The Princess And The Frog
Sunday was scruffyrebel's birthday, and we were going to see the new Disney animated feature, The Princess And The Frog. The movie, which will be released in theatres this Friday, was being shown in a series of special screenings on the lot of the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank.
She wanted to dress up for the screening, so for her birthday I made her this dress:
I made the dress out of silk charmeuse. She helped.
The Wikipedia entry on Charmeuse says "It is one of the more challenging fabrics to sew, and not recommended for beginners. The fabric is extremely slippery and difficult to control through the presser foot of a sewing machine. Seams to have a tendency to pucker and pull.... Charmeuse also tends to leave holes and marks where the fabric was pinned, making the manipulation of pattern pieces more challenging."
tl;dr = Silk charmeuse is a huge pain in the ass to work with.
She can sit down in the dress.
(That dark lump by her head is not a weird hair issue. It's actually a vicious, evil kitty.)
The dress was designed to be a modern, party dress version of Cinderella's first dress.
Not her well-known blue/silver dress, Cinderella's pink dress was the one the talking mice made for her. It was torn to shreds by her wicked stepsisters moments after she put it on, thus necessitating the magical creation of a new dress by her deus ex machina fairy godmother.
A few people at the screening actually recognized it, to my surprise.
Anyway, after a few problems, tribulations, and emotional breakdowns, we joined our friends for an early dinner. solaria came all the way up to Burbank to hang out with us even though she wasn't going to the movie! In this pic you can see scruffyrebel eating one of the adorable Frog Prince cupcakes sana_chan made. Next to her sits daitenshi_dream, the other beautiful birthday girl at the table. Richiied and sana_chan are apparently revealed to be Terminators by the android-recognition function of my Droid phone. Sorry ladies, Sarah Connor isn't at this table!
Next stop: Walt Disney Studios!
One thing that struck me was how nice and friendly all of the staff appeared to be. The guards at the gate saw the birthday pin scruffyrebel had gotten at Disneyland, which she wore on her coat, and wished her a happy birthday. Some even gave us some tips about our visit. Even the parking attendants who did nothing more than wave their stubby lightsabers seemed polite and well-mannered.
It really made me think, "now, this is the way to run a company! If I'm ever in charge of a bunch of employees, I'm going to tell them to be friendly and cheerful to every customer, or I'll fire their ass on Thanksgiving."
We parked in this structure, with stained glass windows.
This is the reception area for the screening. There were props and set dressing from various Disney movies. Here, you can see some stuff from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, a statue of a centaur from one of the Narnia films, items from Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and a model of the house from Up.
Our princesses! rebel__princess and richiied are like the tall, jacket-wearing bookends to the set.
Birthday princesses!
A little while before the movie began, we headed over to another building which housed the screening theatre. Our little group basically took over the last two rows.
After the movie, we went to another building for the "Princess and the Frog Experience!"
The first thing we did was take the studio tour. It was freezing out! We had been advised to take the tour first, as the Experience would be open later than the tours, and we might otherwise miss out on the tour.
The studio isn't ordinarily open to the public, so it was a special experience to get to take a tour, however brief. Typically, the only other chance to tour the studio is by purchasing the $2000 Disney vacation package.
The first place we went was the Animation building. This is now office space, as Animation has since been moved to a fancy, new building. The building was designed specially to maximize use of sunlight for the artists working within.
The walls are adorned with original artwork produced in the creation of Disney's many animated films.
Here are some sketches of Mickey Mouse from Fantasia.
Here's an image of Cinderella's mother's dress. This is the dress that the talking mice turned into Cinderella's pink dress.
More artwork, this time from the movi-- oh wait, that's the company bulletin board. Nevermind.
Next, we found ourselves in Legends Plaza, which was dedicated in 1998 for the 75th anniversary of the company. The plaza is decorated with plaques commemorating the "legends," people who have made great contributions to the Disney legacy. This includes legendary artists, animators, composers, and even businessmen.
At the end of Legends Plaza is the Michael Eisner Building. Eisner was the CEO of Disney and oversaw the modern revitalization of the company. It was under Eisner that the company began producing animated features again in earnest. Basically, every animated Disney film (not including computer animation stuff like Chicken Little) since the Great Mouse Detective was produced under Eisner. It was under Eisner that the Disney Store was started, Disney bought ABC, and EuroDisney (Disneyland Paris) was built. So he is honored at the studio even though he is no longer with the company.
The Eisner Building is decorated with gigantic statues of the Seven Dwarves. They looked kinda creepy, so huge and underlit.
The next stop was the Frank Wells building. Wells joined the Disney company at the same time Eisner did, as president and COO. So he is also partly responsible for the rejuvenation of the company, though he died 15 years ago, ten years into his reign at Disney.
The lobby of the Wells building has a few items on display, including a couple of costumes from a few movies, and a display case full of hats from different movies.
This hat was worn by Jeff Bridges in the original Tron film.
And of course, this helmet was worn by Bill Campbell in the Rocketeer.
The Wells building also houses this multi-plane camera. Now made obsolete by robots and computers and junk, the multi-plane camera was first used in the 1930s and represents a major advancement in the art of animated films. I would explain it to you, but I don't think you're smart enough to understand.
These were the windows to Walt Disney's office. His guiding spirit hovers nearby as a bright light.
After the tour, we headed back to the Experience. The building used for the Experience is a soundstage which is built over an enormous water tank. It has been used to shoot scenes from the old 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea movie as well as Pirates of the Caribbean.
For the Experience, they had ALL EIGHT of the Disney Princesses TM in attendance, plus of course, Princess Tiana from the new movie.
Each of the Disney Princesses TM had her own little custom-designed stage, even the ones you never see at the park, like Pocahontas and Mulan!
We had our picture taken with Louis, the alligator, and the frog prince and princess. This photo is the only one I have that proves that Brian and I were even there. Thank goodness the picture is obviously not Photoshopped.
A Disney animator was giving lessons on how to draw Tiana. Our princesses worked diligently at it. Of course, bri-chan rose to the head of the class.
There were also several costumes from Disney movies, including this gown which was actually worn by Tiana in the movie!
Okay, actually this gown was worn by the live-reference performer for the film. Basically, they had an actress wear this dress as a visual aid for the animators. Specifically, this is the dress Tiana wears when she first meets Prince Naveen.
For any of you who are interested in making this dress, you can click on the above picture and the thumbnails below to download the full-resolution 5 MP pictures. (They were taken by my phone, so they're not great pictures.)
She wanted to dress up for the screening, so for her birthday I made her this dress:
I made the dress out of silk charmeuse. She helped.
The Wikipedia entry on Charmeuse says "It is one of the more challenging fabrics to sew, and not recommended for beginners. The fabric is extremely slippery and difficult to control through the presser foot of a sewing machine. Seams to have a tendency to pucker and pull.... Charmeuse also tends to leave holes and marks where the fabric was pinned, making the manipulation of pattern pieces more challenging."
tl;dr = Silk charmeuse is a huge pain in the ass to work with.
She can sit down in the dress.
(That dark lump by her head is not a weird hair issue. It's actually a vicious, evil kitty.)
The dress was designed to be a modern, party dress version of Cinderella's first dress.
Not her well-known blue/silver dress, Cinderella's pink dress was the one the talking mice made for her. It was torn to shreds by her wicked stepsisters moments after she put it on, thus necessitating the magical creation of a new dress by her deus ex machina fairy godmother.
A few people at the screening actually recognized it, to my surprise.
Anyway, after a few problems, tribulations, and emotional breakdowns, we joined our friends for an early dinner. solaria came all the way up to Burbank to hang out with us even though she wasn't going to the movie! In this pic you can see scruffyrebel eating one of the adorable Frog Prince cupcakes sana_chan made. Next to her sits daitenshi_dream, the other beautiful birthday girl at the table. Richiied and sana_chan are apparently revealed to be Terminators by the android-recognition function of my Droid phone. Sorry ladies, Sarah Connor isn't at this table!
Next stop: Walt Disney Studios!
One thing that struck me was how nice and friendly all of the staff appeared to be. The guards at the gate saw the birthday pin scruffyrebel had gotten at Disneyland, which she wore on her coat, and wished her a happy birthday. Some even gave us some tips about our visit. Even the parking attendants who did nothing more than wave their stubby lightsabers seemed polite and well-mannered.
It really made me think, "now, this is the way to run a company! If I'm ever in charge of a bunch of employees, I'm going to tell them to be friendly and cheerful to every customer, or I'll fire their ass on Thanksgiving."
We parked in this structure, with stained glass windows.
This is the reception area for the screening. There were props and set dressing from various Disney movies. Here, you can see some stuff from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, a statue of a centaur from one of the Narnia films, items from Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and a model of the house from Up.
Our princesses! rebel__princess and richiied are like the tall, jacket-wearing bookends to the set.
Birthday princesses!
A little while before the movie began, we headed over to another building which housed the screening theatre. Our little group basically took over the last two rows.
After the movie, we went to another building for the "Princess and the Frog Experience!"
The first thing we did was take the studio tour. It was freezing out! We had been advised to take the tour first, as the Experience would be open later than the tours, and we might otherwise miss out on the tour.
The studio isn't ordinarily open to the public, so it was a special experience to get to take a tour, however brief. Typically, the only other chance to tour the studio is by purchasing the $2000 Disney vacation package.
The first place we went was the Animation building. This is now office space, as Animation has since been moved to a fancy, new building. The building was designed specially to maximize use of sunlight for the artists working within.
The walls are adorned with original artwork produced in the creation of Disney's many animated films.
Here are some sketches of Mickey Mouse from Fantasia.
Here's an image of Cinderella's mother's dress. This is the dress that the talking mice turned into Cinderella's pink dress.
More artwork, this time from the movi-- oh wait, that's the company bulletin board. Nevermind.
Next, we found ourselves in Legends Plaza, which was dedicated in 1998 for the 75th anniversary of the company. The plaza is decorated with plaques commemorating the "legends," people who have made great contributions to the Disney legacy. This includes legendary artists, animators, composers, and even businessmen.
At the end of Legends Plaza is the Michael Eisner Building. Eisner was the CEO of Disney and oversaw the modern revitalization of the company. It was under Eisner that the company began producing animated features again in earnest. Basically, every animated Disney film (not including computer animation stuff like Chicken Little) since the Great Mouse Detective was produced under Eisner. It was under Eisner that the Disney Store was started, Disney bought ABC, and EuroDisney (Disneyland Paris) was built. So he is honored at the studio even though he is no longer with the company.
The Eisner Building is decorated with gigantic statues of the Seven Dwarves. They looked kinda creepy, so huge and underlit.
The next stop was the Frank Wells building. Wells joined the Disney company at the same time Eisner did, as president and COO. So he is also partly responsible for the rejuvenation of the company, though he died 15 years ago, ten years into his reign at Disney.
The lobby of the Wells building has a few items on display, including a couple of costumes from a few movies, and a display case full of hats from different movies.
This hat was worn by Jeff Bridges in the original Tron film.
And of course, this helmet was worn by Bill Campbell in the Rocketeer.
The Wells building also houses this multi-plane camera. Now made obsolete by robots and computers and junk, the multi-plane camera was first used in the 1930s and represents a major advancement in the art of animated films. I would explain it to you, but I don't think you're smart enough to understand.
These were the windows to Walt Disney's office. His guiding spirit hovers nearby as a bright light.
After the tour, we headed back to the Experience. The building used for the Experience is a soundstage which is built over an enormous water tank. It has been used to shoot scenes from the old 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea movie as well as Pirates of the Caribbean.
For the Experience, they had ALL EIGHT of the Disney Princesses TM in attendance, plus of course, Princess Tiana from the new movie.
Each of the Disney Princesses TM had her own little custom-designed stage, even the ones you never see at the park, like Pocahontas and Mulan!
We had our picture taken with Louis, the alligator, and the frog prince and princess. This photo is the only one I have that proves that Brian and I were even there. Thank goodness the picture is obviously not Photoshopped.
A Disney animator was giving lessons on how to draw Tiana. Our princesses worked diligently at it. Of course, bri-chan rose to the head of the class.
There were also several costumes from Disney movies, including this gown which was actually worn by Tiana in the movie!
Okay, actually this gown was worn by the live-reference performer for the film. Basically, they had an actress wear this dress as a visual aid for the animators. Specifically, this is the dress Tiana wears when she first meets Prince Naveen.
For any of you who are interested in making this dress, you can click on the above picture and the thumbnails below to download the full-resolution 5 MP pictures. (They were taken by my phone, so they're not great pictures.)
