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.

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By Divina

So Readers, last Wedsday the stars aligned and even though Eddy is away on a two week business trip, I had a baby sitter and free time to go to the movies. Unfortunately, Hollywood did not keep up their part of the bargain.

Here at Dancing Hotdogs, we listen to our Readers.  Juliana (from http://movie-critic.net ) asked for 2009 movies, but to my disappointment my only 2009 options were Jonas Brother 3D concert, Confessions of a Shopaholic and Race to Witch Mountain .

Left with these horrid choices (Why would I want to see Confessions of a Shopaholic ? If I can’t have my Coach bag why would I want to pay to see someone buy one, we are in a recession people) I saw Race to Witch Mountain and I enjoyed myself. Between family and work it was nice to watch a movie and not have to think.

Quick synopsis: This is a remake of the 1975 movie Escape to Witch Mountain with a couple of changes and The Rock (Dwayne Johnson). The Rock is a retired stock driver turned taxi driver whose new fare, two blonde teenagers, (AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig) turn out to be aliens on the run from the Earth Secret Agency with bad guy Ciaran Hinds and their own planet’s Secret Agency bad guy.

So, to sum everything up this is a family action and adventure movie with plenty of car chases, supernatural powers, The Rock and Gary Marshall as comic relief.

I did not love or hate this movie. Though, I definitely wish I had seen this in matinee pricing instead of $10.50.

Race to Witch Mountain is a non-animation film and like most Disney movies of this ilk its writing, cinematography, and acting will not be getting any Oscar nominations any time soon, but still remains entertaining with its action (car chases, alien craziness etc).

This is a good action/adventure movie to see with the family if you have kids older than seven.  This movie is rated PG and there was no bad language or nudity (it is a Disney movie!) BUT the violence and death count was high enough that I would definitely recommend you don’t take any impressionable babies to this movie.  That is unless you want your son/daughter crawling into bed with you around 3am after having aliens chase them in their nightmares.

The opening credits alone gave me the heebie jeebies with the UFO images, the creepy music and the personal accounts of abductions.

So in the end, there are definitely no regrets picking this movie instead of Jonas Brothers and Shopaholic but would I have rather watched The Reader ……. Yeah I said it!

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.

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By Gem

I am a great lover of all things Disney and Pixar.  Because of my lovely mother, I was raised watching musicals, "Singing in the Rain", "The King and I", "Sound of Music", "Bye-Bye Birdie", you name it,  I have seen it.  I am only 27 years old but my favorite movie 1950s musical called "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers".  I love it when Hollywood puts music into the story.  (I can’t wait for "Mamma Mia" to come out.  I saw the Broadway show and want to see how Meryl Streep holds her own.) Then add my other favorite movie, "Little Mermaid" coming out in 1989 and making a seven year old D a worshiper at the alter of Disney.  So to say the least, I was very excited about the new Pixar release. 

When new movies come out I try not to read reviews on them so I go in watching the movie with an open mind.  I heard WALL*E got great reviews and the director was the same guy who had done Finding Nemo.  So I walked into the theater thinking this was going to be an adventure story similar to Finding Nemo.  Imagine my surprise that after watching the whole movie it turns out to be a sweet love story between two robots!  Hey give me a break!  I just had a baby so I have been  kind of busy.

Quick Synopsis, a thousands of years into the future, Humans (why do they all look American and only speak English?) have polluted Earth so much it is just a wasteland of garbage.  All life forms have died or left the planet on a Space Cruise line.  WALL*E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth Class) is the last of his kind robot. His directive is to clean up Earth and consolidate all the garbage into cubes.  Since there was so much garbage all of his fellow robots have ceased to function ( further showing how we have destroyed the planet.)  After hundreds of years of solitude, WALL*E has evolved and has a personality.  He likes watching musicals, collects interesting garbage (rubix cube, Christmas lights etc.) and has a pet Cockroach.  The story moves forward with the arrival of EVE a new sophisticated robot with a directive to find life on Earth so humans can finally come home.    WALL*E is smitten by EVE and does everything robotlike possible to get the girl.  EVE gets picked up and so begins WALL*E adventure across the galaxy to rescue his fair maiden. Through his journey this little robot changes the lives of everyone he comes in contact with.

WALL*E was a fantastic movie for the whole family.  Really a love story at heart but with its humor and robot action sequences everyone will have a good time.  Pixar is known as the innovators of CGI (computer generated imagery) and in this film they live up to their name.  The space scenes are amazing and look almost real.  The story was really well written and the characters were lovable.  I especially loved the malfunctioning robots who become unlikely heroes after they meet WALL*E.  For the first 45 minutes of the movie, there is no talking what so ever as, we are introduced to this little robot and the future Earth.  Surprisingly enough during this entire time, the story writers kept my attention. The only negative was until WALL*E’s adventure began it was just a bit to preachy.  Again, it’s the future and all the humans that look suspiciously like Americans, have completely destroyed beautiful planet Earth.  We can no longer live on Earth so we fly around Space waiting for Earth to be cleaned up for us.  Just as in real life during the Cruise the people just eat and are constantly waited on.  So we are all now lazy and obese.  Does that sound like a children’s story to you?  Luckily, WALL*E saves the day,  and he makes us realize that Earth is worth saving.  This being a Pixer film, John Ratzenberger voices one of the humans.

In true Pixar fashion, the film is innovative, fun and a vision of CGI at its best.  I would definitely recommend watching it in the theater and of course owning it forever.

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.

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