The Little 5—Day 7 of Adventures by Disney Safari to South Africa

December 6, 2018

By Robert Yoshioka

Waking up early on vacation can sometimes be challenging, but not if you are scheduled for an exclusive, first-light game drive! Today’s theme was the “Little Five” – a take on the “Big Five” from the days of hunting. The “Big Five” was coined by the big game hunters to reference the five most dangerous animals to hunt on foot in Africa: African elephant, black rhinoceros, cape buffalo, lion and leopard. The “Little Five” are smaller “cousins” and force us to look a bit closer to catch a glimpse of these South African friends, including: elephant shrews, rhino beetles, buffalo weavers, antlions and leopard tortoises.

The experience of being in a place like Africa is meant to be savored. Our safari is several days long, plenty of time to slow your mind and really begin to absorb where you are. The opportunity to see wild animals is very exciting, and the temptation is to capture it all with a camera. But the experience is not only visual, and not always photographable. Everything is worth attention, not just huge famous animals. If you want to see like an Imagineer, you look at everything like it’s the first time you ever saw it. The bark texture on a tree, the color of a rock, a bug’s wing, how the water ripples in the breeze. You listen carefully to the way the branches scratch against each other, to bird calls you may never hear again, to silence. You sniff the air for the smell of unfamiliar grass, or animals, of cooking smoke, you smell your soup before you eat it. Touch what you can touch, the earth, the trees, the walls. Everything has something to say. It’s all part of Africa…not just a list of big five trophies.
-Joe

During the middle of the day, when it is hottest in South Africa, we rejoined all of the other safari vehicles to swap stories and sightings.

During the heat of the day, get some rest. The animals generally do the same! Find some water in the camp, and look for birds coming in to drink. South Africa has over 840 bird species compared to 914 in all North America.
-Dr. Mark

Additionally, we had an amazing, and up-close presentation by Donald Strydom!

Some love them, some hate them – snakes are definitely my favourite group of animals! Donald Strydom will show you some of these magnificent animals, and how he helps to change the way people perceive these magnificent creatures. Ectotherms are really cool! Science geek joke!
-Dr. Mark

As the dusk began to settle, each safari vehicle began to make its way away from the main lodge area. We arrived in an open clearing just as the sun set and were welcomed by Craig and Kira to our very special bush braai dinner in the reserve.

The South African version of a barbeque is the braai, and having a braai in the bush is a wonderful experience. Try the boerewors – sausage made of beef and pork. A favourite in these parts.
-Dr. Mark

Dining out under the stars with fellow adventurer friends, incredible guides, hosts, Dr. Mark and Joe – truly nothing could be better!

Click here to see more about this amazing safari adventure.

A Special Sneak Peek at Tokyo Disneyland’s Upcoming Beauty and the Beast Attraction

December 6, 2018December 6, 2018

By Karina Schink

While the merry season is already here, the gifts and joy have come early this year in the form of a special sneak peek from our friends over at Disney Parks Blog, who today shared details about the Beauty and the Beast attraction coming to Tokyo Disneyland in spring 2020! Check out the video below for the official inside look.

While we can hardly wait to “be their guest” and waltz with Belle and her Beast, there are so many exciting additions coming to Tokyo Disneyland! The new attraction is only one part of an entire area themed to Beauty and the Beast.

The enchanted castle we all know, filled with our favorite animated household items, will be the towering centerpiece of this area and will house the Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast attraction. Visit the Village Shoppes (where we we’ll keep an eye out for the baker with his tray like always) and swing by La Taverne de Gaston and see if there really is no one as slick as Gaston.

A famous team of six is bringing a little bit of San Fransokyo to Tokyo Disneyland, as The Happy Ride with Baymax attraction lands in Tomorrowland. This Big Hero 6-inspired attraction lets guests join their own personal healthcare companion on an exciting musical whip ride.

And Tokyo Disneyland’s famous popcorn buckets will be filled with a bounty of flavors at The Big Pop, a new outer space-themed shop coming to Tomorrowland.

Over in Toontown, get ready to rock the dots at Minnie’s Style Studio, the very first Disney character greeting location featuring the leading lady herself (and her many magical fashion creations).

Imagineers are hard at work on all of this and more that’s set to debut at Tokyo Disneyland in spring of 2020 as part of the resort’s expansion. Expect to see Fantasyland become even more magical as it nearly doubles in size; an eighth themed port at Tokyo DisneySea that celebrates the stories of Frozen, Tangled, and Peter Pan; and a new deluxe hotel with a one-of-a-kind luxury wing.

The Walt Disney Studios Receives Nine Golden Globe® Nominations

December 6, 2018

By Beth Deitchman

Mary Poppins is going from the streets of London to the 2018 Golden Globe Awards®, and she’ll be joined by T’Challa, the Parr family and everyone’s favorite video game bad guy, Wreck-It Ralph. Nominations for the 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards were announced this morning, and Disney films received a total of nine nods for four of its films. Here are the nominees we’ll be rooting for as the Golden Globes are presented on Sunday, January 6, 2019:

Marvel Studios’ Black Panther
Best Motion Picture—Drama
Ludwig Göransson, Best Original Score—Motion Picture
“All the Stars,” Best Original Song—Motion Picture

Mary Poppins Returns
Best Motion Picture—Musical or Comedy
Emily Blunt, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture—Musical or Comedy
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture—Musical or Comedy
Marc Shaiman, Best Original Score—Motion Picture

Incredibles 2
Best Motion Picture—Animated

Ralph Breaks the Internet
Best Motion Picture—Animated

To view the full list of nominations, visit GoldenGlobes.com. Congratulations to all!

Kingdom Hearts III Experience is Coming to Disney Springs

December 5, 2018January 22, 2019

By Jocelyn Buhlman

Fans of the Kingdom Hearts series, pack your bags—there’s a Walt Disney World Resort trip in your future. From December 14, 2018, through January 31, 2019, SQUARE ENIX^® and Disney are bringing the magic of the Kingdom Hearts video game worlds to Disney Springs at Walt Disney World Resort. Disney Springs guests will be among the first to play a demo of Kingdom Hearts III and, for those who visit before January 29, among the few who get to experience the game before its release.

The Kingdom Hearts video game series takes players on a fantastic adventure across the magical worlds of Disney, Pixar and SQUARE ENIX, bringing together characters from beloved films like Pixar Animation Studios’ Toy Story and Monsters, Inc., The Walt Disney Studios’ Pirates of the Caribbean, and Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Big Hero 6, Tangled, Frozen, and more.

This one-of-a-kind Kingdom Hearts pop-up experience also features a special Keyblade exhibit, featuring life-size replicas directly from Kingdom Hearts III, larger-than-life art inspired by characters and worlds from the game, and digital kiosks where attendees can pre-order the game and merchandise ahead of their releases.

So what are you waiting for? If you can imagine a world, believe in it—and dive right in at Disney Springs from December 14, 2018, through January 31, 2019.

Kingdom Hearts III is coming to Xbox One and PS4 on January 25, 2019.

Realm of the Lion King—Day 6 of Adventures by Disney Safari to South Africa

December 5, 2018

By Robert Yoshioka

While we had to say goodbye to the Garden Route and our new monkey, bird and ellie friends in Knysna, we were buffered by the excitement of traveling to our new home for the next several days.

As we landed at our airfield (Fun Fact: It is a very long runway—at 13,094 feet long, it is the alternate runway for the Space Shuttle!) and saw our safari vehicles lined in a row, Dr. Mark summed up the feeling:

“The Lowveld is what many people consider to be the ‘real’ Africa. The low-lying subtropical climate supports broad-leaved woodland and the famous Acacia thorn trees, with long grass and lots of wildlife. This is my idea of heaven!”
—Dr. Mark

With our luggage already transported to the River Lodge Suites, we excitedly leapt into our open-air trucks and met the rangers and trackers who would be chauffeuring us through all of our game drives. Even one of the “higher-up” celebrities came out to greet us as we entered the reserve. #GiraffeHumor

“In this magnificent and ancient wilderness, predators and prey make up a complex web of interactions. It is a fight for survival every single day.”
—Dr. Mark

During high tea, a slightly shorter local resident came out to greet us and Joe took the opportunity to commemorate the occasion with a sketch! (Did anyone else start singing “If it weren’t for the fact, that we liked the taste, you’d be out there wallowing in shoulder-high waste. Shoulder-high waste!!” for this dung beetle?)

It is truly gorgeous here—the sky is breathtaking, the clouds are epic, and even the breeze is crisp and ripe with adventure.

After a day of travel, it was wonderful to enjoy a delicious dinner amongst now-longtime friends and marvel at this incredible game lodge we get to call home!

“Wherever you go, that’s where you eat. Adventure travel is usually framed as a visual experience, all about the photographs of exotic subjects. But there are a bunch of other things going on as well, and one of them is food. You have to eat where you are and that opens up the opportunity for all kinds of other adventures. Even something as mundane as an egg tastes different in another country, because of who the chickens are and what they eat. It’s one thing to cross a suspiciously shaky bridge, but it’s another altogether to put a new food in your mouth. Sometimes you say ‘Wow, I never thought I’d be eating this unusual new thing!!’ and you say ‘Wow, I can’t believe that they can prepare such a delicious and familiar dish way the heck out here!!’ Over the course of many personal adventures and Disney research trips we have been exposed to all kinds of foods in all kinds of places. But almost always, the meal finishes with, ‘That was delicious!’”
—Joe

Click here to see more about this amazing safari adventure.

7 Practically Perfect Stories from the Mary Poppins Returns Cast and Filmmakers

December 5, 2018

By Courtney Potter

“Wind’s in the east, there’s a mist comin’ in… like somethin’ is brewin’—about to begin.” Mary Poppins Returns, the much-anticipated sequel to Disney’s seminal 1964 film, is set to soar into a cineplex near you December 19. Starring Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place) as Mary; Lin-Manuel Miranda (Broadway’s Hamilton) as her lamplighter cohort Jack; Emily Mortimer (Hugo) and Ben Whishaw (A Very English Scandal) as the now-grown-up Jane and Michael Banks; featuring an original score by Marc Shaiman and original songs with music by Shaiman and lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman (Hairspray); and directed by Oscar® and Tony® nominee Rob Marshall (Chicago, Into the Woods), the film finds the titular nanny reappearing at No. 17 Cherry Tree Lane. Naturally, the practically perfect Poppins tasks herself (and her pal Jack) with helping the next generation of the Banks family—reeling from a personal loss—find the joy and wonder missing from their lives.

D23 recently spent a jolly (afternoon) holiday with members of the Mary Poppins Returns cast, as well as its creators—including Marshall, Shaiman, Wittman, producers Marc Platt and John DeLuca, and screenwriter David Magee (Life of Pi)—where we were privy to a heaping spoonful of amazing behind-the-scenes tidbits. Read on for a few of their most “shareable” stories!

Emily Blunt remembers that very first phone call:
“I got a voicemail from Rob Marshall, who is my dear friend—we have known each other a long time,” explains Blunt. “And the voicemail certainly had a sort of charged energy to it. I was like, ‘Oh my god, what is it? What is this project?!’ And when he called me—because he is so beautifully ceremonious and wants every moment in the process to feel special and transporting and memorable for you—even the phone call had such a sense of ceremony to it. He said, ‘You know, we’ve been digging through the Disney archives’… And I thought, ‘What, what is it?’ I couldn’t think what it was! So when [he] said Mary Poppins, I felt like the air changed in the room. It was so extraordinary—such an extraordinary [and] rather unparalleled moment for me, because I was filled with an instantaneous ‘yes,’ but also with some trepidation…”

“Mary had such a big imprint on my life,” Blunt continues. “On everyone’s lives. People hold this character so close to their hearts. And so how do I create my version of her? What will my version of her be? Because no one wants to see me do a sort of cheap impersonation of Julie Andrews, because no one is Julie Andrews. She should be preserved and treasured in her own way, in what she did. So I knew this was going to be something that I wanted to take a big swing with—and I knew I could do it with [Marshall], who is the most emboldening, meticulous, brilliant director in the world. I was in safe hands with him—however much I knew I had my work cut out for me.”

Lin-Manuel Miranda on some of his favorite experiences from the making of the film:
“There are so many!” Miranda admits. “There are a lot of highs on a movie like this. Coming from the theater, where the only thing that changes in the performance is the audience and your energy that day, to [then] go, ‘OK: Thursday, we’ll be shutting down Buckingham Palace and riding [past] with 500 bicyclists. And Friday, you’ll be dancing with the penguins.’ Those kind of moments are really sort of unforgettable. But for me, I brought my son to set every time we filmed a musical number—and to watch his eyes like saucers while Daddy danced with what seems like 500 dancers and bicyclists. I’ll never forget the look on his face as long as I live.”

Emily Mortimer on why she wanted to take part, the logistics of making it all work, and how the film’s director might be a bit “practically perfect” himself:
“I felt from the minute that I met Rob that I wanted to be part of this film,” says Mortimer. “It was meeting Rob and hearing him talk about why he was so determined to make [Mary Poppins Returns] that just really inspired me. That doesn’t often happen… I emerged from meeting Rob and [producer] John DeLuca and rang up my agents immediately and said, ‘I just have to be part of this movie, no matter what. I just want to be in it. I want to help Rob tell this story!’ Then they managed to make it work—but it was a complicated logistical thing for me because I live in New York, and my kids and husband were there, and the filming was in London. I think I flew like 16 times across the Atlantic. I’ve got a lot of air miles!”

“It just felt like incredible good fortune, every time I walked on the set, to be there,” she continues. “And [as to how I approached the character of Jane Banks]—I don’t know, really. It was a slight of hand of Rob’s… he is absolutely kind of Mary Poppins himself! He is Mary Poppins, without the parrot… You just sort of know what to do without having to worry about it too much. He’s protecting you from all the anxiety, and the stress of the burden of knowing that this is such a huge thing—such a huge legacy and we’re in charge of it… The whole thing was magical, and something I’ll treasure forever.”

Ben Whishaw on finding inspiration—both from his love of the film as a child, and from a certain family member:
“I was obsessed with the film when I was a child,” Whishaw admits. “It was the first film I ever saw. My dad taped it off the ‘telly’ on a VHS tape, and I watched it obsessively for my whole childhood. I used to dress up as Mary Poppins and parade up and down the street in our village. It’s a mythic part of my childhood… [And the character of Michael, in our film] was brilliantly written, that was the thing. I mean it was all there… [but] I was thinking about my brother—because he has two kids and he’s a very anxious man. I did think about him because I’m not a father, I don’t know what it’s like, but I thought about [him] and about how difficult it is for him to have those little ones. The anxiety and the stress and the money and job, everything…”

Composer and co-lyricist Marc Shaiman on how he wore out the original film’s soundtrack album, and how it essentially affected his whole career:
“I think that my entire childhood was Mary Poppins,” says Shaiman, chuckling. “I really have no other memory of my childhood except listening to that record and reading the synopsis of the story… I was fascinated by the orchestrations on it. When it starts with that F-triad [chord]—which I learned later—and its violins start ‘tremolo-ing’—which I learned later—and then the English horn comes in on ‘Feed the Birds.’ I didn’t know what those instruments were, I was only 4 [years old], and I didn’t know what those words were [either]… But I knew I wanted to know—why are those lyrics, and those chords, making me feel something so deeply? It’s not just the chords, but it’s the strings and the way that they’re playing those chords. All these things were just flowing into my brain and my ears and my heart. I learned everything that I could from that album. Then I grew up and this dream came true where I got to incorporate every single thing that I ever learned from that album into real life… To get the chance to spend the months—a year, really—of scoring this movie, and getting to work with these people and these faces and these eyes… it was just a fantasy.”

Screenwriter David Magee on the film’s memorable collaboration process:
“First it was with Rob and John [DeLuca], trying to find how we were going to frame the story,” explains Magee. “Then Marc and Scott joined us. The five of us sitting in a room together a couple of times a week and talking through where we wanted this journey to take us and how we could get to a story that would echo in some way our feeling for that original film. That was the most magical kind of collaboration time I’ve ever had. It would be very easy to enter into a project like this feeling like you were walking on sacred ground, where you could fall at any moment. The fact that Rob was doing it was the primary reason I was willing to even talk about doing it—because he’s a master of musicals. From the first day we started collaborating together, I felt like we all had each other’s back. We all were protecting each other’s work, and we were all telling the same story.”

Director Rob Marshall on what one of the film’s very special cast members said to him when he first walked onto the set:
“Every one of us was there with Dick Van Dyke as he stepped onto the set, and [that moment] was beyond,” Marshall admits. “I don’t think any of us could even breathe that day because we couldn’t believe that we were touching that. He was basically playing the same old banker that he played [in the original 1964 film]. He grabbed my hand as we walked onto the set and he turned to me and he said something I will never forget. He said, ‘I feel the same spirit here on this set that I did on the first film.’ That was the dream come true right there.”

Get ready to “trip a little light fantastic” when Mary Poppins Returns comes to U.S. theaters on December 19!

7 Disney Characters to Inspire Your Giving Spirit

December 5, 2018December 5, 2018

By Jocelyn Buhlman

Today, we celebrate Walt Disney’s birthday and all the magic and joy he brought to the world. During this holiday season, magic is important—not just the magic in our own lives, but the magic we can bring to others when we give back. In honor of Walt’s legacy, we encourage you to give to others this holiday season and help make our world a little brighter. Need some inspiration? We look to some classic Disney characters with big hearts who help foster the legacy of kindness caring that Walt himself created.

1. Snow White, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Sometimes there’s joy in helping someone you don’t even know! When Snow White saw that the Seven Dwarfs’ cottage was in need of a cleaning, she didn’t hesitate to help out—even though she hadn’t even met the Dwarfs yet! Snow White inspires us to care for others, even if we haven’t met them yet—and, of course, she reminds us to whistle while we work!

2. Andy, Toy Story 3
Ok, so we admit that the ending of Toy Story 3 mostly inspired us to cry, but in between our tears, we really took to heart how Andy donated his beloved childhood toys to Bonnie. It’s hard to give up things that are important to you (especially if they are as important as Woody, Buzz, and their friends!), but Andy’s action reminds us that there are people out there who need what we have more than we do, and we can open up a whole new world of opportunity just by sharing!

3. Bernard and Bianca, The Rescuers
These mice may be small, but they have one of the most giving jobs of all—rescuing children who need help! While we might not be able to fly by albatross and stage elaborate rescue missions, we admire how Bernard and Bianca dedicate their time to helping out kids like Penny. Through the Rescue Aid Society, they make the world a better place in their day-to-day lives, which is something we all can aspire to do (although we may never do it quite as stylishly as Miss Bianca).

4. Scrooge McDuck, Mickey’s Christmas Carol
While Scrooge is typically known as Donald’s penny-pinching uncle, he has a caring side that’s exemplified at the ending of this classic retelling of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. It’s the perfect reminder that even if we get caught up in acting like a scrooge (with or without a swimming pool-sized vault of money), there are always opportunities for us to turn our attitude around and help others. While Scrooge needs the help of some ghosts to get his sharing spirit started, we hope you don’t need to meet the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future to inspire your next chartable act (but if you do, say hi to Jiminy Cricket for us!).

5. The Parr Family, The Incredibles
Ok, so we can’t emulate the Parr family’s style of giving perfectly—they are super heroes, after all—but we can’t help but admire that their whole family is dedicated to protecting their city. Involving the whole family in giving back is a great way to both build stronger bonds and teach your youngsters the value of saving the day.

6. Roger and Anita Radcliff, One Hundred and One Dalmatians
Who can resist helping a cute puppy? What about… 101 cute puppies? It takes a lot of responsibility, but Roger and Anita are up to the task after the famous pile of puppies escape the clutches of Cruella De Vil. Time is a precious gift—why not spend it helping out animals, just like the Radcliffs? Well, maybe not exactly like the Radcliffs, but we know that there are many adorable animals out there who you can give your time to help.

7. Mickey and Minnie, “Mickey and Minnie’s The Gift of the Magi”
Sometimes we need to direct our giving spirit towards the ones we love most—just like Mickey and Minnie do in this animated short that was part of Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas. Both Mickey and Minnie end up short on money to buy their sweetheart a gift for Christmas—so they both sell their prize possessions in order to buy something special. The moral of this classic story is that it’s not about the gift, but the thought that counts, and we agree. This holiday season, why not emulate Mickey and Minnie and put some thought into a gift for someone you love?

Nature’s Reserve—Day 5 of Adventures by Disney Safari to South Africa

December 4, 2018

By Robert Yoshioka

Waking up at this lush resort really showcased why this region is called the Garden Route. Abundant rainfall and humid sea winds help to maintain this vibrant vegetation. Runoff carrying nutrients return to the sea enriching the Knsyna Lagoon and we were excited to quickly eat breakfast and begin our nature hike in the recently reopened Featherbed Reserve!

“The Knysna Lagoon is actually an estuary, with five fresh water rivers flowing in from the surrounding Outeniqua Mountains. The Indian Ocean surges in through the mighty sandstone headlands known as the ‘Knysna Heads’.’”
—Dr. Mark

From the lagoon, we had a quick bite and then drove to truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

As our motor coach pulled into the driveway, Dr. Mark shared some heartwarming stories about the Knysna Elephant Park:

“Believe it or not, elephants still occur in this protected forest! They are extremely rare – probably only 5 or 6 cows and possibly some bulls and calves. The Elephant Park is home to orphaned African elephants – over the last twenty years, they have cared for and raised more than forty elephants. Getting close to these gigantic animals is an incredible privilege.”
—Dr. Mark

It was breathtaking to be just driving among these gentle giants – or “ellies” as the locals call them. But then we were let off onto a wooden platform, with several buckets of fruits and veggies…

Handing an apple to an ele’s trunk is an experience I will never forget. Their strong, heavy and firm trunk is still so gentle as it plucked the food from my hand. And their kind eyes with adorably long eye lashes made us all fall in love with these gorgeous creatures.

The evening wrapped up as we sketched, shared dinner and this bucket-list experience on the open field at the elephant park.

“Sketching is a memory tool. It works in very odd ways. I have spoken with artists all over the world, professional, amateur, even abstract artists, and all concur that you remember your sketch in a very physical way. Something about stopping everything and concentrating on one thing, just so you can sketch it, opens up your mind. You have to be attentive. You have to focus. When your mind is attentive in this way, while you are sketching…it’s not just the sketch that goes into your brain and stays there. Years later, looking back at that sketch, you will not only remember the thing you drew, a lion, or a rock, or a building…You will remember everything about the moment of drawing it; the time of day, the sounds, who was there, the temperature, the wind, a thousand things that are not in the picture. That’s why the quality of the sketch does not matter. It’s not really a picture of anything. What matters is the time and attention you put into it. The sketch is a receptacle for your memory of the time you took to do it.”
—Joe

Click here to see more about this amazing safari adventure.

Brie Larson Spills Secrets from the Set of Captain Marvel

December 4, 2018December 3, 2018

By Jim Frye

Brie Larson doesn’t feel comfortable saying what she wants audiences “to come away with” from the upcoming Captain Marvel, Marvel Studios’ next big-screen adventure, and their first to feature a female as the lead. “I feel really firmly that art is made to be enjoyed and interpreted, and you get what you need out of it,” she says. “I think there’s going to be a lot there for people to digest and feel, and hopefully, it’ll be the movie that you want to revisit again and again, and as life goes on, it’ll have more to it. I just want to make art that lasts. I want to make art that you grow with.”

The first time we see Brie Larson is on a TV monitor in “video village” on the Captain Marvel set, as co-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck instruct the actress, who plays the title character, to walk across the bridge of the Kree ship with her fellow Starforce team members: Djimon Hounsou, who plays Korath; Algenis Perez Soto as Captain Atlas; Rune Temte as Bron-Char; Gemma Chan as Minn-Erva; and Jude Law, Starforce Commander. They’re all dressed in form-fitting green-and-black Starforce uniforms, the colors of the Kree.

During a break later that afternoon, we’re able to talk. “It’s very, very itchy,” says Larson, pulling at the collar of her Starforce uniform. We are sitting in a space just off the main set area. “The costume is very, very itchy.”

The “itchy” costume is small potatoes, though, compared to Larson’s grueling months-long physical training in preparation for Captain Marvel, the first female-led film from Marvel Studios. “I didn’t realize that most people don’t do their own stunts in these movies,” she says with a laugh. “I thought you did, and I’ve never been a particularly elegant or athletic person. I just thought, I don’t want to be on set, and they ask me to do things, and I don’t know how to do it. So I started training as soon as I could.”

The fact that she didn’t need to perform most of her own stunts was a revelation to her. “I took nine months of training, and three months of stunt training with a stunt team,” she continues. “We spent two hours every day, five days a week, and everyone just went along with it. It wasn’t until we started shooting, and I started doing all my own wire-work stunts, flips, and stuff, that people were like, you know, nobody actually does those things. We just didn’t want you to stop.”

It’s this type of commitment that has earned Larson accolades from fans and peers alike. Her performance in the 2015 film Room earned her the Academy Award® for Best Actress, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Actress, the Golden Globe®, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female in a Leading Role. She also starred in 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, with her soon-to-be Marvel co-star Samuel L. Jackson. Before that, she impressed audiences in films such as Tanner Hall, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and the Showtime breakout drama United States of Tara. She even starred in a Disney Channel Original Movie in 2003 called Right On Track. However, she claims it’s the role of Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, that has perhaps challenged her the most.

“I think she has an ego, but in a healthy way,” says Larson. “She doesn’t have an unrealistic expectation of herself,” she says before she’s halted by the commotion of a table saw nearby. She smiles, waits patiently for it to stop, fidgets with her “itchy” costume, then continues. “She just owns that she’s really good, and really skilled, which feels good to play. She also has an incredible sense of humor, makes fun of herself, makes fun of other people, and has no issue if someone makes fun of her. This is probably the most dynamic character that I’ve ever played.”

She continues: “It’s been the most range I’ve ever played a character. I’ve had to go through every emotion possible with her. It has great comedy, there’s also real depth and emotion, which for me, that’s what I want. I want to see complicated female characters. I want to see myself, which is not a simple person.”

The film, which takes place 30 years ago in the 90s, begins in outer space with Captain Marvel already possessing super powers and fighting alongside the Kree alien race in the Kree-Skrull galactic war. Through some unforeseen circumstances, she crashes to Earth—through the roof of a Blockbuster video store—and has to figure out who she is and why she’s here, eventually getting help from a young Nick Fury—who, at that point, still has both eyes intact.

And even with the excitement building about her portrayal of Carol Danvers, Larson remains down-to-earth and true to her craft. “I’m just going to do what feels true to me, and if people want to tag along, they can,” she says. “All of my heroes were just unapologetically themselves, and they were flawed at times, and that’s OK. For me, it’s part of who Carol is. She’s flawed. In order for me to feel comfortable stepping into this character, I have to accept my humanness, and remind everybody that I’m a human.”

She pauses, then, “And I’m part of it. I just want to make art, and that’s really it.” Captain Marvel—featuring the dynamic, game-changing performance by leading lady Brie Larson—opens March 8, 2019.

The Garden Route—Day 4 of Adventures by Disney Safari to South Africa

December 3, 2018

By Robert Yoshioka

This morning we said good-bye to Cape Town as we boarded our flight up South Africa’s Garden Route to George. The views from the flight were absolutely stunning – this coastal region is where lush forests meet pristine beaches and would rank high among aviary, simian and human travelers alike. This was perfect as our first stops in George were to Birds of Eden and Monkeyland.

“Birds of Eden is a two-hectare dome that spans over a beautiful gorge of indigenous forest. It is home to over 3,500 birds from over 220 species, with the main focus being African birds. The forest contains stately tree ferns, solid ironwood and majestic yellowwood trees. It is amazing how you can recreate a forest with enough time and effort – this land used to be a farm dump site!”
—Dr. Mark

“Monkeyland is the world’s first free roaming multi-species primate sanctuary. It was built to provide a home for pet monkeys that weren’t working out as pets. That means almost all pet monkeys! They thrive in this beautiful natural forest.”
—Dr. Mark

“I find the lemurs especially endearing to watch in the forest. They have a comical joie de vie that is irresistible.”
—Dr. Mark

After a morning amongst the exotic birds, we indulged in the best bread you will ever taste (seriously) and then retired to our picture-perfect resort overlooking the Knysna waterfront.

Click here to see more about this amazing safari adventure.