In a week when everyone is talking about Robin Williams, it’s a strange coincidence that we watched Aladdin this weekend. We talked about how this was the first Disney movie (that we could think of) where they cast current celebrities to do the voices. And we both realized how amazing this movie is, although it seems to get lost in the shuffle of the second Disney Renaissance. In a way, I’m glad we had the chance to watch Aladdin this weekend, so it was just an enjoyable experience rather than a bittersweet one.
Anything I can say has been said already. I remember being 8 years old and seeing this movie, and having a talent-crush on Robin Williams. He was an inspiration to watch, and I am sorry for the loss of such a brilliant actor.
My reaction: This rounds out my top 4 favorite Disney movies: Sleeping Beauty, Lady and the Tramp, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast. Drew and I started in on the plot holes and inconsistencies…and then I cut him off and was like, “But for reals, this is one of the best ones, RIGHT.” I could watch this movie over and over again. And should. Because I missed huge chunks of this one. Like most of the end.
I did drag B back into the living room to watch the Beast transform. Because you gotta watch that part.
I remember watching this movie with my mom when I was…I must have been like 8 years old. And he turns into the prince, and I remember my mom and I were both like, “…Ew. Can he turn back into a beast please?” Which is funny. It’s also funny that now I totally think he’s cute. If I was Belle, I would be like, Score.
Also, what with all the fan theories going around right now about Frozen/Tangled/Little Mermaid/Tarzan (which I think is dumb, btw), Drew and I have a new theory to propose. You know how at the very very beginning (before the stained glass), you see Bambi’s mom drinking from the stream in the forest outside the castle? That’s because she didn’t die when the hunter shot her. She got away and moved to France.
My reaction: This is, I believe, the only sequel on the list. And I think it deserves to be there. I would say Down Under is better than the original Rescuers. Even though the perspective is all over the place, and it’s hard to keep track of how big these mice actually are. One second they’re riding fireflies, the next second they’re like opening cage doors. And when Cody gets free of McLeach, the first place he goes is to check on the eagle eggs…even though HIS MOM THINKS HE’S DEAD. I’m like GO HOME IMMEDIATELY. His poor mom. =(
Drew says: “I don’t think Bianca likes Bernard the way he likes her.” I agree.
Also, this is the first Disney movie we’ve gotten to that we don’t already own. Luckily…streaming on Netflix!
My reaction: I probably don’t need to explain myself to any girls born from 1980-1985. This is one of the best. Movies. Ever. I love every frame, every weird facial expression, every little quirk in this movie. It’s so good.
We were in Tahoe last weekend with two of my best girlfriends – fun fact, the three of us went to see a sing-along version of The Little Mermaid for a bachelorette party a couple years ago. So this was actually a pretty special coincidence, that it was the next movie in our line-up.
We ended up watching it twice last weekend: once on Saturday night, and then again on Sunday morning. I loved it each time. I would love it every time. I’m just saying.
To everyone who has little “But why don’t they just? But why doesn’t she? But she should just?” I say HUSH. This is the epitome of princess movies, to me. Ariel’s voice is THE Disney princess voice. It’s all wonderful. I’ve been waiting a long time to get to this one. =D
Five years ago, Drew and I packed up most of our New York stuff, and drove back to California.
Thank God Jared was staying in the apartment, so there was a lot of stuff we could just leave – like our bed, couches, rugs, etc.
We basically packed all night while watching Roseanne. In the morning, Joe came over to help us load up the van.
Also thank God we casually said, “Yeah, let’s upgrade to the largest size van you have.” We needed every square inch of space.
It took us three nights to get home, driving pretty much all the time. We were also doing Atkins at the time, so we weren’t even really stopping to eat very much…I’m not sure how we passed the time. I remember at some point we started playing Lingo out loud, and for awhile we listened to Rent…
I also took a lot of pictures out the passenger side window, so there’s a lot of semi-blurry landscape with window reflections. This was pre-smartphone.
(I’m pretty sure Drew took that picture.)
When we got to Nevada, we wanted to drive through to Reno so we could crash with Molly. But Nevada is insanely wide, and neither of us could keep our eyes open. So our final night on the road was spent in Elko, Nevada.
The next day, I drove us across the state line into California, and later Drew and I realized that whenever we’re in a car together, he may say “Do you want to drive?” to be nice, but I generally never do, and he generally always wants to. So now we don’t worry about taking turns to be nice to each other. A good lesson for our impending marriage.
It’s been FIVE YEARS since we came back. New York is drifting further and further away from us. But it’s still an indisputable part of our lives and of our relationship. I think a reunion may be in order.
B’s second birthday is coming up, so this baptism thing has been a long time in coming. We procrastinated for various reasons, but finally this spring we made the decision to go for it. This last weekend, my family and Drew’s family gathered at my childhood church and saved B from purgatory. (Just kidding.)
I will tell you, I had A LOT of anxiety leading up to this weekend. I worried about getting the three of us plus the godparents all the way up to Lake County in our car with all our stuff. I worried that B would freak at getting water on his head. I worried that it would be awkward. I worried that no one really wanted to be doing this. I worried that no one would have a good time.
But it turns out, everyone was into it, and we had a great time. We went up to my parents’ house on Saturday night, and Drew’s parents and my aunt and uncle (who was performing the baptism) were there already. We hung out that night, keeping B up 2 hours past his bedtime. Then everyone dispersed, and we took godparents Erin and Allen to the hotel casino where they were staying.
There, we ran into Drew’s parents, and found out that his dad had just hit it big on video keno. So that was a nice bonus.
The next morning, we picked up Erin and Allen, and headed to the church, about 20 minutes away. The service was outdoors (#summertime!) and so B spent most of the service running all around, up some stairs and around the church building, up some other stairs and around the community center, basically just going everywhere possible. But luckily we were keeping an eye on the time, so we could get him back down in the vicinity of the service by the time the baptism began.
I held him during the ceremony, and he was mostly good. He complained a little bit, but mostly drank milk and pointed at things. I remembered the Creed. He didn’t love the water on his head, but he didn’t freak out. My uncle gave him a candle (unlit), and a medallion. We recessed and sang songs. We did it!
There was cake afterwards, and Erin and I tried to wrangle all the family members into place to take pictures. We managed to take some really cute pictures, including one of my new favorite pictures:
Charming, buddy. Charming.
After pictures, we packed everyone up and we all went to go eat. Well, most of them went to brunch – our car, followed by Drew’s family’s cars, went in the wrong direction. I just was mistaken about where I was going. Oops!
We found the correct place, and settled in for complimentary mimosas and brunch. Although they didn’t really seem able to handle our party of 15 – it took like an hour between ordering and getting our food – the food was good, the company was lovely, and B was awesome. He even ate the food we ordered him! Crazy!
By the time we were done, it was already after 1:30, so we just stopped by my parents’ house to get all our stuff, and then we headed out of Lake County. (Well, we stopped for milkshakes at Renee’s first.) We got home that night in time for dinner and bedtime, and then Drew and I basically crashed, ignoring the pile of stuff we’d brought home.
A long weekend and we’re both ever more tired, but I’m still so happy with how everything went. It honestly went better than I could have hoped, and far better than I expected. A total win. B is so lucky to have this loving family, and two brand-new godparents! (Not pictured: my bff Kirsten, who came out from Davis, and her mom – I was so honored to have them come support us!)
My reaction: This is the second time I’ve ever seen this movie. And I’ll be honest with you, I watched maybe 10 minutes of it. I mean, it was playing and everything but we spent a lot of time chasing B around the house.
I think I got the gist though. It’s based on Dickens’ Oliver Twist, with music by Billy Joel. Very 1988. I’m not sure where Jenny’s parents are – maybe they went into that backstory but I missed it. It’s a decent Disney movie, but I get why this is the second time I’ve seen it.
We missed a couple weeks, due to some travel. But we’re ready to jump back into the second half of the year and watch some of the best Disney movies there are.
Seriously though, B was in time out like five times during this one. I guess he just wasn’t in a movie mood.
My reaction: I don’t think of this as being one of my standard Disney favorite movies, but I really like it. Maybe partly because I love Sherlock Holmes, so I enjoy all the little references. But this is just a great movie.
It does have some of the scariest moments of all the later Disney movies – Fidget is responsible for most of them, from being illuminated by a flash of lightning in the window, to bursting out of a doll’s cradle, to dressing up as Olivia. He’s terrifying. BUT, he’s also goofy.
So is Ratigan, the villain, played by Vincent Price. I mean, he’s scary, and he has a giant pet cat to whom he feeds everyone who irritates him. But he also has plenty of little moments where he’s flawed, fickle, and funny. If The Black Cauldron felt like Disney starting to figure out what the next couple decades was going to look like, then The Great Mouse Detective is Disney feeling confidently along that path.
Drew theorizes that the reason that this movie didn’t become a huge hit is that it came out the same year as An American Tail. Which EVERYONE saw. Right? Can you sing me at least three songs from An American Tail? I bet you can. Can you name a single song from The Great Mouse Detective? Oh well.
The awesome thing about today is that it’s June 30 – halfway through 2014. And with The Great Mouse Detective, we have officially watched half of the Disney movie list!
My reaction: Have you seen this movie? Chances are good you haven’t. I don’t know why no one has seen it. The Black Cauldron is starting to feel like the Disney movies of my childhood (which I would say start with The Little Mermaid). The animation looks familiar and the story arcs feel familiar. It’s all there.
This one is kind of a weird mishmash, though. They are constantly introducing new characters, but I’m not sure to what end. To be fair, it’s not like we’re sitting down and quietly watching these movies from start to finish. We miss big chunks of them, when B needs to drag us into another room and show us something, etc. He seems to especially need things during the ends of the movies. Mostly that’s okay, because we are super familiar with the movies. But with The Black Cauldron, there was a lot of “Wait, who are those fairies?” “Wait, why is that sword magical?” “Wait, what happened to Hen Wen?”
Also, this one is surprisingly scary. The villain – the Horned King – is purely evil, there’s nothing funny about him. He has no snarky sidekicks or charming one-liners, like most Disney villains have. There’s moment early on when the main character, a young man named Taran, is knocked to the ground by some dragons. When he gets up, his mouth is bleeding. You wouldn’t see that in Tangled, just saying.
The best part about watching The Black Cauldron was the series of selfies I took of the two of us, as I tried to get a good picture for this post. He was in a really smiley mood yesterday.
My reaction: This is yet another one of those Disney movies that I’ve seen maybe once. So I was very emotionally involved in, say, the opening credits, where Tod’s mother sacrifices herself for him right off the bat. Awww! I was also surprised later at the ferocity with which Copper vows to get revenge on Tod for Chief’s injuries. It wasn’t his fault! Just be friends, guys!
I just had to look up The Fox and the Hound 2, which I assumed would be like Lady and the Tramp 2, and focus on the offspring on the first movie’s main characters. But it actually takes place during Tod and Copper’s childhood together (which I thought was only like a week long), during which Copper is “tempted to join a band of singing stray dogs.” LOL, “direct to video” indeed.
Fun fact: Did you know that the name Tod (or Todd) originates from Middle English and means “fox”? Widow Tweed, the lonely crazy old woman who adopts baby Tod and is basically the cause of all this trouble because she doesn’t know that foxes aren’t tame, says she names him Tod because he’s “such a toddler.” But I think that Disney probably used the name because of its origins. They’re clever like that.
Drew says: I don’t think that puppy [Copper] is cute. I don’t like that his eyes are all sunken in.
The Cameraphone Diaries 