Magic Kingdom

Harrison "Buzz" Price, an engineer turned theme-park strategist whose research led Walt Disney to place Magic Kingdoms in Anaheim and Orlando, has died. He was 89. Price died Sunday of chronic anemia at Mt. San Antonio Gardens' hospice in Pomona, his family said. He "was as much responsible for the success of the Walt Disney Co. as anybody except Walt Disney himself," Michael Eisner, former chief executive of the company, said in a statement. After Disney turned to Price in 1953 for advice on where to build his first theme park, the engineer analyzed population trends, land prices, accessibility and climate — and zeroed in on a 160-acre orange grove in Anaheim.

When the last horn finally sounded Saturday night, the Orlando Magic and its fans partied like it was 1995. The sellout crowd inside Amway Arena roared. White, blue and silver confetti fell from the ceiling. The Magic had closed out the Eastern Conference finals in six games and ended Madison Avenue's dreams of a Kobe Bryant-LeBron James championship matchup. Kobe versus Dwight will have to do.

Some Broadway stars cut their teeth in regional theater, or in off-off Broadway shows. But Eden Espinosa, who stars as Elphaba, Wicked Witch of the West -- a.k.a. the "Green Girl" -- in "Wicked," at the Pantages Theatre, got her start doing shows at Disneyland. This is off-Broadway -- way off Broadway.

Ocean Odyssey BBC Video $19.98 For the family (too intense for young children) www.bbcamerica.com The life of a sperm whale is told through a masterful mix of live action and CGI effects that plunge viewers into ocean depths barely explored by humankind. There are mountains taller than Everest, abysses deeper than the Grand Canyon, erupting volcanoes, absolute darkness, titanic storms and deadly adversaries.

WITH vacation season looming, finding ways to cut the cost of a trip to Orlando, Fla., is a concern for many families. Adult tickets to Disney World cost $67 a day, and children's tickets aren't much less. And Disney's value-class resorts (the All-Star Sports Resort, the All-Star Movie Resort, etc.) are often booked; they also now cost a minimum of $79 per room per day. You can save money at properties away from the theme parks. These acceptable digs cost about $50 a night most of the year.

Kasey Keller speeds home along the autobahn after practice each day, then winds down country roads until the two turrets appear through the trees, the black metal gates swing open and he pulls into the driveway. He may very well be the only player preparing for the World Cup who makes his home in a castle. Next to a cattle farm in a small town in northwest Germany, the starting goalkeeper for the U.S.

We hear it before we see it, moving ponderously with heavy, thudding steps: Something big is coming our way. Clanging, banging, wheezing, it's something magical and indescribable, something only Hayao Miyazaki, the great genius of today's golden age of animation, could put on the screen.

Naysayers thought moviemaker Walt Disney was crazy when he turned 160 acres of Anaheim farmland into a theme park based on his animated features. Half a century later, the Southern California cultural landmark has added a second theme park next door and spawned offspring in Florida, Paris, Tokyo and soon Hong Kong.

It's enough to make a visitor to Disneyland wish for Yesterdayland. Joe Soter of Tustin says that his son Joseph and a pal spent a day at the Magic Kingdom, and "when they got home, they complained about the lady on the Autopia ride who backed up traffic while talking on her cellphone the whole time!" Guess she couldn't simultaneously gab and press her foot on the accelerator. Opined the elder Soter: "Too bad the ride's cars don't have horns!" No age discrimination here!

For weeks, the imploded relationship between moguls Michael Eisner and Michael Ovitz has played out like a Hollywood drama in a Delaware courtroom. Now, it's really going to be one. Showtime Networks Inc. confirmed Friday that it had put on the fast track a script for a two-hour TV film called "Two Blind Mice." The project, first reported in Variety, is expected to detail how Eisner, as Walt Disney Co.'