Documentary Monday~~The Pixar Story

Title—The Pixar Story

Year–2007

Awards–Nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding NonFiction Program in 2008

Summary–Gives the history of the Pixar Company, specifically focusing on the founders (John Lasseter and Ed Catmull) and their dream to make a full-length animated feature.

My Thoughts–I am currently obsessed with everything Disney and Pixar related.  I just recently read the book The Pixar Touch by David A. Price (am I the only person who totally thinks that title sounds dirty?  yes?  well, I am a 12 year-old girl.) so I already knew the whole story behind the company, and I still loved this documentary.  I am so in love with everything that has to do with Pixar, I would literally listen to those guys talk about anything (Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, feel free to call me if you ever find yourselves single…).  I’ve seen their movies a million times and devoured all the commentaries and behind the scenes footage.

This film is actually on the Wall-E 3-disc special edition as one of the extras, so if you want to watch it, you just need to get your hands on that DVD (which of course, I totally own).  The movie is so good and so interesting that instead of rambling on about how much I loved it, I am going to list some cool things that stood out to me.  (As Amber points out, bullet points are awesome!!)

*The film starts out with a very neat montage of animation through the years.  The things included made me all emotional just like that stupid Disney Blu-ray commercial does.  (Don’t ask, it doesn’t take much to make me emotional.)

*John Lasseter (coolest guy ever?) was supposed to make The Brave Little Toaster, but got fired from Disney instead!

*Alvy Ray Smith, one of the co-founders, does his interview with a sleeping cat on his lap!

*The first Toy Story movie almost didn’t get made because Disney wanted it to be all “edgy” and “adult” and the first test of it was terrible.

*In their old facility, the whole Pixar staff would have to evacuate the building on occasion because they were close to refineries that would spew stuff into the air every once in a while.  Now they have the best building ever!!!

*Toy Story 2 totally sucked and they re-did the entire movie in the last 9 months before it was released.  Obviously it didn’t suck after they fixed it.

*Did I mention that Pixar is the coolest company ever?

Final Verdict–If you love Disney, Pixar, animated movies, or computers, you should definitely check this movie out!

Jen

Another Tangled Post

…but this time from Jill!

So last weekend when the Nerdgirls were all together, we watched Tangled.  Which really should make perfect sense to you.  It was my 2nd time seeing it, and again I enjoyed it a lot.  And again it reminded me of several other Disney movies – the older classic ones I love.  I think Jen has touched on a few of these, but here’s why I love Tangled:

• Rapunzel’s chameleon friend, Pascal

An animal best friend who acts like a person?  Just like Abu from Aladdin!  (FYI: This is NOT the same as Flounder from The Little Mermaid because he could actually talk.)

• Maximus

The awesome horse who is treated like a person by the male main character.  Just like Samson in Sleeping Beauty!

• The Boat Scene

That boat is basically the same one as in The Little Mermaid.  Hello, one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) songs in Disney history)!

• An evil, manipulative witch who sings

Mother Gothel is a great character.  Evil, but very entertaining.  And she sings!  Just like Ursula in The Little Mermaid!  Btw, Ursula totally used to scare me and I wouldn’t listen to “Poor Unfortunate Souls.”  But now I realize that it is a great song, and it doesn’t scare me as much.

• Girl taken from royal parents and raised not knowing she’s a princess.

Just like in Sleeping Beauty!  Ok, granted, in one situation she was stolen and in the other she was taken by fairies to be protected, but that’s pretty similar.

Now I’m definitely not knocking Tangled for using common elements in Disney films – I love it for doing that!  Those classic Disney films are amazing, and I haven’t seen many of the ones past Pocahontas because they felt different, but Tangled feels back like the good old ones.  Plus it has a few awesome elements the older ones don’t have!  Like a cocky male character – Flynn is fantastic – and girl power!  Rapunzel saves herself and Flynn many times, unlike some of the traditional heroines.

I would love to be a Disney scholar, but I’m not there yet.  So what am I missing?  Other Tangled similarities to Disney movies?  Let me know!

– Jill

Happy Tangled Day!!!

Today is the day I have been waiting for with bated breath for a very long time.  Today’s the day Tangled comes out on DVD!!!  My copy is winging its way towards me and will hopefully arrive sooner rather than later (that’s one of the downfalls of living in small town Iowa…..it’s always LATER).

Since I have already posted about Tangled way too many times, I am going to celebrate today by posting a video that showcases all of Disney’s 50 animated features.

No matter who you are, there has got to be at least one movie in there that touches your heart.  Watching it makes me damn glad that I grew up when I did.  I was just turning 8 when The Little Mermaid came out, so I was the perfect age to appreciate the wondrous string of films that included Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King.

So go out and buy Tangled today because it is right up there with the Disney classics as one of my all-time favorites!

Jen

P.S.  I think my favorite clip in that whole thing has to be Winnie the Pooh sitting there dancing in front of his honey.  So adorable!

What Amber has been up to

Not much. But BEDA is coming up and I figured I needed to get back into practice since I haven’t blogged here in oooooh several monthy months.
um…
ummm…
Oh gosh, only two sentences in and I have already run out of things to say! Hmmm, this sound like a job for BRIEF RANDOM BULLET POINTS!

● I have been really into tucking in my shirts lately–into my trousers, my jeans and even my pajama pants. I imagine it makes me look more glamourous and deliberate like this:

● I am suddenly checking out LOTS of magazines from the library. So I always checked out the US Weeklys, Vogues, Martha Stewart Weddings, Mental Floss, House Beautiful, Kiki, etc…but now I am also unable to pass up a Wired, Technology Review, Newsweek, or Bloomberg Businessweek. Weird. I think I finally realized that this is how I must stay informed since I am no longer in high school when I used to actually watch news programs, no longer in college with lots of free access to newspapers during mealtime, and no longer in grad school where I was constantly exploring online. Bloomberg Businessweek and Wired always have lots of fun graphs! No plans on reading the Paris Review or the New Yorker anytime soon. Once I grabbed the New York Book Review…never again. It was all frowny and wordy; I don’t think they have heard of graphs or bullet points. I wish this whole bullet point as a graph…If I were you I would have skipped from Shirt-tucked-pants to Disney Video, this was by far the least brief of the brief random bullet points.

● I watched this about ten minutes ago:

Magic magic magic magic magic magic magic main street electrical parade magic

later alligators!

My Real Favorite Movies #5

I LOVE Disney movies!  And I think I mentioned before that I do love all of the real Disney classics like the Princess movies (Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, etc.) but one of my real favorites that I watch over and over again is The Great Mouse Detective (sometimes called The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective).

Aren't these old school movie posters great??

This movie is often forgotten because it came out a few years before The Little Mermaid came on the scene and blew everyone away.  I ADORE this movie!!!!  I remember seeing it in the theater when I was very small when I was visiting my cousins in New Jersey.  I specifically remember it even though I was only five because I forced my cousin to call the movie theater to ask if a My Little Pony movie was playing (man, I was a stubborn child).  Of course, there was not, so we went to see this instead.  I was terrified during the entire movie.

It is actually really different from most Disney films.  It is very dark, very dry, and very British.  No wonder it did not do very well.  I really don’t think it is a kid’s movie at all.  It is based on the Sherlock Holmes stories, with Basil of Baker Street as the best mouse detective in London.  Basil is an absolute perfect interpretation of Sherlock.  He is cold, calculating, and just plain rude most of the time.  But that is because his mind is always focused on the case!

Here is the first scene of Basil in the movie.  Pitch-perfect imitation of Mr. Holmes.

The plot of the movie is pretty basic.  Toy maker gets kidnapped by evil genius rat Professor Ratigan in order to take over Mousedom.  The toy maker’s daughter asks Basil for help.  Along the way there are lots of mishaps and capers and Basil and friends save the day.

This movie is just so awesome!  I adore little Olivia.  She is so cute!!!  Most little kid characters in movies (especially animated movies) annoy me, but Olivia is too cute!  I also really love just how British everything is.  I mean the final battle takes place on Big Ben for goodness sakes!

Now, most of you probably have never seen this movie.  Well, you are in luck because it had disappeared for a long while, but it comes out on DVD today!!!!  That means you can Netflix it or buy it or check it out from your library!  But do it fast because I wouldn’t be surprised if it was only out for a short while.  It is not important enough to get the Platinum treatment, just some ridiculous nonsense “Mystery in the Mist Edition.”  Ugh.  Oh well, I am buying it because my old VHS tape is worn out.

To end with, I present one of the best things I have ever seen.  While trying to find a trailer for the movie, I came across this brilliant mash-up of The Great Mouse Detective and the new Sherlock Holmes movie.  Enjoy, because it will knock your socks off.

Jen

P.S.  Also, you should go to the IMDB trivia page after seeing the movie because there are so many cool tidbits about little inside Sherlock Holmes things in the movie.

Camp Rock countdown

Get this widget!

OK, I am SO excited for the premier of Disney channel’s newest original movie (a D-COM, if you will), Camp Rock!!!!!!!  I won’t even talk about the fact that I’m now 23 and married and still watch the Disney channel.  I figure I’ll be watching that channel for the rest of my life.  For myself until I have children, and then still for myself when I have children and they also want to watch it.  The premier is on June 20 (Friday!) on the Disney Channel (which I sadly do not have down here…yet), then on ABC on June 21 (hello Saturday night!), then ABC Family on June 22 (which I also do not have, which doesn’t make me that sad), and then on Disney.com on June 23!  OMG are you super excited to!?  Yes?  Eeeeeeeee!!!!  No?  Watch this, and then you’ll change your answer and then you can geek out with me!

And also!

I dare you to NOT get up and dance like I want to do, but am refraining from doing since #1 I am wearing headphones while sitting in the medical building 3 plaza (which would not stop me usually), and #2 Andrew is having a lab meeting at the next table over, so I don’t want to make a bad impression because at least half the table knows I’m his wife.

Rockingly yours,

lindsayF

 

Lindsay’s Disney Show

I believe that in my very first post I promised that my second post would contain details about the show that Disney is bound to make about me.  Well, obviously I broke that promise, but I can’t sleep so I thought I’d indulge myself…and you.

This task was pretty hard, I have to say.  It’s pretty obvious that I’d probably be a Miley character – you know, the kind that everyone watching the show knows is cool, but everyone on the show thinks is a dork.  That’d be me to a tee.  But since I do not have the coordination skills to sing and dance at the same time, I am obviously unable to fulfill the Hannah Montana character’s part.

So I have decided that in my show, I would play a college character (let’s face it, high school is probably too much of a stretch for me now) who everyone on campus thinks is super geeky.  But the audience knows what the rest of campus does not know.  That I am part of a secret alliance called WEIRD (Weird Entities In Rightful Domination) that actually rules the world.  I spend my time on the show in my classes and outside of classes throwing witty banter around with my friends who don’t actually know about my double life as a WEIRD agent, and going on WEIRD missions to protect the world from strange happenings.  (Disclaimer to HWSNBNITB: because this is a Disney show, I am not allowed to have a fiance, so to be fair, I have completely cut you out, that way it doesn’t seem like I am toying with your affections).

In her rag tag bunch of friends is: Amber, the artsy librarian who appreciates Lindsay for all that she is.  Jackie: The shy but super awesome engineering buddy.  (More friends to come…I’m limited on thinking capacity right now). 

Also, maybe in the third or fourth episode, Lindsay gets a partner for her missions in WEIRD.  In true Disney spirit, it is a boy who likes Lindsay but can only express his feelings in a way that is pretty typical of all boys – he teases her pretty mercilessly.  But when they go on their missions, they become unstoppable and are on their way up the ladder of WEIRD.  He becomes friends with Lindsay outside of WEIRD and becomes part of her rag tag band of friends.  (Name of boy to come later).

 It’s your move now Disney.  I’m waiting.

<3, lindsayd.