My Experience With... The Lego Batman Movie (LAST POST OF 2017!)

Awww, yeah, here we go!
Out of the disappointments and into
what we've been waiting for!

As you may have read previously (specifically in the Lego’s Batman: The Movie review), I am not much of a superhero-genre-watcher. It’s interesting, just not my immediate style. I do like the How It Should Have Ended series, mainly for its comedy, and the fact that these superheroes often stay in their superhero form. Speaking of comedy and superhero genre, I finally got my hands on a free rental for The Lego Batman Movie.

While Princess Unikitty is without a doubt my absolute favorite character from The Lego Movie, Lego Batman was probably the coolest, and my second favorite. When I first heard he was getting his own movie, I was ecstatic! My poor parents did not share in my excitement. Oh, it’s not that they disliked The Lego Movie, there’s just a generation chasm. My mom is not necessarily one for Legos or modern animated films, and my Dad is not necessarily one for Legos or post-Adam West Batman. I’d heard it was a good movie, and after the *mild* disappointment from what I thought was The Lego Batman Movie, I suddenly became more excited than ever.

To make myself even more appropriately excited, I watched The Lego Movie before The Lego Batman Movie… well, technically. There may or may not have been a viewing of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in between the two movies. I was still excited!

THIS HAD ME LAUGHING FROM THE FIRST LINES. Oh, man! It actually starts with a Batman voice-over critique and a Michael Jackson quote! I was dying!

The story starts off about as basic superhero folklore as it gets. The joker wants to take over Gotham City…

I know how that meme is supposed to

be used, but I feel it still applies here.

…using an admittedly overcomplicated bomb and a ton of Batman Supervillains (Apparently, there are many; I don’t know how many were legit, but the movie claims they’re real. I’m not Googling them.) under the city to do so. With the city somehow surviving as a bunch of Lego-like plates over no actual foundation, just an abyss, plus the fact that Batman cannot be reached. the town is in real trouble.

Batman, however, inexplicably arrives on the scene. And of course, Batman defeats the Joker… but not without a – what I like to call – Nemesis Lovers’ Spat. In order to understand what I mean, think about when Dr. Doofenschmirtz had a minor falling out with Perry the Platypus when he was secretly fighting Peter the Panda on the side.

Hmm. P-names… everyone has a type, I guess.

Anyway, the Joker not only thinks that Batman’s obsessed with him, he also thinks he’s Batman’s greatest enemy! Batman gives Joker a MAJOR shutdown, leaving Joker a bit… deflated. For those who saw the movie….

If you’ve been reading my blog as well,

you knew that meme would be back.

Batman in this movie is comically full of himself, as he was in The Lego Movie, and to a lesser extent Lego’s Batman: The Movie. He’s still insanely rich, with a lair that would be the ultimate man-cave, and he frequently visits the orphanage to give out Batman merchandise. There is one bespectacled boy there who is obviously Batman’s biggest and shyest fan. The only thing Batman lacks is friends/ / a stable family…. unless you count his computer, and his butler, Alfred.

You wish.

This movie is incredible. I knew it was going to be good, but I didn’t realize just HOW good this was. It shows a (somewhat predictable) journey for Batman and his inner quest to open himself up to let people into his life… and save the world from one of cinema’s best crossovers. I did NOT, however expcect a Bat-fax to be included. I guess Hobbes was right on his prediction.

Hey, it was still amazing!!!

The best part about this movie is that, like The Lego Movie, it included a ton of material for a huge age range. It has a ton of charm, and excellent geeky references for both the amateur and extreme. I’d recommend this for ages 8 and up, but I guess a 5-year-old could watch it, too, depending on the parent’s discretion. This was simple an amazing film.

Plugging time! YouTube Page.

Well, as I mentioned in last week's post, this is the last post I have for 2017. I'm taking an extended holiday break to recharge. Hope you enjoy the rest of 2017, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and I'll see you in 2018!

Bye!

If you had to hug a flower, what would you hug? And what would your superhero alter-ego be?

My Experience With... Perms

Lots of memes today.

Okay. There are a few posts on this blog that have addressed hair and hair problems. I want to bring up the topic at least one more time. 

Growing up, I had a pretty common hairstyle of young girls:

(Uhh... what the heck, Snoop?)

Ah those were the days. I didn't get a whole lot of chemicals put into my hair back then, but if one of those barrettes came out, there went my hairstyle... and I knew Mom wouldn't be too happy.

Eventually, my hair decided to change. For those of you who don't know, there comes a point in the kinky-haired child's life, when the hair changes in texture and consistency, usually from soft, wavy, and easy to style, to the biggest pain in the neck (literally!) you will ever experience. The age of the person whose hair turns, as it is called, varies from person to person. You'll know especially when the child really starts crying (see above meme), and the stylist (often the mother) screams, "THAT'S IT! I'M GETTING RELAXER!" We did try relaxer once...

I can hear some of you going, "Called it!"

It didn't quite mess up my hair. My hair actually downright REJECTED it. So instead of my hair looking pretty like the little angel's (above) hair, I ended up with a hardly touched bush. We rinsed that out quickly and never spoke of it again. ^_^

Then came the fateful day when my mother discovered the one thing that DID work...

Quick question: Why do we use these things? They stink like the dickens, they make us stink like the dickens, and it's painfully obvious we use this stuff when our hair grows back in. What the heck?

To be fair, if I were to have to use a relaxer for the rest of my life, it would be this. HIGHLY diluted. It doesn't stink as badly as other relaxers, and for me, it seems to say, "Oh, your hair is kinky, but if you use the real stuff, it will take out your hair like you wouldn't believe. Let's leave the curl, but take out the painful kink." It's the perfect abusive boyfriend!

Some of you are probably ready to comment saying that this is technically a texturizer. I counterpoint that, saying, yes. It is technically a texturizer. And texturizers are a subset of relaxers. So yeah, "transitioners" who use texturizers:

The difference between relaxers and texturizers is essentially the process to end result. Both CAN straighten your hair out completely (if you have a curl pattern in your hair). With relaxers, that's essentially its job. It makes your hair bone straight in a relatively short amount of time. Texturizers, however, have a slightly different agenda. Instead of making your hair straight, it makes your hair go into a wave pattern. The common factors of these two is that both contain crazy harsh chemicals, and both reconstruct the amino acids in your hair... which can be already very brittle.

If you haven't seen Good Hair already,

I recommend you watch it, especially

if you are curious about black hair.

I would imagine that I started perming my hair (relaxers and texturizers are perms, btw) when I was 9, I suppose, though my mother has used mild setting lotions before then. I say 9, because that's about the age I was when I first saw slick edges in my old photos.

Oh, you wanted a pic? Don't hold your breath.

When I say slick edges, I mean something like this:

They say that this is achievable w/o relaxer. I haven't found a way that doesn't involve stiffeningly hard gel.

And yes, I mean this:

Now, those are decent edges, above. Now, natural or new growth edges can look like this:

While they're not necessarily bad, they're not as aesthetically pleasing, and not everyone will understand natural edges or natural hair, unless they're curious enough to do research. Since I work front desk, I use this stuff.

I have used every last one of these products before, but it's the first three from the left that I use the most. As much as I can't stand it -- this stuff stinks, burns, and I really think it does more harm than good -- it does wonders on my hair.

Seriously, it does make my hair easier to put into buns, ponytails, comb-outs, flat-irons. So what's the big deal, you wonder. Truthfully, I just plain don't like perms. That's it. I think there are always alternatives to just removing a kink or chemically straightening. Practices have been done since the dawn of time! Ancient people didn't have Bronner conventions, Dudley relaxers, not even Madame C.J. Walker's hot comb!

While I don't like perms in general, I don't deny that it does make hair look good, and if you choose to use it, work it! For me, however, I will keep using that creamy crack until I get my own business or something along that self-employed line, and hopefully will become a mom to natural-haired children.

Buh-bye!

Plugging time! YouTube Page.

ANNOUNCEMEMENT: Blogging regularly takes a lot of work, and I need a break, so The Lego Batman Movie review-- coming next week --will be the last blog I do for the year. I'll be taking an extended holiday leave to relax (no pun intended) and probably come up with new stuff to write about. Thank you for your continued support, and I'll see you in 2018! (Hopefully.)

What's your best hairstyle? What was your worst hair day?

My Experience With... Lego's Batman: The Movie (DC Super Heroes Unite)

Shall I continue with disappointments?

I am not what you might call a total fan of the whole DC / Marvel Superhero genre. I don’t hate it, but I’m not the type to rush to watch a midnight viewing. Then again, I’m not in a rush to even rent such movies from Redbox. That’s what internet jokes and YouTube channels are for. However, I did find Lego Batman to be my favorite character in The Lego Movie, and I definitely wanted to see The Lego Batman Movie. So, I found my opportunity! I went to the library and saw a DVD, and picked it up.

There was one problem. You know how sometimes you think something’s one thing, when it’s really something ever so slightly different? What I thought was The Lego Batman Movie turned out to be Lego's Batman The Movie. I decided to watch it, anyway, just for the heck of it.

Fun fact: this movie came out a year before

The Lego Movie. I’d never even known it existed.

The movie starts off with a pretty cool lego-themed background (revealed to be the bat sign), along with the Danny Elfman version of the Batman theme. The na-na-na-na-na version would’ve been pretty funny over the otherwise serious-looking opening, but I still loved the opening they chose. Took me back to my first year of college, when my marching band played that as part of its halftime show (we had a superhero-themed show with Batman, X-Men, and a Superman medley). Then we start our story with definitely CGI’d Lego Batman and Superman, as they face Lex Luthor.

Don’t worry, I know some of the superhero

characters. I used to watch the Adam West

version of Batman with my Dad.

The two heroes are defeated quickly by a joint effort between Lex and the Joker (I’m guessing the Romero version). Then they go to two days earlier, when Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne (I know that’s Batman, thank you.) are at a “Man of the Year” award ceremony. Bruce wins, but the trophy and other valuables are stolen by the Joker (and a slew of other villains). Batman and Robin retrieve it after an action-packed scuffle.

In the middle of the showdown, Batman used a super forcefield to keep his Batmobile intact. Superman shows up after the fight to help retrieve items lost or damaged in the fight. As you may or may not be aware, Superman and Batman are not exactly the best of buddies. More like frienemies, really. And not even very good ones.

I never understood that. One is a mutant alien savior,

the other is basically a rich crooked cop. They both

save people! It makes no sense to me. If you feel like

explaining to me in great or minute detail what I’m missing,

I give you full permission to comment below.

Lex Luthor is clearly unhappy about his loss, but has not completely lost hope. He’s a candidate for President of the United States. However, he’s way less popular than even Jill Stein was in the polls!

She’s neither Trump nor Hillary. She’s fair game.

He watches the tapes of The Joker’s arrest, as well as past footage of his villainous schemes, and decides to break him out of prison and hire him to join forces against our two superheroes. Here’s where I’ll stop. It’s a seemingly cheap flick, but the story doesn’t seem so bad.

I suppose the CG is pretty good, given its time period. It makes the Legos look like rubber, but since this seems more like a Cartoon Network flick than a summer blockbuster, I’ll certainly let it pass. The effects themselves are fascinating to watch, even though the sets definitely look half-Lego and half-realistic.

It’s a quick watch, considering the story itself is about an hour long, but it does do what it’s supposed to do: give easy laughs, distract the mind for a long period of time, and have a nice little moral. I was a little bit confused by the ending, but I’m just going to assume that I just don’t understand Justice League folklore.

If you have especially little kids, this is a perfect for them, whether they’re into the superhero genre or not.

What’s the biggest / zaniest / most embarrassing mistake you’ve made?

Plugging time! YouTubePage

My Experience With... Mousehunt and Kangaroo Jack

My Experience With... Mousehunt and Kangaroo Jack.

I’ve mentioned before that I really like cheap entertainment, and that I have found DVD combinations in Food Lion such as Cats Don’t Dance / Quest for Camelot and Fantastic Mr. Fox / Robots. However, not all combinations are created equal. Or even good, in the case of Bride Wars / 27 Dresses (no, seriously, I just want Bride Wars). Some combinations just look like an apocalypse in a case, such as…

*deeeep, sucking-through-teeth inhale*

…Mousehunt / Kangaroo Jack.

My GOSH, if there were ever a cinematic duo so abysmal, it would be these two. And oddly enough, I somehow still have fondness of the first one rather than the second one.

I’m only going by memory here, folks. No way am I about

to watch these two masterflunks again.

I originally recall catching the end of Mousehunt on TV with my Mom, and it seemed really cute. The mouse was adorable, and the closure seemed perfectly apropos to a family movie. So we bought it. Or rented it. Or something.

Talk about a 180.

The ending was about the ONLY part I liked in this movie. This was rated PG, but apparently during that point in time that it didn’t mean, “one guy dies” or “some obscure character said a mild curse word.” Nope. I don’t necessarily mind cartoon violence. For crying out loud, I grew up watching Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera series, and Tex Avery shorts. What I do mind is the voice of Timon talking about the lineage of female canines. Yeah, there was quite a bit of language, some sexual stuff in there (again, if only comical). It’s one thing to have that marketed to an older audience, but it’s another thing to make it look like some adorable mouse chef chase that’s family fun for all ages.

Thank GOD Disney / Pixar

got it right years later.

Speaking of misleading marketing…

WHAT IN THE WORLD WENT ON HERE?

Anybody over the age of 18-20 would remember what they thought was the premise of this blasted feature: a funny talking, rapping kangaroo wearing a hoodie in the middle of Australia, for some reason. Did you need a reason? No! Why? Because it’s a funny, talking, rapping kangaroo!!! For many kids (and their unsuspecting parents… SOLD! The kangaroo rapping was cool with the kids, and the kangaroo rapping a Sugarhill Gang song was cool with the parents.

My Dad took me to see this movie, and I was STOKED. AS WAS EVERY OTHER KID BROUGHT TO THE THEATRE BY THEIR PARENTS.

The movie started with… a crime chase? Huh? Okay. Waiting for the kangaroo, I guess. It took a long stinking time, and I remember getting bored. Then we saw the kangaroo… yay? It didn’t talk. Or dance. Or rap. It barely made noises. It did kick one of the main characters, though. That got a laugh. I guess I was desperate. It may have done other things, too, but I don’t remember.

We finally got to the part where Kangaroo Jack started doing what we saw in the trailer. What started that? The guy was in a dream… after being knocked unconscious… when he got KO’d by a hot chick… whose chest he had just fondled. WHY?

I will give Mousehunt a half-pass for having dudes putting their hands down women’s dresses, because THEY WERE AT LEAST LOOKING FOR A MOUSE. As comically stupid as it was (and unnecessary for a “family” film), a mouse in your clothing is pretty serious in real life.

Here, this guy was just a jerk. He thought he was hallucinating, and acted upon impulses rather than rational thinking. Yeah, pretty much all the characters in the scene (except for the jerk, himself), turned into kangaroos, and chanted “Chicken Blood” over and over again. The rest of the movie was a lot of blah-blah-blah, boring-boring-boring, we’re not gonna see any more kangaroo antics again are we? Nope. WHO CARES, I HATED IT.

There was a G’Day, USA version, but I only caught the rap part on Cartoon Network. I had some hope in this film. It was a pretty cool scene. Boxing + “Mama said knock you out” = hey, this film may be pretty goo—YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME, IT WAS STILL A DREAM SEQUENCE??! CLICK. Urrrrgh!!! If the rest of the film is any good, please let me know. In the meantime, I’ll leave Kangaroo Jack ALONE and watch The Rescuers Down Under. That movie is awesome.

I’m not a fan of these remakes in movies these days (seriously Disney, STOP remaking your classic films), but if someone were to do a Kangaroo Jack that is actually more about a talking, rapping kangaroo than a couple of loose screws stealing some cash, I would actually pay $20 to see it, plus another $20 for concessions. That’s $40 I’m willing to cough up for a re-make. Get on it, people.

Sorry this post was so rant-y. I just saw this abominable combination and knew I had to write about it. It was either that or take a lighter and some gasoline and torch the DVD section of Food Lion. The latter just seemed too mean-spirited and probably would’ve landed me in jail.

Plugging time! YouTube Page.

What’s the biggest letdown you’ve ever had?

My Experience With... Courageous (the novel)

This is not the first time I’ve written anything about the Kendrick Brothers. In fact, here are links to the series: 

• Flywheel
• Facing the Giants
• Fireproof
• Courageous
• War Room
• Bonus:Priscilla Shirer (currently my second most viewed blog post)

My favorite movie of the original Kendrick Brothers’ quintilogy is Courageous, hands down. It has it all: 5 distinct protagonists, an excellent supporting cast, great morals, and an awesome mixture of drama and comedy. Well, Randy Alcorn (a very popular Christian author) apparently saw it and decided to ramp it up to 1000. This is Courageous, the novel.

Now, if you’ve seen the movie or read my blog post (this was back when I put spoilers in my posts), you should know that the overall story arcs are the same. You have 5 main characters with different walks of life and perspectives about fatherhood. Four of them work together on the police force, and the fifth met them through a divine chance meeting / accident.

• Adam Mitchell: the “main” main catalyst character who loses his daughter in a tragic accident involving a drunk driver. This event causes him to refocus on what it means to be a good father in general, and to his ever-distant son.
• Nathan Hayes: the first man introduced in the story, and the image of what a good dad entails: being a protector, provider, partner, and teacher, to name a few attributes. His main issue, however, is that he did not forgive his own father for being an absentee dad. He also faces connecting with his teenage daughter who is ready to date.
• Shane Fuller: a divorced dad trying to make ends meet, but he goes about that in the wrong way. As in illegally.
• David Thomson: an unwed dad who struggles with a desire to avoid fatherhood.
• Javier Martinez: a blue-collar worker who meets Adam when Adam mistakes Javier for someone else with the same name. He is also a good father figure to his kids, and attributes that to his own father.

Took me a minute to write that all out. I didn’t even write the full names in the original Courageous post. Yes. I do re-read my old posts. #cringe

So why read this novel, if the story arcs are the same? Uh-uh, read back a couple of paragraphs. I said they were the same overall.

Now, the thing that makes the novel more special than the book (Can you believe it? Even if the book comes after the movie, the book is still better! lol) is what it adds to it. Courageous was in and of itself an excellent movie, but it was also a long story, even after a few (what I thought were) kinda crucial deleted scenes.

Kendrick Brothers, if you’re reading this, you should release an “Extended Edition” version of your movies.

Even with all its scenes, however, the story now seems kinda disconnected. Well, not really. I’ll explain.

According to the info about the novel, only 20% of it was new writing that wasn’t originally in the movie. That 20% makes a huge difference. It makes a difference in the story, it makes a difference in the connection of the characters, and it makes a difference in the characters themselves. If the Kendrick Brothers had made this, it probably would’ve made a much better movie, which is saying a LOT, considering how good it is already!

However…. I don’t know if I would want it in the movie.

Personally, this movie was probably more heavy-handed in its tone than the Kendrick Brothers were used to. Flywheel was a basic enough movie, and you definitely get goofy vibes among the serious parts. Facing the Giants is just one big feel-good fest. You can pretty much guess every part of the plot (seriously, it’s Remember the Titans, Christian Edition), and who doesn’t like a good game of football, or even the atmosphere there? I’m marginally enthusiastic about football games, but I hardly watch the games themselves. It’s always the atmosphere and community. Fireproof was probably the first real drama they did, and even that was very domestic. Aside from one scene involving a train, it’s still light in the heaviness. Even War Room wasn’t nearly as heavily-toned in its showing, and that involved war footage and a scene involving Priscilla Shirer’s character talking to the devil! (I’m unsure of the theological soundness of that, by the way, but it did make a half-decent monologue for someone who’d never been in a movie before.)

Yeah, I know. “Look who’s talking.”

My point is, if Courageous had gone the Randy Alcorn path, it probably would’ve been way heavier and way more severe than what the Kendrick Brothers would have been willing to go. Also, I’m glad the book had a more serious atmosphere than the movie. Personally, when I watch a movie, I don’t want to get weighed down by its atmosphere. I don’t mind a good drama, but there are limits for me. With books, I have a stronger threshold for emotional movement. A movie for me, is a complete escape from reality. A novel, however, transports me to a different reality.

I say all this to say… read the book. No, really. Not necessarily as an evangelical book, not even as a Bible study or father study book. Read it as a novel. It, like The True Meaning of Smekday, will take a couple of days to read, but I assure you, it will be worth the read.

Ciao!

Plugging time! YouTube Page.

What’s your favorite novelization?

My Experience With... Adventures in Wonderland (Alice part 5)

Well, I've finished the majority of the Alice series. Technically, that's all I can say about Alice in Wonderland. How about something based off the original whimsy, and is totally the opposite of the Tim Burton film that'll be sure to have a cult following in 20 years?

Alice series:

• My Experience With... Alice in Wonderland (Rachael Peatross edition)
• My Experience With.... Alice in Wonderland (Part 1). It's not what you think!
• My Experience With.... Alice in Wonderland (Part 2) -- The Novels 
• My Experience With.... Alice in Wonderland (Part 3) -- The Disney Version
• My Experience With.... Alice in Wonderland (Part 4) -- The OTHER "Disney" Version
• My Experience With... Adventures in Wonderland (Alice part 5)

TA-DA! TODAY'S THE MYSTERY

BLOG POST! (Plus, virtual high-five to the

first to get where this came from.)

I canNOT express enough how much I love the 1988 movie, but this is my absolute 2nd-favorite Alice-related media. If Disney's movie was a snapshot of the adventures described by Lewis Carroll, then Adventures in Wonderland is the HD .png! Just take a look at this!

Catchy, ain't it?! (Please ignore the 90s cheese.)

Adventures in Wonderland was a kids' show on Disney Channel. It had 100 episodes, and lasted from 1992 to 1995 -- a good run for any children's show. It chronicled the life of young Alice (often shown with her cat, Dinah), who had day-to-day issues that she faced, and learned corresponding lessons every time she escaped reality through her mirror into Wonderland. Each episode was a little different, but always featured a claymation story narrated by the Caterpillar (who doesn't smoke a hookah -- it's a kid's show in the 90s), and LOTS of fun songs.

Characters:

Alice: protagonist. I liked her character, and thought her singing voice was pretty cool.

Dinah: it's a cat. Nothing special for me. She's cute and fluffy, I suppose.

Red Queen: For some reason, she reminded me of my mother...

White Rabbit: Yup, it was the 90s, alright. In-line skates, anyone?

Mad Hatter: I remember asking my Mom why he was wearing lipstick.

March Hare: That makeup was super good! I think I was most impressed with his costume.

Dormouse: Awww, he was so cute! I used to wonder how they fit an actor into the teapot. I was 4. Gimme a break.

Caterpillar: Only slightly frightening to me, which was impressive given the fact that I used to scare easily. (Used to???) Zip it.

Cheshire Cat: I used to find him so hilarious.

Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum: My fave characters of all time. I used to think they were the best singers, dancers, and rappers. Never mind the fact that they didn't even look like neighbors, let alone brothers.

This was an amazing show. It had a colorful, diverse set of characters, great musical numbers, and it even subtly taught you fun nuances of the English language! How do you top that?!

I remember being so happy when I got these VHS's, and was hooked ever since. Mom even got to record a few episodes onto some blank VHS's or old tapes that I didn't like. I might still have them somewhere. Let me hit you with the episode "Off the Cuffs" from the "Hare-Raising Magic" VHS for your viewing pleasure.

Basically, it was one of the coolest kids' programs on earth, and I hope to share it with any of my future progeny.

Thank you very much for sticking with me during this 5(ish)-part series! Next week, I'm looking to go back into a previous 5-part series with a new twist. Could a book be better than a movie, even if the movie came out first???? Find out next week on My Experiences With!!! Fridays at Midngith / 9 pm PST!

Okay, that was weird....

Plugging time! YouTube Page.

What old TV show gives you the feels? Has Disney gone down in children's show quality? Is there hope for TV in the future?

My Experience With.... Alice in Wonderland (Part 4) -- The OTHER "Disney" Version

• My Experience With... Alice in Wonderland (Rachael Peatross edition)
• My Experience With.... Alice in Wonderland (Part 1). It's not what you think!
• My Experience With.... Alice in Wonderland (Part 2) -- The Novels 
• My Experience With.... Alice in Wonderland (Part 3) -- The Disney Version
• My Experience With.... Alice in Wonderland (Part 4) -- The OTHER "Disney" Version
• ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????

GURSHFGHWOJAWIFJD.

Here we go.

The first time I heard about this, everything just seemed... wrong. So wrong.

I was a little excited for a few of the actors, though, namely Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Anne "I Was Born to Be a Fairytale Character" Hathaway. So I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt, and figured that this went to the darker side of a dream, the kind of dream that isn't quite a nightmare, but a few more scares will have you seriously re-doubting yourself.

The movie was beyond disappointing for me, at first, mainly because Alice was a grown-up woman, who thought (and understandably so) that Wonderland was a dream. She's involved with all the blandness (no, seriously, look at the scenery) of her reality and it all gets interrupted when -- what else -- a white rabbit catches her eye. Deja vous, right?

Oh, and can someone change the title

to Alice in Underland? Yeah, it's "Underland,"

not "Wonderland." (WHY????)

In the original Disney version of this film (yes, this one IS a Disney version directed by Tim Burton), I mentioned that they combined the best of both of the original novels... here, they take the worst parts, age them in brine, and dress it up in goth clothes.

The whole story centers on Alice's coming of age plus fulfilling a Frabjous Day prophecy. It's that dull. While the concept itself sounds pretty cool, I think that this would be better suited in fan fiction.

I think that seems to be the case with a lot of movies these days, in a world that's dying for original content. If this were a game in a separate franchise, I might think it's cool. It's almost like that Twisted Fairytale spot-the-difference game with Goldilocks and the 3(?) Bears. It creeped me out, but it was a fresh take on a lower playing field. Even the story taking place in "Underland," is not that terrible of a concept, if it were not Disney or Tim Burton. Plus, it seemed very dark and structured for something that was supposed to be like a dreamland.

If you do watch this, try to watch without thinking of the original story, and pretend it's someone's fanfiction that got waaaaaaaaaaay too much funding.

Peace!

Plugging time! YouTube Page.

What's your take on these revamped classic stories?

My Experience With.... Alice in Wonderland (Part 3) -- The Disney Version

This week has been crazy for me, but hopefully, you all are doing well.

• My Experience With... Alice in Wonderland (Rachael Peatross edition)
• My Experience With.... Alice in Wonderland (Part 1). It's not what you think!
• My Experience With.... Alice in Wonderland (Part 2) -- The Novels 
• My Experience With.... Alice in Wonderland (Part 3) -- The Disney Version
• My Experience With.... Alice in Wonderland (Part 4) -- ????
• ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Alright, we’re week 3 in our Alice series, and this next item I’m reviewing may seem a mite familiar.

If there were any movie adaptation perfect for re-telling the classic tale, it would be the 1980s version. But Disney definitely comes in at a close second. Well, at least the old version does.

I was not one of those kids who grew up watching a whole lot of Disney movies. That definitely came in when I hit my 20s. I watched them to one extent or another, but I wasn’t attached to a whole lot of them. I think my favorites might’ve been Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Bambi. Bambi turned out to be way more dramatic and depressing than I remembered, Dumbo seemed more racist than I remembered (I’ll give it a pass, it was the 50s, and it’s no worse than some cartoons of that era), and Pinocchio – Daddy, I love you, but what were you thinking, letting me watch that? No wonder Mom made me stop watching it. How was I not scarred for life?

Anyway, Alice in Wonderland was definitely not on my Disney list until I was much older. As I grew up, I caught up with my Disney folklore from TV movies and the Library. I think I caught Alice in Wonderland on TV somewhere.

I think that Disney took this story to a very nutty extreme. This really shouldn’t be surprising, since classic Disney movies thrive on insane dynamics. I mean, look at Fantasia! It tells its stories through music and visuals the way an interpreter uses hand gestures and facial expressions. Things are often exaggerated to make a point come across.

By the way, that is not a knock on the deaf / hard-of-hearing community. I

am speaking from experience in watching ASL interpreters for local plays.

It’s fascinating to watch, really.

Even more fun than the actual show sometimes!

One thing I found fascinating about this Disney version of Alice in Wonderland was that they actually blended elements of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Where they didn’t have the mock turtle or the Gryphon (heck, the 1980s version even left him out!), they had the Tweedles, the talking flowers, the poem about the walrus and the chef, and even the Cheshire Cat (voiced by the Winnie-the-Pooh guy) sang the opening/closing of Jabberwocky. And what would a Disney movie be without it’s songs? I still sing the song from the flowerbed sometimes to this day! It’s gorgeous!

So… my opinion of the original Disney version? I love it. It’s a very calming, very zany, very colorful and fun interpretation of the original novel. Would the Queen of Hearts strike fear into a little youngster? Maybe. If that happens, just tell them she’s not real. Then make them act a similar role. Works almost every time.

Next week, you’ll see why I kept saying original Disney version…. ugh.

Plugging time! YouTube Page.

What’s your second-favorite obscure holiday?