I Loved Into The Woods

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney.  My most anticipated movie of the year was Disney's adaption of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's  "Into The Woods"  and my  thoughts.

I will go on record saying that this is one of my favorite Disney movie musicals that I've seen in a long time.  I was so excited to see this, that  before I saw it, I rented the 1991 taping of the stage production starring the wonderful Berndatte Peters as The Witch.

And I gotta say that  comparing the two, Disney did yes tone down some areas of the musical but in other aspects,  I am surprised that this movie got away with a PG rating.  And  this  is particularly in reference to one number.  The song, "Hello, Little Girl"  is sung by The Big Bad Wolf (played by Johnny Depp in the film)  and the song is all about  The Wolf lusting after Little Red Riding Hood, which  was a little eerie in the stage production but the actress playing Little Red was older than the character but Little  Red was  aged down and played by newcomer, Lilla Crawford, who is only 14 and  to hear a 51 year old Johnny Depp lust after  her  was a little off putting but that was the point of the number.  And thankfully, Depp's character is killed off after this number.

As an aside, this is the least obnoxious, I've seen Depp be in a while but it was still a little creepy.  I think  one of the big things that  I love about this movie  is that it captured the spirit of the musical perfectly and at the end,  my mom and I had a long discussion  as to who was truly at fault for The Giantness attacking their village. Which echoes the song, "Your Fault" where the characters  turn on each other and start blaming one another.  We came to the conclusion  that every character did something wrong to  obtain what they thought would better their lives.  And that's  one of the great things  about this movie,  it takes these characters that we normally see as being Black & White good guys and adds shades of gray to them.  Kinda like what Once Upon A Time does  but I'd argue that  this movie   goes a little deeper than Once does in that area.  Another thing I truly love about this musical  and it's something that I didn't pick up on until watching the movie  is  how the themes of the movie overlap.   Take for example,  this line  from Jack's number,  "Giants In The Sky"

 And you think of all of the things you've seen,And you wish that you could live in between,

These sentiments  are later echoed by  Cinderella,  when she leaves the Prince  (played wonderfully over the top by Chris Pine)

My father's house was a nightmare. Your house was a dream. Now I want something in between.

We see here that Cinderella had lived the dream that she thought that she wanted but it wasn't everything that she wanted.  That is the biggest lesson  of the story,  just because  you have what you thought you wanted,  that doesn't mean,  it's what you need.  I don't want to say too much more as this  movie  is  fantastic  and I would easily say that it is one of the best musicals to come from Disney in the longest time.   If you get the chance, see it and you will not be disappointed.

Christmas: Prep & Landing

Hello  & welcome  back to  A Look at Disney and today, we continue  our Christmas celebration by remaining  in the North Pole as we take  a look at Prep & Landing.  Prep  & Landing  is an elite  force that gets  the houses  ready for Santa's arrival  on Christmas Eve and  in this  special,  we follow  two prep  & landing elves,   Wayne  & Lanny.   This special  came about  as John Lasster  felt there was a lack  of  new Christmas specials  and at the time, he was right.  This  was originally  pitched by  Chris Williams as a short film but  Lasster liked the idea so much that he  thought  it would work better as a TV  special and ABC  was hoping to repeat the ratings success , they got the previous from Shrek The Halls.

And  as for my thoughts on this special,  it was quite good.   I  really  enjoyed this, the first time that I saw it.  And  it has gone  to become  a special that I greatly  like  coming back  to each Christmas.
 With that out of the  way, let's  begin this review.


The Plot


In  this special,  we follow  Wayne,  an elf  that has been  working as a Prep & Landing elf  for  227 years and is ready to move up and has  dreams  of being promoted to the head of the Naughty  list but it is not to be  as his partner and trainee,  Peterson got the job  instead  and  Wayne  has now been assigned a new partner, Lanny. A rookie  Prep & Landing elf that graduated at the top of his class.  Albeit,  it was a small class  and as we see from  Lanny,  he is an over enthusiastic elf  that  was a big  fan of Wayne  and had a poster of him on his wall growing up and cannot wait to get his first mission under his belt.    Lanny's  enthusiasm is quite infectious.

   



Heading  out to the mission,  we are introduced to the  Prep & Landing's  mode of transport, Thrasher.   A reindeer  that  is an urban  myth  to those outside of prep & landing and he is the second cousin.   He is a tough, no-nonsense reindeer that doesn't take  gruff  from anyone.  The idea  of of a tough guy reindeer is nothing new but  it was handled rather well  and this special  made the right decision  of not focusing  on him too much.

At the mission,  we see  Lanny  get excited  about his first  mission  while  Wayne  still bitter over not getting the job, decides to slack  off and let Lanny  do everything himself.

 



But  they  run  into  a problem  as   a creature  was stirring  in this  and  with  there  being a bad snowstorm,  Santa   does not think he can make  it after a call from Magee, the head  of  Santa's  flight program.  But  after figuring  out, a way to reroute  Santa,  they  use some very bright Christmas lights  and make sure that the child  gets his Christmas.

 

The mission was a success  and the next morning,  we see Wayne  talk to Santa in fear that he was going to be fired but that was not the case as Santa  offered him a promotion  as head of the Nice list but he turned Santa down as he was more of a prep & landing elf.

All in all, I loved this special  and  think it was a fantastic  new Christmas special that I enjoy coming back  to  each year.

Characters 


Main  Characters


Wayne voiced by  Dave Foley

I like the character of Wayne.  You felt bad for him as he didn't get something  that he had wanted  but  through the course of the mission  and through  Lanny,  he remembered why his job  as a prep & landing  elf  was so important.  



Lanny voiced by  Derek Richardson

Lanny is easily  my favorite character in the special.    I just   love his optimism and how enthusiastic, he is  about starting his job.  It's  just so infectious  and bubbly.  You can't just help but to get caught  up  in his  over abundance of  joy.



Supporting Characters 


Magee  voiced by Sarah Chalke

Magee  is the stressed  out  flight coordinator for Santa  and you can  just see how much the job  gets to her  but she always pulls through  and gets the job done.



Thrasher voiced by Hayes Macarthur

Thrasher   as I said  is a tough no nonsense  reindeer that was quite humorous.   And    I just loved his tough guy attitude.




Dasher & Dancer  voiced by  Nathan Greno & David DeLuise

I didn't mention these two in the review but  they were so funny.  Easily, some of the comic relief that I've seen  in a special in quite a while.   They played off each other so well.



Timmy voiced by  Mason Vole Cotton

This  kid was cute  and you could just see how excited he was for Christmas and hey,  his name is Tim.  How bad can he be,  if he has that name?




My  Final Thoughts


This special is just fantastic.  Easily, one of my favorite Christmas that I've seen in recent memory and one that I can't wait to go back in the following years.  Join me tomorrow as we go through the portal and head to Canterlot High as we look at..

Christmas: Christmas Impossible (Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas)

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and today, we continue our Christmas celebration as we once again visit Huey, Dewey, & Louie in  Christmas Impossible.  Their segment from "Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas". The follow up  film to "Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas" And yikes,  this was not as good as I remembered.   There are quite a few things that hold me back from completely liking them. And also, the animation has not aged well at all in this film. And we need to address something here.   The animation. Oh dear lord, the animation is just so stiff.

"Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas" was the first time, we  saw the classic  Disney characters in CGI on a wide release.  This film came  out in 2004, a year after Mickey's Phillarmagic and two years before  Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

 



This was a rough transition because other than  Phillarmagic,  we  had not  seen these characters in this form of animation and  well, they had a rough first outing.  It appears from the animation in this film that not much effort was put into   making these characters pop in this new  animation style and I'm sorry but  there is something lost with these characters not being hand drawn as that is where they truly shine brightest. Normally,  something like this wouldn't bug me so much.  Anyway onto the plot of the segment.



The Plot


You may recall how  I've mentioned throughout the Huey, Dewey, & Louie reviews that I wasn't  a fan of how in the early shorts,   the boys were portrayed as being bratty.  This short decides  to go back to that and  have the boys deliver themselves to the North Pole  to put their names on Santa's good list.   Yeah,  I take issue with that.  Now  do like that it was Uncle Scrooge to gave them this message that they need to clean up their act as he was speaking from experience here.  Another problem, I have is that unlike in the segment from this film's predecessor,  Donald did not set a very good example for his nephews and there is a reason why he got a book on manners.   And having said that, when the segment does actually get to the North Pole, it drags and takes forever to get the story going and while the story does eventually get somewhere with the boys trying to find the list.   I just feel like there is too much padding here with them spending so much time looking for it and causing trouble such as knocking the toys over and unloading the sleigh.

I get what this segment was going for and I do  applaud the attempt at the end, when the boys get the chance to put their names on the good list, they don't but instead put Uncle Scrooge's name on the list but by that point, it was too little, too late for this segment to be salvageable.

Don't get me wrong, it was nice seeing Scrooge get his present at the end of his bagpipe, that he always wanted but still,  this segment had way too many issues here.   I feel like the stuff with Santa is stuff that has been done before in better Christmas specials and this segment  didn't  seem to know what it wanted to do with the boys as it just made them so over the top obnoxious that you are convinced that after Christmas is over, they will revert to the way, they acted before having not learned anything from this experience.

 



This segment for a lack of a better word was boring.   Nothing really  happened  and it doesn't  feel like the boys actually learned anything.  So yeah,  this isn't a segment that I would recommend.





Characters




Main Characters


Huey, Dewey, & Louie  voiced  by Russi  Taylor

Again,  I don't  feel like  the  boys actually  learned anything  from  their  trip  up north  and  will revert  back to their prankster ways,  once the holiday is over.   Compare that to   "Stuck On Christmas",  where you felt as though,  they actually  learned  something  and learned to appreciate  Christmas for what it is.  Here,    they just wanted to get their names on the  good list, so they could get presents.  I don't  know about  you but   that seems  kinda  shallow  for a Christmas story.   I mean,  don't get me wrong, I could totally see  kids relating to this but there is nothing more to this segment than just that and it suffers for it, greatly.




Supporting  Characters


Uncle Scrooge  voiced by Alan Young

Scrooge was easily the highlight  here  as Alan  Young  delivered  the best performance  out  of all the cast  members and  you could feel that the cared for his nephews and wanted to see them shape up and change their act.  I'm sorry but Scrooge  with Huey, Louie, and Dewey makes me think of something better that I'd rather watch.

I  wasn't the only  one thinking  this, was I?




Donald  Duck voiced by Tony Anselmo

Donald  took a backseat  in the story, which is fine  but it  just felt odd that he would reprimand the boys for their actions but then do the same thing. Sending mixed messages there, Donald.



Daisy Duck voiced by Tress McNeille

Daisy  also  had nothing to do in the segment.  You could have taken her out of it and nothing would have been lost.


Santa  Claus  voiced by Chuck McCann

This  take on Santa was fine but again, we've  seen better takes  and   I gotta  be honest,  this Santa was really forgettable.    It would've been nice if there was more interaction with him because   that would have given him more character.  As it stands,    this is one Santa that you'll forget, once the segment is over and I feel like the inclusion of Santa was handled poorly here.



My  Final  Thoughts


If  I were to describe this segment,  I would say that it felt cheap and shallow   and not much effort was put into  it.  Which leads me to believe that to be true of the rest of the movie and that it was just a quick Christmas cash in riding  off being an in name sequel to "Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas", which actually had care and effort put into it.  This here just felt lazy.  Instead of a candy cane, we were given a lump of coal.   Oh well, they can't all be winners.  Join me tomorrow as I go back and do that Prep  & Landing review I promised.   Peace! 

Christmas: Winter's Gift (Sofia The First Episode Review)

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney as we continue  our  Christmas celebration and today, we head back to Enchancia to celebrate  Wassailla with Princess Sofia with Winter's Gift. With that out of the way, let's begin


Episode Title


Winter's Gift


Thankfully, the episode title this year is a lot easier  to spell  out  and    I also like the title as it  feels like  it ties more into the plot of the episode.


The Plot


The plot of this episode reminded me of a certain multi-million dollar movie from Disney.  

No, not that one.  THIS ONE.

Yeah,  this episode's plot wasn't too dissimilar to that of Frozen but while I can't say for certain,  I think that it may have borrowed more from   the original Snow Queen fairy tale than  that of the cinematic phenomena that was Frozen.    Is  that a  bad  thing?  Well,  I'm  not going to say yes or no on that but I will say that   it was a different enough for me to look past the similarities.  It's  Wassailla  Day  at the castle  and  Clover has given Sofia the perfect gift, himself.   Sofia  shows off a special gift,  a case for his wand that she made herself for Mr. Cedric.   She goes to take it to him but soon fears that it isn't special enough as  she overhears  Cedric ranting on and on about how  he has never gotten  a truly special gift. So, she figures that  she needs to get Cedric another gift but what.  Sofia  stumbles upon an idea, when   she  sees Baileywick decorating the castle and mentions  how he misses having ice lilies in  the castle as he loved using them for decoration but the steward tells the young princess but the  princesses'  bunny pal,  Clover happens to know someone that can help them.  His old friend, Whiskers  the Fox, who has a lot of connections  in the forest that can come  to their  aid.  This is where we get our  first  taste of what I called the Frozen experience as  they come across a young faun  playing music on a piccolo and we  learn from her that one year ago,  she went to see an ice witch that granted her special ice powers after  collecting wood crystals but now she wants to rid herself of said power after we  see her accidentally use  her power to freeze a tree.

 Okay,    as I said  it was hard not to think of Frozen while watching this episode.   And to be honest,  any story like this from now on will most likely be compared to Frozen.  Is that fair?  Well, I'm not sure because it's tough to say.   On the one hand,   our young fawn, Winter wasn't born with her powers a la Elsa but instead asked for them but  came to view them as a hindrance to her livelihood but  unlike Elsa, who learns to embrace her powers through the course of the movie and that they are a part of who she is,  Winter's powers are taken away at the end of the episode.  Now  yes,  they were not  a part of Winter her whole life like Elsa but also like Elsa, Winter had isolated herself from her family in the fear of hurting them,  which  we see come to fruition as she accidentally freezes  Clover  and  if the spell isn't undone, he will remain frozen forever.  Again,  this  isn't too dissimilar to   how  Elsa  hurt  Anna but there was more at stake  there.  I know, I know.  I shouldn't be comparing this to a movie but it's  hard, when  it seems quite similar.  Clover freezing happens  after the girls  had collected ice lilies  to give to the ice witch but when taken to her,  she is unimpressed as she  already has hundreds  of  these flowers and refuses to remove the powers or unfreeze  Clover.  This upsets  Winter  and causes  her to run off.  Sofia  is at a loss  as  to what to do and just then,  Sofia's amulet glows  and Clover recognizes this as meaning that  a princess  will show up. And indeed, one does as  Tiana  shows up to  help the young princess.

And  compared to Aurora from last season, this was  a much better use of a princess as Tiana actually did something  to help Sofia  and actually gave her advice instead of Aurora, who just said turn to your animal friends.   Tiana told the young princess that the best present,  you could give someone is that it should be from the heart.  And this  convinces Sofia  that   the best  present  that her faun  friend could give the ice witch is her music.  And this works, after playing, the ice witch agrees  to remove the ice powers  and unfreeze Clover and thanks to Whiskers'  connections,  he gets a reindeer driven sled to take them back to the castle and   there, Sofia  give Cedric the case she made for his wand and he appreciates it as a special gift  and the episode ends.   All in all, this was a cute episode and a rather  good  Christmas episode, that  was most certainly better than the season one Christmas episode.




Characters 


Main Characters


Sofia  voiced by Ariel Winter

All in all,  Sofia was a great support  in the episode and it was interesting to see her play support as it's not a role that she has often taken.  But when she does, she is good in these roles.


Winter voiced by Alyson Hannigan

Okay,   this character wasn't bad  but I still  think that  the conflict  with her  ice powers  could've been handled better.  I mean, it worked well  for what the show was attempting to show in that gifts are not always what we want but it was frustrating to see, the way it was executed as it could have been handled better.



Supporting Characters


Clover voiced by Wayne Brady

I felt bad for Clover after what happened and pile that on top  of  him being mocked by Whiskers for living as a castle rabbit.



Whiskers  voiced by Nick Offerman

Whiskers'  entire  role in this special seemed to be to make life miserable for Clover and mock him for the life that he lives.  But it was all a ruse because apparently,  Clover and Whiskers used to be friends and Whiskers felt lonely after Clover moved away from the forest.




Tiana voiced by Anika Nani Rose

As  I said above, Tiana was a great support for  Sofia  and gave  her the perfect message that she needed to hear and it worked rather well for the young princess.



Music


From The Heart







This is a rather sweet song with a good message for young children  and everyone alike.   Sure, it's a bit cheesy but I hold to the belief that  what this song is saying is very true. So long as your gift comes from the heart,  that should be what counts.




Villain



Glacia The Ice Witch voiced by Phylicia Rashad

This character could've done more.  She didn't do that much other than just sit on her throne  and remain unimpressed by the gifts that were brought to her.



My Final Thoughts


This was a rather good Christmas episode and one that I enjoyed very much and one that  I won't mind returning to again in the future. Join me tomorrow as we head to the North Pole to look at...

Christmas Music Fridays # 145: More Disney Princess Christmas

Hello & welcome back to  A Look at Disney and the Christmas celebration here.   I'm one of those people that LOVES Christmas music. Last year,  I looked at some of the Princess Christmas songs that Disney has released and this year, I'm doing a follow up to that. With that out of the way, let's begin.

Christmas In The Ocean

We start with a song sung by one of my favorite characters and it is so much fun with Ariel talking about she celebrates  Christmas under the sea and  it just sounds so much fun to do something like that.  But  I like this song for another reason as it hearkens to Christmas nostalgia for me as a Ariel book about her celebrating Christmas for the first time in Atlantica that I used to read as a kid and  there is nothing better to me than Disney/Christmas nostalgia and this song hits both of those buttons wonderfully.

Holidays At Home 

This song is sweet   and  in a way  reminds me of "I'll Be Home For Christmas"  but I've never heard Belle  sing that song, so I'll take this.  It's cute  and you can just hear how excited she is about returning home and getting to spend Christmas with her papa.  I do have to wonder how that first Christmas with the Prince went after he was turned back into a human though.   Boy, that could've been some interesting dinner conversations.

The Holly and The Ivy 

Yeah,  I wasn't sure what to make of this one.  I applaud the inclusion of Mulan but something about this one just seems to ring false to me.   It's not bad but parts of it feel forced and  not one that I would go back to.

Ariel's Christmas Island

We started with Ariel, so we end with Ariel.   This has always been one of my favorite Christmas songs.  I know that the Ariel version wasn't the first version of this song but it was the first one that I heard and it has become a Christmas staple in my playlist of Christmas song.   Again, this ties back into a nostalgia factor  because of Ariel and  growing up hearing this song.   This is one that I just really love.  It's  just so much fun and puts me in the Christmas spirit every time, I hear it.

There you have it, my look at more Princess Christmas songs.  I hope that you've enjoyed this look at these songs. Peace!

Christmas: Stuck On Christmas (Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas)

Hello & welcome  back  to A Look at Disney.  Two years ago,  I reviewed  "A Very Goofy Christmas"  and "Mickey and Minnie's The Gift of The Magi" from Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas.  A Christmas anthology video that contained  three Christmas shorts. There was one short during that time of year that I neglected to review but I've decided to return to it as I've been on a Donald Duck/Huey, Dewey, & Louie kick this year. So, today and next week, you are getting a Huey, Dewey, & Louie Christmas double feature.



The Plot


It's Christmas day at Donald's house and his nephews are excited because they get a lot of new presents including sleighs  from Donald and Daisy. It's interesting but they actually call Daisy, Aunt Daisy in this segment. The boys are shown to not care about their family or what Christmas is really about as they don't spend anytime with their family and when Aunt Daisy (I love that) calls them in for dinner and we see that they devour the whole meal before anyone else gets a chance and this rightly  upsets Donald but Aunt Daisy (Okay, it was just once but it was so sweet) defends the boys by saying that they are just enjoying her cooking.

 



That night, the boys make a wish that everyday could be Christmas on a wishing star and the next morning wish is granted and at first, the boys are overjoyed but after living the same Christmas  for what seems like an eternity, the boys grow tired of living the same day over and over again. And soon grow tired with it.

They then decide  to spice  one Christmas after the 4th or 5th time by playing pranks such as replacing Aunt Daisy's cooked turkey with a live turkey, which causes a ruckus through the house such as destroy a grand piano that Uncle Scrooge used to sing carols  and just destroyed the house and even caused the tree to fall over and it landed on Donald.

The boys then are about to leave the house until they read the card from Uncle Donald and Aunt Daisy on their sleds and they realize that they made Christmas miserable and were being selfish.  They decide the next Christmas has to be the best and   they  make Christmas breakfast,   help Aunt Daisy with Christmas dinner, which is now ham. Oh and the turkey from the previous Christmas is now a guest at Christmas.  Donald thinks that his nephews are up to something and they were something and they were.  They took  their sleighs/sleds and turned them into a present for Uncle Donald, his dreamboat.

And the next day  is December 26th, meaning that the cycle of Christmas has come to an end .  While,  this is my least favorite of the shorts from Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas, it is still quite good and  a sweet message.



Characters

Main Characters

Huey, Dewey, & Louie voiced by Russi Taylor

As you've noticed, I've been looking at shorts starring these three this year starting with some of their earliest shorts and I will admit that I am not a fan of their early portrayals as they are bratty and malicious. I  will admit that I prefer them in their newer portrayals as while they still have their moments,  they feel well meaning and I think that a lot of kids  have had that thought of  having Christmas everyday but they soon learn that isn't such a good thing and I like that they come around and actually learn what Christmas is actually about.



Supporting Characters


Donald voiced by  Tony Anselmo

I liked  Donald's role in this as he  served the paternal with the boys that I enjoy seeing him in and you could totally understand where he was coming from as an adult because the boys were acting a bit out of line.



Daisy voiced by Tress MacNeille

Daisy's role in this segment was minor but I did enjoy her time in it and  her defending the boys felt like a mother defending her sons from their father scolding them.  I get that and it was a sweet moment because I don't think other than Quack Pack, there has been interaction with Daisy and the boys.  Even then in the show,   the boys were teens but here, they were presented as young kids and that felt more natural.


Scrooge voiced by Alan Young

Scrooge's role was minor in this short  but I did like seeing him because there is something so  about seeing the Duck family together.



Aunt Gertie also voiced by  Tress MacNeille

From what I can gather, this character was created just for Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas and doesn't actually come from any branch of the Duck Family Tree.  Which is surprising how expansive, the Duck family is.  It's one of the largest families in Disney, so I thought for sure that she already existed but  my research proves otherwise. As for this character in the  short,   she was just a gag character that  wanted to kiss the boys to death and her gag got old fast.


My Final Thoughts


While I do still believe that this is the weakest of the three segments,  I still find it quite enjoyable and it was a good story of looking at what is too much of a good thing. We aren't done with  Huey, Dewey, & Louie just yet.  We will return to Huey, Dewey, & Louie next week but tomorrow we head back to Equestira to once again celebrate Hearth's Warming as we take a look at