Pictures and comments by Brad Chowen from the parks.
Cartoon Reviews, Attraction and Restaurant Reviews from Disneyland, Disneyworld and just generally everything Disney
My Disney Facebook page is here
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The latest Mickey Mouse cartoon is a throwback to the old school Goofy Sports cartoons that I love so much. Mickey is the announcer of a basketball game that tries to give a bunch of Goofy's a lesson in good sportmanship. The cartoon goes on to show a bunch of different sporting events through out history that demonstrates both good and bad sports behavior. It is a nice homage to the old Goofy cartoons with several good gags, but never fully reaches the excellence of those original cartoons. The best gag in the cartoon is the Football Goofy's touchdown celebration,
The cartoon can be found on the Disney Channel or Disney Online.
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The long awaited sequel to Finding Nemo (Finding
Dory) just came out and swam it’s way to box office records.It now stands as the number one animated movie
all-time at the domestic US Box Office.
It only makes sense that the Turtle Talk with Crush show
in the Disney Animation building in DCA would get an upgrade.And that is exactly what happened.
\ Starting with a new waiting area that teaches
you about some of the characters in the new film.
The structure of the show remains basically the same. If you have never experienced Turtle Talk with Crush it is basically an interactive conversation with Crush from Finding Nemo and Finding Dory. Using innovative technology Disney has made it possible for you to actually talk and interact with a cartoon. Your little ones will love it as they can ask Crush questions and he will respond back. Every viewing has the chance to be slightly different depending on the audience.
The updated version of the show features cameos from several characters from the smash hit sequel including Dory herself.
You can also expect to see Hank (if you are paying attention). Squirt, Bailey the Beluga Whale and Marlin.
Professor Von Drake is back in the latest Mickey Mouse Cartoon and he does an experiment to try and take the anger out of Donald Duck. Of course the experiment goes wrong creating two Donalds. One Donald is a super nice huggy Donald that seems like he took some strong medication. The other is basically a Hulk version of Donald. Donald Smash! Chaos happens and it is delightful. The two sides of Donald make for make for an entertaining effort in the cartoon series. The cartoons can be found on the Disney Channel or Disney Online
In the latest Minnie Mouse Cartoon we go deep into the subject of discrimination. Minnie and the gals have reservations for a fancy Space Needle Restaurant. This is a high class joint and apparently Daisy, Minnie and Clara Belle aren't welcome. Deep stuff for a Minnie Mouse cartoon. The Maitre D takes on look at the gals and their simple farm style outfits and completely ignores the fact that Minnie actually does have reservation. The gals spend the rest of the cartoon trying to sneak into the restaurant which leads to some silly and weird moments including Clara Belle being stuck in the roof and spraying milk all over the customers. It was an okay cartoon with several gags, but not one of the better of the series. If one looks deep enough into the plot it has a stronger message about class struggle and could represent revolution of the struggling masses against the elitist rich.
The cartoon can be found on the Disney Channel and Disney Online.
When they first announced that they would be doing a
remake of Pete’s Dragon I was excited.I’m
generally not a fan of remakes –except for when they have a chance to really
improve on the originals.I don’t think
classics should be remade. When Hollywood remakes Classic movies they general
fail.You end up walking out of the
movie thinking “I should have just watched the original”. This was the case with Psycho and Halloween.I would never want to see a remake to one of
my favorite movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark or Ghostbusters ( yeah I
know),but something like Pete’s Dragon
is perfect to remake.It is the kind of
movie that makes you wonder what they could do with it with today’s technology.
The original Pete’s Dragon from 1977 was a fun, silly
live action/Animated musical with a 2-D animated Dragon.The story is basically Mary Poppins with a
Dragon instead of a nanny.
The 2016
Remake brings the Dragon into the modern era of CGI.Gone are the songs and instead we get a great
cast of quality actors and an amazing looking CGI Dragon.
When the original Teaser Trailer dropped---I was lukewarm
on the remake.It was such a short
teaser that I couldn’t imagine how the movie would turn out.It looked like a young Tarzan boy story.Instead of being excited about the film I
thought“Maybe they screwed it up”.
As the summer went on long more trailers begin to appear that
make it look like a more magical worthy of a remake film.I was starting to get a little excited again
and I started looking forward to the Disneyland Parks sneak peek that would
begin airing in July.
The sneak peek has now turned this into a must see
movie.Like previous sneak peeks with
the exception of Alice Through the Looking Glass (which fell as flat as the
movie)this sneak peek only enhanced my
wanting to see the film.My original
concerns about the plot are now gone.Robert Redford will be amazing.Elliot the Dragon looks like the perfect mix of Dragon with a touch of
the old animated version.It would have
been a bad idea to make a traditional Dragon---they stayed true to the original
Elliot in their updated design.The
sneak peek has a great scene with Elliot flying around with Pete that was epic
in the 4-D theater.The movie looks
like a fun and touching action packed version of the original.ET with a Dragon.I’m
now confident that I’ll love the film. I wouldn’t even want to guess how it will do at the box office
however.I was shocked at how much
money The Jungle Book Live Action film made…..yet the Alice sequel to a billion
dollar original film bombed and BFG died despite supposedly being good.Will people show up in droves to this new
Pete’s Dragon.
It was a Star Wars filled couple of week. Here are 5 cool Star Wars things that have dropped in the last couple of weeks.
New Star
Wars Land concept artwork is now up on the fences where Big Thunder Ranch used
to be. Here is a photo of that artwork.
Here is a photo of Star Wars Land itself –I
took from the Parking lot during a recent trip to the park
Thrawn is Back: Grand
Admiral Thrawn makes his return to the Star Wars Universe and is canon once
again. Announced during the Rebels panel at Star
Wars Celebration Europe and seen in the trailer for Rebels Season 3.Thrawn was featured in the book series by
Timothy Zahn that keep Star Wars alive for fans after Return of the Jedi.A fan favorite that many fans of the EU were
upset about when Disney bought Star Wars and rebooted the Book Universe.Now he is back as a character in Rebels and the
crowd at Celebration went crazy over the news.
Here is the Trailer for Season 3 that also brings Wedge into the series.
3. Did I mention Thrawn is back: If you weren’t already excited enough about
Thrawn being back in Rebels---he is also coming back in a book written by
Timothy Zahn as well. So excited to Zahn will do with him in the new canon.
4.New Rogue One Footage: Another thing coming out of Star Wars
Celebration was a new behind the scenes featurette.
A 3 minute long behind the scenes glimpse at the movie that revealed some new creatures and a few action shots.
5.The Young
Han Solo is finally officially announced.We all new this news already –but now it is official.
Alden Ehrenreich will be the dude with the Wookie co-pilot.
Here is the Disney Facebook page. Give it a follow.
It took 13 years for a sequel for Finding Nemo to get made.Finding Dory hit the box office waters at just the right time.In about a month at the US box office it has already made over 445 Million dollars at the box office and is already the number 1 Animated Movie of All time at the Domestic box office.It is the biggest US release of the year passing Captain America: Civil War.The sequel's story is derivative of the original film in that it involves a search for family.This time around however Dory the blue fish with short term memory loss actually starts to remember her family which kick starts an adventure to find them.It is covering familiar ground –but the addition of new characters and a new setting keeps things fresh.
The Setting
The setting of the original was the Great Barrier Reef.This time around we get to visit the Californian coastline (I know these little fish taking the EAC with the Sea Turtles all the way across the ocean is ridiculous just go with it) and the Monterey Marine Park.The setting is terrific.The Marine Park gives the film a bunch of great environments to play around in.The scene where the Ocean Seas exhibit is revealed is a stunning piece of animation.The film looks gorgeous.
The Story
Dory with the help of an Octopus named Hank tries to remember where exactly she is from in search of her parents.Meanwhile Marlin and Nemo are trying to find her after she is taken to the aquarium by some humans.The story –just like in Finding Nemo is about family and the willingness to do anything for family.Dory faces challenges in order to find her long lost folks.Marlin and Nemo risk their lives to make sure Dory is okay –because they consider her family.Finding Dory is an action packed fun adventure that has funny moments and sentimental moments that the entire family will enjoy.
The Characters
The returning characters are great of course.I was a big fan of the original film Finding Nemo.It is one of my favorite Pixar films.The chemistry between Albert Brooks as Marlin and Ellen as Dory was excellent in the original film.This movie is all about Dory and her character is once again great.Baby Dory has to be one of the cutest characters ever.Crush one of my favorite characters had a small scene –but was excellent again as well (check out Turtle Talk with Crush at the Disney parks for more of Crush). The introduction of Hank the Octopus (voiced by Ed O’Neill) was also terrific.Some other new characters that add a new flare to the adventure include a couple of Seal Lions and a Whale Shark and Beluga Whale.
The Visuals
The visuals were absolutely incredible.Pixar somehow always finds a new way to step up its game and again they absolutely knocked it out of the park again.
In Summary:If you liked Finding Nemo then you will like Finding Dory.It is more of the same and it has been long enough, just that like the Force Awakens where although it touched on similar themes.
