Geeking Out Over the Saving Mr. Banks Trailer

I didn't expect to shift into Disney Geek Overload mode at the debut of the trailer for the upcoming film Saving Mr. Banks, but...wow. Let's run down the checklist of fun, here...

1: First and foremost, we've got two great performances by Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson as Walt Disney and Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers.

2. We've got Disneyland portraying itself as a young park. With attraction posters front and center.

3. We've got scenes portraying the songwriting Sherman Brothers caught in a cultural crossfire with very funny results. "Responstable is not a word!"

4. We've got a re-creation of one of Walt Disney's most playful appearances on television, when Tinkerbell sprinkled him with pixie dust in his office, levitating him off the floor--much to his annoyance.

Oz the Pretty Good (with Fish Heads & Crumbs)

I saw Oz the Great and Powerful yesterday, and enjoyed it a lot, particularly the first and final acts. I wish its structure wasn't so incredibly similar to Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which was incredibly similar to Narnia (The prophesy's come true--free us from tyranny! But I don't wanna! But you must! Oh, okay...), but for a prequel tale that sets up the Wizard of Oz, the film works very well.

James Franco does a fine job as Oscar "Oz" Diggs. It's a tough role, since Oscar's a shallow, opportunistic jerk until the last act, but Franco manages to make his eventual change of heart believable. I love all the ties and nods to the 1939 film, starting with Oscar breaking up with Dorothy's future mom! Finley the Flying Monkey and the China Girl are two of the most likable CGI film characters I've ever seen, and the brilliant opening credits are worth the price of admission.

Overall, Oz The Great and Powerful is a spectacular and tremendously entertaining film. Seems I'm not the only one at Mouse Troop who saw it this week....

Reviewing the Netflix Disney Films: Alice in Wonderland

With several great Disney classics readily available to stream on Netflix, there's no better time to take another look at these amazing films. Today Mouse Troop turns its attention to one of the most problematic and interesting films ever to come out of Walt Disney Studios. It has a castle, but no princess, no love story, no battles, no time, no way (except the Queen's way), no mustard in the watch, no oysters for the Carpenter and no tea (ever) for Alice.

Few would deny that Disney’s animated Alice in Wonderland fails on a few levels. It lacks emotion, it’s episodic, the story has no goal…

And yet…

It’s my favorite Disney film. I first saw it on Wonderful World of Color way back during my 1960's childhood (when a chance to see Disney animation was a rare treat), and it haunted my dreams. I think small children can relate to Alice’s fear of being lost, and if you experience this film at a young age, the movie retains a deep-rooted sense of peril that’s lost on those who initially view it as an adult.

Reviewing Disney's Competition: Dreamworks' Rise of the Guardians

Dreamworks has produced two films that make me wish Disney would buy the company just so their amazing fantasy worlds could take form in the parks. The first was the outstanding How to Train Your Dragon. The second, just released, is Rise of the Guardians.

Directed by Peter Ramsey and based on a series of children's novels by William Joyce, the film offers a daring and playful twist on holiday legends. It also continues a welcome trend started by Dragon: another Dreamworks film mercifully free of pop culture jokes and bathroom humor.

The plot in a nutshell: Pitch Black (the Boogeyman) is tired of being ignored while childhood's assigned guardians North (Santa), Bunnymund (Easter Bunny), Tooth (Tooth Fairy) and Sandy (the Sandman) get all the love and attention. Having discovered how to corrupt Sandman's creations into nightmare creatures, Pitch sets out to destroy the Guardians by sabotaging their hard work. If children stop believing, the Guardians lose all their magic and the ability to interact with the human world. The threat is so severe that the Man in the Moon (never seen, but a respected sage to all the legendary characters) selects -- for the first time in centuries -- a new candidate to join the ranks of the Guardians: Jack Frost. But the freewheeling, responsibility-shirking Frost doesn't want to join.

It plays out like a cross between The Avengers and every Rankin/Bass holiday special you ever watched as a child -- and that's exactly why I love this movie. I always enjoy seeing different interpretations of holiday legends, and this one's a lulu.

Disney, of course, has a legacy of creating interesting takes on holiday settings, from the Silly Symphony Santa's Workshop to the Tim Allen Santa Clause trilogy to the terrific Prep & Landing specials. This Dreamworks extravaganza presents an entirely new universe where the Easter Bunny is a six-foot tall boomerang-hurling Australian and the Tooth Fairy commands an army  of hummingbird-like fairies to do her "field work."