Last week, the Oriental Land Company announced that special videos of the four entertainment offerings due to end during the COVID-19 closure would be released on YouTube through April 30th. The first batch, for It’s Very Minnie and Pixar Playtime Pals, were little more than 1-2 minute digest videos, much to fans’ disappointment. So we were very pleasantly surprised today when a full video of Fantasmic!, originally scheduled to end yesterday, was released. And it’s pretty spectacular! You can take a watch below through April 30th.
For reference, every show at Tokyo Disney Resort is filmed by the Oriental Land Company for archival purposes. Many of these see releases on expensive Blu-Ray sets over the years. But never before has a full official show video seen an open release until now! Did you enjoy this wonderful goodbye to Fantasmic!?
Walt Disney World Resort may be temporarily closed, but Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s animal care team is continuing to provide top-notch care to thousands of animals, including the newest addition to the park, an adorable baby prehensile-tailed porcupine.
The baby, known as a porcupette, was born to mom, Peri, on Feb. 25. If you’ve seen the One Day at Disney documentary on Disney+, you may remember seeing Peri participate in an ultrasound with Disney veterinarian Dr. Natalie. And after a long-awaited arrival, the team is delighted to welcome this cutie to the Disney family. Here’s a closer look:
Cast Members like Walt Disney World Veterinarian Dr. Natalie provide continual care for Peri – from annual exams, to pregnancy check-ups, the birth of her porcupette, and of course, post-partum care.
According to Dr. Mark Penning, Porcupettes are covered in a fine red fur coat, but they’re also born with their tiny quills underneath, which begin to harden hours after birth. Those quills are actually what helped the team determine the baby’s gender. And guess what? It’s a girl!
Coming to this conclusion required science and more than just a neonatal exam from the veterinary team. Prehensile-tailed porcupines have internal sex organs, so to determine the baby’s gender, the team actually had to send some of her tiny quills off to a lab for DNA testing.
There are plenty of big hearts caring for this little mother-daughter duo. Peri continues to thrive in her role as a mother, which is part of why she was chosen to breed through the Species Survival Plan (SSP). This program is overseen by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and ensures responsible breeding and genetic diversity of thousands of species of animals.
For more fascinating information on the animals at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and beyond, check out @DrMarkAtDisney on Instagram, where he’ll be sharing even more updates in the coming weeks.
While the parks are closed, we have another cute baby animal update from Dr. Mark Penning, Vice President of Animals, Science and Environment at Disney Parks:
Disney’s Animal Care team is continuing to provide top-notch care to thousands of animals throughout the parks closure, including the newest addition to Disney’s Animal Kingdom that’s black and white and cute all over. A Hartmann’s Zebra foal was born early Saturday morning (Mar. 21) to first-time-mom, Heidi… and the baby is a girl!
The foal, who has yet to be named, is about 65 pounds, and is quite strong – she was standing within 30 minutes of birth. Already very active and curious, this little lady is much like her mother and has very long legs.
Check out this video captured by one of the animal keepers to see a few moments of sweet mother-daughter time:
Heidi is showing she’s a natural at parenting skills as she stays close to her baby to bond with her and nurse. Bonding is especially important, as a young zebra will imprint on its mother’s scent and memorize the unique markings on its mother’s hind legs to tell her apart from the rest of the herd. In a few weeks, after the pair develop a strong bond, they will be introduced to the Kilimanjaro Safaris savannah.
The foal was born as part of the Species Survival Plan (SSP) program, which is overseen by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and ensures responsible breeding and genetic diversity of thousands of species of animals. Her arrival marks the third zebra birth at Walt Disney World this year.
Hartmann’s mountain zebras are found in sub-Saharan Africa and are a vulnerable species due to habitat loss and hunting. To learn more about zebras and other species Disney is working to protect, visit DisneyAnimals.com and follow Dr. Mark on Instagram: @DrMarkAtDisney.
If you’ve ever wondered how a circle-vision film gets made, well, now you’ll know! WDWNT presents a 4K 360° presentation of EPCOT’s “Reflections of China” with commentary by director Jeff Blyth!
Jeff is a master at Circle-Vision, having also directed “Portraits of Canada,” “Wonders of China,” and the fan favorite “The Timekeeper” (known as “From Time to Time” in Disneyland Paris). He is also the director behind the Disney film “Cheetah,” which is available through Disney+.
Jeff worked in conjunction with WDWNT’s Nathan Hartman to put together this amazing commentary and also sat down with Nathan to discuss his career on the newest episode of Nathan’s Disney culture podcast “Dreamfinders.”
Also for your enjoyment, here is “Reflections of China” in both 360° without commentary and a special 2D “Flat-O-Vision” version, allowing you to see the whole film all at once, like never before.
Unless you’ve been away from social media or on your own non-virtual deserted island, you probably know that the newest installment in the Animal Crossing franchise, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, released last Friday and has taken the socially-isolated world by storm.
For those unaware, Animal Crossing is a video game series from Nintendo in which the player lives in a village surrounded by anthropomorphic animals with daily tasks such as fossil collecting, bug catching, and fishing. The first game released in 2001 and the franchise has been highly successful ever since, with 5 installments in the main series and 3 spin-off games including Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp for iOS and Android that released in 2017. The influences of this game have reached far and wide, so much so that a plush of a key and iconic character in the series, Tom Nook, can be found at the Kawaii: Japan’s Cute Culture exhibit at the Japan Pavilion in EPCOT:
One feature in the game allows players to create and share custom clothing designs to those around the globe and can provide a whole new level of creativity and individuality into the game. The YouTube channel Nerd Attack! uploaded a recent video showcasing 500+ different QR code designs that be scanned into Animal Crossing: New Horizons and its predecessor, New Leaf, and we noticed some familiar beloved designs among the creations, including Marvel hoodies, Kingdom Hearts outfits, and Disney Princess dresses.
