We Want The D

Grab your life jackets and make sure your compass is secure, D-Lovers, we're heading back onto the ocean this week...actually it's looking pretty stormy out there, maybe we should stay on land. Leave navigating this nasty nor'easter to the brave men of the coast guard, like in Disney's THE FINEST HOURS. Based on the true story of a daring and pretty miraculous rescue, most of our hosts found this story appropriately thrilling and engaging...but for one it played into some very specific and pretty intense fears about deep, dark, cold, rough water and what it can do to big boats and small bodies alike.

It's that time of year again, and since this summer feels a little bit (ok, a lotta bit) different thanks to, well... *gestures vaguely toward outside*, our hosts thought it would be appropriate if this year's monthly series had a specific air of gloominess about it. So welcome to The Summer of Sadness: The Disney Films of Tim Burton. And there's no better place to start than with the film that really feels like it cemented the modern era of Tim's filmmaking career - his kinda-sequel/kinda reboot/kinda nothing adaptation of ALICE IN WONDERLAND.

In many ways, THOSE CALLOWAYS is a subversion of your typical Disney movie. Rather than a dead mother, Lydia Calloway may be one of the best and strongest mother/wife figures we've seen. Rather than a happy family singing and dancing together, the Calloways have real issues with anger, alcohol and finances. Sadly, in other ways it's all too typical of Disney, especially when it comes to the studio's proclivity towards casual animal abuse. And there's the whole thing with Bucky Calloway turning from a sweet, if rather clueless boy into a raging, toxic male. And, craziest of all, their inexplicable love for God's worst creation. It's a mixed bag, is what we're saying.

Happy 250th episode, D-Lovers! Your votes were cast and in a narrow victory THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE won out to be the subject of this landmark episode - and you won't hear any of our hosts complaining. One of the most uniquely funny movies in Disney's animated canon, the only thing Vicky, Nolan and Jill love more than getting to share our collective adoration for this film is getting to deep-dive into the lesser-known story of the troubled development and production process this movie faced - and not only because it allows them to dunk on Sting for over 90 minutes.

It's one thing for Disney to be remaking their classics, but what happens when they decide to remake one of their relatively lesser-known films? Like say, one that heavily featured child abuse and alcoholism? Well in 2016 they did just that with PETE'S DRAGON, and the results may just surprise you - as they certainly surprised our hosts.

We're killing two films with one podcast this week on We Want The D, but not by doing an original and a remake the way we have in the past. This time, we're looking at SALUDOS AMIGOS, a four-movie package film from the early 1940s; and the 2008 documentary Disney made about the making of said package film, WALT & EL GRUPO. One wouldn't necessarily think the latter deserves the former, but it turns out the documentary is quite illuminating as to just why Disney made not one, but two movies of seemingly disconnected, cute but often generic short films set in South America. Plus is gives Vicky, Nolan and Jill an excuse to dive back into the psychology of Walter Elias Disney, one of our hosts' favourite pastimes.

It's been a minute since We Want The D took a trip to the old west, and on paper, going there with none other than Roddy McDowall seems like a promising proposition for prospecting fun. Is Disney's THE ADVENTURES OF BULLWHIP GRIFFIN one of the better Disney westerns we've watched? That's definitely an argument that can be made. Is it a rollicking good time from start to finish worth a viewer's time and attention? Well, depends which host you ask.

Ah the 90s. A time when eyebrows were skinny, you could bring metal objects in your carry-on on international flights, and films co-starring apes were all the rage in family entertainment. Of course Disney had to hop on that train as well, and do it bigger and better than anyone else with MIGHTY JOE YOUNG. Starring a massive gorilla and a fresh-faced Charlize Theron, is this movie a time capsule or a timeless classic? Vicky, Nolan and Jill discuss the film, as well as take a very necessary detour to pay homage to the late, great Bill Paxton.

We all know that Disney is a little remake-crazy, but it wasn't until this week's episode that it really sunk in HOW crazy. Because it turns out that UNIDENTIFIED FLYING ODDBALL is the third time we're watching a Disney adaptation of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court in less than a year. But because this first adaptation (that we know of...) is from the 1970s, instead of a teenage boy or Whoopi, it's just some dude who travels "back in time" to Camelot to thwart the evil machinations of Merlin and Jim Dale, befriend an elderly King Arthur and his hetero(?) life mate, and totally weird out a poor peasant woman with his terrible notions of romance. Yet somehow this is still the best version of the story we've seen (so far...) - go figure.

All good things must come to an end, and so it is with no small amount of sadness that we bid farewell to our beloved Hayley Mills AKA Hayley Brando AKA the greatest child actor Disney ever had. THAT DARN CAT! was Hayley's last theatrical film for Disney, and to our hosts' delight they knocked it out of the park. There's great character actor faces, hilarious physical comedy, and even a fresh-faced Dean Jones brings his A-game in his first Disney role. Parting may be such sweet sorrow, but this movie definitely made it more sweet than bitter.