Disney Challenge Days 17 and 18

First off: HAPPY NEW YEAR! Today is New Year's Eve and also the 'One Week 'Til Florida' mark! I leave next Tuesday at 9:30 am and will arrive in Orlando at 7:30 on Tuesday night. I got the email from the people at the DCP to register for my housing and roommates--fingers crossed that all of that works out :) I haven't unpacked TOO much since coming home for Christmas so I'm hoping that packing everything won't be a complete and total nightmare...but we'll see.

I. Am. So. Excited.

But anyways:

Disney Challenge #17: Least Favorite Classic

I have to go with Pinocchio on this one.
For whatever reason, I just have always thought this movie was just...dull. I wish I had more words to justify my standpoint on this one but I really don't. It was just weird to me. He turns into a donkey and then is eaten by a whale. That whale is terrifying to a young child by the way. I don't know why but Pinocchio didn't do it for me.

Disney Challenge #18: Favorite Pixar film

This one is so hard because I feel like Pixar really knocks it out of the park with the majority of their movies. Pixar is really hit-or-miss with me: I absolutely love them, or I'm not a fan. They're definitely not mediocre by anyone's standards.
I have to say my all-time favorite is "The Incredibles".

What's not to love? The family is hilarious. I grew up thinking that my dad basically was Mr Incredible--he was the strongest man in the world. My mother could absolutely be ElastiGirl. I was the living embodiment of Violet throughout middle school and my younger sister would absolutely be Dash. Jack-Jack is so precious.

My sister has the scene between Frozone and his wife memorized. She's not afraid to bust that sucker out whenever the situation calls for it.

Start 2014 out with a laugh...I couldn't resist

I'm still waiting on a sequel to this movie. It totally highlighted the beauty of a nuclear family. There are very few Disney movies that have Mommy and Daddy in the picture. This one shows the chaotic dysfunction of a normal family...but then shows how awesome it can all be if we're all on one team. I love it. Absolutely love it to pieces.

Disney Challenge Days 11 and 12

 

Disney Challenge Day #11: Favorite Love Song

"We're not saying you can change him,
'Cuz people don't really change.
We only say that love's a force
That's powerful and strange.
People make bad choices when they're
Mad or scared or stressed.
But throw a little love their way
And you'll bring out their best!"

And that my friends, is wisdom. Plain simple truth stated in a song sung by trolls. Therein lies the magic of Disney.

The song "Fixer Upper" from the new movie Frozen takes the cake for my favorite love song simply because it's true. No unrealistic expectations here. No 'smoke and mirrors' effect where someone tries to hide their flaws from their love interest. No deception. Just brutal honesty from his 'family' because they want to see him end up with someone who accepts and loves these flaws of his.
What more could you ask for?

I say yet again: if you haven't gone to see 'Frozen'...just go see it already. It's wonderful.

Disney Challenge Day 7 and 8

Sidekicks and Villains

Day #7: Favorite Sidekick

So many choices. So many classics. So much comic relief. Nearly impossible to narrow it down. So now it's a tie:

Choice #1: Tantor from Tarzan.
He's big. He's red. He's supportive...but he's just so anxious and comical that you can't help but just want to snuggle him. What other child is aware of piranhas and bacteria in the water? He's incredibly intelligent and his little child voice is just too darn cute for me to handle. Terk was a bit too obnoxious for me to fully love, but Tantor was perfection.


Choice #2: Grumpy from Snow White

Maybe it's because my family insists that I'm Grumpy and therefore buys me all Grumpy merchandise, but I think he's fantastic! He's determined to have a bad time regardless of anything that happens to him. Snow tries her very best to get him to soften and be happier, but he is so gosh darn stubborn.

I have a canvas bag with Grumpy on it that, I discovered last summer, was the perfect size to take to the river when I went swimming after classes (woot woot college life!). It fit my water bottle, towel, sunscreen, and assorted snacks without becoming too big and bulky. There was one week last spring where we went swimming 5 days in a row. When there's no AC and you're stuck in rural Idaho with minimal amounts of homework, you go swimming a lot.

But anyways, there was one day that I was hastily packing my things and I turned to my roommate frantically: "Hey have you seen my Grumpy bag?"

My dear guyfriend (name withheld to protect his dignity) was sitting right there and got the strangest look on his face,  "Ohhhhhhhhhhh, I get it. Say no more, Syd. I understand".

My roommate and I exchanged looks. We weren't talking in code (though to be fair, we spoke in code quite frequently around him) and had no idea what he was talking about.

"Well...you know... your grumpy bag. Don't worry, I have sisters. I get it. Your monthly circumstances come with being a girl. Don't feel embarrassed," he said, giving me a hug in some weird attempt so I wouldn't feel awkward.

At this point, I busted into laughter and had to explain that my bag literally just had Grumpy the dwarf on it and was not my secret codename for a bag that stored my tampons. He was blushing pretty hardcore every time we brought it up for the rest of the day.

Disney Challenge Day 5 and 6

Heroes and Animals

Day #5: Favorite Hero

I have to say, Hercules is the man. He's the epitome of an underdog: small and scrawny, not well liked, constantly in trouble, and not a whole lot of self-esteem. The storyline is beautiful. It's not about loving yourself for who you are, but discovering how you can better the world and become the person that you want to be. The Hercules of ancient mythology isn't a very kind and uplifting individual (murders his wife and family blah blah blah) so I absolutely love the Disney spin that was put onto this character.




Not to mention that the song "Go the Distance" is the ultimate Disney jam. I got to play it in a piano recital in either my junior or senior year of high school and absolutely fell in love with it. Coincidentally, I was also reading the 'Percy Jackson' series at that moment in time so it was a Greek mythology overload. Can we just fall in love with the beauty of the soundtrack from the entire movie? I mean, the Muses are fantastic. If they could provide the backup music for my life, that'd be swell. "I Can't Say I'm In Love" is possibly the ultimate love song. It describes my feelings of love and romance in a way that no Taylor Swift song could ever possibly come close to doing so.


Herc is great but the minor characters are fantastic as well: Meg is the best romantic interest ever, Phil is hilarious, and Hades is a great villain. I'd be a little bitter too if my grand old brother exiled me to take care of dead people for eternity. Can't say that I blame him too much for trying to upset the balance of the universe and overthrow Olympus. I don't necessarily agree with him for putting everyone in shackles and having the Titans kind of destroy the earth....but I can empathize with him.

Sorry, I found this hilarious

I'm all about romances that lead to some bit of sacrifice and make you a better person in the end. Hercules and Meg definitely fit that definition. She shoves her suddenly-weak-demigod-boyfriend out of the way and allows herself to be crushed by a stone pillar that was toppled over by a Titan out to kill the previously mentioned boyfriend. That does NOT sound like a pleasant way to go, but it was an incredible act of selflessness. Then there's Herc who willingly swims through a sea of dead souls (Ewwwwww. Ew ew ew. EWWW!) to reclaim Meg's soul. That's some major commitment.

Last but not least, he gives up the chance to be a full-fledged god and live with his family and his peers on Mount Olympus with intense cosmic power...to be a mortal on earth with Meg. He doesn't even put it up for debate. As soon as realizes that Meg can't be with him on Olympus, he's like "Ooh sorry Dad! I'm out!" Even Arwen in LOTR had some sort of internal debate spanning 3 movies about giving up eternal youth to be with her man. Way to go Hercules! You go Herc!

Disney Challenge Day 3 and 4

Heroines and Princes

Day #3: Favorite Heroine 

Maybe I'm cheating a little bit on this one, but I maintain that it's still fair. While Anna from 'Frozen' is my favorite Disney character, I have to say that Belle from 'Beauty and the Beast' is my favorite heroine. Technically, Belle isn't a princess throughout like 99% of her movie and therefore she's more of a heroine than a princess.

I feel like there's very little that needs to be said about this topic. She really is the best. She's well-read, open-minded, loyal to her family, and--above all--she's not desperate! We don't really know much about Cinderella's dating life, but I'm going to go out on a limb and suspect that she didn't really have much time to go out on many dates after working all day. She fell head over heels with literally the very first guy she danced with and knew nothing about him other than that he's charming.

Belle had Gaston wrapped around her finger. He was the most popular boy in school (or in their case, the most popular guy in their poor provincial town) and he was nuts for her. He wanted her to marry him and bear him lots of little babies. And for every other female in that town, that seemed like the ideal life. But Belle was not only wise enough to see that Gaston wasn't exactly the kindest fellow, she also had enough self-respect to turn him down. She wasn't so desperate for love and affection that she settled for the first bozo that came knocking. Not only that, but she was incredibly polite in her rejection of Gaston. Belle is just a classy lady.

In my limited-yet-often-awkward-and-humorous dating encounters, I know that it can be difficult to distinguish between attention/affection and actually having true feelings for someone. Kudos for Belle for being able to not only tell the difference, but being brave enough to act on it. While she had a severe case of wanderlust, she realized that her chances of leaving the town were slim and her chances of finding a suitable man were even more slim. Gaston was potentially the only marriage offer that she was going to get. She chose to live the single life rather than settle for a man that she didn't love. Coming from living in a Mormon college town where it's pretty taboo to not find yourself a man and get hitched at a young age, Belle is pretty much a rockstar in my humble opinion.

That's even before you get into any of the awesomeness that occurs as she encourages her dad to follow his dreams despite how badly his mere existence embarrasses her with the cool kids in town. Or how she immediately jumps on a horse to head off into scary wolf-infested woods when her dad goes missing. Not to mention how perfectly selfless she is when she doesn't even hesitate to take her father's place in jail for the rest of her life. Then we get into how she sees all of the Beast's flaws and insecurities and character defects and his terrifying physical appearance, and still falls in love with him anyways.

Please, find me a better Disney heroine. Belle is the cream of the crop.

Disney Challenge: Days 1 and 2

 

Finals are over. The apartment is cleaned and moved out of. I have evacuated out of the cold frozen potato-infested region. I survived one heck of a car accident (goodbye Phyllis the Toyota Camry! I have never had a noble steed to call my own, but I do believe you were the noblest of the noble as far as car/steeds go!). My 15 hour road-trip morphed into a 30+ hour road-trip due to the complications that come with totaling a vehicle in the middle of nowhere.

But all is well! I am home at last in the Golden State where you can step outside in a tee-shirt and not catch hypothermia. As much as I love that quaint little college town, I do not miss my nosehairs freezing when I'm outside. Life is beautiful. There's nothing before me now except for four months of pure magical bliss. Yes, Christmas is going to be wonderful. This is my favorite time of the year for all of those happy warm fuzzy reasons. But for me, the joyous feelings aren't going to stop and I can postpone the entrance back to the real world for a little bit longer.

Why, you might ask?

Because I'm going to go live and work at Walt Disney World for four months. I'm under no illusions: I'm hired because college kids are totally cheap labor and yes, my pay is going to be less than it would be if I had a minimum wage job here in my hometown. I'm totally aware of it. But on my days off I can take a picture with Flynn Rider and ride Space Mountain...so I'm not complaining :)

In order to channel my somewhat-obsessive/overly excited feelings towards this new adventure, I turned to Pinterest for some ideas on how to keep myself busy/distracted. And I stumbled upon a 30 Day Disney Challenge for bloggers. According to the beautiful CountDown App on my phone (hush, don't judge me), I have 14 days until I catch a plane to Orlando which means that I'll have to double up and do two days worth of challenges at a time butttttt that's totally fine with me :) So....let's do this thing!

Day Number One: Favorite Character

The issue with me (and trust me, I have many many issues) is that I have so many favorites that I really struggled to nail them all down into one category because they could fit in so many. For example: Belle is my favorite princess but technically she's a heroine. But anyways, I digress.

For the issue of favorite character, there really was no debate. If you know anything about me and my love of Disney, it's that I absolutely adore the Lion King. So my favorite character is, naturally, Simba.

It took me many, many moons to understand the themes and the dynamics all at work in "The Lion King". No, it's not completely original. Yes, it's based off of Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'. But man oh man do I absolutely love it. 20 years of life later and I can still enjoy it. I have way too much of it committed to memory and I'm at the point where I have to monitor who I'm with when I watch it because I will do the full running dialogue throughout the entire thing.

Last Christmas the Broadway stage production of "The Lion King" came to San Francisco and my Christmas present to myself were two tickets to go and see it. My younger sister accompanied me and while she enjoyed it, I don't think she geeked out nearly as much as I did. I was in absolute heaven. If you ever have the chance to go see it GO. I'll be going again in a heartbeat if it ever comes to my neck of the woods again. The costumes are incredible and the way that the actors have taught themselves to move like wild animals...it's pretty amazing to watch. I'm a fan. 

The nerdiness has continued since my discovery of using 'Spotify' to listen to movie/musical soundtracks while I work on homework or write. The soundtrack for the Broadway version of the Lion King is powerful. My personal favorite song: "Endless Night". So much beauty and depth. It's more than a story about a lion and his silly meerkat/warthog friends. It's a movie with powerful themes and motifs on life and accepting who you are despite the mistakes that you've made. Plus...c'mon, Pumbaa is adorable ;)

I'm including a link to a YouTube video of a performance of 'Endless Night' on the Rosie O'Donnell show back in the day. Seriously go watch it and just fall in love. Plus: look at that costuming. A man. But a lion. At the same time. Pure genius.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7AeTFYsBgc