More Blunt Than Sharp: Disney’s “The Sword In the Stone”

Disney’s Eighteenth Animated Feature – 1963
The sixties were a turbulent decade for, well … the entire planet. For reasons that had nothing to do with social upheaval, the sixties were a turbulent decade for the Disney animation studio as well. The sixties saw lay-offs, reorganization, and a scaling back of a company that seemed on an endless trajectory of success and growth.

Late to the Game: Disney’s “Wreck-It Ralph”

Disney’s Fifty-Second Animated Feature – 2012
I was literally in the dark when this film opened last week, put in the dark by Hurricane Sandy. Now that our lights are back on, I was itching to get to the theater to see Disney’s latest feature. Wreck-It Ralph is the first feature film for tv director Rich Moore (Drawn Together, Futurama, and The Simpsons, to name a few) and writers Phil Johnston (a few tv movies and shorts) and Jennifer Lee (her first film), which surprised me. Disney is willing to bet the candy store on a group of newbies? Will this be revolutionary? No spoiler here: no. Wreck-It Ralph delivers great entertainment value, but it’s more dependable than original.

Vocabulary Building Apps We Love: “The Opposites” and “Word Cracker”

Lights are back on after a weeklong blackout at my house and it feels great to be getting a story up. During the blackout, I could recharge my laptop and iPad at the local library, so I spent some time with a pair of wonderful, slightly addictive apps that love words as much as I do.

To Serve Animals: Disney’s “The Lion King”

Disney’s Thirty-Second Animated Feature - 1994 (original release) 2011 (3D release)
I have a confession to make: I’ve never been a huge fan of The Lion King. While it’s impossible not to get swept up in its beautiful animation, top-notch voice performances, and exciting story, the essential phoniness of animal life along with its celebration of adherence to royal bloodlines and “proper” succession to the throne has always irked me. A much earlier Disney classic about animals in nature, Bambi, was set in a world where animals speak and the owl is a friend to a rabbit; but on the whole, the story of Bambi set the deer in a recognizable, realistic world. The Lion King, on the other hand, is more a movie about a European royal family (pre-Renaissance) than it is about any group of animals.

TV Shows We Love: “Crash and Bernstein”

When I was a kid, my absolute favorite thing in the world was the Muppets. So the idea of a Muppet-style puppet coming to life to be my sidekick? Sounds cool to me. That’s the premise of Disney XD’s new combination live action/puppet show, Crash and Bernstein. Wyatt Bernstein (played by Cole Jensen) is the only male in his house and longs for a brother. After a trip to a “Build-A-Bestie” store, his creation comes to life in the form of Crash—a rude, outrageous bada**. In this world of tweens, Crash is the boy gone wild, the fun kid with no fear. He brings the chaos.

Disney-Pixar’s “Finding Nemo in 3-D”: Go, Fish!

Disney-Pixar’s Fifth Animated Feature – 2003 (Original Release) 2012 (3-D Release)
About a year ago, Disney announced it would re-release a collection of its most popular animated films in 3-D. This seemed an easy decision owing to the success of their recent re-release, The Lion King in 3-D. The public could soon see a 3-D version of Beauty and the Beast (January 2012), Finding Nemo (September 2012), Monsters, Inc. (January, 2013) and The Little Mermaid (September 2013). Having already seen the re-release of The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, I admit it was great seeing those wonderful films on the big screen again; but the 3-D conversion didn’t enhance the experience. If anything, 2-D characters would sometimes appear to be paper-thin cutouts in a distorted 3-D world. As a big fan of (especially) Beauty and the Beast, I would pay to see the 2-D version of the film on the big screen, just so I could share it with my daughter. I didn’t need the 3-D “improvement.”

Events We Love: Summerstage Kids Presented by Disney

If you live in the New York City area, you already know that this city offers an amazing array of free events and performances designed for kids, and few are on the level of Summerstage Kids Presented by Disney, part of the City Parks Foundation Summer Stage series. These events are presented at parks around the city and offer a wide variety of fun and games along with top-notch performers, all presented in the spirit that this is for kids. No silence is required here. In fact, performers encourage enthusiasm and participation from the junior audience members.