Tag Archives: animation

Toy Story 3 – Century 20 @ Bella Terra, Huntington Beach, CA

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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! 😀

How To Train Your Dragon (In 2D)

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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 … Continue reading →

The Princess And The Frog – AMC 12 Downtown Disney, Anaheim, CA

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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 … Continue reading →

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs – Century 20 @ Bella Terra, Huntington Beach, CA

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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 … Continue reading →

Jersey Boys, Across the Universe, Misbehavin’ Nightly, Pajama Game and Enchanted (i.e. The Past Three Weeks In Entertainment)

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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 … Continue reading →

Gargoyles

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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 … Continue reading →