Day 990: Ratatagain

I don't usually blog about Disney movies, and when I do they're normally a part of my Rewatch list that I've been slowly working my way through for over a year. I have this thing about rewatching movies so close together, and usually I spent some time in between viewings unless it's a movie I love (Tangled, for instance, is always watched, under any circumstances). For some odd reason, I recently had the urge to watch Ratatouille, and since I was home, we made it a family affair.

I actually blogged about Ratatouille early on in my first year of Everyday Disney. You can read that post HERE, but for some reason I just felt like I should blog about it again, and more specifically, about the food. I mean, just look at how delicious it all looks:

Give me some of all of that! Actually, Leo from Thingamavlogs just made a video for Top 5 Week about Animated Disney Foods, and you can give that a watch right here: 

Let's be real, we all pretended we were eating grubs as kids. Personally, I've always wanted to be able to eat corn like in an old Mickey/Donald/Goofy cartoon that I watched all the time as a kid, so that would have to be on my list for sure. Disney food in general, animated or not, seems to be great. Maybe I'll have to work on trying to make a few of these animated ones more real life in my own kitchen. After all, I've already done it with the grey stuff! 

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on September 25 due to a tight schedule).

Day 766: How to Train Your Dragon

There have been multiple occasions in my life when I've heard the following words:

"We need to find a Non-Animated Disney Movie that you love."

Now, much as you might not think so, I actually DO watch Non-Disney Movies. I know, shocker, but let's be real. In a world dominated by the film industry, while we all have our favorites, in order to accurately understand and rate each film, you have to realize the competition. I have a few friends who love to watch all of the Oscar nominated Best Picture films before the Oscars themselves, and trust me, if I had the time to do that, I definitely would. Film is one of my absolute favorite things, and having now created a band trip video that reached for the Hollywood Stars (at least that's what my friends have all told me...we'll see what the band thinks in a week!), I find myself 100% immersed in the world of film-making and the absolute talent and hard work it takes to create some of the masterpieces premiering all over the world today.

And that means that I do, indeed, have some favorite Non-Disney animated movies, which I'll get to in just a second. The film that actually inspired this blog post is not, unfortunately, on my favorites list. My favorites lists are extremely difficult to get on, whether because I hold such high standards, because I have a lack of time to watch, read or listen to everything, or because my interests range from literature to music to art and back to filmography, and that means that a spot on those lists is coveted.

One of my good college friends, Jessica, is absolutely in love with the How To Train Your Dragon films. Now, I won't deny that they're good films (or at least the first one is...I'm watching the second soon), because they are just that: good films. I am a huge fan of the music in them, specifically, and I think Toothless is an absolutely adorable character who almost anyone will fall in love with (or maybe it's just because I own a cat and have a growing love for the Disney equivalent of Stitch). However, HTTYD is not on my favorites list. But since I'm sure you're wondering at this point what IS on this list, I won't make you wait any longer.

Basically, when I consider a Non-Disney movie, and often times even a Disney film, I take several things into consideration. First, did it keep me entertained the first time I saw it? Was it solid enough for me to walk out of the theater and tweet that I really enjoyed it, or, if I'm sitting at home, for me to tweet more than once about the film? Second, do I want to watch it again. I think Despicable Me is a great example of this one because while I enjoyed it the first time I saw it, I've never, ever had the the real want to sit down and watch it again. The following movies are different. I've watched many of these over and over again...because they're really good.

When I think about my favorite Non-Disney animated movies, for some reason, Bee Movie has always stuck out to me. I do believe it classifies as my FAVORITE of the Non-Disney animated films, and honestly, I have no idea why. Maybe it's just the right combination of hilariousness, star-studded cameos and absolute insanity to make it entertaining every time I watch it, or maybe it's because we have lots of honey around our house. Here are some other favorites that have made the cut: 

Other than that, I can't really think of anything. I think the only other one might be the original Shrek, but I've found that over time, it's just grown to fall off the list, probably more due to the absolute popularity than anything else. Of course, there are other great films out there, but these are the ones that deserve their spots on my list of favorites...and as you can tell, that's definitely a difficult thing to accomplish.

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on February 19, 2015).

Day 628: Inspiring Locations

I've had this great idea stuck in my head for quite some time now. It's a book idea for the future, and while I'm sure I'm running a risk by blogging about this for anyone to read, I'll take my chances because chances are no one's any more capable of doing this than I am, considering the insane amount of money and sponsorship it would require.

Over on Oh My Disney there was recently an article about the real life locations that inspired Disney Films, with everything from the beautiful Machu Picchu, Peru, which inspired The Emperor's New Groove to Old Faithful Inn, the location that The Grand Fusel Lodge in Planes: Fire and Rescue is based on. The whole list is right HERE!

It's on my bucket list to take a trip down Route 66, quite similar to the trip those from Pixar took as inspiration for one of my favorite films, Cars. I love driving and I love history, so a trip like that sounds spectacular. But what if it was expanded? There are over 50 Animated Disney films, not including the Pixar films or others, and almost all of them were based on a real life location. So what if you were able to literally travel the world, visiting the exact locations that inspired Disney films? What if you had the chance to sit and watch those Disney films in those locations?

If not a great book topic, it's at least a great idea for an entire blog and a multi-year journey over the entire planet. I would honestly LOVE to do this...if I had the money to do such things, because diving even deeper into those stories is one of my favorite activities. I do it all the time with OUAT (and I look forward to the date hopefully in the future where I visit Steveston...the real life Storybrooke), looking into the original storylines from the fairy tales and how they impacted the culture they were created for in comparison to how we see them today. So going to the places that inspired those tales and films would be an extra step towards understanding what these things are really about.

Gosh I am such an English major.

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on September 23).

Day 439: Shrek

Last Night, or a week and a half ago rather, I went to a local high school to see their production of Shrek The Musical. I know the guy who played Shrek, as well as Donkey, so it was pretty awesome to see the show with people I knew in it.

Of course, with Shrek comes tons of fairy tales, and the perfect topic for a blog post. Shrek is probably by far one of the most successful Non-Disney animated films, and I'll give it credit for that. In fact, I do enjoy the original Shrek film...to a point.

Let's start off with the bad, so we can end with the good: it's honestly sort of difficult to love something that makes fun of Disney. It's basically why it was invented, right? I mean, to have a story about fairy tales that can poke fun at the rival. That's fine and all, I mean, I enjoy Disney parodies as much as the next person. There's tons of them on YouTube that you can find. But it's like do you really need to do it to the extent? Like, I can't say I love something like that. Sure, that I find parts of it funny and what not, but not something I love.

On the opposite side, I DO love how they have all the different fairy tales interacting. Especially in the musical, for some reason I just loved it. Maybe it's because of the fact that I'm taking the fairy tales class here at SNC, and therefore I had more of an appreciation for them or something like that. I don't know, but the music and the interaction was just great. It's not everyday you see Peter Pan right next to Red Riding Hood and The White Rabbit. It's a really inventive way to tell the different stories in a brand new way, and for that I give Shrek some serious credit.

Fairy tales are all about rewriting and retelling in order to keep them fresh and new, and that's exactly what Shrek does. Granted, Disney has been doing the same thing for ages, and that's all a big part of how this fairy tale thing works, so it's nice to see a different take on it involving all of them at once. It's wonderful.

Congratulations to everyone from Appleton North on their production of Shrek, and special shoutout to Joey and Alex, who did a spectacular job!

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on March 25 due to Midterms and Travel).