The Disney Frontier Blog

My family contributed to the strong opening weekend of Enchanted much to my chagrin. I wasn’t too excited to go see a film about a princess staring Patrick Dempsy (screams chick flick). However, due to too much turkey and apple pie, I relented. Turns out the movie was better than bad, it was good.

It starts as a regular animated story of a princess finding true love’s kiss akin to a Sleeping Beauty mixed with the woodland creatures of Snow White. The animation seems rushed and maybe too computer aided, but it works because you know the whole movie isn’t going to be in 2D drawings. When the evil step-mother (Cinderella anybody?) decides that she doesn’t want anyone marrying her son and taking over her throne, she turns into an old hag and pushes the princess into the real world.

I was fully expecting this to be an innocent person lost in a strange city like Will Farrell in Elf, but it was more. The princess was able to retain her powers of likability - even with the woodland creatures (or in New York, rats). My favorite scene is when the princess busts into song in the park. Like all good animated movies, starting a song means everyone joins in and starts singing and dancing. Despite this being the real world, the same held true here. It was reminiscent of the duet between Simba and Nala at the beginning of the Lion King, but pulled off wonderfully with live actors.

I’m still not sure if this is a “go out and see it in the theatre” movie, but admittedly I find very few of those these days. However, if you are looking for a family or date movie, this is a good choice.

This “just in time for the holidays” DVD features all the lovable character’s from the 100 Acre Woods except Christopher Robin. A young girl by the name of Darby takes his place in this 3D computer animated version based off the Disney Channel kids show with the same name.

In Super Sleuth Christmas Movie, Roo and Lumpy find Santa’s missing toy bag along with a stray reindeer. The gang must help the little reindeer get back to Santa with the toy back to save Christmas. By persevering some hardships along the way, they are all rewarded with very special gifts from Santa.

The DVD also contains two bonus episodes of the My Friends Tigger and Pooh television show. It also contains a DVD game where the viewer gets to choose one of four courses to snowboard down collecting presents along the way. At the end of the course, you must help decide which gift goes with which character.

My kids enjoyed watching the Christmas episode as well as the bonus episodes. None of the three are available on iTunes as of yet, so for $19.99 you are getting episode you can’t get anywhere else. I would assume that the bonus episodes will air on the Disney Channel this season, but I’m not sure if the Christmas episode will be made available. Priced near or at the same price as Disney feature films, I would probably rather purchase “Meet the Robinsons” or “Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End.” However, if you have younger toddlers with shorter attention spans, this might be the DVD for you.

* Disclosure - I received a free evaluation copy of this DVD from Disney’s PR group *

On October 30th, my family and I attended Mickey’s Halloween Treat in Disney’s California Adventure. We have annual passes but we thought the kids would love it, so we paid the extra $27 per person for the tickets. The idea of trick or treating from Disney characters sounded too fun to pass up.

DCA closed at 5:00 PM to prepare the park and reopened at 6:00 PM. There wasn’t much of a line to get into the park. Once in, they handed each of us a trick or treat bag…it was a little bigger than a brown paper lunch bag. We also got a special Mickey’s Halloween Treat map. The map showed all of DCA, but also showed where each of the trick or treat stations were as well as the location of character meet and greets and Mickey’s Hide and Go Treat Trails. Since most the traffic was heading to Candy Corn Acres and beyond, we took a right and headed towards California Soarin. We hit our first station just pass the attraction queue line.

I was shocked to see the two cast members grab two full handfuls of candy to put in each of our bags. They definitely were not being stingy. I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t characters helping hand out candy, but oh well. Heading further up the right side of the park, we came to the first Hide and Go Treat Trail. It was located at the entrance to Grizzly River Run and snaked through part of the ride’s queue area. About every 100 yards or so there was a trick or treat station. After about 5 stations, we exited near the Redwood Creek Challenge, the second Hide and Go trail. After going through that station, we must have hit a total of 12 of the 25 treat stations since entering the park. All our bags were over flowing and heavy.

After realizing we had enough candy to last us until next year, we decided to wait in the line to get the kids photo with Mickey and Minnie. The line lasted about 30 minutes and was a good chance to stop, eat some candy and relax. Once during the line, Mickey and Minnie took a five minute break but Cruella and some cowboys were walking the line keeping people entertained.

Next we headed over the Pacific Wharf where they had decorated in a pirates theme and called it Pirate Wharf. There was a live band and fun games and activities for the kids.Next we hit “a bug’s land” and waited in line to ride Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train and Flik’s Flyers. I don’t think I have ever waited in a line at either of those two rides, but we had to this time. It was still less than 10 minutes though.

After that we headed to the front of Sunshine Plaza to wait for “Mickey’s Trick or Treat of the Street” Cavalcade Parade.The parade was a little late and by then the kids were about done. It was a small parade with just a few floats. The characters did get down and interact with the kids a la the Block Party Parade.

Overall, it was a lot of fun. I’ve been in the park when it wasn’t crowded but they purposely limited the crowd for this event. It was pretty neat to be in the park with that few people - I imagine that it’s similar to grad night. They had music playing through out the park the entire night. I was able to make out the following songs:

• Elephants on Parade - From Peter Pan
• Woozles Song from the Pooh Hunny Pots ride
• Grim Grinning Ghosts - From the Haunted Mansion
• Monster Mash
• This is Halloween - From Nightmare Before Christmas

They also interspersed Disney pop artists throughout.

The candy selection was very nice. They had a wide mix of chocolate and hard candies as well as bags of carrots and apples. The candy was plenty and if we wanted to, we could have left with twice as much as we did. I’m not sure if we will go back next year…I’m looking forward to trick or treating in our neighborhood but I do recommend it. I have more photos which I will be posting up shortly.

The new Enchanted Tales DVD comes out next Thursday, 09/04/07. It includes two new original stories. The first featuring Princess Aurora and the second featuring Princess Jasmine. Disney has posted a 4 minute online clip from the DVD for your viewing enjoyment.

I have a pre-release copy of the DVD and can say this isn’t like the previous re-purposed princess DVDs where Disney takes clips from old movies, TV shows and specials and turns them into a compilation. Instead, these are two original hand drawn cartoons that are well done. The songs are catchy and my 4 year old has enjoyed watching them over and over again.As for the special features, I was surprised at how much we enjoyed the DVD games. There are two, one for Aurora and one for Jasmine. There is also a Belle music video from an upcoming Princess DVD.All in all, very well done and highly recommended.

BTW, here is a link to a music video of a song Jasmine sings in her feature.Â

Earlier, I linked to some online clips for the new Little Einstein’s DVD. Via some Disney PR folks, I was able to get an advanced copy of the DVD to review. While I’m not an expert reviewer, I can tell you my kids have watched it probably 10 times over the last five days - that means it’s good.

The main feature, Rocket’s Firebird Rescue, is about the length of three normal TV episodes found on the Disney channel. The nice thing about the DVD is instead of featuring one artist, usually a painter, and one classical song it features multiple types of art including sculpture and dance. In this DVD they also include some shapes around June’s dancing. All in all, it is far more educational than a typical episode.

The alternative viewing that I mentioned previous turned out to be a some what interactive “game”. During the DVD, when a feather appears on screen, you can hit enter on your DVD remote. It will pause the movie and run an educational feature related to that spot in the movie. When all the feathers are found, you get to see a special surprise - I won’t spoil it here.

This DVD makes good use of Disney’s FastPlay feature. Usually, this means the movie plays after the previews without having to hit play - nice when watching in the car. In this DVD with FastPlay, a second regular length episode will play after the main feature.

You can buy the DVD starting today. Here is a link to Amazon: Rocket’s Firebird DVD. I recommend it if you’re kids are a fan of the Little Einsteins or if they are just getting to that age where Baby Einsteins isn’t cutting it anymore.

Cory Doctorow has a book review of this Walt Disney Biography by Neal Gabler over at BoingBoing. It’s worth a read if you are interested in this book. Here’s the intro:

I’ve just finished Neal Gabler’s stupendous biography, “Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination.” I have a funny relationship to Disney — the man and the company — I am a gigantic fan of the themeparks, but I’m entirely indifferent to the characters, the animation, the live films, and I have nothing but antipathy for the political meddling in the copyright system. But if you’re a fan of the Disney parks, it’s inevitable that you end up spending some time thinking about Disney the man.

I just started listening to the audio book, DisneyWar. I’m only about 30 minutes in but the description the author, James Stewart, gives of his experience as a Goofy character is fantastic. The book chronicles the fall of Michael Eisner and his battle with Roy Disney. I look forward to providing a full review when I finish.

On October 3rd I posted about the free Disney Parks DVD that you can order from Disney. I received it today (almost 2 months later). It has the following menu layout:

• Disneyland California Resort
• Main Show
• Recent Additions
• Vacation Planning
• Walt Disney World Resort Florida
• Main Show
• Recent Additions
• Water Parks & More
• Cool Stuff for Kids
• Grown-up Fun
• Vacation Planning
• Planning your Vacation
• Disney World Planning
• Disneyland Planning
• Traveling with Little Ones
• Other Disney Vacations
• Disney Vacation Club
• Disney Cruise Line
• Adventures By Disney

The DVD is jam packed with fun video. It’s entertaining to watch. Each video shows well produced scenes from the park quickly highlighting the attractions. The traveling with little ones shows all the attractions that kids under 5 would enjoy as well as character breakfasts, swimming pools & lodging and other activities they will enjoy. It’s an awesome DVD for free. I highly recommend you check it out even if you frequent the parks.

This is the movie poster for the new Pixar film Ratatouille. Ain’t it Cool News has a review of the new film (which does contain spoilers - read at your own risk).

[review via The Disney Blog]
[poster via Luxo]

I am inspired to ask the question after seeing the progress that Ricky is making on his Haunted Mansion room. If you listen to the Inside the Magic podcast, then you know what a fan he is of the attraction and he has now dedicated a room in his house to the theme. It looks like it will be a lot of fun when it’s done.

I don’t have an extra room in my house but both my kids would love it if their room was done out completely around a theme. However, there is a huge difference between buying wall hangings and theming the entire room like Ricky is doing.

If I had the luxury of a project like this, I would want to build a room themed around vintage disney memorabilia. If you go to the Disneyland Hotel, they have a huge glass case on one wall with old Disney and Disneyland merchandise from both the park and from stores. Things like lunch boxes, puzzles, games, figures and much more (I’ll take a picture the next time I’m there).

How about you? What kind of room would you build?

Technorati Tags: Haunted Mansion, decorations, Vintage

I’ve been waiting several weeks for this collection to be released. It’s two exclusive iTunes albums - Walt Disney Records Archive Collection vols. 1 & 2. 50 songs for only $20.00 - or buy them individually at a buck a pop.

I don’t really think this collection is for the purists out there. I love the songs and I’m always excited to see what an artist I like does with a cover song. They’re not just modern artists doing the remakes - someone had to dig deep into the vaults to find Louis Prima and Louis Armstrong.

Some of the highlights of these collections on iTunes:

• It’s a Small World - Maurice Chevalier - You have to be old enough to know why this is funny.
• The Bare Necessities - Louis Armstrong - Satchmo singing Baloo is a brilliant choice.
• Chim Chim Cher-ee - Louis Prima - This is one of my favorite songs and Prima is one of my favorite artists - I’d buy the albums just for this one.
• Everybody Wants to Be a Cat -Steve Tyrell - Fun and funky.
• The Siamese Cat Song - Haylie Duff & Hilary Duff - I am going to be made fun of for this. I saw that the Duff sisters (who make me cringe, as I am nowhere near pre-teen, or even teen) were doing this song and it was like a train wreck - I couldn’t stop myself from watching/listening. But the song is actually good - a nice take on it. Pretend you don’t know who is singing it, and just listen.

Last night, the family and I went to the local theater to watch The Santa Clause 3. The movie is the third (and I would assume, last) movie in the Santa Clause franchise.

It’s Christmas time once again and Scott Calvin juggles a full house of family and the mischievous Jack Frost, who is trying to take over the “big guy’s” holiday. At the risk of giving away the secret location of the North Pole, Scott invites his in-laws to share in the holiday festivities, and upcoming birth of baby Claus with expectant wife, Carol. Along for the adventure are Scott’s extended family, son Charlie, ex-wife Laura Miller, her husband, Neil Miller and their daughter, Lucy who, together with head elf Curtis, foil Jack Frost’s crafty scheme to control the North Pole.

via Yahoo.

The movie was fun and enjoyable like the previous two. I plan on watching it again and will buy it when it comes out on DVD. However, if I had to rank them in order of favorites, this would definitely be listed after the first two. The movie spends a long time leading up to Jack Frost’s successful take over of the North Pole and then once he does, it’s quickly resolved. Everyone looks older including Curtis the head elf (Spencer Breslin). Bernard, the former head elf (David Krumholtz), must be too big and too old as he’s not in the third installment.

On Tuesday, Apple released their new version of iTunes which now offers movie downloads. The only movie studio on board right now is of course Disney. This is probably because Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, also sits on the board of Disney and is the single largest individual share holder.

The movies are priced at $9.99 for current movies, $12.99 for pre-orders and $14.99 for new releases. Cars is already available for pre-order. The movies are in 640×480 resolution which is what a traditional TV displays at but that doesn’t mean you can watch these on your TV. You can’t burn them to DVD and unless you are going to connect your PC or Mac directly to the TV, you are stuck watching them on either you computer monitor or your iPod. In the first 3 months of 2007, Apple will release their iTV. This will allow you to stream these movies - as well as the rest of your iTunes collection - to your TV.

There are a total of 75 movies available as of today.

Sorry all. I was on vacation and didn’t have time to find and post content. I did visit Marine World in Vellejo, CA and Funderland in Sacramento, CA - among other vacation activities.

Marine World is chalked full of rides for adults and toddlers. They have rides that are much more extreme then anything you will find at the Disney parks and the lines were short. However, the quality of the park is not maintained like Disney. The ground is dirty, the attractions have peeling paint and most the employees are young kids that didn’t appear to have gone through much training. The price was $52 per ticket and there was a lot of shows to view. If it weren’t for the high bar of excellence that Disney has set, this would have been a decent value for all to be done.

Funderland is geared towards toddlers. Instead of paying for admission, you buy tickets to go on rides. All rides “cost” one ticket. Funderland is very old and it shows. Again the rides are plagued with peeling paint and generally look like they are held together with paper clips and bubble gum. There are only 8 rides to choose fun and the kids had a great time going on each. Again, kids have a much lower expectation and their experience is heightened by the newness of it all.

I was looking forward to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest all year. The only other movie I have been excited about this year was Cars (review). On Sunday, my wife and I purchased our tickets at Fandango, dropped the kids with their grandma and headed to the theater. Unfortunately, we arrived at 11:40 for the 11:40 showing. This meant that the only seats available were in the first two rows which hurts the necks and can make you nauseous.

We jumped out during the Rocky 6 preview to exchange our seats for the next showing at 12:30. We were just early enough to gets perfect seats before the theater filled and left no seats to be had.

Rather then give you a step by step of the movie, let me point out a few things. The movie started off very dark and mysterious but that theme relaxed very early on. Suspense was rather limited and was usually found in various scenes but not in the overall plot.

There was a bit of gruesomeness in the first few minutes to remind folks this is not a movie for toddlers. I would say overall that this movie was more violent then the original but was not overly done.

Bringing back the two undead pirates - the ones that provide comic relief, Pintel and Ragetti - was not necessary and actually detracted from the movie. If you remember right, neither of these were killed in the first movie but they should have been.

Johnny Depp’s performance was again excellent but he will not be nominated for Academy Awards for this one. The character of Jack Sparrow didn’t really evolve and if anything he experienced more metamorphosis in the first one then in the second one. Kiera Knightly did improve from movie to movie and Orlando Bloom lost some of the young naivete that young Will Turner had in the first movie.

Since this ends in a cliff hanger, we will have to wait to see how the plot develops. As of right now I would say it was a little unclimatic but hey we’ve only seen half the story.

UPDATE: I found this review over at the Movie Blog that you might want to check out.

Technorati : Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Movie, Movie Review, Pirates, Pirates of the Caribbean