If I Ruled The World: Animal Kingdom

I sit upon my throne at the top of Cinderella Castle, and I look at a map of my land, and I can’t help but turn my attention to my zoo, Animal Kingdom. Now that I have more efficient Transportation and am working on Downtown Disney I send my unlimited funds towards the newest addition to my world: Animal Kingdom.

If I Ruled The World: New Animal Kingdom Map

New CMM close up.

Camp Minnie-Mickey:

• The Lion King show has grown on me, but I don’t think it belongs there in CMM. It doesn’t fit with the theme. Move it to Africa somewhere behind the Tusker House. I can’t be the only one who thinks that a show that takes place in Africa should be in the African section of this park.
• Also, in CMM, I think the theme should be extended even more. Add several more Kids Discovery Club locations here. Maybe with a conservation/merit badge theme. Some kind of cross between Kidcot at the World Showcase at Epcot and the interactions of Innovenetions.
• I’d also open up a path from CMM to the new Lion King show, to complete the outer circle walkway.

Africa/Rafiki’s Planet Watch:

• I enjoy Africa as it is. And I like the train ride to Rafiki.

Asia:

• Fix the Yeti! It’s sad that the largest Audio Animatronic is broken.

Dinoland USA:

Torosaurus - Joan Marcus
copyright CPC 2008

• I would take out Finding Nemo: The Musical. It’s a great show, but it doesn’t fit with the theme. I have other plans for this show. I think this show building could be used for a dinosaur themed production. Something like the traveling show Walking With The Dinosaurs. This show would invoke the same feel of Nemo but be truer to the dinosaur theme.
• I don’t like Chester and Hester’s Carnival. Why are there carnival rides in a Disney park? Isn’t that why Walt created Disneyland, so parents and children could ride rides safely, and together? Also, any theme that has you on a parking lot is a bad theme. Is the Dino-Institute allowing them to be there? I don’t have an idea of what to replace these attractions with, but given my unlimited resources, I think Imagineering can come up with something.

New DinoLand U. S. A. close up.

Discovery Island:

New Discovery Island close up.

• It seems as though I don’t really like any of the shows in the park. It’s Tough To Be A Bug is an okay show, but I don’t see it as the center attraction. It just doesn’t belong in the park’s weenie. Something Chip and Dale might work, it makes sense for them to be inside a tree, they are B list characters, they are funny. They can be guiding guests through some kind of animal misadventure.
• Boats! So much of this park is water, but why aren’t there boats in Discovery River. If I ruled the world, there would be.
• AK needs some sort of closing, nightly show. I know that I can’t have fire works. So perhaps something like California Adventure’s World of Color. I would put it in the Discovery River between Asia and DinoLand USA.

And after my hard day ruling over the Animal Kingdom, I bid adieu for now.

PIXAR Animation Studios: Part 12: Cars 2

Series Intro: In my purposeful retrospective of WDAS I couldn’t ignore it’s younger sister: PIXAR. This is Part 12 in the retrospective of PIXAR

Official Title: Cars 2
Release: June 24, 2011br /> Running Time: 106minutes
Estimated Cost: $200 million
Estimated Revenue: $559.85 million (only have as much as Toy Story 3
Overall Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Plot Summary: (Abridged)
While racing abroad with most of the Radiator Springs crew, McQueen and Mater have a fight. And Mater leaves for home, but is stopped when British Intelligence believes he’s an American Spy.
As Mater is off having misadventures, more and more cars are dying in McQueen’s race. The media is blaming a new fuel. The audience is aware that if the fuel gets heated by electricity, it will explode.
Mater and McQueen make up and despite his low intelligence Mater saves the day and is accepted for who is his.
Back in Radiator Springs McQueen and his rival – Francesco – along with other race cars, race in the first every Radiator Springs Grand Prix. The British spies return to ask Mater to join them, but he declines, because he wants to spend time with his friends.

Plot Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Eh, just like the first movie, I really couldn’t get into it. Why does McQueen revert to his bitchiness for this movie?

Animation Rating: 3 out of 5
PIXAR dropped the ball on this one; it just didn’t love up to its predecessor’s standards for animation. I thought the eyes and eyelids looked hand drawn. Not what I want from a PIXAR movie.

Final Thoughts: The film felt like it was rushed. It was so after Cars that I didn’t really care to find out more of what happened to these characters. I know that this is a strong franchise for PIXAR and Disney is milking it for all it’s worth (nee: Carsland and Disney California Adventure), but it’s just not for me.

Next Up:
Brave

Walt Disney Animation Studios: Part 51: Winnie The Pooh

Series Intro: This is Part 51 of a multi-part retrospective of Walt Disney Animation Studios' endeavors.

Official Title: Winnie The Pooh
Release: July 15, 2011
Running Time: 63 minutes (wow, one minute shorter than Dumbo)
Estimated Cost: $30 million ($130 million less than Tangled)
Estimated Revenue: $33.15 million (barely broke even. Last movie to flop was Home on the Range loosing about $7 million)
Overall Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Plot Summary: Abridged
Pooh just wants a pot of honey but gets distracted by helping Eeyore look for his tail and avoids the Backson, who they all think has kidnapped Christopher Robin. An unseen narrator helps tell the story as all the characters interact with the text of their storybook. Pooh finds Eeyore’s tail at Owl’s and Christopher Robin rewards him with a giant pot of honey.

Songs:
1. Winnie the Pooh
2. The Tummy Song
3. A Very Important Thing To Do
4. The Backson Song
5. It’s Gonna Be Great
6. Everything Is Honey
7. Pooh’s Finale
8. So Long

I was frankly surprised that the song “Winnie the Pooh” wasn’t just a remastered version of the original from Many Adventures. I didn’t like the new version. However, the rest of the songs were true to the oringinal.

Plot Rating: 3 stars out of 5
It just didn’t seem like enough was happening/happened the entire movie. I felt a little jipped at the length and then not given powerhouse stories. Although I did enjoy that Pooh’s quest for honey was carried throughout the entire movie.

Animation Rating: 3 out of 5
It’s been a while since I’ve called a WDAS movie “cartoony” but this one was. It didn’t look like WDAS spent money on it. And they didn’t. In fact, they used the animation software that DisneyToon (the animation studio responsible for Disney cartoon series and direct-to-video sequels).

Final Thoughts:
Not worth the wait. And where does WDAS get off giving us only 63 minutes. We aren’t in between world wars here.

Next Up:
Wreck It Ralph

Walt Disney Animation Studios: Part 50: Tangled

Series Intro: This is Part 50 of a multi-part retrospective of Walt Disney Animation Studios' endeavors.

Official Title: Tangled
Release: November 24, 2010
Running Time: 100 minutes
Estimated Cost: $260 million (nearly twice the cost of Frog)
Estimated Revenue: $590.72 million
Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Plot Summary:
Rapunzel holds a drop of sun in her body, thanks to her mother using it to survive childbirth. However, the flower that had grown from the drop of sun was being used by Mother Gothel to stay young. After hundreds of years of staying young, Mother Gothel steals the baby and discovers her hair now holds the magic of the sun and locks her in a tower.

Eighteen years later, Rapunzel wants to leave the tower to find out about the festival of lights that occurs on her birthday. Of course Mother Gothel refuses, but Rapunzel tricks Mother Gothel to leave the tower for a few days.

Flynn Ryder, local thief, has stumbled upon Rapunzel’s tower, while running away from the lead horse of the guard (Max), for stealing the princess’ crown. Rapunzel makes Flynn take her to the festival to see the lights in person.

Rapunzel and Flynn have many misadventures (ala the frogs in Princess and the Frog and many other buddy films from WDAS). But Mother Gothel has grown wise to their scheme and sends Flynn’s betrayed partners after them.

After the wonderful day at the festival, Rapunzel and Flynn find themselves in harms way as Flynn is captured by the guard and Rapunzel returns home after an attack by Flynn’s partners. Rapunzel believes Flynn sold her out, and is betrayed as she just thought they were falling in love.

While home Rapunzel realizes she is the lost princess for whom the festival of the lights is for. At the same time, Flynn escapes a hanging thanks to his fellow riff-raff (whom were charmed by Rapunzel). Mother Gothel, refusing to let Rapuzel return to her true home, begins to take her away from the tower, when Flynn (thanks to his new partner, Max) enters to be stabbed by Gothel. Rapunzel trades her freedom for saving Flynn. Gothel agrees, but Flynn has another plan, he cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and it looses all its magic. Gothel falls out the window (with a little help from Pascal (Rapunzel’s chameleon side-kick). Rapunzel cries over her lost love, but her tears contain the drop of sun and save his life.

Flynn and Rapunzel return to the castle to be welcomed into the royal family. And they lived happily ever after.

Songs:
1. When Will My Life Begin?
2. Mother Knows Best
3. When Will My Life Begin? (Reprise)
4. I’ve Got A Dream
6. Mother Knows Best (Reprise)
7. I See the Light
8. Healing Incantation

Welcome back Mr. Menken! It has been too long. The music for this movie was interesting. While there were some standout songs, like “I’ve Got A Dream” (that evoked old feelings of belonging not seen in quiet a few movies). I didn’t quite like the pop feel of the “I want” song – “When Will My Life Begin?”

Plot Rating: 5 stars out of 5
The music, did help move this plot along, and the whole movie hand a much closer structure to WDAS’ renaissance. I fell in love with both leads almost from the moment they were on the screen.

Animation Rating: 4 out of 5
WOW! Just WOW! Finally, WDAS has learnt from PIXAR. The CG animation was clean and the hair was amazing (not just Rapunzel’s 70 feet) but all of it. The soft matted backgrounds from Bolt return to make the characters live in a hand painted world. The characters moved and lived very well in the world. Of course though, there were some moments when the CG was overwhelming, but they were few and infrequent, although when they happened (say when a character was moving too fast) it did take me out of the story and reminded me that I was watching CG.

I did have some trouble believing that Rapunzel was 18. She was so much smaller and less developed than Mother Gothel and the Queen. I kept thinking she was 14 or 15.

The Test of Time:
Rapunzel became the 10th Disney Princess even before the movie hit the theaters. I think Disney was jumping the gun, and we do need to wait.

I also feel that this section will close now too, and be called “Final Thoughts,” as “The Test of Time” can’t exist from now on, as not enough time has passed.

Final Thoughts:
WDAS was extremely proud of this movie, as it marked the 50th animated movie released into theaters.

Next Up:
Winnie the Pooh

PIXAR Animation Studios: Part 11: Toy Story 3

Series Intro: In my purposeful retrospective of WDAS I couldn’t ignore it’s younger sister: PIXAR. This is Part 11 in the retrospective of PIXAR

Official Title: Toy Story 3
Release: June 18, 2010
Running Time: 103 minutes
Estimated Cost: $200 million
Estimated Revenue: $1.063 billion (yes, Billion with a “B” – $1,063,171,911)
Overall Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Plot Summary:
Andy has grown up, as boys tend to do, but his toys remain ever faithful that one day he will play with them. But due to a mix-up the toys (other than Woody, who has been saved to go to college) believe they have been thrown away. They decide that being donated to a day-care is a better fate. Woody follows them to right their error.

All seems to be going well at the day-care, Buzz, Woody and the gang (Mr. and Mrs. Patato Head, Slink, Jessie, Bullseye, Rex, Ham, three aliens and Barbie) meet a charming bear, Lots-O-Huggin’ (Lots-O), a Ken doll, and a Big Baby. Woody escapes to return to Andy, but is taken by a young child, Bonnie. Things turn worse for the gang left behind as all new toys are placed with the two year olds. Buzz seeks Lots-O to remedy this, and he is reset to factory settings, and now polices his former friends. Lots-O rules the day care with an iron paw.

After a fun day with Bonnie, Woody tries to head back to Andy, but finds out that Lots-O is a dictator, due to the fact that he lost his child and was replaced. Woody sneaks back into the day care and begins the plot to save his friends.

After an elaborate plan, Woody and the gang make their way to the dumpster, only to be stopped once again by Lots-O. Big Baby, tired of being bossed by Lots-O, pushes the bear into the dumpster, but he pulls Woody in with him, just as the garbage truck takes the trash. Buzz, Jessie, Bullseye, Ham, Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head, Rex and the three aliens jump on to the truck to rescue Woody (Barbie stays with the new reformed Ken).

At the dump, the toys meet with certain fate several times, only to be clever enough to save themselves. However, once they trusted Lots-O to turn off the conveyor belt, things looked bleak as Lots-O double cross puts the toys in a collision with an incinerator. Thanks to the dues-ex-machina of the aliens controlling the “Claw” the toys are safe.

Lots-O is fated to spend the rest of his life on the front grill of a garbage truck, as the toys head back to Andy’s. Woody, changes the label of the box from attic to that of Bonnie’s house. Andy brings the toys to Bonnie, including Woody, and spends his last day before college playing with his old friends.

Plot Rating: 5 stars out of 5
This movie continues the wonderful plot of the previous two. This picture can explain the entire plot rating:

Who hasn't had to get rid of beloved toys?
Tear.

Animation Rating: 4 out of 5
I know that it’s been 10 years since the last Toy Story, but it doesn’t look like that. The only thing that looks different (more advanced) is the hair.

Final Thoughts: I don’t know if I want a fourth movie. The toys clearly have more adventures to tell, but this movie wrapped up such a large chapter of their life.

Next Up:
Cars 2