The man who gave Mickey Mouse his voice for the past 32-years has passed away.

Wayne Allwine died earlier this week at the age of 62, due to complications from diabetes. Allwine is one of only three people to do Mickey's voice, the first being Walt Disney himself. Allwine began at Disney in 1996 in the mailroom and worked his way up to the sound effects department. His first year as Mickey was 1977. If you've heard Mickey at Disneyland, DisneyWorld or any of the other theme parks around the globe then you've heard Allwine's work.

His wife, Russi Taylor, was by his side when he died. Taylor has been the voice of Minnie Mouse for over 20 years.

The poster for Disney's "A Christmas Carol" is out. Jim Carrey stars as Scrooge. The movie is directed by Robert Zemeckis, who did the "Polar Express" back in 2004, and uses the same technology - Motion Capture Animation.

Carrey, on the poster, looks a lot like he did on the "Lemony Snickets" (2004) poster. I hated that movie. Hopefully "A Christmas Carol" will be a lot better.

It comes out on November 6, which I think is a little too early for the Christmas film, but that's Hollywood. You'll be able to see it in both Disney Digital 3-D and IMAX 3-D.

Also - BIG NEWS! The "Toy Story 3" trailer will be debuted before "Up", which is less than 2-weeks away. 

The latest animated film in the works that's based on a children's book series is "Flanimals." The movie will star Ricky Gervias, who's one of my favorite comedians. He also wrote the books.

The story of "Fanimals" takes place on a planet populated by very strange creatures. Gervias will voice the lead character. Illumination Entertainment (Universal) is producing and the movie will be in 3-D. Prediction: With the right script this will be a HUGE hit.

In other animation news: "Up" is getting rave reviews following it's debut this week kicking-off the Cannes Film Festival. I'm going to try my hardest not to read anything about the film (the previews show too much already) until I see it at the end of the month. I encourage you to do the same. 

Disney has announced that it will be planting 2.7 million trees in Brazil's endangered Atlantic Rain Forest thanks to everyone who went to see "Earth" during it's first week in theaters. That's one tree for every person who bought a ticket. The movie made $16.1 million week 1 and is still doing o.k. at the box office,  finishing in 7th place in the weekly Top 10 last week.

Also, the success of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" has sparked talk of a sequel already. The plot will reportedly follow the samurai storyline that we got a hint of at the end of the movie. 

I spent a few hours this weekend chasing a Hollywood star! A few scenes of the upcoming movie "Salt" are being shot in a city not far from my home and so I went to the set to try to get a look at the film's star - Angelina Jolie. And even though there was a lot of security I did get close enough to see her and shoot some video of her in action.

The main scene they shot was of Jolie's character riding on top of an oil tanker, jumping off and landing on other vehicles. They chose this city because there about 5 ramps that weave around each other, above and below. It was really exciting and interesting to watch the crew pull off filming this amazing chase scene in a busy city.

I didn't get to meet her, but I'm surprised how close I got. And it was cool watching the process of movie-making up close.

"Salt" is scheduled to be released July 23, 2010. Even if it's rated R I'll have to go just to see how the chase scene came out. 

This year "Earth", next year "Oceans"!

Before the new Disneynature documentary "Earth, the studio unveiled it's 2010 release: "Oceans." It will come out next Earth Day. The trailer shows some vintage footage of Walt Disney and explains that he was the first person who realized that animals could be great subjects for movies. And we see some nice images of life "under the sea."

Here are my predictions for future Disneynature films: "Sky" (2011) and "Underground" (2012), though it might be tough getting 90-minutes out of that topic.

In other news: The producers of the final "Harry Potter" movie have decided to use "Benjamin Button" technology to make their characters look old. The original plan was to hire older actors to play the parts of Harry and his friends when they are in their late 30's for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two", but after seeing how Brad Pitt looked in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", the plan now is to go with the special effects.

This move should save Warner Bros. a lot of money, since they won't have to hire actors for the key parts. But, the extra star power may have been a boost for the film.  

Disney/Pixar's "Up" finally has been given a rating - and it's a surprising PG. "Up" becomes only the 2nd of the 10 Pixar films to get a PG rating (the other 8 are G). The other is "The Incredibles", which was slapped with a PG when it came out back in 2004 for "Action Violence". The MPAA has given "Up" a PG because of "Peril and Action."

In other news: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are coming back to the big screen - for a 5th time! Even though 2007's "TMNT" made $95M worldwide ($54.1 in the U.S.), producers have decided not to go animated again with the series, but back to live-action.

The Mirage Group project is set for release in 2011. The plot will reportedly follow the early comic series stories of the origins of the four turtle crime-fighters and their master - Splinter.

This is the 25th Anniversary of the first "TMNT" film, and so it's being show at this year's Tribeca Film Festival in NYC. Also, the Empire State Building was lit-up in Ninja Turtle Green Thursday night to celebrate the anniversary. 

Even though it's still April, and Easter was only a week or so ago, Summer is almost here! The Summer Movie Season, that is.

Crazy, right? Well, Hollywood doesn't care what the calendar says. "Iron Man" kicked-off the '08 Summer season on May 2th and it ended-up making $318.4 M, the second highest total of any film of the year.

"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" has the honor of being the first official movie of the '09 summer. It comes out May 1. The movie was leaked onto the internet a few weeks ago, making both Fox and star Hugh Jackman very angry. It'll be interesting to see how the leak effects "Wolverine"'s box office.

The last X-Men film, "X-Men: The Last Stand", came out right around Memorial Day weekend on 2006 and ended-up making $234.4 M, finishing 4th overall for the year. 

Yes, it won't be long before Summer in the movie biz will begin in April.

Here's some good news for you "Harry Potter" fans: the 6th installment of the series - "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" will be in theaters two days earlier than expected. Warner Bros. has announced that the movie will now come out on Wednesday, July 15, instead of Friday the 17th. The studio wants to get a head start on the weekend.

This is the second time the release date for the film has been changed. It was originally supposed to come out last November.

Meantime, all Pixar fans are eagerly awaiting the release of "Up" in a few weeks and "Toy Story 3" next summer, but here are some other movies that Pixar has in the works:

"Newt". It's a story of the two remaining Blue-Footed Newts on the planet, one male and one female, who are forced together by science to save the species. Only problem - they can't stand each other. Tentative release: Summer 2011.

"The Bear and the Bow". The story takes place in Scotland. Merida (voiced by Reece Witherspoon), is a daughter of royalty, but she wants to become an archer. Her parents aren't too happy about it. Where their kingdom is threatened Merida must step-up and be a hero. Tentative release: Christmas 2011.

"Cars 2". Lightning McQueen is back together with Mater and the gang to take-on the finest and fastest racecars in the world. The story takes them all over the world as they experience thrills, intrigue and fast-paced comedic adventures. Tentative release: Summer 2012. I can't wait!

All three of these will be made in Disney Digital 3-D. 

If you go see Disney's new documentary, "Earth", you can also make the Earth a better place. If you buy a ticket ticket to "Earth", the first week it's in theaters, the studio will plant a tree in your name. That's pretty cool. The movie opens on Earth Day - April 22nd.

And, "Iron Man 2" is officially in production. The sequel to last year's blockbuster has begun filming in L.A. Robery Downey, Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow are back. As I told you in a previous blog several months ago, Don Creadle is replacing Terrence Howard as Iron Man's military ally.

Mickey Rourke, off his Academy Award nominated performance in "The Wrestler", gets to play a villian. Scarlett Johansson is also part of the cast, along with Samuel L. Jackson (no relation), who, you'll remember, had a cameo at the end of "Iron Man."

Director Jon Favreau is also back, and he's going to have to work very hard to make this as good as the original. 

"Iron Man 2" is scheduled to hit theaters May 7, 2010.