We Want The D

Oh, to see the world through the eyes of this dog. A dog who loved an old shepherd so much he'd follow his slowly-dying body from the moors to the streets of Edinburgh to the Greyfriars Kirkyard. Who then was fed by a guilt-ridden restaurant, bathed by a graveyard caretaker, and played with by poor children. Who was then...dragged before the the magistrate in an ownership dispute, but got to play with a cool quill? What a life for GREYFRIARS BOBBY, and what a Disny film for our hosts to be delighted and/or utterly baffled by.

We haven't been shy about our general malaise toward Disney's modern predilection for remakes and sequels that feel a bit creatively bankrupt. So imagine our surprise when we watched one of their first ever sequels, SAVAGE SAM, and discovered it's not necessarily a new trend. Ostensibly a sequel to the classic trauma vehicle Old Yeller, this movie is less a fraught coming-of-age tale about a boy and his dog and more a movie where Kevin Corcoran hurls rocks at people and animals before turning into a Disney-fied version of The Searchers.

We're closing out another decade of Disney this week with THE LITTLEST OUTLAW. The story of a little boy and a frightened horse attempting to avoid the wrath of a Mexican General and stepfather who's a real piece of work. It's not entirely unpleasant, at least until it starts extolling the virtues of bullfighting. And because we're finished with the 1950s, we also reminisce about the highs and lows of the movies we watched from this early era of Disney. 

Has someone at Disney been listening to us? Seems that way, since RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON gives us a lot of what we've been wanting from modern Disney. An original story instead of a sequel or a remake? Check. A "let's get a team together" structure filled with interesting and fun characters? Check. A con artist baby who can do martial arts? You better believe that's a check. This movie isn't perfect, but it's still a whole lot of fun.

We close out our October Season run of programming by closing out a Disney Channel franchise with RETURN TO HALLOWEENTOWN. And while these movies may have always been dull, cheap and dumb to varying degrees, they've never been more incoherent than in this last installment. And we're not just talking about the fact that they replaced the lead actress and literally nobody else in the reoccurring cast. So it's not a fond farewell we're paying to Halloweentown, but after sitting through four of these things, it's certainly a happy one.

It's a spooky October Season surprise as the Summer of Muppets returns from beyond the grave. The scariest combination of words in this Disney+ special may just be "corporate synergy" as MUPPETS HAUNTED MANSION plays more as a cross-promotional advertisement for a theme park ride than a natural fit for these beloved puppet characters, but hey - it's still the Muppets getting to do stuff, so it's all ok in our books.

There's a feeling of October in the air, which can only mean one thing. It's time to return to Seabrook High School (AKA Jill's work building) for Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 2. And this time, there's werewolves. Who, in this universe, are all teens who wear the same jewelry and sew fur patches onto their clothes. Disney Channel Original sequels tend to be a bit better than their first iterations, but there's always going to be exceptions to the rule, and this may very well be one of those. 

Welcome to McFARLAND, USA - a small California town made up of a mostly Latinx community, and a new family lead by the latest in a long line of Disney old dads. Only this time, the old dad is Coach Kevin Costner and he's noticed that a lot of these local boys sure can run. Yes, it's another Disney sports movie, which of course means we're in for a good time; and maybe we'll learn one or two obvious lessons along the way as well.

We've watched a lot of sub-par Disney movies over the years, but there's something different about CHICKEN LITTLE. It's a movie with so many problems that there's no way they couldn't have been apparent to the people making it, and yet nobody seems to have cared to pump the brakes and try to correct them. The result is a montage heavy, dialogue light, weird looking, strangely cast, inexplicable mess of a story that puts our hosts through the ringer. 

It's a classic tale of a family vacation gone awry in Disney's BON VOYAGE! A straight-laced father just wants to give his wife and children a holiday to remember, but all manner of entitled little rich boys, beach con-artists, and would-be cuckholders conspire against him to throw a wrench in their plans. And no, we didn't slip into an alternate universe where the Griswolds are somehow Disney characters, it is good ol' Fred MacMurray at the centre of all these hijinks as usual. 

For the first and most likely only time, we're breaking protocol on the podcast for the grand finale of the Summer of Muppets. Because Disney hasn't made enough feature-length Muppet projects (yet), we're allowing ourselves to examine the small screen sitcom THE MUPPETS.. (the period is part of the title), which aired on ABC for one season back in 2015-2016. Was this a wonderful new forum for these beloved creations that never got a fair shake, or a misstep that unfortunately put the gang back on the shelf until their latest revival on streaming? Opinions vary, including our own, but it continues to hold true that there's no such thing as too much Muppets. 

Based on the novel by S.E. Hinton, TEX is a thoughtful coming-of-age story about a wayward and wild teenage boy learning to think of people other than himself, and learning to be ok with saying goodbye to friends and family as they inevitably leave their small, rural Oklahoma town - even if he has to stay. If that seems a little too mature and grounded for Disney, just remember that the 1980s were a strange time for the company. One that we look back fondly at as we finish up the decade with this week's episode. 

There's no shortage of movies we've watched over the course of this podcast that involve Disney putting animals in harm's way. We are still pretty sure they killed at least one horse. But THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN portends a more benign future where Disney can make movies that star animals but without the need to for there to be actual animal performers. The downside is, they've finally hit that balance of making CGI animals look realistic while still being expressive, so stories about wild animals being kept in a strip mall and never seeing the sun are still super duper depressing. 

For our special Minnie Mouse-isode edition of our summer series, we take a look at the man behind the Muppets. From humble beginnings to picking up puppetry on a whim to breakthroughs in children's entertainment to a highly valued and sought-after multi-media company, Jim Henson's success is undeniable. But it's his attitude and philosophies that were imbued in his work that has allowed the Muppets to thrive even beyond his untimely passing. We hope you enjoy this celebration of Jim and his collaborators.

Go back a couple hundred episodes and you'll hear our rather lukewarm reception to the 90s live action remake of 101 Dalmatians. Take all of our comments and criticisms of that move and add one degree, and you basically have our take on 102 DALMATIANS. The leads are blander (and stupider), Glenn Close is more unhinged (and her costuming more fabulous), and the hijinks are zanier. But, the plot is basically the same, which isn't a surprise - if a movie about dog murder worked once, surely it can work again!

We've seen enough Disney westerns to think we've seen it all - singing cowboys, spliced-in nature footage, white people dressed up as Indigenous people, etc. And a lot of that stuff is still present and accounted for in THE WILD COUNTRY. But this particular western takes itself so seriously and uses the genre's tropes and iconography so well that we have no choice to declare it the best Disney western we've seen so far. Faint praise, perhaps, but praise nonetheless.

Frequent We Want the D listeners may recall that our hosts have a lil' bit of baggage when it comes to Disney adapting the work of Mark Twain. But fear not, for their adaptation of what is called the first (or only) great American novel - THE ADVENTURES OF HUCK FINN - is a welcome break in the trend. And much like the novel it's based on, there's no shortage of analysis and discussion to be had. 

It's time for another one of Disney's period costume dramas, only THE FIGHTING PRINCE OF DONEGAL puts a little bit of a twist on the formula. See, while most of these types of movies were made and released in the 1950s, this one came out in 1966. What does that mean, you ask? Well, instead of starring Richard Todd, this one stars the guy who played Hayley Mills' love interest in The Moon Spinners, and...actually that about covers it. 

The Summer of Muppets continues with the latest and to date last theatrical Muppet movie - MUPPETS MOST WANTED. If Disney's 2011 relaunch of the franchise in earnest was a heartfelt and loving tribute to the madcap gang, this follow-up is a reminder that the Muppets are capable of being absolutely off-the-wall zany in just the best way. Packed with more cameos than perhaps any other Muppet movie, more great songs, and more than it's fair share of laughs, if this is the last Muppet movie we get for awhile, it's not the worst note to go out on. 

Here's the thing, D-Lovers: it's not that G-FORCE - a Disney movie that answers the unasked question "what if guinea pigs were spies?" - doesn't merit any criticism. There's far too many Black Eyed Peas needle drops for that to be the case. It's just that, in our hosts' estimation, it doesn't merit the amount of criticism it has received. Because at the end of the day, there are a lot worse spy movies than this that don't feature adorable guinea pigs adorably using tiny spy equipment. All we're saying is it seems like everyone had a good time making this movie, and we had a good time watching it, ok?