Why do people think that first Home Alone movie couldn’t have existed today.

I only have seen the first Home Alone movie once. And what drives me absolutely crazy is people think that in a world of cell phones the events of the movie couldn’t have happened because I’m assuming that they assume that a cell phone is an immortal-every charging cell phone or something. You remember how there was an outrage in the movie and how all the digital clocks stopped weren’t working? Well since cell phones aren’t immortal Every charging cell phone, I’m have a way that the movie could still happen even w/ cell phones. Granted I don’t know exactly how a charger works, but I know its runs off electricity

That if the family had been all playing calling or texting, or whatever on their phones the night before-that there might have been about 5-10% left on their phone when they went to charge it the night before they’re suppose to leave and depending on when the power-outrage happened during the night (early vs later)-that if the power-outrage happened early it would mean that the cell phones wouldn’t get charged and that meant the cell phone would have been dead when the Mom realized (in the air) that they had left Kevin behind. 

related to this- maybe the ticket might not have been soaked and thrown away if it had been an e-ticket, but his phone could have been destroyed by milk (regular or almond).

Technically the children could have still have been drinking Pepsi before bed, like a treat for them because its the holidays or something? 

Why do people think that Everyone has security systems? Even if that was true.. maybe Kevin’s family is too cheap to install them or depending on how they work (I’m assuming electricity) that if there was a power outrage that it probably wasn’t working and if you connect that with my above-mentioned cell phones being dead- movie can still go ahead and happen.

Argument about the toys that Kevin used to defend the house-technically they could still be accessible especially if they’re hand-me-down-toys from family members or they got collected when browsing garage or yard sales 

Thinking that the use of apps on a cell phone could have saved Mrs. Macalister’s item- again 1)dead cell phone (unless she charged it on the plane) and if the latter even if she did charged it on the plane she still would have had the same problem she had in the movie- I never travelled during Christmas time but anyone with any remote sense would get the picture that with it being so close to Christmas time that ALL seats are books on EVERY POSSIBLE AIRLINE.  And even after getting pack with ALL the air port limos/vans,etc being booked for the SAME REASON AS THE AIRLINE being booked solid- she still would have had the same problem as the movie

And why are people 100% sure that in today’s world that a cop would actually give me a hoot about you know, a child being left home alone? Some people really think that a police officer would have gone to check on a child which is home alone during the time in the movie where the Mom asks the police officer to go check the house but can’t answer the questions the officer has.  A lot of police officers I have heard about are lazy folks who probably wouldn’t give a hoot and cared more about getting as much parking tickets they can get.

The only thing I can’t argue about is that Macalister’s wouldn’t have made the plane in time to board it with today’s security checks, unless due to the outrage if it also affected the airport (probably not) they might have just let the McAlister’s through fast or something, especially if Kevin’s mom flies a lot for her business.

In the end it’s a movie, stop nit picking at supposed “plot holes” of the movie or whether it could or couldn’t happen in today’s world. It would be like saying that The Shinning couldn’t happen in today’s world because Dan and his Mom wouldn’t have been cut off from the outside world had they had cell phones. 

Reviews of Swiss Family Robins and Toby Tyler Movies

Toby Tyler (1960)

Toby Tyler is one of those movies which are “Loosely based” on the real story they’re adapted from Its about this boy named Toby Tyler whose uncle and aunt are too poor to take care of him but they make him help out around the house. He’s gets sick of it that he literally runs off to join the circus he starts off with being a “snack boy” but he ends up befriending a monkey “Mr. Stubbs” that accidently gets shot at when Toby tries to return home after he discovers that his “boss” (the “snack master”) had been keeping the letters and also the fact he now is a bare-backed horse rider as well. I consider the movie to be a very interesting, the scene where “Mr. Stubbs” is “playing” with guns is very funny in my opinion. And of course Kevin “Moochie” Coracan is the guy who played Toby Tyler the main character. I know I never seen Toby Tyler before, but I recognized the scene of when Toby is meeting Madame Jenette and Monsieur Ajax early on but it must have been archival footage for some reason.

Swiss Family Robinson (1960)

Swiss Family Robinson is as the name suggests, a Swiss family who get stranded on an island due to the crew of the ship they’re sailing on abandoning the ship when the ship went into a storm because they’re being chased by pirates. Except for the Dad, played by Sir John Mills, (yes, THAT John Mills, the one who is Hayley Mill’s father), the others are kind of a “Whose who” of the 1950s Disney movies, the mother was played by Dorothy McGuire who played the Mom in Old Yeller (1957). The eldest of the three sons was played my James McArthur who was last scene in “Third Man on the Mountain” for me at least for people in the actually chronically order he’s was technically last seen in “Kidnapped” (1960) but that’s my next movie on my list to watch from the 1960s- Note: it would be nice if at least one of these lists could actually be accurate because its kind of annoying when they’re all over the place. The second and third songs are play respectively by Tommy Kirk and Kevin “Moochie” Coracan. This was their 3rd-to-last film together because there’s the supposedly “bad” sequel to Old Yeller called Savage Sam (1963)and “Bon Voyage” (1962)which is their last movie together. They were last seen together previous to this in “Shaggy Dog” (1959). In this like in The Shaggy Dog, or in Old Yeller, that his character in Swiss Family Robinson,- goes crazy about the wild animals on the island- elephants, ostrich and I think a Tiger.  And the eldest two sons’ mutual love interest is played by Janet Munro who was last seen in “Darcy and the Little People” (1959). That the family had to at first make a home on the island but eventually after the inclusion of Janet’s character, defend the island from pirates (who aren’t in the actually book). 

It was a lovely movie, and the scene with the 3 sons and the love interest racing just to have some fun was a very interesting but short scene because 10mins in they’re defending the pirates near the end of the movie.

Letter to the North American Deaf community about non-deaf person teaching ASL?

Dear North American Deaf Community;

I have seen some Facebook reels from some Deaf folks on Facebook and a lot of them said that hearing people shouldn’t be learning ASL from another hearing person. I’m highly doubt that any deaf people will see this in North America. But I would love a response for a couple of questions I have like can there be exceptions to that rule due to the questions I have below? I’m going to not get into too much detail but for the purpose of this letter I will say I have a “friend”.

My friend is Semi-deaf in one ear because she can sometimes can hear things if she wearing a hearing aid, but without it on she can’t hear very well Well one of my questions is what if my friend, learned ASL as a young elementary school child as a tool or accommodation for her to communicate with teachers and parents, because she couldn’t speak normally to to “other issues”, that weren’t hearing related? And what about because of the friend’s lack of ability as a young elementary school child to communicated with others in normal way talking that they inspired a different friend to learn ASL themselves?

What if the friend used to be on a non-professional and non-competitive sports league like let’s say bowling. Some of the people on the bowling league were Deaf people and before bowling league stopped ( league now cancelled) and she would be able to sign ASL well enough to have a semi-conversation with one of the deaf women on the league? Well enough for the Deaf woman, to be able to say my friend was “good” in ASL? 

What if the friend actually had been taking the time since her teenager years (friend now in her 30s) to actually restudy ASL? That the friend: knows the signs for dog, cat, teaching, dreaming, Christmas, learning, salad, pop, potato, gaming, Sweetheart, and the hand sign for I love you? As well as she can do the entire “White Christmas” song in ASL because she known that since she was 15. And she doesn’t limit herself to just one ASL book but several ASL books. 

I really hope these questions make deaf community think about other reasons there might be for a non-deaf person to teach ASL to other non-deaf people.

Sincerely,

Celoptra.

Pollyanna (1960) review

I just finished watching the 1960’s Pollyanna that introduced Hailey Mills to American Audiences. This was one of the two Disney live action movies that my family had as a kid so I have watched it like a million times. I still seem to like it all these years later.

For those of you who don’t know the story its about a girl, Pollyanna, who comes to live with her Aunt Polly Harrington in Harrington Town. Everyone in town seems to be afraid of Aunt Polly because she’s basically is the boss of the town. Not only is everyone afraid but a lot of people are miseraible either because they’re cankerous old women (a maid of Aunt Polly’s, Mrs. Snow who thinks she’s dying), they don’t like charity -Mr. Neely, and everyone hates Sundays’ “FIRE AND BRIMSTONE” speeches that the Reverend Ford gives every week because it gives them “Sour stomach”. When Pollyanna enters their lives that she gives the town joy and happiness. After the orphanage gets flooded the town stands together against Aunt Polly and they put on a bazaar for the town and everyone’s helping. Pollyanna goes to the bazaar despite her aunt’s wishes because she’s “part of the flag” and she gets the doll she always wanted but returning home results in tragedy because she falls from the roof and paralyzes her legs. She’s in a depression for a little awhile but Dr. Chillion, Aunt Polly’s old flame apparently gets the whole town together to “put some joy and happiness into Pollyanna’s life that she has put into theirs”. This scene kind of reminds me of an identical scene near the end of Song of the South movie when Jimmy is in bed himself and is depressed. The movie ends with Pollyanna and Aunt Polly on the train going to Baltimore to have Pollyanna have surgery on her weeks so she can walk again and the town gets a sub-title for it “The Glad town” after Pollyanna’s “Glad Game”

Its a great story about trying to find the glad in everything. It also teaches a message of “You have to look for the good in people to actually get it. Because if you only see bad that’s all you will see”. I like the movie because depending on when I saw it first (in the 1990s) -it might have been the first time I saw early 20th century (1900s) on actually live humans and not just animated humans and anthropic mice. It was also my introduction to Kevin “Moochie” Coracan who plays the orphan Jimmy Bean but I believe this was his last film with the Disney company after spending most of the 1950s with Disney.

Overall it was a lovely timeless Disney movie that if you haven’t seen it you really should go watch it and add it to your Disney Family Film Collection.

PLASTIC STRAWS ARE SOMETIMES THE ONLY ACCESSIBLE OPTION FOR DISABLED PEOPLE WHO NEED THEM

Lets gets this out of the way and I know I’m yelling but PLASTIC STRAWS ARE SOMETIMES THE ONLY ACCESSIBLE OPTION FOR THE PEOPLE WHO NEED THEM OTHER FORMS OF STRAWS ALL HAVE SOME KIND OF INACCESSIBLITY ISSUE FOR PEOPLE.

Paper straws can’t be used in hot drinks because like pasta and rice straws they melt very quickly in hot water. Paper straws I know are not good in cold drinks like a Tim Horton’s Ice Capp drink because they get soggy which means you can’t finish the drink-there’s a reason why I joke that Tim Hortons should be offering spoons with their Ice Capps. Paper straws as well as other biodegradable straws are way too easy for someone with with limited jaw control to bite through which defeats the whole purpose of the straw.

Pasta or Rice straws beside the issue above of melting in hot drinks. Not so sure about cold drinks- there is also the issue of people who have CD or are trying to be gluten-free that Pasta, Rice have Gluten in them. Or there’s some other kind of allergy risk

Metal or steel straws are not flexible for people so that someone with low motor control need someone to bring the straw up to their mouth in order for them to drink from it. Or if its made of metal or even glass a disabled person might hurt themselves if they fall forward all of a sudden. The Metal or steel straws need to be washed and not every disabled person have the ability to do that.

A lot of these straws are very expensive for disabled people and we’re already thought of as an after thought. It also means being forced to bring their own straws with them means they can’t be spontaneous in a day if their friends want to go out to drink because what if they forget their own straws and the business has no alternatives that they can use?

A doctor once responded to a question that was “What did Disabled people do before Plastic straws?”. I think the conversation was on Twitter but anyway the answer the doctor gave was “they aspirated the liquids into their lungs and died” technically you could say plastic straws were an example of curb-cut technology they’re made for some forms of disabilities and then it spread to the “normies” (ie non disabled people)

Instead of forcing disabled people to have to deal with bringing their own straws the business making straws need to be talking to disabled people to find a straws that work with them. Restaurants you should over both paper and plastic straws- and if you’re a slow-food restaurant have their server ask which kind of straw they want like they would ask if they want normal Coke, diet Coke: Earl Grey Tea, Green Tea, Black Tea, etc.

Royalty concepts

I thought that because of misinformation online and people not really knowing much about being royatty I should share a few things about concepts At times I might make reference to the fictional Princess Diaries movies to help my case. So we should dive in to the concepts.

When a monarch dies or in one particular cases (Edward VIII) abdicated there is never ever a break in a ruling monarch the person next in the line to the throne automatically because the monarch. So for instance on June 19th, 1837 Victoria went to bed as Victoria but woke up the next morning as Queen Victoria. Or to be more precise in 1952, the then Princess Elizabeth went to bed as Princess and woke the next morning as Queen Elizabeth. It doesn’t matter if the next monarch in line is 9 days old or 74 (now 75) years old.

A similar concept happens with the Vice Presidency of United States that if a president dies in office either of “natural causes” or other ways- the VP becomes president. When Abraham Lincoln died his VP, Andrew Johnson became President, when Garfield died his Vice President, Chester A. Arthur became president, when President McKinley died, his VP, Theodore Roosevelt became president and the last one, After JFK’s death, his VP, Lydon B. Johnson became president. See how they’re so of the same?

Moving on to the next topic. The wife of a King is always called a Queen just like a woman who is ruling in her own right but a spouse of a Queen isn’t called a King not normally really because places don’t want confusion to happen if the monarchs are visiting other places and a King is normally ranked higher then a Queen. So the status is Queen consort (ie “wife”) but we never ever call them “Queen CONSORT (name)” only “Queen name”, for instance Queen Elizabeth II’s relatives after Queen Victoria, King Edward VII’s wife, Queen Alexandria of Denmark, or “Her Majesty Queen Alexandria”, George V’s wife, “Queen Mary/Her Majesty Queen Mary” and the Queen Elizabeth II’s own mother was “Queen Elizabeth” but unlike her daughter she didn’t have any power.

I’m pretty sure in the show the Crown there’s a scene with Queen Mary, then Dowager Queen, and when she is told that a ” Queen is visiting”, Queen Mary had to spell it out to the nurse that her granddaughter was “THE Queen and she and the Queen mother, were only Queens during the time their husbands were alive and ruling.

Julie Andrew’s character, Queen Clarisse Renaldi, in the Princess Diaries movies was a Queen consort but due to the lack of an eligible heir after her husband’, King Rupert’s death the year before the first movies Queen Clarisse had to rule the fictional kingdom of Genvoa-because with their first born wanting to be a minster of the church and the other one Mia’s dad dying, that there was no eligible Renaldi heir for the Renaldi bloodline until Mia took up the chance to be the Princess Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldi and Clarissa ruled as the “caretaker” until Mia’s 21st birthday in the 2nd movie when Mia became Queen Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldi..

While we’re on the subject of titles- the way people title Diana, or now Catherine, as Princess Diana/Princess Katherine is incorrect- because both of them married into the royal family, they can only have the the name of Princess *after* the their name , so the correctly way is Katherine, the Princess of Wales. Now if you actually did want to call Catherine a princess her name would actually be Princess William Arthur Phillip Louis. its only girls who are born into the royal family who can have Princess first as a title, like, Princess Charlotte or her Dad’s cousins, of Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugene or her great-aunt Princess Anne.

People get confused in the first Frozen movie why Anna had to ask if she could marry Prince Hans is not that’s surprising really. In any royal family, the people in line to the throne have to ask the ruling monarch if they can marry someone. This is actually what led to what some people call the “scam of a wedding” of the now King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales. In the 1970s, Charles III, then prince of course- asked his mother Queen Elizabeth II if he could marry Camilla but the Queen said no -so he went off to do some kind of military work and when he came back Camila was engaged to be married to Andrew Parker Bowles. When Charles III asked his mother if he could marry Diana, she said “yes” and as we already know she said yes to her grandsons by Diana- Prince William and Prince Harry.

Some of the “princess lessons” we see in the first Princess Diaries movie is very much in line with what people like Katherine, the Princess of Wales, had to learn before they could marry. For instance something both the fictional Mia had to learn as well as the real-life Katherine had to learn was how to cross their legs without actually crossing them like a normal person would. Katherine also had to learn which fork to use properly (outside in-this is useful for *any* formal occasion not just royal), who to cursty too, who not to curtsy too-for instance if she’s by herself she has to curtsy to Princess Eugene and Princess Beatrice, but if she’s with her husband, they have to curtsy to her, basically she was given lessons on how to be a “royal wife” for Katherine there was also lessons how how to get out of a car or how to receive flowers from a child without “accidently exposing her modesty”. and guess who give Katherine these lessons? Queen Elizabeth II did- you sometimes wonder how she fit that in her day with “meetings with Spain and Portugal” and who knows what else was on her schedule of the day.

BBC Woman in White miniseries review

The Woman in White BBC mini series from 2018 is a very interesting series and its based upon the book of the same name by Wike Collins the same author as The Moonstone. The plot of the story is kind of complicated to explain. A drawing master Water Hartwright gets involved into solving a scandal that involves his former wealthy client and a mysterious woman in white who had escape from a private alyssum

The mini series was in spirit with the book even if it was only condensed into 5 episodes . The series follows Water Hartwright into getting a job with the help of an Italian friend, Pesca, in Cumberland with a wealthy client Miss Laura Fairlie and her her older half-sister, Miss Marian Halcomb, who seems to be a man trapped in a woman’s body with how passionate she is about stuff. The night before he is to go to Cumberland to be the two women’s drawing master as well as restoring the paintings of their (or at least Miss Fairlie’s) uncle Fredrick Fairlie, her guardian, he meets a mysterious woman in white who is terribly afraid of a baronet and had been in her younger years been in Cumberland. After Water gets her to a carriage to London, he founds out the woman has escaped from an alyssum. Once he gets to Cummberland he founds one of his two students looks strikling simliar to “Woman in White”. Marian founds out that the “woman in white” who name is Anne Catherick had been in her younger years been at the Family home.

Water and Laura become too close to comfort so that he has to leave because Laura is engaged to someone else. But a letter scares Laura about the upcoming marriage to Sir Percivial Glyde, Barnoet. But they put it away. After the marriage of Laura and “Sir” Percival Glyde- terrible things happened. Due to Marian helping Laura sending up for herself -Laura wouldn’t give her rightful inheritance away without knowing the fine print of the paper Percival wants her to sign. So because this and the fact that Anne had “talked” to Laura -Percival thinks Laura knows his dreadful secret., and his Friend the Count Fosco has to act and use Anne’s and Laura’s similarity to their advantage. So for the 2nd half of the story Fredrick Farlie, and the servants at Limerick House, think Laura is dead, and the “Laura” that Marian (or in the min-series Marian and Water)bring to the house is an “imposter named Anne Catherick” who wouldn’t even speak after being stuck in a private asylum for awhile. They do find out Sir Percival’s secert let’s just say he’s doesn’t have any right to his title, property, or wealth he once had but due to him trying to destory the proof of it he ended up being hoisted by his own petard And after Walter facing the count after some help of his Italian friend, Pesca, he gets the truth of what happened and that Laura was still alive when “Laura” died in the Count’s home and they’re able to get the real Laura recognized as herself again.

I have several things I hate about the show. In order to condense down all the testimonies they had to create an “Original Character” who was a friend of Walter’s father. I also hate the fact that they have Walter Hartwright and Sir Percival Glyde meet when they never meet in the book. The worst thing I hate in series is that during the time the real Laura is wrongly impriosned in the asylum is that they put her though worse conditions then she is placed in in the book. I mean a freaking straightjacket plus Solitary confiment?!! At least in the book when Marian is trying to find “Anne” at least “Anne” has the freedom to walk around on the grounds even if it was a nurse!! Was BBC trying to scare modern-day mentally ill people away from places that could help them, because those places have terrible reputations due to stuff like what “Anne” was given in the show even in the 1960s and those mental hospitals are trying to combat those bad reputation for modern day mentally ill people.

But even though I didn’t like the changes in the show I did enjoy the mini-series a lot even though I think they could have done better. I mean come on, could they have Walter do a bit of the detecting and not leave it to the made-up character who doesn’t exist?

Why I don’t think Disney in any trouble

People believe that the Disney company is in a bit of trouble with several movies failing at the box office.    I don’t believe that and this post is going to explain why I think that is.   I’m not thrilled about their redos in the theme parks, but I still would like to visit the theme parks with a group of other Disney fans for personal reasons that I’m not going to get into.  But let’s get into the main topic of the post.

Some people think that Disney will go bankrupt due to failures at the box office during the opening week,  Strange World (2022) or The Marvels (currently out in theatres at the time of this writing; 2023) or Elemental (2023) but the last one recovered its money eventually.   I’m sitting there and thinking “so what if they’re a bit of a flop? They have been there before in history at least twice (maybe three times) and they survived basically unscathed at least.”   The making of Cinderella (1950) and the making of (depending on who you’re talking too) of Touchstone’s (who is a subsidiary of Disney company) Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) or The Little Mermaid (1989) is what made Disney get back on their feet after a slump due to reasons either inside or outside of Disney.

In the 1940s due to the World War II closing the overseas markets, so movies like Pinocchio (1940) Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942) couldn’t be released overseas and then, on top of that, Disney studios were hired by the USA’s Army to make propaganda films like a certain cartoon which is Donald Duck having a nightmare about serving the Nazi that people believe is banned.  So, because of their focus, mainly being that the North American market had to be content with what, is known as “package  films”, like: Saludos Amigos (1943) Three Caballeros (1945)  Make Mine Music (1946), Fun and Fancy Free (1947) Melody Time (1948) and  The Adventures of Mr. Toad and Ichabod Crane (1949),   Between the three things, there wasn’t a lot of money in the studio at that point. Disney Studios was going to go bankrupt. They were pinning their hopes on Cinderella being a success in the theatres to get them back on their feet.   And as they hoped, Cinderella (1950) actually was the last successful “Princess” film until 1989- Sleeping Beauty wasn’t successful at the box office for some reason, but that’s an entirely different story for another day).

After Walt Disney’s death in 1966, the company released The Jungle Book (1967) and then there was one last movie that Walt gave the green light to before he died- The Aristocats (1970).  But after that, the Disney company was floundering for awhile without him.  

 In the 1980s they tried to appeal to, I assume, the teen market with darker, more realistic films like  The Black Cauldron (1985) and the Great Mouse Detective (1986).  The Black Cauldron didn’t do so well at the box office due to the fact it got majorly messed up by a change in the management, so to speak, with Jeffery Katzenberg and Michael Eisner coming on board as part of the management team.  I have to admit I don’t know Katzenberg’s history pre-Disney,  but it seems to be that he  mostly worked with live-action films previously, so he didn’t understand how animation couldn’t be “as easily edited” as live-action films, so he fiddled around with the The Black Cauldron until I believe Michel Eisner talked to him.  And the company couldn’t go back to the “pre-edit” animation because of Katzenberg’s messing around, so the movie got released in the messy state it was in.  Which wasn’t good because the Disney company had been pinning its hopes on the movie to the point that they were even planning on making a restaurant in  a Disney park which was going to be named after the Gurgi character from the movie.  

During the making of The Fox and the Hound (1981), some middle-ground animators- people who came after the Nine Old Men animators  but before people like Tim Burton took over-like Don Bluth, quit working with Disney due to issues on the production and left the studios, which meant that young people like Burton who was starting out at the Disney company had to take over with making the movie.

Their next successful movie was either Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) by the Disney subsidiary of Touchstone Pictures or The Little Mermaid (1989). Both movies were successful at the box office -the latter is known for setting off the Disney Renaissance which lasted until 1999 with Tarzan (1999).  

Their last time the company had a series of flops or movies become popular later on was in the 2000s after the Tarzan (1999) movie. With movies like  Emperor’s New Groove (2000) Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) Lillo and Stich (2002) Treasure Planet (2002) Brother Bear (2003)  Home on the Range (2004)  Chicken Little (2005) Meet the Robinsons (2007) and Bolt (2008).  

Their first successful animated film in this time period was The Princess and the Frog (2009) even though not a lot of men or boys went to this movie, which meant they changed the name of the movie Rapunzel to Tangled (2010) for marketing purposes.  But that’s a different story for another day.

In conclusion, this is why I don’t believe Disney company will be going bankrupt anytime soon due to the fact, yes, they might be having flops at the moment, but they did it before and they still survived and they will do it again. They’re like the saying by Yoda. “Do or Do not, There is No Try”. They keep at it until something is successful. 

Is it time for Disney to create disabled protagonists?

I’m wondering if it’s time for Disney to create more disabled protagonists. The company already has people of different cultures. We have Native Americans in Pocahontas, Romiani with Esmeralda, African-Americans, with Tiana, Colombians with Mirabel, and Asians with both Muslan and Raya, that makes it already a diverse group, and having disabled characters would make the group even more diverse (and not all the disabled protagonists have to be white). And before you say Nemo is disabled-first that’s Pixar, and second-that Nemo isn’t the main protagonist his Dad Marlin is. And don’t mention Daredevil either-one that’s Marvel related and second-I want a disabled progtanists who doesn’t rely on “super powers” and isn’t a super hero. Not so sure what to think of Quasimodo or Elsa though. This post might be a bit rambling and going off topic now and then but let’s get down to business to defeat ableism.

Growing up with some of the Disney movies beside cherry picking parts of the Disney princesses, I identified with-(Ariel’s red hair, or Belle like reading)- the closet movie I got to in a sense feel represent was 1996’s Hunchback of Notre Dame. Even at the age of 6 I know I was “different” from my classmates. Basically I was an outcast, unlike my classmates-like the outcasts of the movie. Even though now I can also identify as a sort of cross between Lilo (of Lilo and Stitch)- and Elsa’s powers (aka “special needs”) from Frozen.

The only disablied characters so far have been villians who happen to be pirates of some kind. Captian Hook from Peter Pan and also the futuristic Long John Sliver from Treasure Planet who is a cyborg. But in the pirates’ cases they got their disabltiies later in life.

I can’t think of any example of characters from animated Disney or Pixar movies of a character having a temporary disablitiy not counting the “Sleeping Curse” (Snow White/Sleeping Beauty) or being turned into a bear (Brave). Well there’s also is Ariel’s temporary muteness (The Little Mermaid). Those kind of “disablities” you would actually want to cure. I can think of one live-action one which was based upon a book Johny Treamine. In the book Johnny Treamine he doesn’t get his hand fixed until after the story ended. Well in the movie it happens at least 30mins into the film.

And apperently the characters in Enchanto apperently have mental health problems of somekind like Abula has PTSD and I have no clue what the others characters (Tia Pepa for instance) are experiencing.

But there’s seem to be a great progess in disablited represenation. In 2021’s Luca there’s a supporting character who was born with limb difference. He has a great sense of humour about it which able-bodied people either are catious about making limb (or whatever the disablity is) jokes or over doing it to the point that it annoys the disabled person. There’s going to be another character with a disablity in the upcoming WISH film that Dalihia, the unoffical leader of Asha’s friend group of seven teens, has a musclar disablity so that means she has to walk with a cane. I have just found out that the voice actor for Dahilia also has muscalr disablity and uses a wheelchair. So that’s bonus points as well.

I don’t think it would be that hard to great blind, deaf, or other kind of disabled heroines. We do know that Disney is excellent at doing research for their films. Wether its bringing in animals for Bambi (1942)and The Lion King (1994), to actually going to the country they’re doing a film on going all the way back to the Three Callberos. To connecting with the cultural and people to make movies- a espcially big deal for Lilo and Stich, Moana/Vallias, Raya and the Last Dragon, Enchanto and presumbly WISH as well which is set off the Iberian Peninsula and for the opening song they have used Castendas, as well as some other instruments from around the area.

I have heard that sometimes they take the voice actor’s requests into consideration that apperently out of the 13 (soon to be 14) offical Disney Princesses that only one of them- Tiana is Left handed and that’s was only became the actor Rose (last name) request Tiana to be left handed because Rose herself is left hand. She litereally insisted (twice even!) to make sure thaat Tiana actually looked likea real African-American woman and not Caucasian interpretation of it. The first time was for The Princess and the Frog while the 2nd time was for Ralph Breaks the Internet Beside that that sometimes the animators replica something that the actor does. That when Paige O Hara was voicing Belle for Beauty and the Beast – O’Hara had a habit -of moving her hair which kept falling in her face and the animators incooperate that into Belle’s character. Apperently the Arinna Debose, the voice actor for Asha, the Main Character of WISH when she was vocing Asha she kept dancing around in the recording booth to the point the animators decided to include the dancing into Asha’s character.

Because they’re very throughly on checking carefully about culture about a place and how that sometimes even changes the movie how interesting would it be to have a world either fantasy or a half-fantasy and half something else like Turning Red that takes place in the real world and show a disabled person living their live and being able to go on adventures with supports of some kind. I would find it awesome if there was a fantasy Medvial Ages school and they had something like educational assistant helping the disabled progtangist with like writing or something. They might have to invent an small early version of a comptuer that could help the character write if writing by hand is a problem. Or a fantasy-medival version of a physiotherapist or other kind of supporting programs like speech thepary, or occupational thepary.

But if they do make up a character with a disablilties based on actual people with disablities the main thing that at the end of the movie the disablity does NOT and I repeat does SHOULD NOT be taken away from the character it was part of whom they are espcially if they’re as Lady Gaga puts it “born this way” (Note: don’t screw disabled people over twice like a show did with Molly Burke forgot the name of the show but it was losely based on her but she got screwed over twice-once with not being cast as the main part and then again being screwed over as a blind advisor).

In conclusion these are my thoughts on why Disney should included disablities and how they’re are the perfect company to even start to having animated disabled protaganists in their films and not just as supporting characters but as the hero or heorine of the story the progtaganist. themselves.

Once Upon a Studio short was TERRFIC

As a the title says Once Upon a Studio short was TERRFIC (and yes that’s partly a cereal pun, but for a good reason if you know, you know).

It was amazing seeing some of the characters interact with each other. Like Elliot from Pete’s Dragon carrying Cody from The Rescuers Down Under film. OR seeing Doger from Oliver and Company in Vanoplle’s car from Wreck It Raph movie (first movie, not Ralph Breaks the Internet). or seeing Mr. Toad on Aladdin’s Magic Carpert. Or seeing Aladdin acccidently stepping on Kristoff’s Rock-family. Or Rapunzel hitting Kaa with her frying pan. Kaa -who been hyptoizing Clarbella the Cow.

Some people are thrilled about the fact that more less known animated films (Chicken Little, Meet the Robinson , Alantis:The Lost Empire and The Black Cauldron all appear in the short. I’m just thrilled they didn’t forget about some of the other character (Badger, Rat, and Mole) and Ichbod Crane, as well as the Headless Horemen, as well as Katrina, and Brom Bones from The Adventures of Mr. Toad and Icbhod Crane. I kind of was wondering if they might forget about them because the only known reference to the latter story is The Headless Horsemen is the The Headless Horsemen himself during the Oggie Boogie Bash Parade (not sure if he shows up in Disney’s World Mickey’s-Not-So-Scary Halloween Party in Disney World)-if you know please tell me!

The song (you know THE Disney’s theme song) at the end Three “Princess” characters were holding hands-the First ever Disney Princess, Snow White, on one (her left, our right) side of her holding hands with the last Disney Renciassance Princess Mulan (1998), and on her right, our left- holding hands with Disney’s upcoming Princess- Asha from Wish (2023).

It took me a reaction video to notice that Cinderella’s hair and ball gown colouring are both back to their origonal 1950s Strawberry Blond (hair) and Slivery-white (Ballgown) coluring vs. the mess of blonde and blue that been going on for a long time I think at least the 90s. And it took me even longer to notice from another reaction video that Prince Charming is the one who looses a shoe on the way downstairs to the lobby before Max, the Sheepdog from The Little Mermaid takes Charmings’ Shoe and runs away with it and Charming is yelling to Prince Eric off-screen “Eric ….” (on unrelated note, I have this head cannon in that Charming and Eric are somehow related due to a screenshot of Cinderella III: Twist in Time and the way Charming is dressed in that scene, looks identical to Prince Eric).

But it was really neat seeing Ink-and Cell (Snow White, and the various Mickey and company gang-Donald, Goofy, Pluto, etc) showing up next to Xeroed characters (101 Dalmatians) and next to 3D animated characters (Tangled, Wreck It Ralph Characters, Strange Worlds, Raya and the Last Dragon, etc). It was nice even seeing the “stolen Rabbit” (Oswald) who paved way for the other 542 characters in the short. (I do have something I want to say about Ub Iwerks-but that’s another post in itself)

I never seen any of the House of Mouse TV show-the closet I got to it was seeing the Finale movie(?) ad on one of my home videos for “Mickey’s House of Villians” but people said the short reminded people of that show. So that Disney company should either bring that back, or there should be a new TV show where the characters interact with each other after animators go home for the day.

Some people wish there could be a whole movie with all the characters. But in order for that to happen you kind of need a plot and they can’t excatly copy Mickey’s House of Villains plot now can they?

Overall The short was really good-kind of wish it was even longer then it actually was.

The Story by Matt Guion with added details by Celo

This story was told years ago on Matt Guion’s Bandgeek8408′ youtube channel. Even though the event is not said in the story its suppose to commerate the 9/11 but it could be anything that either we lived through or we remember or only know the story-in other words we can be one of the groups in the story.

THE STORY

John told the story every year. The story was never the same. Some years he would be jovial light-hearted, he would make jokes and find humor in the story. Some years John would be more solemn, add weight to the story-emotions would run high on those nights. Some years the story would have lots of details and some years it would be short and to the point. Some years it sounds like John was reading this story and some years he would…. stumble and …choke but every year he would tell the story and every year they would listen. 

There were those who, like John, had lived the story and knew it best-they could have told the story themselves, but they all agreed John told it best. There were those who remembered the story who hadn’t experienced it but remember bits of it in the fringes of their memories. They’re younger then those who had lived the story.

Finally as time went on there, emgered another group-those who had neither lived or remember the story but who only knew the story because they heard it from John every year. Though they came to know the story as well as those who lived or rememered it-the story meant something different to them. To those who only knew the story and hadn’t lived or rememer it-the story was a ceremony-a chance to gather every year to listen to make notes of the changes in the story-added details, tone-but over time. they began to ask “Why do we have to need too still listen too the story when we already know it?” “Why do we have do this gathering every year?” “What’s the point?” Every time the older members of the gatherin would respond the same way “You must continue to hear the story so it might not be forgotten”

One year it finally happened, John became too old to tell the story. They gathered just the same even though they knew John would not be telling the story. They sat together and wait for what they did not know. Some of the older folks-those who had lived the story made some fa–ltering at-empts to te-ll the story, but these ultimately failed eventually, they all went home, and the story went untold.

Every year the gathering grew smaller and smaller those who knew but had not live or rememer the story were the first to stop attending, then those who remembered the story, and eventually even those who had lived the story stop coming to the gathering. The story continued to go untold though they all still remembered the story and could have told the story if they had wanted too-as time went on, they began to miss the gathering and the story.

One night, Sofia,-one of those who only knew but hadn’t lived or remember the story, was putting her own child, Alex, to bed-Alex did not know the story, had never attended the gatherings. Sofia has told Alex many bedtime stories over the years but not the story and yet that night when Alex asks-it was the story that came to mind. So for the first time since John stopped telling it-the story was told. Other parents told their children and the story came back to life.

It was not the same as it was before and it never would be. The details of the story would change from generation to generation and the story would never be the excatly same way twice and yet the story lived on, not through a yearly gathering, or a cermony, but in the very fabric of culture, in the very being of people-the story could not be forgotten.

Disney’s Zorro movie from the late 1950s is a great movie!

I’m trying to watch the entire Disney movies both animated and live action starting from 1937 to the present 2023. There’s only one movie so far I hadn’t been able to watch (Westard Ho, the Wagon) and I’m debating on forcing myself to watch the Pirates of the Carribean franchise because of how gross out I was when I saw a bit of it years ago after I watched something else.

The last movie I was on was Disney’s The Sign of Zorro (1958). It was quiet an entertaining movie. I didn’t really know much about the character of Zorro except for a character from A Cinderella Story (2004) being dressed up as the character for the Homecoming/Halloween dance.

As I said the movie was called. The movie is based apperently on the first epoisde of the Zorro TV show from around the same time. That Diego is called back from Spain by his father for some reason and discovers that Calforina has a bad Commandante in the area where the Diego’s family lives. Diego pretends to be what we would call a nerdy guy but behind the scenes (sort of) he will be a sort of amigos to the folk by being a hero. His mute servant Bernado pretends to be deaf as awell as mute in order to fool people into talking while around him. In the end the Commandante gets his desserts.

In one scene where Zorro has to try to fight with a doppleganger the Commandante had tried to have rob other people in the tavern. But before the two Zorros fight the fake!one goes to one balocny and there’s no ladder and then when he’s trying to get to the other bacolony Berendo switches the ladder to the other balcony.

But the movie was really good. I don’t know If will want to watch the TV series because of it being the same plot for several eposides or so I have heard.

Why I Think Disabilities Should Be Included In The Life-Sim Genre

In the life sim community there is one older game (Sims series) and two single-player Life-sim games in Works  –Paralives and Life By You as well as one multiplayer life-sim, Vivaland.   In these games, you play people. The name varies by game, so I’ll call them pixels.  There’s not a lot of information about Vivaland. But across the three single-player life sims communities the disability community (which includes disabled people themselves or close people- friends and relatives) are split into two groups over this topic. The first group, like myself, want disabilities in games to finally be represented after 23 years. The other part of the group (not necessarily all of them) don’t want to see disabilities in the life-sim genre.

I think disabilities should be represented for a variety of reasons.  It would show that people with  disabilities shouldn’t be “locked away in the house or in a facility for them” and disabled people can be functional members of society as long as we have accommodations and support to do that. There’s the potential that with good representation of disability more disabled people might want to play games in the life-sim genre. I know the games aren’t aimed at kids-but there’s the possibility of parents using the good representation of disability in a life-sim as a teaching tool for their children/children’s friends. There’s the possibility of it opening up new and different supports for disabled pixels. (puppy raisers, opening up a service dog school, Educational Assistants, Physical therapist, Orientation and Mobility instructors, etc). And it could get children/teens interested in those careers. 

This last one not everyone is going to agree with but with disabilities you could have more storytelling opportunities. A lot of people use the Sims series to tell stories-its even has its own name-SimLit. Some stories that could happen if disabilities were included in the life-sims could be told is that a wheelchair/crutches  aren’t just for elderly pixels but a pixel does an activity (sports) and they have an accident and need to use a wheelchair or crutches for a while.  Or you could have elderly-or not so elderly pixels losing their vision or hearing. There could be the possibility if there’s a military career coming home and they’re hard of hearing or might be more visually impaired then they’re before they went away.

Some arguments I have heard against disabilities in the life-sim genre. The main argument is the fact “it’s too depressing”. But technically what isn’t depressing in the life-sim genre? Everything from pregnancy-death can be depressing.  There are a lot of people who have requested Natural Disasters to be in the life-sim genre. Natural Disasters can involve a lot of injuries and destruction. Yet no one ever says that Natural Disasters are too depressing to be included in a life-sim. The next one is that they “play the game to escape from reality” – pretty fair I do the same thing. But we (the disability community who wants disabilities to be represented) aren’t asking for car crashes or  work accidents- we just want the ability to create an authentic pixelself in “character creator” as well as the accommodations and supports they might need in the main game for the disabled pixel to  function in the pixel world- some examples are ramps, visible fire alarms/doorbells, or audio help depending on the pixel’s disability.   But we could have disabilities turned off by default with the options to turn on disabilities in character creator or have them be born in-game with disabilities.

 There’s been arguments that it would be too difficult to animate disabilities, especially those in wheelchairs. “It is too difficult to animate” But  that’s the same  argument about why  Sims do not have custom heights in the  Sims series “because it’s too difficult to animate”  The information for both Paralives and Life By You are working with heights in their games   A lot of the animation for wheelchairs could be used for normal chairs as well. For instance if you have a pixel cutting vegetables while in the wheelchair-it could mean an able bodied pixel who is either tired, or  there’s not  enough  room in the kitchen for two people to work could cut vegetables at the kitchen or dining room table from a chair.  Or you could have pixels hugging or kissing normal pixels who are sitting in a  chair if there was animation for it for a pixel in a wheelchair. 

There is  the potential that if the pixel worlds were “curb-cut” accessible, it could affect not only disabled pixels but also able-bodied pixels for instance Moms with strolls and maybe eventually out-of-town visitors with wheeled luggage.  One example of a glitch was with Sims 3:Generations and when sims caregivers were taking a baby or toddler on a stroll  in a stroller-if going up or down hills they would take the baby or toddler out and carry them until they got where they’re going before putting the baby or toddler back.  With Sims 4 Discovery University one of the universities, Foxbury,  is very inaccessible and when Sims take bikes to their classes at this university they are always hopping on and off their bikes to go down the tons of stairs.  Also with The Sims 4 (and The Sims 2)  we have the ability of teens and adults bending over or getting down to a toddler/child’s level to hug them, or kiss them.

Another argument I have heard is that “people will do bad things” with a disabled pixel- because for Paralives and LIfe By You -are single-player games- I’m afraid we can’t really do anything about that but with Vivaland there could be a Terms of Service agreement that could potentially prevent that stuff. There’s also the argument of “how would you advertise a disabled pack?” In other words how could you show off disabilities in a disability pack without going into stereotypes?   It  shouldn’t need to be in an advertisable pack but either be in the base game itself or if it has to come later it’s a free Downloadable Content from the company or team making the game.

Some  newer arguments  I have heard are  “I want the world to be a utopia” and “Why should there be disabilities in a world where they could be cured?”.  To address the first argument, everyone has different ideas of what a utopia is and in some people’s utopias there could be disabled pixels having a life.  For the other argument it’s the wrong approach-it either reminds me of temporary disabled characters from stories or  tells the disabled community we shouldn’t exist at all. 

People tell us  to download  fan-made content-Custom Content.  I will touch on this in a bit. But a lot of CC is only for aesthetically looks and not really functionally.  These last arguments are what one simmer flat-out stated on every disability thread for The Sims 3.  I believe they assumed there weren’t any dolls with disabilities on the market or if there were they didn’t do well in terms of sales.  Their arguments were “Disabilities don’t sell” and “No one would buy them”

Before I get into disability dolls and disability support sets- I’m going to cover Sims 4 disability support CC. There’s several ASL(American Sign Language) and at least one BSL (British Sign Language) poses but that is all they are-poses so it’s the only representation that deaf or mute players get for their disability. And up until Sims team recently included Hearing aids in Medical Wear -we had to download two  different sets for children and teens and up.  There are poses for visually impaired-and visually impaired cane in at least two cases but again that’s all that there is for visually impaired people. Also most of the visually impaired canes are only useful for teens and up so if I wanted to make a child pixel version Canadian youtuber Molly Burke -I wouldn’t be able to, because a visually impaired cane isn’t available for the kids. But I do like the fact that two of the poses did really well with “sighted guide” for people not in the know. And also the poses with the cane are most of the time solo poses. There’s only one which is a family pose. 

There’s plenty of wheelchair CC but the only functional wheelchair CC either uses the Sims 4: Discover University bike code or you can’t use it in the house only outside of the house. Of course there’s also the problem of functional wheelchairs because it’s based off of bike code, or something else- there’s the problem of sims not sitting probably in them. But with the “story props” -they don’t move so it means you have to manually move them from Place A to Place B in Build/Buy Mode. But I’m really impressed by one simmer’s pose which has a sim using a wheelchair transferring to a bed or a couch. Of course we’re missing other items-like ramps, and low sinks and stoves *not* attached to the oven or wheel-in showers. There’s some prosthetic limbs but they have to replace socks or shoes because you can’t have one, the other or  both with them. 

I know dolls aren’t the same thing as video games. But Mattel for the first time since the 2000s introduced last year the Barbie Fashionista line which includes the following: a Barbie with a hearing aid, a Barbie with a prosthetic limb, a Barbie that’s bald, and two Barbies and Ken in wheelchairs. I couldn’t find any actual sales figures but what I could find is that reviews from adults is that either their child is disabled or someone the child knows (friend,relative) is disabled and the child is thrilled to get the doll because it “looks like them or the person they knew”. Like one reviewer was a grandma who was in a wheelchair and the granddaughter was thrilled to get Barbie in a wheelchair because “it looked like maw-maw”.

In 2013 -currently American Girl has disability support sets for 18″ dolls- everything from allergy and asthma kit, to wheelchair and walkable crutches. And in 2020 the company introduced their first visible disability character, Joss Kendric, who is deaf. The Joss dolls come standard with a hearing aid. But up to that point the company did offer to put hearing aids in American Girl 18″ dolls that children might have. Like the Barbie Fashionista line, the reviews I saw for the American Girl various disability support items was the fact that the child was thrilled with the disability support sets for their dolls  because it “looked like them or the person they knew”. 

Before 2013 a mom, Connie Feda, of a then 13 year old daughter Hannah who has Down Syndrome started making accurate representations of Down Syndrome dolls because 9 years earlier Hannah had been looking through a doll catalogue and said “there’s no dolls that looked like her”. And the few dolls which did have Down Syndrome were in a really unflattering way. So as of 2013-there had been over 1,000 Down Syndrome Dolls sold and another over 1,000 preorders and it wasn’t just parents with kids with Down Syndrome buying them one of the first orders came from a girl who had a friend with Down Syndrome and the girl wanted her dolls to “have a friend who looked like her friend”. Unfortunately at the moment, the business has been on hiatus since 2017 because of “family issues” so hopefully one day it will come back soon. As I said earlier that I know the games aren’t aimed at kids but the point of representation still matters for older generations who might have been born with our disabilities.

A way for life-sims to make accurate and not cartoony representations of disabilities in life-sim genre is to consult the disability community. Paralives did this in a survey back in summer of 2020. They might do more consultations with the disability community when its closer to either Early Access or when they’re working on DLC content. Other games like Life by You and Vivaland could do something similar.  

As with anything else in a life-sim there are two sides to the story. People should be allowed to make up their own minds of how this should be handled. Or if they would want or not want to play with a disabled pixel. Thank you for taking the time to read this post. 

Paralives and East Asian eyes and Yellowface

I follow a life-sim game that is a work-in-progress. Te game is called Paralives. They have a pateron and every so often they unlock a Pateron post for non pateron. On Thursday the team opened up a post from December which is called ” making Paras of diffent Ethnicities. One of the paras looked to be East Asian inspired.

Now to go back to the East Asian inspired Para. I’m concerned about people talking the eyes “TOO FAR” Like YELLOW FACE too far when the game comes out. I know some Asians do have angular eyes but that’s one thing but what about people making racist decptions of Asians like the ones that been in movies from like Mary Pickford in 1915 movie to Jame’s D’arcy in Cloud Alatas (2012)?

Yellowface is simliar to Blackface -like the one people accused Disney of having followed in stuff like Dumbo (1941?) movie and The Jungle Book from the 1960s. But its when a white person darkens their skin colour and add prothestics to look like they are Asian to either dramitize or villianize Asian characters. Here’s are a few examples of movies one being in the last 10 years or so..:

1915-Mary Pickford

1930s: Chan movies

1940s:-Katherine Hepburn

1950s-Marlon Brando

1961- Breakfast at Tiffany’s with Mick Rooney- the most famous example of “Yellowface”

and James D’Arcy in Colud Atlas in 2012

When I mentioned my concern on first Paralives discord and then on another sitre that’s not related. People either accused me of being racist one or ‘seeing racism that’s not there”. I’m not saying that the Devs of Paralives made a racist caritcuture of East Asian-I’m just concerned about people going TOO FAR once the game comes out. One person didn’t understand what is racist about angular eyes and said I’m the racist one for seeing something that’s not there. That was just the Discord. On the not related forum-someone accused me of “Only being interested in a certian types of racism” because I play Hogwarts Legacy and in the Harry Potter series the goblins who are bankers in the series are caricatures of Jewish people. Its like the person missed part of the game which mentioned that goblins were also metal workers and artists which as far as I know-are not caricatures of the Jewish folks. Oh and also the goblins were made in the studio which was behind Paralives

Its not that I’m asking for the game never to come out. I’m just want the Devs to be aware that people might take the angular eyes really “TOO FAR“. That I think like someone else mentioned on the forum that the Paralives/Steam should have an EULA argemment with the people who will play the game once its out is aware that if racist caricatures are uploaded they might be removed or something like that from the STEAM gallery

My Thoughts about Song of the South movie

I just watched the Disney movie Song of the South for the 2nd time. I would give the movie four out of five stars. I am overlooking the fact in one scene Uncle Remus smokes but who didn’t smoke back in those days? Both scene in Pinnchio (1940 only counting Gepttato not the bad boys on Pleasure Island) and one of the crows (Dandy orignally, called Jim) in Dumbo (1941). This movie is also the first attempt by Disney of doing a live-action/animated movie cross. It was released in overseas markets of UK and Japan.

The movie is set on a plantation in Georgia during the Reconstruction Era after the 1860s-1865 American Civl War (due to a lot of mistakes apperently on the Conferates part). People wrongly believe its set during slavery times but you would need a history degree in Victorian fashion to realize the difference. in 1860s vs 1870s clothing. Another thing former slaves in Southern U.S. at this time the only jobs former slaves could get were as “share holders” like Uncle Remus and others in the film (like Hattie McDaniel’s role as an indoor shareholder). Even though Dumbo (1941) takes place in the 1940s “present” day the only other job that Black people could do even 76 years later would be as roustabout as seen in the 1941 version of Dumbo.

Main Movie review

The movie is about this boy, Johnny (Bobby Dsicroll’s first role), who is moving with his parents from Alanta to Georgia to live with his Grandma on the plantation. When they get there Johnny is upset that his Dad is going back to Alanta to keep doing work for the Newspaper there. Over the course of the movie he becomes friends with not just, Uncle Remus (James Baskett), the share holder. but also a acutally poor girl named Ginny, as well as a Black boy. Uncle Remus tries to help Johnny out with the problems he is facing by telling Johnny tells about Brer Rabbit (one of Africna-Amercian tricksters) trying to outsmart Brer Fox and Brer Bear.

For instance Johnny’s first ngiht at the plantation he tries to run away back to Alanta to be with his Dad but Uncle Remus who find him tells him a Brer Rabbit story where Brer Rabbit tried to run away from his problems but he ends up getting stuck in a Brer Fox’s trap and then tricks Brer Brother into the trap by saying he’s “Earning a dollar a mintue”.

Also over the course of the movie, Johnny’s Mom, Miss Sally, is consantly blamming Johnny’s problems on the Brer Rabbit stores and doesn’t listen to anyone including Johnny’s advice at all. Near the end of the film after Uncle Remus has told Johhny and Ginny the Brer Rabbit story about “The Laughing Place”, Miss Sally, in a way tells Uncle Remus to leave the planation because she doesn’t want Uncle Remus around her son anymore. When Johnny who is still dressed in his red birthday party outfit see Uncle Remus getting in a cart he litereally runs across a pasture which just happened to have a bull sitting in it.

When he is hovering between life and death with shareholders including Uncle Remus waiting outside, he is calling out for Uncle Remus. His grandma does the right thing and brings Uncle Remus inside and he tells one last story of Brer Rabbit and Johnny recovers. The end of the movie has Johny, Ginny, and Toby, a black boy interactiing with animated characters of Brer Rabbit, and Mr. Bluebird in the live-action parts with Uncle Remus quickly joning them. The songs are good espcially the “Laughing Place” and “Zip Dee Do Dah”

Racist Elements of the movie

People believe that Uncle Remus and Aunt Tempy (Hattie McDaniel) as well as the other share holders are happy to be in this postion and don’t care that they’re “lesser” then Miss Doshy (Grandma) and Miss Sally (Mom). I don’t really think that is the case at all But Miss Doshy, seems like a very kind and loving planation owner to the former slaves. To the point that she and Uncle Remus have conversations which show both of their maturity and respect for each other. So that the shareholders could actually be happy with their current life because they aren’t being mistreat or threaten by anyone. Yeah Toby does say “yes Ma’am to Miss Doshy, and Uncle Remus takes his hat off when talking with Miss Doshy. They both show signs of respect as well as Ned who takes in a trunk full of clothing for Johnny and Miss Sally

The Tar baby for some reason gets interperted by a lot of people for being slang for Aferican Americans but these people have missed both the true meaning of the Tar baby story. The first meaning is, it was a metaphor for a sticky situation that got worse the more one tangled with it. The 2nd meaning could potentially be asking the question of “Who controls the acess to food and water?”

The book the movie is based on by Joel Harris had talked to former slaves and some former slaves like Fredrick Douglas had mentioned that at a plantation he had been at that the owner didn’t want the slaves to get into his fruit area so he set up a Tar fence. So basically something like a Tar pbaby was one of the ways Southern States owners overpoliced their slaves.

if we’re going to be talking about racist stuff we might want to point out that one White girl in the movie and her family (two mean older brothers and their Mom) are maybe what one could considered “Poor White Trash”. I mean the dress that the girl was planning on wearing to Johnny’s party was out of her Mom’s old wedding dress. And if it hadn’t been for Miss Doshy listening to the conversation about Johnny’s birthday and Johnny wanting Ginny to be there, Miss Sally wouldn’t have allowed it.

Human Villians in this movie

The Human Villians in the movie are Miss Sally, Johnny’s mom. Miss Sally is the main villian who think the Brer Rabbit Stories that Uncle Remus is telling Johnny are “Filling his head with Nonese” simliar to what Mr. Darling from Peter Pan (1953) and beasically tells Uncle Remus to leave the planation. Basically she’s the cause for her son’s accident with the Bull because of telling Uncle Remus to leave.the plationation because “She didn’t want Uncle Remus around her son no more”.

The only other human villians in the movie are Ginny two older brothers. They’re so mean that they threaten to drown Ginny’s dog . So Ginny gives the dog to Johnny who when Miss Sally wouldn’t allow him to keep it gives it to Uncle Remus until the two boys tells Miss Sally about the dog. The other time is that Ginny was going to go to Johnny’s birthday part in a brand new dress and the brothers ruined it by pushing her in the mud and dirtying it.

Overall Thoughts.

It was a good movie. A way I believe it could be released too is for it to be either on Disney+ with the “Outdated content” depction as is used for Dumbo (1941), and Peter Pan (1953) and The Jungle Book (1967). For a DVD/Blue-Ray released there could be a note or something in the package about the time period of the film being the late 1860s or the 1870s.

In Fantsia’s “Pastrol Springtime” should Bacchus’ Zebra Woman Centaurs Servants be removed?

The question for today’s topic is Should Fantsia’s Bacchus’ Zebra Centaur Woman Servants be removed due to racial sterotypes like those of the already removed African Girl Servant Centaurs?

I just finished watching Disney 1940s Fantsia movie. In one segement of the movie the segement called “Pastoral Springtime” segement in the part of that with the woman centaurs. In the originally 1940s cut there was at least one (actually two but people assumed the second one was the same as the first one) Subserviant African girl-child centaur. Due to the racist depictions of these subsersviant African girl-Child centaurs they got removed. The last time they’re ever seen anywhere was on a repeat on TV in the 1960s. The pictures below show pictures of the two removed African Girl-Child servant centaurs. The first Girl-Child Centaur is called Sunflower and the 2nd one is called Okita. . The latter is the one who rolls out the Red Carpet originally for Bacchus which in movie releases after the 1960s its “happens by magic”.

In the same segment the white God of Wine, Bacchus has two “Zebra woman centaur servants”. The top half of these Centaur woman servants are close but not the exact shade to the two removed servant centaur girls. To the point that in the past if they had been humans instead of Centaurs- that other black people might have called them “In-House (Slur).” Or at the very least something like that. Or they are non-wives of Bacchus

I think if the removed African Centaur girls are racist sterotypes. That also means that the Zebra woman centaurs servants are also racist sterotypes. So if the former have been removed (twice now).. that also means the Bacchus’ two “Zebra woman centaurs” should also be as well since that is also a racist sterotype of Racalized mioorities.

Espcially, when you consider the later fuss (which was necessary) the NAACP made when the Disney company was making The Princess and the Frog (2009). For one thing, Tiana’s origally name was suppose to be “Maddy”. And another thing her job wasn’t originally being a over-worked server with dreams of owning her own resturant. The original job for this character was that of a chamber maid to Charlotte La Bouff’s family. Disney have denied these claims, but supposedly after the fuss they changed the name to Tiana and had her be a over-worked server instead in 1920s New Orelans.

So my question is for you- Should Bacchus’ Servant Woman Centaurs be removed for similar racist stereotypes to that of the already removed African Girl-Child Servant Centaurs?

SimLit Darkness inspired by Disney Darkness?

I’m starting to wonder if my Swanson SimLit Darkness is inspired partly by the Disney Darkness (Toon bondage, abuse, torture, threat, capture and almost drownings-not in that order of characters) from the Disney media.

I know I always had a fondness for playing kidnapping games with my toys (Fisher Price Original Little People, and by baby dolls) and I think occasionally Lego pieces when I was playing by myself-which was much of the time at home since my sister was so much older then me. in my late teen years and early Young Adult years I just assumed it had come from reading too much Nancy Drew and Tom and Liz Austen Mysteries (the latter being a Canadian Teen siblings amateur detective series)

I guess between my 2nd and 3rd attempts or something like that of writing my Swanson Legacy (which I’m rewriting for the 4th time) I discover a website which was talking about not just about Snow White and the 7 Dwarves and the dropped plot for The Prince in that movie. As a kind of three-page tribute at the end of the last page of the Snow White talk is devoted to abuse, toon bondage, capture, drowning, threat and torture in Disney media (which in my case is mostly movies) aka The Disney Darkness- the three pages talking about this Darkness is called Disney Dungeons. So I’m been wondering if my SimLit Darkness is partly or heavily inspired by the Disney Darkness?

The following except for the last two paragraphs are taken word by word from the pages of the Disney Dungeon. I only updated it here to include Tangled (2010) and Frozen (2013) since the last movie mention in it is the Pixar movie UP (2009).

In the era of slient films a common thing of the time was the popular Damsel in Distress-ie: tying a woman to a train track and things like that. An obvious example of this is in 1914 Perils of Pauline. In the 1930s Disney comics and in the 1933 “The Mad Doctor” short that Mickey Mouse (and later other characters like Donald, and Goofy) turns that trope on its head with it being Dude in Distress instead.

Sure Pinnchio (1940) didn’t have any actually bondage but being locked up and deprived of his freedom (and Stromboli’s threatening the boy isn’t too far away from real child abuse). Geppato is one of the many male Disney characters whom survived drowning after he was eaten by the whale

Then we have Dumbo (1941) Mrs. Jumbo gets locked AND chained up for protecting her son from a bully at the Circus.

In one of those package films we have “Peter and the Wolf” with the wolf ending up being tied up.

Next is Brer Rabbit being tied up in the animated potions of Song of the South

In the last package film ( The Adventures of Mr Toad and Ichbod Crane) the former toad is sent to jail with a ball & chain. and when he escapes he’s jumps into the river or lake and almost drowns.

psychological abusive is present in Cinderella (1950).

and in the 1951 movie Alice in Wonderland a lot of the male card guards and rose painters are sent off to get the head lopped off.

then in 1953 in Peter Pan – the Lost Boys and the two Darling children-the first human characters (as opposed to the Mickey and other animals) to be tied up are tied up TWICE in the movie- once by the racist depictions of Native People and then again by the pirates. Tiger Lilly is the first human female character to be suffered being tied up to suffer a drowning. Wendy is 2nd female character being tied up with the Lost Boys and the brothers-but first to Walk the plank.

Minor note: Peter himself gets captured in the sequel Return to Neverland and experiences abuse himself.

Lady and the Tramp (1955) continues with the typical animal bondage- collars, chains, muzzles and a dog pound resembling a gloomy prison.

Sleeping Beauty (1959) kept and soften a lot of the originally dropped plot from the 1937 Snow White movie. Ie: Prince Phillip could sit and stand with his chains unlike what was planned for The Prince.

101 Dalmatians (1961) well kidnapping of 15 Dalmatian puppies. And that the Cruella didn’t care how the 99 puppies are killed by Cruella’s henchmen just that they are to be killed

skip ahead a bit – there’s a gloomy prison scene in 1973 Robin Hood and I’m not entirely sure, but I think in the climax of the same movie We think Robin Hood is drowned?

The Rescuers (1977) might not have featured bondage but an attempt to drown a little girl. Not to mention the suggested violence between Medusa’s temper, the gun, and her crocodile pets *

We’re going to skip over Fox and the Hound (1981) and go Straight to The Black Cauldron (1985) is really dark and brings back- bondage, prisons, and grisly skeltons. Pig Keeper Taran and Princess Ewlonley are tied up once but the comic bard Flewddur Flam to the point that he’s tied up on one of the posters for the movie!

Then we have The Great Mouse Detective (1986) which has about the most seen death traps in one movie with Basil and his sort of Watson friend being tied up on a mouse traps with a lot of death traps around them set to go off.

Then we have Whom Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) the titular character and his human-looking wife are tied up and hoisted several feet up during the climax while the male hero deals with a certain threat to a man’s privates. Mind you they did cut out a scene where the male human hero (not Roger) gets a pig head tatooed over his own human head.

in 1988 another movie- Oliver and Company had a kidnapping of Jenny and in the climax when the cat and the dogs (including Jenny’s family dog) and the dogs’ owner Fagin working together to free Jenny whom is tied up after being kidnapped. **

And in the 1990 Rescuers Down Under (the sequel to the 1977 The Rescuers) had so much kid bondage and violence of Cody (human friend), that the people in charge at that time had to tell them to cut a lot out of it and apparently they did so clumsily

And in both The Little Mermaid (1989) and the The Little Mermaid II, Eric gets pulled underwater (and held) by eels. And his daughter Melody has a much more gruesome experience in almost drowning by being imprisoned in an underwater grotto But apparently Melody inherited her father’s knack apparently for holding their breath for a long time.

Beauty and the Beast (1991) doesn’t have any actually bondage but there IS the lack of freedom in various part of the movie. Maurice being thrown into the dungeon by the Beast, and then Belle taking his place. And then later on Belle and Maurice both being locked up in their own cellar.

In the midequeal Belle herself survives a drowning only to be thrown in the dugeon by the Beast.

Then in Aladdin (1992) we have Aladdin being chained in a prison somewhere. And then much later not only is Aladdin or I should say Prince Ali- is manacled, has a ball chain (aka Mr. Toad), and he’s gagged as well and he’s thrown off a cliff to be drowned. Making a mention as Jafar-as-Sultan not only has the real sultan strung up as a Marionette but Jasmine is shackled at first and then later (after Aladdin shows up) imprisoned in a hourglass and the risk of dying if she doesn’t get out before the sand crushes her.

the next movie with bondage is 1995 Pochantas John Smith is kneeling down after being captured with his hands behind a pole in a tent and he’s to have his ‘brains knocked out” the next morning. When Smith is leaving to go home to England to be healed the movie’s villian, is chained and gagged.

Minor note- Thomas a minor character is another character whom almost drowns-but the only one whom almost drowns because of a realistic experience and not because of threat by a villian or an accident

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) has a very high amount of bondage. Quasimodo being tied up during the Festival of Fools, and we hear Judge Claude Frollo take delight in the whipping of someone off-screen at the Palace of Justice, and then we have Phobeus and Quasimodo being tied up and almost hanged in Courts of Miracles. And then we have Quasimodo being chained up and Esmerlda being tied up to be burned at stake not to mention the other tons of Romas and Phobeus- being in “cages” surrounding Esmeralda’s stake. if I remember correctly? Of course, there is psychologically abuse which happens in the 18+ years of being in Frollo’s guardianship. Then in Hercules (1997) there is sort of bondage in the form of something (can’t remember what vines maybe) with Megra being tied and gagged before Herc makes a deal with Hades.

Then in Tarzan (1999) Tarzan and Jane, and Mr. Porter get captured and imprisoned by the villian Clayton.

And then if we fast forward to Tangled (2010 ) – we have not only similar psychological abuse as in The Hunchback of Notre Dame but during the climax Rapunzel is chained up and gagged- I think she’s the only animated gagged character, that managed to free themselves of the gag And then Flynn is chained up “just in case he has any ideas in following” them (since of Rapunzel’s promise)

and then the last film to sort of feature bondage is 2013 Frozen with the glove chains in the prison of Arendelle castle which Elsa breaks free of shortly before the climax of the movie.

Here’s a link to where I got my information for most of what I have in here only rephrased it for myself

http://www.kennetti.fi/sw_scariest7.html

*Note the original plan for The Rescuers was for Cruella to be the villian of the movie as a sort of sequel to 101 Dalmatian which explains why Madame Medusa has such crazy mad driving skills like Cruella.

**Note: Oliver and Company were suppose to be an sequel to the 1977 The Rescuers basically I think it was to see what Penny had been up too since being adopted by a family.

The Parent Trap (1961)

So I just watch the 1961’s The Parent Trap. This was one of the movies, like Pollyanna (1960) that I grew up watching in the 1990s. So I prefer it to the 1998 remake which I don’t like for various reasons in that review.

Spoilers ahead!

The Parent Trap is about a pair of identical twin girls who meet each other at camp for the first time. Since they both live with the other parent they decide to switch places on their parents so they can actually know the other parent. When their Mom has to go to California to unmix them hijinks ensure and hopefully leads the parents to getting back to together.

As I said I grew up watching this movie. I love the comedy of it. I hadn’t watched it in a very long time but it just as brilliant as it was the last time I watched it. The costumes, and the chemistry (or lack of it) from the actors was brilliant. The costumes were good. I really like the Split screen aspect of this movie which inspired was created by Walt Disney’s long time friend and collaborator Ub iWerks. I heard with other non Disney movies or TV shows the trouble when one of the actors has the first or last name of the main character that a different actor is portraying but dial that up to 11 when the name-twin, has to play the photographic double of Hailey Mills who is pretending to be Susabn pretending to be Sharon or vice versa and you get the 19961 director David Swift (who also director 1960s Pollyanna) headache! But as I said I like this split screen effect more then the computer combination that they did a little with the 1998 remake.

One thing I noticed this time around of watching 1961 The Parent Trap is apparently the foreshadowing at the beginning where Susan’s cabin booby-traps Sharon’s Cabin with string and honey on one of the cabin members’ toes which is basically foreshadows what the twins will do later to their Dad’s fiancée, Vicky when she’s tricked into going on a camping trip with them and their Dad.

Its a great movie there’s not a lot of music but the one song that’s use is absolutely brilliant and it was written by the Sherman brothers who will make popular songs like “Spoonful of Sugar” and “Bare Necessities”

As I said its a great movie and if you haven’t this movie please give it a try!

Babes in Toyland (1961)

I just finished watching Disney’s 1961 Babes in Toyland. I personally enjoyed the movie. I think some of the references in the movie (mortgage, living in a tent, depressed, or an employer saying “no one wants to work anymore”) could hold up today.

The simple story of the Babies in Toyland is two nursery rhyme characters are due to get married but a dastardly villians messes things up for everyone. But there’s a happy ending.

The characters are all interesting characters. I don’t like the fact that Mary Quiet Contrary is made out to be dumb. And I see where the Mary Poppin’s umbrella talking from 1964 Mary Poppins, might have been ‘borrowed’ from. “Silly” goose, from this movie. The Toymaker who is played by the Mad Hatter actor Ed Wynn is an interesting character he’s a bit ridiculous as first but after something happens to him, he tries to be sensible. The leading male Tom, the Piper’s son, is played by a teen heart throb of the time, Tommy Sands. The villian Barnaby is played by Ray Bolger who played The Scarecrow in the 1939 The Wizard of Oz movie.

Speaking of the Wizard of Oz movie- two of the scenes in the 2nd half of the Babies in Toyland movie makes me think way too much of the Wizard of Oz. Scary, Talking trees in the “Forest of No Return” and also when Mary, Mary Quiet Contrary, Tom, and children (Mary, Mary Quiet contrary’s siblings), are excited to go to the Toy Maker’s house is similar to the scene where Dorothy, The Scarecrow, Tinman and Cowardly Lion are running towards the Emerald City.

The sets are very interesting and especially when they had to somehow make some of the characters look tiny after a VIP (Very Important Plot) happened. I do wonder how that was set up though.

I do have to address two racial things. The first one is when Mary thinks she has no other choice but to marry the villian, the later hires a band of Romani , but in the movie, they’re called and call themselves gypsies, There’s a whole song about it. The other part is when there’s a toy fight lead by a tiny Tom, against Barnaby- some of the toys fighting look like the 1950’s/1960s “Red Indian” stereotype. I might not like the fact that was the stereotypes of the time, but I going to just accept it as is and not make a big deal out of it. The one song that has “depressed”, “living in a tent” and “mortgage” is the song called “I Can’t Do the Sum”.

I did find some interesting trivia when Disney started “hushing up” (ie Covering up) Song of the South movie as the first full length live-action musical- they promoted this movie as their “first live action full time musical movie”. The movie didn’t do so well at the box office so it wasn’t until 8 years later that it was seen on TV. Due to the movie not doing well at the box office, is why it took 2 years before another musical movie was made by Disney 1964 Mary Poppins.

I personally recommend seeing the movie. I give it five out of five stars. Or rewatching the movie if you saw it growing up. My next review is going to be a movie I watched growing up 1961 The Parent Trap- i prefer that one to the 1999 version.

Reviews of 1961 Greyfriars Bobby:The True Story of a Dog, and 1961 Nikki: Wild Dog of The North

I have watched both these two movies and I’m going to be reviewing them both here.

Niki: Wild Dog of the North (1961)

This is a story of a dog in Yukon, Canada who ends up separated from his Trader Andre after they found a orphaned bear cub who can’t survive on his own yet. The dog and the bear who are tied together and the owner’s canoe goes over rapids, separating the Trader from the animals. So the animals hate each other at first. But eventually after they get rid of the rope tying them together, they’re able to help each other get food After both have grown into adults at winter time the bear goes into Hibernation leaving Nikki alone. After several tries of getting any kind of meat on his own-he ends up in the hands of an evil fur trapper who wants to train him to fight dogs in the dog pit and to “hate Non-white’s shadows”. When the Evil Trader gets there and is told that the new Factor, is not allowing any more dog fighting the evil trader doesn’t give a hoot and have his “dog” fight someone else’s dog. When the Factor (who is Andre from before) tells the Evil Trader to stop the dog fighting the Evil Trader doesn’t care and Andre ends up in the pit with dog, and the dog recognizes him as his old owner. Let’s just say the Nikki helps to take down the evil trader. How does he do that, I recommend watching the movie for yourself.

I think it was an enjoyable movie-it was apparently all shot in Canada. And also apparently, all the human actors were French-Canadian. I personally didn’t see any part which kind of showed it was suppose to be a two part TV show but some people have been able to see.

Greyfriars Bobby: The True Story of a Dog (1961)

Its the story of a dog who not only follows his true master, Auld Jock (Old Jock) to Edinburgh but also after Jock dies-at night, he sleeps in all types of weather on Jock’s grave, despite the attempts of the local graveyard caretaker Mr. Brown trying to oust him out of there. He’s friends with not just the children who live around the church, but also of a local restaurant owner Mr. Trail who is very generous with meals. I guess in the Disney movie, he kinds of gets everyone what they need in a sense- one of the children get a job, a disabled child gets to go to school, and in a way, Mr. Trail ends up with companionship of sort by the end of the movie with Mr. and Mrs. Brown. But anyway before that sorty-of happy ending, that there’s a point that the dog could be destroyed due to the fact the dog has to license and no collar. And Mr. Trail on principal didn’t want to shell out Seven Shillings for a dog which has no master and he argues that in front of the court. The next day, that Mr.Trail and Bobby goes in front of the Lord Provost to argue his case and at some point, the get interputted by Mr. and Mrs.Brown, but also the bairns near the church. Anyway-Bobby gets to have a collar, and is given the “Freedom of the City” by Provost himself.

I personally enjoyed the move. I might start crying at any moment because the story hasn’t technically impacted me yet. The costumes, were very accurate for something that was suppose to take place in the 19th century (about 1866-1867). And I like the fact that a disabled boy was involved in the story, even if he couldn’t have that big of a part-but he still had a big enough part when he’s the one who told the girl, to tell everyone to give money they could for Bobby. In a way Bobby is the Scottish version of other forms of stories like Japanese(?) Hatchi, and stuff. I liked the surprised ending of the Lord Provost himself paying for Bobby’s license. It was interesting seeing Duncan Macrae, who in the last Disney movie I saw with him, he was a good guy (the son of Rob Roy) but in this -he was the main bad guy-insisting that Bobby have a license and an living master. I would recommend you watch it.. but you might want to have some tissues just in case, you start trying.

The next movie I have to watch is Babes in Toyland which will be a singular review, and then I will finish up with another singular review of an old Disney movie classic of mine- 1961’s The Parent Trap with Hailey Mills. Then I will be in the 1962s and I’m not sure what I will find there.

The Absent-Minded Professor (1964)

I just finished watching this movie last night and to me it was mind blown. Yes I kind of did that as pun. The special effects are great. and I liked everything about the movie. It had a remake called Flubber in the 1990s with Robin Williams

I thought the whole movie was funny especially the scenes when the miltary/army/navy personal kept disappearing from the meeting room where they’re suppose to be meeting with a character who ends up on the phone with either Professor Brainard, or someone else when Brainard’s Model T car is flying over Washington D.C. Its funny seeing Ed Wynn being a fire chief and yelling at his son Kennan Wynn, who plays the movie’s main villian- who is wearing shoes Brainard gives him and is going higher and higher bouncing with no ability to stop. Apparently, Ed’s grandson, Ned Wynn is one of the basketball players early on in the movie.

Also its funny to think that the Flubber universe takes place in the same universe as The Shaggy dog movies because the cops from the OG Shaggy Dog movie appear in this movie as well. That Brainard’s professor rival for his fiancée (who he has missed the wedding thrice now) runs into the cop from the Shaggy Dog movie and then wait a repeat happens with the villian.

This movie only has one song but it was the first song the Sherman brothers did for Walt Disney company and many more would follow- Spoonful of Sugar, Step in time, Bare Necessarties, I wanna be Like you” to name some songs. Not to mention everyone’s favourite Disney earworm “Its a Small World after all”

I personally found the movie enjoyable so I give it a 5 out of 5 stars. So I would definitely recommonded watching the movie. Next on my list is Niki: Wild Dog of the North, Followed by Greyfiar Bobby, and then Babes in Toyland, and finished with something familiar to me, Hailey Mill’s Parent Trap movie.

WEBSITES NEEDING PHONE NUMBER ARE NOT TRUSTYWORTH AND IS AGANIST PERSONAL ONLINE SAFETY

I have something I need to talk about. I need to talk about making sites or discord servers needing to have phone number does two things. One it discriminates against those who can’t afford the latest hot mobile phone. and can only get a cheap almost 90s flip cell phone which probably does not have text message feature. The second and last thing is I believe the making people using their mobile phone number to verify themselves, or whatever- literally flies in the face of the online safety rules where we are NOT suppose to give out “personal information online”? I mean seriously we teach kids this as young as 4 years old! And then do the exact opposite ourselves?! Heck when my computer is down I can’t even access my own accounts on Google and what not on other computers because they don’t recognize my account because I’m not on my main computer. The only way I could access Google on a relatives’ computer is by having a phone which can do QR code which I don’t have.

On Tuesday, February 27th, 2024 there was some HUGE update for Sims 4. And some of the mods got updated or in Deadpool’s MC case it got hot fixes. I was not aware of Pateron become a bit more Prudish so to speak so I was really confused about why the Sims 4 MC Woohoo mod wasn’t on Pateron. So when I tried to join MC discord to ask and I got the nasty surprise that now in order to join you need to “verify a phone number” which means someone in my position who doesn’t have the hotest mobile phone that can support SMS. I can’t even talk to a Mod about this on the discord without being part of the server. I did leave a message for the owner on X (formerly twitter).

IT just we’re constantly telling our children we shouldn’t be putting personal information out online but now because almost every website requires you to “Verify” your phone number doesn’t that contradict what we tell our children to do? Since in my book-phone numbers still count as personal information. And now I don’t know if the MC support discord ever get rid of that requirement if I can ever trust them again because of the needing personal information

Websites and other places need to stop requiring these things because to some people like myself it makes the website or other service be untrustworthy and I don’t want to spend time or energy with them if they do stuff like this.

Why Charles and Diana’s marriage wasn’t meant to be

Whenever I see people saying that despite Charles and Diana should have stick together for the sake of their sons never seem to get the point that their marriage just wasn’t meant to be. I also don’t like a particular claim about the fact that Diana had affairs and I will get into both in this post.

To all extents and purposes Charles and Diana’s marriage was about the closet thing to an arranged marriage people who were living around the 1981 time would ever see. Charles had to marry someone and all the eligible young princesses were not viable because they’ll all Catholics and at that time that was a no-no for the heir to the Crown. So they had to look elsewhere so they found Diana. There’s a clip from some interview they did after the engagement and Charles said “what being in love is” so it seems like he never loved Diana. I mean Diana was lucky she at least got to spend time with her future husband unlike women who had been in her position in the millenniums before where they don’t ever get to meet the husband-to-be until the wedding day or even worse-when they moved to a new country because the husband-to-be couldn’t make it to the wedding- and had to use a proxy instead to get married to the woman. Diana was having second-thoughts about marrying Charles to the point she called her older sisters and told them and they didn’t give a darn and said something that basically was: “that’s too bad you can’t back out now because you’re face is on the tea-towels now”

Now regardless of whether or not the claims of Diana having affairs herself anyone who knows history would be aware that in the past that it was quiet common for in non-love marriages in nobility for the partners to have other partners. There’s a reason for why if the estate nobility residence area-ie the castle or manor house was big enough that there would be separate bedrooms for the Master and Mistress of the house. So they could potentially if they didn’t sleep together could have ‘musical bed” with someone other then their married spouse. And the other partner didn’t mind at all. According to the fictional TV show Downton Abbey in Season 4 Lady Edith mentions an estate called Eaton Lodge where Robert and Cora stayed at some point where Lady Warwick, the Countess of Warwick would have the stable bells ringing at 6am for the couples playing “Musical beds” to get back to their legal-married partners before the servants showed up for the day. But since Robert and Cora were in the right bed they didn’t have to worry.

So that is my particular thoughts of why Charles and Diana’s marriage didn’t work along with the fact about the Queen Elizabeth not allowing Charles to originally marry Camila, the new Queen Consort even if we never technically use the name “consort” as part of that title

101 Dalmatians (1961) review

I had to skip the 1960’s Western movie which i’m not going to name. So I went to see the next movie on the list which was the first animated movie since Sleeping Beauty in 1959.  The movie I watched was 1961 101 Dalmatians. 

I know I loved dog movies growing up.. I think i watched Lady and the Tramp (1955) a lot growing up and one of my parents said I also watched this movie growing up that I could maybe recite the dialogue. But I think I would need a lot more re-watches before I could do that. 

Just for a fresher here’s a plot synopsis of the movie: When 15 Dalmatians puppies are stolen by minions of Cruella that is up to Pong and Perdita to use the Twilight Bark in order to find and save the puppies before they’re turned into a horrible fashion statement.

The big finger that Roger gives to Cruella without her knowing it is quite funny now that I think about it. I mean the entire time in the audience’s first time seeing Cruella, is that Roger is playing on various instruments (piano, trumpet, and something else) his new song “Cruella Deville” all without Cruella knowing its a big finger to her. 

I realized when watching how one line of Horace just went over my head as child. The implications of the fact the Baddunns are already criminals and that they just supposedly been released from jail before they get hired by Cruella for puppy napping or is it dognapping in this case. the Raddcliffe’s puppies? The line is “I don’t like this Jasper, one more pinch and they’ll throw the keys away”

Its still a great movie as it was growing up! The dog characters were very good as was Captian the Horse and St Tibbs as well. Basically the Suffix Military Unit.. did you know that’s 101 miles from London, England? 

A minor note before I get onto my next point. I knew the cameos of Jock, Peg, and Bull, the bulldog from Lady and the Tramp in the “Twilight Barking” sequence but I never noticed before that you can kind of see the titular “Lady” from the same movie in the darkness and ground-level of the scene until my most recent watch you just like see her outline in the darkness. Some people say you can see Tramp’s outline too and he’s on top of a car. My question is what in the world are the characters doing over there? I guess I could pretend that for Lady&Tramp, and Jock that they’re visiting British relatives for Christmas. And for Peg and Bull being in a pet store-maybe America couldn’t find anyone to adopt or buy them so send them to the England instead.

After the Pong and Perdita get their 15 puppies and adopt the 84 other puppies and are trying to walk through a snow storm and a collie founds them and tells them they have shelter for them at a Dairy farm across the road- and they go there and once like Roly says he’s hungry, its an echo of 99 other puppies all also say they’re hungry and the cows over their milk to them.  A question appeared in my head, is what in the world did the Dairy Famer think in the morning when they went to milk the cows and the cows had less milk then usual? Since the farmer would know how much milk the cows would normally release. Also we don’t know if news ever travelled to the country side about the 15 puppies being stolen from the Raddcliffes. 

And my final point before I make a conclusion about the movie is. I bet at the end of the movie after Roger starts playing “Dalmatian Plantation” and the 101 dogs in the house start barking along and dogs join in as the camera pans out of the house and over London as one house after another starts to turn on their lights until all the lights are on and that the dogs’ ”pets” are probably thinking “NOT AGAIN!”

As I said the movie was great and if I watch it a lot more times I could probably recitate the dialouge as long as my attention wasn’t in two places at once. IF you love dogs, you should definatley watch this movie!

Outrage of Emergency Act Ruling

I’m completely disgusted at the recent ruling of the emergency Act Ruling in regards to weather or not Trudeau’s government did or did not break the law by implanting the Emergency Act when so-called protestors spend weeks basically shutting down ALL of Ottawa in 2022.

For those who don’t know in 2022 from mid-January til February 14th there were a bunch of “protestors” who settled in Ottawa “Complaing” about the Covid 19 Restrictions but during the weeks (Jan 29th to Feb 14) that the “protestors” harassed, attacked, or other wised harmed the Ottawa Citizens to the point that business including the Rideau Centre (aka mall)- had to shut down because people were too afraid to go to work because of being psychically attacked-I think more then several citizens ended up on the ground due to attacks. In the early weeks until one woman was able to get an injunction I believe its called- these “protesters” were honking their horns 24/7 so that no one could sleep- so that some of these residents lost their hearing.  And a week or so before the Emergency Act was passed-that some of these protests basically did terrorist threats by putting I can’t remember weather if it was a real or fake Smoke Bomb and then locked an apartment door with people still inside the building and then tried to claim it was the anti-protestors who did that trying to frame them.  And since several police officers were on the “protestors” side, they even called off sick to work so didn’t do spit on dealing with them until AFTER Feb 14th. I also want to add-that some protestors blocked off the Canadian/U.S. borders as well.  Oh and also some of these “protestors” were intentionally going to the bathroom on people’s lawns.

There had been an public injury and that judge/justice ruled that Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act was justified because of it-the “protests” being a threat to both the government and to the citizens of Ottawa. Another ruling was made on Tuesday and that ruling said it was illegal basically and that Trudeau’s government was breaking the law. So basically the 2nd justice (who was looking at something different then the first one) is saying that the criminal people who terrorized Ottawa should be free to join other protests but if it had been any other kind of case-the criminal isn’t suppose to do the crime they got arrested for- ie a Robber who gets caught isn’t suppose to go rob again after being on bail; a person with a firearm violation isn’t suppose to go and get another fire arm on bail; a person with history of SA, or DV, isn’t suppose to be with or go near their ( ex-partners) they committed SA/DV on; and so on and so forth. 

I think the justice should be removed from his post and replaced with a justice who actually has brains because apparently this justice apparently needs to see a certain wizard to get some brains because at the moment he technically hasn’t gotten any..

Kidnapped(1960)

Warning: Spoiler!

Kidnapped was a great Disney movie. Its about the 1751 story of a Scottish boy David Bafour (who doesn’t know he was Scottish until his father’s death) who goes to live with his misery uncle. Due to plot reasons, the Scottish misery uncle doesn’t want to live with him so arranges to have him kidnapped. After meeting Alan “Breck” Stewart (a historical character) on board the ship and getting shipwrecked, the two try to find their way back to England- for David to get to a lawyer and for Breck to get a ship to France. Using Breck’s help, that they got David’s uncle to confess to the crime of paying someone for kidnapping David. The plot reasons being that David’s father, the eldest brother, gave up the right to the estate/wealth when the girl both liked chose David’s father. But that agreement died when David’s father died.

The movie was very interesting, I think i read the book quite a long time ago so I can’t remember if it matches up or not. But sometimes I wonder if I had another life- as a child or youth who never reached Young Adult but watched these movies because when I watched Kidnapped- near the end I thought it looked familiar and this time I can’t pass it off as seeing it on the “Family Film Collection” ad because it’s not there.

It’s was interesting seeing Peter O’ Toole as a son of Rob Roy McGregor as the Disney debate folks put it- Kidnapped is the unofficial sequel to Rob Roy movie. Robin McGregor (O’ Tool’s character) and Breck have a bagpipe duel instead of using swords. Both of them were pretty good but Robin appeared to be even better. This is from someone who doesn’t have much experience with them. This movie was Peter O’ Toole’s first film, and two more movies with him followed in the same year and within weeks of this film.

It was also interesting in seeing James McArthur for me the last time since I already watch Disney’s Swiss Family Robinson movie and I have to agree with Disney Debate folk- he was way better in this then A Light in the Forest and Third Man on the Mountain -but I have to think historically in the first film-A light in the Forest about the actual reason for McArthur’s character to be ‘having a ton of arguments” – I mean imagine if you were taking by another (non-white) culture as child and raise in that culture’s ways and then suddenly you’re can become a “white” person again but you haven’t been a white person since you were “6, or 7 or 8” (and yes I might have borrowed that half-line from a non-Disney musical) and you’re like 16, 18, or 20 years old now? Especially when their (the white folks) customs are strange to you compared to the customs of the non-white people who mostly raised you after taking you? 

Its like the other way around of cases, here in Canada where youth of I believe it was Afghan descendent are deported to Afghanistan despite being born in, or at least raised here since they’re really young so they don’t speak the language of their people and the parents have passed away or something before the youth was deported.

Not entirely certain why the other character from Third Man on the Mountain was so argumentative, but maybe it’s because everyone – his uncle, mother, and the hotel owner – were cramping his style as he tried to follow in his father’s footsteps as a mountaineer guide. Naturally, that would make anyone grumpy. I can relate to that frustration – I have to assert my independence too, but in a completely different way.

During the movie I sometimes have to remind myself that we are in 18th century that means the 1700s so King George the first was on the throne-first of the Hanoverians which technically ended when Queen Victoria married Prince Albert and the family became Saxe-Coburg and Gotha which didn’t get changed until WWI under George V to “Windsor”.  I’m kind of used to the tri-corner hats but sometimes its gets confusing sometimes watching men where weird hats like that but I sometimes have to remember I used to see a dog wear a hat like that before -(Wishbone TV series). I also have to remind myself in movies in the 18th century-what a Jacobite was. Someone who believes that James II’s Catholic descendants should be on the throne instead of the “foreigner” Hanoverian King George Ist. 

Supposedly the Kidnapped story by Robert Louis Stevenson (Who was apparently half-Scottish on his mother’s side, the last name for David, was his mother’s maiden name), were inspired by two real-life events- the kidnapping of a Irish boy, by his uncle who was sent to do indentured servitude in the Carolinas but after 13 years he escaped and came back to Ireland and caused a very long lawsuit aganist his uncle. 

The other inspirations and the only inspiration, according to Fanny Stevenson was the Appin Murder trial otherwise known as The Trial of James Stewart the trial of James Stewart for the murder of Colin Roy Campbell, otherwise known as “the Red Fox” , due to the fact he as a Royalist, Hanoverian supporter was clearing out of the Stewarts clan and replacing them with members of his own Clan Campbell. Their (Campbell clan) main suspect was Alan Breck Stewart but he was out of their range because of being in France so to speak. And James was just as innocent and when his body was returned to the Stewart clan, the actual murderer of the Red Fox had to wash James’ bones for the Reform Funeral. And also the hills, or Glens, which the murder took place, the lord (or laird) was James of the Glen who might have actually ordered the kill despite him denying it for years afterwards.

Learning about Food for the Masses

Trigger Warning: suicide mentioned.

Beside watching Disney movies (for research purposes for my SimLit) I been watching TV documentary series the first series was “Toys that built America” explaining how everything from Game of Life and Monopoly board games to gross out products like Slimmer and others got created or made. The current series I just started is “Food That Built America” 

Let’s me list some things I found interesting:

KELLOGG’s

What I found interesting that I didn’t know before is the Dr. John Kellogg of the Kellogg Sanatorium is the first person to have made an exercise tape- due to the fact TVs weren’t a thing back in those days the exercise tape was of course on a record. It’s kind of a same both his Sanatorium, and later his brother’s first cereal factory burned down. 

POST/GENERAL MILLS FOOD

C.W. Post was a patient at Kellogg Santorum and because he wasn’t rich like the other patients he couldn’t afford to pay the normal way so he helped by working with Will Kellogg in the kitchen. When his time was finished at the Santorum, he “stole” the recipe for the “cereal” that was yet to be invented. That after his suicide death he left everything to his 27 year old daughter Marjorie Post which was unheard of at that time when women weren’t in the work force yet

  c) and she apparently had quiet the eye for good deals? That she brought up other businesses including a company (Birdseye) that was having trouble getting its feet off the ground due to the lack of cold storage everywhere from trains & trucks, to homes.

HEINZ

I found it really interesting that Heinz ketchup factory was the very first factory to have electricity. Also he was the first person to have their product in clear container to make it more trust worthy. He also was the first person to have an assembly line (so that means even before Henry Ford!). I also learned that, Henry Heinz, through his son, Howard, that the United States got a precursor to the FDA under “Teddy” Roosevelt to try to stop the other competitors from putting “nasty stuff” in their “knock-off” versions of Heinz’ ketchup. Even if the predecessor of the FDA also got Cola company because by then, the main ingredient in it, was no longer being use.

HERSEY

I was not aware until listening to this that milk chocolate was a luxury in Europe but Henry Hersey wanted to get it “to the masses” and he wanted to use fresh dairy milk in Pennsylvania near where his factory town is now. I didn’t realize THE William Murray mentioned in the first two episodes aka Hersey’s semi-partner was the same Murray whos name is represented in the M&Ms from the Mars company. I also found it interesting that Hersey company in the Great Depression greeted a version of a “Meal Bar” aka M. Goodbar – which might or might not have been where Welsh Roald Dalh got his idea for a “meal gum” for Wonka’s Chocolate factory in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” story I knew the Great Depression was bad but it was so bad that the Hersey workers had a “sit-down” strike and it ended up in a bloody fight with the angry local dairy farmers coming in throwing stones and pitchforks and what nots. I think if Torches had still been a thing they probably would have used that as well!!!

MARS

I was not aware of the fact that the founders of MARS candy factory were father (Frank) and son (Forest) but due to reasons ( think divorce?) that Frank and Forest never really meet until Forest was an adult. You know those type of parents, that take over their children’ projects, and such? Well think of a reverse scenario so to speak which the child takes over the parent’s “project”? The next time I ever see one of those “You aren’t You when you’re hungry” Snickers commercials -I’m going to wonder if their horse turned into a human, or a donkey or another breed of horse, when it’s hungry. I’m only saying that because the candy bar Snickers was named after the Mars’ ‘favourite horse” or something like that. But after not a lot of respect from *both sides* of the father-son duo, that Forest walked out and never got to make amends with his Dad because he died shortly afterwards. But Forest didn’t directly inherited anything he had to “have a big idea” in order to buy a share in his Dad’s company and that’s how M&Ms happened. But due to U.S joining WWII that M&Ms became popular with American soldiers over seas and they wanted more of them when they got home after the war ended.

MCDONALD’S

I know the first ever McDonald’s was in California. But what I didn’t know is that Dick and Mac McDonald  had originally opened up a drive-in movie theatre but they scrapped the “movie” part of it, once they realized they’re earning most of their money from the concession stand and not from the tickets. 

So as I said they got rid of the movie part of the drive-in- movie theatre and started a drive-in resturants. But its seems to be because of a mix of both too much food on the menu as well as employees-in this case the teen girl carhops, being the age-old ENWW “Employee Not Wanting to Work” and might be more interesting in batting eyelashes, or playing with their hair-aka flirting that took forever to get out to the customers instead of it being fast like they wanted, the drive-in restaurant became a ‘glorified parking lot” as the series called it.  So they fired the car hops and eventually figured out the “fast food assembly line” that we’re know so well today with the flipping and assembling of burgers and the frying of fries or other fried items. They didn’t even mind showing it to anyone who asked- that on the same day they showed it to the two people who would make one of McDonald’s competitors, Burger King, as well as Glen Bell who would create Taco Bell.

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)

As I said with another company above, I know the Great Depression was bad but to understand just how bad it was is listening to the early days of Colonel Sanders’ (before he was a Colonel of course) gas station/service-station in Hell’s Arce Kentucky gives you a new perspective. That there was one other service station in the town, that the two had an ongoing war so to speak because the latter kept painting over Colonel Sanders’. signs for the service station. It got so bad that the last time, the Colonel Sanders and the other guy literally got into a gun fight and the former short the latter in the shoulder but one of Colonel Sanders’ employees got killed. The other service-owner got put into jail.

It was around this time that Colonel Sanders started a mini-restaurant in his service station of course serving chicken. Like the Dick and Mac McDonald brothers, that customers at this restaurant got tired of I think the hour long wait for the food- that Colonel Sanders had to find a quickly way to cook the chicken so that he turned a pressure cooker into a pressure fryer and boom business! But its a shame after WWII, that I think is was Route 66, was created so it passed by Route 22/25 where his sit-down restaurant was so because he was so much in debt, that he had to sell off the restaurant. But that didn’t stop him and he took the chicken recpie and the pressure fryer on the road and sold it to various buisiness and saying he would get 4% of the sales of each chicken sold.  The recipe and the pressure fryer didn’t get completely sold until the 1960s when someone brought it outright from him.

I wonder what I’m going to learn next from Season 2 and Season 3 of the series? I know that the next topic is two Pizza restaurants I’m familiar with Pizza Hut and Domino’s.