Top 10 Favorite & Least Favorite Disney Things in 2014 Pt. 2 (4 -1)

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney. Previously, I started my countdown of my  favorite & least favorite Disney things from 2014. And today, I am continuing the list with numbers 4 - 1.  But first,  I have a few  Honorable Mentions that almost made it onto the Favorites List. With that out of the way, let's begin.

Honorable Mentions 

Rapunzel's Cameo on Sofia The First

I've made it no secret that I like this show and I've also made it no secret that Rapunzel is my favorite Disney character behind Mickey Mouse. So, the fact that Rapunzel was going to have a cameo on Sofia The First and that Mandy Moore came back to reprise her role was a great delight and on top of that,  Rapunzel got a new song to sing was beyond awesome. And to top it off, Disney released the song on Itunes before the special aired, so I downloaded it and listened to it, multiple times.   Now with all of this positvity towards this cameo, why didn't I include it.   It simply comes to the fact that this was a great year for Disney  and as much as I loved seeing Rapunzel again, I wouldn't feel right putting her on the actual list over some other great stuff that happened this year. I will say one of the biggest blogging regrets from last year was that I never got the chance to review it in 2014.

The Pirate Fairy

Now,  I had written  off most  Direct-to-DVD  movies from Disney,  I have been pleasantly surprised by both of the Tinker Bell movies, I've seen Secret of The Wings  and  this year's entry into the franchise, The Pirate Fairy.  If you'll recall, I reviewed this during  my Summer  Theme  Event where A Look at Disney Set Sailed for Adventure  and took a look at  pirate  related material from Disney.  It  was pretty much the origin story of Captain Hook  and  Tom Hiddleston  delivered  a decent performance and  as I said in my review, this was pretty, Tinker Bell's Magical Mystery Cure.  Which was great.  Oh, and not to mention that I was introduced to one of the coolest Disney characters in  a long time with Fawn.   I haven't  thought much about her since this review but  she is the  lead character of the new movie (and supposedly final movie), Legend of The NeverBeast.

Again,  this was pretty much left off the list  because there were was so much great stuff that came from Disney, this year.

Oswald  Debuts  As a Meet-&-Greet  Character  

This  happened earlier  this year but for the first time in 2014,  Oswald  The Lucky Rabbit became  a Meet-&-Greet character stateside.  This  is a huge  deal  for Disney fans  as   Oswald  is slowly making his way back into public consciousness.  It's a slow process but  it's a small start  and  I think the biggest issue  is that while  I'm happy that Oswald  is now stateside,  I'm a bit disappointed that it's only on the West Coast at California Adventure,  if they had also debuted him at Disney World, last year too, that would've most certainly  made the list.

Now, with these three things out of the way, let's get back to the actual list.

Favorite 4)  Disney During  World War II:  How The Walt Disney Studio Contributed To The Victory In The War

  

This is one  of the most fascinating Disney history books that I have read  in a long time.   A book dedicated the the contributions of  Disney during World War II  was such a great idea because  there were quite a few things to go over, whether it be the shorts that they made,  Victory Through Air Power, the never made  Gremlins  movie, which  would've been based on Roald  Dahl's  first  story.  This book  covered this period  of the company's  history in great detail  and made me excited to read every chapter  and has given  me  some new ideas  for reviews in the future  and I'm even considering a full on  article about what could've been  with Gremlins.  You know, it's funny that I got this book for Christmas because  BBHM was my Secret Santa  and  he was having a hard time  coming with something to do and  one of the things  was suggested to  him was Disney during World War II.   If you like Disney history or history in general and you are interested in World War II, pick this book up.

Least Favorite  4)  That Creepy  "Once Upon A Dream" Cover by Lana Del Rey

  

Yeah,  what was up with this?   Look,  I'm no fan of "Sleeping Beauty"  but  even I'll admit that the original version of this  song was better.  I get what they were trying to go for by making this sound ominous and dark but that doesn't  work  and as my fellow  Disney reviewer, DisneyOtoko, it doesn't  really fit thematically with the character of Maleficent.  And the only reason that it was even used is because the song is from "Sleeping Beauty" but other than that,  yeah, this is bad.

Favorite  3)  The Frozen Arc  on Once Upon A Time

Let's  not  deny the fact that it was done  to ride the Frozen hype train but  having said that with all of the mandates that were forced on Once  that they weren't allowed to change  the Frozen characters in anyway was  a bit of a challenge for them but having said that, they did a good job casting  the actors, I felt  the cast of Frozen had just stepped  out of the movie. Though,  Elsa was in her "Let It Go" dress for  the entire first half  of season 4.   Still with all of the restraints placed  on this arc, they did a good job and made for one of my favorite  story lines and a heartbreaking end with The Snow Queen sacrificing herself at the end.



Least Favorite 3) The Frozen Hype

Let  me preface this by saying that I love Frozen, it still stands  as one  of my favorite Disney movies but I am so over Frozen being everywhere.  It took me longer than  others to be dragged down and this feeling  didn't kick in until around Christmas time.  It likes Disney doesn't even know that they have other movies in their library.   Again,  I love Frozen,  I love Anna,  I love Elsa.  Heck, two of the Christmas presents I bought for people this year were Frozen.  I got my sister, an Elsa Christmas ornament.   This was after going to Hallmark  and the cashier asked me if I was on the waiting list.  A waiting list for a Christmas ornament. That's crazy.  I went to another store and they found next to Twilight Sparkle, Gene Simmons, and Elvis  on a Christmas tree.   (I'm with Les,  that needs to be a Christmas special).   And a Frozen  book for  my niece. And heck,  I got an Elsa & Anna  lanyard  but  even with all of that,  I am tired  of how hard  Disney has been pushing this movie.   It's  like they are afraid that their  next few movies aren't that good.    Disney,  Frozen was a huge event and it's a great movie but take  Elsa's  advice and "Let It Go" (Still, a great song BTW but there are other great Disney songs too like "When Will My Life Begin").


Favorite 2) Into The Woods

Disney released  2  live action fairy tale movies, one good and well, we'll get to the other one.  Into The Woods was one of my  most anticipated films of 2014 and yes, it was in part because it was a musical but I was curious enough to look into the original production and watched  in on my IPad  before seeing it  and it was great and while  the movie being a  PG Disney production trimmed  a few things  down,  I  still enjoyed this film  and  this  is now  of  my favorite  musicals  of the last few years.   The music  was handled well  and   I can't  wait to pick this movie up, when it comes out on Blu-Ray and this is one film that I'm seriously considering  seeing again.   Though I will say, one regret I have with the film is the omission of the song, "No More",  which I think could've worked even with the Baker's Father's role being trimmed down.





This song is just beautiful  and it's a pity  that it was cut out of the film.







Least  Favorite 2)    Maleficent

Yeah,  time to do some back pedaling here.  If you read the In Too Deep cross over I did with Pretty Boy, I defended this movie  and said it was better than the animated movie. Well,  I was wrong  and  the more I thought  about this film, the less I liked it and the more my thoughts reverted back to Disney  just trying to do Wicked with one of their Disney characters but  one of the major differences between a movie like this and  something like Wicked comes from while both  Elphie and Maleficent do embrace their evil side,  it's  more understandable in Wicked  because  she was branded as a witch.  I mean sure, I get it with Maleficent because for all intents and purposes,  Maleficent was raped. (Something I never thought I would have to say about a Disney film).   The other key difference between the two  is that  you never  see Elphaba  be accepted back into Oz  unlike this film, where Maleficent becomes the hero.   That just seems weird  for a Disney villain. Even if she's not one I'm a fan of.   Also,  here's  one other thing that  really holds  this movie back, the name.  Maleficent fans have hard time with this movie  because  they don't  want to see this  version as Maleficent but with it being so  tied into the animated Disney film,  I can see how it's hard to ignore whereas with Wicked, that is never presented as the real story of what happened but just another story of what could have happened.  Allowing Oz fans to enjoy Wicked  without being told that The Wizard of Oz didn't  happen, the way we know it.  This movie starts out with narration telling the audience that the story we know of Sleeping Beauty is a lie.  And look, I may not be the biggest fan of that movie but that's insulting to people that are fans of that movie. Again,  I remember talking to DisneyOtoko  after he saw this movie on Facebook  and  hadn't seen him so upset over a movie in the longest  time but this film pissed him off.  I can't say that I had that same reaction but this movie makes me dread some of the upcoming live action fairy tale films from Disney.  Granted, I still think that Cinderella looks good.




Now  with my  number one,  I want to focus on my least favorite before I get to the favorite because I want to end this list on a happy note.




Least Favorite 1)  Frozen  Christmas Celebration

This This... THIS PIECE OF GARBAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This was insulting to me as  a Frozen fan and more importantly as a Disney fan.  Every  year on ABC, Disney  airs  a  Christmas parade  from the Disney parks but there was one element missing from this year.  They barely showed the parade. Oh, we got to see some of the characters for 20 seconds.  Mickey & Minnie weren't in the parade. The performances of the songs from Frozen ranged from decent to awful.  They couldn't get any of the cast from Frozen to make an appearance.  FOR THIS BEING THEMED TO FROZEN, THERE WAS A LACK OF FROZEN IN THE ACTUAL SPECIAL.  Elsa & Anna,  the  big  draw  were only  in the parade  for  the last five seconds, which resulted in some of the worst TV CGI , where  Elsa froze over the Magic Kingdom.   Olaf  was  in more of the special  as  Olaf  along with some  young dancers  preformed  "In Summer".    This  was a slap in the face to anyone that is not only  a  fan of Frozen but also  a fan of Disney.  This ties  back into what I was saying about the Frozen hype.  Disney thinks  they  can just slap on Frozen on anything and people will like it.  Well, this proves that's not true.  And also, where were Kristoff and Sven?  If  you are  going to label this as a Frozen themed  event,   I'd  like  it if all the Frozen characters were in the  parade.  Oh, that's right, you didn't  think that you needed to have a a parade because you  just tried to coast by on Frozen.  Which is an insult to that wonderful  movie.   Disney,   Frozen  deserves to be treated better than what you did with it here.   I pity  Anna and Elsa for being used like this.  Yeah,  they were used.  If you didn't see this, count yourself among the lucky.





Favorite 1)  Figment  (Journey Into Imagination)

If you had told me at the beginning of the year, that my favorite thing from Disney wouldn't be a movie but rather a comic book.  I'd be surprised but then you told me that it was going to star Figment and Dreamfinder, when is this series coming out?   I am one of the biggest  fans of these two characters,   they are two   of the most  beloved EPCOT  characters  and this mini series was an origin story  of how they met and their  first  journey together.  And  it was  a great ride and one that I'm looking  back  at reading again, when  it's released in trade.   They perfectly captured the spirit  of these two characters and it made me so happy to see Dreamfinder as he's no longer at EPCOT.   Now,  this  mini series  did something right  that I said  that  Girl Meets World did wrong  with it's fan references,  they didn't  rely  on them and when  they were there, they didn't overtake the story.  And   I thought  that ending was rather sweet with these two  friends  flying  off to a new land that looks awfully familiar.  As it's  Spaceship Earth from EPCOT,  which  thinking about it now makes me weep because this is their  origin story  and they are finding their home but now  Dreamfinder isn't there anymore  and now I just picture Figment looking back on the good times and missing Dreamfinder.   Disney, why did you ever separate these two?   Dreamfinder  and Figment are one of the best duos, you've ever had and Jim Zub did a great  job  bringing these characters back and reminding me that why  I grew to like these characters again in the first place.  If  you haven't  read this mini series, do yourself a favor and pick it up.    You  may  not  know these characters  or be fans  of them like I am but after reading this mini series, you'll understand why  these are so cherished and beloved.



There  you have it,   the conclusion to my  Favorite  & Least Favorite Things from  the world of Disney in 2014.  What are your thoughts  and what are some things from Disney that you loved this year and what are some things that you really hated.   Let me know in the comments.