It's Disness Time

Between 2010-2020, Disney took several of their most beloved animated films and remade them into live-action movies (for better or for worse).  We chose to rank 10 of the most popular Disney live-action movies from worst to best.

The list includes: Alice in Wonderland (2010), Maleficent (2014), Cinderella (2015), The Jungle Book (2016), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Dumbo (2019), Aladdin (2019), The Lion King (2019), Lady and the Tramp (2019), and Mulan (2020).

What's it like to work at Disneyland Paris? Disness host Stephanie interviews author Claudia Hansen, a former employee of Disney's second international park, to learn what goes on behind-the-scenes, the differences between EuroDisney and the US parks, and to hear a fascinating encounter with Canadian sweetheart Celine Dion.

What album has a racist song by Hilary Duff, multiple Raven-Symoné tracks, AND a surprise big band megahit by Daniel Bedingfield? The 2nd installment of the Disneymania franchise, of course! Listen to our review of Disneymania 2, 2005's most sickly-sweet, tweeny-bopper album!

(03:57) "Welcome" Jump5 (05:43) "True to Your Heart" Raven(08:25) "It's a Small World" Baha Men(10:55) "He's a Tramp" The Beu Sisters(12:40) "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" Stevie Brock (15:55) "The Siamese Cat Song" Hilary Duff & Haylie Duff (20:28) "Circle of Life" Disney Channel Circle of Stars(24:30) "A Whole New World" LMNT (27:50) "Once Upon a Dream" No Secrets(30:49) "Anytime You Need a Friend" The Beu Sisters(32:53) "The Second Star to the Right" Jesse McCartney (35:14) "When You Wish Upon a Star" Ashley Gearing (37:28)"A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" Daniel Bedingfield (41:38) "Baroque Hoedown" They Might Be Giants(45:25) "I Wan'na Be Like You" Nikki Webster

In Part 2 of our Halloween 2020 special, we read out three spooky ghost stories and then suggest how Disney might recreate them as family-friendly films for kids. Be warned: this episode contains awesome but terrifying stories and moments of actual screaming that may spook or frighten some listeners - listener discretion is advised! 

00:01 - Listener Warning

00:53 - Intro

04:00 - Story 1: The Green Ribbon

13:21 - Story 2: Robert the Doll 

19:13 - WE SCREAM SO TURN DOWN YOUR VOLUME

27:38 - Story 3: I'm Not Martin

FACT: the parks are haunted. There are multiple urban legends of the spooky sightings and strange occurrences at Disney's parks, many based on actual historic events. These rumours have been passed from castmate to castmate, guest to guest, and now podcast hosts to listeners. Enjoy Part 1 of our Halloween 2020 episodes where we list the most chilling Disney Park ghost stories, and remember: listeners beware, you're in for a scare!

The quack attack is back!! Which of the three Mighty Ducks movies ranks #1? This week we break down each movie in the franchise into five categories (plot, new characters, quotability, motivational moments, and family-fun film), give them a ranking out of 5 for each category, and then total up the points to determine the worst to the best.

Ever wonder what Cruella de Vil's wedding would look like? What about a wedding that's located where Lilo and Stitch live? This week, we turned into wedding planners and brainstormed the ideal weddings for some of our favourite Disney characters, including decorations, dress, location, music, and food!

It's time to review Disney's 2020 live action reboot of Mulan. Tune in as we put this Mulan remake on trial to find out if the film would impress the matchmaker OR bring dishonour on your whole family. Discussion includes comparisons to the 1998 classic, plot points (what went wrong and what could be better), characters, soundtrack, Chinese culture, fight choreography, and much more!

The Black Lives Matter movement is gathering momentum every day, and we are still in a global pandemic, so we have chosen to end our season early to prioritize our learning and educate ourselves by listening closer, reading more, researching further, and doing better.

Before we go on hiatus for the summer, we take a moment to discuss which Disney movie destinations we would visit if a) it were physically possible and b) we were not in a pandemic. Tune in for your typical Disney discussion, but also consider joining us by shifting your focus to learning about and understanding why this historic civil rights movement matters. Here is a recommendation list for podcasts that discuss the experiences of black communities and educate about systemic racism:

1619 by The New York Times

Lynching In America

Code Switch by NPR

About Race with Reni Eddo-Lodge

Desert Island Discs with Bryan Stevenson

All My Relations

Intersectionality Matters!

‘Witness Black History' by BBC World

Slay In Your Lane: The Podcast

Pod Save the People

Sip on This

Justice in America

What's Next by Slate

Man enters the forest again to put Bambi on trial! Jurors Steph and Kim break down this 1942 Disney CLASSIC and discuss the character development, music, illustration, and cultural impact on Disney's later films (looking at you, Lion King!) to determine if this film deserves a full life cycle in the forest or a million scary thunderstorms. Tune in now!