Netflix Delivers a Holiday Mouse-Fest

I wasn't planning on another Netflix post so soon, but the service has just added a quartet of Mouse Flix, all direct-to-video productions, to their instant streaming service.

The highlight of the bunch is the wonderful, hilarious and very under-appreciated  Three Musketeers, which places the Disney Fab Five in a fast-paced, fan-pleasing feature-length send-up of the classic tale. In-jokes, great animation and unique character moments abound, plus Pete gets his peg leg back! If you haven't caught this beauty, you're in for a treat. This could have (and should have) been a theatrical release.

Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas is a trio of well-done tales. In the first, Huey, Dewey and Louie wish every day was Christmas and soon realize not all wishes should be granted. The second finds Goofy trying to give young Max a perfect Christmas in spite of a belief crisis. In the finale, Mickey and Minnie play out their own version of Gift of the Magi. Watch for Mortimer Mouse and an animated version of Firehouse Five Plus Two!

I'd love to see the entire run of the wonderful House of Mouse series show up on Netflix someday. In the meantime, the two compilation specials, Snowed In at the House of Mouse and Mickey's House of Villains will do. Both combine new animation with classic clips to create entertaining hour-long Disney mash-ups.

Gather the family, cook up some Mickey pasta and settle back for a good time. What a great way to start the Holiday video season!

More Tricks Than Treats as Netflix Adds Four Video Sequels

As October rolls in, let's all remember Netflix currently hosts a terrific collection of Disney films. It's also helpful to recall they recently added the excellent Lilo and Stitch and The Emperor's New Groove to the lineup...because they've just ushered in a big pile of mediocre video sequels. These pale follow-ups serve as a reminder of the bad old days when Disney was shoving Stitch in the public's face over and over again and running a once-fresh concept like New Groove into the ground.

No, you weren't dreaming, Disney really did release a sequel called Leroy and Stitch.

It's a crummy pill to swallow, especially considering Netflix recently dropped The Muppet Movie from its streaming lineup. Despite that loss and this influx of ickiness, the majority of the Netflix Disney library remains very impressive.

If you're in the mood for a good laugh, I highly recommend streaming the original Lilo and Stitch and The Emperor's New Groove. Let the low-budget video sequels gather virtual dust.

Disney Infinity: A Park Fan's Review

Disney Infinity will delight you, inspire you, challenge you and cheerfully empty your wallet. Its methods for coaxing you to buy more and more of its world could be considered ruthless, except for one important factor: Like a Disney park, it gives you more than your money's worth.

In that respect, you could easily think of Infinity, the company's toys-come-to-life-in-a-video-game juggernaut, as Disney Parks: The Home Edition. If you laid it out in theme park terms, the experience would look something like this:

The game is stuffed with elements geared specifically toward park fans, from actual park music and vintage sound effects to an impressive Matterhorn complete with a working bobsled rail slide. Epcot fans will love the inclusion of Spaceship Earth, plus the game's introductory sequence that casts you in the role of One Little Spark of inspiration.

Mrs. Incredible parks her Tron Recognizer in Tulgey Wood.

The clever design sends you into a vast, anything-goes "toybox" world where you can combine themes and characters in any way you wish, selecting from hundreds and hundreds of parts to build your own games with your own rules--anything from racetracks and shootouts to pinball machines, obstacle courses and soccer fields. You don't have many parts available at the start, however. To get them, you have to venture from the toybox "hub" into the Playset worlds, which are large, scripted film-specific adventures (Infinity's version of E-Ticket attractions).

Resisting Infinity Collector Madness

I love the design of these figures. I've just got to keep telling myself this is enough. This can be my entire Infinity collection. I don't need 'em all.

I don't need 'em all.

I…don’t…nnnnn……

Characters Invade Real World in Disney's Free Infinity App

He turns the photo around to reveal a surprise mini-snapshot of the player's face.

In advance of the much-hyped Disney Infinity video game, the company has released Infinity Action, a free promotional app for iPhone (the Android version is coming soon). An impressive little bag of magic tricks, it's definitely worth checking out.

A Sparrow Defends a Cat

The App features two main modes. In the first, you tap and swipe the screen to interact with an impressively animated trio of Disney characters: Sulley, Jack Sparrow and Mr. Incredible. Of the three, Jack Sparrow is, by far, the funniest. Be sure to try the toy props, which include a voice recorder and--even better--a cartoon camera which uses the actual phone lens to allow the character to take a shot of your face. The "goal" of this section is to earn coins for purchasing animated clips for the "Action" section.

He got a cookie for being a good sport (the dog, not Sparrow)

In this second mode, you bring the characters into your home through augmented reality as you stage brief videos combining animation with live footage. It's easy to do, and the results are amazingly smooth. Easily saved to the phone or posted to YouTube or Facebook, each clip is boldly tagged at the end as a Disney Infinity promotion...which, of course, is Disney's reason for creating this free App in the first place.

One warning: Extra coins can be purchased with real money, so make sure that feature's disabled on your phone before handing it over to children. Even without paying a cent, however, there's enough free fun here to make Action a clever little diversion for all Disney fans.

Netflix Adds Brother Bear 2

Disney's direct-to-video sequel, Brother Bear 2 has arrived on Netflix.

After the recent flood of great classic Disney animation onto the digital streaming service, today's addition certainly seems anticlimactic all by its lonesome, but it's better than nothing. At least I hope it is...I haven't seen it yet. But--hey--It's gotta be better than Cinderella 2.

Game Review: Meet Disney's Mittens

Yesterday, Disney released Mittens for iPhone and Android, and I think they've got a monster hit on their hands. This game is fantastic. It's also hilarious, beautifully animated...and just a little bit twisted.

Mittens the Cat (no connection to Mittens from the Disney film Bolt) will go to any lengths to obtain gifts for his girlfriend, and that includes getting shot from cannons, smashed by hammers, crushed by boulders, electrocuted, fried or attacked by ghosts. You don't control Mittens directly; the object is to get him safely to his goal by cutting cords, pushing buttons, inflating monkeys (yes, really) and otherwise manipulating pieces of the environment at the right moment.

Do it right, and Mittens celebrates another victory. Do it wrong, and Mittens gets subjected to cartoon violence worthy of Wile E. Coyote. And, believe me, you will see the latter happen hundreds of times before you reach the end of the story; This game thrives on making trial and error as funny as possible.

Review: Toy Story: Smash It! for iPhone and Android

In another bid to prove they're serious about gaming, Disney has released Toy Story: Smash It!, a polished, enjoyable mobile game that's easy to play but challenging to complete.

Holly Shiftwell in Tron-derland: Radiator Springs is Coming to Disney Infinity

Decked out in monster-truck tires, Holly Shiftwell from Cars 2 carries Violet from The Incredibles through a Tron loop in Wonderland as the Caterpillar's alphabet smoke rings drift upward.

I can't wait for the June release of Disney Infinity (the company's highly-anticipated answer to Activision's mega-hit Skylanders franchise) and its recently-announced first expansion set, Cars. Here's another shot:

Missile-equipped Mater somersaults in front of Cinderella Castle while Sully pilots a Recognizer. These images from the latest game trailer highlight a few of the potentially "infinite" user-created mash-up scenarios in the game's Toy Box Mode, which will also give players the ability to design their own race courses for use by all Infinity characters.

What if....Disney Infinity Extended Into the Parks?

Yesterday, Disney announced its big plunge into the collectible-toys-come-to-life-in-a-video-game genre (which the smash hit Skylanders had all to itself up until now). Starting this June, Disney Infinity hits store shelves, offering an expandable video game world which players enter via collectible Disney character figures.

That's real.

This next bit is pure speculation: What if the Infinity Experience extended out into the parks as part of the upcoming Next Gen additions?

Skylanders Meets Vinylmation in Disney Infinity. Oh, My Aching Wallet.

Disney just announced an upcoming product likely to drain Disney fan bank accounts around the globe. Get ready for Disney Infinity, a cross-platform game world that combines the figurines-beaming-down-into-a-video-game concept of the mega-hit Skylanders with the collectible Disney hook of Vinylmation.