We Want The D

Much like the miracle substance itself, FLUBBER is a Disney movie that seems to defy understanding. In most ways, it's a surprisingly faithful remake (to its own detriment) of the 1961 Fred MacMurray vehicle it's based on. But it's in the small changes where the insanity happens. A flying robot in love with her creator, henchmen played by serial killer Buffalo Bill and the hardest screw to ever walk a turn in Shawshank prison, and Christopher McDonald - Shooter McGavin himself - delivering what may be his archest villain performance. All that before even mentioning they got Robin Williams to play the professor.

Oh, to see the world through the eyes of this dog. A dog who loved an old shepherd so much he'd follow his slowly-dying body from the moors to the streets of Edinburgh to the Greyfriars Kirkyard. Who then was fed by a guilt-ridden restaurant, bathed by a graveyard caretaker, and played with by poor children. Who was then...dragged before the the magistrate in an ownership dispute, but got to play with a cool quill? What a life for GREYFRIARS BOBBY, and what a Disny film for our hosts to be delighted and/or utterly baffled by.

We haven't been shy about our general malaise toward Disney's modern predilection for remakes and sequels that feel a bit creatively bankrupt. So imagine our surprise when we watched one of their first ever sequels, SAVAGE SAM, and discovered it's not necessarily a new trend. Ostensibly a sequel to the classic trauma vehicle Old Yeller, this movie is less a fraught coming-of-age tale about a boy and his dog and more a movie where Kevin Corcoran hurls rocks at people and animals before turning into a Disney-fied version of The Searchers.

We're closing out another decade of Disney this week with THE LITTLEST OUTLAW. The story of a little boy and a frightened horse attempting to avoid the wrath of a Mexican General and stepfather who's a real piece of work. It's not entirely unpleasant, at least until it starts extolling the virtues of bullfighting. And because we're finished with the 1950s, we also reminisce about the highs and lows of the movies we watched from this early era of Disney.

Has someone at Disney been listening to us? Seems that way, since RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON gives us a lot of what we've been wanting from modern Disney. An original story instead of a sequel or a remake? Check. A "let's get a team together" structure filled with interesting and fun characters? Check. A con artist baby who can do martial arts? You better believe that's a check. This movie isn't perfect, but it's still a whole lot of fun.

We close out our October Season run of programming by closing out a Disney Channel franchise with RETURN TO HALLOWEENTOWN. And while these movies may have always been dull, cheap and dumb to varying degrees, they've never been more incoherent than in this last installment. And we're not just talking about the fact that they replaced the lead actress and literally nobody else in the reoccurring cast. So it's not a fond farewell we're paying to Halloweentown, but after sitting through four of these things, it's certainly a happy one.

It's a spooky October Season surprise as the Summer of Muppets returns from beyond the grave. The scariest combination of words in this Disney+ special may just be "corporate synergy" as MUPPETS HAUNTED MANSION plays more as a cross-promotional advertisement for a theme park ride than a natural fit for these beloved puppet characters, but hey - it's still the Muppets getting to do stuff, so it's all ok in our books.

There's a feeling of October in the air, which can only mean one thing. It's time to return to Seabrook High School (AKA Jill's work building) for Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 2. And this time, there's werewolves. Who, in this universe, are all teens who wear the same jewelry and sew fur patches onto their clothes. Disney Channel Original sequels tend to be a bit better than their first iterations, but there's always going to be exceptions to the rule, and this may very well be one of those.

Welcome to McFARLAND, USA - a small California town made up of a mostly Latinx community, and a new family lead by the latest in a long line of Disney old dads. Only this time, the old dad is Coach Kevin Costner and he's noticed that a lot of these local boys sure can run. Yes, it's another Disney sports movie, which of course means we're in for a good time; and maybe we'll learn one or two obvious lessons along the way as well.

We've watched a lot of sub-par Disney movies over the years, but there's something different about CHICKEN LITTLE. It's a movie with so many problems that there's no way they couldn't have been apparent to the people making it, and yet nobody seems to have cared to pump the brakes and try to correct them. The result is a montage heavy, dialogue light, weird looking, strangely cast, inexplicable mess of a story that puts our hosts through the ringer.