Brave

Well, Pixar...you've done it again! Brave was so incredible, I absolutely loved it.

It has been too long since I've seen a Disney movie in theaters that has made me happy (please, don't even get me started on Tangled). The music, the animation...everything was spot on. The story was fantastic, to have a movie not focus on the "love story" aspect, but the mother-daughter relationship...specifically the mother-daughter relationship where the mother is trying to change her daughter. It hits a bit close to home, and seems very familiar. (Interesting that my own mother -who was sitting next to me at the movie- didn't pick up on that at all. Go figure.) 

The main character is Merida and despite her mother's insistence that "a lady does not place her weapons on the table," Merida remains a free-spirited Scottish princess who prefers archery over romance, much to her mother's chagrin. 

After Queen Elinor's attempt to marry off her first born goes awry, Merida follows her heart (and a will o' the whisp) in hopes that changing her mother may lead to changing her own fate. The princess procures a spell that ends up changing her mother into a bear. (Just for the record, if my mother got turned into a bear, she would be very mad at me...but probably still love me. I know because I asked.)

One of my favorite things about this movie is that it is set in Scotland. I love Celtic/Gaelic culture (being Ir-ish myself). I love the how whimsical it seems, centered around fairy tales and folk lore. I feel like I'd fit right in with all of that. I can see Princess Merida and I being good friends!

Chick Flicks and Disney Heroes!

This weekend I had a good old fashioned slumber party with some friends! We ended up watching Love, Actually (which is one chick flick I actually love!) and I really do feel like I should share the following paraphrased conversation...

KM: Wow, I never noticed before, but that guy is like the real-life version of Aladdin, maybe that's why I've always thought he was cute...because I love Aladdin!!

H: Oh my gosh, you're right...he is totally Aladdin!!

L: Aladdin is really cute for a cartoon character...but is it weird that the cartoon I always had a crush on was Robin Hood?

K: Yeah...I can see that!

H: Wait...wasn't he a fox?

L: Yeah he was!

(Then K high-fives L for her awesome taste in cartoon crushes!)

Then after much giggling and talking about boys we went to sleep.

After we woke up, lounged in jammies and finally got ready for the day we ended up going to see New Years Eve (aka the movie that every actor EVER has a part in)

It was pretty cute...the only part I really didn't like was the part where the rude teenagers sitting next to us were talking and not even trying to whisper.

One of my favorite actors, Matthew Broderick, had a tiny little cameo...which was made even better by the fact that his character's name was 'Mr. Buellerton'!!! Lea Michele (Glee) sang her little tush off, Ashton Kutcher played a version of himself, and there was a plot twist that I almost didn't see coming...

And the best part: Zefron!! I don't care how old I get, Zac Efron will always be dreamy!!

And now you shall deal with me, O prince...

(excuse my shift key) but Maleficent is the most bad@$$ Disney villain of ALL TIME!!!
Easily my favorite villain, and definitely up there with my top 5 favorite Disney characters ever! She's just so...evil, but in such an intriguing way. She is just so subtly evil, she doesn't really raise her voice or lose her temper. She has this quiet, calm evil about her that is just so much scarier than anything else. She is in complete control...and she can turn into a freaking DRAGON!!! No wonder she's the self proclaimed 'Mistress of all Evil' and the star villain in Fantasmic! You'd think there'd be mugs upon mugs dedicated to her. But no. The bad guys very rarely get their mug on a mug. Except during Halloween time at Disneyland. The villains run rampant throughout the park. Their misdeeds are celebrated, and they get to be featured on souvenirs!
It was during one October jaunt to the park that I bought this mug. It says "You're Wicked Awesome" which is quite lame; but it has Jafar, Cruella, Captain Hook, Ursula, Scar, MALEFICENT, and the Evil Queen on it. Maleficent is clearly the star of this mug, because she is color and everyone else is in black and white. She is 3D and everyone else is flat against the mug. Because she rules all!

This is the last of my Disneyland mugs, I promise.
Although, I can't promise I won't come back with another one when I go in two weeks!
I've got a two-day trip planned with my best friend (and Disney partner for life) AllyJo! We've booked our room and we're all ready for 'the time we went in September'*. I am most excited for World of Color!!


*Three years ago, we went in October (not the October I bought this mug), but even still we refer to it as 'that time we went in October' so we decided, to avoid confusion, we can't go together in October anymore

The Second Star to the Right...

You could say I have a slight 'Peter Pan' complex...that is to say, I have a fear of growing up.
I always have. Growing up seems like moving on from certain things and adding on a lot of responsibility. Honestly, part of me would be quite content as a perpetual seven year old. (That would be the part of me that doesn't drive, vote or enjoy an occasional glass of white zin.)

There is a poem I read in, like, 4th grade or something. It was about a girl who was turning 11, but she looked at as adding an 11-year-old in to the mix with a 10-year-old, a 9-year-old, an 8-year-old, etc. So yeah, I am a 24-year-old, but I'm also all the ages I have been.
I guess my inner child just surfaces more often than most. Or maybe my outer grown-up just goes away from time to time. Which isn't always helpful. I can't always put responsibility on the back burner so I can watch my Disney movies, but...y'know...every once in a while can't be bad.

Yeah--the 'editing' sucks. I don't have photoshop, just paint shop...but you have to see the full panorama of this mug to get the effect.

And I'm going to Disneyland next month...I'm already gearing up!!

"Ella the girl of the cinders...

Did the wash and the walls and the winders,
But she landed a prince that was brawny and blue eyed and blonde.
But I honestly doubt that
She could ever have done it without that
Crazy lady
With the wand.
Cinderella had outside help,
I have no-one but me;
Fairy godmother, godmother, godmother...where can you be?
I haven't got a fairy godmother...I haven't got a godmother...
I have a mother...a plain, ordinary woman."

Cinderella always has been and always will be my favorite fairy tale. Ever After to Ella Enchanted (the book...don't even get me started on the movie "version"); Disney to Rodgers and Hammerstein...and almost everything in between. Don't ask me why. But it's the reason I bought this mug. The 'Once a Princess, always a Princess' phrase I could take or leave...but it's a Cinderella mug and that sold me!


Alas, I am still waiting for my Prince Charming...

Which came first?

I am bitter and cynical. I have been for quite a while, and the thing is...you would never guess that about me. Because I'm also a happy person. I have a cheerful personality, I like Disney movies and musicals, and I love to laugh with my friends; but I don't think a person can be completely, utterly, chronically and irreversibly single for nearly 5 years without growing bitter and cynical.
But...am I bitter and cynical because I'm single? Or am I single because I'm bitter and cynical
Who knows?!