Since ancient times, stories of epic battles and mystical legends have been passed through the generations across the rugged and mysterious Highlands of Scotland. In ”Brave“, a new tale joins the lore when the courageous Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald) confronts tradition, destiny and the fiercest of beasts.
Merida is a skilled archer and impetuous daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson). Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the uproarious lords of the land: massive Lord MacGuffin (voice of Kevin McKidd), surly Lord Macintosh (voice of Craig Ferguson) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (voice of Robbie Coltrane). Merida’s actions inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric old Witch (voice of Julie Walters) for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to discover the meaning of true bravery in order to undo a beastly curse before it’s too late.
Disney presents an astonishing true story bursting with hope, heart, and courage. Diane Lane and John Malkovich lead a celebrated cast in this inspirational motion picture from the producers of Miracle, Invincible and The Rookie.
Behind every legend lies an impossible dream. Witness the spectacular journey of an incredible horse named Secretariat and the moving story of his unlikely owner, a housewife who risked everything to make him a champion. Out of the gate with never-before-seen bonus features, Secretariat is hours of pulse-pounding entertainment for the whole family!
PENNY CHENERY TWEEDY (Diane Lane)
Penny Chenery Tweedy lives in a nice Denver home with her lawyer husband and four children. But when her mother passes and her father’s health takes a turn for the worse, she turns her life—and her family’s lives—upside down and takes over the Virginia-based horse farm where she was raised. Meadow Stables, once a thriving and well-respected business, is struggling financially, but Penny refuses to sell and instead decides to bet on a promising colt that isn’t even born yet. Armed with an intimate knowledge of horses, the help of veteran trainer Lucien Laurin and a growing confidence that surfaces at exactly the right time, Penny learns to navigate the male-dominated horse-racing world, ultimately fostering what may be the greatest racehorse of all time.
PENNY CHENERY TWEEDY (Diane Lane)
Penny Chenery Tweedy lives in a nice Denver home with her lawyer husband and four children. But when her mother passes and her father’s health takes a turn for the worse, she turns her life—and her family’s lives—upside down and takes over the Virginia-based horse farm where she was raised. Meadow Stables, once a thriving and well-respected business, is struggling financially, but Penny refuses to sell and instead decides to bet on a promising colt that isn’t even born yet. Armed with an intimate knowledge of horses, the help of veteran trainer Lucien Laurin and a growing confidence that surfaces at exactly the right time, Penny learns to navigate the male-dominated horse-racing world, ultimately fostering what may be the greatest racehorse of all time.
SECRETARIAT (several equine actors)
With Bold Ruler as a father and SomethingRoyal as a mother, this horse’s destiny was clear—at least it was to the two people who helped get him there. Born with his signature red coat and three white socks, the horse was known to those who loved him as Big Red, though he competed under the now famous moniker Secretariat. Red enjoys eating—a lot—snuggling up to his owner Penny and getting his picture taken, but most of all, he likes to run—fast. In fact, he was the first horse in 25 years to win the Triple Crown—which consists of the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. He won the latter by an extraordinary 31 lengths—just to make sure his doubters believed. Mission accomplished.
Well everyone that is single and wants to meet new people like to experience meeting on the open sea. This has part to do with the romantic atmosphere that the ocean brings in bringing people together. Where can you look to find the best deals out there for these kinds of cruises? There are sites online that offer great deals and discounts if you book these cruises early or at a certain time as with the offer that it applies to. (Cruise mates.com) is one that offers some good deals on these kinds of cruises. (Adultonlycruise.net) has some great offers and is for only adults which should make all the adults scream with joy inside. (Secretcruises.com) is another site that is specifically for singles cruises and offers good deals as well.
If you have any single friends that have been on singles cruises can direct you to where they found the best deals to. Your local travel agent might have some suggestions on great deals on singles cruises. Just make sure that you are specific about what kind of deal that you want on singles cruises. Shop around and to get the best deals out there for singles cruises that is available to you for the money that you want to pay. Then get ready and plan to have a great time on the cruise of your choice. Check out the sites and call around and see what you find in the way of the best deals on singles cruises.
We all want to know where to get the best deals with royal Caribbean cruise deals. There are sites online and your local travel agent will be able to help with this to. We see and here advertisements all the time on deals with Royal Caribbean cruise. We all want to get away from the stress and pressure that we are under at home and work. (Americasvacationcenter.com) has some really deals for October through December. (RoyalCaribbean.com) will for sure be able to give great deals on their cruises. (Smartcruiser.com) has good deals on their Royal Caribbean cruises as well. How you can determine if you are getting the best deal is to first decide where you want to go and how many nights and days you want the cruise for.
All that is required when you and if you decide to go through a travel agent in your area, Just be sure to mention that you are looking for the best Royal Caribbean deals that are available to you. Also mention that you are pricing to get the best deal out there as well. Keep in mind that prices are different everywhere and you may have to go to a few sites and your local travel agents to know what is available to you and your family for these kinds of cruises. Go ahead and check out the sites that are mentioned here and speak with your travel agent in your area.
Some of us wonder what a one day cruise offers to us for the money to be able to do this for a get away from the everyday norm. There are many sites and travel agents that will help you to get and see what a one day cruise offers you for your money. We all want to save when taking cruises and get to travel to nice and beautiful places once in a while. You just have to shop around for the best deal out there for where you want to go, make sure that you have extra money so that you are not stuck somewhere. Some of the most common sites that people find great deals on one day cruises are (expedia.com), (price line.com), and (day cruise.com).
Your local travel agent will also have great deals to in your area. You get to explore different places but keep in mind that it is only for one day. This is really for the people that do not have a lot of time to take the longer cruises. These cruises allow people a day to relax and enjoy life in a different place and recharge their batteries. All you have to do is pick the place, have a budget to go. Then get ready for an unforgettable experience to remember. You might even want to take someone with you to share the experience with as well. Check out the sites that have been mentioned here or call and see you local travel agent in your area.
Anymore we tend to look for the best specials for Disney cruise specials online more than through our local travel agent. I will be listing some sites that offer good deals on Disney cruise specials that offer them. (Disneycruise.Disney.go.com) is one site that offer some nice deals for this type of Cruise special and that’s because it’s a Disney cruise. (Kingdom-travel.com) is another one that has Disney cruise specials and info about what is available to you with taking a Disney cruise. You can call your local travel agent to and see what they have to offer as well. Keep in mind that they might want to charge you more than you are willing to pay unlike online.
Usually these cruise specials are for those that are planning a family cruise for themselves and their kids. Or other people are ones that just decided that they wanted to go on a Disney cruise because they never got to go as kids with their families. The cruise specials for Disney and other cruises are a way to get more for your money to so that everyone has a memorable time. With everything that has been mentioned here is to give some suggestions to where you can find Disney cruise specials whether it be for a family cruise or for yourself and a friend. Shop around and check out the sites that have been mentioned here and see what you find for Disney cruise specials as they are probably for a limited time.
When shopping the different cruise lines we often wonder what kinds of cruises they have to offer. Here’s a thought what kind of cruises do American cruise lines have to offer you when looking in to the kind of cruises that are available. There are sites that give a review and will help you to see what American cruise lines have to offer you at the price that you can afford. (Cruisecritic.com) is one that offers a review and some pricing info that is helpful. (Geocities.com) has some really helpful info just make sure to put any cruise Hawaii and it will take you right to the page that is mentioned here. You can always ask your local travel agent to I am confident that they will be able to help find what kinds of cruises are available with American cruise lines. If the first travel agent can not help you with what you are looking and wanting to know then ask them to direct you to someone that will be able to better help you.
The first thing that you need to decide is how much you have to spend for a cruise no matter what kind it is that the American cruise lines have to offer. What kinds of discounts are available to you as well for this is another thing to keep in mind. Check out the sites and plan to have a great cruise no matter where you decide to go.
We have all wondered what it would be like to take a 3-day cruise to some place exotic. There are adds on TV and the computer that show just how much fun that everyone looks like they are having. So what kind of fun things do you get to do on a 3-day cruise and how much fun can you really have. There are some sites that give a really good description of how much fun you can have on their 3 or more day’s cruises. (Meissnertravel.com) has a great description of what they have to offer in the way of fun along with good prices for the cruises they are mentioning. (Cruisemates.com) is another good one that gives good info on how much fun you can have on these kinds of cruises. If you are not interested in what’s happening on the ship they usually make stops and fantastic beaches too. Some of the pictures that I have seen on TV and online just make me want to go to those beaches and play in the water.
When taking a cruise of any kind it is up to you how much or how little fun that you want to have. Having friends come along if they can is something that is truly fun for all of you. Everyone expects to have the best time no matter what they intend on doing on the cruise for the amount of money that they spent, unless they won the cruise.
The story of TRON starts in the fall of 1975 when a young animation artist called Steven Lisberger witnessed a demonstration of computer generated imagery during a gathering of Boston-area filmmakers. Dr. Phillip Mittelman, president and founder of the Mathematical Application Group Inc. (MAGI) of Elmsford, NY, hoped to generate interest and ultimately business in the computer aided generation of three-dimensional objects – traditionally a sore spot with animators. Rendering correct perspectives of objects such as buildings, vehicles etc. was of prohibitive complexity and cost in time and labor. Mr. Lisberger, as an artist trained in animation, recognized the possibilties of the computer as a new and powerful tool and years later the techniques of computer generated imagery (CGI) together with the unique method of ‘backlight compositing’ became the main principles of TRON.
Early concept drawings by John Norton, Peter Mueller background.
While working on an animated animal-based parody of the Olympics entitled ‘Animalympics’ Lisberger began planning for his next project. When Animalympics grew from a six-minute short to a feature-length animation for NBC’s Olympic television package, Lisberger decided to move his studio to the West Coast since the Boston area could not provide enough skilled artists. After the move in early 1978 work was progressing at a rapid pace and Animalympics was on schedule for the 1980 Olympics. However politics intervened and the United States did not participate in Moscow, leaving NBC with a big loss and Animalympics without an outlet.
Suddenly TRON evolved from the topic of infrequent discussions at the studio to a full-fledged concept of an electronic world. At some early point it was envisioned to use real actors in combination with CGI instead of 100% animation. Trials with video compositing were encouraging and the concept was adopted. But to implement this in a motion picture was much more complicated. After trying numerous techniques the team decided on ‘backlight compositing’, in which black and white images of the actors and environments were re-photographed with backlight and colored filters.
Early trials using video compositing.
The scenes and costumes were decorated in black and white outlines and patterns designed to resemble circuits on electronic boards. Each frame was blown up to 24 by 12 inches (???) and separated out into multiple layers of high contrast images (one containing the outlines, one containing the background, etc.). These images were then individually backlit and re-photographed with colored filters, combined with CGI and composed together with the help of mattes. The results were unlike anything ever seen before in motion pictures.
Early test shot, format 11×8.5″ (click image for large version)
Disney wasn’t Steve Lisberger’s first choice since he felt the notion of computer-generated animation frames would go against the traditional art of hand-drawn animation cels. But Disney’s open-minded production chief Tom Wilhite decided to take a chance.
At that point in time Disney was in a slump and haven’t had a solid hit in years. They had relied on rehashing earlier successes or themes pioneered by other studios (‘The Black Hole’ was riding the space wave, ‘Condorman’ the super hero wave, ‘Dragonslayer’ the fantasy wave etc. Other hit movies included ‘Herbie Goes Bananas’ and others.) and needed a new theme.
Tom like the concept and was fascinated by the fresh and unique idea of computer-based mythology but the older Disney-guard was reluctant at best. The visual compositing techniques were unproven, Lisberger’s directing talent unknown and the willingness to take any sort of risk not present.
The TRON crew was asked to create a two-minute demonstration of how the finished product would look and equipped with a laughable budget they set out to achieve the impossible. Utilizing left-over robot costumes from ‘The Black Hole’ and hockey gear, a few frames of CGI and with the help of Sam Schatz, a local frisbee expert, they created remarkable test footage that generated an enthusiastic response.
Now with full executive backing the production processes were adapted to the big screen (35mm film to 70mm film) and things were ready to roll.
Stills from the two-minute test footage
Three production cels of the same scene: regular shot, high contrast negative, circuit reveal cel (from left to right, click images for larger versions)
During this time the story of the character TRON evolved as well and changed from a simple ‘electronic being in a football videogame’ to a resistance fighter in an electronic world populated by other beings representing information and programs.
Basic story boards were used for the outlining of the events and their visualization. From these boards the need for CGI backgrounds etc. was determined.
