As if to make up for last Thursday, when my Wii Netflix account couldn't stream anything (first problem I've ever had with the service), they've added six amazingly good Travel Channel documentaries about the Disney parks.
These nearly-hour-long shows basically serve as sunny PR pieces without a single critical comment, but they're genuinely informative and beautifully filmed. Overall, they're among the most polished and entertaining overviews of the Disney parks I've ever seen, and often contain rare footage, interesting angles, and amazing behind-the-scenes shots: The Disneyland episode includes a fantastic segment on the Indiana Jones computerized ride vehicles, giving viewers a great, close look at them in action on the tracks.
I hope Netflix keeps adding Travel Channel shows to instant streaming; In fact, I wish they'd make "Travel" a separate category. In the meantime, this is a great addition for a rainy afternoon's commercial-free theme park viewing marathon .
Just finished watching How To Train Your Dragon on DVD (someday, Blu-Ray….someday…). I hoped it would be as good as I remembered. I was not disappointed.
The film rocks on home video. Its astounding fantasy world—with all its beautiful color, detail and texture—roars to life even on my humble DVD player and ancient television. And the story, of course, is just as sharp, funny and near-perfect as always.
The Double-DVD set and Blu-Ray contain a terrific animated bonus short: The Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon. Taking place after the feature’s events, it opens with a nighttime emergency, mirroring the original’s opening dragon attack, but now with the dragons in use as the tribe’s fire department/rescue squad. The film then focuses on a journey to confront a legendary beast which may or may not be a figment of Gobber’s imagination.Surprisingly (and awesomely), this story involves several tall-tale sequences narrated by Gobber which take place entirely in wonderful, classic-style 2-D animation! If you've ever wondered what the feature’s Viking world would look like hand-drawn, the answer is: Terrific! These bits are beautifully designed and great fun. Overall, the 14-minute film is an entertaining, light, funny little bonus tale--Exactly as intended. What a great day for home video! If you haven't yet discovered the Island of Berk, and found why it's joining Hogwarts, Oz and Middle Earth on the list of all-time best fantasy locales, pick up this gem; You're in for a great ride.
I love Pixar's Cars. Speaking as someone who grew up loving animation and Hot Wheels, the film made me smile from beginning to end. Can't wait for Cars 2 and the 2012 Cars Land at Disney California Adventure.
Last year, a spin-off book called Mater Saves Christmas appeared in stores. I was never able to get a look at a copy; They seemed to sell out everywhere. It did make me wonder about the Cars world, though: How do these guys celebrate Christmas? There are no humans or animals in that universe; Everyone's a vehicle. Ya don't wanna carry that line of thought too far regarding the religious side of the holiday...
But, this year, we finally get a look at a die-cast toy of SANTA CAR!
This is just awesome. Holy cow, it's perfect! Seriously, if you're gonna portray Santa as a car, I defy anyone to come up with a more charming design.
Once again, Pixar makes the world a happier, more whimsical place.
Once upon a time, a clumsy young Viking caught a dragon….
2010’s best movie hits store shelves in a couple of weeks. I’m buying the Blu-Ray/DVD pack, and I don’t even own a Blu-ray player, yet.
I can’t say enough good things about this movie. It’s a grand-slam home run—a work of wonder that succeeds on all levels and can be enjoyed by all ages. It plunges you into an astonishing world you’ve never seen before, pulls the heartstrings, barrel-rolls like a great rollercoaster and brings to life a cast of amazing, likable, thoroughly believable characters. You don’t want it to end. It’s funny, exhilarating, heartbreaking and very, very satisfying.
Last March, it flew in under the radar and took critics and audiences by surprise. It opened to rave reviews and merely “okay” first-weekend business. But it bowled over everyone who saw it, generated incredible word of mouth, stayed in the top 3 for weeks, and eventually became one of the year’s top moneymakers and Dreamworks’ most successful film.
It's become my all-time favorite movie, for many reasons:
It's an incredible animated film… It's one of the best fantasy films ever made… It's got a smart screenplay, sharp direction, great acting, breathtaking design and an amazing music score…
And...for crying out loud, it's got dragons and Vikings! Two great subjects together like peanut butter and chocolate!
I never thought about it like that before, but, yes: This is the movie equivalent of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Perfection.
I can’t wait to revisit the world of Hiccup, Toothless, Astrid, Stoic the Vast, Gobber and the other inhabitants of The Isle of Berk. And I envy folks who get to discover it for the first time. Watch this one together with your kids. And fasten your seatbelts.
At Astonished Walrus, we love Rock Band, Rock Band 2, Lego Rock Band, The Beatles Rock Band...and the upcoming Rock Band 3 (which will actually teach real guitar chords this time around!)
A focus on customization and variety sets Rock Band apart from other games involving make-believe guitars: Via the character/band creator and massive online music store, players can skew the game toward classic rock, punk, metal, country, folk, pop...the possibilities expand with each week's song additions.
The last couple of months have seen great chunks of awesome music arriving for the game, such as (nearly) every hit Creedence Clearwater Revival ever recorded. With the announcement of Tuesday's R.E.M. offering--which includes "Driver 8," "Stand," "Radio Free Europe," "Superman," "It's the End of the World as We Know It"...
Well, it just re-confirms that the folks at Harmonix (who created Guitar Hero, then improved the concept with Rock Band) genuinely love their work. And that's what elevates their games to insane levels of quality and satisfaction.
Quick: What's Disney's favorite way of killing off an animated villain?
Of course, not all Disney villains die. Some are imprisoned and some (mainly in the comedies) are merely humiliated. Then there's Pinocchio, a very dark film in which FIVE major villains get off with no punishment at all. Because the message of Pinocchio is, "Watch Out!" Most people think the message has something to do with wishing on stars. No. It's "Watch Out!"
But, when Disney storytellers do kill off a creep, they've definitely got one preferred method. Let's take a look at a list of the most famous Disney death scenes:
Snow White's Evil Queen - Plummets to her death. Cinderella's Lucifer the Cat - Plummets to his death. Sleeping Beauty's Maleficent - Stabbed through heart. Great Mouse Detective's Ratigan - Plummets to his death. Oliver and Co's Bill Sykes - Struck by train. Little Mermaid's Ursula - Stabbed through heart...by a ship! Rescuers Down Under's McLeech - Plummets to his death. Beauty and the Beast's Gaston - Plummets to his death. The Lion King's Scar - Plummets, survives, eaten by henchmen. Hunchback's Frolo - Plummets to his death. Tarzan's Clayton - Plummets to his (hanging) death. Mulan's Shan Yu - Blown Up
Yes, Disney's favorite way of killing a bad guy is the "Death Plummet."
I don't know about you, but it seems to me that Scar got the most grisly villain demise: EATEN ALIVE BY HIS OWN HENCHMEN!
Sure, he deserved it, but...yikes!
Don't you love folks who think Disney's too sugary?
Just kidding. Disneyland's Alice in Wonderland dark ride has been in operation since 1958 (with an extended closure for remodeling in the early '80s) and--as far as I know--no one's ever fallen off the outdoor section of track. But recently, as most fans know by now, a visiting OSHA inspector mentioned in passing that the elevated track could pose a problem, and Disney voluntarily shut the ride for a quick safety fix.
A few days ago, the constructions tarps came down, and...good grief.
Okay, that image used to link to a very funny video of various reactions to the new look. It has since been removed by the auteur.
My favorite comment came from the Hatter: "You have lice. Alice spells A-LICE, so we're fumigating your ride!"
Awesome.
Alice in Wonderland is one of my all time favorite Disneyland rides. And a lot of that was due to how incredibly cool and whimsical the outside of the ride used to look. And, as a child, I loved the thrill of the way the caterpillars used to go a bit over the edge of the leaf path just before they turned, giving the illusion of danger. Now...well...
Video by Hydrotrippin
I love that the background music in the above video is Dee and Dum's How'd Ye Do song.
Okay, in all fairness, it could have been much, much worse. So I'd like to point out a few things I actually like about the safety rails:
1) They're temporary. The plan, apparently, is to close the ride in the near future for a much more involved permanent solution which will, hopefully, look a lot better.
2) They tried. Really, at least they made an effort to add some appropriately themed decor to the thing.
3) The darker loading area adds a bit of mystery.
4) As seen in the second video, I do like the darker exit from the ride building. That works. That bit of the ride has always been a sort of dead area. It's not until the vehicles reach the new safety flooring that things start to look gross.
5) It doesn't hurt the ride's interior one tiny bit.
6) It's temporary.
7) At least the ride's open.
8) It's temporary.
Let's keep our fingers crossed that the permanent solution will be creative, surprising, and...just maybe...be an opportunity to improve the ride's outdoor descent.
I've wanted an E-book reader for a while, now, and when Amazon's Kindle dropped to $189, I began to give the device some serious consideration. The display at Target sealed the deal: I fell in love with the Kindle's screen and the look of the text. So easy on the eyes! So lightweight! So perfect to read a book on! Sold!
I couldn't be happier with Kindle, and I'm not even peeved that Amazon announced an upcoming improved version--with a cheaper non-3G model as an option) a week after I bought it. The current model fits perfectly in my hands, and the screen gives me exactly the right level of contrast for my tired ol' eyes. The free books and free internet access make it worth the purchase, but--of course--I bought a few reasonably-priced newer novels to get me started. Like others before me have said: the reading experience is so smooth that you forget you're holding a device and pressing buttons to turn pages. You're reading a book, and it feels exactly right.
Wonder of wonders, Amazon just started offering two great games for Kindle and--as of this writing--they cost exactly zero! SHUFFLED ROW and EVERY WORD provide some very well-designed scrambled letter fun. I highly recommend both, but Shuffled Row is my favorite of the two: It's crazily addictive and the best electronic word game I've played since Bookworm.
New to the Kindle community, I've already found two favorite sources of information. A Kindle World Blog is the best site for up-to-date Kindle news, commentary and tutorials on the web, and Free Kindle Books is an inexpensive Amazon blog subscription that points you to new free titles and promotional offers as they become available on Amazon.
So...for any readers wondering if the Kindle is worth a purchase: Yeah. Definitely. The iPad's a great device for doing a lot of tasks, but Amazon's little beauty is perfectly designed to provide the smoothest, most comfortable electronic reading experience possible. Be warned, though: It's also designed to make impulse book-buying frighteningly quick n' easy! :)
As if to make up for last Thursday, when my Wii Netflix account couldn't stream anything (first problem I've ever had with the service), they've added six amazingly good Travel Channel documentaries about the Disney parks.
