Entertainment
New Details About Disney 100 Years of Wonder Revealed to Fans During D23 Expo
Last Updated on June 27, 2024 by Daily News Staff
From dazzling new movies and an immersive exhibit touring the world to amazing theme park spectaculars and collectible merchandise, fans and families will enjoy new entertainment, experiences, and events from every corner of The Walt Disney Company
Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Wish will delight audiences in November 2023
BURBANK, Calif. – New and exciting details about Disney 100 Years of Wonder were revealed this past weekend to fans during D23 Expo 2022 presented by Visa. Disney100 will be the largest cross-company global celebration in the 100-year history of The Walt Disney Company, and it will officially kick-off during Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest on ABC.
“Ten decades of creativity, innovation, and determination created The Walt Disney Company you know today—the most enduring and beloved name in entertainment,” said Disney CEO Bob Chapek during the opening ceremonies of D23 Expo. “It’s an awesome responsibility to lead Disney as we begin our second century of telling stories and creating magic that will endure for another 100 years.”
Guests at the Ultimate Disney Fan Event were the first to see Mickey Mouse in his shimmering new “platinum” outfit, designed to reflect the optimism and creativity of Disney as the company celebrates 100 years and looks toward the next century. And throughout the weekend, fans heard about incredible new entertainment, experiences, and events coming from every corner of The Walt Disney Company for the celebration. From Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 2023 release Wish and Disney100: The Exhibition, which will tour domestically and internationally beginning next year, to new spectaculars opening at Disneyland Resort, amazing collectible merchandise, and more, here’s a taste of what’s to come during Disney100:
The Walt Disney Studios
On Friday inside the 7,000-seat Hall D23, Jennifer Lee, chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios announced Wish, an epic original animated musical inspired by the studios’ legacy of films and features all-new songs by Grammy®-nominated artist Julia Michaels. The magical story, which looks ahead to the next 100 years for the studio and explores how the wishing star that so many Disney characters wished upon came to be, is set in Rosas, a fantasy kingdom where wishes literally can come true. Inspired by watercolor illustrations of fairytales that fascinated Walt Disney, the look of the film blends a timeless watercolor style with contemporary 3D CG animation. Attendees were introduced to 17-year-old Asha—a smart and driven optimist with a sharp wit whose impassioned plea to the stars calls down an actual star from the sky. Impossibly curious and a little ball of boundless energy, Star is a giant beacon for chaos. Filmmakers Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn and actor Alan Tudyk (the voice of Valentino the goat) joined Lee on stage before introducing the voice of Asha, recent Oscar® winner Ariana DeBose, who brought down the house singing “More for Us,” an all-new original song from the film, which hits theaters in 2023.
Plus, the Walt Disney Studios presentation of upcoming theatrical and streaming titles on Friday previewed a trio of new films from Disney Live Action that continue Disney’s 100-year celebration. These new films include The Little Mermaid, a live-action reimagining of the studio’s Oscar-winning animated musical classic, which opens exclusively in theaters nationwide May 26, 2023; Haunted Mansion, a ghostly adventure inspired by the classic theme park attraction, which hits theaters in 2023; and Peter Pan & Wendy, a reimagining of the 1953 animated classic, which premieres on Disney+ in 2023.
Fans in Hall D23 were among the first to see a brand-new Walt Disney Studios logo introduction in honor of Disney 100 Years of Wonder. The new Disney castle introduction features Tinker Bell flying over a riverside village and up a waterfall that leads to the iconic Disney castle, now platinum. Created by Disney Studios Content and Industrial Light & Magic and featuring an all-new arrangement of “When You Wish Upon a Star” by award-winning composer Christophe Beck (Frozen, WandaVision), the new introduction will first appear in theaters with Disney’s Strange World this Thanksgiving and will then play in front of all Disney theatrical and streaming releases throughout 2023.
Disney100: The Exhibition
At D23 Expo, it was announced that Disney100: The Exhibition will open on February 18, 2023, at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Chicago, Illinois, and Kansas City, Missouri, set as the next two stops on the North American tour. The international unit of the exhibit will open on April 18 in Munich, Germany, with more cities to be announced in the coming months. The stunning key artwork for the exhibit was also revealed, which invites guests to step into their favorite stories using innovative and immersive technology throughout ten galleries in the 15,000-square-foot exhibit. The Walt Disney Archives is opening its vault of treasures, showcasing more than 250 of its “Crown Jewels,” rarely seen original artworks and artifacts, costumes and props, and other memorabilia. Disney has curated special behind-the-scenes glimpses into the creation of the company’s most popular characters, films, shows, and attractions—from Disneyland to Walt Disney World and beyond. The ten magnificent and imaginatively themed galleries, all featuring moving stories, unique interactive installations, and exciting background information, will take visitors on a journey through 100 years of The Walt Disney Company, celebrating the classics from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Strange World, as well as the latest members of the Disney family—Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, and National Geographic.
Walt Disney Parks & Resorts
Disney Parks, Experiences and Products Chairman Josh D’Amaro provided guests at D23 Expo a first look at how Disney Parks around the world will mark Disney100. New décor, specialty food and beverages, character experiences and more will come to parks around the world, with the heart of the celebration rooted at Disneyland Resort:
- Two new nighttime spectaculars—World of Color – One and the new fireworks show Wondrous Journeys—will kick off in late January at Disneyland Resort. World of Color – One at Disney California Adventure will span the broad storytelling legacy of Disney’s first 100 years and tell a new story through Disney classics and new favorites. Wondrous Journeys at Disneyland Park will ignite the wonder in everyone and feature nods to all 60 Walt Disney Animation Studios films to date, taking viewers on a journey filled with artistry, music, storytelling, and heart. Special entertainment moments will also pop up across the resort, including the long-awaited return of the Magic Happens parade this spring.
- A brand-new nighttime spectacular will come to the World Showcase Lagoon at EPCOT in late 2023as part of the Disney100 celebration.
- Hong Kong Disneyland will also unveil a new statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse near Cinderella’s Golden Carousel as part of Disney 100 Years of Wonder.
Disney Consumer Products, Games and Publishing
As The Walt Disney Company celebrates its 100th anniversary, Disney Consumer Products, Games and Publishing has several exciting new merchandise collections and collaborations to commemorate Disney 100 Years of Wonder. The first of these collections include:
- Disney100 Platinum Collection – D23 Expo attendees got a special preview of Disney’s Platinum Collection, including the debut of the first Disney100 ear hat and headband. Platinum is a rare, precious metal known to withstand the test of time, just like beloved Disney characters. This Platinum Collection of Disney100 products captures the “classically Disney” look while paving the way forward into a new century. Additional details about this collection debuting on shopDisney—including the introduction of new products—will be revealed later this year.
- Disney100 Decades Collection – As part of the Disney100 Celebration, Disney is introducing the Disney Decades collection, a merchandise line that celebrates classic stories and eras from the company’s history. Debuting early next year on shopDisney with products centered around the 1920s and Steamboat Willie, this ongoing series will celebrate a different decade and the beloved stories from them including Snow White from the 1930s, Pinocchio from the 1940s, and more.
- Disney100 Books from Disney Publishing: Fans looking to celebrate 100 years of Disney through its beloved tradition of storytelling can look forward to brand-new titles in 2023, including Walt Disney: An American Original, Commemorative Edition; The Official Walt Disney Quote Book; The Story of Disney: 100 Years of Wonder, by John Baxter, Bruce C. Steele and the Staff of the Walt Disney Archives; and People Behind the Disney Parks: Stories of Those Honored with a Window on Main Street, U.S.A. by Chuck Snyder with original art by Josey Tsao.
A Company-Wide Celebration
In addition to the above, more incredible experiences, content, and opportunities await guests including:
- Disney100.com: D23 Expo marked the debut of Disney100.com, a digital experience for all the magic in store for guests during the celebration. Right now, fans can get a sneak peek of the site, which will officially launch January 1, 2023.
- ABC News Studios will present a once-in-a-lifetime documentary event to commemorate the 100th anniversary of one of the world’s most beloved companies. Disney: 100 Years of Wonder will take viewers on a journey that started in 1923 and whose future is not yet written. Deciding that a linear chronological retelling beginning in 1923 was inadequate to truly capture the essence of the magic of The Walt Disney Company, the project will tell the story from the lens of the core values and philosophies of the company, which have acted as a guided path through our ever-changing world.
- Disney Music Group and Deutsche Grammophon will release Lang Lang: The Disney Book on Septembers 16, 2022 celebrating 100 years of Disney with iconic melodies reimagined for the piano.
- In 2023, Disney Music Group will release a vinyl compilation highlighting the Company’s musical moments across film, television and the Parks.
- And much, much more to be announced in the coming weeks and months, including —content that will span the company’s portfolio of must-watch linear television channels, including ABC, Disney Channel, ESPN, Freeform, FX, and National Geographic, as well as the ABC owned-stations—and streaming platforms—Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+
Fans can post about the celebration using #Disney100.
Source: Disney
https://stmdailynews.com/category/entertainment
Forgotten Genius Fridays
Octavia E. Butler: The Black Woman Who Helped Change Science Fiction
Discover how Octavia E. Butler transformed science fiction, explored Black identity, and helped shape Afrofuturism through her groundbreaking novels.
Forgotten Genius Friday | The Knowledge | STM Daily News
Octavia E. Butler: The Woman Who Reimagined the Future
When we think about science fiction, we often picture spaceships, robots, alien civilizations, and futuristic technology. But what happens when science fiction becomes a way to explore racism, inequality, human survival, and the consequences of our choices?
That is exactly what Octavia E. Butler brought to the genre.
Long before Afrofuturism became a widely recognized cultural movement, Butler was creating extraordinary stories that placed Black characters—especially Black women—at the center of imagined futures.
Her work challenged conventional ideas about who could be a hero, whose experiences mattered, and what science fiction could accomplish.
A Young Girl With a Powerful Imagination
Octavia Estelle Butler was born on June 22, 1947, in Pasadena, California.
Raised primarily by her mother and grandmother after her father’s death, Butler grew up shy and found comfort in books and storytelling.
Her mother worked as a domestic employee, and Butler sometimes accompanied her to work. Those experiences exposed her to the racial and economic inequalities that would later influence her fiction.
As a child, Butler loved science fiction, but she noticed something missing: people who looked like her.
Rather than accepting that absence, she began creating stories of her own.
She would eventually become one of the most influential writers in speculative fiction.
Breaking Barriers in Science Fiction
During the 1970s, mainstream American science fiction was largely associated with white male writers and protagonists.
Butler entered that literary world with a different perspective.
Her first published novel, Patternmaster, appeared in 1976. It introduced readers to a world shaped by extraordinary mental abilities, social hierarchies, and struggles for power.
Butler continued developing complex stories that explored humanity’s relationship with authority, identity, biology, and survival.
In 1979, she published one of her best-known novels, Kindred.
The book follows Dana, a Black woman living in 1970s California who is repeatedly transported back to a Maryland plantation before the Civil War.
Through Dana’s experiences, Butler forced readers to confront the brutality of American slavery and its continuing influence on the present.
Rather than treating history as something safely confined to the past, Kindred makes that history immediate and deeply personal.
Imagining the Future—and Warning Us About It
In 1993, Butler published Parable of the Sower, a novel set in a collapsing American society struggling with economic inequality, environmental destruction, violence, and weakened institutions.
Its central character, Lauren Olamina, is a young Black woman who develops a philosophy called Earthseed while searching for a way to survive and build a community.
The novel takes place beginning in 2024, making its imagined future particularly striking to modern readers.
Butler followed it with Parable of the Talents in 1998, continuing her examination of social instability, religious extremism, authoritarianism, and the struggle to create a better future.
Her novels were not literal predictions. They were works of speculative fiction that used recognizable social trends to ask difficult questions about where humanity might be headed.
Octavia Butler and Afrofuturism
Afrofuturism brings together African and African diasporic experiences with science fiction, technology, history, mythology, and imaginative visions of the future.
While artists such as Sun Ra and George Clinton explored cosmic identity through music, performance, and futuristic imagery, Butler used literature to investigate power, history, and humanity’s possible futures.
Her novels frequently placed Black women in situations where they had to navigate extraordinary challenges and reshape the societies around them.
Butler’s work is widely discussed within Afrofuturist scholarship, although her literary contributions also extend beyond any single cultural label.
She demonstrated that Black people did not have to remain secondary characters in someone else’s vision of the future.
They could be the architects of entirely new worlds.
Recognition and a Lasting Legacy
Butler received some of science fiction’s most significant honors, including Hugo and Nebula Awards.
In 1995, she became the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, often called a genius grant.
Her work also included the Xenogenesis trilogy, later collected as Lilith’s Brood, which explored humanity’s encounter with an extraterrestrial species and raised questions about consent, adaptation, identity, and survival.
Butler died on February 24, 2006, at age 58.
Yet her influence has continued to grow.
Her novels are studied in classrooms, discussed by scholars, and embraced by new generations of readers and creators interested in science fiction, social justice, and Afrofuturism.
A Genius Who Made Us Think Differently About Tomorrow
Octavia E. Butler was more than a science-fiction author.
She was a visionary storyteller who understood that imagining the future also meant examining the past and questioning the present.
Her stories asked readers to consider how power operates, how communities survive, and how human beings might change.
And perhaps her greatest contribution was demonstrating that the future belongs in the imagination of everyone.
Why Octavia E. Butler Belongs in Forgotten Genius Friday
At STM Daily News, our Forgotten Genius Friday series celebrates extraordinary individuals whose ideas, innovations, and accomplishments helped shape our world, even if their stories aren’t widely known. Octavia E. Butler fits that mission perfectly. Although she received prestigious literary awards and recognition during her lifetime, her influence extends far beyond science fiction. Like the inventors, scientists, and trailblazers we’ve featured in this series, Butler challenged barriers, defied expectations, and opened doors for future generations. Through her imagination, she helped redefine who could tell stories about humanity’s future—and who could be at the center of those stories. Her inclusion in Forgotten Genius Friday reminds us that genius isn’t limited to laboratories and inventions. Sometimes, it begins with a pen, a powerful imagination, and the courage to envision a different world.
Sources and fact-checking
The Huntington Library holds Butler’s literary archive and confirms the chronology of her major novels, awards, and career. The MacArthur Foundation independently documents her 1995 fellowship.
- Official Octavia E. Butler biography
- The Huntington — Octavia E. Butler Papers
- MacArthur Foundation — Octavia Butler
- The Huntington — Telling My Stories exhibition
For more stories about overlooked innovators, writers, scientists, and visionaries who changed our world, explore The Knowledge and Forgotten Genius Friday at STM Daily News.
Entertainment
Lights, Camera, Snackers: How Aspiring Filmmakers Can Enter to Win $25,000
The director’s chair is open and the opportunity to create the next great snack-sized movie could be yours. Aspiring filmmakers and creators have the chance to turn a prewritten script into an original short film for a $25,000 prize.
Lights, Camera, Snackers: How Aspiring Filmmakers Can Enter to Win $25,000
(Feature Impact) The director’s chair is open and the opportunity to create the next great snack-sized movie could be yours.
For the second year, Bumble Bee is bringing back its Tuna “Cans”Film Festival, giving aspiring filmmakers and creators the chance to turn a script written by comedian and actress, Grace Reiter, into an original short film starring its deliciously convenient tuna Snackers.
Watch the video to learn more!
“I love a chance to support those starting out in the film industry – and this time, I’m partnering with Bumble Bee for the Tuna Cans Film Festival to do it,” Reiter said. “Plus, I’m making it easy: I already wrote the script.”
Using Reiter’s scripted lines, creators can make the story entirely their own, bringing their vision to life through original characters, settings, music, editing and creative flair.
The creative brief is simple: The finished film must be 60 seconds or less and Bumble Bee Snackers™ need to get their moment in the spotlight.
Plus, the stakes are bigger than ever: The winning filmmaker will take home a $25,000 grand prize to help make their filmmaking dreams a reality.
Creators can submit their original short film by Oct. 23, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. PT.
The film can be funny, dramatic, unexpected or all three. The lines are already written but the order, arrangement and any additions are open to creative interpretation. Now it’s time to see what you can do with it.
Visit tunacansfilmfest.com, where you can find Reiter’s original script, submission instructions and complete contest details, to get started.
SOURCE:
Bumble Bee
Last Updated on October 9, 2026 by Rebecca Washington
From haunted mazes after dark to daytime trick-or-treating with Snoopy, Knott’s offers two ways to celebrate Halloween in 2026.
BUENA PARK, Calif. — Halloween season is underway at Knott’s Berry Farm, where visitors can choose between the nighttime frights of Knott’s Scary Farm and the playful daytime activities of Knott’s Spooky Farm.
For readers planning a Southern California outing this October, the two celebrations offer different ways to get into the Halloween spirit.
Scary Farm brings new nightmares after dark
Knott’s Scary Farm runs on select nights through October 31, 2026, transforming the park with haunted mazes, scare zones, shows, and more than 1,000 creatures, according to Knott’s.
Two new mazes join this year’s lineup. Inked turns a cartoonist’s creations into a nightmare, while Unearthed sends visitors into an excavation where an ancient evil has awakened.
Also new for 2026 is Color Collect, an activity in which guests use an interactive lantern to activate pillars around the park and collect six colors.
Scary Farm requires its own paid event admission. As of October 4, online single-night tickets are advertised from $65, with taxes potentially additional. Knott’s does not recommend the event for children under 13.
Spooky Farm offers daytime Halloween fun
For families seeking a gentler celebration, Knott’s Spooky Farm takes place Thursdays through Sundays, September 24–October 31, plus October 12, according to the park’s events calendar, which lists the additional date as Columbus Day.
Children can trick-or-treat through Ghost Town, enjoy games and spooky stories with Snoopy and the Peanuts characters, and show off their Halloween outfits at Snoopy’s Spooktacular Costume Party.
Other activities include the Creepy Critters of Calico, cookie decorating in the pumpkin patch, and performances by the Bob Baker Marionette Theater. Cookie decorating carries an additional fee.
The daytime celebration gives families a chance to enjoy Halloween decorations, treats, and entertainment together before the nighttime haunt begins.
Planning your visit
Knott’s Berry Farm is located at 8039 Beach Boulevard in Buena Park, California. Before heading out, check the park’s official calendar for your chosen date, operating hours, admission options, and event policies.
Whether your Halloween plans call for a bag of candy or a trip through a haunted maze, Knott’s has a seasonal celebration to match.
Keep the fun going: Visit STM Daily News for more entertainment news, theme park updates, and stories worth sharing.
Official sources
- Knott’s Scary Farm: attractions and tickets
- Knott’s Spooky Farm: activities and entertainment
- Knott’s Berry Farm: seasonal event dates
Information checked October 4, 2026. Event schedules, offerings, and ticket prices may change.
