Category: Children

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Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: Meet the Robinsons

Movie: Meet the Robinsons

Release year: 2007

This movie is always on the TV at the pediatrician we go to. (At least it used to be until Frozen came out on Blu-Ray and rendered all other movies irrelevant.) I had never seen it before, although I remember, back in 2007, seeing the commercial and thinking that the part with the T-Rex (“I have a big head and little arms”) looked funny. (I was right. It is.)

I was really impressed by this story. Drew called most of the ending, but I think it was still satisfying. There was a lot of heartbreak at the beginning – orphans are always heartbreaking, especially at the tricky age of 12 – and a lot of heart in the ending. I like really liked it. I even tried to pay really close attention so I would actually know if I liked it. I fully recommend it!

We definitely used the long holiday weekend to catch up on Disney movies – we watched three, so there will be a quick succession of posts about them. We’re in the home stretch now: just 4 more to go!

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Baby Children Drew Endings Family Food Friends Holidays Memoir Nonfiction Religion Sentiment Writing

Giving thanks, 2014 style

Happy Thanksgiving!

I’ll be honest with you: this year has kind of sucked.

Every New Year we say “This is gonna be OUR year!” And sometimes we’re right: 2009 was a good year. As was 2012.

But 2014 was not kind to us. But the silver lining – because I always have to look for the silver lining – was that I spent much of this year being actively thankful for specific things in my life. Because I had this idea that, if I spent too much time dwelling on the negative things, God and karma and the universe would say something like, “Guess you don’t care about all this good stuff then.” And it would be taken away.

So I’ve thought a lot this year about the people in my life, the ways I’m blessed, and the things I’m grateful for. And there are plenty of them. At the top of almost every list are my husband and my son, two people I couldn’t live without. There are my parents, who are consistently supportive and loving and who make the 3-hour drive from Lakeport to Pacifica over and over and over, just to hang out with us. Drew’s parents treat me like one of their own and I have literally ZERO crazy “in-laws” stories (and I know that other women out there have some crazy in-laws). There are my friends: the real-life ones who have put up with me for years, and my online mommy friends, all of whom are invaluable. I have a job I love, with people I love. I get to live by the ocean in a neighborhood and an apartment that I really, really like. (There’s even ample street parking.)

And on top of all of that, this year I’m also thankful that 2014 is almost over. Rather than ringing in this New Year by saying “I can’t BELIEVE it’s already 2015!” I’ll be saying, “Thank God. Now, bring on a fresh start.”

Just to make sure I don’t end on a downer, here are some really specific things I’m thankful for at this exact moment: My kid is napping, and he apparently knows who Elmo is, which surprised both Drew and me this morning. I made a German chocolate pecan pie for dessert tonight and while it looks a little, um, “homemade,” the filling part tastes good. We’re actually going to finish our Disney Project this year, which was a grand undertaking, and I’m proud of that. It’s a really pretty day right now…but I hear it’s going to rain all weekend, which would be really nice.

See? Still an optimist. Happy Thanksgiving.

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Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: Home on the Range

Movie: Home on the Range

Release year: 2004

I have never seen this before. Have you seen this before? It’s actually pretty good. It has good music, a good Disney storyline, a good cast. There is a good amount of subtle adult humor. Roseanne Barr plays the main character, who might as well be named Roseanne the Cow.

When an adorable dairy farm, Patch of Heaven, is about to go bankrupt, the three dairy cows set out to raise the money to save the farm. They originally plan to attend a county fair to win the prize money, but end up going after the meanest cattle rustler in the land to get the bounty money.

Here’s hoping we have as much luck with Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons, and Bolt.

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Children Movies

Disney Project 2014: Brother Bear

Movie: Brother Bear

Release year: 2003

I remember seeing this in the theatre, with a big group of friends. (I was passive-aggressively punishing one of them, and deliberately sat between another friend’s younger sisters, laughing loudly at their jokes and ignoring the transgressor. Ah, teenagehood.)

Watching it this time was obviously different. I feel like our pattern is to try really hard to follow the beginning of the movie, and then at some point in the middle it all breaks down and we miss big swaths of plot, and then we try to watch the end to see what happens. (Spoiler alert: Kenai remains a bear to be with his new brother Koda. More spoiler alert: When Koda’s mom and Kenai’s brother come back from the spirit world and, like, hug them, I was definitely tearing up. Oh Disney.)

Phil Collins came back to do much of this music, but it’s considerably less effective than in Tarzan, in my opinion.

Oh, also, we watched this on Netflix, and the sound is just awful. It’s so quiet. We turn it up so high and still can’t hear anything. What the heck?

And with that, we will now move into a bunch of Disney movies I’ve never seen, so this should be fun. Wilson is excited about all the animal faces on Chicken Little, so maybe he’ll enjoy it!

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Books Children Movies

Disney Project 2014: Treasure Planet

Movie: Treasure Planet

Release year: 2002

Yet another non-musical! I think I’ve seen this one time before, and it was in my adult life. However, we don’t own it, so I was delighted to find it was available for streaming on Netflix.

Treasure Planet: A retelling of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, but set in the future (?), on a planet where aliens come and go freely and space travel is the norm. Young Jim Hawkins wants to get out there and see the universe (and maybe find his dad who abandoned them when he was a kid?). When a turtle-looking alien delivers an orb-shaped treasure map to him before dying, he and his mother and this dog-faced professor barely manage to escape with their lives, heeding the words of the turtle, “Beware the cyborg.”

As far as I know, it’s a pretty faithful retelling of Treasure Island, although once I thought about it, my only knowledge of that book actually comes from the Alvin and the Chipmunks episode where Dave tells Alvin, Simon, and Theodore the story and they find themselves reenacting it. So I guess you could say I’m not super familiar with it. This did make me consider choosing Treasure Island for my book club, but I think I might just do that on my own. I like Stevenson’s other stuff so I think that this would be a fun read.

I’ll be honest though – I do miss the princess movies.

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Fun fact: This is my 500th blog post!!

Categories
Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: Lilo & Stitch

Movie: Lilo & Stitch

Release year: 2002

Thoughts: These last few movies have been great – this has been such a great post-Renaissance run. I really like Lilo & Stitch. Here are five things I like about it:

1. Stitch is a misunderstood “villain” who winds up being a good guy. (Footnote: In fact, is there even an actual villain in this movie? Not really. But it works.) I mean, look at this clever poster:

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I love Stitch’s concurrent destructive/cute nature. He’s much like…a 2-year-old. Hurling things to the ground one second, climbing into your arms the next.

2. Lilo’s deadpan sense of humor. She is an adorable, precocious child, but with a realistic edge of behavior issues stemming from her turmoiled family life. I just want to cuddle her and tell her she’ll probably be really successful when she grows up.

3. Nani, along with all the other 20-something women, is a little stocky. If Meghan Trainor wrote a song about her, she would say Nani has “all the right junk in all the right places.” There is no question – this is no lithe and willowy Disney princess. But she is gorgeous and wears a bikini with aplomb. I remember seeing this movie for the first time and admiring this fact. I still admired it this time through.

4. “Ohana means family. And family means no one gets left behind or forgotten.” Did I tear up when Nani thought she was going to lose Lilo to foster care? Yes, yes I did. I sympathize with her frustration of doing her best but still feeling on a daily basis like she is letting down her child.

❤ Lilo & Stitch. Check it out if you like children, aliens, music, Hawaii, love, Disney, family, Elvis, or surfing.

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Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Atlantis_-_The_Lost_Empire_Movie: Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Release year: 2001

Does this sound familiar to you? Or are you wondering what the heck I’m talking about? Because we are very definitely into that era of Disney that my generation was starting to miss out on.

It’s not a musical, and it has a different look to it than the animation of the “princess movies.” This one looks more like Hercules, but with a touch of 101 Dalmatians thrown in – I gather they were going for a “comic book” look which explains all the distinct angles, like Milo’s triangular fingernails.

Atlantis stars Michael J. Fox (then 40, but he definitely is voice-passing for 25) as Milo Thatch, a linguist and wannabe explorer, like his beloved late grandfather. He gets roped in to a mission to try to discover the lost empire of Atlantis, fulfilling his grandfather’s dream.

Imagine the team’s surprise when they actually reach Atlantis, but instead of crumbling ruins deep underneath the sea, they find a city still populated with people who are thousands of years old…and slowly dying. Milo wants to help them, but the captain of their team has different and more devious ideas about robbing the city of their power source in order to turn a profit aboveground.

It’s just occurred to me that I’m not sure how they were going to get back home (Washington, DC?). I thought their submarine was destroyed in a fight with a mechanical Leviathan. I must have missed something.

Don’t you want to watch this movie?! It’s filled with the early-2000s humor that I loved in The Emperor’s New Groove, and I’m a big Michael J. Fox fan anyway. Like when Milo is being seasick over the edge of the ship at the beginning, and he says, “Carrots, why does it always taste like carrots? I didn’t even eat carrots.” That’s bathroom humor at its best.

All in all, I’m a big fan of this one. This was a good weekend for catching up on Disney movies, so stay tuned. (And check out Atlantis: The Lost Empire!)

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(I don’t know what Drew is so shocked about here, unless it’s just the fact that we inexplicably own the 2-disc collector’s edition…)

 

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Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: The Emperor’s New Groove

Movie: The Emperor’s New Groove

Release year: 2000

I don’t think that many people are familiar with this movie – so let me just say, it is actually really funny and a lot of fun. A great buddy story. In fact, I know someone who calls this is favorite Disney movie of all time – and I don’t think he’s crazy for saying so. (Fun fact: He just told me it’s the first DVD he ever purchased himself, and it cost $40. So that’s a fun glimpse into life 10 years ago.)

Just in case you have no idea what I’m talking about, The Emperor’s New Groove takes place in South America (Peru?). David Spade (remember him??) plays an incredibly self-centered 18-year-old emperor, who is turned into a llama by his scheming advisor (Eartha Kitt). He winds up in a small village outside of his kingdom, and with the help of a kind and charming villager (played by John Goodman, who I love), he has to find his way back to the castle to take back his empire and make himself human again.

Side note: My Emperor’s New Groove-fanatic friend just told me this is officially the first Disney movie to feature a pregnant character – the villager’s wife. She is a great character and that is another great fun fact!

Drew hadn’t seen this before, so I tried to get him to sit and watch it as much as possible, while I did the chasing portion of our movie-a-la-toddler-viewing. He said he liked it. I look forward to sitting down one day and watching it all the way through again!

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I took 40 pictures, this was the best I could do.

The Emperor’s New Groove is #40 on our list! For funsies, here’s what we have coming up:

Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Lilo & Stitch
Treasure Planet
Brother Bear
Home on the Range
Chicken Little
Meet the Robinsons
Bolt
The Princess and the Frog
Tangled
Winnie the Pooh (2011)
Wreck-It Ralph
Frozen

What have you seen? What have you never heard of?

Categories
Children Movies

Disney Project 2014: Dinosaur

Movie: Dinosaur

Release year: 2000

Let me answer your two questions right now: Yes, it’s been awhile since we fell off the Disney-movie-watching-train. But we were tracking down Dinosaur, which neither of us has ever seen, and which we finally got at the library (thank you, library!). And your second question: Dinosaur is a movie about a young iguanadon named Alador, raised by lemurs (I think?), who has to travel to the Great Valley Nesting Grounds when an asteroid destroys the island they live on.

It feels much like Disney’s answer to The Land Before Time. Except everyone saw and loved The Land Before Time.

Also, why do all of the dinosaur movies have to be about them combating asteroids and devastation and trying to cross deserts and volcanoes in search of water and green food? Because even if they find the Great Valley Nesting Grounds at the end, you know that this is really just a brief reprieve before they are extinct anyway.

Maybe that could be applied to any romantic comedy, in the grand scheme of things?

The animation is pretty impressive – it’s not what you see now, 14 years later, but it’s definitely a step in that direction. There are some amazing sweeping vistas, although according to wikipedia, many of the backgrounds were actually shot on location. But the dinosaurs are also very well-done.

Also, this is a pretty good ride at Disney World.

So that’s Dinosaur.

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Awesome Children Dreams Drew Holidays Humor Love Memoir Nonfiction Sentiment

2 Years Old: A Parenting Retrospective

Well, we made it to two years. As with every milestone so far, and I’m sure every milestone yet to come, Drew and I are baffled at where the last two years have gone. What happened to that bitty newborn? To the baby we used to have to prop up against things? To the toddler who had to trick or treat holding on to Drew’s hands because he couldn’t quite walk all by himself?

Instead of a baby, we now have this little roommate. He may be only three feet tall, but he’s powerful. He’s incessantly curious, constantly demanding, smiley, stubborn, energetic, pushy, inquisitive. In the course of minutes I can go from being out of my mind frustrated to out of my mind in love. Parenting is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, and also the weirdest thing. If any of my friends treated me the way he sometimes treats me, I would definitely tell them off or get rid of them. But with him it usually just makes me laugh.

I’ve learned a lot about myself over the last couple years. Some things are just the things that probably any parent of a toddler learns: a reserve of patience, strength of will previously uncovered, a tolerance for someone else’s bodily fluids. Other things are interesting and more specific: Like, although I love my own, I don’t think I’m a “kid person” in general. I’ve also realized what a beautiful word “normal” is – who needs extraordinary? And this whole experience has made me love Drew more than ever every single day.

I know I will look back at this some day and shake my head. Silly me, I’ll think, two years was just the tip of the iceberg. Back then I could barely fathom the fact that B could climb into his own car seat, and now he’s driving (or off to college, or getting married, or having his own babies). But come on, future me, cut me a break. The last two years have been the longest and shortest years of my life. I know you understand.

One more thing: when we found out I was pregnant, almost 3 years ago, Drew started reading the Harry Potter books to me (and eventually to B). As B got older, the going got slower…because while I would definitely sit still for a chapter a night, a toddler doesn’t always have the same interests. We’ve been chipping away at the seventh book for over a year now, and three months ago we made the pledge to ourselves that we would finish by his birthday. Drew has been a total trouper about reading at night no matter how tired he is, and this weekend he really ramped it up. Yesterday he started reading over dinner, and then for the rest of the evening we sort of followed B around from bedroom to living room to bath, reading to him. YOU GUYS. WE FINISHED THE ENTIRE HARRY POTTER SERIES LAST NIGHT, Sunday, September 28, 2014. (And that epilogue is still just as bad as I remember it.)

So today we celebrate B’s second birthday, with balloons and a family dinner and a homemade ice cream cake (a la Frozen, of course). Since every day brings a new lesson, a new joke, a new challenge, I can’t wait to see what this one has in store! Happy second birthday, my love! May you have many, many more!

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