All Aboard! Taubman Malls Open The Snow Globes Featuring The Polar Express With Pajama Program

All Aboard! Taubman Malls Open The Snow Globes Featuring The Polar Express With Pajama Program

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich., Nov. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today, 17 Taubman shopping centers nationwide unveiled The Snow Globes Featuring The Polar Express. This year's Snow Globe theme comes from the Warner Bros. Pictures and Shangri-La Entertainment film, The Polar Express, inspired by the Caldecott Medal children's book by Chris Van Allsburg, about a doubting young boy who takes an extraordinary train ride to the North Pole, embarking on a journey of self-discovery that shows him that the wonder of life never fades for those who believe.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081107/CLF054 )
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080428/CLM116LOGO )

In the spirit of the season, Pajama Program, a not-for-profit organization that donates new, warm nightclothes and books to children in need was invited to help launch the 2008 holiday Snow Globe displays with early morning unveiling celebrations. A $100,000 donation was made to the Pajama Program from Taubman and its participating shopping centers.

During today's events, each shopping center treated 50 pajama-clad children from Pajama Program to breakfast, a journey through the Snow Globe exhibit, a visit and photo with Santa, a reading of The Polar Express book, and a copy of the beloved book to take home with them. The new pajamas the children wore were donated by the Taubman shopping centers.

Since their debut four years ago, The Snow Globes have become a must-see family tradition. This year's theme, The Polar Express, lets visitors experience the wondrous Polar Express train with multi-sensory sights and sounds. A walk-through 28-foot holiday tree features an interactive train engine room with realistic rumbling and movement effects. A train tunnel archway entrance leads to a 20-foot globe that greets visitors with magical falling snow, life-sized sculptures of characters from the film and the soft light of The Polar Express as it crosses the threshold into the North Pole. Three six-foot snow globes, some with interactive elements, include three- dimensional scenes from the movie. Keepsake options include a family-photo opportunity that allows guests to have their photo taken aboard The Polar Express as well as the traditional visit and photo with Santa.

New this year, Shutterfly, the internet-based social expression and personal publishing service, will provide an innovative digital photo option for families touring The Snow Globes. Customers who purchase one of the deluxe photo packages will receive their pictures on a portable, reusable 128 MB flash drive along with a $25 Shutterfly "Create-It card"(gift card), so they can easily turn their photos into unique gifts like photo books, greeting cards and prints at www.shutterfly.com. Other photo packages are available that include 12 free note cards from Shutterfly.

The Snow Globes Featuring The Polar Express are located at the following Taubman shopping centers from November 7 through December 24. Admission is free.

California: Beverly Center (Los Angeles), Sunvalley (Concord)
Colorado: Cherry Creek Shopping Center (Denver)
Connecticut: Westfarms (Farmington)
Florida: Dolphin Mall (Miami), International Plaza (Tampa),
The Mall at Wellington Green (Wellington)
Illinois: Woodfield (Schaumburg)
Michigan: Fairlane Town Center (Dearborn), Great Lakes Crossing
(Auburn Hills), Twelve Oaks Mall (Novi)
New Jersey: The Mall at Short Hills (Short Hills)
North Carolina: Northlake Mall (Charlotte)
Texas: The Shops at Willow Bend (Plano)
Virginia: Fair Oaks (Fairfax), MacArthur Center (Norfolk), Regency
Square (Richmond)

About Taubman

Taubman Centers, Inc. (NYSE:TCO) is a real estate investment trust engaged in the development and management of regional and super regional shopping centers. Taubman's 24 U.S. owned and/or managed properties, the most productive in the industry, serve major markets from coast to coast. The company's Taubman Asia subsidiary is developing retail projects in Macao, China and Incheon, South Korea. Taubman Centers is headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. For more information about Taubman, visit www.taubman.com.

About The Polar Express

The film, The Polar Express, is based on the beloved Caldecott Medal children's book by Chris Van Allsburg about a doubting young boy who takes an extraordinary train ride to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. He embarks on a journey of self-discovery that shows the wonder of life never fades for those who believe. The Polar Express -- which has sold nearly 7 million copies in print and ranked #2 on the National Education Association's Teachers Top 100 Books for Children -- was selected as "Critics Choice" by the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA); won the Grammy(R) for Best Song Written For a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media and was honored with a Golden Globe(R) nomination for Best Original Song and three Academy Award(R) nominations including Best Original Song, Sound and Sound Editing.

Castle Rock Entertainment Presents, in Association with Shangri-La Entertainment, a Playtone / ImageMovers / Golden Mean Production of a Robert Zemeckis Film: Tom Hanks in The Polar Express. Directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay by Zemeckis & William Broyles, Jr., the film is produced by Steve Starkey, Robert Zemeckis, Gary Goetzman and William Teitler and is based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg. Tom Hanks, Jack Rapke and Chris Van Allsburg are the executive producers. The production team includes directors of photography Don Burgess, A.S.C. and Robert Presley; production designers Rick Carter and Doug Chiang; and editors Jeremiah O'Driscoll & R. Orlando Duenas. Senior visual effects supervisors are Ken Ralston and Jerome Chen. Co- producer is Steven Boyd. Music score is by Alan Silvestri, and original songs by Glen Ballard and Alan Silvestri. The Polar Express is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company. Soundtrack album on Warner Sunset/Reprise Records. This film is rated G by the MPAA. For more information, please visit www.polarexpressmovie.com.

About Warner Bros. Consumer Products

Warner Bros. Consumer Products, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, is one of the leading licensing and retail merchandising organizations in the world.

About Shutterfly

Founded in 1999, Shutterfly, Inc. is the leading Internet-based social expression and personal publishing service. Shutterfly provides high quality products and world class services that make it easy, convenient and fun for consumers to preserve their digital photos in a creative and thoughtful manner. Shutterfly's flagship product is its award-winning Photo Book line, which helps consumers celebrate memories and tell their stories in professionally bound coffee table books. Information about Shutterfly is

available at www.Shutterfly.com. Shutterfly and Shutterfly.com are trademarks of Shutterfly, Inc.

About Pajama Program

The Pajama Program provides new pajamas and new books to children in need. These children live in shelters and group homes and are shuffled between temporary living facilities. Many of them have been abused or abandoned, and they have never enjoyed the simple comfort of having a mother tuck them in at bedtime and read to them. Since 2001, Pajama Program has provided more than 213,000 pajamas and books to children nationwide. Its segments on The Oprah Winfrey Show helped the not-for-profit organization grow to 73 chapters in 42 states. For more information, visit www.PajamaProgram.org.

THE POLAR EXPRESS and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and (C) Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.(s08)

For ease of use, references in this press release to "Taubman Centers" or "Taubman" mean Taubman Centers, Inc. or one or more of a number of separate, affiliated entities. Business is actually conducted by an affiliated entity rather than Taubman Centers, Inc. itself.

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081107/CLF054
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080428/CLM116LOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
AP PhotoExpress Network: PRN4
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Taubman Centers, Inc.

CONTACT: Karen Mac Donald, Taubman Director, Comm., +1-248-258-7469,
kmacdonald@taubman.com, Genevieve Piturro, Pajama Program Founder, +1-212-716-
9757, gen@pajamaprogram.org, Gretchen Sloan, Shutterfly Sr. Mgr. Corp Comm.,
+1-650-610-5276, gsloan@shutterfly.com

Web site: http://www.taubman.com/
http://www.shutterfly.com/
http://www.pajamaprogram.org/

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