Disney Theatrical, working with director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw, has brought Disney’s animated hit Aladdin to the great white way of New York, New York – Broadway. Tony Award winner Alan Menken composed the music and Howard Ashman and Tim Rice’s original lyrics are augmented… Read More »Disney’s Aladdin Musical Finds Magic on Broadway
California Grill, which underwent a nine-month refurbishment last year, opened back up in the fall. You’ll now find shades of yellow, blue, orange and red, along with dark wood and nods to famed Imagineer Mary Blair. The effect is both chic and comfortable at the same time. And of course, you’ll still enjoy that spectacular view.
With an entirely new look, it’s not surprising that the menu has changed a bit as well. While the menu has some incredible new additions (hello, banana fritters with salted caramel sauce, I’ll see you in two weeks), I’m going to focus here on two standbys that guests have grown to love over the past few decades: The filet and the pork loin.
Read More »California Grill’s Old Favorites Get Updated
I have a confession to make. I like to spread rumors and urban legends about Disney theme parks. The closer to the edge of implausible the better. Did you hear that the Mickey and Friends parking garage at Disneyland is sinking? That one was mine.… Read More »The Disneyland “fact” book to end all fact-books from Disney Lies
Disney’s classic animated feature “The Jungle Book” was one of the last to have some input from Walt Disney himself. He died in the middle of its production.
Even without Disney’s death the film had a troubled production. The original director Bill Peet quit over the direction Walt wanted to take the film. The end result produced a movie that was almost nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award (years before Beauty & The Beast took that honor) and holds a special place in the hearts of Disney fans everywhere.
The studio painstakingly polished up the film for this blu-ray release. It remastered it into ABC 1.75:1 with a 1080p encode. The artist’s scratchy line drawings really come through in the new transfer. The painted backgrounds shine throughout and are really art works of their own. Even the sound got an upgrade to include some surround sound. All-in-all it’s the best this movie has looked in over 45 years.
The new release keeps many of the original DVD extras. There’s a 5-part Making of series, four featurettes, a discussion of a deleted storyline that would have included a new character (Rocky the Rhino), delete songs, and some sing-along lyrics with a music video.Read More »The Jungle Book – Remastered for Blu-Ray in Royal Fashion
Update: just added new Preview below.
In the latest Marvel superhero mega-movie, the stakes are as big as can be and so is the movie. We saw Thor: The Dark World in 3D which made the film appear even bigger as much of the action jumps off the screen at you. As a sequel to Thor (and really, The Avengers), The Dark World progressed the story along nicely, and had all the elements a superhero movie requires.
Natalie Portman returns to play astrophysicist Jane Foster, and Thor’s love interest from the first movie. We find the hammer wielding god, played for the third time by Chris Hemsworth, in the role of peacekeeper in the 9 realms that Asgardians rule over. In his heart Thor pines for Foster. That this love is forbidden gets a little play at the start of the film and then is abandoned once the bad guy sets his evil plan in motion.
The bad guy is Malekith (played wonderfully by Christopher Eccleston), leader of the Dark Elves (who hail from a time before the universe was created and they’re a little cranky about that who light and goodness thing). Eccleston was pretty unrecognizable under all that makeup, but it gave him a sort of Dark Vader eeriness, and Eccleston’s acting helped elevate him into a suitable opponent for Thor. Malekith’s cohorts wore masks most of the time, reminding me alternatively of Storm Troopers (but with better aim) or, here’s your Disney reference, Spectromagic Dolls (a real horror for those in the know).
The conflict, when it comes, is what I call comicbook violence. People die, but there’s no blood. When gods are fighting each other the stakes still manage to feel real and when humanity is involved, we are essentially ants to those with superhero abilities. That’s how it should be. The film earns its PG-13 rating, but it you have a mature kid who’s a little younger, they’ll probably be fine. Read More »Thor: The Dark World, A Fantastic Return To Marvel’s Universe
Mike and Julie Neal, co-authors of The Complete Guide to Walt Disney World, can be counted on for providing the absolute best most useful information in a format that’s easy to digest. Now the Neals have a new format for their books that enables them… Read More »Free Guide to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
Iron Man 3, despite having a plot twist that kills the fan boy inside of me every time I see it, is currently my favorite movie this year. It is very different in tone than the first two movies, but I think that’s good. The… Read More »Iron Man 3 Blu-Ray Review
Editor: Please welcome new blogger Chris Fox. He’s got the Marvel beat! He promised me no spandex.
Tuesday marked the premiere of the most highly anticipated show in television history – at least by me. I have been a huge fan of The Avengers franchise since the beginning and I’ve had a man crush on Agent Coulson from the moment he threatened to taze Tony Stark and watch Super Nanny.
So let’s talk about episode one shall we?
The show opens with long shots of L.A. and Skye’s voice over giving us the background info we need. Basically, after we were attacked by aliens the world went crazy – makes sense.
We also meet Michael (played by veteran to Joss Whedon T.V. shows, J. August Richardson) and his son, Ace. They have a touching moment right before the building beside them explodes.Michael reveals that he has super strength as he scales the building and saves a woman from a fiery doom.
Skye sees the whole event and records it on her phone.
Next, we fly to Paris to meet Agent Grant Ward as he is searching for a Chitari neural link. He gets into a bit of a tiff with some goons from the group known as The Rising Tide who also want said neural link. He returns to S.H.I.E.L.D. and gets debriefed by Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders reprises her role very well).
Then comes the moment we’ve all been waiting for – the return of Agent Phil Coulson.Read More »Marvel’s Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D. Episode 1 – Pilot