Monthly Archives: January 2014
Modern Mouse Live: January 2014
Jan 31
We return with our live shows for the first time since the D23 Expo over the summer. Our plan is to do one show a month talking about all of the news and detailings of the Disney company. Plus we bring up discussions for ourselves and our listeners. We need responses to these serious questions! Watch the first show of the year from beginning to end, even with the goof ups!
The Modern Mouse Crew
https://ModernMouseRadio.com
DIY Disney Movie Night: Peter Pan
Jan 30
There be lost boys here!
I learned the hard way not to take both girls shopping with me when we went to buy supplies for our Peter Pan Disney Family Movie Night. I usually try to our nights on a budget, but we went a little overboard with this one. It was pretty easy to go overboard with all the cute girly pirate items though. How could I say no?
The Decorations: I used a simple black tablecloth with my daughter’s Tinkerbell and a pirate chest we already had as our centerpiece. We found the cute girly pirate plates and napkins, along with the fun pirate bomb cups and compasses at Hobby Lobby. The girls also picked out girly pirate eye patches and some pirate bandanas.
Peter Pan
The Activity: I made the girls a treasure map out of an empty wrapping paper roll (an empty paper towel roll or cardstock would work well also). They used the treasure map and their compasses to find the hidden treasure. I wanted to find some unstuffed teddy bears so they could stuff them Build-A-Bear style and call them Michael’s teddy bears, but I couldn’t find any. Instead, we went with a teddy bear, a stuffed rabbit (my stepdaughter wanted it instead of a bear), and bags of gold doubloons (chocolate coins). The girls had so much fun with the treasure hunt, they ended up taking turns hiding their new stuffed animals and trying to find them with their compasses.
Pirate Food
The Menu: Pirate boat pizzas, fruit swords, and pixie dust cupcakes. For the pirate boat pizzas, take a hoagie roll split in half length wise (French bread also works well) and top with pizza sauce, cheese, and your favorite pizza toppings (we used pepperoni, green peppers, mushrooms, and black olives). Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted, about 5 to 10 minutes. Ours were perfect at 7 minutes. The girls then colored sails on construction paper cut into rectangles. We then cut small slits into the top and bottom of the rectangles and placed them on bamboo skewers (you could also use a plastic straw) placed in the middle of the pizza boats. The fruit swords were simply a slice of banana, a slice of pineapple, and a strawberry on a small plastic sword. The pixie dust cupcakes were red velvet cupcakes with chocolate frosting dipped in green colored sugar. I found the colored sugar with the sprinkles in the baking isle. They would have looked better with vanilla frosting, but my picky eater wouldn’t have eaten them, so we used chocolate.
Up next will be Mulan, along with my picky eater’s favorite meal!
Alexia Christensen
Modern Mouse Radio #43: Worst 10 Ideas for Disney Dark Rides
Jan 29
Worst 10 Ideas for Disney Dark Rides
Keith and Josh return with a segment that hasn’t been done in a while. The “Worst 10” list is back so that everyone can ponder and have a good time thinking up what Disney could do wrong and we are glad they’ve never done such ideas. The guys discuss Disney films that would never be a dark ride.
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www.keithlapinig.com
Disney Trip Planning: Disney’s Magical Express
Jan 28
Did you know that if you are traveling to Walt Disney World by plane (on participating airlines) you can get free transportation right to your Disney resort hotel?! Disney’s Magical Express is a free shuttle for Disney Resort guests! You basically let them know when you book your hotel room what time your flights there and back are and they schedule a time for you to be picked up! Lots of people take advantage of this rather than renting a car or calling a cab. In the mail, at some point before your trip, you will get a packet in the mail with your Magical Express Vouchers and Luggage tags. The luggage tags are for their bag pick up service. Instead of going to the bag pick up area when you arrive in the Orlando International airport (MCO), a Disney Cast Member will fetch your bags for you and bring them straight to your room at some point before the end of the day! Here are some extra tid-bits you might not know or think of if you are using Magical Express:
-Bring a carry on bag of things you know you will need in the first day. This is in case your luggage doesn’t get to the room right away. This might mean an extra change of clothes, your bathing suit, sunscreen, and emergency stuff. (Don’t forget to check the TSA website to see what is allowed to be a carry-on item on your flight!)
-Carry your Magical Express Vouchers on your person along with your wallet and phone! You’ll be needing it to board the shuttle, so you don’t want it in your checked luggage which is inaccessible at this point!
-You cannot use the shuttle if you don’t qualify for it. They will not non-Disney-Resort guests board.
It’s pretty easy to navigate the airport, and this little map comes in your Magical Express Voucher packet to tell you where to go!
-You cannot use the shuttle any day other than the day of your flight. Your flight time is written on the ticket. This means you can’t spend a day sight seeing somewhere else, then get a ride to the airport and hop on a shuttle.
-Disney uses multiple buses for different resorts. In other words – there isn’t just one shuttle that shows up to take everyone to every resort. For example: I always stay at the All-Stars and there’s a designated bus just for that and Coronado Springs.
-It can take anywhere from about 30min to an hour or so to get to your resort depending on traffic, distance, etc.
-If your Magical Express time is earlier than the resort check in time, no fears, your resort will hold onto any of your baggage for you until your room is ready. Also, they can get you all checked in and ready to visit the parks if you’d like!
-When leaving your resort at the end of your trip to go back home, a cast member drops off new luggage tags in your room to attach to your luggage (the night before you leave). You also receive a notice of your designated pick up time for the Magical Express Shuttle to take you back to the airport. Just take off the old Magical Express Luggage tags and attach the new ones, then you can bring them with you to the front desk of your hotel to check them into the airport. They weigh your bag for you, too, to make sure you aren’t over the weight limit! Make sure your carry-on bag is packed with the essentials and be on time for the shuttle to pick you up (about 3 hours before your flight time)!
Sadly, this is false advertising. Mickey PROBABLY wont be there to welcome you aboard!
-The shuttle drops you off at your hotel’s front entrance, and picks you up at the Magical Express bus stop (usually located in the same area as the other shuttle bus stops for the parks!)
-Double check with a cast member, but I have been reading that the new Magic Bands work right away and don’t require you to have them activated at your resort hotel! If this is the case, and you have a Magic Band, you can take a Magical Express shuttle to any of the resort hotels and from there, get right on a shuttle to the parks!
-Once you board the shuttle, they turn on a video on the various screens over head. Last trip I remember, it was a welcome video and intro to the parks and your vacation, plus some cartoons! The video keeps you occupied for the drive between the airport and your resort!
-The shuttles they use for Magical Express are different than the buses you use to get back and forth between your hotel and the parks during your stay. The Magical Express buses are more like coach buses, with cushioned seats and foot rests. The shuttles you take getting back and forth to the parks and your hotel are more like public transportation, just less smelly and cleaner – with hard plastic seats, cramped seating, and hand rails to accommodate room for standing.
-Note: for flights that leave or arrive in MCO in the middle of the night, you may have to carry your own luggage rather than have them pick it up for you!
Overall, I think Magical Express is one of the best things they have going at Walt Disney World. Everything about a WDW trip is magical and they really hit the nail on the head by offering Disney Resort guests a free way to get back and forth to the hotels!
I’m sure I overlooked including some details here and there, so why don’t you all help me and tell me some of your tips and insider-info on using Disney’s Magical Express in the comments below!
Angie Carreiro
http://www.ILoveAnimalArt.com
https://www.etsy.com/shop/flipadeeflop
Monday Memes: Disney on Ice
Jan 27
Where Nightmares Really Do Come True
Disney Word of the Day: Chest
Jan 26
Keith returns with a new Disney word. Thanks to Creatures Inspired for sharing their creatures for this video. If you enjoy these videos, check out Also, check out everything else Keith is doing at the links below:
Top 5: Reasons Donald Duck is Cooler than You
Jan 24
The fighting duck!
Mickey Mouse might be the face of the Walt Disney company but even Walt Disney knew that he had cornered himself with the goody-two-shoes personality of Mickey Mouse. Walt wanted a character that would be the anti-Mickey Mouse and he got that when Donald Duck debuted in “The Wise Little Hen”. What happened after Donald was created was a phenomenon. The duck became as popular or even surpassed the popularity of Mickey Mouse. He has not only been a large icon for Disney, but he has become a large icon for pop culture. So here are my top 5 reasons why Donald Duck is cooler than you.
#5-He is a college and country mascot. Donald is the only cartoon character to be licensed as an official mascot for the University of Oregon. He is seen as the Fighting Duck. Earlier than his college mascot days, he was an unofficial mascot for the Botafogo Brazilian Sports Club during the 1940s. The club has an official mascot now (so they don’t have to pay royalties) but many still consider the duck an unofficial mascot of Brazil.
#4-He almost became President. Let’s be honest, sometimes politics are boring and candidates don’t really deserve the vote. In Sweden, that seems to be the case at every election. Donald Duck has been a write in candidate from the Donald Duck Party often enough to be banned as a write in candidate. The Donald Duck party has become the 9th most popular party in Sweden, but Donald’s political prowess doesn’t stop there. Stateside, he beat out George W. Bush and Al Gore in 2002 as the district director of the Marion Soil and Water Conservation Board in Salem, Oregon. The candidates for the job were all write-ins so it was anyone’s ball game to be fair, but Donald beat Al Gore with over 200 more votes than the former Vice President, who only received 23 votes.
Donald’s own film star on Hollywood Blvd
#3-He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The strip of Hollywood Blvd. has over 2,500 stars on the ground, but only 10 stars belong to fictional characters. One is Mickey Mouse so I guess they are equal here, but this shows how powereful of a pop culture icon Donald really is.
#2-Donald Duck earned a six figure income working for the government. The Government accounting office chose Donald Duck as a ficticious person working for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in the 1970s. He was given the salary of $100,000. That is double of the average civil servant. This was done to see if the computerized payroll system could be fooled…..and it was!
Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow was one of my favorite games!
#1-He is a freaking Ninja. Donald has taken on many personas over the years, and several job titles, but in the mid-1990s, Disney Interactive decided to give Donald a new persona. Donald starred as Maui Mallard in the video game Cold Shadow. He played a ninja with a bow staff and could fight like none other. The game was released on all platforms and is now considered a classic.
Love Donald? Got any other great stories? Leave a comment!
Josh Taylor
https://ModernMouseRadio.com
Disney Film History: The Sword and the Rose
Jan 23
The Sword and the Rose
The early 1950s was an interesting time for Walt Disney and company. They had worked as a single unit all the way up until the end of World War II, but in the 1950s, they split the company in half. Mind you this wasn’t by choice. Money being held up in the United Kingdom left Walt Disney no choice but to make films in the UK while simultaneously making films in the US. It’s common knowledge, especially if you’ve read my previous articles about Treasure Island or Robin Hood and His Merrie Men, that the UK withheld money from going overseas during WWII so any money made by Disney overseas in Europe had to stay there. So while the animation department was full speed ahead in Southern California, Walt decided to take on his new found interest of live action films starting with the previously mentioned films in England. The third of these UK films was somewhat of a mysterious mirage to me. I had heard about The Sword and the Rose and had seen great critical acclaim for it from guys like Leonard Maltin, however nobody I ever knew had seen it. So what is this film?
To know the story of The Sword and the Rose, we have to look at Walt’s previous film from the UK, Robin Hood and His Merrie Men. That film was directed by Ken Annakin, produced by Douglas Pierce, and written by Lawrence Edward Watkin. Why do these names matter? Because Walt liked them so much as a team that he put them all in charge of The Sword and the Rose. It’s pretty simple actually, one film succeeds so the same people are put in charge and the next film will also succeed. Right? Not entirely.
Richard Todd as “Charles” and Glynis Johns as “Mary”
Having the company split in two and at a great distance, Walt couldn’t oversee everything and with the success of Robin Hood, he gave the crew for The Sword and the Rose freedom to make the film as they chose, which included dialogue mostly, which is something that can make or break a film. For The Sword and the Rose, it seems to have dragged it down. The film, based on Charles Major’s “When Knighthood Was in Flower”, the film is a pretty complicated love story similar to that of Shakespeare. Due to overly complicated dialogue, the film drags or seems to overly confuse.
Beyond the story, the costuming and sets are wonderful which is no surprise due to Disney pulling out a much larger budget than any of the previous two films shot in the UK. I can understand Leonard Maltin’s mention of the film as a masterpiece due simply to these elements, and yes the story is a good one, but for the general public, possibly to talk-heavy.
Walt Disney on set
The film premiered on July 23rd, 1953 and like the company itself, movie goers and critics were split. Stateside, the film was a moderate success, giving enchantment of a medieval England, but for the English audience, the saw it as a flop. They would have been correct as the film flopped under budget making only $2.5 million at the box office.
For myself, this was the first true dud that I’ve encountered that didn’t even have the potential for future retribution, similar to that of Fantasia or Bambi. The only good thing to come from The Sword and The Rose is that set designer Peter Ellenshaw, who does some of the best work of the film, was given a lifetime contract at Disney and would soon be hard at work on a new film about a submarine.
Josh Taylor
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Previous Film: Peter Pan
Next Film: The Living Desert
Sneak Peek at Our New Web Comic “Chester & Hester”
Jan 23
Coming soon:
an original web comic by Modern Mouse Radio!
Disney Trip Planning: Tips on How to Pack for Your Trip
Jan 21
this is actually the suitcase I have :)
When it comes to packing for a Disney Vacation, I am totally a pro. Seriously, I plan and plan what I am going to wear and to which parks. It’s because I have been to Walt Disney World so many times that I can anticipate what I will need while I am there. So here are some rules I live by when it comes to packing for a Disney Trip:
Plan Outfits – This tip doesn’t have to be as obsessive as it seems. It could simply mean saying, “Ok, I will be there for 7 days, so I need 7 outfits, plus a sweater or sweatshirt if it gets chilly at night.” So, you go through your dresser and pick out exactly 7 shirts and how ever many pairs of pants and shorts you might want to bring (I always just bring 1 pair of jeans, a couple pairs of shorts, and maybe a skirt). For those of you who wear dresses, you may want to bring those, too! The reason I do this is because otherwise I would pack waaaaay too much.
Plan what are Do and Don’t outfits for certain parks – This may be tough if you have never been to the parks before, but I have a couple of rules for myself here. I never wear a white shirt or shorts to the parks that have attractions where I will get wet (like Magic Kingdom’s Splash Mountain, Animal Kingdom’s Kali River Rapids, Disneyland’s Matterhorn Bobsleds, and California Adventure’s Grizzly River Run). I never wear a dress or skirt that will reveal anything embarrassing when stepping up out of certain attraction vehicles (the worst for this is Space Mountain). I always carry around with me in my bag a light sweater to the parks I know will be open pretty late, so if it gets chilly, I am ok (this is also a great rule for the parks with abundant indoor attractions, as air conditioning will feel good until you are in the building for a few minutes).
These are Crocs, but lots of sites have comfy versions of cute shoes!
Considering Shoes – The shoes I wear in my everyday life just wont cut it when walking around the Disney Parks all day. A good way to gauge if your shoes will be sufficient, go for a reeeeeaaaaally long walk in them and see how your feet feel before your trip. Always break your new shoes in, too. I always pack a pair of sneakers, cushiony sandals, and flats for the nights where I know I wont be walking much (like just going out to dinner).
Packing a day bag – I always bring a bag with me into the parks because Disney is one of the only theme parks around the country that lets you take your bags on rides (as long as they are secured during the ride). When traveling by plane to Disney World, keep in mind that if you are using Magic Express and aren’t picking up your bags until you get to your hotel, that you pack accordingly. I always make sure my carry-on bag has all the flight info, my tickets, a book, my ipod, my phone, wallet, cash, cards, Magic Express vouchers (very important!), hotel check-in info, etc. But as for touring inside the parks, my bag looks a little different; A brits/bobble filter water bottle, my Key to the World card, I.D., a light sweater, extra socks in a ziplock, my camera, phone, extra ziplock bags (for my electronics on water attractions!), snacks (I have special dietary needs, so I always have approved snacks just in case!), bandaids, disposable ponchos ($1 at the dollar store or other places with a camping/outdoors department), and some extra things here and there.
sometimes I bring my own shampoo and just take these home as souvenirs!
Bathroom stuff – Disney hotel rooms have all the basics – pillows, linens, tissues, toilet paper, shampoo/conditioner, bar soap, towels, ice, hair dryers, and you can even add in a mini fridge for $10 a day. But you might need to pack your own personal products if Disney’s versions just wont cut it! Stuff I bring that you might not think of normally is – a small first aid kit with bandaids and neosporin, Q-tips, nail polish, nail polish remover, bobby pins, elastics, tape, scissors, and some other things here and there. The great thing is you can find these things in the resort gift shop if you forget them at home!
And, of course, leave room in your bags for souvenirs!
I have many more packing tips to come in future posts (this by far doesn’t cover it all!), but what are some of your packing essentials when planning your Disney Vacation? Leave your answers in the comments below!