The Disney Frontier Blog

This has just a few Disney mentions in it, but I felt it was important for everyone to see.

The Disneyland Dream Suite looks spectacular. From what I can tell, it is sprinkled with audioanimatronics and other subtle/hidden effects. This is an example of one.

YouTube - Dream Suite Bathtub Show Effect

Have you ever been curious about what’s coming on TV this week related to Disney Theme Parks? Want to set the TiVo but not sure what time and channel that episode of Family Matters comes on. You know the one. The one where they went to Disney World. Well, if so, check out TVKirby’s TV listing page.

Disney Theme Parks Related TV for the Week

I’ve created a list of Disney related Twitters. Check it out.

Watch this video of Artist and historian Stacia Martin and be in awe of her wide array of talent. It’s worth the four minutes.

Disney.com | DxD | Home

Handy Manny: Fixing it Right is the latest Playhouse Disney DVD release. Handy Manny, along with his tools, is the true do it all handy man of Sheetrock Hills. Each episode on on the Disney Channel is 2 separate stories about 12 minutes each. These short stories are great for keeping youngster’s attention. The DVD contains five of these stories or one full hour of Handy Manny. My 4 year old and 2 year old recently watched the DVD on our way to Disneyland. It was good entertainment for about 75-80 miles of the trip.

Once concern I have about buying DVDs of kids TV shows is that we’ll end up with a DVD of episodes that we’ve already seen a hundred times. In fact, in our house, we TiVo Handy Manny and watch it a few times a week. I was pleasantly surprised that this DVD didn’t contain a single episode we had seen before. The DVD cover touts the first episode - Manny to the Rescue - as never before seen but, the other four are not in regular rotation on Disney Channel yet either.

Like Dora and Diego, Manny speaks Spanish and introduces Spanish words throughout the stories. The episodes are educational and do particularly well in teaching social interaction. If you’re little ones aren’t tuned into Handy Manny, I highly recommend it.

Here are a few other resources on Handy Manny:

• Handy Manny Printable Coloring Page
• Handy Manny Printable Worksheet
• Official Disney Site
• Wikipedia Entry
• Handy Manny Toys

I’m hope that by writing about this, I feel better about the incident.

On Sunday afternoon, we ducked into the Aladdin show at the Imperial Theatre in Disney’s California Adventure to avoid the rain. As usual, it was a great show, and with my two year old sleeping on my shoulder, my wife, four year old daughter and I exited to find our stroller. I looked for it where I left it, and realized that the cast members had moved all the strollers to a designated area. We looked and looked. After about 10 minutes, all the strollers had been claimed and ours was missing.

My wife and I spoke to show cast members and were told it could have been taken accidently by someone else or possibly stolen. Since there were no other strollers remaining, let alone one that looked like ours, it seemed implausible that it was taken by accident. However, with optimism in our mind and a believe that only good things happen while in the parks, we headed off to lost and found. As we walked, I eyed each stroller. Ours has many distinguishing characteristics after years of use.

In my mind, I was thinking about my kids autograph books that were in the strollers. This was the first trip that my daughter was old enough to be interested in the idea and we had really pumped it up in the days leading to our trip. I also thought about the Princess book and Ratatouille kids cookbook that we had bought earlier in the day. But more pressing in my mind, was how this could happen in Disneyland. Did I need to rethink everything I thought about our safe happy place?

As we walked down the main street of the Backlot, we came to a concession stand that was sitting just outside the path to the Monsters Inc. ride. And there was our stroller. It didn’t have any of our stuff in the carrier compartment, but it was undeniably our stroller. It also had a backpack hanging off it and a girl - probably 10 years old - holding on to it.

When we approached the stroller, there was obviously a family standing around buying some treats at the stand and the girl, with her backpack, was part of that family. They had three strollers counting ours and the parents looked suspect. When we confronted them, they played dumb, then they tried to intimidate us, then they denied it, then they conceded. After a loud verbal exchange that lasted about 10 minutes - in front of our kids and there’s - we were able to retrieve our stroller, the books we had purchased, and my daughter’s autograph book. My son’s autograph book and Mickey pen was gone. A change of cloths we had for him in the stroller was gone. And a piece of our Disney Magic was gone.

I was proud of how my wife kept her cool and didn’t back down. I was proud that I didn’t loose my temper - which I easily could have. I think we set a good example for our kids on how to handle it and after the exchange, we sat down with them and explained what had just happened.

However, since the incident, I haven’t been able to shake the feeling of having such an experience in the happiest place on Earth. We didn’t report it to Disney security. Should we have? Did these parents run off and steal someone else’s stroller? I hope not.

I’ve been embarrassed that it happened. I’ve been sad that it happened. As someone who evangelizes the Disney lifestyle so adamantly, I was crushed by the experience. Victimized is such a strong word, and I don’t use it lightly. As annual passholders in Phoenix, we invest a lot of time, energy and money in our frequent trips to the park. We do it because of our love for the magic of being in a different world. At that moment, we were violently yanked out of this magic world and back into reality.

I know this isn’t new news, but I’m so excited about the Disney’s California Adventure updates that I want to share them again:

• # A major new attraction based on the animated Disney classic "The Little Mermaid"
• An amazing nighttime spectacular that plays out on the sparkling waters of Paradise Bay
• Toy Story Mania! — a new attraction that combines the fun of classic boardwalk games and the Disney*Pixar "Toy Story" films.
• A 12-acre "Cars" Land that recreates the town of Radiator Springs, complete with three amazing new attractions featuring characters from the hit Disney*Pixar film "Cars."

Disneyland® - Annual Passholder News & Events

Excellent first submission to the Little Einsteins: Race for Space DVD giveaway. I look forward to seeing more. Remember, each entry is a submission to a randomly picked winner. These aren’t being judged for cuteness, interestingness, or pronunciation

YouTube - Buzz Lightbeer

WINNER: Well the contest is over and we have a winner. It came down to a coin toss - there were only two entries - and the winner is Jen. You can watch her daughter’s video here.

Next Tuesday Walt Disney Home Entertainment will be releasing the latest in the Little Einsteins DVD series. I have reviewed one of these DVDs previously, so Disney Home Entertainment - or at least their PR department - was kind enough to send me an advanced copy of this latest one, Little Einsteins: Race for Space. Rather than opening and reviewing, I have decided to give it to one of my readers. The copy I have is the exact same one you will be able to buy next week with all the episodes and features. It even has the DisneyMovieRewards.com points to use.

How to Enter

To enter this giveaway, post a video of your son or daughter - the one that will be watching this DVD - talking about their favorite Disney thing. As a sample, here is my daughter talking about her favorite ride at Disneyland.

They can talk about their favorite Disney character, attraction, movie, Disney Channel show, or what ever else they’d like. I won’t be judging these videos. Think of it more as raffle ticket. Every one that uploads a video to YouTube or some video sharing site will be entered to win. Next Tuesday, I will randomly choose one of the entries and contact them to mail the DVD to.

So to enter, post the link to your video as a comment to this post. Make sure to use a valid email address when submitting your comment so I can contact you if you win.

If you want more information on this DVD, check out John’s post over on The Disney Blog.

I saw this come through on Flickr. Very odd photo.

YouTube - Cheetah girls- cinderella (full)