Disney Animated Movie Review: #10 2014 Planes 7 out 10

Planes 2: Fire and Rescue  2014  7  out of 10

Dusty Crophopper finds out that he has a bad gear box that can't be replaced and has to give up his life as a Racer in this sequel to Planes.  After and accident that puts his towns airport in jeopardy unless they can find another Fire Fighter Dusty volunteers to get certified and help out.  When he goes for Firefight training he gets involved in an adventure in fighting fires with some other Planes.

Animation:

The animation is surprisingly stunning.    The visuals of this Disney Toon Studios movie was top notch and probably one of the better parts of the film.   Some the firefighting scenes are beautiful and I would recommend this film for a family movie night for the animation sequences alone.

The Story:

The Story was very average and underwhelming and probably one the weaker aspects of the film.  Unlike a Pixar movie this  spin off from Cars just seems ordinary.  It isn't a story that there was a huge demand or interest in,  which is probably why it didn't do huge numbers at the box office.   I can't imagine people watching Planes --which was extremely derivative of Cars in both story and subject matter and saying  "I hope they do a sequel where he fights fires instead of racing".   There is nothing wrong with the story...it is well paced -- it just isn't must see subject matter.

The Humor:

It had its moment and some decent jokes ---it just again wasn't on the level of Pixar's films.   I liked the voice talent used for the film like the always great Patrick Warburton.   I believe the voice talent added to the average story and made the film better. Wes Studi as the Apache Helicopter was also great.

The Music:

The Music that was used in the film was great and added a lot to the story telling again making an underwhelming story more enjoyable. Escpecially the music used during the first big fire that they try and put out.

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Planning a Trip to Disneyworld: Part 1 in a Series : Top Things I'm most excited about for this trip

Planning a trip to Disneyworld can be almost as fun as going there.
The excitement and anticipation just builds and builds as you count down to your trip.   I will be heading to Disneyworld with my wife and her kids for the first time ever in March 2015.   And being the Disney fan that I am I can't wait for them to see it.  I've personally been to Disneyworld 3 times- but my wife has never been there and I'm really excited for her take it all in and experience it.
 I'm a planner so I'm going to be doing a series of blogs about the anticipation for the trip over the next few months.   

I may Post some  Disneyworld Videos that I've watched on Youtube while making possible my to do list.  

Being a local of Southern California with an Annual Pass to Disneyland --my must see list won't be the same as someone that isn't familiar with Disneyland.  For example there is really no need to spend our time on rides that are just clones of their West Coast counterparts.   So if things like Space Mountain are not on my list that is why. 

1. Expedition Everest:   (Pictures from Pinterest)

The last time I was in Disneyworld this still being built.  So it is by far the ride or attraction I'm the most excited to go on  (even if the Yeti never works).   I can't wait to walk through the line and take a ton of pictures of this iconic ride and attraction 

2.  Kilimanjaro Safari   (Pictures from Pinterest)

This is far and away one of my favorite rides and attractions in Orlando.  I love this ride and it feels like a totally different experience ever single time you ride it.  This is one of the reasons that Animal Kingdom is my favorite park at the Disneyworld resort. You can get some amazing pictures on this ride and see something new ever time you ride it.  It is probably 15 times better than taking an actual Africa Safari.

3.  Visiting the Polynesian Resort: (Pictures from Pinterest)

My Love for Tiki is almost as big as my Love for Disney.   So a return to the Polynesian Resort is a must.    Plus I also have a Tiki Blog...and can't wait to post pictures of it.   I would stay here if we could afford to...Hopefully we can on some future trip.

4.  Tuto Gusto Wine Bar in Epcot (Pictures from Pinterest)

Ever since we saw that this place opened we knew that we had to go here and check it out.   I love Epcot and the fact that every country is like New Orleans square in Disneyland in its detail and depth.   (We also do a Wine Blog so stopping at the Italy Wine bar is a must see)

5.  Dinosaurs : The Ice Room at the T-Rex Restaurant in Downtown Disney and the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom

(Pictures from Pinterest)

By the same folks that do the Rainforest Cafe... the T-Rex Restaurant looks amazing.  Who wouldn't want to eat in an ice cave.   The Ride at Animal Kingdom is basically Indiana Jones with Dinosaurs.

6.  Test Track:   Tron Style  (Pictures from Pinterest)
Test Track is a great ride and they basically just redid the whole thing to look like Tron  (without officially calling it Tron).   A must ride attraction at Epcot.   The last time I went to Epcot --the ride I was most excited about was Mission Space....Until it made me sick....Test Track was the surprise ride that I loved.

7.  Festival of the Lion King  (Pictures from Pinterest)

A must see show for anyone that love the music of this iconic Disney film.   Best thing this side of seeing the actual Broadway show.

8.  Rock'n Rollercoaster (Pictures from Pinterest)

I've only ever been on this ride once before...and I remember loving this fun indoor coaster that has a twist and a fun soundtrack

9.  Tower of Terror (Pictures from Pinterest)

Hands down this version is way better than the California version.  
The section that moves in a way an elevator shouldn't is worth admission to the park

10.  The Living Seas

The Living Seas Attraction at Epcot revivals must aquariums that you can visit.  I love this place and can't wait to check it out again.

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Disneyland Picture of the Day: Photo Fun with Chip and Dale

Disney/Pixar Animated Short Reviews: #51 Mumbai Madness 6 out of 10

Mumbai Madness  2014  6 out of 10

Mickey Mouse goes Bollywood in this recent animated short cartoon as a taxi driver trying to drive an elephant to a mystic mountain.   The cartoon has a truly international flavor and a dance number as Mickey tries to entertain some cows out of the middle of the road.  It was not my of my favorites of this recent cartoon series.  The cartoons have ocassionally attempted to have an international flair touching on all cultures from around the world --sometimes at the expense of being entertaining and this Bollywood Mickey was an example of that.  I'd much rather see Mickey get his identity stolen by a Monkey that driving a taxi all over India.

As usual these cartoons can be found on Disney Online and the Disney Channel.

Disney/Pixar Animated Short Reviews: #50 Mickey Monkey 2014 8 out of 10

Mickey Monkey 2014  8 out of 10

Mickey Mouse is in for some Monkey Misadventures in his latest of the new cartoon shorts.  The Cartoon opens with what looks like the Swiss Family Treehouse and kicks off with Mickey and the gang getting ready to take a Jungle Cruise.  Problem is a Monkey steals Mickey's clothes and identity and Mickey has to spend the entire cartoon trying to get his identity back.  This cartoon features some great lines from Goofy and some cool animation as the gang treks down the jungle river in a boat straight out of Adventureland.  The cartoon also has a great throwback to Steamboat Willie with the Mickey Monkey at the helm. The animators of this cartoon series really know what they are doing with these fun cartoons at this point.  Goofy is slowly looking a little more like the Goofy I know and love and less (or maybe I'm just getting used to the animation). 

  I'm also personally love the Mickey Tikis from Mickey's Treehouse home after having just bought a Mickey Tiki necklace about a week ago.

The cartoons can be found on the Disney Channel and Disney Online

Disney/Pixar Animated Short Reviews: #49 Space Walkies 2014 7 out of 10

Space Walkies  2014  7  out of 10

This latest Mickey Mouse Cartoon opens with Mickey piloting a rocket ship that is a throwback to the old Disneyland TWA Moonliner.  I love when they add this cool little nods to Disney and Disneyland history.

Anyway back to the cartoon.  Mickey is about to land his rocket ship but Pluto needs to go to the bathroom.  So Mickey ends up taking Pluto on the silliest space walk -space has ever seen.  Chip and Dale make a surprise cameo that leads Mickey and Pluto on a chase through space to the sounds of some Space Surf music that again is a throwback to the the song that used to play in Space Mountain.  

They finally make it back to their ship in time to reenter the atmosphere and land right in Tomorrowland.

 It was a good effort ---even with the weird subject matter of having to go to the bathroom.

It can be found on Disney online and the Disney Channel

Disney/Pixar Animated Short Reviews: #48 Feast 2014 9+ out of 10

  Feast 2014   9+ out of 10

The Disney animated short cartoon Feast was featured before Big Hero 6 and all I can say about it is that it was adorable.  How can you not instantly fall in love with this cute little hungry puppy.  The animation style stylishly cool.   The story is very super simple.  The dog likes to eat and is befriended by a guy that feeds him under the table.  The whole cartoon is at the dog's point of view of what he eats with his owner.  He shares great eating moments with his new owner until the owner gets a girlfriend and tries to get the guy to eat healthy.  The little dog isn't to happy with this new situation and is happy when the guy breaks up with the girl, until he sees how it negatively effects his owner.   So he sacrifices his happiness of getting to eat all the yummy food that is bad for you in order to bring the relationship back together so his owner is happy.   I dare any dog lover not to love this little cartoon.

Disney/Pixar Animated Short Reviews: #47 Boiler Room 2014 7 out of 10

Boiler Room  2014 7 out of 10

Is there a monster in Minnie's Boiler Room?  or isn't there?   Well actually the building water heater is broken.   It is a angry animated boiler that puts Mickey in terrible peril.   This animated short has some cool animation as Mickey tries to avoid the angry heater and runs away from its outstretched pipes.  Mickey is able to face his fears and eventually saves the day.   It was a very simple cartoon and not one of my favorites in the series, but still enjoyable.

It can be found playing on the Disney Channel or Disney Online or the Disney Channel

Disneyland Picture of the Day: Winnie the Pooh Signing autographs

Disney Animated Short Feature #3 Toy Story: That Time Forgot 2014 9 out of 10

Toy Story : That Time Forgot  2014  9 out of 10

Pixar never fails to come up with new an interesting ways to explore the Toy Story world.   This latest Animated Short Feature stars Woody, Buzz, Trixie and Rex in an adventure that happens when Bonnie takes them to a friends house for a play date.  Once they arrive Bonnie finds that her friend is playing video games so she tosses the backpack that they are in into the boys room.  The gang goes to explore the room and finds themselves smack dab in the middle of the coolest dinosaur play set ever.  Unfortunately the Dinosaurs just like Buzz was in the original Toy Story ---don't know they are toys and think their entire existence is to battle one another and destroy every other toy in the room.  

Despite the Battlesaurs being some of the coolest toys never to exist---this episode has a storyline about Trixie accepting herself for who she is and and in a cool sci-fi movie moment the main Battlesaur Reptillus Maximus finds out the truth that he is a toy and what it means to be played with.   The scene where he is chasing Trixie as she goes to get help for her friends that are in peril has some cool "Damn Dirty Ape" or "To Serve Man"  type moments when he first encounters the box that he came in.   This feature was a fun and interesting little action adventure tale and makes me even more excited about the recently announced Toy Story 4.   I have complete faith that John Lasseter and Pixar that they will once again find and interesting and compelling story to tell in the universe of Toy Story that started it all.

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Disneyland picture of the day: Pooh's Corner

Playing around with photo effects.

I thought I'd make Pooh's meet and greet area a little more colorful

Disneyland Picture of the Day: Christmas Cactus

(Disney Animated Movie Review #9 ) Big Hero 6 2014 8+ out of 10 ---Disney Sneak Peek and Meet and Greet

Sneak Peeks:

Disney has done it yet again in this comic book adaptation of a lesser known Marvel comic.  Big Hero 6 was another example of a Disney movie that I was only mildly excited about until I saw the 4-D sneak peek at the Disney parks.  I've now seen 4-D sneak peeks of Tron Legacy,  Frankenweenie,  Maleficent, Guardians of the Galaxy and now Big Hero 6 in the parks.  Each sneak peek has lead to me seeing the film from that sneak peek in the theaters --even if before the sneak peek I wasn't necessarily dying to see the films at the multiplex.   This new promotional use of Disney's 4-D theaters has been a fun and exciting way of adding something new to the parks while promoting the companies new and upcoming movies as.  I wasn't even going to see Guardians of the Galaxy in the theaters-until the sneak peek blew me away and that film became my favorite film of the year so far.  Now I look forward to going to the parks just to see this sneaks.......Especially with possibly Avengers and Star Wars sneak on the horizon.

Big Hero 6  2014  8+ out of 10

The movie was a fun action packed adventure.  The story follows Hiro - a kid who is a computer genius that is wasting his time doing back street robot battles for money.  His brother inspires him to use his abilities toward science by building something in order to get into the high tech school his brother attends.  Hiro builds some tech that is a little too good and too advanced.  This leads to the films villain blowing up the tech expo and secretly stealing this idea.

  It also leads to his brother loses his life trying to save his professor.   Emotional stuff--since as is common in way too many Disney films the kid is left without parents and now even without his old mentor brother.  This similar Disney theme is also the case for Ezra in the new Star Wars Rebels series --where he has lost his parents as well.  

This tragic event leaves Hiro (the films hero) sad and depressed with no purpose --until he bangs his toe in his room which awakens Baymax , the most loveable Balloon Robot -Caretaker of all-time.  Baymax is the heart of this Disney movie --figuratively and literally.  The robot was built by Hiro's brother as the perfect medical assistant.  Baymax comes along at the perfect moment --right when Hiro needs a friend the most and his mission is to help.  Baymax adds many laughs and the emotional center to the film that leads Hiro on an adventure where he encounters the villain that has turned his science experiment into something used to get revenge.   Hiro enlists his brothers friends from the Science school to help battle this villain by using their science abilities.  The film was an exciting and emotional journey for Hiro --that was packed with great visuals.   A  true surprise that I really enjoyed.

Time to meet Baymax Character Meet and Greets:

The other day after having seen the movie I was able to run on back over to Disneyland where Hiro and Baymax are now doing Meet and Greets in the park.  The meet and greets started around 10:30 when I was over on the other side of the parks checking out some of Disney's Christmas decorations.   By the time I got over there the line was already huge.   The meet and greet was set up to look like Hiro's garage and the people couldn't wait to get in there and hug this big balloon robot.  Baymax is a hit and character looks amazing.  He waddles around just like in the films and his eyes blink exactly like the character in the movie as well.  I think Baymax may be around for awhile and would be a perfect fit for Innventions once his meet and greet ends.

Carsland is Ready for Christmas: Christmas Mater

Christmas Mater

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