Movie Monday: A Goofy Movie

So I actually watched this movie a while ago and... I have a funny story to go with this. So when I was a kid A Goofy Movie was always the VHS tape I found when I was cleaning my rooms. I had all of my VHS tapes on top of my dresser and they would kind of fall on the floor behind that and it was a tall dresser so it was hard to get out. Anyway that was always what I'd find and I would watch it once I found it. Flash Forward 10-20 years later... I got the DVD and I put it out in the living room so that my mom could watch it with my niece if she wanted. My niece is 3 and sometimes makes a mess of things so she must have pushed it behind the TV when she was coming over- and of corse this was in the hardest spot to get to... so somehow I always have to clean before watching A Goofy Movie. 

So aside from that... I love this movie. I really like Goofy- but Max and his friends are fun to watch too. Plus Powerline is great... I just think this is a great movie. So if you've never seen the movie before- Max is kind of having trouble towards the end of the school year. There's this girl he likes that he tries to get to notice him by dressing up as powerline and taking over an assembly and he gets in trouble... and then Goofy is scared he'll end up in jail one day so he takes him on a road trip because he thinks thats the best thing for him. 

And Goofy on a road trip is just about the funniest thing ever. Plus he's doing things that are a little bit too young for Max- so Max just thinks everything is uncool... and he wants to try to get his dad to go to a Powerline concert because he told the kids at school that that was what he was doing cause he thought it sounded cooler than the fact that he was going on a road trip... it all ends up really good. 

I think all of the characters in this movie are a lot of fun too. They show quite a few babies and little kids and they're all super cute and idk. It's just well designed so that it does look like the world that Goofy lives in- but it's still different looking from Mickey Mouse or Duck Tales and Donald Duck. Its just really interesting I just like it a lot. 

So yeah the music is great- the jokes are all quotable... it's just great overall. I really liked seeing this movie- I loved Big Foot. It's a really fun movie. If you've never seen it it is on Disney Plus and the DVD was like $3 at Target I think. I'm sure now it's different I picked it up a long time ago but I like it a lot and I'll continue watching it when I need to clean my room. 

So yeah! I wanted to do Marvel Monday too... but I didn't do a Disney Blog last week for Movie Monday so... yeah. 

TTFN! 

-Shannon 

Movie Monday: Zootopia

Zootopia is maybe one of my favorite recent Disney Movies... I don't think I like it as much as Moana... but I think I like it more than Wreck it Ralph and it's a little funnier and more fun to watch than Frozen.

Fun fact: As of the time I'm writing this in April... this is my 2 year old niece's favorite Disney Movie. I guess its a kid friendly movie because I think kids love movies about animals... plus I think kids understand what cops are and it's just kind of cute and fun. Also I'm writing this in advance of when I'm posting it because Zootopia was just on tv and I don't own it... so I wanted to do a movie review of this as soon as I could!

I love the friendship between Judy and Nick and how it grows throughout the movie. It starts out as them just needing one another for something... and it ends with them kind of bringing the best in each other and them believing in each other. It's just genuinely sweet and cute.

The best thing about this movie is the nice message it sends about accepting everyone for who they are and learning on working together instead of against each other. In the world of Zootopia it's all different animals that have evolved to be able to live together. There are 2 different groups though "Predators" and "Prey" even though the Predators no longer eat the prey... they still have this title and a lot of sterotypes against them for being a predator or for being prey. Each of the species have prejudices against each other too. No one thinks Judy Hopps can be a police officer because she is a bunny, and no one trusts Nick Wilde because he is a "sneaky fox" that can't be trusted. It's just a nice message that is very well done.

My favorite scene is the scene where Judy and Nick go to the DMV and Judy has to deal with Flash the Sloth. It's a really funny moment... but we also get to see Judy being a very impatient rabbit that just needs to get the plates run as fast as she could and we see Flash just being a sloth... taking his time- it doesn't matter to him if she gets it quick or not. He's a sloth. It's so funny... but it does show why these animals need to work together and work with what they have.

So yeah, great movie... really funny and fun to watch... but it also has a great message. This is one of those movies I watch pretty much every time it's on and... I just really like it.

TTFN!
-Shannon

PS- I also like that this movie isn't a musical... but the song "Try Everything" by Gazelle AKA Shakira just works so well and fits into the movie.

The Cozy Princess Reviews: Disney's Aladdin (2019)

Aladdin is probably my favorite Disney animated movie and I've been really exited and nervous about this new live action version! I've gone back and forth about how I feel about Will Smith as Genie and I'm not the biggest fan of Guy Ritchie... but I think it all worked out nicely in this movie and they did a great job!

The movie starts with a really simply beautiful opening number of Arabian Nights with a shot panning over all of the characters in their own very ordinary world. You can see Aladdin with Abu on the streets and then it goes to Jasmine looking longingly over Agrabah while Rajah goes to attack Iago... It is honestly a stunning way to show all of our characters and it's probably one of my favorite movie moments.

Now let's talk about the music in this movie... the Music of Aladdin is probably my favorite in any Disney Movie... and everyone in this movie really did a great job. Will Smith is very underrated as a singer... I really liked his version of Friend Like Me... which is my favorite Disney song. I also really liked Naomi Scott as Jasmine and Mena Massoud as Aladdin. They sounded really great. I would say Aladdin really sounded as good if not better than the original. The Whole New World Scene was really great for a lot of reasons... but the singing was absolutely amazing.

The one song I really have to say I didn't like was Speechless- which is Jasmine's new song. It wasn't a bad song itself... but it felt very out of place in the movie. Particularly in the reprise... which was just a mess of a scene in general. It was basically a very poppy aside from Jasmine... but it showed the guards kind of disappearing as she walked passed them in a "Thanos Snap" almost. It looked like that and my boyfriend and I both said "SHE JUST SNAPPED THOSE GUARDS" which was pretty funny. It also seemed like it should have been a very powerful moment for Jasmine herself... but it gave the character Hakim oddly too much power. It felt very odd for the most part... and I just didn't love this part.

Another thing I want to talk about is the CGI in the movie. It was actually really good for most of the movie... but there were times I looked at Genie's face and it just looked so strange. It seemed copied and pasted onto his body and it didn't look like it fit. I still overall liked the appearance of the Genie in his Blue, Larger Than Life form- so I didn't find it that distracting... plus he was in his human form for most of the movie. The CGI on the Whole New World Scene was actually really good... and I loved Carpet.

The Chemistry between Naomi Scott and Mena Massoud was incredible too. It seemed very natural... they were just really adorable and it seemed so genuine. Aladdin and Jasmine are my favorite Disney Couple... and seeing them brought to life was just amazing.

All of the characters brought to life were so so good too... one I keep thinking about actually was Jafar. Yes- it's been mentioned that he is actually very hot in this movie... but he was also just a good choice. The more I think about the movie now... the more I'm like "Jafar was actually one of my favorite parts of the movie!" Jafar was played by Marwan Kenzari... I'm definitely going to watch more of his movies... it looks like he's been in a lot of "action-y" movies lately that... were badly reviewed... but now I'm feeling they might be worth watching. He was in 2017's The Mummy and Murder on The Orient Express and 2016's Ben Hur... I want to watch these. Aspen- if you're reading this... I'm probably going to make you watch The Mummy. Love you! Hahaha.

Also Guy Ritchie was just the perfect choice to direct this movie. The Slow Motion Scenes looked really cool... and he just does a good job at action/adventure movies and I'm glad they really went with an action/adventure feel for this movie.

This is definitely my new favorite Disney Live Action remake... but I'll put it up with one of my favorite Disney Live Action movies in general. Like on Par with The Princess Diaries for me. I just really loved it and now I'm excited for The Lion King!

Let me know what you guys thought of this movie! What were your favorite and least favorite parts?

TTFN!
-Shannon

Avengers Endgame Review- Some Plot Spoilers but no Major Spoilers

In a movie like Avengers Endgame where there is so much hype leading up to the release- it's easy to have some pre-conceived notions of what to expect and you almost have a movie in your head based on what has to happen. To me- Endgame definitely met those expectations... but still in a way that surprised me and exceeded those expectations.

I feel like everyone knew the movie would probably have time travel-I think we knew the Quantum Realm would come into play... I think we had enough to piece together the plot... but the movie still did everything in a way that would surprise us and it was still interesting. Nothing happened that was like out of left field... but it was all still surprising and they followed the format in the best way they possibly could.

My first observation was that Tony Stark kind of lucked out compared to everyone else. Rhodie was still alive, Pepper was still alive... although Tony almost died in the ship with Nebula- when he got home he reunited with Pepper and when they show what happened FIVE YEARS after the snap- btw someone in my audience screamed "Five Years?" Quizzically which was funny- we saw that Tony and Pepper had a daughter named Morgan who was the most adorable kid ever.

Tony having a daughter kind of threw me for a loop. From everything I thought I knew about time Time Travel- had they gone back in time and gotten the gauntlet before the snap- Morgan might not exist. So she immediately changed what I thought was going to happen in the movie and she also raised the stakes and made everything a little more interesting. It also made the time travel plot a little harder. They couldn't prevent the snap from happening- they just had to get the Infinity Stones to get all of those that Vanished in The Snap back. They also had to use the Pym Particles to time travel... but there were only enough Pym Particles for each of them to do one trip to the past and back... which also raised the stakes because they couldn't make any mistakes whatsoever. Plus it was extra fun because they went back in time to the actual movies to get the Infinity Stones... so that was fun too. We got to see Loki as the trickster and the villain again, we saw how other characters reacted to different situations that they weren't in before... it was just very interesting to see how the Time Travel changed the movies. Plus we got to see moments like The Hulk mad because the other Avengers made him take the stairs.

Another thing I absolutely loved about this movie was that all of the characters were really heroes in the movie. We all know Iron Man and Captain America could save the universe and we expect that from them... but even Ant Man and Hawkeye had big "hero moments" and they really helped save Thanos. Each of the characters really did their part to try to stop Thanos. They really all made a good team.

My favorite part in this movie also made me cry. I don't want to spoil anything major... but it is when the Avengers get the Soul Stone. It was just a really emotional and well done scene... and it really honored the relationship between the 2 characters involved in the best way... and those are 2 of the characters with my favorite relationship... so it's really great.

I think that this movie was kind of better than Infinity War... but this one was harder to watch. I could see myself watching Infinity War all the time... and I have watched it several times. I don't know if I would watch this all the time... I might watch it every few years or something. I also think in terms of "was it funny?" I'd say Infinity War definitely had more funny moments... where there could be whole scenes that are kind of funny and definitely lighter... there are funnier moments in Endgame... but the overall tone of the movie is more serious so it really doesn't feel that funny.

There were also 2 moments of "Fan Service" in the movie. We do get one scene where we see what an all female Avengers might look like. And there's another fan service moment that I'm not going to talk about here cause it's a little too much of a spoiler... but it is at the very end... so if you saw the movie you probably know what I'm talking about. There were no post credits scenes... which I  liked... but this was a moment that did sort of set up something else. I hope that makes sense.

So I hope you liked this review. I tried to do the best I could of describing it without spoiling the major parts.

TTFN!
-Shannon