Dreaming Disney - What if Michael Bay Directed Up?

I love Up, you love Up, but what if Michael Bay loved Up enough to have crafted this classic for Disney?

Boom!

Explosive!

You are welcome! 

Mousey Movies - Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days

If you have a tween aged child, you are likely familiar with the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series. I am pretty sure we have every volume in our home library. Yeah, the oldest loves the series, but what I did not realize was how much my youngest would love the original Dairy of a Wimpy Kid movie. I would constantly hear shouts from the Between Kid yelling, Zoo-Wee-Mama! In the Between House these three movies are hits, and I have to admit I really enjoy Roderick. As we watched the most recent installment Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, which follows the misadventures of young Greg Heffley, I was thrilled I could declare this film Diary of a Mousey Kid:

• Runt: In 1996, Steve Zahn who plays father Frank Heffley, caught my attention in Tom Hanks’ That Thing You Do as Lenny Haise. The somewhat creepy yet fun Lenny had me in stitches. He delivers quick lines throughout the film that just crack me up every time. And in 2005’s Sahara, directed by Michael Eisner’s son Brock, I loved and wanted to see more of him as sidekick Al Giordino. Basically, if Steve Zahn is in a movie’s cast I am more likely to watch it. Sadly that rule honestly has led me to sit through some stinkers. One of my complaints with the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid was there was not enough Steve Zahn. Of you bring in Zahn to play the dad, we need more dad! Okay the story may not have supported that choice, but I was thrilled this third installment really is a father/ son story that requires a lot of Zahn on screen time. For Disney, Zahn voiced Runt of the Litter in Chicken Little, also in 2005. For me the most memorable line of the movie is Zahn delivering, “Just leave me some ammo, a little water, some chips if you have 'em.” Yes, Zahn you do know how to give classic lines that make you chuckle. Seriously, can we get The Santa Clause 4 with Zahn entering a quip war with Tim Allen?

• Wilderness Explorer: As Frank attempts to spend more time with Greg and get him away from video games, he signs Greg up for the Wilderness Explorers! Wait, is this Up? I had looked at the organization Wilderness Explorers as being a fictional Boy Scouts like group that only existed in the minds of Pixar. Here the Wilderness Explorers are used again as a fictional Boy Scouts like organization. I kept waiting for someone to yell, “The wilderness must be explorered!” But alas it never happened, and no one earned a badge for aiding the elderly.

• Oh Jesse: You just cannot escape the cast of Disney Channel’s Jesse in this film. Peyton List plays Holy Hills, Greg’s young love interest and generally nice young lady, especially when compared to her older sister. Karan Brar returns as Chirag Gupta, one of Greg’s classmates and friends. Sadly Brar’s performance is somewhat lost as roles for Zahn and others are expanded. But honestly the storyline within Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules where Greg leads his classmates to completely ignore Gupta is unforgettable. When those kids ignore someone they do it right! On Jesse, List plays the oldest Ross sibling Emma a young lady who is all about fashion. And Brar plays Ravi Ross, a very intelligent young boy much like Gupta, who is the third oldest of the Ross kids.

• It’s Nice to Be Nice: Zahn is not the only parent to get into the Disney film game. Rachel Harris who plays Little Women loving Susan Heffley is featured in one of my favorite movies of 2012 Wreck-It Ralph. She voices the Nicelander Deanna.

• I’m a Real Boy: About an hour into Dairy of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days it hit me. Greg is Pinocchio! Greg lies constantly. He does it to stay out of trouble. He lies to make situations more convenient for him. And Greg really is a horrible friend as his best friend Rowley should have learned in the original Dairy of a Wimpy Kid. His lies have legal, financial and physical consequences for others. Greg lies, lies, lies. Much like Pinocchio, Greg has to learn to tell the truth and take responsibility of his actions to receive the approval of his father. Yes kids, as Walt Disney taught us in 1940, lying does not make parents happy!

I have to admit. Greg cannot seem to learn. He is a really bad friend and he lies constantly, and has done so since the first movie. I wonder if a Pinocchio trilogy would still have him lying so much in the third film. The good news is the movie does provide a great opportunity to discuss the consequences of lying as we watch the wooden boy lie on screen, I mean Greg in this Mousey Movie.

Mousey Movies - Elf

In passing, I told my friend that I was watching Elf tonight and wondered if I could declare it Mousey. His immediate response was “How?” An excellent question spawning from his knowledge of my self-imposed rules for declaring movies Mousey.

Stay with me and allow me to pull back the magical creativity veil and reveal to you my process. As a general rule, I require at least 4 connections to Disney properties in order to affirm a Mousey movie. Additionally, at least two of these connections need to be strong and not previously discussed before in a Mousey Movie post. So in the case of Elf, I could have used director Jon Faverau as one of my connections, but 1) I have used him before and 2) I have plans to use him again. So that is a connection I do not wish to revisit.

Sometimes I use themes and backgrounds to tie a movie to the Mouse House. So, for Elf an easy connection would be the settings of New York City and Central Park which also are used heavily in Enchanted. But there are a lot of movies that use New York that are not Disney productions, like The Smurfs, making the connection rather weak. What Elf really has going for it is motivation. For me, it is the non-Disney movies that are the most fun to link back. For example, a movie like Secret of the Wings is not fun for me, as I simply would link the majority of the fairy voices back to their Disney Channel and direct to video productions. To be fun, I need new possibilities and the thrill of the hunt in the research. So, for a new Disney movie, my preference is to write a Mousey Movie Review rather than focus on the links to Mickey’s Empire. So yes, my friend’s question had thrown down the gauntlet and somewhat unknowingly issued a challenge to both of us. In accepting this challenge, I found in Elf more than I ever needed to declare it a Mousey Movie!

If the viewing of The Santa Clause has become the primary holiday tradition in my house, the multiple replaying of Elf by the Between Kids is the second video tradition. They love the story of Buddy the Elf played by Will Ferrell who upon discovering that he is in fact human journeys to New York City to connect with his biological father. In New York, Buddy has to help his father get off the naughty list and find acceptance of his very odd, lost son. Along the way, things get Mousey:

• Jolly Old Men: I had to adjust the first time I saw Elf because Santa Claus was not played by Tim Allen. Instead Ed Asner plays the legendary figure. Asner stars in my favorite Disney/Pixar movie Up as Carl Fredricksen. In Up, Anser is a grumpy old man who becomes jolly and learns to share the love in his heart, a problem that this version of Chris Kringle does not seem to share.

• Mousey Elf: If you want to treat yourself, go listen to Bob Newhart’s The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart. It was not until I gave this comedy album a spin that I truly realized how funny Newhart is. I grew up watching Newhart and still believe that it has the best series finale of all time. But for me, Newhart was often the straight man on the show as a crazy cast of characters revolved around him. In many ways Newhart remains the straight man in Elf, if you can call pointy shoes straight, as Papa Elf the adoptive father of Buddy. Newhart starred in not one but two Disney animated features voicing Bernard, the mouse janitor of the Rescue Aid Society who becomes hero in The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under.

• I Just Meet You: I see another similarity between Up and Elf in the characters of Dug and Buddy. Both offer love quickly. When Dug meets Carl he announces, “My name is Dug. I have just met you, and I love you.” Buddy has a similar moment meeting Walter the first time singing, “I love you. I love you! I LOVE YOU!” The fact that both are so willing to love is in many ways enduring, or for some a little creepy!

 

A Loving Dog and a Grumpy Old Man!

• Angry: Actor Peter Dinklage plays children’s author Miles Finch. Finch is successful, entitled and angry. He does not take kindly to Buddy who becomes upset with Buddy’s belief that Finch is one of Santa’s elves. Dinklage appeared in Disney’s Underdog as Dr. Simon Bar Sinister, which is clearly a bad guy name! I enjoyed him more in his second Disney production The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian as the dwarf Trumpkin, a character that I wanted to see on screen when I originally read the book as a kid. Trumpkin like Finch has a shade of angry in his personality. Sadly for me he did not reprise his role in the non-Disney sequel, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. With his success in the HBO Game of Thrones, Dinklage’s fine work is being critically applauded.

  

• The Iron Diaries: John Debney provides the score for Elf. Debney is no stranger to Mousey Movies scoring Iron Man 2 (where he worked with Favreau), Hannah Montana: The Movie, Chicken Little, The Princess Diaries, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, Snow Dogs, and The Emperor’s New Groove. Debney’s music is very familiar in the halls of the House of Mouse.

My buddy laid down the challenge and I was shocked to find I could declare Elf mousey. There are numerous connections to Disney franchises in this movie that beams Christmas spirit. I’m guessing if you have a good sense of humor, you probably are also enjoying Elf amongst your Christmas viewing.