Hello everyone and welcome to a quick update blog on the Disney Parks. It's been a while since I've done an update on the ongoing status of the parks and at this point there is some stuff to talk about. So sit back, relax, and enjoy some signs of hope in a time where more and more people are struggling to find some positives in these very strange and frankly depressing times.
Disneyland Shanghai
Lets start with the best news shall we? Disneyland Shanghai reopened to guests two days ago (May 11th, 2020). While the park is now open, it is far from operating at a normal schedule or capacity. The park is currently accepting 24,000 people a day. Sounds like a good number, but in reality it is under a third of what the park normally accepts and is actually less than the limit that the Chinese government put on the park. Disney further limited the capacity in order to allow its employees to have an easier time enforcing new park procedures. These new procedures include temperature scanning of guests entering the park, queue line social distancing, and social distancing measures for parties by the castle. Currently, there are taped boxes on the ground in various areas of the park designed for parties to stand in. The next box is located six feet away for the next party. With the park operating at such a low capacity, it is easy for park employees to help guests maintain that ever so important distance.
Other new procedures include limited ride capacity, wearing face masks, and distanced character experiences. Again, with the limited capacity all of these procedures are much easier to maintain. For example, despite limited capacity, Tron Light Cycle Power Run has had around a ten minute wait time. That ride is normally over an hour wait every day. Both guests and cast members are required to wear masks at this time and there are mask disposal bins all over the park to assist in keeping the park clean. Currently there are no parades, no stage shows and no fireworks, however there is a nighttime castle show that is currently running nightly.
The bottom line though is that the park is open. There is hope. Both parades and fireworks are being tested and rehearsed, so one would suspect that before too long these would be returning to the park as well. As time rolls on and there is no significant spike in COVID-19 cases, I expect the park to slowly creep closer to a state of semi-normalcy. Will it ever be the same, that is certainly a topic for hot debate, but the fact of the matter is that for the first time in way too long, a Disney park is open!
Walt Disney World Resort
The Disney Springs area of the Walt Disney World Resort will be opening on May 20th. That being said, not all the stores and restaurants are reopening at one time. Much like pretty much everything else, this reopening is going to take place in phases. Some locations are opening March 20th. Disney owned shops and restaurants will begin to reopen on May 27th. Much like Disneyland Shanghai, temp scans for guests will be required as well as face masks. Plexiglass dividers will also separate guests from cashiers (which has become a pretty common sight around here anyway). Once again, this is a sign of life and the start of a move back to a more normal Walt Disney World.
Currently there is no reopening date for the theme parks, but more and more rumors and reports have been coming out hinting that a return date may not be too far off. Until anything is official though I'm not going to talk about it here to avoid creating false hope and hype or on the opposite end of the scale, more disappointment. If you would like to keep up with all of these reports, please check out Walt Disney World News Today
Disneyland Paris
While there is still no reopening date, Disneyland Paris has reportedly been given guidance that would allow them to reopen sometime in mid July. Again, as of now there is no reopening date set, but it is encouraging that a time frame now exists for the park.
Hong Kong Disneyland
While the park has no reopening date, the Hong Kong Disneyland hotels are all now accepting reservations for as early as next week. With the hotels reopening one would think that an announcement on the park opening will come soon.
The Rest
As of now there is no further news on any of the Disney Parks reopening that I feel is worth touching on here. Disneyland California and California Adventure have no reopening date, though rumors of new park procedures such as guests and cast members wearing masks and social distancing measures are abound. Again, no date exists for the park to reopen. Tokyo Disneyland and Disney's Tokyo Sea remain closed indefinitely as Japan has extended its national emergency.
Six Flags Great Adventure
As of now, the park has no reopening date. That being said it has been confirmed that upon reopening guests will need to reserve a spot in the park online prior to getting to the park. This is being done as a part of the ongoing efforts around the country to allow for as much social distancing as possible. I've seen rumors that masks will also be required though I find it hard to imagine guests riding El Toro or Nitro with face masks on.
So that is where things stand as of now. The bottom line of this blog is that there is hope. We have one Disney Park open and several others well on their way to reopening. In a time where everything can seem so bleak it is so encouraging to see some positive things popping up as we all try to move forward. Thank you all as always for reading and stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon!
Wednesday, May 13, 2020
Monday, May 4, 2020
Star Wars Fun Episode IV: The Controversy Awakens (The Sequels) Part 2
This blog is a continuation of a blog discussing my feelings on the new trilogy of Star Wars movies. I highly recommend reading that blog first. Spoilers ahead.
Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
After The Last Jedi came out, the Star Wars fandom was torn apart. There were and still are fans supporting the movie constantly fighting with fans who are against it. There are the casual fans that take issue with it, but accept it for what it is (in my opinion a movie trying to start a trilogy) caught in the middle. Whatever side you are on, I'm going to guess that when Disney announced the final installment would be called The Rise of Skywalker you probably groaned. Fortunately a title does not make the movie and The Rise of Skywalker would attempt to close out the Skywalker saga by using a lot of the same strategies as The Force Awakens used to kick things off.
Much like The Force Awakens, Rise of Skywalker is not afraid to prey on your nostalgia. We see all kinds of returns here. We have the heartbreaking death of Leia, Han Solo appearing to Kylo Ren, Lando Calrissian returning, Luke Skywalker walking out of the flaming wreckage of a TIE Fighter, much more involvement from C-3PO, and of course the big return, Emperor Palpatine. All of these characters along with the new crew (largely minus Rose) work to try and piece together two movies that had nothing really to do with each other and wrap up the entire Skywalker Saga. It was a massive task, and I think the movie did the best it could with what was left for it. There are quite a few questions answered that were left from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, while many concepts from The Last Jedi, such as fuel, vanished. While many of those concepts vanished the force powers stuck around and even expanded more as Kylo Ren and Rey end up having a duel basically through the force.
I love all the callbacks in this movie to things that came before it. Very early on we have Emperor Palpatine giving the exact same speech to Kylo Ren that he gave to Anakin Skywalker. Luke Skywalker raise the X-Wing, Red Five, from the depths. While he is doing so the same music plays that plays when Yoda raises the same ship out of the swamp on Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Back. Apparently Red Five is waterproof. There's an Easter egg with a battle droid from Episode I being visible in a trashed ship. There's so many little things like that that touch on the history of this saga, which makes the ending feel so much bigger. Speaking of big, Rey and Kylo end up fighting on the remains of the second Death Star. We even get to see the Emperor's old chair where he forced Luke to watch the Rebel fleet struggle against the Imperial forces.
We continued to see the expansion of the force. This time around we see force healing. Rey heals Kylo Ren after he was again distracted in a fight. In the end Ren, now as Ben Solo, gives his life so Rey can live. We also see that Palpatine has certainly gained significant power as he is able to now use his force lightning to shut down the systems of the Resistance forces. Speaking of force lightning, we also see Rey use the power in a struggle with Ren as they battle for control over a flying transport ship. As mentioned Luke raises Red Five from the depths in what I believe is the first time we see a force ghost move objects with the force. We also see objects transferred through the force as Rey hands off her lightsaber to Ben Solo.
I'm also a fan of Rey being a Palpatine. After The Last Jedi established that Rey's parents were really nobody even remotely important, it was a good recovery as The Force Awakens left it as such a mystery. It was obvious by the end of The Last Jedi that Rey had no blood relation with the Skywalkers, so having her be a Palpatine was the next best option. Though I have to say that another question that The Force Awakens left, but The Last Jedi didn't answer involved the Knights of Ren. We see them in this movie multiple times, but we still have no idea who they are or where they came from. Following The Force Awakens coming out, people theorized all kinds of ideas, even using the art book for the movie to compare them to characters from Rouge One: A Star Wars Story. Apparently the Knights of Ren appear in comics and other media, so there story is more known than the movies show.
We also learned that Snoke was basically just a science experiment that Palpatine created as we see massive test tubes filled with multiple Snokes early in the movie. Hey I guess if The Last Jedi killed him off without ever explaining who he was, at least we got something right?
So what didn't I like about it? Honestly I think it feels kind of rushed. I feel like they tried to jam as much as possible in, but at times it felt rush. Instances of that include General Hux being the Resistance spy. He announces it and is dead moments later. It would have been interesting to see more with that. While I understand the whole space horse force landing on the massive capital Star Destroyer on Exogal, I always cant help but think that though the Star Destroyers aren't exactly launched, they're not grounded either. Couldn't it have just pivoted or rotated a bit?
While I find the final showdown between Rey and Palpatine to be a bit cheesy with the whole I am all the Jedi stuff, I have to wonder why didn't Palpatine just stop using the lightning? That's the second time he's allowed himself to be either disfigured or killed by that. The first being when Mace Windu reflects his lightning back at him in the same fashion in Episode III which caused Palpatine to become disfigured. Speaking of Palpatine, the movie doesn't actually tell us how he survived or really anything about him other than he is able to gain enough life force from Ben and Rey to be made whole once more. It wasn't until well after the movie was released that the book confirmed that the Palpatine in the movie is actually a clone that then ended up restoring the original. Or something along those lines. Palpatine was brought back as a clone in the original extended universe, so it's not at all surprising that he'd be a clone, but it would have been nice for the movie to explain it a little bit.
The last little issue I want to bring up is the moment that was all over the trailers. We see Kylo Ren's TIE Fighter screaming along just off the ground. Rey draws her lightsaber and waits. Eventually she runs, jumps, and cuts one of the wings off the TIE. The TIE crashes with the cockpit literally bouncing along the ground until it explodes. Kylo Ren emerges from the wreckage completely unharmed. I don't know why that bothers me as we have seen stuff similar to this before, but man does that cockpit roll for a while before crashing and burning.
The Rise of Skywalker made the most of what it had to work with given how much the previous two films really clashed with one another. Could it have been better? Absolutely. Could it have been worse, oh yes it could have. I think this movie did enough to salvage the trilogy. It wasn't enough to bring the trilogy up to the level of the original though as the disjointedness between the first two movies made it nearly impossible for the trilogy to ever be considered one of the greatest. The Rise of Skywalker is able to close out the Skywalker Saga with Rey taking up the name of Skywalker, forging her own lightsaber and one could assume eventually starting a Jedi school of her own. The ending closes out in an incredible way with Rey and BB-8 burying Luke and Leia's lightsabers where the entire Star Wars story franchise began, at the now abandoned house of Luke and Leia's aunt and uncle on the desert planet of Tatooine. We see the two suns setting with Rey and BB-8 in a very similar fashion we saw to when Luke dreamed of leaving the planet. It was a perfect ending that I think could have only been more perfect if it had been C-3PO and R2-D2 returning to the planet as opposed to BB-8.
So where do I put the new trilogy. Well I certainly cannot put it above the original for a multitude of reasons. I just don't know if I can put it above the prequels and hear me out on why. While the prequels were not the greatest of movies (mostly looking at Episode I and II with that), they told a very cohesive story of the rise of Darth Vader, the fall of the Republic, and the rise of Emperor Palpatine to power. This culminated in Episode III where everything that was good in the galaxy seemingly failed and darkness took over. The new trilogy saw the rise of Rey from a nobody to a Jedi, the Resistance fighting back against the First Order that apparently the New Republic was not able to get a handle on before Starkiller Base wiped them out, Kylo Ren becoming the leader of the First Order, and the revelation that Palpatine had returned in the last movie. It's so all over the place.
The original three movies and prequels I can sum up in just a couple sentences, but I just can't find myself able to do that with the new trilogy. So where do I rank the new trilogy? I think the three movies are better overall. Even The Last Jedi I think is a much much better movie than Attack of the Clones. The Force Awakens cannot even be compared to The Phantom Menace in my opinion. That said if you asked me if I prefer The Rise of Skywalker to Revenge of the Sith, I'd have a real hard time. That said since the other two in the new trilogy I prefer to the prequels I'll give it the nod over the prequels despite the prequels clearly having the more defined story.
So what comes next for Star Wars? Is the franchise finally washed up, done, over with, left to die? Absolutely not. I expect that we will continue to see more and more Star Wars content come out on Disney + and other forms of media. Will we see another Star Wars film in theaters. I'm sure, but I think it's going to take time and honestly I think it's going to take time for the fan base to heal from the ongoing rupture that The Last Jedi caused. I do believe that Disney has it in them to right the ship again. We've seen signs of it already in the Star Wars Stories movies that came out and The Mandalorian has done incredibly well on Disney +. With The Rise of Skywalker launching on Disney + today we will see what happens from here on when it comes to Star Wars. All I know is that the franchise has been a part of my life for so long and will continue to be that, so I'm going to buckle up and enjoy the ups, the downs, and everything in-between. As always thank you for reading. This series does not end here as the next installment to this series will be looking at both Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Solo: A Star Wars Story. I leave you with a video of Star Tours: The Adventure Continues from Disney's Hollywood Studios featuring the new scenes added in from The Rise of Skywalker. Stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon!
Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
After The Last Jedi came out, the Star Wars fandom was torn apart. There were and still are fans supporting the movie constantly fighting with fans who are against it. There are the casual fans that take issue with it, but accept it for what it is (in my opinion a movie trying to start a trilogy) caught in the middle. Whatever side you are on, I'm going to guess that when Disney announced the final installment would be called The Rise of Skywalker you probably groaned. Fortunately a title does not make the movie and The Rise of Skywalker would attempt to close out the Skywalker saga by using a lot of the same strategies as The Force Awakens used to kick things off.
Much like The Force Awakens, Rise of Skywalker is not afraid to prey on your nostalgia. We see all kinds of returns here. We have the heartbreaking death of Leia, Han Solo appearing to Kylo Ren, Lando Calrissian returning, Luke Skywalker walking out of the flaming wreckage of a TIE Fighter, much more involvement from C-3PO, and of course the big return, Emperor Palpatine. All of these characters along with the new crew (largely minus Rose) work to try and piece together two movies that had nothing really to do with each other and wrap up the entire Skywalker Saga. It was a massive task, and I think the movie did the best it could with what was left for it. There are quite a few questions answered that were left from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, while many concepts from The Last Jedi, such as fuel, vanished. While many of those concepts vanished the force powers stuck around and even expanded more as Kylo Ren and Rey end up having a duel basically through the force.
I love all the callbacks in this movie to things that came before it. Very early on we have Emperor Palpatine giving the exact same speech to Kylo Ren that he gave to Anakin Skywalker. Luke Skywalker raise the X-Wing, Red Five, from the depths. While he is doing so the same music plays that plays when Yoda raises the same ship out of the swamp on Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Back. Apparently Red Five is waterproof. There's an Easter egg with a battle droid from Episode I being visible in a trashed ship. There's so many little things like that that touch on the history of this saga, which makes the ending feel so much bigger. Speaking of big, Rey and Kylo end up fighting on the remains of the second Death Star. We even get to see the Emperor's old chair where he forced Luke to watch the Rebel fleet struggle against the Imperial forces.
We continued to see the expansion of the force. This time around we see force healing. Rey heals Kylo Ren after he was again distracted in a fight. In the end Ren, now as Ben Solo, gives his life so Rey can live. We also see that Palpatine has certainly gained significant power as he is able to now use his force lightning to shut down the systems of the Resistance forces. Speaking of force lightning, we also see Rey use the power in a struggle with Ren as they battle for control over a flying transport ship. As mentioned Luke raises Red Five from the depths in what I believe is the first time we see a force ghost move objects with the force. We also see objects transferred through the force as Rey hands off her lightsaber to Ben Solo.
I'm also a fan of Rey being a Palpatine. After The Last Jedi established that Rey's parents were really nobody even remotely important, it was a good recovery as The Force Awakens left it as such a mystery. It was obvious by the end of The Last Jedi that Rey had no blood relation with the Skywalkers, so having her be a Palpatine was the next best option. Though I have to say that another question that The Force Awakens left, but The Last Jedi didn't answer involved the Knights of Ren. We see them in this movie multiple times, but we still have no idea who they are or where they came from. Following The Force Awakens coming out, people theorized all kinds of ideas, even using the art book for the movie to compare them to characters from Rouge One: A Star Wars Story. Apparently the Knights of Ren appear in comics and other media, so there story is more known than the movies show.
We also learned that Snoke was basically just a science experiment that Palpatine created as we see massive test tubes filled with multiple Snokes early in the movie. Hey I guess if The Last Jedi killed him off without ever explaining who he was, at least we got something right?
So what didn't I like about it? Honestly I think it feels kind of rushed. I feel like they tried to jam as much as possible in, but at times it felt rush. Instances of that include General Hux being the Resistance spy. He announces it and is dead moments later. It would have been interesting to see more with that. While I understand the whole space horse force landing on the massive capital Star Destroyer on Exogal, I always cant help but think that though the Star Destroyers aren't exactly launched, they're not grounded either. Couldn't it have just pivoted or rotated a bit?
While I find the final showdown between Rey and Palpatine to be a bit cheesy with the whole I am all the Jedi stuff, I have to wonder why didn't Palpatine just stop using the lightning? That's the second time he's allowed himself to be either disfigured or killed by that. The first being when Mace Windu reflects his lightning back at him in the same fashion in Episode III which caused Palpatine to become disfigured. Speaking of Palpatine, the movie doesn't actually tell us how he survived or really anything about him other than he is able to gain enough life force from Ben and Rey to be made whole once more. It wasn't until well after the movie was released that the book confirmed that the Palpatine in the movie is actually a clone that then ended up restoring the original. Or something along those lines. Palpatine was brought back as a clone in the original extended universe, so it's not at all surprising that he'd be a clone, but it would have been nice for the movie to explain it a little bit.
The last little issue I want to bring up is the moment that was all over the trailers. We see Kylo Ren's TIE Fighter screaming along just off the ground. Rey draws her lightsaber and waits. Eventually she runs, jumps, and cuts one of the wings off the TIE. The TIE crashes with the cockpit literally bouncing along the ground until it explodes. Kylo Ren emerges from the wreckage completely unharmed. I don't know why that bothers me as we have seen stuff similar to this before, but man does that cockpit roll for a while before crashing and burning.
The Rise of Skywalker made the most of what it had to work with given how much the previous two films really clashed with one another. Could it have been better? Absolutely. Could it have been worse, oh yes it could have. I think this movie did enough to salvage the trilogy. It wasn't enough to bring the trilogy up to the level of the original though as the disjointedness between the first two movies made it nearly impossible for the trilogy to ever be considered one of the greatest. The Rise of Skywalker is able to close out the Skywalker Saga with Rey taking up the name of Skywalker, forging her own lightsaber and one could assume eventually starting a Jedi school of her own. The ending closes out in an incredible way with Rey and BB-8 burying Luke and Leia's lightsabers where the entire Star Wars story franchise began, at the now abandoned house of Luke and Leia's aunt and uncle on the desert planet of Tatooine. We see the two suns setting with Rey and BB-8 in a very similar fashion we saw to when Luke dreamed of leaving the planet. It was a perfect ending that I think could have only been more perfect if it had been C-3PO and R2-D2 returning to the planet as opposed to BB-8.
So where do I put the new trilogy. Well I certainly cannot put it above the original for a multitude of reasons. I just don't know if I can put it above the prequels and hear me out on why. While the prequels were not the greatest of movies (mostly looking at Episode I and II with that), they told a very cohesive story of the rise of Darth Vader, the fall of the Republic, and the rise of Emperor Palpatine to power. This culminated in Episode III where everything that was good in the galaxy seemingly failed and darkness took over. The new trilogy saw the rise of Rey from a nobody to a Jedi, the Resistance fighting back against the First Order that apparently the New Republic was not able to get a handle on before Starkiller Base wiped them out, Kylo Ren becoming the leader of the First Order, and the revelation that Palpatine had returned in the last movie. It's so all over the place.
The original three movies and prequels I can sum up in just a couple sentences, but I just can't find myself able to do that with the new trilogy. So where do I rank the new trilogy? I think the three movies are better overall. Even The Last Jedi I think is a much much better movie than Attack of the Clones. The Force Awakens cannot even be compared to The Phantom Menace in my opinion. That said if you asked me if I prefer The Rise of Skywalker to Revenge of the Sith, I'd have a real hard time. That said since the other two in the new trilogy I prefer to the prequels I'll give it the nod over the prequels despite the prequels clearly having the more defined story.
So what comes next for Star Wars? Is the franchise finally washed up, done, over with, left to die? Absolutely not. I expect that we will continue to see more and more Star Wars content come out on Disney + and other forms of media. Will we see another Star Wars film in theaters. I'm sure, but I think it's going to take time and honestly I think it's going to take time for the fan base to heal from the ongoing rupture that The Last Jedi caused. I do believe that Disney has it in them to right the ship again. We've seen signs of it already in the Star Wars Stories movies that came out and The Mandalorian has done incredibly well on Disney +. With The Rise of Skywalker launching on Disney + today we will see what happens from here on when it comes to Star Wars. All I know is that the franchise has been a part of my life for so long and will continue to be that, so I'm going to buckle up and enjoy the ups, the downs, and everything in-between. As always thank you for reading. This series does not end here as the next installment to this series will be looking at both Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Solo: A Star Wars Story. I leave you with a video of Star Tours: The Adventure Continues from Disney's Hollywood Studios featuring the new scenes added in from The Rise of Skywalker. Stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon!
Sunday, May 3, 2020
Star Wars Fun Episode IV: The Controversy Awakens (The Sequels) Part 1
Hello everyone and welcome to another blog from a galaxy far far away. It's been a few months since the third installment of this blog series and with May 4th being right around the corner, I figured now is as good a time as ever for me to look back at the sequel trilogy that closed out the Skywalker saga. These are my thoughts on these movies, so expect lots of spoilers, as well as things I liked and things I did not like throughout episodes VII, VIII, and IX.
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
With the exception of Jurassic World, I cannot think of a movie that I was more hyped to see as soon as I could when it came out in theaters. The hype about the Star Wars franchise was running rampant. Promotions were literally everywhere, people who had never watched the movies suddenly had interest, and most of all among the die hard Star Wars fans, there was a sense of nervousness. What was this movie going to be? Was Disney going to drive their beloved franchise into the ground, or were they going to be able to capture that magic that made the prior three movies so incredible? We all held our collective breaths and watched as a new trilogy was born.
I have to say that I really do enjoy The Force Awakens. I'll spoil it right now, but out of the three sequel movies, it is my favorite. Story wise it is very similar to that of Episode IV, but with the series making a comeback, I am totally okay with it. Many, many people praise movies like Jurassic World for playing to people's nostalgia and continuing a series by starting with something people are able to relate to, yet The Force Awakens seems to get a fair amount of flack for it. Yes, Starkiller Base is basically a Death Star on steroids. Yes the First Order is a weaker version of the Empire. Yes we once again have a hero coming from a desert planet who will eventually rise and help take down said roided out Death Star. We even have one guy who is strong in the dark side of the force pulling the strings in the First Order. It's a lot of what we know already, but we get to see a lot more.
We get to see new force powers that are down right scary. We never saw Darth Vader stop a blaster shot and then carry on a conversation while it just hovers there, yet we see Kylo Ren do just that at the beginning of the movie. We get two storm troopers with actual personality. Finn of course ends up escaping, but Captain Phasma quickly establishes herself as cold and unforgiving. We see a return of classic lightsaber combat. There are no crazy flips and tricks going on like in the prequels. It's back to basics here and it's great. We also see the return of a few fan favorites in Han Solo, Princess Leia, C-3PO, Chewbacca, and at the end, R2-D2.
When it comes to the more controversial parts of the movie, I have mixed feelings. The biggest things that I hear about is Han Solo being killed off and Finn and Rey both being able to not just get slaughtered while facing Kylo Ren on Star Killer Base. I'll throw my opinion on the second one out there first. Yes, both Finn and Rey (especially) were able to hold there own for a bit against Kylo Ren. Rey even manages to hit him in the face and potentially even defeat him, but I believe there is a good reason for it. For that we touch on the first issue. Moments before Kylo Ren kills Han Solo he appears incredibly troubled by what he has to do. He wants so desperately to be the new Darth Vader, but he has so many mental hesitations. Snoke preys on this and sends him to kill his father. Once he kills him it is clear that Kylo is bothered. Chewbacca manages to get a gut shot on Kylo with his bowcaster. Think back to the beginning of the movie. When Poe shoots at Ren, he immediately turns around and stops the blast. He knew it was coming, could probably sense it, and acted. Here though, despite Chewbacca roaring prior to shooting he just gets hit.
So my point is, I think it makes sense that Kylo didn't have a huge success against Rey and Finn despite neither of them really having any experience with a lightsaber. He got shot in the gut by a bowcaster, so he was certainly injured, and he was still dealing with his own internal battle in addition to having to fight off Rey and Finn. As far as Han dying goes. It had to happen. There was literally no other way other than killing Leia, that would have made Kylo Ren seem like any kind of a threat. People say they hate Kylo Ren because he killed Han Solo. Perfect. That is what you are supposed to feel. Were there better weays they could have done it, probably, but I think what they went with works as well.
The Force Awakens, I felt, set up the series with a million directions it could have gone. One thing was clear, Star Wars was back and the way the movie ended with Rey finally finding a secluded Luke Skywalker, our hype level was on the rise once again. At the time, I don't think a single person would have expected that the next Star Wars movie would have split the fandom and sent the trilogy into a state of disorder and uncertainty.
Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
This is the section I've been dreading. This is the section of this blog that had me put the series on hold for a few months. What are my feelings on The Last Jedi? It's a loaded question. I saw the movie in theaters and by the end of it my thoughts were along the lines of "Not really sure what just happened, but it wasn't terrible". Subsequent viewing have had me thinking along the lines of "This isn't a bad movie, but it makes a hard turn as opposed to just following the road that The Force Awakens left". There are moments in the movie that downright frustrated me. There are moments in the movie that I love. There are several moments in the movie where I think they just crammed it in there for filler or something. I suppose I will start with what I liked.
I really like the dynamic and relationship building between Rey and Kylo Ren. Despite it all being put on by Snoke I found it interesting and had some what if questions pop into my head. What if Kylo turned? It's only the second movie afterall, so how would Snoke deal with that? What if Rey turned? Would Luke Skywalker return and save the day? It was an interesting back and forth that of course ended up in Kylo killing Snoke. The fight scene that takes place right after with Rey and Kylo teaming up I have to admit I was really excited to see. The two fought well together and really the fight ended up being a precursor for the final movie.
We see more and more of the force. Last movie, we learned that people's minds can be read and information could be pulled out of a person. We also learned that laser blasts can be stopped by using the force, but other than that we saw a lot of what we already knew from previous movies. In this movie the force is expanded upon greatly. Snoke forces Rey and Kylo to see each other despite being on completely different planets erm... Rey on a planet, Kylo on a ship. Luke Skywalker is able to have a lightsaber duel with Kylo Ren through a force projection, again from a completely different planet. Yoda's force ghost is able to call down a lightning bolt that sets an ancient tree on fire. We have always heard that the force is all powerful and really limitless so it was cool to see more of it as opposed to the usual lifting, mind trick, choking we have seen to this point.
Not so little known fact about me is that I love porgs. The little alien birds are far and away my favorite creatures in the Star Wars franchise. The fact that the island the team was filming on had too many puffins so they turned them into porgs as opposed to editing all of them out I thought was great. They also provide a good amount of comedy in a movie where I feel comedy of any kind is lacking.
Lastly, I really like the final battle scene. The ice foxes are a little ridiculous in that they help the Resistance escape, but otherwise I really like it. It's not the Battle of Hoth, though it appears that's what they were sort of trying to emulate, but it's good and the standoff with Kylo Ren and hologram Luke Skywalker is actually really good.
So that's what I like about the movie. Here are the things that frustrated me and things I didn't like. I will try to be as brief as I can with it. Right off the bat, Poe is ordered by Leia to stand down from attacking a Dreadnought. Poe continues his attack, even turning off the radio, but then the entire Resistance fleet continues to attack. All of them ignored the order to stand down? Continuing on, the bombers the Resistance had seemed to use gravity to drop bombs as we saw there was nothing propelling the bombs downwards. The problem I have here is, they're in space... How are the bombs continuing to rapidly drop once they enter space? Speaking of bombers, the First Order has no problem taking out all but one of the bombers... Then all of a sudden what looked like a completely dominant win ends up being a loss as the final bomber is able to drop its bombs at the last second. Insert issue I have with Princess Leia being blown out of a ship, surviving, then force flying through space back onto the ship. Was it cool to see Leia using the force? Yes. Was it ridiculous? Yes.
The Force Awakens set up Luke and Rey meeting as Rey held out Luke's lightsaber to close out the film. This movie takes all that build up and literally throws it just as Luke throws the lightsaber. Speaking of The Force Awakens... One of the big points in the movie was finding the map that Luke Skywalker left behind to find him. In this movie he multiple times says he didn't want to be found. So what was the purpose of the map then? Again, the movie taking a big turn from the set up road that The Force Awakens left for it. Okay okay. Some of this stuff so far is a little nit picky. Fine, it's Star Wars let the sci-fi fantasy be there, but lets add fuel. This is the first time to my knowledge in any Star Wars media where fuel is mentioned. To my knowledge, when it comes to Star Wars, there is no fuel in any movie, T.V. series, or video game. So why all of a sudden is fuel an issue? This is even further irritating to me with the fact that the next movie sees TIE Fighters jumping through light speed, yet the Resistance fleet cant because of fuel? The only good thing that came out of the whole fuel topic was Admiral Holdo slamming the cruiser through Snoke's ship. That was epic.
So now I come to the thing I dislike most about this movie, the entirety of Rose and Finn's mission to find the code breaker to sneak onto Snoke's ship. Everything about this from the casino, to the space horse chase, to the code breaker himself eats up so much time and has literally no pay off. By the time Finn and Rose get onto the ship, Holdo is about to shred the thing with her suicide run which rendered the entirety of their mission pointless to begin with. Really all the mission ends up achieving is Finn killing Captain Phasma whom personally I would have loved to have seen way more from. She's literally in this movie for all of a couple minutes whereas she was much more prominent in The Force Awakens. Guess we needed more time for the forced Finn and Rose love story that developed over the movie. I admit it. Rose is not my favorite character.
One final issue I have involved the Battle of Crait. While I overall really enjoy the fight, there is one part that literally made me put my hands up in the theater and ask "what the Hell"? The First Order has this mini Death Star gun that they are going to crack open the old rebel base with. Finn is going to sacrifice himself from the beam burning through by crashing into it and destroying it. Two issues. One. The gun is firing. While Finn is approaching we see his speeder literally melting away around him. That is metal melting. Meanwhile, with an open cockpit, Finn is merely breaking a sweat and his clothing is fine. Also, just before impact, Rose slams her speeder into Finn's, saving his life, but if not for Luke showing up, killing the entire Resistance. I still cannot wrap my head around this part of the scene.
I guess my feelings are that The Last Jedi is a movie that tried to reboot a series while being the second in a trilogy. It's not a bad movie as a standalone movie. It wouldn't be a bad movie with some changes as a first in a trilogy. It is really hard for me to love it as the second in a Star Wars series where we have had so many different things established over the course of seven previous movies. It tries to establish so much, only for a lot of it to be undone in the final movie. I can watch this movie and enjoy it by itself, but if I link it to all my memories of this series it seems so out of place. Now let me make this clear. I give the movie credit for being different. I give it credit for trying to establish new things and set up a story. My problem remains is that it is the second movie in a trilogy while trying to be the first.
Wow that was a lot to type for the first two movies in the new trilogy, or the sequel trilogy, or whatever you want to call it. I'm going to divide this blog into two parts due to the unexpected length of this blog. I apologize about the long rant about The Last Jedi, but again, that's what kept me from doing this blog earlier. Thank you for reading and stay tuned for part 2 coming real soon!
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
With the exception of Jurassic World, I cannot think of a movie that I was more hyped to see as soon as I could when it came out in theaters. The hype about the Star Wars franchise was running rampant. Promotions were literally everywhere, people who had never watched the movies suddenly had interest, and most of all among the die hard Star Wars fans, there was a sense of nervousness. What was this movie going to be? Was Disney going to drive their beloved franchise into the ground, or were they going to be able to capture that magic that made the prior three movies so incredible? We all held our collective breaths and watched as a new trilogy was born.
I have to say that I really do enjoy The Force Awakens. I'll spoil it right now, but out of the three sequel movies, it is my favorite. Story wise it is very similar to that of Episode IV, but with the series making a comeback, I am totally okay with it. Many, many people praise movies like Jurassic World for playing to people's nostalgia and continuing a series by starting with something people are able to relate to, yet The Force Awakens seems to get a fair amount of flack for it. Yes, Starkiller Base is basically a Death Star on steroids. Yes the First Order is a weaker version of the Empire. Yes we once again have a hero coming from a desert planet who will eventually rise and help take down said roided out Death Star. We even have one guy who is strong in the dark side of the force pulling the strings in the First Order. It's a lot of what we know already, but we get to see a lot more.
We get to see new force powers that are down right scary. We never saw Darth Vader stop a blaster shot and then carry on a conversation while it just hovers there, yet we see Kylo Ren do just that at the beginning of the movie. We get two storm troopers with actual personality. Finn of course ends up escaping, but Captain Phasma quickly establishes herself as cold and unforgiving. We see a return of classic lightsaber combat. There are no crazy flips and tricks going on like in the prequels. It's back to basics here and it's great. We also see the return of a few fan favorites in Han Solo, Princess Leia, C-3PO, Chewbacca, and at the end, R2-D2.
When it comes to the more controversial parts of the movie, I have mixed feelings. The biggest things that I hear about is Han Solo being killed off and Finn and Rey both being able to not just get slaughtered while facing Kylo Ren on Star Killer Base. I'll throw my opinion on the second one out there first. Yes, both Finn and Rey (especially) were able to hold there own for a bit against Kylo Ren. Rey even manages to hit him in the face and potentially even defeat him, but I believe there is a good reason for it. For that we touch on the first issue. Moments before Kylo Ren kills Han Solo he appears incredibly troubled by what he has to do. He wants so desperately to be the new Darth Vader, but he has so many mental hesitations. Snoke preys on this and sends him to kill his father. Once he kills him it is clear that Kylo is bothered. Chewbacca manages to get a gut shot on Kylo with his bowcaster. Think back to the beginning of the movie. When Poe shoots at Ren, he immediately turns around and stops the blast. He knew it was coming, could probably sense it, and acted. Here though, despite Chewbacca roaring prior to shooting he just gets hit.
So my point is, I think it makes sense that Kylo didn't have a huge success against Rey and Finn despite neither of them really having any experience with a lightsaber. He got shot in the gut by a bowcaster, so he was certainly injured, and he was still dealing with his own internal battle in addition to having to fight off Rey and Finn. As far as Han dying goes. It had to happen. There was literally no other way other than killing Leia, that would have made Kylo Ren seem like any kind of a threat. People say they hate Kylo Ren because he killed Han Solo. Perfect. That is what you are supposed to feel. Were there better weays they could have done it, probably, but I think what they went with works as well.
The Force Awakens, I felt, set up the series with a million directions it could have gone. One thing was clear, Star Wars was back and the way the movie ended with Rey finally finding a secluded Luke Skywalker, our hype level was on the rise once again. At the time, I don't think a single person would have expected that the next Star Wars movie would have split the fandom and sent the trilogy into a state of disorder and uncertainty.
Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
This is the section I've been dreading. This is the section of this blog that had me put the series on hold for a few months. What are my feelings on The Last Jedi? It's a loaded question. I saw the movie in theaters and by the end of it my thoughts were along the lines of "Not really sure what just happened, but it wasn't terrible". Subsequent viewing have had me thinking along the lines of "This isn't a bad movie, but it makes a hard turn as opposed to just following the road that The Force Awakens left". There are moments in the movie that downright frustrated me. There are moments in the movie that I love. There are several moments in the movie where I think they just crammed it in there for filler or something. I suppose I will start with what I liked.
I really like the dynamic and relationship building between Rey and Kylo Ren. Despite it all being put on by Snoke I found it interesting and had some what if questions pop into my head. What if Kylo turned? It's only the second movie afterall, so how would Snoke deal with that? What if Rey turned? Would Luke Skywalker return and save the day? It was an interesting back and forth that of course ended up in Kylo killing Snoke. The fight scene that takes place right after with Rey and Kylo teaming up I have to admit I was really excited to see. The two fought well together and really the fight ended up being a precursor for the final movie.
We see more and more of the force. Last movie, we learned that people's minds can be read and information could be pulled out of a person. We also learned that laser blasts can be stopped by using the force, but other than that we saw a lot of what we already knew from previous movies. In this movie the force is expanded upon greatly. Snoke forces Rey and Kylo to see each other despite being on completely different planets erm... Rey on a planet, Kylo on a ship. Luke Skywalker is able to have a lightsaber duel with Kylo Ren through a force projection, again from a completely different planet. Yoda's force ghost is able to call down a lightning bolt that sets an ancient tree on fire. We have always heard that the force is all powerful and really limitless so it was cool to see more of it as opposed to the usual lifting, mind trick, choking we have seen to this point.
Not so little known fact about me is that I love porgs. The little alien birds are far and away my favorite creatures in the Star Wars franchise. The fact that the island the team was filming on had too many puffins so they turned them into porgs as opposed to editing all of them out I thought was great. They also provide a good amount of comedy in a movie where I feel comedy of any kind is lacking.
Lastly, I really like the final battle scene. The ice foxes are a little ridiculous in that they help the Resistance escape, but otherwise I really like it. It's not the Battle of Hoth, though it appears that's what they were sort of trying to emulate, but it's good and the standoff with Kylo Ren and hologram Luke Skywalker is actually really good.
So that's what I like about the movie. Here are the things that frustrated me and things I didn't like. I will try to be as brief as I can with it. Right off the bat, Poe is ordered by Leia to stand down from attacking a Dreadnought. Poe continues his attack, even turning off the radio, but then the entire Resistance fleet continues to attack. All of them ignored the order to stand down? Continuing on, the bombers the Resistance had seemed to use gravity to drop bombs as we saw there was nothing propelling the bombs downwards. The problem I have here is, they're in space... How are the bombs continuing to rapidly drop once they enter space? Speaking of bombers, the First Order has no problem taking out all but one of the bombers... Then all of a sudden what looked like a completely dominant win ends up being a loss as the final bomber is able to drop its bombs at the last second. Insert issue I have with Princess Leia being blown out of a ship, surviving, then force flying through space back onto the ship. Was it cool to see Leia using the force? Yes. Was it ridiculous? Yes.
The Force Awakens set up Luke and Rey meeting as Rey held out Luke's lightsaber to close out the film. This movie takes all that build up and literally throws it just as Luke throws the lightsaber. Speaking of The Force Awakens... One of the big points in the movie was finding the map that Luke Skywalker left behind to find him. In this movie he multiple times says he didn't want to be found. So what was the purpose of the map then? Again, the movie taking a big turn from the set up road that The Force Awakens left for it. Okay okay. Some of this stuff so far is a little nit picky. Fine, it's Star Wars let the sci-fi fantasy be there, but lets add fuel. This is the first time to my knowledge in any Star Wars media where fuel is mentioned. To my knowledge, when it comes to Star Wars, there is no fuel in any movie, T.V. series, or video game. So why all of a sudden is fuel an issue? This is even further irritating to me with the fact that the next movie sees TIE Fighters jumping through light speed, yet the Resistance fleet cant because of fuel? The only good thing that came out of the whole fuel topic was Admiral Holdo slamming the cruiser through Snoke's ship. That was epic.
So now I come to the thing I dislike most about this movie, the entirety of Rose and Finn's mission to find the code breaker to sneak onto Snoke's ship. Everything about this from the casino, to the space horse chase, to the code breaker himself eats up so much time and has literally no pay off. By the time Finn and Rose get onto the ship, Holdo is about to shred the thing with her suicide run which rendered the entirety of their mission pointless to begin with. Really all the mission ends up achieving is Finn killing Captain Phasma whom personally I would have loved to have seen way more from. She's literally in this movie for all of a couple minutes whereas she was much more prominent in The Force Awakens. Guess we needed more time for the forced Finn and Rose love story that developed over the movie. I admit it. Rose is not my favorite character.
One final issue I have involved the Battle of Crait. While I overall really enjoy the fight, there is one part that literally made me put my hands up in the theater and ask "what the Hell"? The First Order has this mini Death Star gun that they are going to crack open the old rebel base with. Finn is going to sacrifice himself from the beam burning through by crashing into it and destroying it. Two issues. One. The gun is firing. While Finn is approaching we see his speeder literally melting away around him. That is metal melting. Meanwhile, with an open cockpit, Finn is merely breaking a sweat and his clothing is fine. Also, just before impact, Rose slams her speeder into Finn's, saving his life, but if not for Luke showing up, killing the entire Resistance. I still cannot wrap my head around this part of the scene.
I guess my feelings are that The Last Jedi is a movie that tried to reboot a series while being the second in a trilogy. It's not a bad movie as a standalone movie. It wouldn't be a bad movie with some changes as a first in a trilogy. It is really hard for me to love it as the second in a Star Wars series where we have had so many different things established over the course of seven previous movies. It tries to establish so much, only for a lot of it to be undone in the final movie. I can watch this movie and enjoy it by itself, but if I link it to all my memories of this series it seems so out of place. Now let me make this clear. I give the movie credit for being different. I give it credit for trying to establish new things and set up a story. My problem remains is that it is the second movie in a trilogy while trying to be the first.
Wow that was a lot to type for the first two movies in the new trilogy, or the sequel trilogy, or whatever you want to call it. I'm going to divide this blog into two parts due to the unexpected length of this blog. I apologize about the long rant about The Last Jedi, but again, that's what kept me from doing this blog earlier. Thank you for reading and stay tuned for part 2 coming real soon!
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Pixar Top 10 Villains
Hello everyone and welcome to my second countdown blog. Continuing with the Pixar theme from last time, today's blog will be counting down what I consider to be the top 10 Pixar villains. While Disney villains are overall wildly popular I've always found it interesting that the Pixar villains do not get as much acknowledgment, especially a select few near the top of this list. As was the case in the last list, this list is my personal list and is by no means definitive. I'm excited to look at these Pixar villains and pointing out just what makes them so dastardly. Spoilers ahead of course!
10.) Charles F. Muntz (Up!)
Up! is easily one of the most emotional animated movies out there. While everyone remembers the first heartbreaking portion of the movie highlighting Carl and Ellie's adventures and life together, many people for some reason forget Charles Muntz. Muntz was Carl's childhood hero who turned out to be a fraud for fabricating bones of an ancient bird. He isolated himself at Paradise Falls and vowed to find the bird that he fabricated. Muntz spent seventy years tracking the bird until he comes in contact with Carl and Russell. Upon finding out that the duo have found the bird, his demeanor changes towards them and an all out hunt begins. Throughout the movie Muntz becomes more and more crazed about catching the bird, Kevin, and wasn't even nervous about putting Carl or Russell's lives in jeapordy.
9.) Auto (Wall-E)
The perfect example of what happens when AI gains too much independence. For generations Auto piloted the Axiom while the Earth was considered inhabitable. It wasn't until Eve and Wall-E delivered the plant to the captain that humanity woke up to its cybernetic overlord. Originally just an autopilot, the pictures of the various Axiom captains show Auto's growing influence as it becomes larger and larger in the frame. It is Auto's mission to keep humanity away from Eath by any means necessary, even if it means committing mutiny.
8.) Stinky Pete (Toy Story 2)
At first Stinky Pete seems like just another toy, but by the time Woody decides to go back to Andy, his real personality shows through as he really becomes Stinky Pete as Woody would say. Despite never being removed from his box, Stinky Pete manages to get out and on multiple occasions thwart Buzz and the gang's attempt at rescuing Woody from a museum. In the end he never reaches the museum as he is strapped into a child's backpack where he will finally, for the first time ever, be played with as a toy and not a collector's item. In a way he had no way of knowing any better, but his methods were far from admirable.
7.) Henry J. Waternoose III (Monsters, Inc.)
For much of Monsters, Inc. Mr. Waternoose is a very kind hearted monster that seems to care greatly for both his company and his employees. He looks to Sulley as a monster that will inspire generations to come and appears to be very proud. That all changes though as Mike and Sulley discover that Waternoose was heavily involved in a plot with Randall and ends up betraying both of them. He attempts to have the CDA arrest Mike and Sulley for Boo being in the monster world. Waternoose goes mad with power and even threatens to capture a thousand children if he has to to ensure the future of his company. To do so he is even willing to banish his top scarer to the Himalayas, proving once and for all that he really cares about one thing. The business.
6.) Ernesto De La Cruz (Coco)
Ernesto De La Cruz was a fraud of a songwriter who used his voice and charm to dazzle audiences world wide. When Miguel travels to the land of the dead to meet the man whom he thought was his great-great grandfather, Ernesto plays along until Miguel begins to discover the truth. Of course, Ernesto isn't actually Miguel's great-great grandfather, but is directly responsible for his death. To prevent the truth from getting out, Ernesto attempts to prevent Miguel from ever leaving the land of the dead (thus killing him) while at the same time reveling in the fact that Miguel's real great-great grandfather is being completely forgotten by the last family member who knew him, Coco. Ernesto cared about nothing other than his fame and wasn't afraid to put an end to anyone who threatened it.
5.) Mor'du (Brave)
Look, it's the first mention of Brave on one of these Pixar top 10 lists. Mor'du is a prince turned demon bear. Driven by his lust for power he sought out a witch whose spell eventually turned the prince into a monstrous bear. Mor'du is a terrifying and menacing presence throughout Brave. The real question throughout the movie though is why Mor'du seemingly hunts Merida and her family. Is it a quest for more power? Is it just out of a sheer feral rage? Or is it that the wisps had guided Mor'du to his inevitable fate at the hands of Merida? That's all up for interpretation of course, but what is not is the sheer terror that Mor'du brings to the screen every time he is on it.
4.) Randall Boggs (Monsters, Inc./Monsters University)
Randall starts out in Monsters University as a friend to Mike, whom at one point he even looks up to. By the end of the movie though, following a loss to Sulley in the scare games, his attitude changes and he vows he will never loose to him again. Throughout Monsters, Inc. Randall is just one step behind Sulley in the scaring department as they race towards the title of all time scarer. Randall ends up employing some seriously underhanded tactics to get ahead and even creates a scream extractor to use on children. He persuades Waternoose to help him achieve his goals and to say he is ruthless in trying to achieve his goal is an understatement.
3.) Hopper (A Bug's Life)
Hopper is the leading of a band of grasshoppers that torment an ant colony on an annual basis. Every year the ants pick all kinds of grain during the harvest season, but Hopper and the gang show up, take the majority of it, and leave the ants to fend for themselves with little food. When Flik causes the grain to be destroyed on accident Hoppper demands double the amount or he will literally squish the queen under his foot. He is a ruthless yet concerned leader as he is not afraid to kill members of his own gang, but also realizes the sheer number of ants greatly poses a threat to him. Controlling both his gang and the ants by fear and the threat of violence, Hopper rules over all of them with an iron fist until his demise in the mouth of several baby birds.
2.) Syndrome (The Incredibles)
Have you ever met your childhood idol just for them to push you away? Well that's what happened to Buddy and it broke him. He went from being Mr. Incredible's biggest fan to arch rival in the span of fifteen years. For years he used his genius to create massive omnidroids to hunt down and kill each and every superhero. His main goal was always to kill Mr. Incredible and be seen as the only hero the world needed. When the Incredibles defeat his latest omnidroid, he desperately kidnaps Jack Jack with the plan of making him his side kick and essentially denying him a childhood with family. Wild, unhinged, and yet incredibly smart, Syndrome is one of the absolute best villains in the Pixar library, though he forgot the ultimate rule of being a hero... No capes...
1.) Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear (Toy Story 3)
Leave it to the Toy Story franchise to get the top spot on this list (and for 3 of the villains to get on the list). Lotso started out as a great toy, but was forgotten at a highway rest stop. Upon finally reaching home, he saw that Daisy's parents had replaced him with another Lots-o'-Huggin Bear. This shattered Lotso and caused him to snap. Lotso quickly became the very definition of a villain. He ruled over Sunnyside with an iron fist and wasn't afraid to take on anyone who challenged him, though often times in quite a villainous way. From the moment Woody and the gang arrive at the daycare he deceives all of them with a soft nature and fresh strawberry smell. Before long though he has them dealing with destructive toddlers and even resetting Buzz Lightyear. While other villains on this list may be scarier in appearance, more destructive in their personality, or have more of a vendetta, Lotso comes across as the whole package. We see his humble beginning turn into a nightmare, and then finally gradually turn into a cute, strawberry scented nightmare.
Well that is my list of the top 10 Pixar villains. There are certainly other good Pixar villains out there, but they just missed the cut. I really enjoyed making this list, and while it was easier than trying to rank the Pixar movies themselves, I still found it pretty difficult to get these characters right where I wanted them. Really the only ones that were cemented were my top three. Everyone else is so close for me for a variety of reasons that ranking them was no easy feat. As always, I'd like to thank you all for reading and stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon! To wrap this blog up, since three Toy Story villains made it on this list, let us take a ride on Alien Swirling Saucers at Disney's Hollywood Studios!
10.) Charles F. Muntz (Up!)
Up! is easily one of the most emotional animated movies out there. While everyone remembers the first heartbreaking portion of the movie highlighting Carl and Ellie's adventures and life together, many people for some reason forget Charles Muntz. Muntz was Carl's childhood hero who turned out to be a fraud for fabricating bones of an ancient bird. He isolated himself at Paradise Falls and vowed to find the bird that he fabricated. Muntz spent seventy years tracking the bird until he comes in contact with Carl and Russell. Upon finding out that the duo have found the bird, his demeanor changes towards them and an all out hunt begins. Throughout the movie Muntz becomes more and more crazed about catching the bird, Kevin, and wasn't even nervous about putting Carl or Russell's lives in jeapordy.
9.) Auto (Wall-E)
The perfect example of what happens when AI gains too much independence. For generations Auto piloted the Axiom while the Earth was considered inhabitable. It wasn't until Eve and Wall-E delivered the plant to the captain that humanity woke up to its cybernetic overlord. Originally just an autopilot, the pictures of the various Axiom captains show Auto's growing influence as it becomes larger and larger in the frame. It is Auto's mission to keep humanity away from Eath by any means necessary, even if it means committing mutiny.
8.) Stinky Pete (Toy Story 2)
At first Stinky Pete seems like just another toy, but by the time Woody decides to go back to Andy, his real personality shows through as he really becomes Stinky Pete as Woody would say. Despite never being removed from his box, Stinky Pete manages to get out and on multiple occasions thwart Buzz and the gang's attempt at rescuing Woody from a museum. In the end he never reaches the museum as he is strapped into a child's backpack where he will finally, for the first time ever, be played with as a toy and not a collector's item. In a way he had no way of knowing any better, but his methods were far from admirable.
7.) Henry J. Waternoose III (Monsters, Inc.)
For much of Monsters, Inc. Mr. Waternoose is a very kind hearted monster that seems to care greatly for both his company and his employees. He looks to Sulley as a monster that will inspire generations to come and appears to be very proud. That all changes though as Mike and Sulley discover that Waternoose was heavily involved in a plot with Randall and ends up betraying both of them. He attempts to have the CDA arrest Mike and Sulley for Boo being in the monster world. Waternoose goes mad with power and even threatens to capture a thousand children if he has to to ensure the future of his company. To do so he is even willing to banish his top scarer to the Himalayas, proving once and for all that he really cares about one thing. The business.
6.) Ernesto De La Cruz (Coco)
Ernesto De La Cruz was a fraud of a songwriter who used his voice and charm to dazzle audiences world wide. When Miguel travels to the land of the dead to meet the man whom he thought was his great-great grandfather, Ernesto plays along until Miguel begins to discover the truth. Of course, Ernesto isn't actually Miguel's great-great grandfather, but is directly responsible for his death. To prevent the truth from getting out, Ernesto attempts to prevent Miguel from ever leaving the land of the dead (thus killing him) while at the same time reveling in the fact that Miguel's real great-great grandfather is being completely forgotten by the last family member who knew him, Coco. Ernesto cared about nothing other than his fame and wasn't afraid to put an end to anyone who threatened it.
5.) Mor'du (Brave)
Look, it's the first mention of Brave on one of these Pixar top 10 lists. Mor'du is a prince turned demon bear. Driven by his lust for power he sought out a witch whose spell eventually turned the prince into a monstrous bear. Mor'du is a terrifying and menacing presence throughout Brave. The real question throughout the movie though is why Mor'du seemingly hunts Merida and her family. Is it a quest for more power? Is it just out of a sheer feral rage? Or is it that the wisps had guided Mor'du to his inevitable fate at the hands of Merida? That's all up for interpretation of course, but what is not is the sheer terror that Mor'du brings to the screen every time he is on it.
4.) Randall Boggs (Monsters, Inc./Monsters University)
Randall starts out in Monsters University as a friend to Mike, whom at one point he even looks up to. By the end of the movie though, following a loss to Sulley in the scare games, his attitude changes and he vows he will never loose to him again. Throughout Monsters, Inc. Randall is just one step behind Sulley in the scaring department as they race towards the title of all time scarer. Randall ends up employing some seriously underhanded tactics to get ahead and even creates a scream extractor to use on children. He persuades Waternoose to help him achieve his goals and to say he is ruthless in trying to achieve his goal is an understatement.
3.) Hopper (A Bug's Life)
Hopper is the leading of a band of grasshoppers that torment an ant colony on an annual basis. Every year the ants pick all kinds of grain during the harvest season, but Hopper and the gang show up, take the majority of it, and leave the ants to fend for themselves with little food. When Flik causes the grain to be destroyed on accident Hoppper demands double the amount or he will literally squish the queen under his foot. He is a ruthless yet concerned leader as he is not afraid to kill members of his own gang, but also realizes the sheer number of ants greatly poses a threat to him. Controlling both his gang and the ants by fear and the threat of violence, Hopper rules over all of them with an iron fist until his demise in the mouth of several baby birds.
2.) Syndrome (The Incredibles)
Have you ever met your childhood idol just for them to push you away? Well that's what happened to Buddy and it broke him. He went from being Mr. Incredible's biggest fan to arch rival in the span of fifteen years. For years he used his genius to create massive omnidroids to hunt down and kill each and every superhero. His main goal was always to kill Mr. Incredible and be seen as the only hero the world needed. When the Incredibles defeat his latest omnidroid, he desperately kidnaps Jack Jack with the plan of making him his side kick and essentially denying him a childhood with family. Wild, unhinged, and yet incredibly smart, Syndrome is one of the absolute best villains in the Pixar library, though he forgot the ultimate rule of being a hero... No capes...
1.) Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear (Toy Story 3)
Leave it to the Toy Story franchise to get the top spot on this list (and for 3 of the villains to get on the list). Lotso started out as a great toy, but was forgotten at a highway rest stop. Upon finally reaching home, he saw that Daisy's parents had replaced him with another Lots-o'-Huggin Bear. This shattered Lotso and caused him to snap. Lotso quickly became the very definition of a villain. He ruled over Sunnyside with an iron fist and wasn't afraid to take on anyone who challenged him, though often times in quite a villainous way. From the moment Woody and the gang arrive at the daycare he deceives all of them with a soft nature and fresh strawberry smell. Before long though he has them dealing with destructive toddlers and even resetting Buzz Lightyear. While other villains on this list may be scarier in appearance, more destructive in their personality, or have more of a vendetta, Lotso comes across as the whole package. We see his humble beginning turn into a nightmare, and then finally gradually turn into a cute, strawberry scented nightmare.
Well that is my list of the top 10 Pixar villains. There are certainly other good Pixar villains out there, but they just missed the cut. I really enjoyed making this list, and while it was easier than trying to rank the Pixar movies themselves, I still found it pretty difficult to get these characters right where I wanted them. Really the only ones that were cemented were my top three. Everyone else is so close for me for a variety of reasons that ranking them was no easy feat. As always, I'd like to thank you all for reading and stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon! To wrap this blog up, since three Toy Story villains made it on this list, let us take a ride on Alien Swirling Saucers at Disney's Hollywood Studios!
Sunday, April 26, 2020
Pixar Top 10 Movie Countdown
Hello everyone and welcome to my first top 10 blog! Today I will be counting down my top 10 Pixar movies. This is not a list of the 10 best Pixar movies in terms of how they did in theaters or what their legacy has been since their release. This is just my top 10 in terms of the enjoyment I get out of these movies. I'm sure my opinion differs than yours and that is great. I'd love to hear from you and see what your favorites are. All Pixar movies that I've seen are on the table. Pixar shorts however are not on the table nor are the full length Pixar short collections. So sit back, relax and enjoy! Oh also, spoiler alert!
10.) Coco (2017)
Kicking off this list is a movie that surprised me from minute one to the very end. Coco is the story of Miguel who longs to become a musician in a family that has banned music due to their past. What was that past you ask? Well it may have a lot do with Miguel's great great Grandfather leaving his wife and child to go on tour. After a series of events leads Miguel to believe that a famous singer was his great great Grandfather he ends up in the land of the dead, trapped until he can get a family member's blessing to return to the living world. Coco is an absolutely beautiful movie in every way. Pixar went way out of their way to portray Mexican culture surrounding Dia De Los Muertos and the importance of family. The music screams Mexico and is everything from beautiful to tear your heart out emotional. Coco was a movie I wasn't really expecting much from, but ended up blowing me away.
9.) Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Monsters, Inc. is a story of two monsters, Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan (Sulley) who turn the monster world upside down after discovering that a human child has somehow found its way in. Full of good humor, corporate life, and a story that will have you laughing one second and crying the next, Monsters, Inc. remains an incredibly memorable part of the Pixar library. The movie moves at a high pace throughout and culminates in an incredible chase scene as Randall, one of the antagonists, chases Mike and Sulley through the Monsters, Inc. conveyor belt system. It's great fun throughout and the final shot we see is enough to bring a smile to anyone!
8.) Ratatouille (2007)
Ratatouille tells the story of a rat that wants to be a chef, and a no talent garbage boy working in a restaurant. This movie I can sum up as a hilarious journey of a rat in Paris chasing the dream of becoming the world's largest chef. The humor in this movie comes in all forms from a crazy old lady using a shot gun in her home to try to kill rats to the main character, Remy, manipulating the garbage boy, Linguini, by hiding under his hat and pulling his hair to move him. Wrapped around all of this is a simple plot of trying to restore a restaurant to it's former glory by impressing a food critic. While the movie isn't as flashy or crazy as a lot of other Pixar movies, it is still a lot of fun, has great moments, and at the end of the day is a comedy about a rat and food. What more can you want?
7.) The Incredibles (2004)
Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a thing. Before superhero movies were a dime a dozen. Before Disney seemingly took over the cinematic world, there was a superhero movie called The Incredibles. The movie tells the story of a family of superheroes whom are forced to live a normal life with no powers as superheroes are deemed illegal due to the amount of damage they cause. Mr. Incredible ends up not being able to take a normal life and begins doing some superhero work behind the family's back until things go south and the rest of the family is forced to come out of retirement. It's a high paced movie filled with tons of superhero action and a soundtrack that is nothing short of incredible. I still find it interesting that the magic of The Incredibles was never found again in superhero movies. By that I mean I cannot think of a superhero movie other than this one where we meet an entire world of characters complete with one of Pixar's best villains, have a compelling story, and have the movie not feel rushed at all in the process.
6.) Toy Story 2 (1999)
Did you know that Toy Story 2 was originally going to be a straight to video sequel? Did you know that the plot was basically rewritten in its entirety in a single weekend? No, well no one would have expected that to be the case when Toy Story 2 came out and blew our minds. Full of charm, humor, and a bizarre twist that sees Pixar take a play out of the Star Wars playbook, Toy Story 2 became a massive success. This movie sees Woody getting stolen from a yard sale and set up to be sold to a museum. Meanwhile Buzz Lightyear and the rest of the Toy Story gang set out on an epic quest to find him. Fan favorites Jesse and Bullseye make their debuts in this movie as well. Toy Story 2 is just a fun trip full of nostalgia, lots of laughs, and is overall one of the best adventures Pixar has come out with.
5.) Toy Story 3 (2010)
It is so hard for me to choose between this movie and Toy Story 2 for the number 4 spot on this list. Both movies are incredible, but Toy Story 3 is literally the perfect way to wrap up the Toy Story story. Of course Toy Story 4 has put a little bit of a damper on that, but still, Toy Story 3 is just perfect as an ending to a trilogy. As someone who has grown up with the Toy Story franchise, seeing a movie where Andy's toys go on one final adventure to get back to their owner after they are accidentally donated to a daycare. The finality at the end of this movie, and multiple other scenes throughout were more than enough to bring a ton of people to tears. Yet at the same time it left fans like myself with a good feeling knowing that the characters we have known and loved since 1995 were in good hands. Well then Toy Story 4 came out, but that's a different story.
4.) Finding Nemo (2003)
It's funny, I'm not sure if I have seen another animate movie in theaters more than I saw Finding Nemo (5). As someone who has grown up with the Ocean being mere blocks away, Finding Nemo was instantly a special movie to me. The story of Marlin trying to find his son Nemo after he is taken away by a scuba diver is nothing short of magical. Both funny and emotional, Finding Nemo is a ride that kicks off fast and doesn't let go until the credits are rolling. Speaking of not letting go, Finding Nemo also has several scenes of intense suspense not seen in other Pixar movies. For example, at one point Marlin and Dory find themselves face to face with a terrifying angler fish. In another scene we see our heroes trying to get through a school of deadly jellyfish. Even after completing their goal, there is still one final scene of suspense that leads to just a beautiful ending.
3.) Toy Story (1995)
What can I say about Toy Story that hasn't been said before? The movie that kicked off Pixar's rise to dominance remains one of the most revered movies of all time. It certainly doesn't hurt that it was the first movie to be completely done in CGI. That in itself makes it a landmark movie that will forever be remembered. It is so much more than that though. The story sees a cowboy doll named Woody having to come face to face with his fears of being replaced by another toy, in this case a Buzz Lightyear action figure. The story sees Woody's jealously getting the best of him as Buzz gets knocked out a window. What follows is a brilliant journey in which both Woody and Buzz learn to put their differences aside and work together to reunite with Andy and the other toys. Again, I cannot really say anything about Toy Story that hasn't been said before. It is the definition of a classic Pixar movie and it laid the framework for everything that the studio would put out after.
2.) A Bug's Life (1998)
Here is the big surprise on this list. Well I guess it's only a surprise if you hadn't read one of my previous blogs where I mention that A Bug's Life is one of my favorite Pixar movies. This criminally underrated movie tells the tale of a clumsy ant named Flik and his journey to rescue his colony from starvation and a gang of grasshoppers. The movie was in direct competition with Dreamworks Antz and unfortunately got sandwiched between Toy Story and Toy Story 2. The plot is pretty simple throughout and is quite similar to Antz, but it is still an epic adventure. Shrinking down to an ant size we get to see just how big the world is. We see everything from towering flowers, to rain drops that are basically bombs, to a bird that essentially acts as the t-rex from Jurassic Park. Top all that off with a variety of circus bugs masking as warriors and you have an adventure way bigger than any ant should ever be a part of. Add in one of Pixar's best and most sadistic villains in the grasshopper, Hopper, and you have a complete movie that has continued to fly under the radar for a real long time. With the amount of Pixar sequels and short series that have come out since 1998, A Bug's Life remains one of Pixar's movies that reminds us all that the studio is way more than the Toy Story, Cars, Monsters, and Incredibles franchises.
1.) Wall-E (2008)
Wall-E is one of, if not the most mature and unique of the Pixar movies. Outside of some music lyrics we don't really hear any spoken dialogue from characters for the first thirty minutes. It is the first Pixar movie to feature live action (albeit it is on an old T.V. that Wall-E is watching). It has the biggest message of any Pixar movie. Top it off with the story of a robot that falls in love and ends up proving to humanity that they themselves are way more than what they have become (Mufasa reference yes) while stuck out in space. The message of the movie is clear, that we need to take care of our planet before it becomes a wasteland and that there is certainly still time to do that. It is portrayed in such a fun and beautiful way that Wall-E manages to deliver the message without screaming about it. I can't think of another movie where so much character development happens without a word being spoken by the main characters other than saying their own name as well as each others. It's an incredible movie that much like A Bug's Life typically flies under the radar. The biggest difference here is when this one is actually brought up it's normally met with the response of it being an incredible movie.
So there you have it, my favorite Pixar movies. Yes, there are a couple odd ball choices in there, but hey, that's the fun of it right? I want to make note that this list is certainly not set in stone as new Pixar movies can certainly upset this balance. One such movie is Onward which I really enjoyed seeing in theaters. As a huge fantasy fan I had a ton of fun watching it, but I'm not sure if I'm quite ready to knock any movie off this list to put it on there yet. So I guess you could call it an honorable mention for this list. I had a lot of fun making this list, but to be honest, outside of my top three, it was really hard. Pixar is a monster studio when it comes to putting out quality movies so trying to pick ten out of the twenty two movies was by no means a simple task. Thank you all as always for reading and stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon! To wrap up this Pixar countdown, check out the Together Forever fireworks show that ran in 2018 at Disneyland California as a part of Pixar Fest.
10.) Coco (2017)
Kicking off this list is a movie that surprised me from minute one to the very end. Coco is the story of Miguel who longs to become a musician in a family that has banned music due to their past. What was that past you ask? Well it may have a lot do with Miguel's great great Grandfather leaving his wife and child to go on tour. After a series of events leads Miguel to believe that a famous singer was his great great Grandfather he ends up in the land of the dead, trapped until he can get a family member's blessing to return to the living world. Coco is an absolutely beautiful movie in every way. Pixar went way out of their way to portray Mexican culture surrounding Dia De Los Muertos and the importance of family. The music screams Mexico and is everything from beautiful to tear your heart out emotional. Coco was a movie I wasn't really expecting much from, but ended up blowing me away.
9.) Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Monsters, Inc. is a story of two monsters, Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan (Sulley) who turn the monster world upside down after discovering that a human child has somehow found its way in. Full of good humor, corporate life, and a story that will have you laughing one second and crying the next, Monsters, Inc. remains an incredibly memorable part of the Pixar library. The movie moves at a high pace throughout and culminates in an incredible chase scene as Randall, one of the antagonists, chases Mike and Sulley through the Monsters, Inc. conveyor belt system. It's great fun throughout and the final shot we see is enough to bring a smile to anyone!
8.) Ratatouille (2007)
Ratatouille tells the story of a rat that wants to be a chef, and a no talent garbage boy working in a restaurant. This movie I can sum up as a hilarious journey of a rat in Paris chasing the dream of becoming the world's largest chef. The humor in this movie comes in all forms from a crazy old lady using a shot gun in her home to try to kill rats to the main character, Remy, manipulating the garbage boy, Linguini, by hiding under his hat and pulling his hair to move him. Wrapped around all of this is a simple plot of trying to restore a restaurant to it's former glory by impressing a food critic. While the movie isn't as flashy or crazy as a lot of other Pixar movies, it is still a lot of fun, has great moments, and at the end of the day is a comedy about a rat and food. What more can you want?
7.) The Incredibles (2004)
Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a thing. Before superhero movies were a dime a dozen. Before Disney seemingly took over the cinematic world, there was a superhero movie called The Incredibles. The movie tells the story of a family of superheroes whom are forced to live a normal life with no powers as superheroes are deemed illegal due to the amount of damage they cause. Mr. Incredible ends up not being able to take a normal life and begins doing some superhero work behind the family's back until things go south and the rest of the family is forced to come out of retirement. It's a high paced movie filled with tons of superhero action and a soundtrack that is nothing short of incredible. I still find it interesting that the magic of The Incredibles was never found again in superhero movies. By that I mean I cannot think of a superhero movie other than this one where we meet an entire world of characters complete with one of Pixar's best villains, have a compelling story, and have the movie not feel rushed at all in the process.
6.) Toy Story 2 (1999)
Did you know that Toy Story 2 was originally going to be a straight to video sequel? Did you know that the plot was basically rewritten in its entirety in a single weekend? No, well no one would have expected that to be the case when Toy Story 2 came out and blew our minds. Full of charm, humor, and a bizarre twist that sees Pixar take a play out of the Star Wars playbook, Toy Story 2 became a massive success. This movie sees Woody getting stolen from a yard sale and set up to be sold to a museum. Meanwhile Buzz Lightyear and the rest of the Toy Story gang set out on an epic quest to find him. Fan favorites Jesse and Bullseye make their debuts in this movie as well. Toy Story 2 is just a fun trip full of nostalgia, lots of laughs, and is overall one of the best adventures Pixar has come out with.
5.) Toy Story 3 (2010)
It is so hard for me to choose between this movie and Toy Story 2 for the number 4 spot on this list. Both movies are incredible, but Toy Story 3 is literally the perfect way to wrap up the Toy Story story. Of course Toy Story 4 has put a little bit of a damper on that, but still, Toy Story 3 is just perfect as an ending to a trilogy. As someone who has grown up with the Toy Story franchise, seeing a movie where Andy's toys go on one final adventure to get back to their owner after they are accidentally donated to a daycare. The finality at the end of this movie, and multiple other scenes throughout were more than enough to bring a ton of people to tears. Yet at the same time it left fans like myself with a good feeling knowing that the characters we have known and loved since 1995 were in good hands. Well then Toy Story 4 came out, but that's a different story.
4.) Finding Nemo (2003)
It's funny, I'm not sure if I have seen another animate movie in theaters more than I saw Finding Nemo (5). As someone who has grown up with the Ocean being mere blocks away, Finding Nemo was instantly a special movie to me. The story of Marlin trying to find his son Nemo after he is taken away by a scuba diver is nothing short of magical. Both funny and emotional, Finding Nemo is a ride that kicks off fast and doesn't let go until the credits are rolling. Speaking of not letting go, Finding Nemo also has several scenes of intense suspense not seen in other Pixar movies. For example, at one point Marlin and Dory find themselves face to face with a terrifying angler fish. In another scene we see our heroes trying to get through a school of deadly jellyfish. Even after completing their goal, there is still one final scene of suspense that leads to just a beautiful ending.
3.) Toy Story (1995)
What can I say about Toy Story that hasn't been said before? The movie that kicked off Pixar's rise to dominance remains one of the most revered movies of all time. It certainly doesn't hurt that it was the first movie to be completely done in CGI. That in itself makes it a landmark movie that will forever be remembered. It is so much more than that though. The story sees a cowboy doll named Woody having to come face to face with his fears of being replaced by another toy, in this case a Buzz Lightyear action figure. The story sees Woody's jealously getting the best of him as Buzz gets knocked out a window. What follows is a brilliant journey in which both Woody and Buzz learn to put their differences aside and work together to reunite with Andy and the other toys. Again, I cannot really say anything about Toy Story that hasn't been said before. It is the definition of a classic Pixar movie and it laid the framework for everything that the studio would put out after.
2.) A Bug's Life (1998)
Here is the big surprise on this list. Well I guess it's only a surprise if you hadn't read one of my previous blogs where I mention that A Bug's Life is one of my favorite Pixar movies. This criminally underrated movie tells the tale of a clumsy ant named Flik and his journey to rescue his colony from starvation and a gang of grasshoppers. The movie was in direct competition with Dreamworks Antz and unfortunately got sandwiched between Toy Story and Toy Story 2. The plot is pretty simple throughout and is quite similar to Antz, but it is still an epic adventure. Shrinking down to an ant size we get to see just how big the world is. We see everything from towering flowers, to rain drops that are basically bombs, to a bird that essentially acts as the t-rex from Jurassic Park. Top all that off with a variety of circus bugs masking as warriors and you have an adventure way bigger than any ant should ever be a part of. Add in one of Pixar's best and most sadistic villains in the grasshopper, Hopper, and you have a complete movie that has continued to fly under the radar for a real long time. With the amount of Pixar sequels and short series that have come out since 1998, A Bug's Life remains one of Pixar's movies that reminds us all that the studio is way more than the Toy Story, Cars, Monsters, and Incredibles franchises.
1.) Wall-E (2008)
Wall-E is one of, if not the most mature and unique of the Pixar movies. Outside of some music lyrics we don't really hear any spoken dialogue from characters for the first thirty minutes. It is the first Pixar movie to feature live action (albeit it is on an old T.V. that Wall-E is watching). It has the biggest message of any Pixar movie. Top it off with the story of a robot that falls in love and ends up proving to humanity that they themselves are way more than what they have become (Mufasa reference yes) while stuck out in space. The message of the movie is clear, that we need to take care of our planet before it becomes a wasteland and that there is certainly still time to do that. It is portrayed in such a fun and beautiful way that Wall-E manages to deliver the message without screaming about it. I can't think of another movie where so much character development happens without a word being spoken by the main characters other than saying their own name as well as each others. It's an incredible movie that much like A Bug's Life typically flies under the radar. The biggest difference here is when this one is actually brought up it's normally met with the response of it being an incredible movie.
So there you have it, my favorite Pixar movies. Yes, there are a couple odd ball choices in there, but hey, that's the fun of it right? I want to make note that this list is certainly not set in stone as new Pixar movies can certainly upset this balance. One such movie is Onward which I really enjoyed seeing in theaters. As a huge fantasy fan I had a ton of fun watching it, but I'm not sure if I'm quite ready to knock any movie off this list to put it on there yet. So I guess you could call it an honorable mention for this list. I had a lot of fun making this list, but to be honest, outside of my top three, it was really hard. Pixar is a monster studio when it comes to putting out quality movies so trying to pick ten out of the twenty two movies was by no means a simple task. Thank you all as always for reading and stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon! To wrap up this Pixar countdown, check out the Together Forever fireworks show that ran in 2018 at Disneyland California as a part of Pixar Fest.
Saturday, April 25, 2020
Continuing Quarantine
Hello everyone, it has been a little bit of time since my last blog hasn't it. This blog is sort of an update blog on what I've been up to these past couple of weeks. News has been pretty quiet on park re-openings with the exception of one. Disneyland Shanghai seems to have itself setup for opening. Pictures have emerged showing social distancing measures in place in ride queues and reports also say that the park entrance has seen some activity as well in the form of "fake guests" being admitted. No opening date has been announced yet, but this is way more activity than we are seeing at any of the other Disney Parks at this point.
Other than that, rumors of park reopening dates have ranged from mid may to 2021. I would be very surprised if Disneyland California and Walt Disney World were closed for that long, but it will ultimately be up to the states to decide who can open and when. That's honestly the most news I have seen that is relevant to this blog. Please check out WDW News Today's website or other Disney news sites for ongoing changes to annual pass and DVC policies.
So what have I been up to in my absence. To be honest as is the case with many people I know, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has taken up a good bit of my time. I've also been playing some other games as well and trying to clean out some clutter around the rooms. That doesn't mean that I have slowed anything down on the Disney front. I've been watching and listening to a bunch of really great content on both Disney + and Youtube. I've also been listening to a really good Disney podcast called Dis-Order: Every Disney Film.
The podcast starts at Snow White and Seven Dwarfs and episode by episode goes through the Disney animated features. The podcast is still continuing as they just released the episode on Bolt. The three hosts, Andy, Michael, and Hunter are all very knowledgeable in the field of animation. The format is that they talk about their specific memories of the movies growing up, the impact it has had on the industry, the plot of the movie, their favorite parts/characters/songs, if the movie has or had any presence in any theme park, and much more. It's a really great listen for anyone who enjoys watching the movies. I can't tell you how many little facts I've picked up from listening to these three talk about the Disney animated features. If you are interested in checking them out you can find them on Itunes, Stitcher, and other podcast apps.
So I mentioned I have been watching a lot of great content on Disney +. The big standouts to me has been re-watching The Mandalorian. It has been every bit as good on the second viewing as the first. I've now watched most of the classic Mickey Mouse cartoons. I don't mean the new classic, I mean the legit classics starting with Steamboat Willie. While I cannot say for sure which one of these are my favorites, they all bring such a massive smile to my face. There is just something about those classic Mickey cartoons that can brighten up any day. Lastly I've been revisiting some of the mid to late nineties Disney animated movies. The want to do that was really brought on by that podcast I typed about earlier. Surprisingly I have found a new love for The Hunchback of Notre Dame. More on that another time, but until recently the movie was never really high up there for me.
So what to do here as we continue our Disney Parks stand still and really don't have too much new stuff to talk about. Well the answer is pretty easy. It's list time! So the next few blogs (barring any park news coming out [Disney or Six Flags]) will be some countdowns. Some ideas are top Disney animated features, top rides (Disney and Six Flags included), top Disney songs. You get where I'm going! So to wrap this blog up I'd like to leave you with something that Disney put up on their social media channels last night. Just a reminder and a perfect way to close out any day, with an incredible view of Happily Ever After, the nighttime spectacular that takes place nightly at The Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. Thank you for reading and stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon!
Other than that, rumors of park reopening dates have ranged from mid may to 2021. I would be very surprised if Disneyland California and Walt Disney World were closed for that long, but it will ultimately be up to the states to decide who can open and when. That's honestly the most news I have seen that is relevant to this blog. Please check out WDW News Today's website or other Disney news sites for ongoing changes to annual pass and DVC policies.
So what have I been up to in my absence. To be honest as is the case with many people I know, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has taken up a good bit of my time. I've also been playing some other games as well and trying to clean out some clutter around the rooms. That doesn't mean that I have slowed anything down on the Disney front. I've been watching and listening to a bunch of really great content on both Disney + and Youtube. I've also been listening to a really good Disney podcast called Dis-Order: Every Disney Film.
The podcast starts at Snow White and Seven Dwarfs and episode by episode goes through the Disney animated features. The podcast is still continuing as they just released the episode on Bolt. The three hosts, Andy, Michael, and Hunter are all very knowledgeable in the field of animation. The format is that they talk about their specific memories of the movies growing up, the impact it has had on the industry, the plot of the movie, their favorite parts/characters/songs, if the movie has or had any presence in any theme park, and much more. It's a really great listen for anyone who enjoys watching the movies. I can't tell you how many little facts I've picked up from listening to these three talk about the Disney animated features. If you are interested in checking them out you can find them on Itunes, Stitcher, and other podcast apps.
So I mentioned I have been watching a lot of great content on Disney +. The big standouts to me has been re-watching The Mandalorian. It has been every bit as good on the second viewing as the first. I've now watched most of the classic Mickey Mouse cartoons. I don't mean the new classic, I mean the legit classics starting with Steamboat Willie. While I cannot say for sure which one of these are my favorites, they all bring such a massive smile to my face. There is just something about those classic Mickey cartoons that can brighten up any day. Lastly I've been revisiting some of the mid to late nineties Disney animated movies. The want to do that was really brought on by that podcast I typed about earlier. Surprisingly I have found a new love for The Hunchback of Notre Dame. More on that another time, but until recently the movie was never really high up there for me.
So what to do here as we continue our Disney Parks stand still and really don't have too much new stuff to talk about. Well the answer is pretty easy. It's list time! So the next few blogs (barring any park news coming out [Disney or Six Flags]) will be some countdowns. Some ideas are top Disney animated features, top rides (Disney and Six Flags included), top Disney songs. You get where I'm going! So to wrap this blog up I'd like to leave you with something that Disney put up on their social media channels last night. Just a reminder and a perfect way to close out any day, with an incredible view of Happily Ever After, the nighttime spectacular that takes place nightly at The Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. Thank you for reading and stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon!
Thursday, April 9, 2020
Disney Gaming Flashbacks Part 2
Hello everyone and welcome to part two of this blog. If you did not read part one, you may want to go back and check it out. As our global health crisis continues and the Disney Parks extend their closures for an unknown period of time, now is as good a time as ever to visit the Disney games of yesteryear. In my last blog I went through what are my go to classic Disney games. Ducktales, Star Wars Battlefront II, Aladdin, and The Lion King are all games that I still really gravitate to. There are still loads more Disney games that exist and in this blog I will touch on some more of them in hopes that they can give you something to do as we all self quarantine.
Aladdin on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Don't cry foul on me to start this blog off because I am talking about Aladdin again. I have very good reason to be and that reason is that the Super Nintendo of Aladdin is unrecognizable to it's Sega Genesis counterpart. Ya see, unlike video games today, if a game was coming out on multiple systems, it was often times a very different game. This is the case with Aladdin on Super Nintendo.
The gameplay is still that of a platformer where you progress through various levels similar to that of a Super Mario game. The game progresses through the story of Aladdin, but throws in some fresh ideas such as a level that takes place during the song Friend Like Me. Unlike the Sega Genesis version, Aladdin does not have a sword at all, but he can find a cloth that allows him to parachute off tall locations, increasing his jump distance substantially. When it comes to the soundtrack it is a mixed bag of recreated movie tracks and brand new music. All of it sounds great and works with their respective levels very well.
Aladdin on Super Nintendo plays very well with solid controls and the graphics are again top notch for the system. The backgrounds look incredible and make you feel like you are right in the movie. Is it better than its Sega Genesis counterpart? That's a topic of great debate. Both versions of the game are wonderful games in their own right and are more than different enough for me to say that personally it is hard to compare them. At the end of the day though I have to give the nod to the Super Nintendo version due to the fact that I only recently was able to routinely play the Sega Genesis version of Aladdin, so my experience with it is limited in comparison.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron on the Nintendo 64
Another one of my favorite Star Wars games. This one can be found both on PC and the Nintendo 64, but it is on the Nintendo 64 where I have logged an unknown number of hours on this game. Rogue Squadron takes place shortly after the events of the Battle of Yavin (episode IV) and runs up to the events of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. That being said, the final mission takes place six years after the Battle of Endor (episode VI). You play as Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles in a variety of missions. All of the missions, with the exception of one of the unlockable missions see you piloting one of the many Rebel Alliance fighters as you complete objectives to defeat the Empire.
The music is great. It sticks true to the Star Wars formula. The main Star Wars theme is present, but for the most part the music is original, but is so good that you'd swear it's ripped right out of the movies. Flying your craft feels really good and each handle in unique ways. For example, the A-Wing is so fast that you may find yourself slamming into other crafts, the landscape, or structures. Meanwhile the Y-Wing is so slow and heavily armored that you may find yourself bouncing off of other crafts instead.
What keeps bringing me back to this game is the story and gameplay. This is still one of the best Star Wars games in my eyes. The sequels on the Nintendo Gamecube were also great, but I don't think they quite matched the magic that is in this game. The unlockable missions of the Death Star trench run, Beggers Canyon, and the Battle of Hoth are all great as well. You can even pilot a T.I.E. Interceptor, the Millennium Falcon, an AT-ST (in one hidden mission), and the Naboo Starfighter. All of these crafts and walker require some kind of code to unlock, but they are all so worth it, especially the T.I.E. Interceptor since it is tied directly into the story of the game. I'll surely be going more into this game in another blog, but if you are a fan of games where you get to fly around and blow stuff up, this is a game for you. Since the Nintendo 64 isn't exactly the system on most people's shelf anymore, the easiest way to access this game is on PC through Steam or EA's Origin.
Hercules on the Sony Playstation
Bless my soul Disney was on a video game roll throughout the 90's. That roll continued on into the Sony Playstation where you can find what in my opinion is one of the best Disney games of all time, Hercules. Critically, no it doesn't look that way, but if you are a fan of any of the old platforming Disney games that came before you, you may see where I'm coming from. Hercules takes cues from so many of those past games, combines them and then to top it off gives them a big graphical boost. The plot is simple. You play as Hercules whose had his immortality taken away. He must now become a true hero to reunite with the gods by completing a series of tasks. Sound familiar? Probably because it's the plot of the movie. This really was what a lot of Disney games were at the time and the majority of them were more than good enough at filling that roll.
So if you've read what I said about games like Aladdin and The Lion King, then you know where I'm going with the playstyle of this game. Hercules can attack enemies with either his fists or a sword (ala Aladdin). Other powers can be gifted by the gods as well which changes up the gameplay for a time. Musically, the only song that contained lyrics from the movie is an instrumental of Zero to Hero, but that's fine because the rest of the music is perfect for the levels they're on. Perhaps one of the biggest selling points of this game is the voice acting. The lines are taken directly from the movie and are spoken by the original cast. For a Playstation game to have something like that at the time was a pretty big deal.
I can't say much more about this game without going into the levels and what makes them awesome, so I'll stop here for now and just say that Hercules is a brilliant game in both looks and gameplay. If you are a fan of the movie, I cannot figure out any reason that you would not like the game (unless you dislike this genre of games). The game should be available still on the Playstation Store and it is also available on PC through Steam.
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse on the Sega Genesis
While most of my gaming growing up was done on the Super Nintendo, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse is a Sega Genesis game that I played a ton of during my high school years. In this game you play as Mickey Mouse on a quest to save Minnie who has been captured by a witch that plans on stealing her youth. The witch takes Minnie to the Castle of Illusion and Mickey follows in hot pursuit. So it's the classic rescue the princess or in this case girlfriend that has been seen in games like Super Mario Brothers. It's done a lot, but it always seems to work oh so well! Interestingly enough I always found it funny that one of my favorite Nintendo 64 games, Banjo Kazooie, has the exact same plot as this game.
The game is another classic platformer, but unlike the others I've talked about this one features Mickey Mouse himself. It was one of the earlier games released on the Sega Genesis, and still manages to hold up today in nearly ever facet. Visually the game is incredibly vibrant and detailed. Mickey even has a variety of facial expressions which at the time was considered incredible. While Sonic the Hedgehog had a basic expression or two, Mickey has full on facial expressions in this game and it's pretty amazing. The worlds and enemies in the game are also incredibly detailed. The music is phenomenal and really pushes the Sega Genesis to its limits. The gameplay is also very good and is quite similar to that of a Super Mario game. Mickey's primary attack is even jumping on enemies as opposed to using a sword or rolling or throwing fruit.
This game has brought many a smile to my face. The best part about it is that it is perfect for all ages. It is easy enough for kids to enjoy it, but also difficult enough that adults will see some challenges as well. If you want to try this game out, the original can be found on the Sega Genesis. Beyond that though you'll have a hard time finding the original. That said, similar to Ducktales, Castle of Illusion received a remake! The remake is also very good and can be found on the Playstation Store, Xbox Live Arcade, and on PC through Steam.
So there ya have it, a few more games to add to your list of Disney games to play during quarantine. There is one other game I want to make mention of, but it breaks the mold of "retro" and that is Epic Mickey. Epic Mickey came out on the Nintendo Wii which finally had its final game come out in 2019. This game takes you on a huge journey through what basically is a twisted Disneyland. It's a lot of fun and is an incredible ride that I'll feature on a later blog, but I did want to give it a shout-out here. Thank you all for reading as always! I hope you and your friends and family are staying safe and doing well and stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon!
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron on the Nintendo 64
Another one of my favorite Star Wars games. This one can be found both on PC and the Nintendo 64, but it is on the Nintendo 64 where I have logged an unknown number of hours on this game. Rogue Squadron takes place shortly after the events of the Battle of Yavin (episode IV) and runs up to the events of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. That being said, the final mission takes place six years after the Battle of Endor (episode VI). You play as Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles in a variety of missions. All of the missions, with the exception of one of the unlockable missions see you piloting one of the many Rebel Alliance fighters as you complete objectives to defeat the Empire.
The music is great. It sticks true to the Star Wars formula. The main Star Wars theme is present, but for the most part the music is original, but is so good that you'd swear it's ripped right out of the movies. Flying your craft feels really good and each handle in unique ways. For example, the A-Wing is so fast that you may find yourself slamming into other crafts, the landscape, or structures. Meanwhile the Y-Wing is so slow and heavily armored that you may find yourself bouncing off of other crafts instead.
What keeps bringing me back to this game is the story and gameplay. This is still one of the best Star Wars games in my eyes. The sequels on the Nintendo Gamecube were also great, but I don't think they quite matched the magic that is in this game. The unlockable missions of the Death Star trench run, Beggers Canyon, and the Battle of Hoth are all great as well. You can even pilot a T.I.E. Interceptor, the Millennium Falcon, an AT-ST (in one hidden mission), and the Naboo Starfighter. All of these crafts and walker require some kind of code to unlock, but they are all so worth it, especially the T.I.E. Interceptor since it is tied directly into the story of the game. I'll surely be going more into this game in another blog, but if you are a fan of games where you get to fly around and blow stuff up, this is a game for you. Since the Nintendo 64 isn't exactly the system on most people's shelf anymore, the easiest way to access this game is on PC through Steam or EA's Origin.
Hercules on the Sony Playstation
Bless my soul Disney was on a video game roll throughout the 90's. That roll continued on into the Sony Playstation where you can find what in my opinion is one of the best Disney games of all time, Hercules. Critically, no it doesn't look that way, but if you are a fan of any of the old platforming Disney games that came before you, you may see where I'm coming from. Hercules takes cues from so many of those past games, combines them and then to top it off gives them a big graphical boost. The plot is simple. You play as Hercules whose had his immortality taken away. He must now become a true hero to reunite with the gods by completing a series of tasks. Sound familiar? Probably because it's the plot of the movie. This really was what a lot of Disney games were at the time and the majority of them were more than good enough at filling that roll.
So if you've read what I said about games like Aladdin and The Lion King, then you know where I'm going with the playstyle of this game. Hercules can attack enemies with either his fists or a sword (ala Aladdin). Other powers can be gifted by the gods as well which changes up the gameplay for a time. Musically, the only song that contained lyrics from the movie is an instrumental of Zero to Hero, but that's fine because the rest of the music is perfect for the levels they're on. Perhaps one of the biggest selling points of this game is the voice acting. The lines are taken directly from the movie and are spoken by the original cast. For a Playstation game to have something like that at the time was a pretty big deal.
I can't say much more about this game without going into the levels and what makes them awesome, so I'll stop here for now and just say that Hercules is a brilliant game in both looks and gameplay. If you are a fan of the movie, I cannot figure out any reason that you would not like the game (unless you dislike this genre of games). The game should be available still on the Playstation Store and it is also available on PC through Steam.
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse on the Sega Genesis
While most of my gaming growing up was done on the Super Nintendo, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse is a Sega Genesis game that I played a ton of during my high school years. In this game you play as Mickey Mouse on a quest to save Minnie who has been captured by a witch that plans on stealing her youth. The witch takes Minnie to the Castle of Illusion and Mickey follows in hot pursuit. So it's the classic rescue the princess or in this case girlfriend that has been seen in games like Super Mario Brothers. It's done a lot, but it always seems to work oh so well! Interestingly enough I always found it funny that one of my favorite Nintendo 64 games, Banjo Kazooie, has the exact same plot as this game.
The game is another classic platformer, but unlike the others I've talked about this one features Mickey Mouse himself. It was one of the earlier games released on the Sega Genesis, and still manages to hold up today in nearly ever facet. Visually the game is incredibly vibrant and detailed. Mickey even has a variety of facial expressions which at the time was considered incredible. While Sonic the Hedgehog had a basic expression or two, Mickey has full on facial expressions in this game and it's pretty amazing. The worlds and enemies in the game are also incredibly detailed. The music is phenomenal and really pushes the Sega Genesis to its limits. The gameplay is also very good and is quite similar to that of a Super Mario game. Mickey's primary attack is even jumping on enemies as opposed to using a sword or rolling or throwing fruit.
This game has brought many a smile to my face. The best part about it is that it is perfect for all ages. It is easy enough for kids to enjoy it, but also difficult enough that adults will see some challenges as well. If you want to try this game out, the original can be found on the Sega Genesis. Beyond that though you'll have a hard time finding the original. That said, similar to Ducktales, Castle of Illusion received a remake! The remake is also very good and can be found on the Playstation Store, Xbox Live Arcade, and on PC through Steam.
So there ya have it, a few more games to add to your list of Disney games to play during quarantine. There is one other game I want to make mention of, but it breaks the mold of "retro" and that is Epic Mickey. Epic Mickey came out on the Nintendo Wii which finally had its final game come out in 2019. This game takes you on a huge journey through what basically is a twisted Disneyland. It's a lot of fun and is an incredible ride that I'll feature on a later blog, but I did want to give it a shout-out here. Thank you all for reading as always! I hope you and your friends and family are staying safe and doing well and stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon!
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