I’ve been thinking of starting this thread for a while.
Next to Doctor Who, Disney is possibly the thing I’m most obsessed with. I love the films, the music, the characters, the theme parks, the TV series.
Disney is sometimes spoken of with a cynical side eye or a eye roll at how it has stretched its tendrils out to Star Wars, Marvel and even Doctor Who. Indeed, Doctor Who and Disney are a combination which can result in barbed comments from fans: ‘I thought the show had an enormous budget now’; ‘Oh, I bet that got changed because of Disney’; ‘I bet Disney are pulling out after Season 2, the ratings have been awful’ etc etc.
But for me Disney is joy and fun and great storytelling. I’m fully aware there are some less savoury aspects of the company and its history, but that is true of many a global phenomenon.
So I thought I’d start this thread as a general discussion place for Disney news beyond Doctor Who, Star Wars and Marvel (all of which have their own threads).
Many moons ago, I even had a Disney blog which I think only I ever looked at, where I posted reviews of Disney films, starting at Snow White and working through. I stalled a long while ago at Sleeping Beauty but do intend on returning to my little project - so yes, you can guarantee I’ll be posting links to my reviews in this thread (at least until the Disney canon is added to TARDIS Guide… ).
I’ve always had a soft spot for Disney as well, and that’s thanks to watching too many Disney movies as a kid. I suspect a lot of people share this sentiment.
I mean, The Lion King, Tarzan, The Aristocats, The Jungle Book, The Sword in the Stone, The Black Cauldron, Bambi, Dumbo, and Brother Bear are just some of my favourites - and these are just the animated ones.
There’s also their early Pixar movies. The Pirates franchise. And so many other things.
And here’s that first review of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This was written about 10/11 years ago, when my daughter was only 2 years old but the majority of my opinions still stand a decade later.
Snow White absolutely terrified me as a child though, the scene in which she flees into the forest and you see all the eyes was so unbelievably horrifying to me, I think it was a very long time until I ever saw that movie in full, even though it was one of just a few we had on DVD.
Aristocats is my personal favourite Disney movie and I’ve also seen Robin Hood at least a hundred times because it was my brother’s favourite growing up
We are soon going to Disneyland Paris and have therefore watched a lot of Disney with the kids lately. There is so much quality there. We watched Aristocats yesterday, and it is a beautiful movie.
Disney Parks is my longest-running interest (right beside the ship Titanic[1]). To be honest, I don’t have any interest in the films*, but I absolutely adore the parks, the history of them, and the business elements of the company (Eisner forever!). My “specialty” is Disney World between 1982 to 2004, when Eisner stepped down as CEO; with a further emphasis on EPCOT/EPCOT Center and Downtown Disney/Pleasure Island.
The opening day celebration of EPCOT Center was amazing. The soundtrack and accompanying dance is perpetually stuck in my head—with pleasure. It’s really a shame how much creativity has been zapped from the company since Eisner left. Yes, he made some very costly mistakes (Disney Institute, Disney California Adventure, Disneyland Paris, Club Disney, etc), but he was creative, and that’s what the head of a company like Disney needs.
*I do have some favorite films, though, like Cars and Lilo and Stitch. I watched Aristocats because the Sixth Doctor told me to, and that was fine. I also watched Cinderella because JNT suggested it, and that was better than I expected. I love the 1990s-2000s DCOMs (Disney Channel Original Movies) like High School Musical, Motocrossed, and The Thirteenth Year.
Also, I love the title of this thread because “Wishes” is my favorite Disney nighttime spectacular.
My sister and I watched that film like a thousand times back when we were kids. It made me an Elvis fan at age seven! And it taught me the only Hawaiian word I know, "“ohana,” which is what we named our WhatsApp friend group when I was a teenager.
Yes, it came out before I was born. Lilo & Stitch is one of the earliest movies I remember seeing at the cinema. But we had the Lion King VHS and DVD, so I did watch it at home, and it hit me as well.
I absolutely adore Lilo and Stitch! It was one of my favorite movies as a kid, me and my partner rewatched it recently and it’s still amazing. Kind of dreading the live action remake this year.
A favourite game in our house is Villainous - we have every single expansion as well as the main game (and it spans Disney cartoons, a bit of Pixar and there are Marvel and Star Wars spin offs, all of which we own).
Here’s a little blog post I wrote about the Evil Queen’s set where you get to try and poison Snow White to win the game.
That’s awesome. And it’s refreshing to see someone who isn’t jumping on the bandwagon of loathing TWDC. It seems like liking Disney these days is something you’re not supposed to do.
This thread reminds me of the two fics I wrote about Six and Peri at Disney.[1] One was an alternate universe fic where they were students from different countries participating in the Disney College Program. Six was a cast member working in merchandise and Peri worked Photopass, and because they worked in proximity of each other in MK (and lived in the same apartment complex) they got acquainted and
I also wrote another where they were a couple with two children and they attended Cinderella’s Royal Table. But the dinner is delayed because Cinderella’s missing, oh no! This wasn’t my first time trying my hand at a sci-fi fic, but it was the first time I actually enjoyed writing in that lane. Six and his daughter have to fight the big bad Lady Tremaine. I watched the film just to write this story, and I got so carried away that I exceeded my original word count.
I’ve written more, but I’m going to focus on these two. ↩︎
I like the Disney movies. The Lion King, Encanto, Lilo and Stitch, and Frozen are some of my favorites. The park is great but the company could be better.
I definitely have a fondness for Disney, especially the animated films and the theme parks. My favorites are probably Lady and the Tramp, The Princess and the Frog, Mulan, Fantasia and The Aristocats. Always good for a comfort movie. I haven’t been into a lot of their newer stuff, especially the needless sequels and live action remakes of perfectly good films. A lot of it feels uninspired and I hope they get back to making creative original stories eventually.
Definitely have liked some Disney films and series and such. The Owl House and the Ducktales reboot, for example. They did a lot of classic movies, too. And giving SquareEnix the rights to do Kingdom Hearts.
OTOH, these days they own everything, have a constant stream of CEOs who are all white guys named Bob, and do bad live action remakes of older good animated movies.
Also, Walt Disney decided he didn’t want Snow White’s unique voice being used anywhere else and ruined Adriana Caselotti’s acting career…
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