Free Republic

It must be said: In October 2012, Star Wars fans felt a great disturbance in the Force. Disney — no need to explain why this is gobsmackingly horrible — announced that it was going to insult the collective intelligence, sensibility, and good taste of everyone in America and the English-speaking world by welcoming George Lucas to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and making another Star Wars trilogy. So obviously I tried out for it.

During World War II, the Disney company joined in the Allied war effort by producing animated movie material at cost for the US government (they also created insignia mascots for hundreds of aircraft and warships by request). These films number well over one hundred - although most are only partially created by Disney - and cover topics from antenna tuning to Beechcraft airplane maintenance to anti-German and Japanese propaganda. However, one piece in particular is of interest to us here at Forgotten Weapons: Stop That Tank! Produced in 1942 for the Canadian military, it is a training film on the...

Sure, kids love him. But he's made everyone close to him miserable. Just ask Disney, which is locked in a billion-dollar battle over his rights FORTUNE Monday, January 6, 2003 By Devin Leonard Nobody loves Winnie the Pooh more than Shirley Slesinger Lasswell. The 79-year-old widow wears Pooh pajamas, Pooh watches, and Pooh polo shirts. A Pooh waves at other drivers from the rear window of her Mercedes as she is chauffeured around Beverly Hills. But these days, some of her most treasured Pooh merchandise languishes in boxes in her lawyer's office. It breaks Shirley's heart. "I never wanted Winnie...

No wonder Mary Poppins needed a spoonful of sugar. The forthcoming Saving Mr. Banks is a dark film that tells the heart-breaking true story behind one of the great characters in children’s movie history. P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson), the nanny’s formidable creator, is pitted against Walt Disney (Tom Hanks), who promised his daughters that he’d bring Poppins to the big screen. The thing is, that pledge goes against the author’s wishes. Saving Mr. Banks goes behind the scenes of the ferocious battle to make what was to become the famous 1964 musical adaptation. For 20 years, Travers refused to grant...

Philanthropist Diane Disney Miller, who was the daughter of Walt Disney, died Tuesday at her home in Napa, Calif. She had suffered a fall in September from which she never recovered. Disney Miller, the eldest and only biological daughter of Lillian and Walt Disney, helped shepherd the development of Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall ...

‘Now, this here tale didn't happen just yesterday, nor the day before.’Twas a long time ago. And in them days, everything was mighty satisfactual. The critters, they was closer to the folks, and the folks, they was closer to the critters, and if you'll excuse me for saying so, 'twas better all around’----Uncle Remus from Disney’s Song of the South.

Kamala Khan isn’t your average New Jersey teenager battling a cultural identity crisis. She has superpowers. And she’s here to smash the stereotype of young Muslim-American women.Marvel has a comic book superhero named Kamala Khan, a Muslim teen from New Jersey. This idea is refreshing. It’s important. It reminds me of the late ‘60s film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. That was a revolutionary story about interracial marriage in America at a time when it was taboo. Like that film, Kamala will shatter taboos, too. Ms. Marvel (Kamala’s alter ego) will open the eyes of a new generation of comic...

Several corporate executives have joined forces with prominent local lawmakers, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and George Soros’ National Immigration Forum (NIF) to organize a campaign on Monday to target GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill to get them to try to support amnesty. Those executives include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Boeing CEO and chairman Jim McNerney, Marriott hotels chairman and CEO Bill Marriott, NewsCorp chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, and Disney president and CEO Bob Iger. Ballmer, McNerney, Marriott, Murdoch, and Iger, along with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro form the...

When you make a movie, you can’t just show up somewhere and start shooting. You usually need permits, and a lot of low budget filmmakers used to make movies without them, shoot and run style. However, with camera equipment getting smaller and easier to conceal, it’s probably easier than ever to shoot things under the radar, which is what somebody did at the Magic Kingdom. Word has been going around about a movie that was shot in Disney World guerilla style called Escape From Tomorrow, and it’s finally seeing the light of day, which indeed is quite a miracle considering...

Fans of Disney/ABC’s “Once Upon a Time” were recently let in on Mulan’s “dirty little secret.” Mulan is a bisexual. Normally I would not have a problem with a bisexual character in a prime time show that was scheduled for later in the evening, but for starters this show airs on Sunday nights at 7PM Central, and it is touted as a family show. It is Disney after all and inspired by Disney characters. The Huffington Post reports gloats: New ground was broken this week when a member of Disney’s iconic Princess franchise was queered and it was revealed that...

Soft ratings, a huge budget and "disdain" for her female audience — Q Scores report only 10 percent of women view Couric favorably — have the host's Disney/ABC talk show in jeopardy as a renewal decision nears. One of the TV's priciest daytime experiments soon could be coming to an end. Stations throughout the U.S. are contracted to carry Katie Couric's syndicated talk show through summer 2014, but the decision on whether Katie will score a third season likely will be made this month -- and renewal seems a long shot. In fall 2012, Disney/ABC TV rolled out the red...

Fans of Walt Disney World were fuming last spring following reports of people gaming a system that allowed disabled park guests to advance to the front of lines. Now it seems the entitled few have ruined it for everyone. Disney Parks has just announced a change in policy: People with disabilities will no longer be ushered to the front of lines. It “certainly has been problematic, and we wanted to curb some of the abuse of this system,” Disneyland Resort spokeswoman Suzi Brown told the Orange County Register. Further, a statement by Disney, provided to Yahoo Shine through a spokesperson,...

Anti-Nazi Disney cartoon made in 1942

The days when companies respect their customers and avoid abusing their fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders are apparently over... (Video/Selfie)

When I was around ten years old, my mom decided that my younger sisters and I should not watch the most popular children’s show of the time, Power Rangers. She feared that the violence of the show would make us more likely to be aggressive, especially given the fact that every time she picked us up from school, at least two of the other kids in the class would be kicking each other while shouting slogans from the show. So she made us a deal: we wouldn’t watch Power Rangers, and she would pay an extra fee so we could...

Breaking the Tyranny of Your Feelings Here’s where Christianity opposes the “follow your heart” mentality of much of the Western world. We are told, not to love ourselves first, but to focus on loving God and neighbor. We are told we are born sinners and need rescue from our fallenness, not affirmation of it. We are being remade in the image of God, so that the ever-deepening discovery of His grace and goodness to us is the defining marker of our life, not our own self-discovery. We live according to the declaration of acceptance pronounced over us through faith, not...

The father of teen star Miley Cyrus said the Disney TV show "Hannah Montana" that made her a worldwide star, in truth destroyed his family, and he blamed it for sending his daughter out of control. Country singer Billy Ray Cyrus said he was scared for 18 year-old Miley after a series of scandals including an infamous video last year which showed her getting high on the psychedelic herb salvia. And he said he wished that "Hannah Montana" had never happened. "The damn show destroyed my family," Cyrus told GQ magazine in an interview for its March edition. "I'd take...

A 60-foot-wide sinkhole formed under a resort in central Florida late Sunday, forcing guests out of their rooms as one three-story building collapsed and another slowly sank. Guests at the Summer Bay Resort in Clermont, about 10 minutes from Walt Disney World, called for help before the collapse, saying they heard loud noises and windows cracking. All guests inside the buildings -- an estimated 35 people, authorities said -- were evacuated before the first structure crumbled. A roughly 15-foot-deep crater swallowed much of one building, Lake County Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Tony Cuellar said. Aerial video from CNN affiliate WFTV...