Who knew that Secret of NIMH director Don Bluth and his crew had their own version of Beauty and the Beast in the works? Well they did, back in the day, and we stumbled across some pictures from the project. According to animation historian John Cawley (from Get Animated), “Early in 1984, Don began in earnest turning the famous tale into an animated feature. He even announced it in the Fall of 1990 in his Animation Club newsletter. At the time, he described it as ‘a tender love story that says, ‘a thing must be loved before it’s lovable.’ We sprinkled this classic tale with a generous amount of comedy, a little bit of terror, and a lot of love. From Nan, the clairvoyant dog, Max, a bird detective, and Otto, an escape artist lizard, to the King Bats, the Wee Beasties and Queen Livia, herself, this picture has something for everyone.’ An American Tail also interrupted this production. As work began on Land Before Time, Don felt that Beauty and the Beast would be his first independent picture. However in late 1986, the Disney Studio announced they were working on a version and by 1989 had begun full production (for a 1991 release). Knowing his version could not be completed before Disney’s, Don dropped the project.” The picture below and others were recently uncovered on Tumbler.

The 12th Meerkat Manor dance and Disneyland Paris Halloween 2011 trip, organized by Timduru, took place last weekend. The latter had 60 planned attendees from nine countries.

The fursuiters were reportedly asked to leave the park for 30 minutes after stealing the show from the Disney character performers. [video: Djem; tip: Pegla]

See more: Video and photos and reports from prior Halloween trips.

For historical purposes, a collection of links and other tidbits posted to Newsbytes in August.

Another recommended hardback from Fantagraphics this month, a French classic you've probably never heard of.

Nintendo's Wii has been pretty good to furries who enjoy "Zelda-esque" 3-D platformers. The console shipped with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, featuring a lupine Link, followed shortly by the generally considered superior port of Ōkami. The console's backwards compatibility also brought the ridiculously furry Star Fox Adventures to the table.

Now Disney Interactive's Epic Mickey is continuing the tradition. But does the game give as good as the above?

Disney is to release Studio Ghibli's Tales from Earthsea (ゲド戦記) in just over a fortnight. [Joe Strike/a.f.f]

The movie reached #1 at the Japanese box office in 2006, but received mixed reviews. It was nominated for Animation of the Year, but ultimately won the tongue-in-cheek Bunshun Raspberry Award after failing to meet Ghibli fans' expectations.

The plot is ostensibly based on the Earthsea novels, including sections of A Wizard of Earthsea, The Farthest Shore and Tehanu. Author Ursula K. Le Guin called Tales "a good movie" but "not my book", and was critical of its PG-13 violence.

Boys and girls can now hope to be greeted by a real-time talking Mickey at Disneyland.

Furry reactions include awesome, pretty cool, neat but creepy and not impressed.

Disney plans to release a Monsters, Inc. sequel on 16 November 2012, the BBC reports.

A new Muppets movie is also in the works, and will introduce a new character called Walter.

Disney is co-producing an animated CGI Bollywood film called Roadside Romeo which will be released in India on October 24th. Other than the Disney influence and similarities to Lady and the Tramp, it seems to be a mostly Indian production from Yash Raj Films, one of India's largest film companies. This is apparently their first foray into animation. In a recently-released trailer, Romeo acts out scenes from other Bollywood films.

In an amusing clerical error, an Italian court has summoned Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, and Tweety to take the stand in a copyright counterfeit trial.

Lawyers for Disney say that the characters maintain permanent residence in Disneyland and therefore, regretfully, cannot answer the summons. Newsweek has the full story.

Trickster

Tigger fursuiter Michael Chartrand was found not guilty on the molestation charges brought against him. The charges occurred while he was working as Tigger at Walt Disney World, a role he considered a "dream". Today, he wants his job back. Disney declines comment.

Tigger's defense attorney is also a professional fursuiter. The DA's argument included an illustration of the hampered mobility of wearing a fursuit, which the attorney demonstrated in court by donning a Tigger fursuit himself.

The jury deliberated for less than an hour before returning the verdict. They said the fursuit defense had nothing to do with the verdict. It was the lack of evidence that decided the case, including the prosecution's inability to prove that Michael was even the Tigger in the photo. Click here for the full story.

Trickster

Walt Disney Co. is being sued in South Africa for infringement of copyright on the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight, which was used in the film The Lion King. According to the lawsuit, the song was originally titled "Mbube" and was written by migrant worker Solomon Linda in 1939. Heirs of Linda, who died in 1962, are seeking royalties of more than $1.5 million. A recent legal move by the plaintiffs attached Disney's other trademarks to the lawsuit; if successful, the trademarks could be auctioned off to raise the funds.

Story from Reuters available here.

More news is begining to break about the alleged actions of a Walt Disney World Tigger.

This article talks of how more and more folks are coming forward with complaints.

As if Disney wasn't having enough trouble with the Pooh estate trying to get more money out of the Mouse House, now Roger Rabbit is demanding more dough!

Seems Gary Wolf, author of the book Disney based their blockbuster film on, claims he didn't get all his monies. The details are in this article.

The Oompa Lompas were all that was left of the original Walt Disney company, namely Roy Disney as a substantial stockholder, until today. Roy Disney has resigned and calls upon Eisner to do the same.

The Drudge Report once again has broken the story before all others:

http://www.drudgereport.com/

Read onward for archived text from Drudge's website. It's impossible to link directly to articles due to Drudge's ever-morphing html pages.

I guess he's about as fed up as the rest of us have been for the last decade.