I am a huge Disney fan.

I need you to keep that in mind as you read this review. In fact, it’s so important, I think it’s worth saying again. I am a HUGE Disney fan. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved all things Disney: the movies, the TV shows (I’m talking Kids Incorporated and Dumbo’s Circus, not the stuff they’ve got on now), and the theme parks. Especially the theme parks. In fact I’ve spent – and continue to spend – a good portion of my life scheming about how I’m going to go on my next trip to Orlando. Once upon a time I was convincing my parents – now it’s my husband I’ve gotta dazzle. I’m making sure to stress my love of Disney here because Epic Mickey is a game that is really best enjoyed by someone who at least appreciates Disney – complete obsession not required. But enough about me and my dining room that may or may not have beautiful portraits of certain Disney princesses hanging in it. Let’s get to the game.

Epic Mickey had a lot of buzz surrounding it – not only in the video game community, but in the Disney community as well. The idea of getting to control Mickey, explore locales based on iconic Disney attractions and interact with classic characters – all while making decisions that affect the events of the game – is interesting to a lot of people. So there were a lot of high expectations for this game. Expectations that were quickly slashed by many gaming websites which had lengthy lists of complaints about it. These complaints were so numerous they had me second guessing buying the game. But I decided to stick by my belief that as a Disney fan, I would like the game. And as soon as I got my hands on it, I dove right in, ready to see if these complaints were valid or not.

Beautiful concept art used in the game.

Let’s start out talking about the story. You play as the iconic Mickey Mouse who kind of screws up and spills some paint thinner on a world Yen Sid the sorcerer has created. He ends up getting sucked in there by the evil Shadow Blot his tampering has created and now has to figure out a way to get out. Using paint and thinner to deal with his enemies and interact with the world (called Wasteland) around him, Mickey befriends a gremlin named Gus and chases the lucky rabbit Walt Disney created before there ever was a Mickey Mouse – Oswald. You can choose to either be good by using mostly paint to solve puzzles and fight enemies or “mischievous” (doesn’t feel right to call Mickey “bad”) by turning to thinner instead. There’s no way to do everything in one play through, because different choices yield different results. So if you’re one of those gamers that must collect everything in a game, prepare yourself for completing the game twice. Along the way you complete quests (which you can fail and still manage to progress in the story) and help out other characters you meet along the way. The story is simple, but I found it to be a driving force that kept me playing for hours at a clip.

As for the characters Mickey meets, you probably haven’t heard of most of them. Pete, Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar are some of the more familiar faces you’ll come across, not counting some more well known Disney characters that pop up in an unusual fashion – no spoilers here. The locations you journey through are based on areas in the Disney parks, like Mean Street (Main Street) and Ventureland (Adventureland). If you’ve been to the Disney parks, you’ll definitely be able to pick out and appreciate the detail that has gone into recreating some of these places. A particular statue at the end of Mean Street is something I thought was an excellent touch.

Example of what the cut scenes look like.

The art style and graphics from the character designs to the backgrounds are very good – especially “for a Wii game”. The cut scenes are done in a sketch-like style that I thought was different and really cute. There is only a little voice acting in the game, but the music (sampling Disney favorites) and sounds are very good anyway, and the dialogue had me chuckling a time or two.

But all us gamers know games cannot survive on graphics and story alone. Gameplay is kind of important. Epic Mickey is a platformer and while there’s nothing groundbreaking going on here, that doesn’t stop it from being fun. The difficulty strikes a good balance between easy and hard. There were several sections were I died, but the game never got overly frustrating, and since there are no lives, dying is not a big deal. (And trust me, I get easily frustrated with sequences I find difficult – you don’t wanna know the collection of vulgar names I’ve called Mario over the years.)

Honestly, there wasn’t a ton of fighting in the game, and only a few bosses fights – both of which are fine with me. Aside from the usual platformer jumping and puzzle solving, there are fetch quests and extra jobs you can do for rewards. Don’t worry – you don’t have to do them all. But if you feel like helping Horace Horsecollar by basically running his detective business for him, he’ll be glad for the help.

Traveling between areas via scenes from old cartoons. That alligator is looking for a snack.

This 3D game turns into a 2D experience whenever you transition between areas. When traveling to a different area you jump into a projector screen and navigate through scenes based on old Disney black and white cartoons. These are visually interesting and fun to play…the first few times. Unfortunately you end up going through several of the same scenes over and over…and over as your journey takes you through the same areas of the game a bunch of times. It would have been nice if you had the option to skip these after completing them once. But it’s a minor gripe. Most of the scenes are pretty short, so it only takes a minute or two to hop on through them.

Paint and thinner take a huge role in the game. You use them to fight, solve puzzles, explore and perform tasks for the residents of Wasteland. Using them kind of reminded me of the whole water v. paint dynamic in Super Mario Sunshine. I liked being able to add color to the various landscapes and use thinner to find hidden sections behind the walls. However, there is a bit of a problem with the controls in this area. You use the Wiimote to point in the direction you want to shoot your paint/thinner in and either press the B or Z button depending on which one you want. But sometimes while you might think you’re pointing in the one direction, Mickey will be firing in another direction entirely. I don’t know why this happens – something between the direction the Wiimote is reading and your angle in the game I guess. I found that by standing right in front of the object I’m aiming at you can be assured of avoiding this problem.

Unloading a little paint to finish the bridge. Tip: do not accidentally use thinner when standing on something you've painted. Doesn't end well.

But the biggest complaint I read about in all those negative reviews was about the camera, and how it’s slow. And bad. And broken. Is the camera in this game perfect? No. Few are. But if you think the camera in this game is horrible, you haven’t played a game with a truly broken camera. I found the camera easy to control using the D-pad. Or you can even access a first person view by pressing the 1 button. I can count on one hand the few times in this game where I found the camera inoperable, or couldn’t access  the first person view. These moments were annoying, sure, but they didn’t take away from the game at all. Honestly I thought the camera was fine, and I really don’t see what everybody else was complaining about.

Like almost every other game I’ve ever played, this game wasn’t perfect. I do have a few additional complaints of my own I need to mention. First of all, there are many, many areas in this game that you can’t revisit once you leave. Keep that in mind when you’re exploring. Aside from the first zone in each area you visit, almost every other place you’ll go is a one shot kind of deal – including the entire first area. I wish I had known that or had some kind of warning before I chose to move on. I definitely would have done some more thorough exploration. These days it’s unusual to find a game where you can’t go back and revisit an area, so maybe I’m spoiled. And secondly there were times where I found my next objective unclear. There are plenty of times where the game basically hand holds you to your next goal, but there were more than a few times where I was scratching my head, wondering what to do. Most of these involved side missions, and you’re told to find something with absolutely no hints about where to start looking. Mickey does gain guardians throughout the game that can help you fight off enemies or point the way, (they are blue or green depending on whether you use paint or thinner more) but I found that they were basically useless if I was trying to find my next objective during a side quest.

Overall, I loved this game, and I was so glad I didn’t listen to the other reviews putting it down. I was intrigued by the story, enjoyed the Disney nostalgia and the fun, engaging gameplay. For me, it was the perfect marriage of two things I love: Disney and video games. If you like Disney, or at least appreciate it, and you’re looking for a solid platformer, you should definitely give Epic Mickey a try. The concept behind this game was conceived as a trilogy, and I really hope they go ahead and make the other two games. I know I’ll be on board.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

This is a huge relief, too, because I was set to be completely miserable about this movie. I followed the Rapunzel project for at least a couple of years in its pre-production with a good amount of excitement. I had read about the luscious, painterly aesthetic that the original director, Glen Keane, had wanted, and was looking forward to Rapunzel ushering in an entirely new style of CG animation. Then, later in 2009, I heard a few things that gave me pause:

• Glen Keane stepped down as director, leading to a new pair of directors being hired in his place. (Hm?)
• The Tony-Award-winning lead actors had been replaced by Mandy Moore and Zachary “Chuck” Levi. (What?)
• The animation style looked very standard compared to the concept art that had been released up to that point (What?)
• The title had been changed from Rapunzel to Tangled. (What?)
• Some of the jokes in the teaser trailer looked bad. Really bad. Like Shrek 3 bad. (Are you serious?)
• The focus of the marketing had been shifted from spunky female lead Rapunzel to her male co-star Flynn Rider. (B**** you gon’ get cut.)

That last part worried me especially. The main example I knew of a property with a strong female protagonist that shifted its focus to a male co-star purely for marketability’s sake was Cardcaptors. And the most I will say here on the subject of that particular adaptation is I have no son. So, yeah. You can imagine my trepidation as the release date for this movie loomed closer.

Getting faces from Dreamworks, are you, Disney?

Thankfully, I am pleased to report that Tangled is simply a victim of bad marketing, much like Megamind, only more so. Along with deceptive editing and music choices, the trailers include several shots that aren’t in the movie and don’t even look like they were intended to be in it to begin with. To be fair, some of the YouTube advertising is better, but still, most of the mainstream ads don’t touch on a lot of what end up being the movie’s greatest strengths.

The advertising doesn’t hint at the movie being a musical, for instance, which is a shame, because the songs are one of the elements that work really well here. True, they aren’t the greatest Disney songs of all time, and I do wish there had been more variety (there are only about five distinct songs presented). However, I think a lesson was learned following Princess and the Frog, at least: using fewer, more memorable songs works better than using a bunch of standard songs with few standouts. The Tangled songs, while not instant classics, are well-written, don’t slip out of your mind the second they’re over, and serve their purpose in the narrative. Nothing is here that is unwelcome or unnecessary. Highlights are “Mother Knows Best,” sung by Broadway star Donna Murphy as the spectacularly amoral Mother Gothel, and “I See The Light,” the movie’s major romantic setpiece (the “A Whole New World” or “Beauty and the Beast” here, if you will). “I See The Light” has already been nominated in several awards and critics’ circles for Best Original Song, if that tells you anything.

Ads also don’t give nearly enough time to take in the fact that there is more artistry to Tangled‘s CGI than there appears to be at first glance. What stuck out to me in the trailers and a good chunk of my first viewing were the character designs, which are pretty standard as far as modern computer-generated human characters go. Big Barbie doll eyes, smug expressions on everyone’s faces, you know the look. I wasn’t expecting anything special based on those designs. Where the movie really shines, however, especially on the big screen, is in the lighting and detail of environments and textures, and in minute-yet-effective touches in expression and movement (seriously, they even matched Mandy Moore’s faint lisp in Rapunzel’s lip movements). There is still plenty of inspiration being drawn from Rococo artwork for the backgrounds, too, and it looks flipping gorgeous. Compare The Swing, the painting that inspired the movie’s visuals originally, to some finished images from Tangled (I recommend clicking to view in more detail):

No exaggeration, I could almost cry over how beautiful this movie looks at times. I didn’t get teary-eyed at all on the first viewing, since I was focused more on the story at the time. On my second and third viewings, however, I felt my tear ducts acting up several times thanks to my having more room to just soak in the visuals and how much they really added to things. I really feel like I cannot stress these visuals enough. If you are a fan of animation of any kind, you owe it to yourself to see Tangled in theatres, preferably in 3D if you can. While not as crisp or deep-looking as an InTru3D movie, I can safely say that this is the best 3D I’ve seen out of a non-Dreamworks animated movie thus far. Seriously, bloody gorgeous.

Which leaves me with the heart of Tangled: the characters and story. Here I must admit that there is not much that’s particularly revelatory, but there’s still a fresh-feeling mix of tropes to be found. It’s a great turn by Disney to have a smarmy thief take the “prince” role in one of their big princess movies, and it’s always good to see a fun, strong female protagonist that young girls will be able to look up to. Also, as someone else pointed out to me, it’s interesting to see a Disney villain with no supernatural powers of her own, instead relying on pure emotional manipulation for the core of what she does. Some of the best Disney villains have been done similarly (e.g.: Scar from The Lion King, Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame), so this is a big plus in my books. All three of these major characters are a joy to watch whenever they’re on screen, and they all have great chemistry with one another. The side characters are no slouches, either; in particular, Maximus the Laser-Guided Thief-Seeking Missile of Equine Death steals the show in every scene he’s in, and may quite possibly be the greatest cartoon horse in history.

As for the story: I went and compared it to some of the original versions of the Grimms’ Rapunzel tale, and while Tangled is obviously divergent right from Frame 1, I feel it ties just enough back to the familiar tale to be relevant to its themes of over-protective parenting, naivety, maturation, and conveniently unexplained plot devices (especially near the end, with the part that’s most faithful to the original). The differences feel necessary to make the story relevant and entertaining to modern audiences, and everything is paced very well, never feeling either rushed or dragged out.

So, to cut a long story short, go see Tangled, especially if you’ve ever loved a Disney animated movie in your life. You might not cry unless you’re a sap like me, but you’ll almost certainly laugh and have a hair-raising good time at the theatre.

[Eryn was then taken out and shot for that horrible pun. Send flowers and "get well" cards care of The Modern Day Pirates.]

Rating: ★★★★½ 

Little did we know that Warren Spector was just not lecturing a point, but he also had brought the goods to back up his words. In the form of Epic Mickey, Spector’s Junction Point Studios is developing a title with serious gaming mechanics disguised under the casual gaming veil of Disney’s flagship Mouse.

Set for a November 2010 release on the Wii, Epic Mickey allows players to control Mickey Mouse in a 10+ hour single player campaign.  In the introductory cinematic, Mickey has accidentally spilled magic paint over a living canvas, and scrambles to clean up his mess in a reminiscent of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, but he only makes matters worse as he ravages the painted world with his futile attempt to scrub away his mess.  After escaping the anger of his master, Mickey goes on to star in several of his iconic roles as a Disney star, but eventually his past catches up to him, and evil forces trap him inside the ruins of this painted world that haunts his past.

Mickey is controlled in the 3rd person, and the unique mechanic of this game is the application of both paint and paint thinner.  Mickey can make almost any object in this game disappear or reappear through the use of these two paintbrush tools, making short work of obstacles and enemies.  Is there a bridge out?  Paint it in and cross over the gap.  Boulders blocking a passage?  Apply some paint thinner to remove them from the world and walk on through.  These are basic examples, and the puzzles become harder as the game progresses, but it shows that this game surely takes casual gamers into the realm of critical thought (something not experienced with say, FarmVille).

Right off the bat, major game decisions are put right into the gamer’s hands, in typical Warren Spector fashion.  After completing the first level, do you choose to save an allied character or abandon them for some bonus treasure?  Both choices will have lasting effects on the story, but players are forced to decide.

The style of this game also warrants mentioning.  Look forward to seeing some classic Disney characters take major roles in this game, some of which haven’t been seen in decades.  Gus the Gremlin is your guide through this game, and Wallace the Rabbit (not seen since 1948) serves as the existing hero of the painted world.  Disney animators worked hand in hand to capture the look and feel of a Disney world, and two of them were even on hand in the Epic Mickey booth at PAX to provide attendees with sketches of characters, a priceless souvenir.  Here is a short video of one such animator drawing a Steamboat Willie sketch:

Plenty of us know Wii owners with consoles collecting dust.  Perhaps they were purchased to play Wii Sports, exercise with Wii Fit, or as streaming devices for Netflix.  Do not reject these casual gamers, Spector pleaded. Instead, show them all that games have to offer. With Epic Mickey, we now have the right tool to show them the way.

The personalized mouse ears. The Mickey-shaped ice cream. Meeting Mickey, Minnie and all their friends for the first time.  Everyone remembers some element of their first trip to Disney World, even if their first trip was when they were only 3 or 4 years old.  However a lot of people are of the opinion that they don’t need to re-visit Disney World until they have a 3- or 4-year-old child of their own to take with them. 

Since the opening of the Magic Kingdom in October 1971, Disney World has expanded in astounding amounts with the addition of Epcot in 1982, Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 1989, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom in 1998; thereby making Disney World four worlds in one. This doesn’t even include the two water parks (Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon), Downtown Disney area (complete with restaurants, shopping and Disney’s own Cirque Du Soliel show La Nouba), golf courses, spas, and wide variety of resorts (from value to luxury) that are right within the Disney property.  Disney World has come a long way since 1971 in both size and technology, and offers so much for young adults traveling without kids that it is worth a visit or two without children to reminisce old Disney memories while making new ones.

(1) Thrill Rides That Are Actually Thrilling!

Dubbed the big three mountains you needed to conquer in the Magic Kingdom, Space Mountain (1975), Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (1979) and Splash Mountain (1992) were, for many years, the only thrill rides/roller coasters that Disney had to offer patrons. In comparison to other theme parks such as Six Flags Great Adventure (offering rides such as The Great American Scream Machine and Batman: The Ride) and Busch Gardens Williamsburg (with roller coaster thrill favorites such as Alpengeist and Loch Ness Monster), these rides, while still beloved classics, didn’t add up on the “thrill” front many amusement park goers were craving. While each have been updated and renovated over the years, many argue that Disney did not truly break into the thrill ride sector until Disney’s Hollywood Studios opened the Twlight Zone Tower of Terror in 1994 (a free-falling elevator ride that plummets riders down, and back up, and back down again, at varying intervals and speeds) and Rock’n’Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith in 1999 (a looping roller coaster that accelerates riders from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 2.8 seconds).  Epcot also got in the thrill ride mix and opened Test Track in 1999, which is currently Disney World’s fastest attraction that puts the rider in the role of a crash test dummy on a General Motors test track.  In 2006, Animal Kingdom proudly opened Expedition Everest, an elaborately themed roller coaster that zips riders front wards and backwards at speeds between 30 and 50 mph through the Himalayan mountains as they try to escape the fearsome Yeti.  With height requirements that most children under the age of 8 cannot meet, these rides were designed with thrill-seeking adults in mind; quite a change of pace from It’s A Small World!

(2) Disney Imagineers Utilize Technology in the Most Magical of Ways

If thrills aren’t your thing, Disney offers newer, flashier, “tame” rides as well.  3D has been an exploding trend among those simply buying televisions, and Disney World has taken this technology and put people right in the middle of it with Toy Story Midway Mania, an interactive ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios that debuted in 2008. Riders don 3D glasses and play carnival games among all their Toy Story favorites. Wait times can still exceed over 2 ½ hours, even two years after the debut of this attraction, due to its popularity among visitors.  Simulators have come a long way at Disney World as well; Soarin’ (2005) and Mission: Space (2003) at Epcot both champion the simulator sector at both parks, allowing visitors to “fly” over various cities or blast off into space, respectively.

(3) Golf, Tennis and Spas—oh my!

6 hard tennis courts, 2 clay tennis courts, 5 golf courses and 3 full-service spas await you right on Disney property.  Amenities that are generally dubbed “boring” by younger children, these areas of Disney world offer children-free environments for a different kind of relaxation; leave the screaming kids on line for Dumbo in Magic Kingdom’s Fantasyland.  After a relaxing day, eat to your heart’s content.  Epcot’s World Showcase, Downtown Disney MarketPlace, Downtown Disney West Side, and a wide variety of the luxury resorts (such as the Grand Floridian) offer visitors specialty sit-down dining establishments devoid of character greetings with finer fare than your typical amusement park cheeseburger and Coke.  Book your dining reservations well in advance of your trip (up to 90 days ahead); those working at Disney Dining aren’t kidding when they tell you that restaurant reservations fill up fast.

(4) Get Your Drink On

Epcot’s World Showcase boasts eleven countries for visitors to walk around to get a taste of eleven different cultures.  Set up conveniently in a circular pavilion, visitors can either start in Mexico or Canada and work their way around all eleven to make sure all are experienced.  Young adults have turned this into a way to experience specialty alcoholic beverages from all eleven of these countries as they “drink around the world.”  From margaritas in Mexico to sake in Japan, you’ll truly get a sampling of worldly beverages without having to take more than a few steps between countries.  Visit Epcot in the fall and experience the International Food and Wine Festival, another great way to sample exotic cuisines and specialty wines from around the world.

(5) Go Behind the Scenes

Disney World offers a variety of backstage tours to guests, allowing them to see just how the Disney magic runs and operates on a daily basis.  Depending on how much time and money you are willing to spend visitors can choose from a variety of backstage touring options, such as a 6-hour tour that showcases everything from Disney’s famed Audio-Animatronic figures to the legendary underground “Utilidor” tunnel system, or a simple 1-hour “Behind the Seeds” tour through the greenhouses in Epcot’s Living with the Land pavilion that provide vegetables for restaurants used throughout the Disney World property. As adults, you’ll appreciate not only the magic itself but just how the magic is made; this type of knowledge is never something children are interested in experiencing.

Have your own ideas/suggestions on ways adults can re-experience Disney World before they take their own kids?  Post ‘em below!

The best way to describe Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is a third act after Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass. The story plays very similar to the 1980′s Return to Oz, as Alice falls back into Wonderland to find that the world of her childhood adventure is far from the way she left it. What plays out is a Return of the King/Return of the Jedi action finale with characters that used to just be goofy set pieces taking arms. A detailed mythology was layered on the original story and actual names created for characters like The Red Queen.

This was an extremely unique take to adapting the source material that added a weight to the story that hasn’t been seen before, but the fleeting look at the events of the original story  made me long to see Burton take on the original story. If Burton adapted the first two books as one movie and then made this movie, I think the final scenes would have had a greater weight. Even if these are characters that basically everyone knows, sadly few know them from the books anymore, but in their Disney cartoon incarnations. Imagine watching Return of the Jedi without ever seeing any other Star Wars movie, that is the weird feeling one gets from Alice in Wonderland. There are people you know are good, an obviously bad guy with a breathing problem, and then a bunch of little bears.

The biggest problem I had with Alice in Wonderland was this was a movie obviously torn between two very different visions. There are beautiful glimpses of what Tim Burton could have done with these characters unfettered. The scene when Alice sits down for tea with the March Hare and Mad Hatter at a table full of broken dishes and rotten food, seemingly untouched for the decade Alice has been away. As the Hatter describes a bloody revolution against the Queen, the March Hare shakes uncontrollably from caffeine addiction. That is the Burton. Sadly, the film walks a friendly road of barely PG. From the rating description, it seems without the smoking caterpillar, the film would have been G.

Thankfully, the movie has Tim Burton’s unmatched attention to visual detail and character design. Almost every second of this movie could be frozen and put on a wall as a work of art and there is a beautiful fitting victorian oil painting appearance to everything. More thought goes into the design of the backgrounds of a Burton movie than go into the entirety of most movies. This is basically an animation, the only actor who is not untouched by computers was Alice herself, but it hadn’t crossed my mind until writing this review.

Performance wise, Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp were as solid as always at being Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp (my only issue being the Hatter’s scottish accent seemed to come and go). Mia Wasikowska was a strong lead as Alice and it was nice to see her become a strong-willed character and not just an observer. The winner of the movie to me was by-far Crispin Glover, who seemed to be having the time of his life in the role of the Red Queen’s second in command, Stayne. How Burton and Glover never worked together before completely baffles me, as they are perfect together. The moments that seemed least Disney touched came from his completely demented character, who bordered sometimes on pedophiliac sociopath. While every other actor seemed to actively remember they were in a Disney movie, Glover played an aggressively dark part, which ironically harkened back the closest to classic Disney villains.

Is Alice in Wonderland worth seeing in theaters? If you love Tim Burton and the original stories, I say yes. Based on how packed the theaters were this weekend, I think the film will be doing quite well for itself.

Side-note: Its the elephant in the room these days, but I really didn’t want to mention it in the proper review. I saw Alice in Wonderland in IMAX 3D. The 3D was handled tastefully, and I never once felt like it was a gimmick (i’m looking at you Christmas Carol). Maybe because it seems like every third movie I see is 3D these days, but it’s losing its novelty and I started to barely notice it towards the end. It is nice to see directors to start to use it for depth and not throwing things in people’s faces.

Rating: ★★★☆☆