Lots of little bits in Fab News today. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, if you have any about any of these. Also, I got my press credentials for San Diego Comic-Con. So look forward to lots of little goodies from the center of the nerdiverse.

Walt Disney World Celebrates Earth Day

Earth Day is this coming weekend, and of course at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, there will be special celebrations. In fact, they’ve already begun! On April 19, Dr. Jane Goodall appeared to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Disney Conservation Fund and announce the launch of its new initiative, “Reverse the Decline, Increase the Time”, which aims to reverse the decline of threatened species through scientific research and increasing the time kids spend in nature.

Jiminy Cricket will be making special appearances at Rafiki’s Planet Watch all weekend as the park celebrates with Party for the Planet. Select areas at the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival are a natural to celebrate Earth Day, but The Sea with Nemo and Friends can remind you about conservation every day of the year. Keep an eye out for other celebrations around property.

The Wisdom of Walt is Now in Paperback!

Click here to order from Amazon.com

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Soarin’ In June 16

Soarin’ Around the World will make its official debut June 16, 2016 at Disney California Adventure and at Epcot. This is sure to be a gigantic hit, so get to the park early and get your fastpasses! The “glider flight” will take guests to see wonders man-made and natural all over the world. I wonder what it’s going to smell like?

Gumball Rally 2016 – Sign Up Now

The world-famous MiceChat Gumball Rally is rolling your way on May 14th, 2016. The Rally is a competition to see who can ride the most attractions at Disneyland in a single day. If you love Disneyland, this event is a must. Gather together 2 to 4 of your friends or family members and form a team today! It is amazingly fun and exhausting and totally worth it!

The House is Moving and I’ve Got the Blues

The last day for House of Blues Anaheim at Downtown Disney is slated to be May 31. About a month later, give or take, it should open in a much larger location over at GardenWalk, and I wish them all the best. GardenWalk needs it, and they can handle the concert parking better. Something like The Edison might be nice for Downtown Disney, but I think Disney might be leaning in a different direction. Of course, that point might be moot as well, with the change in direction from creativity to cost-cutting. Time will tell. We’ve been here before, things have gotten worse, and then they’ve gotten better. Let’s hope these folks are good students of history as well as accounting.

Trevor Carlton at Disney California Food & Wine Festival

Fine Artist and also Performance Artist (Strassberg Workshop, I’m not kidding around, Fabanistas) Trevor Carlton is apparently handling matters all on his own this weekend at DCA for the Food & Wine Festival. He’ll be doing live painting on the Lifestyle Stage and Signing at Off the Page.

April 23: Performance on Lifestyle Stage (3:30 – 4 p.m.); Signing (5 – 7 p.m.)

April 24: Performance on Lifestyle Stage (1:30 – 2 p.m.); Signing (3 – 5 p.m.)

Official biography from Disney Fine Art:

Monte Trevor Carlton was born in 1972 in Olympia, Washington State. Although he took up painting in high school, the first artistic passion that Trevor embraced was acting. He decided to forgo an art scholarship in favor of attending a dramatic arts scholarship at Skagit Valley College.

Trevor next attended the Lee Strasberg Acting Workshop. The following year he relocated to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. Amidst the chaos of auditions and callbacks, Trevor paid the bills by working in a custom furniture store, specializing in antiquing and faux finish designs.

It was here that a style was born. Using reclaimed lumber as his “canvas”, he started painting images of vintage Americana with subjects ranging from pop icon celebrity to the heyday of jazz.

After numerous gallery shows in Los Angeles and private commissions he has now combined his unique style to that most American of symbols, MICKEY MOUSE. Along with a series of classic lobby card paintings, he has also created a performance piece that has him painting a large canvas of our favorite Disney characters in a matter of minutes.

Like this:

From the mailbag:

Star Wars Rebels

Based on Live + 7 preferred viewing ratings, the 1-hour season two finale of Disney XD’s “Star Wars Rebels” (9:00 – 10:00 p.m. ET/PT) posted an over 1-year ratings highs in Total Viewers (1.2 million), garnered 2016 ratings highs in Kids 6-11 (303,000/1.3 rating) and Boys 6-11 (220,000/1.8 rating) and tied its highest rated telecast of the year in Kids 2-11 (1.0 rating) and Boys 2-11 (1.4 rating).

On digital platforms, “Star Wars Rebels” generated 3.2 million views on the Disney XD App and amassed over 8.8 million VOD orders throughout its season.

• Competitively, “Star Wars Rebels” season 2 finale ranked as the #1 cable TV telecast in the hour in Boys 6-14 (290,000/1.6 rating) and ranked a solid #2 in Kids 6-11 and across target boy demographics.

• For the season, “Star Wars Rebels” reached 22.0 million Total Viewers including 5.5 million Kids 6-11, 3.2 million Boys 6-11 and 7.6 million Adults 18-49.

“Wow, Fab, ratings numbers, how exciting.” Well, yes, actually. Especially when a program that they aim at little boys 2-11 (303k for the finale) clears 83 thousand with non-boy kids, most of whom identify as girls. That’s not terrible. But wait, there’s more! Looking at the whole season, you have 22 million viewers, 5.5 million of which are kids 6-11. Now, 3.2 million of those kids are boys, so 2.3 million, a number many show runners would sacrifice their firstborn for, are non-boy-children. So what Daisy Ridley said about Star Wars and gender:

“It feels especially amazing to be part of a film that represents all genders, all races, and all ages in a positive way,”

And then there’s ages: In the numbers mentioned, there’s about 2 million more adults than kids watching Star Wars Rebels. Like me.

TeamCap Visits China

Today, Team Cap visited China on their first stop on the Captain America: Civil War global tour. Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie and director Joe Russo participated in a press conference, fan event and red carpet premiere in Beijing.

The Hidden Secrets & Stories of Disneyland

Review Coming Soon!

When I first got sick, author, historian and virtual tour guide Mike Fox cheered me up by sending me copies of his books The Hidden Secrets & Stories of Disneyland and its sister tome The Hidden Secrets & Stories of Walt Disney World. It really took me out of my misery and walked me through Walt’s Park, looking through the eyes of a devoted fan who showed an interest in learning everything he could about the history of the park, and then turning around and sharing that knowledge. The writing is direct – no snark or in-jokes, very direct. I like that. The pictures are fantastic. I’ll get into a more full-depth review in a week or two, as summer approaches, but there are some points I want to, well, point out (thanks Mike)

“Written with a great deal of respect for Walt Disney, The Hidden Secrets & Stories of Disneyland reveals a fun new perspective of Disneyland and takes guests on a tour which allows them to experience the park in an all new way:

• Over 180 magical in-depth secrets and stories about Disneyland, many of which have never before been published in any Disney related books, articles or web sites.
• Some familiar secrets for those guests who are visiting Disneyland today for the very first time, such as Walt’s Lamp, the three secrets of the Omnibus and the Windows of Main Street, U.S.A., as well as entirely new stories and photos for those who have been to Disneyland perhaps hundreds of times.  I guarantee you will discover things you never knew before!
• Actual in-depth secrets and story elements.  Not just facts or trivia included only to boost the “secrets” count, but instead each secret reveals a fun story element which the Imagineers have purposely hidden in the park as an addition to the story that is Disneyland…
• The amazing 6-page story of how Walt came to acquire the “Capitol of Disneyland” – Published here for the very first time – Includes the first-ever published photos of George H. Lloyd, the man who created and sold Walt the Capitol of Disneyland (Pg. 54)
• The fascinating 6-page story behind the creation of the builder’s plates of the E.P. Ripley and C.K. Holliday steam engines – Updated for this book by its author, Carolwood Pacific President Emeritus Michael Campbell (Pg. 30)
• The magical 5-page story of how a guest recognized an error with the Disneyland telegraph…and worked with Disney Imagineers to fix it!  Complete with a very rare photo of the old Disneyland Railroad telegraph machine (Pg. 130)
• The 5-page story of why Walt never built Disneyland’s International Street and Liberty Street. (Pg. 68 & 70)
• The first-ever revealed connection between the antique Mutoscopes of Main Street, U.S.A. and a young 12 year-old Walt Disney (Pg. 98)
• The first-ever debunking of a long-standing “Disneyland urban legend” about the low windows on Main Street, U.S.A. (Pg. 81)
• The “haunting” story of why the Hat Box Ghost was exorcised from the Haunted Mansion (Pg. 144)
• The absolutely best photo you will ever see of Max, Buff and Melvin. (Pg. 168)
• Countless high-quality photos, including many of Disneyland items and views rarely seen by guests
• And many, many more, all arranged as a fun tour throughout the park, which allows guests to see Disneyland in an all new way!”

For more information, go to their website: www.Disney-Secrets.com

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