Pizza Planet truck!!! A113 license plate!!! Pizza Planet driver!!! My Neighbor Totoro!!! Bud Luckey (Rick Ricker from The Incredibles)!!!
Lee Unkrich did an absolutely incredible job tying together everything the Toy Story universe has meant to a generation of fans. This film is absolutely phenomenal.
And there’s really awesome promotional materials all over the place!
At the Century 20 theatres…
At Disney’s California Adventure…
And I’m sure much more. Way to go Disney-Pixar! 
Laura and I elected to not pay a surcharge for fancy 3D.
Directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois?!?!?! That’s what you get, Disney! Well, then again Disney couldn’t make a movie like this one, but my point is somehow still valid! Not really, I’m just stubborn. Anyways – as I understand it, Chris and Dean were key players at Disney’s Florida animation studio (located inside Disney’s MGM Studios before the name change and before they shut it down) and were partially responsible for Mulan (1998) and almost wholly responsible for Lilo and Stitch (2002), which are two of my favorite post-Frank Wells animated feature films (Chris was also prominantly featured along with other crew members of Mulan in Drawn to Animation at Disney’s California Adventure until it was replaced with The Animation Academy). To the best of my understanding, Chris Sanders left or was fired after which Disney turned Chris Sanders’ American Dog (a quirky road comedy) into Bolt (2008).
This film is delightful, quirky and a wonderfully poignant father-saddled-with-oddball-son-who-ends-up-proving-his-father-wrong tale.
There was a delightful “Whole New World” sequence in the film (without waxing musical) when Toothless takes Hiccough and Astrid for a fly (soaring, tumbling, free-wheeling!).
The music was wonderful! It is interesting to note that there were a lot of Scottish influences, being that they’re vikings, but Craig Ferguson is in there too, so it all balances out.
Credit Game Final Score: Jeremy 4, Laura 3
There was also a preview for Shrek 4 which looks to me (having not seen Shrek the Third) to be better than Shrek the Third, mostly because Rumpelstilskin makes a WONDERFUL villain. Although the plot outlined in the trailer reminded me A LOT of Santa Claus 3 which reminded me A LOT of It’s A Wonderful Life. Tale as old as time….
YES! That’s what sums up this movie at the end of the day for me – it was such a wonderful experience to watch that I can barely express it! I mean it’s New Orleans jazz! It’s Goliath the Gargoyle singing, dancing and casting voodoo spells! It’s got Jim Cummings as an adorable, endearing Cajun firefly – reusing his Jambalaya Jake from Darkwing Duck voice! It’s got a story that rips your heart out, stomps it all over the floor, laughs at you, and then perfectly sews it back up and makes you laugh with joy!
Rule Number One of the bayou – never ask directions from a gator. I got confused by the typography, geography…choreography!
Gator down!
Look in the gumbo!
I’ve been looking for you all morning! What a coincidence! I’ve been avoiding you all morning!
Disney is doing a decent and amazingly fun thing by tying in the movie at their theme park (at least Disneyland) with Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee, but watching the movie I couldn’t help but do some armchair Imagineering – I listened to the firefly’s warming up for “Gonna Take You There” and I could just picture a New Orleans style Country Critter Jamboree. I looked at Mama Odie’s boat-in-a-tree-house and I saw a revamp of Tarzan’s Treehouse.
I’m pretty sure Muskers and Clement gave themselves cameos again (as bead tossers during the Mardi Gras finale).
In Tiana’s restaurant, the featured band is Firefly Five Plus Lou, which is a direct reference to the Disneyland band Firehouse Five Plus Two that was composed entirely of Disney animators including Ward Kimball and Frank Thomas!
Amazing string of A-list celebrities in bit parts! Oprah Winfrey as Tiana’s mother Eudora (the best seamstress in New Orleans). Terrence Howard as Tiana’s hard working father. John Goodman as ‘Big Daddy’ La Bouff [any relation Shia? 
]. Emeril Lagasse as…a gator?
BEAUTIFUL MUSIC BY RANDY NEWMAN! AND HE DIDN’T MAKE ME CRINGE BY SINGING ANY OF THE SONGS! YAY! Sorry that’s my own personal bias – he’s a great composer/performer, but his singing makes me cringe. Pretty, pretty New Orleans jazz!
Let Disney know that John Lasseter isn’t crazy with all this 2-D animation nonsense the only way a lot of Disney executives understand – by buying a ticket and seeing this adorable movie! You won’t regret it!
My chest hairs are tingling!
This contact lens represents you! And my eye represents my eye! I got my eye on you Flint Lockwood!
Mr. T is HYSTERICAL and happily doesn’t have the only funny bits in the movie! You’ve got Bruce Campbell, Anna Farris, and Bill Hader (among a host of other wonderful characters) in leading roles and they all deliver wonderful comedy and pathos. I’m actually really interested in reading the book and seeing the source material for the first time. That’s right – I didn’t grow up with this book. I grew up with “Good Night Moon”, “Where The Wild Things Are”*, and the works of Audrey Wood (“King Bidgood’s In The Bathtub”, “Elbert’s Bad Word”) and Graeme Base (“Animalia”, “The Eleventh Hour”), not “Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs” or “A Day With Wilbur Robinson”. But that shouldn’t stop you from checking out this wonderful film (unless you want to spoil the plot for yourself).
Steve the monkey is essentially Dug from Up, but so much more wonderfully primitive (and primate, being that he is a monkey)!
The movie was very much designed for 3-D and the falling food effects are incredibly eye popping (without being 3-D gimmicks).
Anna Farris continues to astound me with her acting ability. I mean who would have imagined that the lead girl from Scary Movie would be such an amazing actress! I’m so happy to break her out of that stereotype (at least in my mind since I don’t know anything about her).
Flint Lockwood: It’s okay… it’s just pain.
Flint Lockwood: Come on, Steve! We’ve got some diem to carpe!
Flint Lockwood: Computing! Coffee break!
Mayor: Bon voyage! And bon appetit!
Flint Lockwood: Me too! But about you!
Steve: Gummi Bears!
* I’m not invested/interested in the film adaptation at all…mostly because I wasn’t invested in the book.
Jersey Boys
The show is a lot of fun. The story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, it’s definitely rated R (they’re from f*ckin’ Jersey after all), but a lot of fun. It’s a biopic musical! Well then again, all biopics about music stars are musicals…I just don’t think I’ve seen the jukebox musical format applied as a biopic and I love it!
Across the Universe
Wow, two jukebox musicals in one week? You’d think I’d be sick of it, but I’m actually having a heck of a time. Across the Universe is the jukebox movie-musical (has that been done before?) starring the Beatles and an incredibly talented cast (definitely triple threats). Directed by Julie Taymor (the “person” responsible for The Lion King musical), the movie is very enjoyable and taught me a lot of Beatles music. The soundtrack is amazing! It’s chock full of musical goodies and I’ve had a 7-song playlist on loop for days of my favorites (I’ve Just Seen A Face, I Am The Walrus, I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends, Hey Jude, Dear Prudence, All You Need Is Love and Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite) and it hasn’t gotten old yet!
Misbehavin’ Nightly feat. The Pacific Symphony Pops and Byron Stripling
It’s Flat Foot FLOOGIE, not flujie. Aside from that, Byron is an incredibly talented musician. About the only sad parts about this performance was that:
a) I couldn’t dance to any of the tunes (even though I brought my dance partner) because it’s a concert hall and that isn’t “appropriate”
b) I actually bothered the people in the seat next to me with my boisterous attitude (they didn’t come back after intermission – at least not to their assigned seats…)
Other than that I had an incredibly enjoyable time. Lots of incredible music.
| Duke Ellington The Essential Ellington |
| Various Sounds of New Orleans |
| Rodney Red Arrow |
| Delange/Alter Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans |
| Handy St. Louis Blues |
| Pinkard Sweet Georgia Brown |
| Duke Ellington Caravan |
| Irving Berlin Alexander’s Ragtime Band |
| Cab Calloway Minnie The Moocher (not listed in program) |
| Fats Waller Honeysuckle Rose (actually a two-song melody with a mystery song and Honeysuckle Rose) |
| Brooks Ain’t Misbehavin’ |
| Slim Gaillard Flat Foot Floogie |
| Various Louis Armstrong Tribute |
Pajama Game
Featuring the choreographic style that later became known as “Fosse, Fosse, Fosse”, the music of Adler and Ross (Damn Yankees) under the supervision of Frank Loesser (Guys and Dolls, How To Succeed) and a very talented cast, this musical actually reminds me of Urinetown if I think hard enough…because it focuses on one big issue rather than a lot of little things (the audience is happier that way). It’s about a labor contention in a pajama factory. The music is very fun and quirky, the story is good and the performance was very enjoyable. Oh – and I HATE Hernando’s Hideaway (olé). The lyrics just annoy me because I recognize the music as something more classical and I’m just pissy about it. Meh.
Enchanted
This is a phenomenal movie. It is the ultimate Disney geek-out (featuring 3 Disney “princesses” cameos – Jodi Benson/Ariel, Paige O’Hara/Belle and Judy Kuhn/Pocahontas) with music and lyrics by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz.
[sidebar src="Walden Media"]
The Walden Media production company is behind The Chronicles of Narnia movies, but they forced Disney to push Prince Caspian to a Summer 2008 release so that it wouldn’t compete with Waterhorse this Christmas.
[/sidebar]
Gargoyles
Back when I was younger, Disney had a really cool afternoon program arrangement that aired on K-CAL 9 (at least where I was). It was entitled The Disney Afternoon. I really enjoyed it because it was fun to come home from school and watch the next generation of Disney toons. (Heh, Next Generation. I love Star Trek). Speaking of Star Trek, there was one of those new toons that I came to thoroughly enjoy and celebrate. Gargoyles.
“In 1994, Buena Vista Television released the animated series Gargoyles. The show followed the adventures of a band of Scottish gargoyles in present-day New York after sleeping in stone under a magic spell for a thousand years. Gargoyles quickly became a hit with fans and lasted for two more seasons. Unfortunately, in early 1997 Buena Vista Television cancelled Gargoyles, despite the millions of fans who loved it.”
The above quote is from a Gargoyles fan-site that I discovered while pondering the ponderosa. I mean, surfing the web. If you want to check it out, here’s a link. Gargoyles Fan-site
I am a big fan of P2P (Peer to peer for all you uneducated schmucks out there) and it has helped me gain access to all the old episodes of my childhood. Of course, I’m not condoning the downloading and sharing of copyrighted material. I mean, here I am, on a public website, and I would have the balls to say “YES, I CONDONE THE ILLEGAL DOWNLOADING OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL!” Those aren’t my words, but what the hey. By-the-by, it’s only illegal if you sell it. But enough about dodging the police and hiring a scum-bag (lawyer, that is). Lets talk about voice-overs. I was recently watching episodes and I was again faced with that dilemma of the voices sounding familiar. I am a Star Trek: Next Generation fan. I always have trouble putting two and two together. I usually do more research than is necessary and have discovered that, OMIGOSH! David Xanatos is voiced by none other than Commander William T. Riker (AKA Jonathon Frakes) and Demona is voiced by Counselor Troi (AKA Marina Sirtis). Oh yeah, a minor player, Coldstone (rookery brother of Goliath) is voiced by Worf (AKA Michael Dorn). Another discovery is that Captain Kathryn Janeway of Voyager is the voice of Titania, wife of Oberon and ruler of all the fairies. For one episode only, but still it’s a notable Star Trek-Gargoyles cameo. If you’ve read my ramble, this may or may not make sense to you, but like I said, if you don’t like, I don’t care! HAHAHAHAHA! Don’t forget to tip your waitress on the way out! Buh-Bye now! Buh-Bye!