MOVIE REVIEW: Muppets Most Wanted

Wow, wow, wow.

That is my impression of this movie.

Image © Disney.

My first review screener here locally, and even though it was 10am and we were sitting in front of the world's most obnoxious moviegoers ever (more on them in a second), this movie is just as amazing as the 2011 "The Muppets". Just as hilarious, just as many guest stars, and just as incredible a storyline.

"Let's Do A Sequel!" Image © Disney.

The story begins just as the director calls cut on the final dance number in the previous movie, and our beloved Muppets are left standing around, bored. They decide to do a sequel, and after a fabulous musical number in an ode to sequels, they choose the plot (suggested by Ricky Gervais' character... or just Ricky Gervais, I honestly couldn't tell which he was at that point) of a world tour.

"Badguy" or "Gervais"? Image © Disney.

Gervais plays Dominic Badguy--pronounced "Badge-y"--who infiltrates the Muppets posing as a talent agent. Meanwhile, his boss, the infamous "Most Dangerous Frog in the world" Constantine, breaks out of a Russian gulag. Constantine bears a striking resemblance to Kermit, save for one key feature: a mole on his cheek. He is the most wanted criminal in the world, and needs someone to take the fall for his escape in Russia, so he manages to glue a fake mole to Kermit's face and sends him off in his place. Meanwhile, Constantine steps in as Kermit-surrogate, which the other Muppets don't seem to notice (except one!) and uses the show as his alibi while he performs his evil deeds.

Major LOL at "Evilen Froggen"! Image © Disney.

While the Muppets tour the world, their stops happen to fall in line with massive criminal heists... coincidence? Ty Burrell (of Modern Family fame) as Jean Pierre Napoleon of Interpol and Sam the Eagle of the CIA don't think so. They put their differences (and giant badges) aside to crack the case of the supposed "Lemur" burglaries that are seemingly following the Muppets' tour.

"Mine is bigger." Image © Disney.

Meanwhile, Kermit rots in the Russian gulag with warden Nadia (played by the illustrious Tina Fey). Nadia might have a teeny, tiny secret about why she knows that Kermit is not Constantine but still won't let him leave...

Does Tina Fey look good in EVERYTHING? Image © Disney.

Will Kermit's friends notice his absence in time to rescue him and thwart Constantine's evil plot, which includes Kermit's worst nightmare: marrying Miss Piggy! (Okay, side note here: I totally thought they had been married forEVER. I mean, that scene in the end of Muppets Take Manhattan, where Piggy has the real priest? Yeah. Alas, I guess I was wrong about that. Sigh.)

Piggy's best wedding dress of all, I think. Image © Disney.

All in all, the movie has plenty of call-backs to classic Muppet antics... Gonzo pulling stupid stunts on stage, Statler and Waldorf providing peanut gallery commentary, guest stars out the yin-yang, over-the-top musical numbers... you name it. The writing is still snappy, yet it still manages to provide the necessary tugs at the heartstrings in the right places. Fans of the franchise won't be disappointed for sure. Gervais, Fey, and Burrell all manage to steal the show from our favorite puppet pals. Definitely a win for family movie night!

Image © Disney.

Be sure you arrive early as well to see the new Monsters University short, Party Central, in which Mike and Sully "steal" the best party of the year for their Oozema Kappa brothers. Pure comedy gold!

Who doesn't have a plastic cooler like that? Image © Disney.

Now, for my story about the people behind us! While the showing we went to was provided for review purposes exclusively, these people must not have ever set foot in a movie theatre in their entire lives. I swear it. And no, sadly it wasn't the small children in tow who were the problem, save for one Sprite shower I received via a straw and the kid blowing in it through the seat cracks. Nope, it was the parents who had no sense of proper movie-going decorum. Kicking seats, bringing something wrapped in a giant sheet of cellophane (not just a small plastic bag... oh no! This was, like, the sheets of cellophane you wrap giant fruit baskets in!) and constantly feeling the need to adjust said cellophane during the movie, talking at volume levels acceptable only in one's living room, using the back of my seat as a handle to stand up and lower themselves into their seat (at one point, said handle included my braided hair!)... every awful thing you can possibly imagine from a movie attendee, save for taking a cell call in the middle. If it wasn't a free showing, I would have attracted the attention of an usher and had them removed. Plain and simple. So, moral of this long digression: Don't be a jerk when you go see a movie! 

Image © Disney.

Muppets Most Wanted  is rated PG and opens in theatres everywhere TOMORROW, March 21st.

Disclosure: I was provided a free screening of this film for review purposes. Please see my Disclosure tab for more information.

#HubClubBloggers - Parent and Kid Review of Spooksville!

Image © Hub Network.

As part of my membership in the Hub Club Bloggers, I was given the chance to preview this weekend's episode of their popular new series, Spooksville, before it airs on Saturday March 22nd at 5pm Eastern/2pm Pacific. This review is special because it's the first video that TV Boy gets to appear in! (This kid LOVES reviewing stuff. In fact, after we finished making this video, he wanted to do a review of one of his LEGO sets.)

Image © Hub Network.

This weekend's episode is entitled "Phone Fear". Several students from the Lizzie Borden High School are taken on a "field trip" that is really a week-long survival exercise. When they get trapped in the rain, they seek shelter in an abandoned logging camp that has a scary past involving one of the earliest cellular phones in the 80's. The camp is engulfed in a mysterious fog when anyone tries to make a call. Can Adam figure out the secret of the fog and save his friends from disappearing?

Check out what TV Boy had to say about the episode in the video below, and be sure to tune in to Spooksville this weekend on Hub Network!





Disclosure: This is a sponsored post with the Hub Club. Please see my Disclosure tab for more information.

REVIEW: Frozen on Blu-Ray Combo Pack

If you haven't figured it out by now in the game here at TheTVMom.com, Frozen has quickly become my favorite Disney movie. Sorry Emperor's New Groove, scootch over! I think this is due in part to the new connection I have with the movie, having had all the neat experiences at Disney Animation Studios in February. It's my first major blogger junket, so it'll definitely have a special place in my heart always.

Some of my pictures from Disney Animation Studios!

It's funny thinking back to last December when I pretty literally dragged TV Boy to the movie theatre to see it with me. About fifteen seconds into the actual movie itself, he looked at me with his big brown eyes and said "They're singing. I don't like it." He proceeded to pick THE MOST inconvenient time in the movie to use the bathroom, which at four and a half he can't quite do alone, and I missed the "Let It Go"sequence entirely. That's right... as the mountain came up on the screen and by the first notes of the song, we were running down the aisle to the bathroom. We walked back in only to see Anna on her horse trudging through the snow. Yeah. Thanks, kiddo. (I have made up for it and then some thanks to an inexplicable need to belt out "Let It Go" at the top of my lungs, Broadway style, at least once a day since I got back from L.A. That'll teach the kid to have to pee!) But I digress.

"Hey mommy, I have to go potty!" (Image ©Disney Animation)

Indeed, even TV Boy has warmed up to Frozen (irony!) having the Blu-ray around in the house. Plus, seeing Olaf with Mommy's voice has made him love that adorable snowman even more than hearing him say "watch out for my butt!", a line that has earned high honors by my discernable little critic.

Image © Disney Animation Studios.

The Blu-ray doesn't have nearly as many special features as I was hoping it would. A handful of deleted scenes (which were definitely deleted for a reason), four versions of the "Let It Go" music video (in several languages), a quick featurette with Directors Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck as they talk about the long lead up to making Frozen (Walt Disney wanted to make the Snow Queen version during his lifetime and there are several concepts in the archives from his exploration of the possibility), and the adorable musical number featuring Josh Gad and Jonathan Groff along with much of the production company about "The Making of Frozen" (preview below).


Also included is the the theatrical short "Get A Horse!", which I wish I had gotten to see in 3D!

Cool movie poster we got as swag!

The Blu-ray Combo Pack includes the movie and features on a Blu-ray disc, a DVD, and a code to download a digital copy of the film, as well as add it to your Disney Movies Anywhere© app on your mobile device of choice. The film is rated PG (which I find odd for an animated film) and is available to purchase TODAY, March 18th.

Image ©Disney Home Entertainment

You can register to win a copy of Frozen on Blu-ray combo pack! Click here to enter! 

Disclosure: I was provided a free copy of the Blu-ray for review purposes as well as a trip to L.A. to cover the release of the Blu-ray. Please see my Disclosure tab for more information. 

REVIEW: Saving Mr. Banks on Blu-ray plus GIVEAWAY!

For all of you who are fans of Mary Poppins or anyone who is a "Dizgeek" or history buff, Saving Mr. Banks is a must-see film. For those who haven't yet seen it, travel back in time to Walt Disney Studios, where Walt (played by Tom Hanks) is determined to get the production rights to P.L. Travers' (played by Emma Thompson) story of Mary Poppins.

Hanks and Thompson as Disney and Travers. Image © Disney

Mrs. Travers is none too persuaded to let go of her precious characters so easily, and the addition of songs written by the Sherman Brothers (played by BJ Novak and Jason Schwartzman) and animation has her ready to board a plane back to England.

Novak and Schwartzman as the Sherman Brothers. Image © Disney

Throughout the film, we are treated to an inside look at the life of P.L. Travers, and her attachment to her father, Travers Goff (played by Colin Farrell), who has a tragic alcohol addiction that is gradually killing him, and on whom her character of Mr. Banks is based.

Annie Rose Buckley as Ginty and Colin Farrell as Travers Goff. Image © Disney.

Mrs. Travers (who, after her father's death, drops her moniker "Ginty" and takes his first name as her surname) isn't keen on their portrayal of Mr. Banks as well as Mary Poppins herself being so lighthearted and charming. She insists on having all discussions about the film recorded--which, interestingly enough, I had the chance to listen to some of her original recordings while on my trip to L.A. back in February! More on that later this week!

Tom Hanks as Walt Disney. Image © Disney.

Tom Hanks' portrayal of Walt Disney was flawless. Watching him, you really feel the weight of Disney's commitment to his films as well as his jovial personality. The attention to detail with the film is outstanding.

Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers. Image © Disney.

I also loved Emma Thompson as Pamela Travers. If anyone could play a haughty British woman, it's Emma Thompson! She manages to strike the perfect balance between pointed disgust with Disney's antics and nostalgic sadness as she remembers her childhood. Speaking of sadness, ladies make sure you have tissues at the ready! Many of my blogger friends and I discussed it as being one of those "ugly cry" movies. It's heartbreaking, and to get the audience to feel so deeply for someone as cold as P.L. Travers is portrayed is a triumph.

Behind the scenes on set. Image © Disney.

The special features included on the Blu-ray, while minimal, are also a little tear-jerking, but that could just be because I got to tour the very same studio lot that on which the film was made. That, and I'm a huge sap. The featurette "The Walt Disney Studios: From Poppins To The Present" takes viewers on a bit of the same tour, showing off the animator offices Disney designed himself to make sure they had the proper light, as well as several points of interest on the lot. It is led by Director John Lee Hancock and features a special appearance by Richard Sherman himself. There is also a fun short video of Mr. Sherman leading the cast and crew in a rousing rendition of "Let's Go Fly A Kite" on their final day of filming. The film is rated PG-13 and is available for purchase tomorrow on March 18th.

Image © Disney Home Entertainment

As a special treat, I've put together a little slideshow of my photos from the awesome D23 tour of the studios, featuring some of the places used in Saving Mr. Banks, as well as many of the locations discussed in the bonus featurette on the Blu-ray, led by our awesome tour guide and D23 Marketing Manager Jeffrey Epstein, seen in the second pic (thanks Jeffrey!). And, of course, I set it to "Let's Go Fly A Kite"!


Disney Studios Tour Feb 2014 by Slidely Slideshow
Finally, to close out my post, my friends at Disney Home Entertainment are providing a copy of Saving Mr. Banks on Blu-ray to give away to one of my lucky readers! Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter and be sure to check out the linky at the bottom for more chances to win from other bloggers on the trip! The contest will run until this Friday, March 21, at midnight. Please see the Giveaway T&C tab for more information.


a Rafflecopter giveaway




UPDATE: My friends at Disney just sent over these fun Saving Mr. Banks-inspired recipes! Enjoy!



Disclosure: I was provided a copy of the Blu-ray for review purposes, as well as a trip to L.A. to cover the release and relevant displays. Please see my Disclosure tab for more information.

#FrozenBluray - "Do you want to BE a snowman?" with GIVEAWAY!

I'm elated! I finally got the video of Olaf with my voice! Like I said before in the post about my experience in the voiceover studio, this was one of my favorite things on this trip (aside from the lovely L.A. weather, of course). I'm so glad I finally get to share it with everyone!

Hey, we've got about the same build:
short and round! LOL!

So, without any further ado, here is ME, Tori The TV Mom as Olaf the snowman in Frozen!

And, for fun, here's what it looked like while I actually did the voice:
Finally, I received confirmation that I get to do a GIVEAWAY of a Frozen Blu-ray Combo Pack, thanks to my friends at Disney Home Entertainment! Check out the Rafflecopter widget below to enter and don't forget to share! The giveaway will run until Midnight Eastern on the 28th! Lots of ways to enter too! (And check out the linky tool at the bottom for even MORE chances to win!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway