Disney Magic And More

We're jumping right back into the straight-to-video sequels with The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, which for some reason is a lot of people's favorite Disney sequel. Does it stand above the world of the straight to video sequels as the one true good one, or is it actually just like all the rest? Let's return once again to Pride Rock.

Unfortunately, this latest episode of The Disney Magic Podcast was plagued by audio difficulties. We have worked to smooth things out as much as possible, but you will still be able to tell some of the issues we had trying to get this particular episode to you. (As an apology, we will also be posting episode #84 simultaneously so you get at least one episode that's easier to listen to.)Still, it's worth addressing The Good Dinosaur, as it's one of the biggest misfires in the entire Pixar lineup. Everything that it's customary for Pixar to hit out of the park feels like it didn't come together on this one. We break down what could have happened and why the pieces of this particular puzzle never come together quite right to form a real picture.

Pixar has gone from the depths of the ocean, to the far reaches of space, and now they're going inside the mind of a middle school girl.  We get five main characters that, by definition, should be the most one dimensional character to ever get put into a movie, and yet, somehow it's one of Pixar's deepest and most thought provoking movies yet.

Pixar brings us their first prequel, the story of how the heroes of Monsters Inc., Mike and Sully, first met and became best friends back in their college days. Pixar also figures out how to take the "college movie" genre and somehow make it fit into a great G rated kids movie.

It was a title that didn't seem to make a lot of sense when they first announced it, but now that we've seen Pixar's Brave, it's easy to see where the movie's original title, The Bear and the Bow, came from. It's Pixar's first movie with a female lead, as well as the first Pixar movie to be what we could consider a fairy tale.

Cars might not be the most critically acclaimed of the Pixar movies, but with merchandise sales putting just about every other Pixar franchise to shame, the fact that there's a Cars 2 isn't a surprise. That being said, the fact that this is a spy movie that's heavy on action sequences where Michael Caine is involved and Larry the Cable Guy is the main character this time was a bit unexpected. Lets dive in, to this incredibly strange installment in the Pixar lineup. 

The toys are back for the third movie to complete the Toy Story trilogy (for now). Pixar returns to the world of Buzz and Woody to put on their version of a prison break movie, as we watch the movie in the Toy Story trilogy with the lowest rating on Rotten Tomatoes. (It has a 99%. It's just that the first two movies both have 100%)

You know that feeling of the word getting you down and just wanting to float away from it all? Well now that feeling has it's own movie and it includes, an old man, a young scout, a talking dog, a magic bird, like three more talking dogs, another old man but this one's an old time adventurer, and of course a house that flies via balloon. 

Once again, Pixar takes an idea that sounds bad (or at least incredibly bizarre) and turns into into a flat out masterpiece. This time in a post apocalyptic future where humanity has abandoned earth, one Robot that's obsessed with Hello Dolly falls in love and goes on an epic space adventure. Also there is pretty much no talking for the first half of the movie. 

Pixar's next movie is their rat/food/french film Ratatouille that manages to combine thinks that shouldn't go well together (rodents and food) and manages to make something fantastic out of it. It's very much like cooking that way, where things are mixed to make even better things. They probably did that on purpose.

In this episode, we look at the first movie in Pixar's Cars series. While Cars is often considered to be the "sellout" Pixars movie, or the franchise that's only there to pay the bills, we actually breakdown the first Cars film to see how it holds up as a Pixar movie on its own.

This episode takes on Pixar's first superhero movie, The Incredibles. It's also the first  Pixar movie to have primarily human characters as well as their first PG movie. The Incredibles breaks a lot of new ground for Pixar so come along with us as we explore the action/adventure/comedy/animated/family film.

This episode of Disney Magic goes deep underwater to watch one of the most successful animated movies of all time, Finding Nemo. If you were around in the year or so that followed the release of this movie, it's safe to assume that you've watched this fish adventure approximately a thousand times minimum.

The next Pixar movie is the hilarious Monsters Inc. featuring two best friends, a ton of crazy character designs, and a whole lot of metaphors about parenthood that I could have sworn weren't in the movie when I watched it as a kid. 

This week, our movie is the first sequel to a Pixar movie, and will be the only Pixar sequel for quite a while. We get to see Buzz and Woody again out on their next adventure with new toys, toy collectors, and an old, forgotten TV show in the movie that has the all time highest rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

We continue with Pixar's next movie A Bug's Life. Like Toy Story before it, A Bug's Life takes something that doesn't normally have emotions or feeling (bugs) and then makes you feel things for them. Let's see if this will be a trend when it comes to Pixar.

Disney Magic begins its trek through the Pixar films, starting first with Toy Story staring Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. So join us through the next several weeks as we look at some of the very best computer animated films of the past twenty years.

For our Christmas special, we take a look at a Disney Princess direct to DVD presentation. How was it. You should listen to find out how good it is (even though you can probably make a good guess.)Direct Download link here

Disney Magic makes it's return by listing some of their favorite, but perhaps less well known characters.Direct Download Link Here