Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney. This past Sunday as a part of The Wonderful World of Disney, ABC aired a special celebrating 60 years of Disneyland. Now, it's been a while since I've reviewed a television special celebrating the parks. The last being from the '80s celebrating the opening of EPCOT. As richb pointed out in his article about Disney Parks specials, there haven't been a lot of specials for the parks. But Disney has recently been getting back into doing television specials as before this, they did two behind the scenes specials to celebrate two beloved movies, being Toy Story at 20: To Infinity and Beyond and Behind The Magic: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. So, it has been nice to see Disney get back into these televised specials for milestone events and these past 3 have been great. Sure, I could complain that most of this special was at the Dolby Theater instead of Disneyland but I won't as there was still a lot of good stuff. And yeah, there was a lot of promotion for Disney but that's no different than the older specials or the Christmas parades. That's half the reason, I tune for the Christmas parades. With this review, I'll be looking at Host, Highlights, Signs of The Time, & My Final Thoughts.
Host
Derek Hough
Now as I mentioned up top, there was a lot of corporate synergy running rampant throughout this special and that was perhaps most evident as seen with the host as the special was hosted by Dancing with The Star's Derek Hough. Derek isn't perhaps the first person that I would have thought of to host a Disney special but he did really good and brought a lot of energy into the hosting gig. And he was pulling double duty as the special also had him use his skill set a couple of times as he did an opening dance number and then again in one of the highlights of the night.
Which also featured his Dancing co-star, Witney Carson and a special Disney 60 version of Be Our Guest as sung by Pentatonix. Overall, Derek Hough did a good job as he was likable and endearing and brought the best of his qualities from Dancing with The Stars to the hosting gig. And another thing that I appreciate that unlike a lot of television hosts for specials, Derek never overstayed his welcome. He came to present something or someone and let the segment play out and let the presenters do their job. Though their was one presenter that had a look of not wanting to be there, which made his presentation pretty funny.
Highlights
Dame Helen Mirren talking about Walt Disney and Disneyland
The special started with Dame Helen Mirren delivering a really good speech about Walt's dream and vision of Disneyland and how he brought his dream of Disneyland to life. And yes, she was wearing Mouse Ears throughout her presentation. That should give you an idea of what the tone for this special was. It was all about fun and celebrating one of the Happiest Places on Earth.
A Tribute to Disney Princesses
This is something small but in this internet age, I've seen so many complaints lauded against these group of characters for being weak characters and poor role models. And here, Disney brought together a group of women of all ages from Robin Roberts to Lupita Nyong'o to Ginnifer Goodwin and more to talk about what these characters have meant to them and how they are strong role models for young women.
Josh Gad's Behind The Scenes Tour of Disneyland
This was so fun as it actually did a great job of taking the casual viewer that may not be as familiar with Disneyland from having Josh Gad meet the announcers of Disneyland announcers, Bill Rogers and Camille Dixon. And even giving a nod to the people that help keep the park clean. Some of the big highlights for me though were Josh sitting on the same park bench that Walt sat on, where he came up with Disneyland and going into Walt's apartment and explaining how the light in his apartment was always lit to let his employees know that he was watching over the magic and that even long after Walt's passing, the light is kept lit as a reminder is to remind them that Walt is always watching over the magic.
Really, the only thing that disappointed me was that I was hoping for a Josh Gad and Olaf Meet & Greet scene. Overall, this was a great segment.
The Music
Okay, I'll admit that I was hoping for some Disneyland music but I can't be mad at Disney music being a part of a Disney special. And it was great as we had Ne-Yo singing Friend Like Me and a young up & coming artist doing a pretty good cover of Part of Your World. Kermit The Frog and Tori Kelly doing a cover of Rainbow Cover.
And Kermit had my favorite joke of the night remembering all the wild rides with Mr. Toad. That got the biggest chuckle out of me. And then you had Elton John singing Can You Feel The Love Tonight?
Dick Van Dyke Can Still Step In Time
This had the loudest applause and this wonderful man got a standing ovation, when he came onstage. There were two moments that really hit me because of the huge Disney fan that I am. One being the story of Walt's light and this moment. This was the best moment in all of the special. Here, you had Emcee Derek Hough leading a dance troupe through a number of Step In Time and you saw that window door and you knew Dick Van Dyke was there but you were just waiting for him to appear and when he did. It was AMAZING. For one brief moment in time, he was Bert again. Even at 90 Years of age, Dick Van Dyke showed that he may not be as agile as he once was but he can still dance with the best of them. This moment sums up what it means to be a Disney fan in a nutshell.
Signs of The Time
Disney Applause App
I couldn't get this to work but the special was doing a thing, where if you downloaded the Disney Applause App, it would sync up with the musical performances and play animations that corresponded to the song on your device. That's cool and I'm kinda bummed that I couldn't get it to work but it really does show how we are living in the digital age. Ah well, even without this App, I was still able to enjoy the special.
Idina Menzel Singing Let It Go
We're almost 3 years out from when Frozen came out and we are still talking about it. And of course, they'd bring on Idina Menzel to sing Let It Go. It was a good performance. It's Idina Menzel. Though, I did make the joke on Facebook about wondering if she ever gets tired of singing this song.
Star Wars Land
The big announcement of the night was Star Wars Land and they brought on Harrison Ford to announce it. The stuff looked cool but if you've been following the development of Star Wars Land, you knew most of this stuff already. But Ford so didn't want to be there. He was just reading off the stuff that he had to say, so that he could get his portion of the special done. And this is most evident, when he presented the Star Wars music as he basically said
"I could stand here and tell you about the music or we could listen to it. How about we listen to it?"
That may not be his exact words but that is the gist of what he said. He was probably joking but it's hard to tell and considering that he doesn't like Star Wars, I wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't a joke. Honestly, BB-8 (yes, BB-8 was there) had more enthusiasm than Ford.
My Final Thoughts
I'm such a Disney Dork that while I was watching this I wearing my Disneyland 60 tee shirt, Disneyland 60 Mouse Ears and had my Disneyland 60 Mickey Mouse plush with me.
But this speaks to how big a fan of Disney I am and while this was touted as a celebration of Disneyland and it was. It celebrated all things Disney and I found myself getting into it and really enjoying the night. It was 2 hours of Disney in primetime and every moment was a blast. This knew how to be a good special and celebrate Disney. Were there some weak moments? Yeah such as Little Big Town's performance in Cars Land. A missed opportunity there as they could've sung a song from Cars or the Pete's Dragon Remake trailer but I didn't want to get into the latter here. To compare, last year Disney aired the worst special that I've ever seen them produce in my lifetime.
The problem with that special was putting all of the emphasis on one movie whereas this special knew that it was a Disney special and spread the love all around. Hitting on a little bit of everything that now makes up Disney and what draws in the fans. I won't go so far as to call this the best special or even say that it was perfect but it was an enjoyable two hours. And I highly suggest it for any Disney fan as it is a treat. If you missed it, it is on ABC's website. I'll provide a link to it, right here. I truly hope that we see more specials like this in the future as this along with the Toy Story and Snow White specials have been great celebrations of what it means to be a Disney fan. Peace!
No comments:
Post a Comment