We are throwing world's biggest mouse party to celebrate 90 years of Mickey: Disney executive

Agencies
November 17, 2018

New Delhi, Nov 17: Walt Disney once said, "I hope we never lose sight of one thing- that it was all started by a mouse" and as Mickey, the beloved cartoon character, turns 90, the company is throwing "the world's biggest mouse party".

Mickey Mouse first appeared in 1928 cartoon film "Steamboat Willie" and since then, he has been an inseparable part of many lives.

"We are pulling out all the stops. We are celebrating not just around the company but around the world. We have the world's biggest mouse party going on at all our theme parks around the world, which will stretch over twelve months," Dana Jones, director of enterprise franchise management at the Walt Disney Company, told PTI.

Fans can also get their own Instagram moment with the ongoing "Mickey: The True Original Exhibition" in New York. The immersive experience is inspired by Mickey's iconic status and his impact in popular culture.

"This is an experiential exhibition, which is a very Instagram-able event and blends fine art with the things that we can see, touch and feel. We hope that it will travel to other places as well," Jones said.

India also features in the company's grand plans for Mickey's birthday celebrations.

"India is one of the important markets for us. We have a great short cartoon that Mickey did a couple of years ago in which he was in India speaking in Hindi. Mickey showed the world that India has a special place in his heart.

"There's not a country in the world where Mickey is not known and not loved. And we're focusing as much as possible on India... We are really trying to highlight the relationship Mickey has with India," Jones added.

Mickey is the largest character franchise in India with over 30 million products sold in 2017. To build a connect with the younger generation, Disney launched 'Stay Fit with Mickey & Minnie" programme in 3000 schools in metro cities such as Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai.

"We are always looking for new content opportunities for Mickey. The great thing about Mickey is that he lives in a cartoon version of our world so the opportunities to have adventures with him and his friends are endless," Jones said.

With such storied life, it seems that everything that is to be explored has already been explored in Mickey's life but Jones said the company has always tried to keep the cartoon character relevant.

"We are constantly making sure that Mickey is where people are consuming content. So, a lot has been focused on Mickey's digital presence. Over the last few years, we have made sure that Mickey has an Instagram handle and a Facebook handle. It's such a timeless character," she said.

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News Network
June 15,2020

Mumbai, Jun 15: Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan has paid a heartfelt tribute to actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who was found dead at his Bandra residence in Mumbai on Sunday.

Taking to Twitter, the superstar recalled the 'Kai Po Che' actor's "energy, enthusiasm, and his full happy smile."

Sushant, who was a big fan of Shah Rukh, was often compared to him as both the actors made a successful transition from the small screen to Bollywood without any Godfathers.

Sharing a throwback picture along with Sushant, Khan also noted how much the late actor loved him and asserted that he will surely miss him.

"He loved me so much...I will miss him so much. His energy, enthusiasm, and his full happy smile. May Allah bless his soul and my condolences to his near and dear ones. This is extremely sad....and so shocking!!," the tweet read.

Sushant, 34, committed suicide by hanging himself on Sunday, Additional Commissioner of Police Manoj Sharma confirmed. However, no suicide note has been recovered from Rajput's residence, as per the police and further investigation is underway.

As per the latest development, the body of the actor is brought to Dr RN Cooper Municipal General Hospital from his residence in Bandra.

The actor, who rose to fame with the 2008 television series 'Pavitra Rishta,' made his Bollywood debut with Abhishek Kapoor's 'Kai Po Che' in 2013.

One widely loved actor for his simplicity and humble nature, the actor gave hit movies to the entertainment industry, including MS Dhoni's biopic, where he played the cricketer on screen.

The star was last seen in Nitish Tiwari's 'Chhichhore,' alongside Shraddha Kapoor in 2019.

The news of the sudden demise of the actor left a bevy of his fans, and Bollywood celebrities in shock, triggering an outpouring of condolences.

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Agencies
March 14,2020

Los Angeles, Mar 14: Hollywood superstar Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson on Friday gave a health update from coronavirus quarantine, saying they are taking it "one day at a time".

The couple, who is in isolation at a hospital in the state of Queensland in Australia, said they are being well cared for.

"Hello folks. @ritawilson and I want to thank everyone here Down Under who are taking such good care of us. We have COVID-19 and are in isolation so we do not spread it to anyone else.

"There are those for whom it could lead to a very serious illness. We are taking it one-day-at-a-time.There are things we can all do to get through this by following the advice of experts and taking care of ourselves and each other, no?" Hanks posted on Instagram.

The post was accompanied by a photograph that showed the couple smiling.

Hanks announced on Thursday that he and his wife have been tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

The actor couple, who is currently in Australia to shoot for the pre-production of Baz Luhrmann's untitled Elvis Presley film, decided to get tested after they felt "a bit tired".

The deadly virus that first originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year has claimed over 4,200 lives and infected more than 117,330 people across 107 countries and territories, with the World Health Organisation on Wednesday describing the outbreak a pandemic.

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News Network
February 12,2020

London, Feb 12: Oscar-winning British director Steve McQueen is returning to his art roots with a series of short films at London's Tate Modern art gallery, offering a sensory exploration of black identity.

McQueen, who became the first black director to win the best picture Academy Award in 2014 for "12 Years a Slave", is now based between London and Amsterdam and is focused on championing diversity in the film industry.

Visitors to his new exhibition will be greeted by "Static", a film of New York's Statue of Liberty, scrutinising the iconic symbol from every possible angle at very close range against a deafening backdrop of the helicopter from where the footage was filmed.

"What interests Steve is our view of the world, how humans are trying to represent Liberty," said Fiontan Moran, assistant curator of the exhibition.

"7th Nov, 2001" features a still shot of a body while McQueen's cousin Marcus tells of how he accidentally killed his brother, a particularly traumatic experience for the artist.

"Western Deep" is another visceral work, giving a sense through sights and sounds in an interactive installation of the experiences of miners in South Africa, following them to the bottom of the mine.

"Ashes", meanwhile, is a tribute to a young fisherman from Grenada, the island where McQueen's family originated.

The images of beauty and sweetness filmed from his boat are tragically reversed on the other side of the projection screen, which shows a grave commissioned by McQueen for the eponymous young fisherman, who was killed by drug traffickers.

African-American singer, actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson (1898-1976) is honoured in "End Credits".

The film shows censored FBI documents detailing the agency's surveillance of Robeson, read by a voice-over artist, for five hours.

"He is... testing the limits of how people can be documented in an era of mass surveillance," said Moran.

In a similarly militant vein, the exhibition features the sculpture "Weight", which was first shown in the prison cell where the writer and playwright Oscar Wilde was imprisoned.

It depicts a golden mosquito net draped over a metal prison bed frame, addressing the theme of confinement and the power of the imagination to break free.

The show runs alongside an exhibition of McQueen's giant portraits of London school classes, many of which appeared on the streets of London last year.

"I remember my first school trip to Tate when I was an impressionable eight-year-old, which was really the moment I gained an understanding that anything is possible," said McQueen, adding it was "where in some ways my journey as an artist first began".

He recently told the Financial Times newspaper the difference between his art films and his feature films was that the former were poetry, the latter like a novel.

"Poetry is condensed, precise, fragmented," he said. "The novel is the yarn".

The exhibition opens on February 13 and runs until May 11.

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