Disney Movies - DAY 100!!!!

I finished Fraggle Rock last night, so you know what that means...I HAVE DONE IT! I have watched all my Disney DVDs!! It took me one hundred days, some days watching dozens of discs others just one or two, but I have finished my entire collection (well, minus all the Travel Channel-type documentaries, the old Disney produced Disney World discs, and the like). I'd like to say that I'm looking forward to watching normal TV again, but I have this overwhelming desire to watch Sleeping Beauty and the Avengers again tonight...go figure!

Here are the final totals:
Live Action Movies: 108
Full-Length Animation Movies: 117
Mixed-Medium Movies: 12
Animated Shorts: 432
Live Action Shorts: 2
Mixed-Medium Shorts: 3
Animated Series: 247
Live Action Series: 50
Mixed-Medium Series: 2
Documentaries: 14
Concerts: 3

I've kind of built a new-found respect for that second-gen Disney movie that I've spent years hating (although some of them I still don't like) and I'd like to say that I'm not as judgmental about the animation quality as I used to be (but that might just be a blip). Watching some movies back-to-back, especially the sequels, really didn't help my crappy animation fixation and I'm kind of gland the era of the cheap rush-out sequels are pretty much over with. Some movies, no matter how many times I watch them, I still don't "get" their hype although I can respect them from a Disney fan perspective. I was really surprised at the number of movies I had either never even watched or hadn't seen in so long I didn't remember even watching them. Of course, there are the ones I will never forget watching even as a little tyke back in the day, and those are the ones that are still near and dear to my heart.

As I prepare for my very first journey to Disneyland, to the park where not only Walt walked in, but where most of my beloved animators had a hand in building, hopefully my crappy photographer eye will be able to see more than just the general and find those little touches that only a massive Disney geek would get. That's always been my disappointment with the thousands of Disney World pictures I've taken throughout the years, they seem to have no "heart" if that makes sense. I think immersing myself in these movies have restored that missing part of my heart and maybe next year I'll be able to see Disney World in a new light as well...but Disneyland first!

Thanks to every single one of you who read these diatribes on animation or feminism or whatever I was complaining about at the time. Compared to the normal world, I am often referred to as passionless and, in a lot of ways, I am where it counts...that's just life as an Asper. But the very few things in life that I am passionate about get my whole self and Disney is right at the top of the list and always will be. That's the great thing about having a blog, I get to express my passionate side and there are those out there that "get" it and, maybe in little ways, "get" me. That's not something that happens in my day-to-day, so thank you to everyone! I'm among great blog friends and I am grateful for you guys every single day...now I just have to get caught up on reading y'all's blogs because I'm horribly behind!

Oh, and I will probably be starting Kate's Top 10 Tuesdays next week. For those of you unaware, go over to her blog, The Suddenly Kate Show, and check it out! Every Tuesday you post a Top 10 list of whatever the subject is for the week. I believe she's put up most of September's subjects and I'm really excited to get started...I just need a bit of a blog break first (and work is really killing me right now).

Again, thanks to you all and don't forget to check out Kate's blog!

Disney Movies - Days 96-99

I finished up all three seasons of DuckTales, which brought the total up a whopping 75 animated series eps!

I know I said after DuckTales I was done, but I decided that since I finished late afternoon Sunday, I might as well finish up everything. Besides, considering that I'm one day away from going at this for a hundred days, what's the harm in doing a bit more, right? I did the Disney's Magical Fireplace DVD first. I did it without the Christmas music and I noticed that it was running on and on, but I didn't realize that it was on a loop until about four hours in, so that pretty much wasted the rest of the afternoon and part of the night (that's what I get for spending too much time on YouTube when I'm supposed to be video watching).

I moved on to Fraggle Rock next. I only have the first season on DVD because they are so expensive and I never got around to purchasing the others. Apparently though, they have repackaged them and they are cheaper now, so maybe I'll get around to it in the next year. I made it about halfway through the season before the night ended and I forgot to count the episodes, so I'll just add this total when I'm finished. Hopefully, I will be able to finish up tonight and THEN I'm officially finished with this bloody challenge!

MOVIE TOTALS:
Live Action: 108
Full-Length Animation: 117
Mixed-Medium: 12
Animated Shorts: 432
Live Action Shorts: 2
Mixed-Medium Shorts: 3
Animated Series: 247
Live Action Series: 26
Mixed-Medium Series: 2
Documentaries: 14
Concerts: 3

Disney Movies - Days 93-95

It took me three days, but I managed to finish the second season of Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers. Granted, I was not paying attention to much to season 1, let alone season 2, but after the first couple of episodes of season 2, I started studying the packaging because I thought I had them backwards or the discs were labeled wrong or something. The season 2 discs started before all the characters met and they formed the Rescue Rangers, but I finally read the top of the box which said it included the first 5 pilot episodes. Why those weren't on the first series disc, I just don't know and I certainly don't understand why they felt the need to run them before the second season instead of having them in a bonus section (which neither season had any of). But anyway, another 27 episodes to add to the total (and a really short post to boot!).

I tried to start season 1 of Duck Tales last night, but I was spending so much time watching YouTube videos of Disneyland vloggers, I figured I'd wait until tonight. I want to give my full attention to the ducks!

MOVIE TOTALS:
Live Action: 108
Full-Length Animation: 117
Mixed-Medium: 11
Animated Shorts: 432
Live Action Shorts: 2
Mixed-Medium Shorts: 3
Animated Series: 172
Live Action Series: 26
Mixed-Medium Series: 2
Documentaries: 14
Concerts: 3

Disney Movies - Days 90-92

You might have noticed that I didn't post stitching progress Sunday night. That's because I had none. I somehow managed to scratch my cornea on Monday and haven't been able to wear my contacts. I can't see well enough with my glasses to function, let alone stitch, so I tried to spend the week researching trip stuff, but I ended up doing everything but.

I did manage to finish off the last of the non-series discs though, if nothing else. Friday I made it though the final DCOMS starting with Twitches and Twitches Too. I'm not really sure why I have these discs, I never really cared for the movies, but alas I do, so I watched them.



Same with Cheetah Girls 2. I'm not sure why I have the second one and not the others, especially since I liked 1 and 3 much better. I probably meant to get the other two and never got around to it.


I also found my Jonas Brothers: The 3D Experience Concert DVD and my Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Tour DVD. As much as I hate to admit it, I actually saw the Hannah/Miley tour live (with the Jonas Brothers opening for her), so both of these concerts bring back memories, both good and bad. I did notice that the Jonas Brothers concert had Demi Lovato in it singing some Camp Rock songs with them and it must have been after she and Joe broke up because the ice between them on stage was almost visible! Taylor Swift was also on the Jonas disc too, but I fast-forwarded through her part.



I started Saturday with a solid plan to spend the morning working on trip stuff, followed by a movie afternoon and starting the series that night, but ended up spending the entire day and a chunk of the night watching ghost videos and makeup tutorials (anything and everything other than what I should have been doing), so I only had time to finish up the final two movies starting with Sky High. In theory, this should really be a great movie and right up my alley...superhero kids go to high school and highjinx ensue. It's got two Kids In the Hall alums (Pleakley and Flik to us Disney geeks), Wonder Woman's Linda Carter, Bruce Campbell, and even Steven Straight (who I've had a crush on since The Covenant). But there are so many things about it that bother me, I can't see past them enough to enjoy the good stuff. Every time Kurt Russell even touches Kelly Preston (the parents), it almost looks like she's flinching. All I can think of when I see the lead, Michael Angarano, is Kristen Stewart and I don't like her (they used to date). And numerous other silly things that I can't seem to get past.


The Rocketeer is another one of those great Disney fan favorites, but like Tron, I just don't get it. I even fell asleep twice trying to get through this viewing and I didn't bother rewinding it a third time.


I have NUMEROUS Travel Channel type Disney World specials recorded as well as park specific discs I bought at Disney World, but I've decided not to watch these. I'm also not counting the Touchstone movies either. Same with the Disney Fireplace disc and my first season of Fraggle Rock (since I don't have the other seasons, it would be weird). I kind of decided that if I didn't draw the line somewhere, I'll be doing this forever! So Sunday, I started the beginning of the end. I finished the first season of Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers, all 27 episodes.

I'll finish up the second season of Rescue Rangers this week and hopefully get started on the Ducktales series, and then, I'm done!

MOVIE TOTALS:
Live Action: 108
Full-Length Animation: 117
Mixed-Medium: 11
Animated Shorts: 432
Live Action Shorts: 2
Mixed-Medium Shorts: 3
Animated Series: 145
Live Action Series: 26
Mixed-Medium Series: 2
Documentaries: 14
Concerts: 3

Disney Movies - Days 88 & 89

Believe it or not, I am actually FINALLY wrapping this all up. I should finish up the last of the live actions tonight, leaving nothing but the three series of Duck Tales and the two series of Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers (or at least I hope I don't find more hiding somewhere). Those might take a while to get through each season, so I think I've give a seasonal review instead of an episode by episode one (for no reason other than pure dee'ole laziness).

So, on Wednesday night, I did the other Jonas disc, I Heart Jonas. There were seven episodes of the first season on it and it got me in such a Jonas mood, I ended up spending the rest of the night watching as my favorite episodes from the second season of Jonas as well as my favorite Sonny With A Chance eps on YouTube. More than once I drifted over to iTunes tempting myself into buying them, but I managed to hold off.

Thursday, I completed the compilation discs with my Austin & Ally: All The Write Moves disc. There is a couple new discs at the Disney Movie Club of Austin & Ally I haven't got around to buying yet, but I'm sure I will at some point because this show always ranked up there with Jonas and Sonny for me. Besides, when I had my satellite turned off, Austin had just professed his love for Ally, he lost his record contract and everything was left up in the air. I have no clue what has been happening since. Oh, and there were seven eps on this disc too.

I managed one more movie, Freaky Friday, the newer one with Lindsey Lohan (I honestly had no clue I had so many of her movies on DVD...I don't even like her!). Having said that, I do prefer this version to the original for some reason. It might be the only Lindsey Lohan movie I can say I actually do like, but I'm pretty sure that it's Jamie Lee Curtis that makes this movie for me. I've always liked her.


Just a couple remaining stragglers and then on to Duckburg I go!

MOVIE TOTALS:
Live Action: 103
Full-Length Animation: 117
Mixed-Medium: 11
Animated Shorts: 432
Live Action Shorts: 2
Mixed-Medium Shorts: 3
Animated Series: 118
Live Action Series: 26
Mixed-Medium Series: 2
Documentaries: 14
Concerts: 1

Disney Movies - Day 87

I decided I just couldn't take the remaining live actions I have left (at least not yet), so I started last night with my Sonny With A Chance: Sonny's Big Break Vol 1 disc. One thing you should probably know about the Disney Channel shows...they don't typically release them in their full seasons on disc. This really sucks because I do tend to watch and rewatch TV shows if I have the entire season on disc. Instead, you get a compilation video collection, much like the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse discs, of four or five random episodes. That's what this disc is. But, when it comes to Sonny With A Chance, I don't really care. It was one of my favorite Disney Channel shows ever and I hated that it ended, so I'll take what I can get! One of these days, I'm going to get them all from iTunes (which you can still do, or you can watch a lot of them on YouTube, but most of them are copyright infringers, so the videos don't stay up long), I just can't justify the added expense right now so close to vacation time. There were five episodes on this disc and I almost wanted to watch it again, but I needed to get to my other favorite Disney Channel show. I debated on posting a fan video of later down the season line when Sonny and Chad became "Channy", but I figured, since this one only covered season 1, I'd better stick to that:

There was also a short on this disc for the "season finale" of Mackenzie Falls and it is hilarious! But before I post the video, I need to give those that don't know a brief (if I can) description of the show premise so this will make more sense. You have two groups of kids who each have a show, one a comedy sketch show called So Random (which is where Sonny works) and a teen soap opera-type, way over-acted drama show called Mackenzie Falls (where Chad works). Both of these camps hate each other and it further complicates things when Sonny and Chad start dating. Most of the action takes place off camera and the relationships between the characters, but they do show pieces of whatever episode either side is working on that week. This clip is a piece of Mackenzie Falls.


Granted, I really loved Jonas, but the second season, which gained the moniker Jonas L.A. was SOOO much better! Those are also both on my iTunes wishlist, but of the two discs I have, both only cover the first season. I only had time to make it through one of the two discs I own, this one called Jonas: Rockin' The House Vol 1. I also don't understand why they always give these a "vol 1" title when they never release a second one, but still (the second Jonas disc I have has a completely different title). This one actually had seven episodes of the first season of Jonas, and I forgot how much I really loved this show! By the time I finished this one, I really had to control myself from going on iTunes and splurging. This one is a harder show to find a clip of, it's either full episodes, or the coupling videos which don't really start getting serious until season 2, so I guess I'll leave off a video for this series.

I have another Jonas show DVD, but again, it just covers the first season and not Jonas L.A.

Oh, and to add to my weirdness, of course I have the soundtracks to both of these shows as well. I still think that the Jonas L.A. album was one of the best that the Jonas Brothers ever did!

MOVIE TOTALS:
Live Action: 102
Full-Length Animation: 117
Mixed-Medium: 11
Animated Shorts: 432
Live Action Shorts: 2
Mixed-Medium Shorts: 3
Animated Series: 118
Live Action Series: 12
Mixed-Medium Series: 2
Documentaries: 14
Concerts: 1

Disney Movies - Day 86

Good thing I was busy with trip stuff last night because I am seriously dragging the bottom of the proverbial Disney lake. When I was a kid, I never "got" Tron. I was a techy kid (or as techy as one could be in the 80's), but I still didn't get it. I saw it once, cataloged it as crap, and left it at that. Once the second one came out a couple of years ago, I thought, well, maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance and I would rewatch it before I watched the new one. Nope, didn't help. I know that movie has a huge following, but I just can't wrap my head around it. It may have been a technologically amazing movie for the time, but I find the graphics to be extremely cheesy and lazy with colored lines in a black world. The story doesn't make sense to me either. It's just a total loss.


So speaking of the second one, Tron Legacy, where I thought the first one was bad, this one makes the first one look good! Granted, the graphics are more clean and modern, but it's still lazy-looking to me. And there are large blocks of time where there is absolutely no dialogue at all, just weird sounds that wreak havoc on my subwoofer. I think these movies probably fit into a geek niche, like I'm a Whovian and others are Trekkies and whatever Star Wars people are called (what are they called?), but you usually don't see cross-mingling of these breeds. One is either a Star Wars or a Star Trek person. I'm a Doctor Who person. I'm sure there are Tron people out there. Basically, when they announced that the third movie was getting scrapped, all I could think of was "Yea! A DVD I don't have to buy!".


I was SO glad to be done with those, so I decided a nice short and sweet one would work good for the end of the night and I went with Ice Princess. Sweet, yes, but short, not so much. I never realized how long this movie was before. It's OK, not on my favorite list or anything, but I can tolerate it. And, as someone who is perpetually cold, even in 100 degree weather, ice movies don't really do it for me either.

All in all, it was a bum night, but on a positive note, at least these are done and they made for a short blog post!

MOVIE TOTALS:
Live Action: 102
Full-Length Animation: 117
Mixed-Medium: 11
Animated Shorts: 432
Live Action Shorts: 1
Mixed-Medium Shorts: 3
Animated Series: 118
Mixed-Medium Series: 2
Documentaries: 14
Concerts: 1

Disney Movies - Days 83 - 85

As I mentioned in my stitch post, I apparently missed an entire stack of discs and completely forgot about the numerous series I have on DVD, so I didn't get finished with my Disney Movie Challenge this weekend like I planned. No matter...I'll get through it eventually.

Friday started off with my last Disney Treasures DVD, Disney Rarities. There were seven Alice shorts on the disc (for those who don't know about the Alice stories, it's the first series that Walt & Co started animating back in the 20's in Kansas City).

There were also seven other shorts on disc one, but it was a pretty long disc, so I didn't get to disc 2 until Saturday.

There were twelve shorts on disc 2, including two Humphrey shorts. I absolutely adore Humphrey and have since childhood! Considering he was such a big part of my Disney life, I'm always surprised that so many people don't know who he is. He's all over Wilderness Lodge at Disney World (and he's in a spot or two at the Grand Californian at Disneyland, which I will be verifying soon). The best of the best, of course, is In The Bag, probably because of the song...it gets in your head and your singing it for months!


Then I went through my Have A Laugh discs. Most of these cartoons I couldn't count because I had already counted them in the challenge, all the Donalds and some of the others. Also, for some weird reason, these discs had a cartoon, then the next one would be a short version of the previous one. What was the purpose in that? By the last two discs, they started grouping them at the end, but again, why? Each disc also had these annoying BLAM! snipits. I think I kind of remember those from the old Disney Channel days, but that didn't make them any less annoying. Each disc had three of them, and I'm counting them as one short.

Each disc also included a music video of a popular song set to a Disney cartoon. Again, I found these incredibly annoying. Disc 1 had three I could add to my total, Disc 2 had two, Disc 3 had three and Disc 4 also had three. Hours were spent watching these discs for only a handful of viable counts, but hey, I can honestly say I have literally watched every single Disney disc I have once it's all said and done.

I had a few animation full-lengths to finish, so I started with The Aristocats. This one never floated my boat, so to speak...I always thought of it as a cat version of Lady and the Tramp. Several years ago, there used to be a Disney dating site called DisMates and it was during a time when I had just been divorced long enough to start thinking about maybe getting back out there again. I spent a lot of time on the site, made some really good friends, but had a very strange run-in with someone who called themselves by one of the characters in this movie, so I've been leery of it ever since because it reminds me of him. Now, enough time has passed that I realize I'm fine on my own and that ended up overall being a horrible experience, so I won't be doing that again anyway! But watching The Aristocats again after so long, I really did enjoy it. The animation is classic and the music is fantastic. I would probably say I like this one better than Lady and the Tramp now after this challenge.

There was also a short on the disc that kind of surprised me...I never realized that Figaro had his own short with his own title run. I always wondered how the poor little guy got tossed from Gepetto to Minnie Mouse and, although this cartoon doesn't answer this question for me, it's one of the earliest cartoons I've ever seen him as Minnie's.


I was scraping the bottom of the barrel, so the last major batch of full-lengths was the Winnie The Pooh movies. I used to have a lot more than I do now, like the Tigger one, and Piglet, etc. But when I switched from VHS to DVD, I just cleared a lot of those out (I give them to various co-workers) and never replaced the little ones. I am NOT a Pooh fan. I know, blasphemy, right? But I'm not and never had been. I just never got it. Even as a little kid, I thought it was way too child-like and beneath me. I didn't care for the animation and the characters all had some of my worst traits, like Pooh's weight, Piglet's chicken-ness, Rabbit's know-it-all attitude, Tigger's over-hyperactivity, etc, and I didn't like being reminded of all my shortcomings. And Heffalumps and Woozles scared me as much as the Pink Elephants in Dumbo, so another reason to stay away. I think I've come to realize that I had a childhood fear of elephants and just didn't know it at the time.

I watched The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh first. Beside all of the above, I also noticed how much Gopher's voice made my head hurt. I literally had a headache by the time the movie with over with and had to take a break for a while before I started the next one.

There was one Eeyore short on the disc as well as five "Mini Adventures of Winnie The Pooh". About the only good thing about these shorts was they were narrated by John Cleese and I've had a crush on him since A Fish Called Wanda.

I only have one other Pooh disc, called simply Winnie The Pooh. Thank goodness no Gopher, but I couldn't tell much of a difference between these two discs. They were different story lines (sort of), but I just kind of felt like I was watching a remake instead of a new movie. I also noticed that some of the Mini Adventures were included in this storyline, but I'm not sure of the extent or which ones, so I'm counting them anyway.


The only animation discs I have left were compilations, so I started with the Phineas and Ferb: The Perry Files - Animal Agents first. There were twelve episodes of the TV show on this disc (why can't Mickey Mouse Clubhouse do that?) as well as six Take Two shorts. Although I don't have all the Phineas and Ferb discs, I have a couple and I always liked the show. I would probably say that I'm a definite Perry fan and not so much Phineas and Ferb, but it's still worth watching.

It was really late, so I picked back up Sunday with The Perry Files. There were only seven episodes on this disc and one short, but still better than the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse discs, so I felt I got my money's worth.

And speaking of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, it was time to finish those up. I started with Minnie's Pet Salon, which was one full-length and four episodes. Mickey's Great Outdoors was next with five episodes, followed by The Wizard of Dizz (1 FL and 2 eps as well as 10 Bow Toons), and finally Minnie's Winter Bow Show (4 eps and 10 Bow Toons).

I'm not entirely sure some of these weren't repeats I had seen before or if I remembered them from watching when they were broadcast, or maybe even if they were just similar to ones I had already seen, but I wasn't paying close enough attention to say for sure, so I'm still going to count them.

Other than the TV series, that's it for the single disc animation videos...so at least I'm making progress! I feel like I should also mention that a lot of these discs, especially the D-Channel related discs have "things" inside the DVD case...from toys to jewelry to all kinds of knick-knacks related to the film. I have never taken any of these out of the DVD cases other than the Mickey's Great Outdoors because it came in a huge box with a Mickey TV remote and the box took up too much room. Every time I've opened these discs to play them through the challenge, I've been surprised by their contents that I had forgotten about. I may have never of watched some of these, but they have all been opened because I need the Disney Movie Rewards code inside. I get that code before the DVD or Blu-Ray ever comes close to the storage case.

But anyhoo, I still had some time before the night was over with, so it was time to jump into the live actions that I apparently had been avoiding so much I ignored them in my initial DVD search. First up, The Lizzie McGuire Movie. This actually wasn't that bad and I kind of remembered why I purchased it in the first place. I never watched the TV show, but I don't mind Hilary Duff that much. At least I don't have to see her naked breasts everytime I open the internet like I do with Miley Cyrus.


But then I made a tragic mistake for ending the night. The only Herbie movie I own is Herbie Fully Loaded. I'm not really sure why. I don't really remember liking the originals when I was a kid. If anything, a car who could feel, act and communicate was a bit too Christine for me and he scared me. This version is just pure crap. How they ever got that caliber of actors to be in it surprises the heck out of me (and by that I mean Michael Keaton and Matt Dillon, NOT Lindsey Lohan).

I was just really ready to go to bed after that and I'm afraid it won't be much better tonight with what is left. Oh well, at least the counts have gone way up again, especially the shorts and series.

MOVIE TOTALS:
Live Action: 99
Full-Length Animation: 117
Mixed-Medium: 11
Animated Shorts: 432
Live Action Shorts: 1
Mixed-Medium Shorts: 3
Animated Series: 118
Mixed-Medium Series: 2
Documentaries: 14
Concerts: 1

Disney Movies - Days 81 & 82

Sorry folks, problems at work have caused me to have some 20+ hour work days and I have been unable to post #801. I did manage to make it through two Oswald cartoons on my Disney Treasures: The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series, but that was it for Wednesday.

Starting Thursday, I finished the Oswalds and watched The Ub Iwerks Story, a full-length documentary that was also on the disc and one of the early Silly Symphonies that I hadn't seen yet (at least for this challenge), The Skeleton Dance. Considering the age of this piece, it really is quite brilliant and advanced:


I also watched James and the Giant Peach and Frankenweenie. I've been putting both of these off because James freaks me out with the giant bugs and Frankenweenie wasn't a good movie to watch so soon after losing Zachary but, because I was busy with work stuff on the computer, I wasn't really paying attention to them, so neither one of them bothered me. I can say I watched the discs though, so they count! Besides, I'm dragging the bottom of the proverbial lake now, so I pretty much have to watch them.

If I have a "work free" weekend, I should finish what is left or at least will by Monday at the latest.

MOVIE TOTALS:
Live Action: 97
Full-Length Animation: 112
Mixed-Medium: 11
Animated Shorts: 352
Live Action Shorts: 1
Mixed-Medium Shorts: 3
Animated Series: 84
Mixed-Medium Series: 2
Documentaries: 14
Concerts: 1

On a side note, Joysze over at Random Ramblings is doing two International and Hermit Stitch Weekends this month, the first one being this weekend, so I will definitely be in hermiting stitching mode after this work week! If you haven't signed up yet, head on over there and sign up! When I have a definite goal to get to, the IHSW is the best way to achieve it and I'm really hoping I can get almost finished with this row on Alice and the B's, so from my lips to the powers that be's ears! It's also the only time I ever love Mondays because I can't wait to see how everyone else got on too.

Disney Movies - Day 80

I finished up the Disney Treasures: Disneyland discs last night. There were two specials on the second disc, first was called Magic Kingdom: The Magic of Television and the second was The Disneyland 10th Anniversary Special. As much as I love these old documentaries about Disneyland, especially with Walt at the forefront, my head was killing me, so I didn't try to watch anything else, just Imitrex'ed myself and went to bed.

This is probably going to be the shortest post ever, but there is a very valid reason which shall be revealed tonight.

MOVIE TOTALS:
Live Action: 97
Full-Length Animation: 110
Mixed-Medium: 11
Animated Shorts: 338
Live Action Shorts: 1
Mixed-Medium Shorts: 3
Animated Series: 84
Mixed-Medium Series: 2
Documentaries: 13
Concerts: 1

Disney Movies - Day 79

I had planned to finish the Disneyland series last night, but instead, my copy of Descendants came in so I had to watch it. It was actually so good, I ended up watching it three times total before bedtime and I didn't even start stitching! I also spent a night worry-free about Disneyland, which was a bonus, until it was time to go to bed and my head started running away again.

I dropped regular TV about the time this movie was getting made, so I really only knew the basic facts about it even...the children of the Disney villains wind up going to school with the children of the heroes and calamity ensues, but it ended up being so much more. In the first few moments, they broke out into song and dance, which was a bit of an eyeopener because I wasn't expecting a musical, but not shocking because it is a DCOM movie. This first song actually ended up being my favorite one of the entire movie. I may be anti-modern music, but techno is really nothing but more technical 80's music anyway and I really dug the vibe of this song, especially during the dance sequence.


As much as I was dreading Kristin Chenoweth as Maleficent, she actually turned out pretty good and I also liked the song between her and Mal, her daughter:


There was also a really great ballad in there and it was enough to make me put the soundtrack in my wishlist:


There were other songs in between, and I guess I don't need to post them all, but each was surprisingly good, well, all except for the remake of Be Our Guest. So wrong on so many levels:


I was also a bit disappointed by the big ending song and I expected a bit more (although, considering what a big production it was, I'm not sure how). The music just felt off and the lyrics were a bit cheesy, even for a DCOM. But the dancing and backgrounds were amazing, so I didn't dwell too much on the lack of finale oomph.


Overall, I loved the bright 80's type colors of the movie throughout. The casting was also really good. I've always liked Dove Cameron even though I really didn't like Liv & Maddie (the start up movie was good, but the show, not so much). I didn't care that Aurora & Phillip's daughter and Cindy and Charming's son were horrible and that Belle and the Beast's son was the lead guy, but that's just my personal prince and princess preference interfering. The casting was pretty spot on, even down to Dopey's son who ends up having a crush on Evie, the daughter of the Evil Queen.

And speaking of the Evil Queen, for those who have seen it, they did make Kathy Najimy's face look like that on purpose, right? She really doesn't look like that now, in real life, does she..all stretched out and botoxed? There was one tiny comment when Snow White is playing newscaster and the Queen goes "she's definitely had work done" and Maleficent looks over at her like, "have you looked in the mirror lately?", but nothing else was said. If they did it on purpose, they really should have played it up more.

Overall, I think this has become my new favorite DCOM! I got excited in what little special features there were because they hinted at a sneak peak of a new Descendants movie, but it turned out to only be for an animated shorts series based on the movie. They apparently are planning a sequel though, and I'm kind of glad. I get that these are kids movies but they have romantic undertones and I typically see them as romances, so when the leads never actually kiss (even the completely innocent DCOM kiss), it kind of gets under my skin. It took three movies for them to kiss in High School Musical and even became a running joke in the movies...should I expect the same here, especially with Kenny Ortega again at the helm? Hopefully not. That naggy little romantic inside of me needs her fix! I don't know if it's my lack of maturity as an Asper or what, but I don't really watch these "young people" movies with an adult brain...I see two characters falling in love and I often have to remind myself that it's not cool anymore for me to think the guys are cute because they are technically young enough to be my kids!

Anyway, if you haven't seen Descendants yet, you have definitely got to check it out! I may end up watching it again tonight after I go back to the Disneyland series.

MOVIE TOTALS:
Live Action: 97
Full-Length Animation: 110
Mixed-Medium: 11
Animated Shorts: 338
Live Action Shorts: 1
Mixed-Medium Shorts: 3
Animated Series: 84
Mixed-Medium Series: 2
Documentaries: 11
Concerts: 1

Disney Movies - Days 75-78

In an effort to catch up, this post is going to be different in that I'm only going to be listing the days and the movies I watched instead of descriptions. I'm definitely winding down with this challenge and I just want it over with (well, that and I'm in trip planning mode now and I can't really concentrate on anything else). Besides, with these older ones, it gets harder and harder to find trailers for them and I'm kind of dragging the bottom of my collection now.

Thursday I watched, Now You See Him, Now You Don't and The Strongest Man In The World. I'm not sure why I started this series backwards, especially since I know what order they go in, but I figured I needed to finish it that way and, at least with these, it doesn't really matter anyway.

I finished the series on Friday with The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and also finished my last Kurt Russell/Disney film, The Horse In The Gray Flannel Suit. Since I had some time left, I also watched Student Exchange.

Saturday was a full day, so I cleared out The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I don't own Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but since it's not a Disney film, guess that's OK, but since Disney started the series, they at least should have seen it through, flop or not.

I watched Oz The Great and Powerful next, just to get it over with. Then I went in a different direction with Rob Roy: The Highland Rogue (the 1953 Disney version) and I debated watching the Rob Roy we all know with Liam Neeson, but decided against it, again, since it's not a Disney movie.

Escapade in Florence was next before I switched gears yet again and started going through my Animation Classics Collection discs. Most of the AC discs have shorts I've already viewed before, so I wasn't able to count them and I didn't get through them all on Saturday anyway, but here are the order I watched them in: Mickey and the Beanstalk, The Reluctant Dragon, and Wind In The Willows.

I started back in Sunday morning with the remainder of the Animation Collection: Mickey's Christmas Carol, Three Little Pigs, The Tortoise and the Hare, and The Prince and the Pauper. Luckily, I do have all these discs, so I finished the set.

Then I cleared through Mickey & Minnie's Sweetheart Stories, Mickey Mouse Season 1 (which are technically shorts and not series episodes, so the count will reflect such), Saludos Amigos (which is technically a short but it's long enough to fall into the full-length mixed medium category), The Three Caballeros, and the live action version of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (or Monty Python does Toad as I like to call it).

To finish off the night, I started watching my Walt Disney Treasures disc set of Disneyland, but I didn't finish. I did get through Dateline Disneyland and The Disneyland Story, but I didn't get to get disc 2. I try to start on those tonight. Even though these were technically TV episodes of the Disneyland TV show, I'm going to classify them as documentaries since that is actually what they are.

Wow! That is it...four days worth of Disney movie watching cleared in one post. I probably should have been doing this all along instead of my long ramblings and endless video clips. Hopefully, I will be done by the end of the week and can go back into relaxing blog mode for a while. I'm sure you guys are more than sick of this mess anyway!

MOVIE TOTALS:
Live Action: 96
Full-Length Animation: 110
Mixed-Medium: 11
Animated Shorts: 338
Live Action Shorts: 1
Mixed-Medium Shorts: 3
Animated Series: 84
Mixed-Medium Series: 2
Documentaries: 11
Concerts: 1

Disney Movies - Days 73 & 74

There is obviously no method to my madness since I started Tuesday night's Disney movie bonanza Into The Woods, which seems a bit odd after the plethora of Christmas DVDs and animator documentaries. We saw this one in the theater, but I only went because James Corden was in it (I've been in love with him ever since his Gavin & Stacey days). I did actually end up really liking it despite the fact that it seems as though they sing the same song throughout the entire movie and, as a general rule, I don't care for Meryl Streep. But I will admit, this is probably my absolute favorite all-time role of hers. I do typically like to say that I don't care for the bastardization of fairytales where they are changed so much they are unrecognizable, but considering I am not only a Disney animation fan, but also a Once Upon A Time fan, that argument really doesn't hold too much water once I think about it logically.

And I've never been much of a Chris Pine fan either, but the song between him and Billy Magnussen is absolutely one of the most hilarious duets ever put on film!


After Into the Woods, I was in a princess mood, but I've exhausted all my princess movies...well, all but The Princess Diaries. I have always absolutely adored these films and have seen them both dozens of times. I'm still not sure why people don't like Anne Hathaway, but I always have and these movies are some of her best stuff (and I can't forget Ella Enchanted, but that's not Disney). Plus, these movies embody that sweet-natured wholesomeness that I really do prefer more and more the older I get. And even though Mandy Moore is a bad guy in this one, I still like her too...she's one of those people you just can't hate, no matter how evil a character she plays. I've always related to a lot of this movie as well because I worked very hard to be invisible in school (and still do most of the time). What few friends I had were just like Mia's and the popular kids behaved just like these do.


But, I do have to say, that The Princess Dairies 2: Royal Engagement, is one of those sequels that is actually better than the first one. Like I said, I'm not a Chris Pine fan, but I adore him in this movie, and despite the rather reserved kissing scenes (it is a Disney movie after all), there is real chemistry between him and Anne and I LOVE that in a movie. When I complain about movies like Maleficent and their over-pushy feminist views, this is the direction these movies should go in...there is no reason why you can't be a strong woman and get your prince at the same time.


I really wanted to watch Ella Enchanted afterwards, but it was too late, so I opted for listening to Darren Hayes' version of Strange Magic while I was getting ready for bed. I don't usually care for fan videos that just have a series of pictures, but it's Darren Hayes singing, so I make allowances. Duran Duran might be my favorite band, but Darren Hayes will always be my favorite singer, so let's interlude a bit.


Anyway, back on the Disney track...I was in a very weird mood Wednesday night and went in the classic direction, starting with The Gnome-Mobile. If there is one thing I love more than animated classics, it's Disney's live action classics. I watched this movie a lot as a kid because I could relate since my "imaginary childhood friend" was actually an entire colony of little people. The special effects in this movie are horrible by today's standards, but I barely notice because I just remember the good times of watching this movie as a kid:


Since I was on a roll, I went with The One And Only, Genuine, Original Family Band next. This is another one of those that I saw a lot as a kid but I never made one important connection in it until last night...Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn were both in this movie although they really didn't share screen time and they were both kids at the time (I didn't realize that she was older than he is). And a lot of people don't know that Kurt Russell was a Disney child star, but I've got a whole set of his Disney movies just waiting in the queue to be watched. I have also really liked Lesley Ann Warren, especially in her younger, Disney days, so this movie wins all the way around.


You really can't watch Family Band without watching The Happiest Millionaire. Although they are completely different characters, seeing Lesley Ann Warren and John Davidson falling in love as different characters is one of those "awwww" moments for me every time I see this one. As far as movie stars go, this movie is filled with some of the greats of the time, making it all the better. I do so love old movies, particularly of the Disney variety. I couldn't find a good trailer for this one, but I found the neatest clip of Walt himself talking about the movie and I think it's a good way to end this post!


MOVIE TOTALS:
Live Action: 85
Full-Length Animation: 110
Mixed-Medium: 9
Animated Shorts: 289
Live Action Shorts: 1
Mixed-Medium Shorts: 3
Animated Series: 84
Mixed-Medium Series: 2
Documentaries: 9
Concerts: 1

Disney Movies - Days 71 & 72

I still had a couple of those two-disc combo packs, so I decided to clear them out on Sunday, starting with The Emperor's New Groove. Is it just me, or is this possibly the shortest Disney movie ever? It does have some great jokes and the animation isn't horrible (although it has the same characters styles as Atlantis, including the block fingers, so I felt like I'd been there and done that).


The second movie, Kronk's New Groove is surprisingly good for a sequel. Because they were made so close together, the animation style is at least similar and they were able to get the same actors. But with as Patrick Warburton as the lead in this one, I kind of had to keep looking up because I felt like I was in the queue line for Soarin'.


Like I said yesterday, I don't have many Christmas things and the ones I do have tend to be Disney related, so one of the last of my double-disc sets is Prep and Landing. I have never watched either of these and I didn't know that they were only 30 minute TV specials, I always thought they were full-length movies. The first one, Prep & Landing, isn't bad, but I don't see the need to watch it again. I don't know if they became the Christmas tradition the entire cast and crew were touting on the bonus features since I don't watch Christmas shows, but I could see where it would fit in with all the others.


The second one, Prep & Landing: Naughty vs Nice, I actually related to a bit (well, except for the whole Christmas theme). I grew up with that perfect younger sibling who is smarter, prettier, and cooler than me (and she still is), so I related to the elf brother's relationship. I also related to the naughty kid because I did a lot of mean things when my sister came to be and I blamed her for all that was wrong in my world.

There are a series of "Stocking Stuffers", which are basically shorts, so more for the total.

Thankfully, those were short because it meant I could finish the very last of the double discs, the Once Upon A Christmas series, starting with Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas. If this wasn't the Fab 5, I wouldn't give this movie the time of day, especially since I've already seen it. It's bad animation, the three-story compilation thing that I hate, and it's Christmas themed. But I don't know that anything could make me dislike a Donald Duck cartoon, so I gotta give it props for that.


The sequel to this one, Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas is about as different as night and day. Although there is only a couple of years between these two discs, this one is full-on CG animation and it was the first time I saw the Fab 5 that way. Before you read the next line, you might want to sit down if you're not already...I actually prefer Mickey and friends CG to hand-drawn. Yes, you read that correctly. It's why I like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. CG does lend itself better in some situations than in others, especially if it's done right.


Thankfully, I only had one more Christmas-themed disc, Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed In At The House Of Mouse. This is really only a Christmas episode of the House of Mouse TV show, so it has the same story path that most of the House of Mouse episodes follow. For those that don't know, House of Mouse was a Disney TV show centered around a cartoon club that Mickey and friends operated. They showed cartoons, some old, some new, and there were often little stories going on between cartoons, but the coolest thing about this show was that every single Disney character since the dawn of time sat in the audience...everybody from black and white characters from Steamboat Willie to Chernabog to Ariel to Pecos Bill, to, well, just about everyone you can ever think of. Sometimes these characters even speak and a lot of the original actors offer their voices...James Woods as Hades, Jodi Benson as Ariel, Gilbert Gottfried as Iago, etc. I couldn't find a trailer, but I did find one of the cartoon clips and most of us have been watching this for years, no matter our age:

There was the premiere episode of the TV series House of Mouse on this disc too.

Finally, the Christmas discs were done with, and since I was in a House of Mouse mood, I went with House of Mouse Villains next. This is SOOOO much more my speed. I've always been more of a Halloween person than a Christmas person (well, except for the whole dressing up and trick-or-treating thing). Not only does this episode contain my favorite Disney cartoon ever, Trick or Treat, but it also has Lonesome Ghosts. It doesn't get any better than that! And, on top of all the cool cartoons, the villains are secretly plotting to take over the House of Mouse and villainy ensues. I love every minute of it! Again with a clip instead of a trailer, but it kind of gives an idea what the House of Mouse was like when they weren't watching the cartoons.


It was bedtime at this point, but I wasn't quite ready yet, so I watched two movies that I have owned since they came out, but again, never watched, starting with A Goofy Movie. Of course I know the characters in this because I am Disney obsessed, but I just never got around to watching them. Plus, the thought of a Fab 5'er having a kid is just weird...nephews are one thing, but kids? Eh, not so much. Where did Max even come from? Does anyone know that story?

There were two shorts on this disc, a Goofy and Max short as well as The Goofy Story, which really wasn't a short since it was so long, so I'm going to add it to the animated movie title counts.

As far as I know, there was only ever one sequel, An Extremely Goofy Movie, and I think I actually liked this one better.


I never got the thought of the whole animation troubles of the second gen out of my mind since Saturday, so I decided a definite path for Monday night, starting with Waking Sleeping Beauty. This movie makes me angry, depressed, hopeful, and more dedicated to my beloved animators and a company I've loved my entire life. It doesn't show some very important people in a not very nice light sometimes, but that's life for you. My interest in animation was at its peak during these years and I think that the events in this documentary are one of the reasons why my obsession with art died out. Granted, I didn't know the whole story back then, but I felt it in the animation that was coming out at the time and I just lost interest. I honestly feel that if you never see another Disney movie in your entire life, this movie should be it.


I needed a bit of a positive spin on my heroes, so I went with Frank and Ollie, a documentary about Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, two of Walt's nine old men. As much as I worship Marc Davis, Frank and Ollie were the heart of the company in those days and this is just a sweet dedication to two of the greats.


I tried to get through another movie, but there were so many special features on these two discs, it pretty much ate my night away. I really am getting close to finishing though (I think).

MOVIE TOTALS:
Live Action: 79
Full-Length Animation: 110
Mixed-Medium: 9
Animated Shorts: 289
Live Action Shorts: 1
Mixed-Medium Shorts: 3
Animated Series: 84
Mixed-Medium Series: 2
Documentaries: 9
Concerts: 1

Disney Movies - Days 69 & 70

I didn't post yesterday because I'm trapped in Disneyland hell. There is a reason why I've only gone to Disney World for the past 20 years, apparently I can't plan a vacation to anywhere else but. I'm trying to work through all the problems, but I guess it's safe to say that my road trip through the west next year is now off the table. But I don't want to bore you with my DL drama (well, except for the wonderful Heather over at Fantasy Cross Stitch, you might actually rue the day you ever offered to help this spaz!).

I started Friday night in a weird direction, with Saving Mr. Banks. I've watched this one before, but it's one of those kind of movies that once is enough. As much as I love the old documentaries about the studios and Walt, I don't particularly care for movies that make me cry. I start sniffling at the moment she arrives at the premier and am usually in full-on bawl mode by the end. I hate that. But it is a very good movie otherwise and the casting choices were just brilliant.


Watching Saving Mr. Banks meant there was only one way to go next, Mary Poppins. When I was a kid, I probably watched this movie just as much as I did Sleeping Beauty. Parts I loved, parts I didn't, but everytime it came on television or the video was popped in, I went into a trance in front of the TV. I laughed, often sang along, and was terrified of the bird woman who I always thought was named Tuppence Sabag (I misinterpreted the song). Because of my over-absorption of it as a kid, I haven't seen it much since I became an adult (although that verdict is still out on that notion that I am an adult). Friday night was probably the first time I'd seen it in many years and I still laughed, still sang along, and was still a bit creeped out by the bird lady, but I also realized that I haven't actually ever sit and watched it from the very beginning to the very end all in one go, so even after a lifetime of viewings, I had never really seen the movie before.

There are some amazing special features on my disc (I've got the 50th Anniversary version) including the original movie premiere and after party and it was just as enjoyable as the movie.

My next choice of movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas, was very deliberate. If there is one saying that I've always hated, it's been "Christmas in July"...Christmas once a year is bad enough, I surely don't want to have to go through it twice, for whatever the reasons behind it. I didn't want to watch any of my Christmas selections in the month of July for that very reason, but after both Saving Mr. Banks and Mary Poppins, it was well into the morning of August the 1st, so I was safe to clear out the Christmas selections. I'm not a Christmas person at all and you won't find many Christmas-themed things in my house unless they are Disney related. An Asper kid and Christmas don't really make a good mix. It was always one of the most stressful times of the year for me having to deal with not only being shuffled around from one parent to the other, but dealing with that inevitable attention that comes when you open presents. I can literally even make myself sick thinking about it now. Luckily, I have finally managed to convince my family that we never have to do Christmas again. Last year was my first non-holiday season and I loved every minute of it, but I'm getting off track.

For all his oversaturation of Johnny Depp, I still worship Tim Burton and I think he's one of the greatest geniuses of our time. The Nightmare Before Christmas is his piece de resistance. It's brilliant, beautiful, creative, and best of all, Depp free! Danny Elfman gets just as much love from me, all the way back to his Oingo Boingo days, and no Tim Burton movie would be complete without the music of Danny, so knowing that he is the singing voice of Jack just adds that little extra bit of spark for me. I've never been that great of a stop-motion animation fan, but Tim does it so beautifully, I will often get lost in watching the facial expressions of the characters. Growing up in a house with a mostly deaf person, you learn to read lips too and it is very easy to read Tim's characters lips as though they were real people speaking. Only the original batch of Disney animators had that talent and Tim did learn from the best! I really can't give it enough praise, but this was the first time I had watched it since I got the Blu-Ray version and what a difference Blu-Ray makes for it! It's the prime example of why, if you haven't started already, you should upgrade your discs (at least some of them) to Blu-Ray. I'm not too jazzed about the upcoming 4K version...your eyes can only see so well, but I am a definite Blu-Ray convert.

Lock, Shock, and Barrel are right up there with my favorite Disney characters of all time and I totally applaud Tim for giving Paul Reubens (aka PeeWee Herman) a job when nobody else would.

On Saturday, my mood was a bit somber at first, so I decided it was finally time to get Bambi out of the way. From an animation standpoint, it is a breathtakingly beautiful film, but gee wiz, what were they thinking story-wise? It also started a long Disney tradition of killing off a character to add "depth" to the film. I personally think they kind of enjoyed killing things in that Game of Thrones (which I don't watch) kind of way. I always imagined the story meetings go something like this..."OK boys, here are all the characters in the movie, who should die?".

Speaking of story meetings though, there is an over an hour audio recording of the actual story meetings for the film in the bonus features and I think I enjoyed those more than the actual movie!

Then, of course, there was the sequel (or cheap-quel as someone aptly put it), Bambi II, which takes place in the days following his mother's death. As far as animation goes, this one isn't half bad...they made a conscious effort to make the characters and the backgrounds true to the originals, but the story is so long and drawn out and just plain boring, I couldn't wait for it to end.

I just grabbed the next disc in the stack, a combo disc of The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under, starting first with The Rescuers. This was another one of those that I haven't seen since childhood, but for a very different reason. When I was in primary school (ours ran from Kindergarten to 5th grade), on the last day of school we would always watch a movie and that movie was pretty much always The Rescuers. It's the last day of school, you're all excited, and your forced to watch the same movie you watched the year before...not my idea of a good time. Plus, I always felt that Medusa was the love child of Cruella Deville and Madam Mim, so I wasn't too impressed with her animation (these were things I noticed even as a young whipper-snapper).

I will say though, the opening sequences of the pastel drawings on black paper are quite extraordinary and I actually watched it twice because I was so mesmerized by them.

The Rescuers Down Under I have never seen, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting (although it wasn't great either). That "new fangled" animation ruined a lot of it for me and the lack of the Rescuers themselves was a bit annoying (it seemed to center more around the boy and the poacher). But I have to give them props for getting the original cast back for the voices almost 15 years after the original. The more I watch these sequels, the more the change in voices seems to annoy me more than the animation style changes. And if I wanted to get ticky about it, The Rescuers Down Under was the first Disney sequel and it was responsible for the awful tradition that followed, so it already had red in its ledger for that reason alone.

For the first time in a while, there were shorts on this disc, one a Silly Symphony cartoon called The Three Blind Musketeers and the other was a full episode of Disney's True Life Adventure series called Water Birds. Those were the documentaries I watched as a kid, the ones with Silly Symphony type sync of music to animals and I actually stopped stitching for a while to watch the whole thing.

The next two-disc series I watched was the Atlantis one, starting with Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Parts of me really wants to love this movie. Despite the CG animation, the special effects on this are nothing short of brilliant and, although I'm not typically a comic book fan, I kind of like the comic book-type lines of the characters, it kind of added that sense of adventure to the story. This movie is how I wish the second gens would have started out animation-wise. Story-wise? Not so much. I felt too much like I was being bombarded from every direction by familiar scenes...20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Journey To The Center Of The Earth, Indiana Jones, etc. It's one thing to be influenced by movies, it's another to model yours exactly like your influences.


Atlantis: Milo's Return, on the other hand, is everything that is wrong with the sequels...major character voice changes, bad animation (the thickness of the character outlines changed from scene to scene, what was up with that?), the whole 3 story sequel issue, etc.

There was a ton of special features on this disc...probably more than any other disc I have and I'm still not sure why. It was literally hours and hours of the animators justifying their decisions about this film. I tend to think that when you have to over-sell something, you secretly know it's crap and you're trying to convince yourself more than the audience. Needless to say, I got bored after the first two hours and put it up.

I still had time for one more though, so I went with The Great Mouse Detective, the first Disney movie to use computers and the beginning of a long animation dry spell for me (but again, I was a 16 year old at the time, so it was probably going to dry up around that time anyway). This is actually a very good movie and I've seen it numerous times throughout the years. It's one I do actually need to get on Blu-Ray.

But this movie brings up a lot of passions for me as far as the animators go, but we'll get to that on Monday's viewings.

MOVIE TOTALS:
Live Action: 79
Full-Length Animation: 101
Mixed-Medium: 9
Animated Shorts: 283
Live Action Shorts: 1
Mixed-Medium Shorts: 3
Animated Series: 81
Mixed-Medium Series: 2
Documentaries: 9
Concerts: 1

Disney Movies - Days 67 & 68

You know you're getting tired of doing a challenge when you forget to post, and that's just what I did yesterday...completely forgot, so I've got some catching up to do!

First up, Wednesday night. I went the way of the jungle and finally did the Tarzan series. I have seen the first one, but not the other two, so I didn't know how the night would go. The first movie, Tarzan, is pretty good. The background animation is really good considering the generation it comes from and the characters are OK. Tarzan's hair has always bothered me for some strange reason and Jane's facial features border on the creepy, but otherwise, the story is good and so is the music (although it gets really loud sometimes...must be a Phil Collins thing because I noticed it on Brother Bear too).

There are practically no special features on the disc, which is kind of a shame because I would have liked to see the Backstage Disney stuff on this movie. Oh well, maybe with the next edition we'll get some.

I didn't know which sequel to watch next, so I went with Tarzan & Jane. The animation on this one was shocking! Not only were there the usual overly heavy black outlines, but there was this weird shadow play on the characters from the surrounding plants that just make the people look translucent instead of "shaded" upon. I almost wanted to rewatch the first one to see if they did the same weird shadow play on it too, but I resisted. This sequel is another one of those the main characters sitting around telling "remember when" stories. This one actually wasn't that bad. All three little stories were actually good story wise. I stopped looking at the screen because the animation was driving me nuts.

A very young Mandy Moore sings a couple of songs on the soundtrack (one gets played over and over and over again) and, what little special features there are, she's talking about how it's cool for her to be a part of Disney history by doing the soundtrack and how she's always wanted to do something for Disney. Considering that she's now Rapunzel and Sheriff Callie, I'd say she's pretty locked in Disney history!

I did Tarzan II next, although I was dreading it like the plague because of the cover art showing Tarzan young. Those kind of sequels are worse than the stories within a story kind, so my expectations were low. It was a good thing, because this one was long, boring, and don't get me started on the animation quality. Granted, they softened up on the shadow play, but not nearly enough. About the only thing positive I can say about it is that they did soften the outlines a bit so they weren't so heavy. I couldn't find a trailer, so we're relegated to the usual DisneyOnDemand clip.

Another bad thing about these sequels is that they rarely get the same actors and that's distracting to me to hear another voice. Do they think kids are stupid and can't tell the difference? If they can't get the same actors and can't do the same caliber animation, they shouldn't do a sequel at all. At least Pixar gets that right.

Which brings up another rant...I do love Mandy Moore, but I don't think Disney should reuse actors for different characters because, again, it's distracting. I'm hearing a voice that doesn't match the body. Surely kids notice that kind of stuff too, right? I've been to Disney World enough to have seen even the smallest of kids go "mom, that's not the same Snow White we saw yesterday". Kids aren't stupid. Granted, I can usually always tell what actor is doing a character by just their voice and I usually attach that actor to the character from that moment on in my minds eye, so it makes it difficult to separate them. I guess it's really no different than live action movies, but seriously, who doesn't see Daniel Radcliffe in a movie and not see him as Harry Potter still? Some characters are more memorable than others and animation characters tend to stick in my mind more than real people do. But I am weird, so please take that into consideration.

To finish off the night, I watched my Quack Pack, Vol 1 disc which contained three episodes of Quack Pack. I don't ever remember the show and there has only ever been one of these discs, so I'm not sure much about it's history. They weren't great shows, but they had Donald Duck in them, so I still liked them anyway. I have three VHS tapes of Quack Pack episodes too, but I still haven't decided if I'm going to dig out the old VCR or not yet. I was able to find episodes on YouTube, but no trailer for this set, so I'll pass on the clip.

Thursday night had no pattern whatsoever. I started with Gnomeo & Juliet. There are things about this movie that I like, like the storyline (a happy ending to one of the greatest love stories/tragedies ever) and the cast which is composed of some great British actors, but there are also things I don't like (cough, animation, cough). I get that it was produced by Elton John and David Furnish, but the amount of Elton saturation is just over and above the norm. I like Elton, but I don't love him, so it's probably great for one of his fans, but not so much for a non-fan.

About the only "how cool!" moment I had was when James McAvoy (Gnomeo) and Patrick Stewart (William Shakespeare) come together in animation form (for those that don't know, James plays the young Charles Xavier while Patrick plays the older one in the current X-Men series). I fan-girled a bit during that scene, but otherwise, it was just another movie.

I'm still not sure what led me to my next choice, probably because it was on the top of the stack of live actions that I've got left. I have never even watched Underdog, although I bought it the second it came out. I am old enough to remember the cartoon and I figured the live action would probably suck, so I've held off. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but again, there is the voice issue. Jason Lee does the voice of Underdog and, as some of you know, he's also the voice of Syndrome in The Incredibles. It's one thing to voice the same type of character in different movies (although I still don't like it), but when a very distinguishable voice does a villain in one movie and a hero in another, it's just insane! Amy Adams as Polly Purebred isn't as bad because at least she's staying with the female heroine lead-type, but it still wasn't good. I was literally squirming in my chair by the time the movie finished and I probably won't ever watch it again. I think I've decided that actor reuse is worse than crappy animation and that's saying something!

At least there was an original Underdog cartoon episode in the special features...that finally made the disc worthwhile.

At that point, I didn't want to watch a movie that blew the previous two out of the water, but rather needed one worse to get it over with, so I went with Prince of Persia. I had only ever watched this movie once, but I didn't like it, so I never watched it again. I don't know if it was the mood of the night or what, but by the time I got done with this viewing, I had decided that maybe I've been giving it a bad rap all these years because it's really not that bad (or maybe it was because I wasn't sure if I could get any worse for the night). Sure, I still can't stand Jake Gyllenhaal and I don't get what his appeal is, but when you're stitching and not watching, even he's not that bad (and, to the best of my knowledge, he hasn't ever voiced a Disney character, and let's hope it stays that way). I will say, that the whole sand surfing scene was a bit too much, but otherwise, I actually think I might watch this one again someday (although John Carter will forever be stuck in the "never again" pile).

Considering this one technically had a subtitle attached (the name of the movie is actually Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time), I'm sure they meant to make a franchise out it before it flopped. To be honest, I'd rather see Persia as a new additional land in Animal Kingdom versus the upcoming Pandora from Avatar and Avatar is getting it's sequels.

I don't know that much about Middle Eastern culture, but Morocco is my favorite land in Epcot (yes, I know that's an African country, but it has a more Middle Eastern vibe) and I really kind of like Middle Eastern music although I don't know much about it and don't really have access to it much in the heart of bum-fudge Arkansas. The closing song on this disc was a bit surprising, it had that kind of flair to it, but was sung by Alanis Morissette. I actually rewound the credits twice to listen to it again and again. This is probably a fan-made video, but I've been playing it the entire time I wrote this post for the sake of hearing the song:


One more rant for the day...when a movie is finished and the powers that be view them for the final time, can they not see how bad the movie is? Do they watch movies like John Carter or Underdog and go, "yep, we're in for an Oscar boys" or do they just concede that there is nothing they can do, so they might as well release it as is? Some of these bad ones could be fixed by creative editing or moving the scenes around or even cutting some scenes out and yet they choose to leave them alone. Obviously the script starts out decent, or the movie wouldn't get green-lit in the first place, right? I know that everyone has different tastes and some movies are going to appeal more than others, but appeal is way different than general suckiness. I think that's one thing Walt always did right...if he didn't like it, it either got reworked or trashed, no matter the cost. After all these movies, I've come to realize that maybe my hatred of the second gen animation movies was misfounded, but I still think that Walt wouldn't have approved of the direction the studios went in and I still think he would be livid at these sequels and flops bearing his name. Animation has finally gotten things right again, but live action has a long way to go to live up to the Disney name.

But enough ranting for the day, I'm hoping to clear out a chunk of movies this weekend so that I can finish in the next week or two. I'm also hoping to finish a big chunk of Alice and the B's this weekend, so here's hoping that the best laid plans of mice and men don't go awry!

MOVIE TOTALS:
Live Action: 78
Full-Length Animation: 93
Mixed-Medium: 8
Animated Shorts: 282
Live Action Shorts: 1
Mixed-Medium Shorts: 3
Animated Series: 81
Mixed-Medium Series: 2
Documentaries: 8
Concerts: 1

Disney Movies - Day 66

I'm sure most of you saw in the news about that idiot dentist that killed the beloved lion in Africa. I'm not a fan of cats, big or small, but I would never kill one and that kind of killing for fun is just stupid! I hope they throw him under a third-world jail. All I kept thinking all day long is "wouldn't it be just if the dentist was turned into one of the lion cubs that will now probably be killed by the other lions since their dad is no longer around to protect them?" or better yet, if the punishment fit the crime?

That act of stupidity decided my movie direction for last night...Brother Bear If you haven't seen Brother Bear, I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but basically, a boy who kills a bear that he thinks is responsible for the death of his brother, gets turned into a bear and unknowingly befriends the cub of the dead bear. It is a surprisingly really good movie considering what generation it came out of and I've always really liked it, but it hit home a bit harder last night. Granted, it has a bit of the "preachy" element to it and the music can be too overpowering at times (whoever decided that Tina Turner would be a good choice to sing the opening song to a Disney movie ought to rethink their career...her voice is WAY too powerful for the context of a Disney film). The backgrounds were amazing though and the animation was soft enough not to be domineered by the CG aspects of it. In the end though, it's all about the story and it's one of the few original Disney story lines. As much as I love the fairy tales, the originals tend to have more heart and lack limitations of a defined predetermined course.

The only thing that really has always bothered me about this movie is that it starts off in full screen and transforms to widescreen once Kenai becomes the bear. I always forget and end up changing the settings on my TV because I think something is wrong. I often say I'm all for artistic creativity, but even I have my limits. Changing the size of the screen to represent the "opening" of Kenai's eyes to the world is a bit like Johnny Depp's interpretation of Willy Wonka...useless and just plain annoying.

I guess I had never seen Brother Bear 2, although I've owned it for years and just recently replaced it with the combo disc pack with the first one. I was almost mad at myself when I finished because it is better than the first one! Unlike every single other Disney sequel out there, this one had no decrease in the quality of the animation and what a pleasant surprise that was! Granted, we had a main voice change from Joaquin Phoenix to Patrick Dempsey (which was a bit shocking...couldn't they have at least tried to get a similar voice?) and a different lead musician from Phil Collins to Melissa Etheridge (who I'm not a fan of, but her voice suited the songs, so it was OK). I was a bit shocked to hear Mandy Moore voice Nita, the female lead, as well. I didn't realize she had done another Disney voice other than Rapunzel. Since I was stitching while watching, it tended to throw me upon occasion because I kept looking up expecting to see Rapunzel. But like the first, the story was so incredibly strong and the animation was so good, any little nitpicking I could do would be just that.


And since I had finally let loose of the lion drama and was in a bear mood, The Country Bears was next. Yes, this is a horrible movie in all respects, but I do so love it because I worship The Country Bears! The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean might be my favorite rides at Disney World, but I go all fan-girl over the bears every single time. I know every word to every song by heart, every personality of every bear and every facial expression and, when the show comes on MouseWorld Radio, I get that Duran Duran giddiness in the pit of my stomach! I must have been a bear in a past life or something!

This movie doesn't feature any songs from the show (well, other than in the special features section), but it has a Muppet-type feel because it has a plethora of stars throughout the entire movie. Every single time they mention one of the bears, I'd find myself singing one of the show's songs that included that bear's name (I bet I went "Zeke and Zeb and Ted and Fred and a bear named Tennessee" a hundred or so times!) and every time I saw Big Al, I'd go "blood on the saddle". The movie is so bad it's good I guess!

And seriously, just how many voices has Haley Joel Osment did for Disney? Well, I IMDB'ed it and, not counting the Kingdom Hearts video game series (he's the voice of Sora), he's only done five animated movie voices (although technically The Country Bears isn't animated, but still). It sure feels like a heck of a lot more. And when you've got the likes of Bonnie Raitt and Don Henley as the singing voices of the bears, it just goes to show I'm not the only bear fan in the world.

I'm really going to miss not having The Country Bears at Disneyland, but at least there will be a lot of Koda and Kenai around the Grand Californian and, a lot of bears in that movie have a Country Bear feel to them (again, I'm obviously not the only bear fan in the world). I'm going to have to try really hard to remember to turn around in the beginning of the Winnie the Pooh ride to see the original Max, Buff, and Melvin!

MOVIE TOTALS:
Live Action: 76
Full-Length Animation: 89
Mixed-Medium: 8
Animated Shorts: 282
Live Action Shorts: 1
Mixed-Medium Shorts: 3
Animated Series: 77
Mixed-Medium Series: 2
Documentaries: 8
Concerts: 1

Disney Movies - Days 64 & 65

On Sunday night, I decided it was time to switch back to the full-on animation and I decided to start with Chicken Little. During Disney's "crap" years, this was by far the best to come out of the camp (even if it did pretty poorly at the box office). The story is really very good, the CG animation doesn't bother me at all (a feat unto itself), and the amount of one-liners in the movie make my dead-pan heart quite happy. I am NOT a Zach Braff fan at all (well, except for the fact that he inspired one of the best F-U songs ever written, Mandy Moore's Nothing That You Are), but he alters his voice enough that I don't feel his "vibe" at all. As a character goes, Chicken Little is one of my top five Disney characters of all time...he's just another one of those that I can relate to.

As with all the movies of this generation, there are way too many special features on the disc, including the all too familiar "Walt would totally embrace this type of animation" comments. Yeah, keep telling yourself that boys.

And just because I wanted to hear the song again, here's Mandy's tribute to Zach (although I think this is a live recording because it does have a bit more oomph on the album):


I stayed along the same lines and went with Home On The Range next. Granted, this movie has an amazing cast, but that's about all it has going for it. I will give nods to the background artists because they really captured the spirit of older Disney cartoons, but the story was long and drawn out, the one-liners usually just went flat, and the characterization wasn't even worth looking up from my stitching. They did try to embody the spirit of older Disney characters with the sharp facial lines, but it just doesn't work in a computer animated environment.

I will say, despite the fact that I usually HATE country music, there are some really good songs on this soundtrack, from KD Lang (yes, I admit it, I am a straight and I like KD Lang...take that 10 Things I Hate About You) to Bonnie Raitt to Tim McGraw, but it's not enough of a good soundtrack to make me buy the album like I tend to do with a lot of other Disney movies.

There was also a short on this disc (the first one in a long time), called A Dairy Tale: The Three Little Pigs. It was pretty short, but it has a very Brittney Lee feel (she's a Disney animator who prefers to work in paper medium...check out her blog HERE).


I went with Valiant next, and again, FABULOUS cast, but geez, what a waste of time that movie is. I really want to love it and not just because of the cast, but because it represents the period of animation that I love the most, the 1940's and 50's. It is so obvious they rushed this movie (all three of these came out within a short space of time from each other). The animation has a lot of issues (incongruous turns of heads, sizing issues from one scene to the next, etc), the story is so long and flip-flops and, as much as I love Ewan McGregor, what is up with yelling his lines throughout the entire movie? I still watch this movie from time to time (just because I love the actors involved), but it's a good movie to stitch to because you don't really have to look up at all.

And just an aside, both Valiant and Home On The Range have a large quantity (and a large dislike) for yodeling...I'm not really sure why. I don't have any strong feelings one way or the other about yodeling, but apparently the head of Disney animation at the time did and felt the need to express his opinions in two separate movies.

I decided that I needed to go in a different direction for a while, so I pulled out my Hunchback two disc set and started with the first one, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I have a love/hate relationship with this movie. When I was in art school, I did several papers on Notre Dame, including one specifically on the gargoyles, so parts of the animation do appeal to me, but only in the background sense. The music is amazing and most of the actors were well chosen, but nothing will show talent or lack thereof in an actor quicker than animation and Demi Moore is so bad it's almost sad. Granted, I don't like her in any movie I've ever seen her in, but part of me wants to, if only for the fact that she did star in some great 80's movies and I'm loyal to that generation. Listening to Esmeralda speak is almost painful...it's flat, devoid of emotion, and just plain cold. There are times I may not like an actor chosen to do a voiceover roll (i.e. Zach Braff) but, if they do a good job, then I'm usually able to control my personal feelings about the actor (or actress, as the case may be). It may be that she's not really that bad or that she's acting with such a high caliber of fellow cast mates that she just doesn't have a chance...whatever the case, she pretty much ruins the movie for me.


I have seen The Hunchback of Notre Dame II before as well, but in addition to the Demi problem, add Jennifer Love Hewitt to the mix and they actually lower the caliber of the other actors instead of the other actors lowering their caliber. It is seriously painful to listen to and don't get me started on the animation on this one. The enormous black outlines around the characters, the mutilation of the all the beautiful backgrounds of the first one, etc. I often wonder, after watching II, if when the actors saw it, they didn't cringe themselves at it compared to the first one.

There is a short on the disc, an animated poem called It's Not Easy Being A Gargoyle, but I was unable to find it on YouTube. It is actually better than the movie even though it only lasts about five minutes.

I needed to go in yet another different direction, so I ended the night with Aladdin. This is the first time I've watched this movie since Robin Williams died. I have issues with watching movies with dead actors in them...it just feels wrong for some reason (well, other than old black and white movies where most of the actors were dead before I was born). I've always LOVED Robin and it kills me that he's gone from us. It would be hard for me to watch a live action movie with him in it, but watching Aladdin wasn't as bad as I was expecting. It's such a great movie anyway, I don't think even his passing could deter me from watching it again and again. And, despite how his mouth often gets him in trouble and it's not PC to like Gilbert Gottfried anymore, I do absolutely adore him and it would really take a lot more than him expressing his opinion, however wrong or insensitive, to change my view of him. But I'm getting off topic again. Jasmine is probably my third favorite Disney princess, but I have to admit, watching Aladdin after Hunchback, I never really noticed how flat Linda Larkin (the speaking voice of Jasmine) actually is before, but now I do and I kind of found it annoying for the first time ever....thanks Demi for ruining my third favorite princess!

The Diamond Edition of this comes out this October, and I'm really hoping that 2 and 3 come out on a combo disc afterwards. I like combo discs because they take up less room in my shelf and you don't have to change the discs so much when doing a marathon.

Monday night, I needed to finish up the series, so I started with Aladdin: The Return Of Jafar. Story wise, this is pretty good for a sequel, but it bothers me that Robin Williams isn't the Genie in this one. There was a time when he had a falling out with the Disney company for some reason...there were harsh words thrown back and forth, lawsuits, etc and I still don't know what the fuss was all about, but it was nasty for a while. When you're spending more time stitching than watching a movie, voices are very important and although Dan tried to keep Genie in the spirit of Robin, it was just off enough to make things weird. I still like this movie, heavy black character outlines and all.


Aladdin and the King Of Thieves brought back Robin and all was right in the sequel world again (there was a short reprieve in the Disney/Robin war, but it started up again and lasted quite a while, luckily it ended before his death). Again, despite the heavy black outlines of the characters (does direct-to-video movies not have a cleanup crew?) and Jasmine's flat speaking voice (how could I have not noticed that before?), I still really like this movie too. As far as sequels go, these are probably only second to those of the Lion King when it comes to being my favorites.


I still had time to start another series Monday night, but I was having HSM urges, so I opted to watch Avengers twice instead. I liken it to eating a protein bar when you really want a candy bar...but protein bars would still be better than celery sticks because you are still gonna want candy, no matter how much celery you eat (can you tell I've started my Disney diet yet?).

MOVIE TOTALS:
Live Action: 75
Full-Length Animation: 87
Mixed-Medium: 8
Animated Shorts: 282
Live Action Shorts: 1
Mixed-Medium Shorts: 3
Animated Series: 77
Mixed-Medium Series: 2
Documentaries: 8
Concerts: 1