Save Lilo & Stitch Weekend Bash - 01/02-05/09

Save W.I.T.CH. Day - 01/16/09

Save KP Weekend - 01/23-25/09

Save Jake Long Day - 01/30/09

It’s important to remember that paper letters are the key to our efforts, and events are spaced out so you have at least a week to prepare as many as you can. Please refer to our how to help section for addresses: http://help.savedisneyshows.org

Then on the day of the event, you can also send faxes, make phone calls, and use our email program at http://sdsmail.org

Source: Animation Magazine

Walt Disney Television Animation has begun production on Kid Knievel, a 2D-animated comedy series about a 12-year-old boy who aspires to become the world’s greatest daredevil. Famed thrill seeker “Kaptain” Robbie Knievel will serve as a stunt consultant on the series, which is slated to premiere in the fall of 2009 on the soon-to-launch Disney XD channel. Kids will be able to catch a sneak peek when five 55-second original animated shorts debut on DisneyXD.com in advance of the television premiere.

Created by Sandro Corsaro, Kid Knievel centers on Francis Little, a boy who overcomes incredible obstacles in his quest to become famous for his death-defying acts. Inspired by the will and determination of daredevil Robbie Knievel, son of the legendary Evel Knievel, Francis pursues his daily dose of danger with his loyal friends Gunther and Sam by his side. His imaginative journey takes him speeding down a river in a rocket-powered kayak, jumping Dead Man’s Drop on a skateboard and riding a unicycle while blindfolded atop a herd of white rhinos.

Animation producer Chris Savino (Johnny Test, The Powerpuff Girls), who has twice been nominated for an Emmy Award, serves as exec producer and director on the series. The voice cast includes Chris Edgerly (Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law) as Francis Little, Matt Jones (Greek) as quirky best friend Gunther, and Danny Cooksey (Xiaolin Showdown, Pepper Ann) as obnoxious older brother Brad.

“As our first animated show for the new Disney XD platform, Kid Knievel sets the tone for the animated series to come,” says Eric Coleman, senior VP of original series at Walt Disney Television Animation. “It has break-out characters, fresh designs, big laughs and great action.”

Disney XD is a re-branding of Toon Disney. The basic cable channel will debut in February with a multi-platform setup that will showcase a mix of live-action and animated programming for kids 6-14, especially boys into discovery, sports, adventure and humor. Offerings will include sports-themed programming developed with ESPN. In the U.S., Disney XD will be a 24-hour, advertiser-supported network reaching 72 million households.

I’m still not sure what I think of this whole Disney XD venture. If it takes off the way they’re hoping it will, then I’ll get behind it, but I have a feeling it’s gonna crash and burn. Especially if this new project is the best they have to offer.

I was sorting through some old recordings I had saved to DVD when I discovered a recording of the W.I.T.C.H. episode “A is for Anonymous”! It was an episode I hadn’t watched in literally years, and it was great to see it again.

After I watched it, it occurred to me that I could make screencaps from it. They aren’t as high quality as the other WITCH screencaps (which where taken from Australian DVD sets) but they better than nothing.

The caps include Queen Elyon

The premiere of Nerissa

A fed up Taranee

And a magical bubble thingie.

(This news is also reported on the DC Fans blog.)

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Source: RTTNews

Monday, diversified entertainment and media firm Walt Disney Co. said it inked deal to acquire outstanding shares of pan-European kids entertainment company Jetix Europe N.V. for EUR 11 per share. This brings Walt Disney’s stake to around 96 percent in Jetix Europe. The transaction is expected to complete before the end of 2008.

Walt Disney noted that after the completion of the deal, it plans to obtain ownership of 100% of the shares in Jetix, including through statutory buy-out proceedings. Further, Disney and Jetix intend to seek termination of Jetix’s listing on Euronext Amsterdam.

Anne Sweeney, co-chair, Disney Media Networks and president, Disney-ABC Television Group, commented, “Television continues to be a strong brand builder for Disney around the world and this investment enhances our efforts to reach kids and families. By achieving operating efficiencies, we will have additional opportunities to create more family-friendly programming and locally-produced content across Europe.”

Disney acquired its original interest in Jetix Europe, which was formerly Fox Kids Europe, when it bought Fox Family Worldwide from News Corp. in 2001.

Shares of DIS closed Friday’s regular trading at $22.77, up $0.98 or 4.50%, on a volume of 18 million shares.

NWS closed Friday’s session at $8.76, up $0.46 or 5.54%, on a volume of 6.68 million shares.

I didn’t realize that disney Didn’t completely own Jetix. I wonder if they’re gonna keep the Jetix name once they introduce Disney XD in the US this February.

Halloween is by far the best recruiting day of the year. All year long we spend a lot of time encouraging everyone to get out there and find more people who don’t yet know about our movements. This might be by posting flyers around town, wearing SDS merchandise, and/or by posting about us online. But on Halloween, kids and their parents come right to your door. What could be easier?

But we need you all to help!

Download and print out the new flyer and post one one your front door, gate, where ever people can read it. If you’re trick-or-treating leave a few flyers with you parents and take a few with you. Give them to anyone who seems interested. If you’re too old for trick-or-treating, you can still give flyers to anyone interested who comes begging for candy.

Download the new flyer here

You can also find many more flyers and handouts here. Or feel free to make your own!

And if you happen to dress up like a DC star or chracter this year, we’d love to see it! And we’d love to see how you make use of our flyers. Send us any photos you’d like to share at webmaster@savedisneyshows.org.

Webmaster Greg recently re-did the How to Help section of SDS to hopefully make it much more user friendly.

http://help.savedisneyshows.org/

Please give it a look and let us know what you think.

Please be critical - we can only make improvements when we know what users find good and bad.

For the first time in ages, Disney Channel suffered a ratings decrease.

Hannah Montana’s ratings are down ever sense Miley’s Vanity Fair photos. The original Suite Life series is ending. KP and ADJL are over. And the only new show getting any decent promotion is Phineas and Ferb. And I doubt few would disagree with the statement that Camp Rock was no High School Musical.

My hope is that now Disney realizes that they cannot endlessly manufacture hits. At some point the fans really will begin to walk away in noticeable amounts.

Article Source: Animation Insider

Disney Channel lacked stability in Second Quarter of this year, with an uneven stream of weekly performances throughout much of the Quarter. Although select growth could be found following the launch of key episode premieres or following various television specials, Disney Channel saw a plethora of audience losses, with demographic losses in each month of analysis. April saw a decline with Kids 6-11 of roughly -08%, recorded through the Total Program Day, which although much, was the children’s channel’s smallest decline of the Quarter.

The Tweens 9-14 audience showed a consistent decline (Total Program Day), throughout April 2008 for the Disney Channel. Although the cartoon and live-action kid sitcom network has previously helped guide the tween audience, in a year-to-year comparison, the Tweens 9-14 demographic dropped -11% (down to 375,000) on average for this month.

Moving on to the month of May, Disney Channel, with Kids 6-11, similarly declined another -08% (Total Program Day). May 2008 was a difficult month on some level for almost all kids cable networks, but Disney Channel, for its loss, showed modest growth in Total Program Day with Kids 2-11 as the weeks continued; and likewise, in Primetime, Kids 6-11 viewers grew from week to week, if not every so slightly, while other kid networks showed a decline viewers at least one week in said month.

Disney Channel’s June saw double-digit declines in every notable kids demographic. The network saw a decline with the Kids 2-11 audience, when compared to the previous year, of -10% (TPD) and -14% (Primetime), and a similar drop in viewer delivery of -11% (TPD) and -15% (Primetime) with Kids 6-11. From a larger perspective, Disney Channel lost more viewers in Primetime than throughout the entire day of programming, in each demographic. The largest of such losses, in June 2008, were with Tweens. Tweens 9-14 viewership decreased -16% (TPD) and down another -21% (Primetime).

Regardless of Disney Channel’s multi-media dominance among all kid’s entertainment channels due to household reach — Disney Channel averaged a 1.55 Primetime rating in June as based on total U.S. household projection — Second Quarter 2008 saw a decrease of -09% (K6-11, TPD) overall. One key highlight though, specific to the network’s animated programming, was an episode of Phineas and Ferb in Q2 2008, which pulled in a commendable 1.29 million Kids 6-11.

First, read this article from the LA Times:

Disney to target boys with rebranded cable channel

The entertainment giant plans to relaunch Toon Disney as Disney XD, which will be aimed at boys ages 6 to 14.

Someday, Disney hopes its princes will come.

The entertainment giant, which has made billions catering to the princess fantasies of young girls, plans to relaunch Toon Disney as Disney XD, a cable channel that will target boys. The move, under wraps for more than a year, is an attempt by the company to capture a market that has long eluded it.

Starting in February, Disney XD will seek to become to young dudes what Disney Channel, with its lineup of tweeny bopper programs such as “High School Musical,” “Hannah Montana” and “Camp Rock” is to girls. Disney XD, aiming at boys ages 6 to 14, will offer original action-adventure and comedy series, movies, animation and sports-themed shows developed with Walt Disney Co.-owned ESPN.

“What was clear to me, and clear to us, is we had a huge opportunity to create content that were boys’ favorites,” said Rich Ross, president of Disney Channels Worldwide.

Tween boys, ages 9 to 14, account for about $50 billion in spending worldwide, said Greg Kahn, senior vice president of strategic insights for media buying firm Optimedia International USA Inc. Advertisers are eager to reach these young consumers, not just snag a portion of their disposable income, but to build a loyalty they hope will extend into even more free-spending teen years, he said.

But the Disney Channel has struggled for years to find the right programming formula to lure boys, who tend to gravitate to Viacom’s Nickelodeon and Time Warner’s Cartoon Network — that is, when they’re not spending time playing video games. Disney Channel’s popular live-action shows, from its early tween phenomenon, “Lizzie McGuire,” through its current pop-culture sensation, “Hannah Montana,” mainly attract girls.

Efforts to bring in more boys, through male-led series such as “Even Stevens” or “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody,” still haven’t succeeded enough to close the gender gap between female and male viewers.

Animation, traditionally a draw for boys, has been a struggle for Disney Channel, although its newest series, “Phineas and Ferb,” appears to be building a strong male following.

But so far, the network has failed to produce a blockbuster to compete with Nickelodeon’s “SpongeBob SquarePants;” or match the guy-centric focus of Cartoon Network, which one ad buyer described as the ESPN of animation.

“You’re fighting the brand perception, the very, very strong brand equity that’s been in the marketplace for many, many years,” Kahn said of Disney Channel. “It would almost require a completely separate effort to reach tween boys, with a completely different name somehow associated with the Disney property, to reach these tween males.”

None of this is news to Ross, who, with his executive team, spent more than a year with focus groups pondering the eternal verities: “What do boys want?”

The answer, perhaps not surprisingly, is that boys want it all. “What we heard, loud and clear, is they expect from Disney this broad array,” Ross said, with programs running the gamut from animation to action-adventure to comedy. “They expect from Disney the whole thing, including movies.” In short, tween boys are looking for more than a show or two wedged in the midst of the musical theater-inspired programs that have come to define Disney Channel. They want, Disney says, a channel they can call their own.

“They want a place, essentially a headquarters for them where their favorite content exists, that has this broad array of shapes and sizes and tenors and complexities, and treats them with the respect that Disney Channel treats all kids, and the girls are fanatical about,” Ross said.

Instead of tinkering with what works — Disney Channel, which has spawned two billion-dollar creative franchises in High School Musical and Hannah — Ross relaunched a struggling cable asset, Toon Disney, into this destination for boys.

Toon Disney pulls only 10% to 15% of the viewers of Disney Channel, despite the cable network’s reach into nearly 70 million U.S. households. The Nielsen ratings reflect its hodgepodge lineup of geriatric kids shows, such as as “Power Rangers Jungle Fury” and recycled animated offerings such as “Batman: The Animated Series,” and “Jackie Chan Adventures,” and movies.

As the rebranded Disney XD, the ad-supported cable network will boast original series, such as “Aaron Stone,” a live-action show about a video game virtuoso who leads a secret double life as a crime fighter. The show boils down to a male fantasy version of “Hannah Montana,” in which an ordinary teen leads a double life as a rock star.

Former “The Wonder Years” child star Fred Savage directed the pilot for “Mongoose & Luther,” a mock documentary series about two best friends who set out to become the world’s greatest skateboarders.

The project was created by Matt Dearborn and Tom Burkhard, who worked on Disney Channel’s “Even Stevens.”

Established animated series, from “Phineas and Ferb,” to “Batman: The Animated Series,” will air on Disney XD alongside new offerings, such as RoboDz, a short-form series developed in partnership with Toei Animation Co. of Japan, in which robotic life forms defend Earth from space invaders. Plans for an online presence and mobile offerings are also in the works.

“We know we have a huge opportunity to take that asset and make it every bit as powerful as Disney Channel or Playhouse Disney,” Ross said.

dawn.chmielewski @latimes.com

Now, In one aspect, this is brilliant. DC does have a predominately female audience, and to relaunch TD as this new channel could be a brilliant business decision. So as a shareholder, I must salute Rich Ross.

On the other hand, my initial reaction would be to hit Ross with a 2 by 4. I don’t watch Toon Disney for three reasons. 1) It requires using the digital cable box, and that only works with one TV in the house and not with my TiVo. 2) I cannot obtain a reliable schedule guide for that channel, so I never know what’s on. 3) Most of what I would want to watch (KP & ADJL) I can just watch on DC.

Honestly, I think what they should have done is not turn DC so blatantly female biased. In the article they make the point:”Animation, traditionally a draw for boys, has been a struggle for Disney Channel,” And I was freakin’ screaming “KIM POSSIBLE. IDIOTS.”

They had a chance with KP to court the male fans and the female fans. They chose to make everything pink and marginalize the male fans. They had a chance, and they lost it. And now, they’re taking out KP’s future with the end of Toon Disney.

And even worse, by making a new “DC for Boys” they’re gonna be intentionally writing off all males from DC and all females from the new channel. Further narrowing the audience for both channels.

Disney is supposed to be family entertainment - programing for EVERYONE. And further narrowing the demographic targets is not the Disney way.

Walt Disney Co.’s (DIS) fiscal third-quarter net income 9% as growth in its media networks and theme-park operations more than offset a decline in studio entertainment.

In the quarter ended June 28, the media and entertainment giant reported net income of $1.28 billion, or 66 cents a share, compared with $1.18 billion, or 57 cents a share, a year earlier. Unusual items added 4 cents a share to the latest quarter’s earnings.

Revenue climbed 2% to $9.24 billion.

The breakdown per division was:

Media Networks Oper Rev $4.12B Vs $3.83B
Media Networks Oper Net $1.47B Vs $1.36B
Parks And Resorts Oper Rev $3.04B Vs $2.90B
Parks And Resorts Oper Net $641M Vs $621M
Studio Entertainment Oper Rev $1.43B Vs $1.78B
Studio Entertainment Oper Net $97M Vs $190M
Consumer Pdts Oper Rev $642M Vs $537M
Consumer Pdts Oper Net $113M Vs $118M

Save W.I.T.C.H. Day! - Monday, 11th of August!

Our last Save W.I.T.C.H. day was a bit of a disappointment. But it was at least partially my fault for failing to remind everyone ahead of time. Therefore, it’s doubly important that we make an impact on our next day, or we risk losing our message. So please mark this date on your calenders, prepare some postal mail NOW, and be ready to send emails and make calls on August 11th!