Tarzan

Liam and I recently watched Disney's Tarzan, which I hadn't seen in forever.  Let me just say that I cried 3 times in the first 10-15 minutes of the movie, and that by the end I had cried a total of 6 times.  I don't remember my heart aching so many times before, I am turning into my mother.

Tarzan was released in 1999 by Walt Disney Animation and is considered the last of the Disney Renaissance films.  It is the 37th Walt Disney Animated Classic and the first animated feature of the story of Tarzan, based off of the book Tarzan and the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Tarzan is a story about a British couple who are shipwrecked on an island with their baby and cannot survive the wildlife.  An ape who has recently lost her own baby hears Tarzan crying and raises him as her own with the gorillas.  As an adult, other humans come to explore the island and Tarzan is torn between wanting to be with his own kind and staying with the family that raised him.


Voice talents include:
Tony Goldwyn as Tarzan (Scandal, Divergent, Law & Order: CI, Last Samurai, Ghost)
Glenn Close as Kala (Simpsons, Damages, Hoodwinked, The Shield, Stepford Wives, Air Force One)
Brian Blessed as Clayton (Peppa Pig, King Lear, Star Wars Episode I, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves)
Minnie Driver as Jane (Good Will Hunting, Grosse Point Blank, About A Boy, I Give It A Year, Riches)
Nigel Hawthorne as Professor Porter (Amistad, Demolition Man, Yes, Prime Minister, Black Cauldron)
Wayne Knight as Tanto (Seinfeld, Jurassic Park, Space Jam, The Exes, Hot in Cleveland, 3rd Rock From the Sun)
Rosie O'Donnell as Terk (Flintstones, Now & Then, League of Their Own, The View, Rosie O'Donnell Show)

It's production budget of $130 million made it the most Expensive animated film of all time at the time of its release.  Disney's Treasure Planet finally topped it t $140 million in 2002.  Tarzan gross $448 billion worldwide as was the first Disney film to open at #1 since Pocahontas.

For the movie Tarzan, the production team developed a new CGI concept called Deep Canvas, which allowed artists to created CGI backgrounds that looked like a painting.  This technique was awarded a Technical Achievement Award in 2003 from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science.  The songs for the film were written and performed by Phil Collins.

I loved this movie, and although it has some disturbing emotional scenes for adults, my toddler didn't seem to be negatively affected.  He loved the movie and keeps requesting to watch the "movie with the baby" which is what Tarzan is now called in our house.  4.5 out of 5 stars. 

You can visit the official site: Tarzan

Monster's University

I have been wanting to see Monster's University since I first heard that they were making it.  I was definitely more excited to watch it than Liam (my 3 year old son) was.  He is never too keen on watching new things until you convince him to give it a try.  I definitely enjoyed the movie although it seemed almost more geared towards adults than children.  I would have liked to have seen more of little Mikey and added some of little Sully.  But as always there were some great lessons to be learned for older kids.

In case you know nothing about Monster's University it is a 2013 Computer animated 3D comedy children's film.  It is the prequel to the 2001 movie Monster's Inc.  It is the first prequel that Pixar has created to date and was their 14th full-length film.  This returns to our two friends Mike & Sully before they met when they were both studying at Monster's University to become the top scarers.  They start the movie out as rivals. 

It was produced by Pixar and released by Disney.  Disney had plans to make a sequel to Monster's Inc since 2005 but due to disagreements with Pixar, they tasked their Circle 7 Animation studio to make it.  An early draft of the film was worked on but with the purchase of Pixar by Disney in 2006 it put that film away.  A Pixar made sequel was confirmed in 2010, but they decided on making a Prequel instead in 2011.  Overall the film received positive reviews and was a box office success grossing $743 million against a $200 million budget.  The original sequel was set to come out in early November 2012 but had to be preponed due to coinciding with The Twilight Saga-Breaking Dawn Part 2.  One a prequel was decided on, it pushed everything back to 2013.




Monster's University features a wonderful voice acting cast to include:
Micheal "Mike" Wazowski-Billy Crystal (When Harry Met Sally, Analyze This, City Slickers)
James P. Sullivan "Sully"-John Goodman (Roseanne, Argo, Community, Saturday Night Live)
Randall "Randy" Boggs-Steve Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs, ConAir, Boardwalk Empire, 30 Rock)
Dean Hardscrabble-Helen Mirren (Red, The Queen, State of Play, Teaching Mrs. Tingle)
Done-Joel Murray (Mad Men, Two and a Half Men, Shameless, Dharma & Greg, Still Standing)
Terri-Sean Hayes (Will & Grace, Sean Saves the World)
Terry-Dave Foley (Hot in Cleavland, Dan Vs, How to Be A Gentleman, Will & Grace)
Art-Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Horrible Bosses, Pacific Rim, Third Watch)

Overall I have to say that this was a good standalone film.  When you compare it with it's predecessor Monster's Inc. which was such a phenomenal movie this one falls short of a 5 star rating.  I round it up to a 4 star because it is still good and fun to watch, but could have been better.  There were many great elements in the movie and Mike & Sully stayed in character.  I felt like almost every scene I had watched in previews was not featured in the actual movie such as Mike being turned into a disco ball by Sully.  It seems that the previews painted Sully out to be more of a bully to Mike than he was in the finished product and I am ok with that result but it always sucks when you are watching for certain parts and never seen them.  This film introduced a lot of fun new characters that brought a whole new element of "scary" to the monsters.  It did have a slightly darker tone than the original movie.  Once we got it started my son was definitely into it from the start and there are some great lessons on friendship and cheating and being excelling at what makes you unique.  I would definitely recommend this movie and would watch it again.

Here is the official website: monstersuniversity.com/edu/

Oz: The Great & Powerful

Having wanted to see this one for quite some time, I was very happy to finally find the time to watch it last night.  I am a huge James Franco fan and it had some other fantastic actresses and voice actors as well.  The cinematography/CGI was beautifully done and I give the highest of honors to it.  The movie started out so beautifully and when OZ gets to Oz initially you feel like he may have made a wrong turn and ended up in Wonderland...  Unfortunately by the time he gets to the Emerald City things start to get weird.

Oz The Great and Powerful is about the Tale of Oz from the Wizard's point of view and is a prequel to he Wizard of Oz, and Return to Oz.  It was released in 2013 and directed by Sam Raimi.  The film is based on the Oz novels of L. Frank Baum and is supposed to be set at a time-frame 20 years previous to the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.  Oscar Diggs (otherwise known as Oz) is a struggling traveling magician who arrives in the Land of Oz in a similar fashion as Dorothy (by way of tornado) while riding in a hot air balloon.  Oscar finds himself recruited to restore order to Oz and in the middle of a three-way fight with powerful witches Theodora, Evanora & Glinda.

Despite mixed reviews it was considered a box office success with a general theatrical release date of March 8, 2013.  It grossed $493 million worldwide, $234 million in the US & Canada.  Oz is supposed to be dated in teh year 1905 (placing it 20 years before the original film The Wizard of Oz).

There are quite a few instances of paying homage to the original film in this one.  Such as the starting out of the film in Sepia and then fading into color once Oscar arrives in Oz.  Cameo appearances of characters in Kansas that are also characters in Oz.  Annie (when in Kansas) informs Oscar that she has been proposed to by a man name John Gale...  Possible relation to Dorothy Gale.  The rest you will have to view for yourself as they may present themselves as spoilers if you do not know the story.



There is quite an all-star cast in this movie as well to include

Oscar Diggs/Wizard of Oz: James Franco (Spider-Man franchise, 127 Hours, General Hospital)
Theodora: Mila Kunis (That 70s Show, Black Swan, Family Guy, Ted, Friends With Benefits)
Evanora: Rachel Weisz (Mummy franchise, Constantine, Constant Gardener, Agora)
Glina/Annie: Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn, Shutter Island, Dawson's Creek)
Frank/Finley: Zach Braff (Scrubs, The Last Kiss, Garden State, Chicken Little)
Also featuring Bill Cobbs, Joey King and Tony Cox)

The original Wizard of Oz was put out by MGM in 1939 as they had bought the rights to it first.  Walt Disney had always dreamed of working on an Oz film and later acquired rights to the remaining books of Oz, which lead him to start working on  The Rainbow Road to Oz with his Mousketeers.  Unfortunately he didn't like the way that it was going and didn't feel that it was worth of the Oz story and it wasn't until after his death that Return to Oz was released becoming a cult classic.

Initially Robert Downey, Jr was sought after as the role of Oz but once Sam Raimi was hired on and discovered the disinterest in the film by Downey they decided to look to Johnny Depp.  Depp declined due to his working on the Lone Ranger at the time and it wasn't until 5 months before filming began that James Franco was signed on for a 7 million dollar deal.  Franco & Raimi had previously worked together on the Spiderman franchise.  Art Director Robert Stromberg (Avatar, Alice in Wonderland) went with an art deco approach to the emerald city.  (This explains why the opening feels like Wonderland).  There were many artistic stipulation placed on this production to include the ruby slippers, the color of green of the original witches skin as well as the mole on her chin,  and they could not use a yellow brick swirl for Munchkinland.  This led to the green of the wicked witch being significantly darker, it has a special name but it could be a spoiler.

On March 7th, 2013, a sequel was confirmed.  Mila Kunis stated that all acting talent had already signed on for a sequel.  Sam Raimi was already made it known that a sequel would be directed by someone other than himself.  The sequel would reportedly NOT contain Dorothy and it was stated that 20 years between the prequel and the original allow for a lot to happen.

Overall I have to say that I give this film 3.5 out of 5 stars.  It was good, but not fantastic.  As I previously stated, it started out SO well with the lead up to Oz and then things started to get weird, there was a weird kind of love triangle interest int he beginning of meeting both witch sisters which was kind of left hanging in the air.  The movement of the witches was very irritating to me during battles, they were very jerky and much too fast and strange feeling.  Glinda didn't have the feel of being as good as you wanted her to be, I felt like she was more on par with the Wicked Glinda which was ok, but not expected.  Overall the story was really good when it flowed consistently, with the background of how the Wicked Witch came to be and with the Wizard of Oz.  However there were some seriously choppy parts that felt like things had been cut or taken out and then never smoothed over to make the movie flow as one.  I loved the use of the brain as opposed to magic and the belief in something to make something come to pass.  I also loved the costuming in the movies, some very awesome takes on witchy dresses and Oscar look svery dapper throughout in his suits.  It was a great backdrop as to how the Wizard became what we saw in the Wizard of Oz.  The scenes were very beautiful but the weird jerkiness and some of the witch battles that had some really tacky feeling CGI as well as choppy parts leave me with a 3.5 for this movie.  If you are a lover of Oz though it is definitely worth the watch...  but maybe not more than once.

If you would like to view the movie website you can go here: Oz The Great and Powerful

Lilo & Stich 2: Stich Has A Glitch

As promised, I am here to review the second movie in the Stitch series.  Although there may be some confusion since technically The Stitch movie was made second, this movie actually falls second in terms of story timeline, so I consider it the second movie in the series.  This movie has been the reigning favorite with my son.  I personally like the first one and The Stitch Movie the best, but this one seems to always get Liam's vote. Luckily they have great repeat watch value as a parent and especially for a toddler which is priceless as any parent well knows. 

We are once again brought into the tropical Hawaiian world of Lilo and her pay Stitch in this movie!  Elvis music reigns supreme but in a good way.  Most notably in this sequel, Stitch no longer tries to hide who.what he is, and he is a much more talkative character in this movie.  Stitch is learning how to fit into a human society and learn how to raise his "goodness level".  We get to see our main character Lilo a young girl aspiring to be a hula dancer and her alien friend Stitch who everyone calls a dog for lack of anything better to call him.  Lilo lives with her older sister Nani (their parents were deceased before the start of the original movie).  The character David is trying to further a relationship with Nani throughout the movie.  Lilo's main focus is to come up with the best Hulu dance ever for a competition so that she can win as her mother did before her.  Stitch is to be her partner in the dance when all of a sudden he starts "glitching."  During his "glitch" moments he is quite destructive and actually semi dangerous to those around him but the normal Stitch which is now good does not know what happens during these times or how to stop it.  His creator Jumba and pal Pleakley are on a mission to try to fix Stitch (they decided to stay on Earth after the end of the first movie).   Social worker Cobra Bubbles was absent from his role in this film.

Lilo & Stitch 2 was released in 2005 (the original was released in 2002).  The add-on "Stitch Has a Glitch" was never associated with the original film in any titling but became commonly associated with the movie and was later added on to the title and in advertising.  This is the only film in the entire franchise where you will hear Lilo with a different voice (Dakota Fanning) due to the scheduling conflicts with the Lilo & Stitch tv show that was also airing at the same time as recording for this show.  Chris Sanders (writer/director) of the first film still did voicing but did not participate in any of the production of this film that was a straight to DVD release after an original theatrical release plan.  It received mixed reviews, with most of the negative responses saying that the story was not as engaging as the original and that the humor had gone from intellectual witty to a much more dumbed down younger sort of humor.  To me there was a bit more of dark undertone to a lot of the humor in the original that I admittedly loved.  But this movie showed a lot more lessons in friendship and love. 

Voice acting remained the same with Dakota Fanning, in place of Daveigh Chase (Donnie Darko), although I must admit that having seen all of the films multiple times now, that it is not a noticeable change by any means.


Lilo is voiced by Dakota Fanning (Man on Fire, Twilight Saga, Push, War of the Worlds, Hounddog)
Stitch is voiced by Chris Sanders who also wrote the screenplay
Nani is voiced by Tia Carrere (Wayne's World)
David (Nani's love interest) is voiced by Jason Scott Lee (Bruce Lee's Dragon)
Jumba (Stitch's creator) is voiced by David Ogden Stiers (Cogsworth, MASH)

I give this film 4/5 stars.  Although it is not as great as the original film in my opinion, it still has a lot of great values.  I love that the animation is different that you would usually see, especially for a Disney film.  The characters in their personalities, especially Lilo are very real in the way that she feels about people and school and going through sorrow and anger in a way that is not often faced in young children, especially in cartoon movies.  You can see her growth through her friendship with Stitch.  This movie also will always stand out to me because Liam was able to empathetically connect with this movie in a way that I have never seen him do so with other movies.  Towards the end of the movie Stitch is in a possible dead state and my three year old son actually felt the sadness and the loss and had tears welled up into his eyes.  The love of Lilo is what ultimately feeds Stitches life-force and the loss is short lived and then you are able to rejoice in the happiness, so that for younger children this is not ending on a sad note.  This movie held overall a lot less violence than the other films, and mostly featured inner turmoil and the fact that teaching lessons such as hurting a friend and scratching them can be very hurtful to another person.  You can tell that overall the audience for the film was intended to be younger.  I definitely recommend this movie and to continue in the story line to get the full effect don't miss out on the original Lilo & Stitch.


Here is the official website: Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has A Glitch

In case you missed my review on the original: Lilo & Stitch you can find it here: Lilo & Stitch

The Mighty Ducks

This used to be one of my all-time favorite movies as a child!  I had a huge crush on Joshua Jackson (Charlie) back then and I LOVED hockey!  There were a lot of hockey/figure skating movies that came out during my childhood and with the winter Olympics here, it reminds me of how I used to religiously watch all the time.  It was great to receive this great trip down memory lane on this snowy day.  Unfortunately this movie was a bit old for Liam and although I tried to watch it with him a couple of times, it kept getting ejected for things like Rugrats, Curious George, and Rio.  In his defense it is about Pee-Wee Hockey and a little above a 3 year old's head.

In case you missed sharing the Mighty Ducks at the height of it's fame in 1992 when it was released by Walt Disney Studios, let me tell you a bit about it.  It is an American sports comedy film directed by Stephen Herek (101 Dalmations).  It stars Emilio Estevez as a former pee-wee hockey star turned lawyer, who finds himself forced to coach for community service.  The team he is given consists of a cluster of a group of kids that have not yet learned how to work together.  The team includes younger versions of stars who made it big later in life, most notably Charlie who is played by Joshua Jackson.

The Mighty Ducks grossed over $50 million, making it a surprising success with audiences and spawning the beginning of a trilogy and also a spin-off tv show.  Critically this movie was a bomb, but the audiences loved it causing it to continue on into the trilogy with D2 & D3 coming out every 2 years respectively (1994, 1996).  The movie went on to inspire a real-life hockey team owned by Disney to be named after it in 1993, which when sold by Disney was renamed the Anaheim Ducks.






Stars you can find in the movie:
Gordon Bombay (the coach) played by Emilio Estevez (The Breakfast Club, Young Guns, St Elmo's Fire, The Outsiders, Bobby, etc)
Hans (Gordon's mentor) played by Joss Ackland (Kid in King Arthur's Court, Hunt For Red October)
Coach Jack Riley played by Lane Smith (Lois & Clark the New Adventures of Superman)
Charlie Conway played by Joshua Jackson (Dawson's Creek, The Skulls, Fringe)
Fulton Reed played by Elden Henson*aka Ratliff* (Butterfly Effect, Deja Vu, Lords of Dogtown)
Dave Karp played by Aaron Schwartz (Gossip Girl)
Connie Moreau played by Marguerite Moreau (Grey's Anatomy, Shameless, Parenthood)

The overall movie is about an underdog team!  And I loved it as a child!  Watching it as an adult was still great!  I give it a 4 out of 5 stars.  I do remember that the story gets better and will haev to revisit the rest of the trilogy as there were some holes in this script, and it had a rocky started but it pulled through and ended strong.  I definitely recommend watching it.   I would think kids age 10 and up would definitely be a great audience for it, and even younger if you child is into Hockey!  Also revisit the young Joshua Jackson and what really put him on the map!





Unfortunately there is no really good trailer that I can find so you can check out both of these videos to get an idea of whether or not you would be interested in this movie:

Here is the Disney Wiki Page *Caution it does contain spoilers: The_Mighty_Ducks

Frozen

This was the first movie that Liam ever saw in the theater.  Grandma was here and insisted on taking Liam to his first movie, and auntie Shayna came along as well.  I was very worried about Liam going to see a movie and actually sitting still through it at his age (he is three in case you don't know).  He actually did remarkably well...  Now as far as the movie selection, the big Disney movie showing at that time was Frozen.  It started off kind of awkward with the new revival initiative of Disney to try to add on snippets of old black and white Mickey cartoons at the beginning of movies.  Now Disney makes a living on mostly children's movies, and in so doing you think they would have picked a bit more of a tasteful excerpt.  Instead we had a cow flashing her udders and someone kidnapping and trying ti simulated take advantage of Minnie Mouse....  Now I didn't have a problem seeing it myself, but I did think that Disney studios have to know the society of parents and children right now and that it probably wasn't the greatest choice to show before a kid's movie....  With that being said let's move on to the actual movie.
Frozen is about two sisters Anna & Elsa.  Elsa is the elder sister and has a magic with ice, winter, snow.  This is something that can be used by evil if anyone were to find out and so her parents force her to hide it from everyone so that no one will ever be hurt, forcing her to look herself away while growing up.  Anna is the littler sister that has no idea why her sister is locking herself away and is spending her life being lonely.  When Elsa accidentally released some of her power on her coronation she runs away leaving Anna to fend for herself.  Anna only wants to find love and to have her sister as a friend, so they set out on a treacherous journey with unlikely allies in an attempt to save her sister and her kingdom.

Voices featured in this movie:
Anna is voiced by Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars, Sarah Marshall, Gossip Girl)
Elsa is voiced by Idina Menzel (Rent, Enchanted, Glee, wife of Taye Diggs)
Kristoff (an unlikely ally) is voiced by Jonathan Goff (Glee)

Frozen is a 3D computer animated musical fantasy comedy movie.  It was released in 2013 and is the 53rd Disney movie to be released.  It is loosely based on the story the Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson, which may explain why it has a bit of an older feel to it.   So far is has grossed $764 million worldwide and has won several awards.  The awards won include Golden Globe & Critic's Choice for Best Animated Feature as well as Critic's Choice award for Best Original Song for "Let It Go" also sung by Idina Menzel.  Frozen became Fandango's top advance ticket seller among animated features beating out Brave.  It is the 4th highest grossing 2013 film.


Disney has been looking at producing their version of the Snow Queen since the 1940s but had trouble getting the story to a place where they felt that the audience could relate to it.  They had a hard time modernizing it and trying to lighten up an originally dark and seemingly inhumane story.  One main way in which this happened was by making Anna & Elsa sisters.  In the late 1990s Disney picked the story back up and worked on it for almost a decade before it was scrapped again in 2002.  In 2008 a new idea with the film was pitched by director Chris Buck under the title of Anna & the Snow Queen with plans to use traditional animation and portray the Snow Queen as light-hearted as opposed to a villain, but by early 2010, there were again complications with making the story work.  In December of 2011 after the success of Tangled Disney decided to again pick up the story and move forward with 3D and a new development team.  With the character Anna now being written by Chris Buck as the Snow Queen's little sister they were able to show new dimensions in the relationships of the characters while subtracting a lot of the darkness away from the story.  Jennifer Lee (one of the screenwriters from Wreck-It-Ralph) was brought onto the team.  Her work and involvement became so involved and extensive that she ended up being promoted from screenwriter to songwriter and pre-devlopment and was brought up to director alongside Chris Buck.  This was a major accomplishment as in all of these years Jennifer Lee became the first woman to direct a full-length animated motion picture by Walt Disney Animation Studios. 

Frozen had a very nice clear and crisp picture.  It was definitely a musical and seemed like there were more songs than dialogue.  The songs were quite pretty though and easy to sing along.  I did however feel that the theme of the movie was more directed at the tweens-pre-teen age group as opposed to the younger crowd.  There wasn't much for a young child to relate to like there is in some Disney movies.  Liam was definitely enthralled with the snowman Olaf and I myself found Sven the reindeer to be the best character in the movie.  I did notice that with the older theme, that when the sister Anna finds her independence and possibly older, slightly darker stage that her whole appearance changed, her hair was now in a messed braid instead of in a tight orderly braid, and she was wearing a lower cute almost sheer dress, it was definitely showing that becoming darker is sexier and more appealing...  but perhaps I was reading too much into it.  On a positive note it did a great job of showing the independence of women and was the first Disney film to question a woman marrying a man that she just met.  There was the grand theme that true love comes in many forms.  My adult self sees Disney movies in a different light and as a mother knowing how much every little detail is sponged into the minds of youth.  Overall I give this film 4 out of 5 stars.  I would give it 5 stars because it had great songs and great characters, but it seems like there were a lot of holes in the story and if given more time it could have told more about the story instead of just touching upon elements such as Anna's power and the Trolls.

You can visit Disney's Official Site here: Frozen

I suggest not watching this hilarious unnecessarily censored video of excerpts from the movie unless you have seen it already,  It could ruin it for you.

Lilo & Stitch

This is the beginning to a run of 3 other movies that were all definitely watchable on repeat with a toddler.  In time I will review them all, but I can't review the following story without starting at the beginning.  Lilo & Stitch is one of those Disney movies that I somehow missed until I watched it for the first time with Liam.  I must say that I was pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed the storyline.

Lilo & Stitch is about a Hawaiian girl whose parents have died and she is being raised by her big sister Nani.  She feels very alone in the world and wishes for a friend.  Nani takes her to the pound to get a dog and she ends up adopting Stitch.  Far from a canine, Stitch is actually an alien that is on the run from the law of his own planet and is hiding out as a fugitive on Earth.  He is the creation of an evil scientist who has been sent with an Earth expert to capture him and bring him back in for justice.  There is a larger Elvis presence throughout the film and his impact on Hawaii and Lilo.

Lilo & Stitch was released in June of 2002.  It is the 42nd animated Walt Disney feature.  It was written and directed by Chris Sanders who also wrote all other Lilo movies as well as both Croods movies, How to Train Your Dragon, Mulan I and II, The Lion King, Aladdin and Beauty & the Beast. He also plays the voice of Stitch.  It was nominated for an Academy Award for best Animated Film but did not win. 


There are a lot of famous voices in Lilo & Stitch
Lilo is voiced by Daveigh Chase (Samantha in Donnie Darko and in S. Darko)
Stitch is voiced by Chris Sanders who also wrote the screenplay
Nani is voiced by Tia Carrere (Wayne's World)
David (Nani's love interest) is voiced by Jason Scott Lee (Bruce Lee's Dragon)
Cobra Bubbles (Social Worker) is voiced by Ving Rhames (Mission Impossible series)
Jumba (Stitch's creator) is voiced by David Ogden Stiers (Cogsworth, MASH)

Chis Sanders (the writer and director) had originally created the story about Stitch in 1985 for an unsuccessful children's story pitch.   The storyline required a remote non-urban location and was originally going to take place in Kansas.  Deciding to change the location to the Hawaiian island of Kaua'i was a major decision, as no Disney movies had previously taken place in Hawaii.  Dean Deblois cowrote with Sanders ad he had done with Mulan previously. Disney wanted to keep this low-budget so everything remained pretty small until final production which lead the set and character designs to Sander's own personal style.  On location research the tour guide for Kaua'i explained the meaning of the word "ohana" in regards to family.  This ended up becoming a major concept for the movie.  Tia Carrere and Jason Scott Lee (Both raised in Hawaii assisted in rewriting the script to show true Hawaiian dialect and colloquialism).

Sanders chose to use watercolor backgrounds that had been long abandoned by most Disney films at the time.  They were used in films such as Dumbo and Snow White.  This was to flow with the story and with Sanders unique artwork.  He wanted the artists to be more in tune with their medium.  As you may notice the people in Lilo & Stitch are portrayed vastly different from people in any other Disney Animation.  The body shape especially with the extra long legs and the torsos always stood out as different to me, and now I know why.  Sanders also wanted the extra terrestrial objects to be similar to marine life.

Deleted Scenes include a major change int he original story where Stitch was an intergalactic gang leader and Jumba was one of his followers but that changed to Jumba being Stitches creator.   Also at the end Stitch originally flew a Boeing 747 to rescue Lilo but after the September 11th attacks this was changed to have Stitch flying a spaceship instead. 

Lilo & Stitch opened at #2 less than $500,000 behind Minority Report with $35 million.  Overall finishing with $273 million worldwide. 

Overall I find that this is a wonderful story and possesses a lot of great elements and lessons that don't always exist in Disney movies and can be hard to get the message across including death of parents, being raised by your sister, Social Workers, aliens, depression, bullying, etc.  I give it 5 stars out of 5 and highly recommend it to anyone.  Check it out if you missed out on it like I did and revisit it if it has been awhile.

The official Disney site: Lilo & Stitch

Finding Nemo

Liam is branching out in his movie watching and I got him to watch Finding Nemo for the second time tonight in the past year and I always love watching this movie.  I loved this one before Liam was born and I love being able to share it with him.  This is one of those timeless classics that you can watch over and over again.

 In case you have been missing out and don't know anything about Finding Nemo, let me fill you in on the background of it.  Finding Nemo is a Pixar film that was realeased in 2003.  It was the 5th film released by Pixar.  Nemo is about a clown fish that is captured by a scuba diver and taken fromt he great barrier reef to Sydney, Australia.  His father (Marlin) an overprotective clown fish then goes in search of him and comes across an unlikely partner Dory who is a tang (bright orange fish) with short-term memory loss.  Together they must cross the ocean to try to find and rescue Nemo.

Finding Nemo is a comedy-drama adventure film that is computer animated.  It was the first Pixar film to be released in the Northern Hemisphere during the Summer.  It won the Academy Award and Saturn Award for Best Animated Film and was the second highest grossing film of 2003 with a total of $936 million worldwide.  It is the best selling DVD of all time and sold over 40 million copies in 2006.  It was the highest grossing G rated film of all time until took over.  And it is the 23rd highest grossing film of all time.  In 2008, the American Film Institute named it the 10th greatest animated film ever made. 

Voice talents of Andrew Gould who plays Marlin.  Ellen Degeneres who plays Dory, Alexander Gould who plays Nemo, and also features Willem Dafoe who plays Gill and Geoffrey Rush who plays Nigel.  The director Andrew Stanton voiced Crush himself. 

The inspiration came from childhood memories and intrigues of Andrew Stanton and actually began turning into a move in 1997.  Ellen was brilliantly cast thanks to the Stanton's wife watching the show and he watched her change subjects 5 times in a single sentence.  (Sounds like Ellen would fight in perfectly in my family haha).  In order to get the brilliant animation of the ocean the directors took oceanography classes and went on many of their own scuba diving trips. 

An unforeseen negative drawback of the film: The reaction to the film by the general public has led to environmental devastation for the clownfish, and has provoked an outcry from several environmental protection agencies, including the Marine Aquarium Council, Australia. The demand for tropical fish skyrocketed after the film's release, causing reef species decimation in Vanuatu and many other reef areas. After seeing the film, although some aquarium owners released their pets into the ocean, they released them into the wrong ocean, which introduced species which were harmful to the indigenous environment and is harming reefs worldwide.

The excitement of a sequel in the making:   In April 2013, Disney announced the sequel, Finding Dory, confirming that Ellen DeGeneres and Albert Brooks would be reprising their roles as Dory and Marlin, respectively. It was scheduled to be released on November 25, 2015, but the film's ending was revised after Pixar executives viewed the film Blackfish. On September 18, 2013, it was announced that the film would be pushed back to a June 17, 2016, release.  It is interesting to me how far the reaches of Blackfish have been to even change things in a huge Pixar movie.  

You can find the movie at the official Pixar website: Finding Nemo
And also at Disney's websites once they partnered with Pixar: Disney Finding Nemo

WALL-E

I was sure that I had already done a review on this awesome movie, but it looks like it got missed somehow.  I introduced Liam to it about 6 months or so ago and he loved it so much that I finally bought it for him.  It is a great story with a very intense message that revolves around a robot named WALL-E and his robot love interest EVE (WALL-E calls her Eva).

WALL-E Was released in June of 2008 by Pixar studios and is considered a CGI romantic comedy.  WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth-Class) Is a robot that was created to help clean up the trash on Earth in the future (2805) when Earth has become covered and uninhabitable.  He falls in love with a robot that is brought down to Earth named EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator).  When she is taken by a spaceship back out into space he follows her on an adventure that will change the destiny of robots and humans alive.

WALL-E grossed over $63 million in it's opening weekend ranking it 5th in the Pixar movie releases.  However it took over in the award wins and got excellent reviews all around.  2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Film, 2009 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation the final Nebula Award for Best Script the Saturn Award for Best Animated Film and the Academy Award for Best Animated Film as well as being nominated for five other Academy Awards. WALL-E ranks first in TIME's "Best Movies of the Decade".

The film was seen as a critique on larger societal issues. It addresses consumerism, nostalgia, environmental problems, waste management, the immense impact humans have on the Earth, and the direction in which the human race is headed.

In my research as to the making of WALL-E because I like to include some of the background in my reviews it was so extensive that I was blown away.  WALL-E was originally worked on in 1995 after Toy Story was completed but it wasn't until 2002 that it was really picked up again.  Originally it was to have a lot darker tone and aliens would have sent EVE to Earth instead of humans.  There was originally no happy ending and I have to say that I like what they ended up going with a lot better than the many concepts.  Most Pixar movies require abotu 75K story boards, whereas WALL-E took over 125K to give you an idea. There was extensive thought to go into the lighting and the colors that were to be used. 

Suffice it to say this movie required a lot of work, and the hard work paid off phenomenally.  This movie stood out spectacularly with a very limited amount of speaking, but it was not needed to get the point across. The visuals and the communication of the robots was done brilliantly and my son loves the movie and can connect with it.  I give it 5 out of 5 stars and highly recommend it to anyone.  Somehow you find yourself lost in the robtos and rooting for WALL-E and wanting him to get the girl and have his true love. 









Here is the official Disney site: WALL-E

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey

Not having seen this movie in many years I got it in the mail from Netflix to share with Liam.  He was definitely into it.  Not quite in same way that he is enamored with Bolt, but he was definitely not trying to eject it and watch something else.  I had recently seen something that saddened me stating that this movie came out 20 years ago and that all of the animals in it are now dead.  :( 

I still loved this movie just as much if not more than I had as a child.  I do think that watching it as an adult that I definitely cried a lot more.  I was trying to remember if I had cried watching it as a child.  The story was still just as great and had more depth as an adult.

In case you have missed out on the awesomeness that it is Homeward Bound you must know that it is based on the best-selling book The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford and is also a remake of the 1963 film with the same title as the book.  Homeward Bound was released in 1993.   The story is about 3 house pets.  Chance a bulldog that was recently rescued from the pound.  Shadow a golden retriever and Sassy a Himalayan cat.  They each have their own child owner whose mother has recently gotten married to a man that needs them to move to San Francisco.  The pets are then sent to stay at an aunt's farm and feel as though they have been abandoned and decide to head home on their own across the mountains.

In it's release in 1993 the film grossed over $40 million.   In 1996 a sequel was released about the same animals being lost in San Francisco. The film was shot at various locations in Oregon. 

Overall this movie is excellent and I give it 5 stars.  If you have never seen it you are missing out and must give it a try.  If you have it is a must for a revisit.

For the official Disney link you can go to Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey

Oliver & Company

I always loved Oliver & Company as I was growing up.  With Liam's continued request to watch Bolt again and his love of dogs and cats I was sure that he would love this movie.  Unfortunately from the very beginning he was seriously not feeling this movie.  He kept begging me to change it and he did not feel very engaged by it at all.  In his defense it wasn't as good as I had remembered.  There was a serious lack of action in terms of current Disney movies.  The coloring and backgrounds were not as bright or interactive as most movies are now and it had the older animation.  The story was more adult-based themes rather than something that Liam could really get into and was over his head.  I of course still watched the entire thing and was happy that I had.  I was sad that it wasn't as awesome as I had remembered, but it was still good and worth watching.  Still had some catchy tunes with  a great voice staff, a few cameos and  of course the voice talent of the late Dom Deluise making you want to go back to Itchy in All Dog's go to Heaven and Tiger in An American Tale and Jeremy in the Secret of NIMH and Stanly from A Troll in Central Park.....

Olive & Company is loosely based on the story of Oliver Twist.  Oliver is a kitten and gets in with a gang of dogs, led by Dodger who are owned by a down on his luck guy named Fagin.  Fagin borrowed money from a thug (possible mafia ties) who is wanting his money back in 3 days.  The gang goes out to hustle for some money for their owner when the come across a limo with a little girl inside named Jenni who takes Oliver home with her.

Oliver is an orange tabby kitten voiced by Joey Lawrence.
Dodger is a apparently supposed to be a Jack Russell Terrier, which I did not know until I looked this up.  If that is true, he is drawn disproportionately with the rest of the characters as he should be much smaller than he is in comparison with the other dogs.  He is voiced by Billy Joel
Tito is a ballsy Chihuahua voiced by Cheech Marin
Rita is a Saluki, and Dodger's love interest voiced by Sheryl Lee Ralph
Fagin is the owner of the dog gang and voiced by Dom Deluise
Georgette is a prizewinning show Poodle and is voiced by Better Midler

Oliver & Company was released in 1988 as Disney's 27th animated film.  The working title of the film was Oliver & the Dodger.  At a certain point this film was being tailored as a sequel to The Rescuers.   This was the first Disney film to make heavy use of computer animation.  CGI (computer generated imagery) was used for skyscrapers, cars, trains, the chase scene with Fagin's scooter.  This film signified the first time the Disney had created an actual department dedicated just to computer animation. 

Oliver & Company was Disney's test film back into the musical venue that they had steered away from since 1981 with the Fox & the Hound (somehow I don't recall the Fox & the Hound being much of a musical).  Although after watching Frozen, I think that Disney may have gone too far into the musical scene and lost actual speaking to tell a story ;)  After the success of this film at the box office, Disney created all of it's films as musicals for the next decade (ironically only excluding The Rescuers Down Under). 

This movie was also a test for new sound effects that would regularly be used by Disney studios, the next movie to attempt a plethora of new sound effects was The Little Mermaid in 1989.  It was also the first animated film to include real-world advertised products.  Such as, Coca-Cola, USA Today, Ryder and Sony.  Reportedly this was merely for realism and the mass amount of advertising in NYC that would have made NYC unbelievable without advertising and was not product placement. 

Cameo appearances are made in the beginning of the film when after recently watching the Lady & the Tramp I thought for sure I had seen some familiar faces and was just losing my mind.  When in fact there is a cameo appearance from Peg, Jock & Trusty as well as an appearance from Pongo from 101 Dalmatians. 

Oliver & Company was released on the exact same day as The Land Before Time which was released by Don Bluth (a Disney expatriate).  I am sure there was some drama going on behind the scenes with that one.  The box office success of the movie lead Disney to make plans to release at least one movie annually from then on.  The only years thus far this has not happened were 1993 and 2006.  It also started the partnership with McDonald's and joint licensing and product promotion with christmas musical ornaments of Oliver & Dodger.  Despite box office success it got mixed to low reviews at best.

My final review on this movie is a 3.9.  I still love it from when I was a kid but it can't quite push itself over to a 4.  I still love the Why Should I Worry (main theme song sung by Billy Joel) and am happy that I got to see it again. 

*If you watch closely you can see Pongo's cameo

If you want to see the Disney Link go to Oliver & Company

Disney's Robin Hood

It has been many years since I last watched Disney's version on Robin Hood.  I must admit that I was very excited when I saw that it had been added onto Netflix's instant watch.  This is the Disney version of Robin Hood as told my animals.

  It was released by Disney in 1973.  It was the 21st animated feature to be released by Disney.  The film is narrated by a singing rooster telling about the story of Robin Hood and Little John and the Sherwood Forest.  It was finished after Walt's death and was as such the first film to be continued on without him. 
Originally Disney considered doing a movie abotu Reynard the fox but there were concerns about whether or not he would be a suitable hero.  Reynard was a trickster fox from European folklore that was based primarily around satirical stories....  Using anthropomorphic tales (animals instead of people) which was probably the base inspiration for anthropomorphic telling of Robin Hood, using a similar casting of a wolf and a lion against the fox.

As the film was made during Disney's financial slump following the completion of Phase One of the Florida Project and therefore allotted a small budget, the artists reused footage from previous animated features. This is most noticeable during the song-and-dance number, "The Phone King of England"; the characters' movements strongly resemble those from The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, and Snow With

In particular, the section where Little John and Lady Kluck dance together mirrors part of the song "I Wanna Be Like You" from The Jungle Book with Baloo and  king Louie respectively, and Robin Hood and Maid Marian mirror the dancing movements of Thomas O'Malley and Duchess during the song "Everybody Wants to Be A Cat" from The Aristocats (from which some of the musicians also mirror the movements of Scat Cat and his gang) and Maid Marian mirror dancing the movements of Snow White during the song "The Silly Song".  The animation of Little John, the bear in Robin Hood, is nearly identical to that of Baloo but Little John more closely resembles a brown or grizzly bear (Baloo was based on an Indian Sloth Bear). At one point, one of the elephants who acts as heralds for Prince John attempts to trumpet a warning. Lady Kluck grabs the trunk, preventing the trumpeting and leaving the elephant flapping his ears ineffectually.The movie also reuses the same animated shots several times, including those of the rhinos walking and running and those of Sis, Tagalong and Toby laughing. Several animated clips of the Sheriff of Nottingham are also recycled at different points in the film.

At the time of it's release it was received with mixed reviews, overall consensus being that it was on par with The Jungle Book, but could not touch some of Disney's greats.

I have to say that although this was definitely NOT Disney's finest work.  I still love it all the same.  I have always loved the story of Robin Hood and I always loved it being told in a an anthropomorphic way.  I think that the songs are catchy and generally fun for the time being.  It had a good ol' Disney Love song, that was actually reused in the "The Fantastix Mr. Fox."
Liam was definitely into it.  It would be in the top half of his attention getting movies, but wasn't the best one yet.

With that being said, it is definitely worth watching and fun to relive.  I give it 4 out of 5 stars.  I love what it had to offer for the 70s.  Enjoy.

To Visit Disney's website dedicated to Robin Hood go to: Disney Robin Hood

Bolt

I was so pleased that Liam seemed to love one of my top favorite Disney movies just as much as I did.  The last five days have had us watching this movie at least 8 times now haha.  You know it's good when you can still sit down and continue to enjoy it that many times in a row.  In case you have been missing out on this truly awesome Disney adventure or in case you need to revisit it, let me tell you what the story is about.

Bolt is a Disney movie that revolves around a dog named Bolt that is an action/sci-fi star for a tv show.  He is the protector of a teenage girl (his human) named Penny and has been altered to have powers such as super bark, super strength and heat vision.  His entire life he has been led to believe that he truly has all of these powers, and the tv sets are set up so that he can never know that it is all just a show.  When the show ratings start to drop, they decided to leave a cliff hanger episode that ends with Penny getting kidnapped and Bolt has not saved her at the end of the episode like he used to doing for years.  This makes him go on an adventure to try to rescue her when he thinks she is in danger.  He accidentally ends up instead across the country in New York and must make his way back to Hollywood to Penny, all the way he truly believes that he has the super powers from the show and ends up on a cross country voyage with an alley cat and a true believe fan hamster as they try to save Penny.

 This movie is just amazing!  I love everything about it.  The elements of the show.  How much thought went into the entire thing.  The way that the characters all play off of one another and work together in this show.  I think this is one of the top genius shows that Disney has put out. 

Bolt was originally released in 2008 as the 48th animated film by Disney.  Bolt is voiced by John Travolta, and Penny by Miley Cyrus.  It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Film but ended up losing out to Wall-E.  What a great year for animated films. 

At first, the film was going to be titled American Dog, the story of a dog named Henry, a famous TV star, who one day finds himself stranded in the Nevada desert with a testy, one-eyed cat and an oversized, radioactive rabbit who are themselves searching for new homes, all the while believing he is still on television.  However once reviewed it was decided that some changes need to take place, the original director was removed and the new directors were given just 18 months to complete the Bolt which we see today.  Normally computer animated films are slotted with 4 years to create, so 18 months is quite a feat and to have such an amazing result, I have to say that I am incredibly impressed with the result.  It opened up at the box office in the 3rd position behind Twilight and Quantum of Solace.  It grossed a worldwide total of $309,979,994.

The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh

I know I watched and loved Winnie The Pooh as a child and it has been so great to share it with Liam and watch him become completely attached to it.  So haven't watched it multiple times recently I decided to do a review on it.

I was very surprised by how old it was and how relevant and recent it still seems when you watch it.  Netflix informed me that I was way off base and that it was actually released in 1977.  How crazy that it can still be so timeless and wonderful.  Having loved this for as long as I can remember I always love Tigger, but it was Eeyore that really stole my heart and in high school and right after I started collecting Eeyore's each time I went to a Disney Store.  Unfortunately I have lost some of the most awesome special edition ones in moves :(  But I still love Eeyore all the same and will buy one if I find any different than I already own.  Liam has also taken to loving the many wonderful characters of the movie.

Liam especially loves the songs, most notably "I'm Just a Little Black Raincloud."  I catch him around the house and in the car saying "Tutt Tutt Looks Like Rain."  This movie is great for little attention spans because it is really just a compilation of shorts linked together to create the movie.  The topic changes help keep smaller people more interested throughout the entirety of the film.  I love the way that the story is a part of a book at times :)

The characters are wonderful and loveable-even if they have been linked to the faults of man in each character, which only a negative person would look for in the film.  Although the timeless question of whether Eeyore is a boy or a girl with the pink bow on his tail, is definitively answered, at least in this movie with a deep many voice for him, leaving no other option. I love that Pooh sings a song about being "short fat, and proud of that."

The songs are catchy, there are Heffalumps & Woozles, many lessons about friendship and sharing.  Overall I definitely recommend this movie with 5 stars.  Don't miss this, due to it's age especially if you have children of your own now.  They are sure to love it, just as much if not more than you did as a child.  If you ever missed out on this 1970's classic, be sure to add it to your repertoire.  It is definitely worth the time to sit down and watch it! 

Here is a link to the official site: Winnie The Pooh: Disney

Alice in Wonderland Review

Last night I watched Alice in Wonderland the 1951 Disney version with Liam for the his first time.  He was really into all of the different songs and noises and interesting characters.  I had the general sense as a mother at how much darker and different children's movies were in the 1950s than they are now.  I wasn't sure if it was good to have my son see the part that always bothered me with the Walrus and the Carpenter leading the oyster babies into the house and gaining their trust and than eating them.  It always bothered me and despite all of the craziness within the movie, it seemed like the most messed up part to me.  However I am also aware that my son is young and may not grasp this, but we did call the Walrus a bad man and talk about the oyster's being sad and going bye bye.  The movie score was actually not bad and definitely fit in well with the movie.

I have always thought that Alice in Wonderland really looked a lot of the dark personas and the character flaws of society by putting them into each of the characters, we see forgetfulness and time management issues, lack of responsibility, vanity, liar, etc.  Of course becoming older and becoming a parent makes you look at movies (especially kid's movies) in a whole other light.
Alice in Wonderland is based off of the Novels "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carrol.  I have always wanted to read these books, and definitely need to add them onto my list of classics to acquire.

I found a lot of VERY interesting information about the Disney version of the story when I was researching it for example that parts of this film were created as early as 1923 when Walk Disney was merely 21 years old and was working for a different movie studio.  Before finishing the short comedy series the studio was closed and Walt Disney went on to use the adapted short film as a sort of pilot to show to new prospective distributes.  The Alice's comedies series was on air from 1924-1927.  Now remember the movie version wasn't actually released for another 24 years after that.
In 1932 Walt was toying with the idea of making Alice into a feature length film but ended up turning his priorities to Snow White & the Seven Dwarves instead.  However Lewis Carrol's books still resonated with him as he made the Mickey Film "Through the Looking Glass" in 1936.  (Still 15 years before the film came out).
 In 1938 Walt officially registered the title of "Alice in Wonderland" and started working on it, but did not like the dark and grotesqueness of the script and the way that the animation was turning out.  This was also during the economic devastation of WWII and Walt decided to shelve Alice and created instead the films Pinocchio, Fantasia & Bambi.

In 1945, after the war had ended Walt decided to revive Alice but found that the scrip had taken on too literal of a translation of the book.  He had it changed to focus on comedy, music and the whimsical side of the book.  It almost became a live-action animated version but ended up all animated due to the difficulty of doing justice to the book.
Alice did not do well and was one of Disney's lowest grossing films.  British critics felt that Walt Americanized the story and ruined it and Walt felt the film failed because the character of Alice had no heart.  It was the 13th film released by Disney.

 Another interesting fact was that Alice was voiced by Kathryne Beaumont who later went on to voice Wendy Darling in Peter Pan. 
So what is the story of Alice in Wonderland?  Loosely it is a dreamland created by Alice in which nothing is at is seems and everything is as it is not.  Alice falls asleep and ends up in this psychedelic dreamland, where flowers talk and she is about tall, although sometimes growing and shrinking due to mushroom, pill and liquid substance use.  She is constantly chasing the white rabbit who she sees to lead her into the world, and she meets lots of interesting characters.  In the end it was all a dream. 

Wreck It Ralph Movie Review

I finally was able to watch the awesomeness that was Wreck It Ralph.  It is an overall great movie!  If you have ever had an affinity for video games, especially arcade games than this movie will hold a special place within your heart.  However, do not shy away just because you aren't interested in video games.  The voice cast features an all-star comedy cast and the story line is great and grabs your attention.  I definitely recommend checking out this wonderful Disney children's movie regardless of your age.

Wreck It Ralph is about an arcade game villain who is tired of being the bad guy and just wants to have friends and spend his life with other people, instead of living alone in a garbage yard.  In his quest to try to prove that he can be a good guy he wants to attain a medal for proof.  This leads him to visit several other games in search of a medal and then when lost in an unlikely girly racing game (Sugar Rush) he loses the medal.  In it's loss he makes an unlikely friend with a character who is a glitch in her game.  In the end they must team up to save their games from being unplugged and protect the other games from being over-run by something that could destroy every arcade game plugged in. 

As far as the hilarious voice cast the main characters are voiced by:
John C. Reilly voices Wreck It Ralph (Step-brothers, Walk Hard the Dewey Cox Story).
Sarah Silverman voices Vanellope Von Schweetz-Ralph's unlikely and glitchy go-kart racer from the Sugar Rush game (School of Rock, School for Scoundrels)
Jack McBrayer voices Fix-It Felix the good guy to Ralph's bad guy in the game Fix it Felix (30 Rock)
Jane Lynch voices Sgt Calhoun from a bug killing game in which Ralph obtains his medal (40 Year Old Virgin, Glee)

Fun facts:  Wreck It Ralph is the 52nd animated feature by Disney Animation studios.  It earned $471 million world wide.  The concept for the movie was initially developed over 30 years ago int he 1980s.  At that time it was thought that the title would be "High Score."  It was also reworked in the 1990s and the 2000s.  There are many different video game cameos and references to even include a video game version of the musician  Skrillex as a DJ.  See how many you can find.


Here is the awesome trailer, go check it out or revisit it to find more things to love about it!

You can view the official Disney page dedicated to Wreck-It Ralph at: Wreck It Ralph Site

Toy Story Trilogy Contemplations

As my son watched all 3 Toy Story movies this weekend and repeatedly watches 3, I have had ample time to think about these movies and decided it would be a great blog topic, so here it goes!

In case you don't know anything at all about Toy Story.  The original Toy Story came out in 1995.  It is about "Andy's Toys" that come to life when humans are not around and have their own life going on.  They live for being  there whenever Andy wants to play with them.  It is made by Disney/Pixar and features the main characters as Woody a cowboy toy voiced by Tom Hanks and a new intruder
for favorite toy as Buzz Lightyear an astronaut action figure voiced by Tim Allen. Woody is Andy's favorite toy until he receives Buzz as a birthday present.  The movie follows through with Woody being jealous of Buzz, knocking him out of a window and then going to great lengths to rescue him.  During this time the two of them end of becoming great pals and make it back to Andy together. 


Toy Story 2 was released in 1999 and  features the reprisal of the two main characters Buzz & Woody still as Andy's toys of course.  Woody is stolen by a toy collector when he is trying to rescue another
toy from being sold in a garage sale.  Buzz and the rest of the gang set out in search of Woody to rescue him.  Woody contemplates being in a museum forever while adding a few toys that were featured in the western children's television show in which he is famous for.  They have quite the adventure around town for toys to include an apartment complex, Al's Toy Barn, and the airport.  Eventually all is well, Woody is rescues and brings new toys Jessie the cowgirl and Bullseye, his trusty shy affectionate stead home to Andy with him.  This movie has a western feel about it in dedication to Woody's character. 


Toy Story 3 was released in 2010.  It brings back most of our old friends and still include Buzz & Woody.  Andy is getting ready to depart for college and he has not played with any of his toys in a

long time.  They are all depressed and thinking that they will be thrown out with the trash.  Andy intends to put them all in the attack  and take Woody to college with him, separating the friends.  Andy's mom mistakenly thinks that the toys are trash (because they are in a garbage bag) and puts them out on the curb.  They all climb into a box heading for a daycare in hopes for a new and better life.  Woody is the only toy that knows the truth and tries to convince them that they were not meant to be put out for trash.  None of them believe him and they embrace their new life at the daycare, only to realize that it is being run by the evil tyrant: Lotso Huggin' Bear.  Lotso resets Buzz back to factory settings and he turns on his friends, keeping them captive.  Woody has to return to help them all escape.  Eventually after a near miss at the incinerator they end up as a sweet girl Bonnie's toys and the movie ends with Andy playing with her and the toys one last time and Woody deciding to stay with all of his friends together instead of going to college with Andy. 

Toy Story 1 was one of my all time favorite Disney movies.  I remember watching Toy Story 2, but it still was not better than Toy Story 1 for me.  Then the third installment: Toy Story 3 came out and this movie stole my heart.  The first time I watched it, I cried twice for the toys and it does such an amazing job connecting you with each of the characters and not knowing if you will ever see them again.  It makes a person wonder about all of their toys and have a hard time ever getting rid of any toys  (possibly explains my son's 2 play rooms right now haha).  They are all great though and a complete story.  If you have never seen any of them or if you have missed any of them, you are missing out on some of the greatest Disney movies ever created. *Spanish Buzz is my favorite ;)  I highly recommend checking them out.

Fun Facts about the movies: Toy Story 1 was made on a $30 mil budget and brought in over $360 million.  At the time of it's release, Toy Story 2 was the third highest grossing animated film of all time only behind Aladdin & Lion King.  Overall it was ranked 16th highest grossing domestically and 21st internationally.  Toy Story 1 forever changed the computer animated movie industry and Pixar has done nothing but grow since then.  Apple's Steve Jobs was one of the executive produces.  Toy Story 1 was inducted into the National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 2005; its first year of eligibility.  The original script was about Tinny as "Buzz" a ventriloquist doll, going then to a military toy and later settling on a space theme.    
Toy Story 2 was made on a $90 million budget and brought in $485 million.   Toy Story 2 was originally slated to be a straight to DVD release.  It started production in a sperate studio from most of Pixar.  At the time A Bugs Life was the main focus of the Pixar studio.  After story boards came out showing what a great story it was turning out to be, it was immediately rewritten to be a theatrical release and still shot within the original time frame.  The 3-d Re-release in 2009 prompted the creation and later release of Toy Story 3.  Although I disagree, many critics consider Toy Story 2 to be one of the few films to outshine it's original.  At the time it was released in theaters it became the 2nd highest grossing animated film, falling only behind The Lion King.  It was 1999's highest grossing animated film.   
Toy Story 3 was made on a $200 million budget and brought in over $1 billion.  It became the first ever animated film in history to make over $1 billion worldwide.  Currently it is also the 11th highest grossing film of all time.  It was also the highest grossing film of 2010.  This is the only animated sequel in history to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.

Here are the movie trailers, as borrowed from YouTube, for entertainment purposes only.  I urge you to check them out if you haven't before.  Even if you have it is always a happy place to revisit.  Enjoy!

Toy Story 1

Toy Story 2

Toy Story 3