It Is Trish

Rainy Thursdays has been doing a Disney Challenge, so I thought I would give it a go!  All at once though, because why not?

Your Favorite Character

This is impossible to answer with just one person, but I’ll say Tom Sawyer in Tom and Huck, as played by Jonathan Taylor Thomas at the height of my love for him.  He’s a troublemaker with a heart of gold, which….has always been my weakness.

Your Favorite Princess

Belle!  It was so cool for child-Tricia to see a brunette girl who loved to read saving the day, turning down handsome jerks and learning to love the unlovable.  I saw the best version of myself in her.

Your Favorite Heroine

I really liked Rapunzel for her naivete and optimism.  She has had a literally sheltered life, but she uses her pain to create art and dream of a better future.  And I adore the scene when she first leaves the tower, alternating between ecstasy and fear.  Very accurate, very funny.

Your Favorite Prince

Probably Aladdin.  He’s a smart-aleck, street-wise sweetheart.  He takes care of his friends, has a pet monkey, and takes Jasmine on a carpet ride through the clouds.  All the things I look for in a man.

Your Favorite Hero

I’ll go with a literal (Greek) hero:  Hercules!  Really I just want to include this movie in the list, because it’s so much fun, from the singing Muses to sassy Megara to sassier Hades.  

Your Favorite Animal

I’m cheating a little, perhaps, but I’m going to go with Robin Hood.  I had (*cough* HAVE *cough*) such a huge crush on him.  He’s totally foxy! *groan*

Your Favorite Sidekick

Lumiere, easy.  I have come to terms with the fact that Disney has caused me to be sexually attracted to animals, and here I have to admit that…I am also sexually attracted to inanimate objects.  At least the ones with French accents.  I cannot WAIT for the new movie where Ewan McGregor plays Lumiere, and all my weird feelings can be far. less. weird.

Your Favorite Villain

Scar.  Here is yet ANOTHER weird sexual attraction, not only to a lion, but an animated lion, but an EVIL animated lion.  But he’s just so snarky and slinky and smart.  Later in life, I fell in love with Jeremy Irons, and when I finally put together that he voiced Scar, I felt a little bit better.  Jeremy Irons has a very sexy voice.

Your Favorite Original Character

Giselle from Enchanted.  I love that she subverts the Disney evil-stepmother trope, and her optimistic reaction to the confusion of real (non-animated) life is hilarious and inspiring.

Your Favorite Song

“Just Around the Riverbend” from Pocahontas.  Sometimes I sing this in my real life when I need to remind myself that the unknown future is not terrifying, but is actually exciting and full of possibilities.

Your Favorite Love Song

This is TOO difficult.  There’s “Tale as Old as Time” which has the great line: “Bittersweet and strange / finding you can change / learning you were wrong.”  And I love “I Won’t Say (I’m In Love)” because of how accurate it is for confusing crushes and fearful feelings.  But then there’s also “A Whole New World” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” which are just so romantic.  You know what?  Disney does love songs REALLY well.  They all win.

Your Favorite Villain Song

Either “Be Prepared” or “Cruella de Vil.”  They are both so spine-tinglingly fun to sing!

Your Least Favorite Song

Honestly, there’s no real least favorite.  But I don’t like “Under the Sea” very much, so I’ll go with that.  I guess I don’t really like reggae, and also, living under the sea?  Would be TERRIBLE.  There are horrifying alien-type monsters down there.  You can’t convince me, Sebastian.

Your Favorite Kiss

Anna and Kristoff, because he asks her!  Consent and communication are super attractive to me.

The First Movie You Saw

The Lion King!  Or at least, it was the first movie I ever saw in theaters.  We bought a Lion King popcorn bucket, which I kept to organize my Lion King action figures that I inevitably bought.

Your Favorite Classic

The Moon Spinners, with Hayley Mills.  It’s set in Greece, there’s a super cute boy helping Nikky out, adventure and intrigue, and a super rich lady with a pet cheetah!  This is….wow, maybe the beginning of all of my obsessions.

Your Least Favorite Film

Either Dumbo or Bambi.  I haven’t actually watched Dumbo since I was a kid, because I remember just…being very sad?  I don’t know why, and I don’t WANT to know why.  Bambi was also sad, but also….kind of boring.  I’m sorry, I love nature, but I love action more, I guess.

Your Favorite Pixar Film

I might be biased because it’s so recent, but I LOVED Inside Out.  The voice casting was perfect, and the imaginative tour through a pre-teen’s brain was shockingly accurate.  Very touching, very good reminder that all emotions are useful, even if they’re scary to express.

Your Least Favorite Pixar Film

Cars.  I don’t like cars.  Even when they’re talking, I just…don’t care.

Favorite Sequel

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.  This is an unpopular opinion, but I LOVED this movie.  I thought the humor got funnier, the music was phenomenal, and the sexual tension between Elizabeth and Jack was A+, wish they had ended up Pirate King and Captain together forever.

An Overrated Movie

Finding Nemo.  I didn’t hate it when it came out, but I also didn’t really love it.  And then it was everywhere, all the time, and I never understood why.

An Underrated Movie

Homeward Bound?  I loved that movie as a kid.  It is, I think, the best of their real-animal stories, about two dogs and a cat trying to get home to their owners.  And EVERY time I watch it, I get all choked up when Shadow cannot get out of the mud pit, only to BREAK MY FACE smiling when he appears over the hill to run toward his owners.  So great.

A Movie That Makes You Laugh

All of them, usually, but I’ll go with Heavyweights, because Ben Stiller was AMAZING as the fitness instructor from hell.

A Movie That Makes You Cry

The Fox and the Hound!  HOW DARE THEY mess with my tiny little heart, introducing “realistic” relationships where sometimes you just can’t stay friends with the person you love, because you’re too different and society forces you apart and, and– *ugly sobbing*

Your Favorite Scene From Your Favorite Movie

I vacillate between loving The Lion King or Beauty and the Beast most, so I’ll do scenes from each.  It’s obviously emotional, but I love the end of The Lion King when it starts raining on the barren land, and Simba slowly climbs Pride Rock to roar his acceptance of his kingship and just, *chills*.  I also love the winter scene in Beauty and the Beast, as he slowly learns to be gentle, and they start connecting over being idiots together, and the inner dialogue is just so cute!

Saddest Death

Disney is too good at deaths.  They’re all sad.  But I’ll go with Ellie’s death in Up, because those ten minutes are the most devastating of any movie ever.

Your Favorite Quote

I’ll go with a great quote from Walt Disney himself:  “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”

But I can’t stop there!  Rafiki tells Simba: “The past can hurt.  But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it.”

And Megara assures Hercules: “I’m a damsel, I’m in distress, I can handle this.  Have a nice day.”

And Pocahontas sings: “You think the only people who are people, are the people who look and think like you.  But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you’ll learn things you never knew, you never knew.”

And Olaf: “Some people are worth melting for.”

Your Favorite Theme Park

I recently went to Magic Kingdom, and it was SO GREAT and so quintessentially Disney, but I also remember really loving MGM Studios, which is now called Hollywood Studios.

Your Favorite Theme Attraction

I just really love the shows (see below).  And walking the streets.  And seeing characters strolling around.  And reliving my childhood.  AND EVERYTHING, it’s all good, can I go back to Disney World now?

Your Favorite Theme Park Show

I LOVED “Mickey’s PhilharMagic.”  It’s clever, nostalgic, and a great twist on some of my favorite Disney songs.

Other movies I feel I need to mention but couldn’t fit into this list:  The Emperor’s New Groove, Fantasia, Tarzan, George of the Jungle, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Princess and the Frog.