Weekly Disney Roundup: April 24, 2012

I've got a lot of stuff to cover this week and it's all crazy awesome.
 

Disney's just paid big bucks for the rights to Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. I am so excited about this my head might explode. More info here!

On this 25th of April, we wish Artist-Writer-Director Ron Clements a Happy Birthday! Born in Sioux City, Iowa, Ron joined Disney Animation as an apprentice to Frank Thomas (one of the Nine Old Men of Disney Animation) and made his feature debut as an Animator on THE RESCUERS.

Joining John Musker, Ron and John (as they're known at the Studio) have co-directed THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE, THE LITTLE MERMAID, ALADDIN, HERCULES, TREASURE PLANET, and PRINCESS AND THE FROG. Ron and John are currently working to develop the next hand-drawn feature at Disney Animation. (Sorry, we can't tell you what that is.)

This was posted on Disney's Animation Research Library's facebook page this week. That's right. John Musker and Ron Clemens are working on something 2D. Be still my fangirl heart.

Rumors have been circulating that Disneyland Paris is getting a new Star Wars section including an updated Star Tours, a restaurant that looks like Mos Eisley, and their own Jedi Training Academy. We're not sure if that's true yet, but it sure would be cool. More info about that here! And in related news, that's Rizzo the rat dressed as Yoda up there, just part of the awesome Star Wars Weekends merch that's been released this week. More of that over here.

 "Paperman" is the Pixar short that's going to be shown in front of Wreck it Ralph, and it's mysteriously described as using "a groundbreaking technique that seamlessly merges computer-generated and hand-drawn animation techniques." There's more info about it here! Pixar also has a name for it's dinosaur film which will supposedly be out May 30, 2014, The Good Dinosaur. More about that here. And if all of that wasn't cool enough, their next project after that will be a Dia de los Muertos based film. More info on that here!

I'm just gonna pack the rest of this awesome into one paragraph. Wreck it Ralph's got an extensive list of awesome video game celebrity cameos. Opening dates for the rest of Disney World's Fantasyland have been revealed. This Cinderella box set makes us drool. This video about the new Agent P's World Showcase Adventure is awesome.

I'm sorry if this post made your brain implode from the sheer amount of awesome.