A lovely mermaid who longs to replace her fins with feet… a dashing prince looking for true love… and an evil sea witch bent on revenge: Disney’s The Little Mermaid, first released in November 1989, retold the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the same name in a colorful, tuneful way—and it signaled a renaissance of sorts, ushering in a whole new era of Disney animated films. Featuring a score by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (the first of their trio of Disney collaborations), the movie went on to win two Academy Awards®—and has delighted audiences for almost 30 years. And now, fans of the film can be a “part of its world” in a brand-new and amazingly special way.

Disney’s The Little Mermaid Live in Concert will take the legendary Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, California, “under the sea” on Friday, June 3; Saturday, June 4; and Monday, June 6. A 71-piece live orchestra will accompany the film as it plays on the Bowl’s gigantic movie screen… and a truly star-studded cast of performers will sing the songs from the film—as well as a few from The Little Mermaid stage musical—live on stage! Grammy® nominee Sara Bareilles stars as Ariel; joining her are Rebel Wilson (Pitch Perfect) as Ursula, Tituss Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) as Sebastian, Darren Criss (Glee) as Prince Eric, Norm Lewis (Broadway’s Porgy and Bess) as King Triton, and John Stamos (Fuller House) as Chef Louis. As an added bonus, for the June 6 show, the film’s original Ariel—Disney Legend Jody Benson—will be reprising her role live and in person… and a special opening medley will be offered by Disney Legend Susan Egan (voice of Belle in Beauty and the Beast) and Brad Kane (singing voice of Aladdin in Aladdin) that same evening.

Every performance will include a costume contest, a fireworks finale, and many more surprises… plus, the June 3 and 4 shows will open with a gaggle of tunes performed live by the film’s composer, Alan Menken! Recently, D23 was lucky enough to chat with the Disney Legend and Oscar® winner about what’s sure to make The Little Mermaid Live in Concert so marvelous.

D23: This concert sounds so exciting! When did you first hear there was interest in bringing something like this to the Hollywood Bowl?
Alan Menken (AM): I think it was a few months ago. As I remember, [it was] while we were doing some recording sessions for ABC’s Galavant; [The Little Mermaid Live in Concert creative director] Richard Kraft mentioned the idea to me, which sounded intriguing… I mean, I’ve seen events like this before, and they’re thrilling. You have a live orchestra playing against the film, which is just such a thrilling combination—it’s something that you’re familiar with, and yet it feels reinvented to you, and just totally fresh.

D23: And the cast is fantastic… What do you think these particular performers are going to bring to the material?
AM: Well, in the case of so many of them, they’re the generation that grew up with this movie. So it’s an entirely fresh take, as far as their talents, and yet it goes back to the root of their childhood—in terms of how they feel about it—which is wonderful to be around. It’s exciting for me and exciting for them, in different ways.

“It’s going to be a richer, deeper Little Mermaid experience than it’s ever been before.”

D23: Is this the first time that you, personally, have performed at the Hollywood Bowl?
AM: Actually, no—I performed at the Bowl in an evening with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, conducted by John Mauceri, [when] they did a night of Disney music… I played a medley for that as well.

D23: Are you excited to be back?
AM: Yes! It’s a special, unique, and beautiful venue, and I think the audience will be really excited about [the show]… it’ll just be fun to be around, I think.

D23: What do you think audiences will take home from this particular event, as opposed watching the film on DVD or seeing the stage musical?
AM: Well, this’ll be sort of a hybrid between the film and the stage version—we’re putting in some material from the stage show, interpolated into the film. So it’s going to be a richer, deeper The Little Mermaid experience than it’s ever been before. Certainly, it’ll be very fresh… very fresh indeed!

D23: Is there anything else you’d like D23 members and fans to know about The Little Mermaid Live in Concert?
AM: The Little Mermaid was the bloom of our innocence, y’know? It was written when Howard [Ashman] and I first came to Disney, and it’s hard to believe how many years have gone by since then, because it still feels so fresh and immediate in my life. And it’s so amazing to have a new generation embracing it in the way they are. I can’t wait to see what this’ll be like!

How many wonders can one cavern hold? If you’re a D23 Member in the Los Angeles area, you can find out firsthand by securing a seat for Disney’s The Little Mermaid Live in Concert—while supplies last, and at 10 percent off, to boot! Get all the info you need here.

By Beth Deitchman

If you haven’t already, you’re about to add a new word to your vocabulary: Tiffins.

It’s an Indian word that has multiple meanings. A tiffin can be a light midday meal—and we may just start using the word in place of “lunch,” which feels kind of passé by comparison. A tiffin also refers to the container said meal is often carried in: usually a round, stackable metal lunchbox. But our favorite definition is the newest: Tiffins is Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s signature restaurant, which opened just this past weekend, and might just become your favorite, too.

The new fine-dining establishment takes its inspiration from travel, and the menu is a mixture of cuisines from different parts of the world and different cultures. Anthony DeLuca, Tiffins’ chef de cuisine, told D23 recently that Walt Disney Imagineers looked to the research trips they took while designing Disney’s Animal Kingdom for the elements guests will now find when they dine at the restaurant. According to Deluca, “They took notes, they took sketches and all those places they visited, we get to explore on the menu. So we could have something Asian, we could have something African, we could have something Moroccan. Food can be inspired by wherever they went.”

Mark Hoevenaars, the proprietor of Tiffins, explains that guests’ global experience begins at the front door. “When you walk into our main entrance, there’s this beautiful map of the world that is carved out of wood that instantly shows the theming of the restaurant, which is travel,” he says. Hoevenaars and the Disney’s Animal Kingdom team also see the restaurant as an experience for the eyes as much as for the tastebuds, so Tiffins functions as an art gallery in addition to serving as an amazing new restaurant. Tiffins is comprised of three different themed dining rooms: an Asian-inspired Trek Gallery, an African-inspired Safari Gallery, and an animal-inspired Grand Gallery. “In that way, we touch all of the different portions of the theming from the Walt Disney Imagineering and animal programs,” Hoevenaars points out.

The Tiffins menu offers something for everyone. “I think there’s definitely some stuff that’s going to be a little bit out there, but we have an audience here at Animal Kingdom that’s a little bit more adventurous, more free-spirited, to go out and try some stuff,” Hoevenaars says. Main courses include a Berber-spiced lamb chop with mustard greens, lentil stew, and mint chutney, an African-inspired dish; miso-glazed black cod with Forbidden Rice in steamed bok choy with turmeric sauce, which is Asian-inspired; and grilled head-on shrimp with tomatoes, roasted fennel, olives, and sea urchin butter sauce, which has a European sensibility. Tiffins will also serve a classic African black-eyed pea fritter called Akara, which Hoevenaars and DeLuca expect to be popular with guests. But, Hoevenaars confidently professes, “I think that regardless of what their selection will be on the menu, they’re going to be very pleasantly surprised.”

There’s even a dessert inspired by the tiffin itself: a three-tiered creation that will feature a chocolate ganache with multiple garnishes, another layer with an aromatic kaffir lime broth that lightly warms the chocolate, and a top layer that’s a microwave sponge cake—made using innovative techniques that help add a crunchy texture to the epicurean experience.

For younger travelers with palates that might not be as worldly as those of their parents, DeLuca assures, “We actually made sure that when we wrote the kids menu that it was a little less adventurous, that we can capture all of our audience. But there’s definitely enough of a mix where we think people will identify with something.”

Travelers who see themselves as “just passing through” will enjoy spending time at Nomads Lounge, which celebrates the travel of Disney’s Animal Kingdom guests. Hoevenaars is excited about one way that guests can be part of the travel theme—and support worthy causes at the same time. “We’ll have these hangtags for sale, which our guests can actually write their own adventures and their own travels on, and we’ll actually hang them in the bar. The proceeds of those hangtags will support Disney’s conservation efforts. We have a wide variety of different projects that we support here in Animal Kingdom we have a lot of folks that are working to protect wildlife and wild places—it’s really exciting to have a component that will actually help support that as well,” Hoevenaars says.

Tiffins and Nomads sit on the Discovery River, right by the bridge that will lead into what will be Pandora—The World of Avatar when it opens. At Nomads, guests can enjoy a beverage—either before their meal at Tiffins, or as a chance to relax and taste some of the street food-inspired small plates on the Nomads menu.

“In general, the restaurant is super exciting for me,” Hoevenaars stresses. “I think our theme and the ability of the chefs to really create dishes that are inspired by South African cuisine and Asian cuisine is awesome in itself. But then within those continents there are so many different influences and cultures, and we have the ability to do fusion and things like that. It’s really exciting to be working with these chefs to come up with dishes that are just going to truly blow people away.”

By Beth Deitchman

Have you gone “through the looking glass” yet to see Disney’s newest adventure for Alice, the Mad Hatter, and Underland’s other colorful denizens—the Red Queen, the White Queen, and a full spectrum of quirky characters?

Alice Through the Looking Glass, now playing at a theater near you, again stars Mia Wasikowska as Alice Kingsleigh, Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, and Sacha Baron Cohen as Time himself! In this outing, Alice Kingsleigh (Wasikowska) has spent the past three years sailing the high seas. Upon her return to London, she comes across a magical looking glass and returns to the fantastical realm of Underland. Reuniting with her friends the White Rabbit, Absolem, the White Queen, and the Cheshire Cat, Alice must save the Hatter and Underland itself, before time runs out. We took a little time recently at the movie’s Hollywood premiere and at press conferences for the film to talk to some of the cast and filmmakers about what’s new in Underland, about how their characters have evolved, and even about Walt Disney World roller coasters! Disney fans are in store for a true unbirthday treat!

Mia Wasikowska (Alice) on her other favorite Disney character of all time:

“I really like The Lion King, so I like all the characters in that.”

Wasikowska on how Alice has changed since we last saw her in Alice in Wonderland:

“She has a really strong sense of who she is in this film. I think she’s just spent two years as the captain of a ship so she very much knows who she is and she doesn’t let anybody question that for her.”

Director James Bobin on being “the new kid on the block” with the returning cast:

“It was great because they knew the characters. It was a new story, but we talked about what that meant for those characters. And often the story was explaining how they were before, which was very interesting for them—it was backstory, which was great. They were always incredibly welcoming—such fun to work with and very collaborative, and that’s what I love about movie-making. It was a huge team effort.”

Bobin on what’s different about Underland this time around:

“When I grew up I used to read Lewis Carroll and I remember the world being pretty much designed by a guy called John Tenniel, who was the original illustrator of the books. And I loved that world and wanted to bring more of that to this world—staying within Tim’s world that he created for that movie, but also trying to make it somewhat more historical and more Victorian in some way.”

Actress Anne Hathaway—the film’s White Queen—on how Colleen Atwood’s spectacular costume design helped her get into character:

“I thought that Colleen’s costume probably created my character. I had certain, kind of inchoate ideas about who she was, and then as soon as I put on that dress, I said, ‘Oh, she’s air.’ Then I started to think about the relationship between her and Helena [Bonham Carter, who portrays her character’s sister, the Red Queen] and I thought that if you have a family member who has a large personality and has a lot of emotions, you compensate by taking up less space. And so I thought, here’s somebody who’s literally turning herself into almost weightlessness—and yet it’s still so ornamented. So I just thought it was just very rich and very airy. And that’s how I kind of came up with my um, airhead.” [LAUGHS]

Owain Rhys Davies, who voices the Delivery Frog in the film, on the research that went into playing Disney’s newest film frog:

“I love Toad from Toad Hall [in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad]… The Princess and the Frog—I’ve watched it repeatedly. I’m an adult man—a grown man!—but I love Disney movies. Just being a part of this is an absolute joy and a pleasure. It’s a bit of a dream.”

Screenwriter Linda Woolverton on what’s been happening for Alice before she sails into action in Through the Looking Glass:

“I did a lot of research on China and trading in that period, and the rivers—I researched all the rivers, and I researched the pink dolphins. I researched a lot of the stuff that didn’t make it [into the final script]. So I know all the places she’s been and all the people she’s visited, so that was really fun for me.”

Woolverton’s “Fab 5” Disney heroines:

“I love Aurora. I love Belle. I love Nala. I love Maleficent—she’s a heroine! And I love Cinderella. I think they’re all so different—there’s no singular aspect about each of them. What’s wonderful about Disney is they never abandon the princess—they’re always exploring facets of ‘princessness’ through time. So the princesses that were created in the ’50s and early ’60s were symbols of the perfect woman for their time and that’s wonderful. And then because time moved on, women have different facets and Disney has explored those different eras and parts of us all through time.”

The film is—literally—about time. We asked one of the film’s producers, Suzanne Todd—a devoted Disney fan—what would she do if she only had more time?

“Of course I would go to Disney World—I’m crazy like that. But other things? I’d spend more time with my family and—oh, wait—I could take my family to Walt Disney World, so I’m sticking with Walt Disney World! I’d love to spend more time in the parks, because I work too much and I don’t spend enough time in the parks.”

Todd is such a fan of the Walt Disney World Resort that we asked for her “Fab 5” attractions from the resort! Here’s what she told us:

“In Florida we love the mountains, because I’m a roller coaster girl. I love Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. I love Space Mountain—which is different [at Walt Disney World] than it is in Anaheim. I love Expedition Everest. I love a little Big Thunder Mountain. Which one am I missing? Splash Mountain—but that’s not a roller coaster. If we’re really doing five roller coasters from Florida, I’m going Crush ‘n’ Gusher [at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon water park], because we don’t have Crush ‘n’ Gusher in Anaheim. I believe it’s the only water roller coaster in the world and it is an awesome, awesome ride that should not be missed when you visit Florida!”