in those days when the industry was one tenth of the size that it is now. It was very much a fringe thing. My friends and I who liked to play games were geeks. We were not in the cultural mainstream. What has happened since then is that video games have evolved technologically and culturally. So we finally came to the point, years later, where a producer and director of the stature of Jerry Bruckheimer and Mike Newell would look at a video game as something worth considering.

QUESTION: Since it started as a video game Prince Of Persia has grown, hasn’t it?

JORDAN MECHNER: Prince Of Persia from its first game has become a franchise. So there are now at least seven or eight versions of the game since then. The one that the movie is based on is also called Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time. That is the first modern console game. It reinvented the old Prince Of Persia game for a new generation of gamers. That was in 2003 and at that point I brought Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney the pitch for the movie along with a two minute trailer that I cut together on my Mac. The screenplay that I wrote is loosely based on The Sands Of Time but the movie production drew on all of those games that came out since then – like Warrior Within. And not just for story…also costumes, weapons, physical action and production design. The whole movie making team was influenced by the games at many levels.

QUESTION: Are you a fan of ancient history?

JORDAN MECHNER: I love research, that’s one of the great perks of this great line of work. You get the chance to go back and try and figure out what things were like in a different time and place. You also get to read the great mythological sources of legends like the Persian Book Of Kings. So you take all that and try to bring it to life.

QUESTION: Why until now have attempts to turn games into movies floundered?

JORDAN MECHNER: It is hard to make a good movie…period! And to make a movie based on a video game is particularly tricky. Novels and stage plays and other things that you might adapt into a movie, really begin with a story and characters. Video games really begin with the game play, that is with the player’s experience – controlling the character and facing the challenges of the game. And that is the one aspect of the game that doesn’t translate to film. No matter how you do it, you are never going to have that attractive element and things that are fun to play are not necessarily fun to watch an actor doing on screen. Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time is the first time that a video game creator actually adapted their own game as a screen play. Even though I have just spent a year adapting the game version of The Sands Of Time, I had to set that aside and put on a different hat and take a different approach to that story, because I was writing a story that was going to be watched by an audience. As opposed to be played.

QUESTION: Was it hard to write a film after doing games?

JORDAN MECHNER: I wouldn’t say that a games story needs to be less complex than a movie story. I am very proud of The Sands Of Time game. It has an interesting relationship between the main characters. There is a romance and a banter and there is a voice over narration. So not only are you playing the game but you are also hearing it narrated. There is a counterpoint between what you are hearing and what you are seeing which is very interesting. It is almost like a literary kind of effect. So it is not that one is more complex than the other, it’s just that they are different. It goes back to the fact that games are played and movies are watched. Even in this case where it is the same world, the same characters and the same type of genre and the same emotional themes – in both the game and the movie – the specifics of how the story is translated into scenes has to be different. The difference in translating a game into a movie is even greater than if you were turning a stage play into a movie. You have to take that extra step of figuring what is it about the material that is going to make a good story; that the viewers are going to connect with emotionally.

QUESTION: Did you have in mind the fact that the characters in the movie are playing games with each other?

JORDAN MECHNER: Of course, we set out to make a movie for audiences that didn’t play games but at the same time, for gamers the movie is full of things that they can enjoy on another level.

QUESTION: What did you think of the cast?

JORDAN MECHNER: Mike Newell put together a fantastic cast. Jake Gyllenhaal makes a terrific prince. He is a very good actor but he also has the right spirit – besides being a warrior and in the best shape of his life, he has got a humanity that is really important.

QUESTION: Are you a fan of DVD?

JORDAN MECHNER: I have a pretty substantial DVD collection which now needs to be a Blu-ray collection. I love all kinds of movies. My favorites include Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, David Lean’s Dr Zhivago and Lawrence Of Arabia…Raiders Of The Lost Ark and then all the old films that influenced Raiders, like Alexander Korda’s Thief of Bagdad. And Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai is one of my all-time favourites.

QUESTION: Are you a Disney fan?

JORDAN MECHNER: Since I was a kid, growing up in New York, I had a map of Disneyland on my wall. I had never been there but I knew where all the rides were. Now that Prince Of Persia is a Disney movie that is really wonderful. If Prince Of Persia was one day to become a Disney ride that would be a dream come true.

QUESTION: How emotional was it for you when you saw Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time for the first time?

JORDAN MECHNER: Oh my gosh there have been so many moments along the way – from the last six years, going from script to screen. Setting foot on the set in Morocco was one of them. And seeing the movie and getting an idea of how it would be experienced by an audience was a huge thrill.

QUESTION: You could never have dreamed of anything like this when you filmed your brother in baggy pants for the first game all those years ago?

JORDAN MECHNER: No, I was just worried about finishing the game while there was still a computer games market! I was afraid I would be too late. It is pretty mind boggling to me that we are still talking about Prince Of Persia 25 years later.


PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME Available on DVD and Blu-ray 9/14/10

Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 on DVD in November

Releasing for the First Time in Over a Decade - To Astound the Eyes and Ears of a New Generation!

Highly-Anticipated Hi-Def Debut of Disney’s Acclaimed Masterwork and the Modern Magnum Opus it Inspired

Fantasia & Fantasia 2000: 2-Movie Collection Special Edition On 4-Disc Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and 2-Disc DVD November 30, 2010

BURBANK, Calif., September 2010 — Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 -- the magical, animated musical masterpiece and the contemporary classic inspired by it -- debut in highly anticipated Blu-ray High Definition and DVD 2-Movie Collection Special Editions on November 30. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is opening the Disney vault to be able to present these two films that broke the boundaries of imagination in the highest quality possible.

The Fantasia and Fantasia 2000: 2-Movie Collection Special Edition will be available in a 4-disc Blu-ray Combo Pack ($45.99 SRP) and a 2-Disc DVD ($39.99 SRP) for a very limited time only. The Blu-ray transformation of Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 will reveal the magic, music and majesty of both films as never before experienced, with state-of-the-art picture restoration of the original Fantasia and pristine 7.1 Digital Theater System Hi-Def Surround Sound. The Blu-ray combo pack is a tremendous value featuring, in addition to the two films in two different formats, a wealth of bonus features.

Among those Blu-ray special features is the highly requested Academy Award® nominated short Destino. Available for the first time ever on Blu-ray, the seven minute film is the result of a unique collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali begun in 1946, but put on hold due to studio financial concerns. In 2003, Roy E. Disney worked with a team of modern day animators to complete the film as a tribute to Walt’s pioneering artistic vision. Accompanying the highly anticipated short is an all-new feature length documentary entitled “Dali & Disney: A Date With Destino,” which explores the origins of the relationship between Disney and Dali, their collaboration on Destino, and ultimately how the film came to fruition so many years after its inception.

Fantasia, an unprecedented and magnificent feast of music and animated images, was initially released by the Studio in 1940 as a “road show” release. The following year, at the 14th Annual Academy Awards, Fantasia earned two Special Awards. The first was given to Walt Disney and associates for their outstanding contribution to the advancement of the use of sound in motion pictures, being the first commercial film released in multi-channel sound using a process called Fantasound, and the second to conductor Leopold Stokowski and his associates “for…unique achievement in the creation of a new form of visualized music…thereby widening the scope of the motion picture as entertainment and as an art form.”

Considered avant-garde during its time, Fantasia has gone on to become one of the most popular movies of all time and today is considered a classic. In 1990, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” Featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Stokowski, this groundbreaking film, which consists of animation set to eight musical pieces, is narrated by Deems Taylor and includes an appearance by Mickey Mouse (voiced by Disney himself).

Equally impressive is Fantasia 2000, the awe-inspiring extravaganza of sight and sound, executive produced by the late Roy E. Disney. Featuring an array of celebrity hosts including Steve Martin, Bette Midler, James Earl Jones, Penn and Teller, Angela Lansbury, Itzhak Perlman and Quincy Jones, the film, like its predecessor, expertly visualizes classical music compositions with various forms of animation and live-action introductions. Fantasia 2000 is primarily performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and conducted by James Levine.

Synopsis: The dreams and visions of Walt Disney come to life in Fantasia, which blends music and film magic into an exhilarating movie-going experience. Unforgettable images are brought to life by some of the world’s best music, and highlighted by the comedy of Mickey Mouse as a troublemaking sorcerer’s apprentice, along with the beauty of winged fairies and cascading snowflakes, the majesty of Noah’s ark and even plump hippos performing ballet in tutus.

Motivated by his uncle’s foresight, Roy Disney continued the magic with Fantasia 2000 which begins where its predecessor left off. There are seven completely new segments, and viewers watch a bustling Depression-era metropolis in the style of Al Hirschfeld’s famous cartoons, a flock of flamingos with slapstick yo-yo talents, an ark full of animals gathered by Donald Duck as Noah’s first mate, and musical life breathed into a family of flying humpback whales.

Fantasia DVD Bonus Features:
- New Audio Commentary with Disney historian Brian Sibley
- Disney Family Museum (running time: approx. 5 minutes) – Walt’s daughter Diane Disney-Miller takes viewers on a tour of the new Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, California featuring a very large exhibit on Fantasia and most importantly, the Schultheis notebook with long lost Fantasia production notes found in more recent years in the walls of a convent.

Fantasia Blu-ray Bonus Features:
Everything on the DVD plus:
- Disney View – This viewing mode maximizes the Blu-ray viewing experience with a 16 x 9 aspect ratio. Original artwork created by a Disney artist, in a style that complements the beauty of the film.
- The Shultheis Notebook: A Disney Treasure (running time: approx. 14 minutes) –An in depth look at the recently discovered Schultheis Notebook. The detailed log was created by Herman Schultheis, an effects man on Fantasia, and intricately breaks down the film from a technical view. Many of the special effects used in Fantasia were a mystery to modern day animators until this notebook was recovered.
- Interactive Art Gallery and Screensavers – Viewers can explore the artwork of Fantasia as never before, in HD resolution with unique Blu-ray interactivity and programming.

Audio Commentaries from Fantasia Legacy Collection
- With executive producer Roy E. Disney, conductor James Levine, animation historian John Canemaker, and Scott McQueen, manager of film restoration.
- Audio commentary with interviews and story note recreations by Walt Disney, hosted by John Canemaker.

Fantasia 2000 DVD Bonus Features:
- Musicana – Walt’s Inspiration for a Sequel (running time: approx. 10 minutes) – This documentary reveals rarely-seen art created for Musicana, a late 1970’s project intended as a Fantasia sequel with a focus on exploring other cultures via their greatest musical compositions. Viewers are offered a look at the origins of pieces that were started by Walt, such as “The Emperor and the Nightingale” which was then taken over by a very young John Lasseter. Ultimately, Musicana was stopped to begin production on “Mickey’s Christmas Carol,” but the memories of this piece still live on with the animators who conceived it.

Fantasia 2000 Blu-ray Bonus Features:
Everything on the DVD plus:
- Dali & Disney: A Date With Destino (running time: 82 minutes) – This feature length documentary explores the collaborative relationship between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali, revealing how and why the Destino short came to fruition under the lead of Roy E. Disney in 2003 so many years after its inception in 1946.
- Destino (running time: approx. 7 minutes) – The legacy of Walt Disney and Salvador Dali lives on in this highly anticipated short film.

Disney’s Virtual Vault -- BD-Live Feature
- Original DVD Bonus Features from Legacy Collection

Audio Commentaries from Fantasia Legacy Collection (total running time: 84 minutes)
- With executive producer Roy E. Disney, conductor James Levine, and producer Don Ernst.
- Audio commentary with the directors and art directors for each segment.

About Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Combo Packs (Blu-ray + DVD in a single package): To provide consumers with unprecedented quality, value and portability of their favorite Disney classics, in 2008 WDSHE pioneered the Combo Pack – Blu-ray Disc(s) plus a DVD in a single package. Classic Disney titles released as Combo Packs include Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

The Fantasia and Fantasia 2000: 2-Movie Collection Special Edition Blu-ray™ + DVD Combo Pack is priced at $45.99 SRP and the 2-Disc DVD set is priced at $39.99 SRP.

STREET DATE: November 30, 2010
Direct prebook: October 5, 2010
Distributor prebook: October 19, 2010
Pricing: 4-Disc Blu-ray Combo Pack: $45.99 SRP
2-Disc DVD: $39.99 SRP
Feature run time: 125 min – Fantasia; 75 min – Fantasia 2000
Rated:G
FastPlayTM: FastPlay enabled
Technical specifications may only apply to feature.

Blu-ray Discs
Aspect ratio: Fantasia - 1.33:1, Fantasia 2000 - 1.78:1
Sound/Language Tracks: 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 DEHT
French and Spanish Language Tracks
Subtitles: English SDH, French and Spanish

DVDs:
Aspect ratio: Fantasia - 1.33:1, Fantasia 2000 -1.78:1
Sound/Language Tracks: 5.1 Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix (DEHT), 5.1 DEHT
French and Spanish Language Tracks
Subtitles: English SDH, French and Spanish Subtitles


For more than 85 years, The Walt Disney Studios has been the foundation on which The Walt Disney Company (DIS: NYSE) was built. Today, the Studio brings quality movies, music and stage plays to consumers throughout the world. Feature films are released under four banners: Walt Disney Pictures, which includes Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios, Disneynature, Touchstone Pictures and Marvel. Through the Home Entertainment division, innovative distribution methods provide access to creative content across multiple platforms. Original music and motion picture soundtracks are produced under Walt Disney Records and Hollywood Records, while Disney Theatrical Group produces and licenses live events, including Broadway theatrical productions, Disney on Ice and Disney LIVE!. For more information, please visit www.disney.com

Disney Brings "The Black Cauldron" Back to DVD

Disney’s The Black Cauldron: 25th Anniversary Special Edition

The Black Cauldron, Walt Disney Pictures’ 25th animated feature-length film, celebrates its 25th anniversary with a Special Edition DVD release September 14 from Walt Disney Home Entertainment. Based on Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain books, this mystical, action-packed adventure debuts just in time for Halloween.

The film tells the story of Taran, an apprentice pig keeper with dreams of becoming a great warrior, who embarks on a quest to find a magical and powerful Black Cauldron before the evil tyrant Horned King can possess it for his own diabolical purposes. Fantastical characters like the oracular pig Hen Wen, the willful princess Eilonwy, and the droll but annoying Gurgi face witches, elves, magic swords and other obstacles. As they journey through these thrilling escapades, Taran begins to learn the true meaning of what it is to be a hero.

Exciting new bonus features for The Black Cauldron: 25th Anniversary Special Edition include a new game and a never-before-seen deleted scene as well as a new digital transfer.

New Bonus Features Include:
Deleted Scene—The Fairfolk: Viewers join Taran, Fflewddur Fflam, Gurgi and Princess Eilonwy as they travel into the depths of the earth and meet the Fairfolk.

The Witches’ Challenge Game—In order to defeat the dark powers of the Horned King, players must gain possession the magical sword from the Witches of Morva by solving their riddles.

Plus Classic DVD Bonus Features:
Still Frame Gallery—A compilation of behind-the-scenes artwork and photos.

Quest For the Black Cauldron—A trivia game in which players compete against the evil Horned King in a race to reach the Black Cauldron first.

Trick Or Treat—Classic Donald Duck cartoon from 1952.

STREET DATE: September 14, 2010
Rated: PG
Run Time: Approx. 80 minutes
Video: Widescreen (1.78 Aspect Ratio)
Audio: Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
DVD Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
SRP: 1-Disc DVD $19.99

First Season of "Cougar Town" Now on DVD

Press release:

ABC’s Hilarious New Comedy Comes to DVD!

COUGAR TOWN: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON

Debuts on DVD -- August 17, 2010

BURBANK, CA, July 2010 – Audiences can bring home the hilarious first season of one of TV’s funniest new series beginning August 17, as ABC’s laugh out loud comedy Cougar Town comes home on DVD, from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment in Cougar Town: The Complete First Season.

Golden Globe® nominee* Courteney Cox (Friends) stars in the hilarious hit comedy Cougar Town: The Complete First Season. After spending the last seventeen years as a wife and mother, recently divorced Jules (Cox) has reluctantly waded back into the dating pool and quickly finds herself in over her head.

Now forty-something and single, Jules tackles real-life issues – dating, parenting and friendship. It doesn’t help Jules that her two best friends can hardly stand each other, her ex-husband is hanging around more now than he did during their marriage…and there’s that handsome divorced neighbor that Jules can’t quite get out of her head. Packed with laugh-out-loud moments and featuring a cast of television’s brightestcomedic stars, Cougar Town struts its stuff in this DVD collection, along with exclusive bonus features and one or two special surprises. Cougar Town – it’s more than a place, it’s a state of mind.

COUGAR TOWN: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON was created by Bill Lawrence (creator of Scrubs and Kevin Biegel and also stars Christa Miller (“Scrubs”, “The Drew Carey Show”, “Seinfeld”), Busy Philipps (“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”, “ER”), Dan Byrd (“Heroes”, “CSI”), Josh Hopk (“Private Practice”), Ian Gomez (“The Drew Carey Show”) and Brian Van Holt (“John from Cincinnati”).

Bonus Features:
DVD Exclusives
• Bloopers
• Deleted Scenes
• Taming Cougar Town – Discover How Cougar Town Has Evolved From Its Initial Comedy Pilot Into Today’s More Subtly Sexy ABC Hit
• ‘Ask Barb’ series
* *Best Actress in a Television Series, Musical or Comedy (2010)

DVD non-Exclusives
• Jimmy Kimmel Live: Saber-Tooth Tiger Town
• Ask Barb – The Ultimate Cougar Answers Your Questions
• ‘Stroking it with Bobby Cobb’ series

Cougar Town: The Complete First Season is priced at $39.99 SRP (US) and $44.99 SRP (CAN).

Street Date: August 17, 2010

DVD
Suggested Retail Price: $39.99 US; $44.99 Canada
Feature Run Time: Approx. 552 minutes (24 thirty-minute episodes)
Rating: US: TV-14 DLSV (US)
Canada: 14A Mature Theme, Language May Offend
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (1.78:1)
Languages: English
Subtitles: Spanish, French subtitles


For more than 85 years, The Walt Disney Studios has been the foundation on which The Walt Disney Company (DIS: NYSE) was built. Today, the Studio brings quality movies, music and stage plays to consumers throughout the world. Feature films are released under four banners: Walt Disney Pictures, which includes Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios, Disneynature, Touchstone Pictures and Marvel. Through the Home Entertainment division, innovative distribution methods provide access to creative content across multiple platforms. Original music and motion picture soundtracks are produced under Walt Disney Records and Hollywood Records, while Disney Theatrical Group produces and licenses live events, including Broadway theatrical productions, Disney on Ice and Disney LIVE!. For more information, please visit http://www.disney.com/.

Final Season of "Ugly Betty" Now on DVD

Press release:

Complete Your Collection with The Hilarious


ABC’s UGLY BETTY: THE COMPLETE FOURTH AND FINAL SEASON

Available on DVD August 17, 2010

BURBANK, CA, July 2010 – The world of high fashion takes on a whole new, hilarious meaning in Ugly Betty: The Complete Fourth and Final Season, available on DVD August 17, 2010 from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. There are underdogs and then there is Betty Suarez, the ultimate “fish-out-of-water.” Her efforts to fit in with her colleagues at a glossy magazine may bring unintentionally hysterical results, but they also have audiences rooting for their favorite fashionista.

The collectible four-disc release allows viewers to complete their collection and relive every endearing moment of this heartwarming and irreverent comedy with all 20 final-season episodes uninterrupted, with never-before-seen bonus features.

Betty sure has come a long way! She is finally coming into her own and getting what she’s worked so hard for. But what she doesn’t realize is that she’s starting over in so many ways, and if she wants to play in the big leagues she needs to keep up. Ugly Betty: The Complete Fourth and Final Season focuses on her transformation – both personally and professionally – and how she will navigate these new waters as only she can. If Betty wants to succeed, she will once again have to rely on her heart, perseverance and intelligence – along with some help from her family, friends and a few unlikely allies.

“Ugly Betty” stars America Ferrera as Betty Suarez, Eric Mabius as Daniel Meade, Tony Plana as Ignacio, Ana Ortiz as Hilda, Judith Light as Claire Meade, Becki Newton as Amanda, Michael Urie as Marc, Mark Indelicato as Justin, Daniel Eric Gold as Matt Hartley and Vanessa Williams as Wilhelmina Slater.

Ugly Betty: The Complete Fourth and Final Season is priced at $39.99 SRP (US) and $44.99 SRP (CAN).

Ugly Betty: The Complete Fourth and Final Season – DVD Bonus Features:
• Betty Bloops
• Deleted Scenes
• Betty Goes Bahamas
• Mode After Hours
• Webisodes

Street Date: August 17, 2010

DVD
Suggested Retail Price: $39.99 US; $44.99 Canada
Feature Run Time: Approx. 860 minutes (20 1-hour episodes)
Rating: TV-PG DLSV (US)
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen (1.78:1)
Languages: English
Subtitles: Spanish, French

Based on “Yo Soy Betty La Fea,” the groundbreaking Colombian telenovela that became an international phenomenon, “Ugly Betty” is from ABC Studios. The series has been awarded Emmy®, Golden Globe, Peabody, NAACP, ALMA and Imagen awards and earned 19 Emmy nominations. Executive producers are Silvio Horta (“Urban Legend”), Academy Award®-nominee (Best Actress in a Leading Role, Frida 2002) and Emmy® Award winner (Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Comedy Series, Ugly Betty 2006) Salma Hayek, Jose Tamez, Richard Heus, Victor Nelli Jr., Jon Kinnally, Tracy Poust, Henry Alonso Myers and Sheila Lawrence. Co-executive producers are Chris Black, Gail Lerner and Abraham Higgenbotham.