By Eddy

I was fortunate enough to catch an IMAX 3D screening of John Carter yesterday.  Directed by Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo and Wall-E) and starring Taylor Kitsch as the sparsely clothed title character, John Carter, we were brought on an adventure from the post civil war U.S. to obviously Mars.  We followed John, a former Confederate Captain, mining for gold in Arizona who somehow stumbles upon a transport to a totally unrecognizable and fully populated Mars.   From here he is introduced to a long going war in Mars and its inhabitants who want to use his super jumping skills and strength (due to the lower gravity in Mars) to their causes in the battle.  Along the way he falls for a Martian princess (who coincidently looks human) and must ultimately save her from the bad guys.

Check out the 10 minute of the film.

You could definitely tell that Andrew Stanton was a definite fan of the book when he was younger, and he would have to be to choose this project as his first live action film after creating some of the best Pixar animated films.   You can feel the fanatical detail that only someone who really cared for the project would do. Yet this is a double edge sword.  For the most part the people who are watching John Carter are people who have not read the books so they are coming in at a bit of a disadvantage, they don’t know the characters and places as well as those who read the book.  Unfortunately, the movie struggles to figure out what is the best way to please everyone in the audience.  When I was watching the film I got the sense there was way more behind the side characters than the few lines of dialogue instead the movie tried to focus our attention solely on John Carter and his Martian Princess. 

This super condensed feeling is apparent through the entire film; I got the feeling as if I was watching the movie through the eyes of a 12 year old boy.   Think of it this way, try to remember a story you loved when you were that age.   You remember all the action and pseudo-sexual innuendo, you remember the main characters and everything seems to be much bigger, spectacular and melodramatic.  That in a sense is all you need to know about John Carter, this is Andrew Stanton trying to relieve his memories of the character out on the silver screen in IMAX and 3D. 

Unfortunately, it cheats the kids coming into seeing the film from being able to experience the same thing, he has already digested it for us, leaving so little to the imagination that I fear that kids wont want to read the books, which is a shame.  It is almost the opposite of the Lord of the Rings, the epic detail put into the films gave us a sense of wonder as well as a sense of curiosity, kids and adults alike went from watching the movie then to wanting to read the book.  I did get that feeling leaving the theater last night.

Yet it isn’t the entire director, the source material is from a different time, when cowboys and Indians were the height of adventure for children.  This was a time where Heroes always saved the day and the princess no matter the odds.  This was a time in United States with different ideas and priorities.  A place where different expectations were placed on their heroes and for better or worse this isn’t that United States any more.  John Carter is an antiquated hero being brought to life in a modern world, kind of like Captain America.  Yes, I agree with the technology of today, the rendering of the Martian world was amazing and the 3D was quite literally out of this world, but I am still left with the question whether John Carter was better off left in the confines of paper and ink rather than on film.

Disclaimer: We recieved free tickets to attend the preview showing.

About Divina Rodriguez

Divina is a wife, a Mami of 2 boys under the age of four and a full fledged social media butterfly with a Masters in Communications. She loves sharing the best of Disney on TheDisneyFiles.com whether its movies, video games, shopping or the themeparks. In addition to TheDisneyFiles, Divina writes about entertainment, technology and family products on www.DancingHotdogs.com and is a founding mother & partner at Trumpeting Media, a social media consulting company that is dedicated to using social media for social good.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

By Eddy

Halloween movie are tough for me to review as a parent.  Being scared is such a personal thing, one person/or child may be scared by one thing while another might not even think twice about it.  For me, it is the movie Exorcist, for something I can’t even watch the movie completely through without having to look away or turning the thing off. Yet, most people that I talk to think that it more akin a comedy than anything.  I guess, like beauty, fear is in the eye of the beholder.

This brings me back to my original point; there is no real way to tell if this movie will scare you children.  I say children instead of you, because believe me when I say that this movie, Disney’s Spooky Buddies, was not made with adults in mind.  With that said, the story goes as follows.  The
story follows a similar story as another Disney movie: Hocus Pocus.  Just with a warlock instead of witches along with a health does of puppies. If you are a fan of the series you might be a bit disappointed with the amount of Puppy time you get in the movie, since equal billing is given to the owners of the puppies.

Quick synopsis: Disney’s irresistible talking Buddies are back in an all-new movie that takes them for a spooky new adventure. With the help of some unexpected new friends — Pip, Zelda, Rodney, and Skip, the buddies must stop Warwick the Warlock and save the world from his dastardly deeds.

Check out the trailer:

There were a couple of parts which were too scary for Rock (3 years old), though in my opinion it wasn’t too bad, come on its Halloween! (it might be different for you and your child). Fortunately, there were enough cute scenes to help make up for the scarier moments.  Adults and children will recognized many of the voices and actors in the movie, including Diedrich Bader and Ryan Stiles from the Drew Carey Show as well as Tim Conway and Frankie Jonas (the youngest and least famous of the Jonas Brothers, yes there are 4 of them).

In the end, Rock did not have any nightmares and seemed to have a good time.  While next time I think I will watch any Halloween style movie ahead of time just in case there are any parts I would deem unsuitable for him, I doubt I would do it for any of the Buddies movies, to me they seem to always to be very age appropriate and cognizant of who their audience is.  This is a great video to put on for the time after trick or treating as everyone sorts through their candy. Spooky Buddies was release directly to video on September 20^th and is packaged in two ways; one is a Blue
Ray Combo Pack ($19.99) and the other as a DVD ($16.99) and movie download ($14.99) package.

Disclosure: I received a Spook Buddies gift pack with the Combo Pack DVD, trading cards and activities but no other compensation for my post.  My opinion is my unbiased opinion on the movie.

About Divina Rodriguez

Divina is a wife, a Mami of 2 boys under the age of four and a full fledged social media butterfly with a Masters in Communications. She loves sharing the best of Disney on TheDisneyFiles.com whether its movies, video games, shopping or the themeparks. In addition to TheDisneyFiles, Divina writes about entertainment, technology and family products on www.DancingHotdogs.com and is a founding mother & partner at Trumpeting Media, a social media consulting company that is dedicated to using social media for social good.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

By Eddy

Wow this game surprised me.   I actually thought it was better than the movie itself.  In its simplest terms the game is Mario Kart with cooler weapons.  Just let that sink in!  Yet even being closely linked to the famous racing series doesn’t mean that it is all it has to offer.  In addition to the combat (kart) style racing the game also feature a number of interesting modes such as hunting down enemy cars through a large arena or playing capture the flag.

The plot of the game strays away from the movie and sticks you in the role of a spy from C.H.R.O.M.E (the spy agency in the film) you start out slow building your spy car chops in training missions, but as you progress through the game, the challenges become more dangerous as well as more exciting. There is a large roster of playable character including all the stars of the film.  The game also includes most of the original voices of the characters as well (except for Lightning and Finn McMissile).

The thing that struck me was how easy it was pick up and play.  The game supports up to 4 players (unfortunately no online play) playing at the same time and with the added feature of being able to drop in or drop out at any point during the game.  As this is primarily a children’s game the controls are easy to understand and put to use.  Fortunately, there are some additional skills and tricks that add a good amount of depth to the game as well.  These tricks include flips and spins, driving on two wheels as well as driving backwards.  You are also able to side swipe cars off the track in addition to the machine guns, bombs etc.

Visually the game developers, Avalanche Software along with Disney Interactive , were able to translate the look Continue Reading

About Divina Rodriguez

Divina is a wife, a Mami of 2 boys under the age of four and a full fledged social media butterfly with a Masters in Communications. She loves sharing the best of Disney on TheDisneyFiles.com whether its movies, video games, shopping or the themeparks. In addition to TheDisneyFiles, Divina writes about entertainment, technology and family products on www.DancingHotdogs.com and is a founding mother & partner at Trumpeting Media, a social media consulting company that is dedicated to using social media for social good.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

By Eddy

Welcome back to the world of Mickey’s Clubhouse.  In this adventure we are treated to 5 episodes of Mickey and the gang exploring the outdoors.  With the addition of the Mickey Mote, Big Brother is enthralled with the Mouse and his friends.  I particularly like that the shows give him a chance to make choices.  I feel for the most part that since everything is always laid out for kids at his age they tend to act out more in order to gain some sort of control.  This at least is one small measure that can be given to them to exert a bit a control and independence while still staying safe and learning something.

For those of you not familiar with the Mickey Mote, it basically is a Mickey shaped remote that has 4 buttons, each with different color and shapes. Kids are then ask throughout the shows to interact with by pressing one of the buttons either to answer a question or make a decision. The remote gets kids to take an active part in the story telling and forces them to sharpen their comprehension skills.

Like all Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes some sort of lesson is learned by Mickey and the gang.  Of course, they are helped out by their friends including Toodles.  The episodes break down as follows: Continue Reading

About Divina Rodriguez

Divina is a wife, a Mami of 2 boys under the age of four and a full fledged social media butterfly with a Masters in Communications. She loves sharing the best of Disney on TheDisneyFiles.com whether its movies, video games, shopping or the themeparks. In addition to TheDisneyFiles, Divina writes about entertainment, technology and family products on www.DancingHotdogs.com and is a founding mother & partner at Trumpeting Media, a social media consulting company that is dedicated to using social media for social good.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

By Divina

It’s fitting my first Wordless Wednesday is Disney related.

If you are on twitter you have probably read all the buzz around #DisneySMMoms and seen my badge saying the Dancing Hotdogs family is going!

What is it? Its four day conference hosted by Disney just for Social Media Moms and their families.  Eddy and I signed up a fateful day in December 2011 and now the time has finally come.

From March 17 through March 21, Eddy, the boys and I will be at Disney World, Orlando, Florida for what I know will be four days of a magical conference where I hope to connect with so many moms I have met through twitter.

Follow us at @dancinghotdogs and @disneysmmoms for live tweets on all the activities

Here is a picture of Big Bro and Mickey from our Disneyland CA vacation last year.  Now we are headed to Florida with TWO boys in tow.  Send all your good luck wishes and patience to Eddy and I, we are going to need it.  ; )

P.S. Have you seen the new Disney campaign with the real life videos and pictures of vacationing families?  Go to http://www.disneynow.com/profile/web/index.cfm?PKwebID=0x112871d7d&varPage=home .

They are so sweet and the kids are so excited! Big Bro does not know we are going to Disney so   I hope to catch a trilled expression on tape too!

About Divina Rodriguez

Divina is a wife, a Mami of 2 boys under the age of four and a full fledged social media butterfly with a Masters in Communications. She loves sharing the best of Disney on TheDisneyFiles.com whether its movies, video games, shopping or the themeparks. In addition to TheDisneyFiles, Divina writes about entertainment, technology and family products on www.DancingHotdogs.com and is a founding mother & partner at Trumpeting Media, a social media consulting company that is dedicated to using social media for social good.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•