Tag: disneyproject

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Awesome Children Drew Endings Memoir Movies Sentiment

Disney Project 2014: A Look Back

disney retrospective

Well, once again, I have neglected to complete most of my new year’s resolutions for 2014. But that’s okay! Because one of the few we DID accomplish was Disney Project 2014.

A year is a long time. You can see in the pictures how much B has grown. And while I would say that 15-27 months old is maybe a little young to try this project (if you were thinking about tackling it yourself), there were movies he enjoyed. It’s all about familiarity, I think. This weekend, we had no “to-watch” Disney movie, so we watched Monsters University, because he’s semi-familiar with the characters. It was more fun than I remember watching Snow White was (a whole year ago).

My favorites remain (in chronological order):

Sleeping Beauty
Lady and the Tramp
The Little Mermaid
Beauty and the Beast
Frozen (I would never have said this 6 months ago. But it’s a part of me now.)

Least favorites from this year:

Saludos Amigos/The Three Caballeros
Dinosaur
Chicken Little
Bolt
Winnie the Pooh (2011)

Surprise! I actually like this:

Melody Time
Home on the Range
Meet the Robinsons

I’ve been trying to figure out what I learned from this experience. I could hold up the Disney protagonist values: honesty, loyalty, dedication, goodness. I could also point out that I think there is merit in the early Disney films, even if some of the things in them have since become politically incorrect, and I think we should not always judge things made in the 1940s under 2014 standards. Or maybe I could talk about the state of Disney princesses…from Snow White to Anna, a lot has changed about these women and their behavior and the roles they play in their own stories. (For that matter, a lot has changed about Disney princes, and their behavior, and their roles.)

I am so grateful to have the shared Disney childhood experience with Drew (even if we remember some movies with differing levels of fondness). I am also grateful to be passing on these movies and experiences to B. I can’t wait until he’s a little older and can point out plot holes we’ve missed and make jokes with us.

Thank you, Disney! Cheers, 2014! Now what to watch next?

 

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Awesome Children Drew Endings Holidays Love Memoir Movies Sentiment

Disney Project 2014: Frozen!!!

MOVIE: FROZEN

RELEASE YEAR: 2013

I HAVE TO WRITE IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE I AM SO EXCITED – I CANNOT BELIEVE – WE FINISHED OUR DISNEY PROJECT!

Ok that’s enough.

Although we watched Frozen about 60 times this year, we watched it one more special time on Christmas morning to finish out Disney Project 2014. It was just as good as always! I will always have a special place in my heart for Frozen and Elsa and Anna and Sven and Kristoff and Olaf and the trolls (not really the trolls) and For the First Time in Forever and Let It Go and the ending scene where Elsa says “You sacrificed yourself for me?” and Anna says “I love you” awwwwwww. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and Celebrate Frozen and YAY FOR ACCOMPLISHING YEAR-LONG OBJECTIVES!

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Children Drew Movies

Disney Project 2014: Wreck-It Ralph

Movie: Wreck-It Ralph

Release year: 2012

Neither Drew nor I had seen this one yet, but as we find (most) Disney movies delightful, and this one has a charming cast, I was excited to see it finally. And I wasn’t disappointed! It’s a clever story with lots of interesting details, about all the characters in arcade video games, and their lives outside the games. They all flow into and out of the “Game Central Station,” a surge protector that they’re all plugged into. There are some homeless game characters there, like Q*bert. Wreck-It Ralph is a “villain” character (but a totally nice guy), voiced by John C. Reilly, who sets out to become a hero, so that people will like him and want to hang out with him.

It’s full of little twists and turns that we both really enjoyed, and I thought the ending was good without being too cheesy. I’m officially a Wreck-It Ralph fan. =)

Alas, this is the best picture I could get, as B was especially active for this one.

IMG_8530Also, don’t stare too long at that duck, or it’ll freak you out.

 

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Children Movies

Disney Project 2014: Tangled

Movie: Tangled

Release year: 2010

From what I’ve heard, this movie was originally titled Rapunzel – but they changed it to Tangled and made Flynn Rider more prominent, so as to not scare away boys. (BTW, I recently took a “Which Disney prince is your true love?” quiz, and I got Flynn Rider, so. You know.)

Tangled gives us the story of Rapunzel, but with a more elaborate backstory, and a more empowered title character (played by Mandy Moore!), a more conflicted love interest, plus some magic. Mother Gothel (pictured below) is a great villain with a couple great songs. Actually, all of the music is pretty good.

I’m guessing most of us have seen this one, so I won’t take up more of your time. If you haven’t seen it, it’s great! Even B liked it!

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Children Drew Movies Technology

Disney Project 2014: Bolt

Movie: Bolt

Release year: 2008

Do you remember this movie? About the dog who thinks he’s a movie star? And his voice is provided by John Travolta? And his owner’s voice is provided by Miley Cyrus? And her name is Penny? Which is the same name of the girl in Inspector Gadget, who also works closely with a dog sidekick that’s smarter than a regular dog? And Bolt thinks he has to save her from the Green-Eyed Man’s evil henchmen?

Okay. So that is basically the rundown. Or at least, that’s what I know of the movie, because around 1:10 into it, the library DVD started skipping, then froze, and we feared it actually broke our DVD player. We did get the disc out eventually, and I wrote a note to the library about the giant gash in the DVD, and we returned it, and Drew just read the plot synopsis for the final half hour that we missed.

It was basically exactly what we had guessed it would be. Which wasn’t satisfying, because the whole experience was so frustrating…haha. So, this is just not one of our favorites. No recommendation!

On the other hand – look how cute!

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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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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!!

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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:

LiloandStitchmovieposter

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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