The Walt Disney Company agreed to acquire online social gaming company Playdo for $ 563.2 million, subject to certain conditions and a performance linked earn out of up to $ 200 million, the company disclosed on Tuesday.

Playdom’s titles, including Social City, Sorority Life, Market Street and Bola, engage around 42 million active players each month. With the acquisition, Disney expects to strengthen its digital gaming portfolio, acquire a management team and provide new ways to interact on social networks like Facebook and MySpace.

Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Playdom has 15 game development studios. Reporting to DIMG president Steve Wadsworth, Playdom’s CEO John Pleasants will become an executive VP of the Disney Interactive Media Group (DIMG) and general manager of Playdom.

Additionally, the transaction will close by the end of Disney’s 2010 fiscal year and is subject to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act clearance and certain non-US merger control regulations.

Priscillano “Pres” Romanillos, the animator who brought to life the athletic Native American Little Creek in DreamWorks’ “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” and the evil Shan-Yu in Disney’s “Mulan,” has died. He was 47 years old. He died at his home in Tujunga on Saturday, surrounded by his family and friends. The cause of death was complications from leukemia.

Romanillos was born Jan. 11, 1963 in the Philippines. When he was six years old, His family moved to Queens, New York City where he grew up.  Later he enrolled at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, successfully graduating with a Masters Degree in Fine Art.

In 1988 Romanillos was hired by Disney Animation, who were at the time actively recruiting animators. He worked on many Disney and Dreamworks films, including The Princess and the Frog (2009), Madagascar (2005), Shrek 2 (2004), Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003), The Road to El Dorado (2000), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Pocahontas (1995), Aladdin (1992), Beauty and the Beast (1991), The Rescuers Down Under (1990), and The Little Mermaid.

“Pres was one of the most respected and beloved artists at our studio,” said DreamWorks Animation chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg. “All of us in the animation community deeply mourn the loss of Pres … though his memory and legacy will forever exist in the characters he brought to life through his art.”

Romanillos is survived by Jeanine, his wife of 14 years. Plans for a life celebration are pending.

With the maiden voyage for the Disney Dream a little more than 6-months away, the ship, still under construction, is really starting to take shape. Disney Parks Blog has released a short video showing the construction progress to date with some amazing renderings of what the end product will look like.

It is going to be one cool ship!

With no further ado, enjoy this video.

I know its not Disney news but with Knotts Berry Farm so close to the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim and the fact that they have one of the best Halloween haunts around, I thought I’d throw this up. Knotts Berry Farm, also known as “Knotts Scary Farm” around Halloween, will have three new haunted mazes during their 38th annual Halloween Haunt.

The goulish festivities will take place on Wednesday through Sunday nights from Sept. 24 through Oct. 31 (except for Sept. 29).

The king of Halloween events will feature 13 mazes scattered throughout the park, with construction currently underway in backstage areas. New for 2010 is as follows:

• Sleepy Hollow Mountain – featuring the headless horseman legend with ghosts, ghouls, witches and goblins (replaces the Pyromaniax theme on the Timber Mountain log ride)

• Virus Z – replicates a small town overrun by infected cannibals, zombies and blood-thirsty corpses (replacing the Quarantine maze in Fiesta Plaza)

• Fallout Shelter - the insane residents haven’t seen the sun since the Atomic Age (replaces the Alien Annihilation 3-D laser-tag maze near Reflection Lake)

Returning from last year are the following mazes:

• Black Widow’s Cavern
• Club Blood
• Cornstalkers
• Dia de los Muertos (in 3-D)
• Lockdown: The Asylum
• Slaughterhouse
• Terror of London
• The Doll Factory
• The Labyrinth
• Uncle Bobo’s Big Top of the Bizarre (in 3-D)

One of the best things about the Haunt is the haunted areas of the park where you never know what is going to pop out at you. Referred to as “scare zones, the haunted areas include The Necropolis, with Victorian Steampunk vampires haunting a city of the dead (replaces The Gauntlet scare zone in Camp Snoopy), Carnevil (in the Boardwalk area), and Ghost Town (in the Wild West area).

Also returning for 2010 is the ever popular “The Hanging” pop-culture comedy revue plus several other eerie and entertaining shows.

Seeing that I haven’t been to a “Haunt” for a few years and also the fact that there are two new coasters at Knotts I have yet to ride, I may very well make plans to attend this year. If you want to go to the best of the best in Halloween attractions, then make plans to attend the 38th Annual Halloween Haunt at Knotts Berry Farm.

As the continued process of re-themeing and enhancing takes place in Disney’s California Adventure park, Mulholland Madness is next on the list of attractions to receive an update. The family coaster, which has been called “unimaginative” in the past, will get a Goofy’s Sky Skool “refreshing” as part of the $1.1-billion effort to add a heavy dose of Mickey Mouse and friends to the under-performing theme park.

While not a horrible ride, Mulholland Madness is simply a stock “wild mouse” ride with little appeal beyond the typical wild mouse ride experience. The attraction has been blamed as part of the problem that earned Disney California Adventure its “on-the-cheap” reputation.

The new themeing will get its inspiration from the 1940 cartoon short “Goofy’s Glider” where the storyline follows the clumsy anthropomorphic dog’s attempts to teach a group of novice pilots how to fly in which things go awry, Goofy style.

Riders will climb to the top of the 55-foot-tall coaster through clouds festooned with Goofy-shaped holes and pass a series of step-by-step billboards explaining how to fly before finally exiting through an airplane hangar façade.

The Mulholland Madness cars themselves, which hold four riders, will get a modest makeover, replacing the automobile theme with a new paint job, Goofy graphics and a small winglet on the nose.

Scheduled to debut in 2011, the complete makeover will be the third attraction that Disney has retooled in the last three years in an effort to add more classic Disney characters to the California Adventure park, the other two being Mickey’s Fun Wheel and the Silly Symphony Swings.

Concept artwork courtesy of L.A. Times.

Create, by Disney.com, is an online entertainment portal that offers new ways to interact with Disney character art and graphics. Disney fans are now able to work with Disney art through applications that help create and design art work, comic books, music videos and much more. It’s also a great way to express creativity and communicate with other Disney fans.

One all-new feature of Create is the Group Wall, where thousands of original pieces of art are created around a central them and then added to a larger mosaic.  The first group wall is themed around, what else but Mickey Mouse – the one that started it all.  The Group Wall mosaic is updated in real time so users can watch as new artwork is added, and it features unique tools allowing guests to locate their artwork within the mosaic.

Here are just some of the features that are offered:

Group Wall

An innovative new community gallery called the “Group Wall” will launch on Disney.com Create.  The first Group Wall theme is a “Tribute to Mickey” and will build a dynamic mosaic portrait of Mickey Mouse with user-generated content.

Apps

Create Apps allow children to design artwork, comic books, music videos, animated pets and more, all using Disney characters and graphics.

Comic Creator

Craft a comic book using favorite Disney characters.  Guests lay out pages using fun and wacky graphics, text and images to create their own rich narrative.

Digital Painter

Paint like a master artist, right in your browser, using tools, textures, and fun pens.  Create a masterpiece that can be shared for everyone to see!

Animods

Illustrate an animated online pet that can be individually styled and customized.  Guests choose from a number of different animals, each with its own collection of pre-set animations, interactions, and accessories.

Photo Mashup

Combine photos of favorite Disney stars with hip stickers and cool gear to create personalized images for use on a computer desktop, phone, inside a school locker, or any other fun application guests can dream up.

Music Slideshow

Compose a harmonious mix of images, text, and sound.  Guests create their own music videos using photos of Disney stars, their own text, and a choice of songs from artists such as Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers.

My Portfolio

Create an online art portfolio on Disney.com to share with friends, filling it with creations from all of the Create activities – digital paintings, comic-books, pets and more.

Create was originally launched in August of 2009 as a way for artisis to have access to Disney character art and graphics so they could in turn create their own works of art and then share them with other users online. Since its launch, 1.2 million original pieces of content have been created within the Create environment.

Ilene Woods, the voice of Disney’s Cinderella and Disney Legend, has died at age 81.  Woods is most famous for her role as the voice of Cinderella in the 1950 classic animated film. One of her last film appearances was in Touched By An Angel as night nurse Cassie. The cause of her death has not been disclosed at this time.

In 1948, as a favor for songwriter friends Mack David and Jerry Livingston, Ilene recorded “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo,” “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” and “So This is Love.” She didn’t know that Walt Disney would hear the demo recordings and hire her as the title voice of his upcoming animated feature “Cinderella”.

When Walt Disney heard her songs he selected her as the voice of Cinderella over 400 others who had auditioned for the part. “I learned a very good lesson – never pass up doing a good deed for friends,” Woods said. When asked what was the most rewarding part of working on Cinderella, Woods answered “knowing how timeless it is and that even after I’m gone to know my voice will be heard.”

After Cinderella, Ilene moved on to television appearances in programs such as The Steve Allen Show and in later life became a portrait artist. On February 12, 2001, she appeared at a Cinderella Ball celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the motion picture, held at Disneyland. In 2003 she was inducted as a Disney Legend, an award that honors individuals whose “imagination, talents and dreams have created the Disney magic”.

I just love all the great content that Disney Parks Blog puts out. Today they released a short video demonstrating the massive control room that controls over 18,000 active points in the “World of Color” show at Disney’s California Adventure. It is indeed one of the biggest show control systems ever built.

Of special interest is the fact the the actual control room is tucked away in one of the parade rooms, out of view of the lagoon itself. That certainly doesn’t hinder them from being able to completely see what is going on as you will see in the video.

The video also shows the telemetry for what Disney Imagineering calls “subs” which are comprised of three giant rooms, each about the size of a semi-trailer, which contain all the electrical distribution for the show.

Now with no further ado, enjoy this behind-the-scenes peek at the World of Color control room.

Have you ever fantasized about living on Walt Disney World Disney property? Sure it’s a great experience to stay at one of several accommodations  located throughout the Walt Disney World property in Orlando but what if you could live there on a permanent basis?

Now for the first time in history, that opportunity is available with a new luxury residential community Disney is building – Golden Oak at Walt Disney World.

Golden Oak is planned to be a luxury residential resort community within the Walt Disney World Resort, designed by Walt Disney Imagineering, and owned and operated by a newly formed Disney subsidiary, Golden Oak Realty. It is being developed in the Magic Kingdom Resort Area near Bay Lake with the first few home sites to be available for purchase in late 2010 and a projected for completion date in 2011.

The community will include approximately 450 lavish custom single-family homes and estates priced between $1.5 million and $8 million, featuring themes such as Spanish, Mediterranean and Colonial. The homes will be spread out amongst four gracefully arranged neighborhoods – Carolwood, Carolwood Reserve, Silverbrook and Kimball Trace. Residents will receive benefits such as a private concierge, VIP access to Walt Disney World parks, home maintenance and more.

Here are just some of the ammenities planned for the families of Golden Oak:

• Private VIP transportation
• A suite of in-park benefits
• Access to select special-event tickets
• Community-hosted activities throughout the year

Additionally, Golden Oak Concierge services will be just a call or click away. It will be their pleasure to take care of such arrangements as:

• Move-in services
• Travel and private transportation
• Disney parks and special-event tickets
• Golf tee-times
• Dinner reservations
• Private VIP tours
• At-home dinners and parties
• Holiday home decorating
• Grocery shopping and errands
• Pre-arrival and post-departure home maintenance services

If that was not enough, home owners will have access to certain features at the nearby planned Four Seasons Resort Orlando (also within the Walt Disney World Resort). These include a full-service spa, restaurants, facilities for private events and an 18-hole golf course designed by Tom Fazio.

With such a limited number of homes and prices exceeding the range that most can afford, this will definitely be a community for the elite. However, if you have the means and are fortunate enough to be selected from the Priority Reservation List, Golden Oak offers a dream-come-true opportunity to never have to leave the magic of a Disney park/resort experience.

For more information, visit the official site of Golden Oak at Walt Disney World.

Disney Imagineering has so graciously provided a sneak peek at the vehicle testing for Radiator Springs Racers, a thrilling new attraction that is set to open in 2012 with the debut of Cars Land at Disney California Adventure park.

Disney Parks Blog points out that vehicle testing is an important milestone in the development process. Testing is expected to continue through the end of July, then the car comes off the track while construction of the E Ticket attraction is completed.

The bright cars you see in the video below will each carry six guests through the twists and turns of Ornament Valley. Radiator Springs Racers covers a lot of ground – nearly half of the 12 acres in Cars Land. Check out the video and imagine what this high-speed adventure will be like.