Magical Adventures & Memories
SEA LIFE Orlando is celebrating the summer with a brand new event – there are mermaids at the aquarium! Join us as we check it out.
More info about the Mermaids event, including dates and times: https://www.visitsealife.com/orlando/…
This vlog was filmed on June 1st, 2019, at SEA LIFE Orlando, for the opening celebration of the new event, Mermaids at the Aquarium. Check it out below!
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay’s fabulous summer-long event, Summer Nights begins this weekend! This means extended park hours every night through August 11th and fireworks every Friday through Sunday. Be sure to take advantage of the limited-time Memorial Day Sale to get the best deals of the season.
Starting next Friday, May 31, the thrills go late and the fun lasts longer at Busch Gardens® Tampa Bay with the return of Summer Nights.
Music, entertainment and more create a vibrant nightlife atmosphere surrounding Florida’s best thrill rides. In addition to fan-favorite coasters, thrill seekers can now take on Tigris, Florida’s tallest launch coaster, in an exciting new way after dark. The triple-launch coaster takes thrills to new heights as riders face a 150’ upward surge, dramatic heartline roll and top speeds exceeding 60 miles per hour through the night sky.
Park guests can also enjoy special-edition menu items that feature a new twist on traditional summer fare.
Classic popcorn gets a makeover with an infusion of buffalo ranch and white cheddar flavors.
Summer tastes sweeter with a churro sundae or a fireworks ice cream slushy.
The grilled cheese of childhood memories is transformed as a mac and cheese melt, also available with lobster.
Grown-up indulgences include colorful handcrafted cocktails and pop-tails (new frozen treats with alcohol) in addition to the continued free beer offer as a part of the park’s 60th anniversary celebration.
Now through June 2, guests can enjoy limited-time offers for the best value of the summer season.
Busch Gardens Single Day Ticket – SAVE UP TO 60%!
Price: $49, must visit by June 23
Add Adventure Island for only $10 more
Busch Gardens Fun Card – SAVE OVER 30%!
Price: $65
blockout dates apply
Busch Gardens, Adventure Island & 4-Park Annual Passes
5% off Bronze
10% off Silver
20% off Gold
For more details on limited-time offers, visit BuschGardensTampa.com; Restrictions apply. Be the first to know about new events, special deals and future announcements by following Busch Gardens Tampa Bay’s blog and social media channels on Facebook,Twitter and Instagram.
To begin, I’ll say that this movie entertained me. To be fair, most Disney movies do – they’re lighthearted, often fairly funny, and usually have a bit of a spectacle to them/their experience. 2019’s Aladdin definitely checks all three of those boxes, but it does little outside of that.
Aladdin was fun to watch. From a design point of view, it was very interesting. I’m already very invested in Middle Eastern art and culture, and this film certainly managed to live in that world, arguably far more than the original did. And visually, it’s the equivalent to seeing a well developed Broadway show, like the ones Disney puts on (Aladdin, for example). That is to say, every musical number was a big show stopper that is definitely worth watching.
But outside of that, this film really lacks anything worthwhile.
Even after seeing it, I still wholeheartedly believe that this movie really did not need to be made. I don’t know that anyone was really clamoring for a live-action remake of a movie that’s only 27 years old, and didn’t really have many problems. Fans of the original are better off still watching the original, which is largely more charming than this version. And if you’re specifically seeking a bigger spectacle of Aladdin, the Broadway version still already exists, and while it’s not my favorite musical in the world, I think there is definitely good fun to be had, making this movie ultimately unnecessary.
This movie is admittedly more entertaining than the original, which to me never really stood out from that era’s other animated works. Like I said, the musical numbers are all as big and epic as you could ever want them to be – with all of the CGI in the world assisting Prince Ali make his big entrance. But those don’t necessarily add up to something worth more than the sum of its parts.
The musical numbers are actually, to me, the best parts of the film. They take Alan Menken’s wonderful original soundtrack and bring a vibrant new life to it, which fits perfectly in the vivid world the characters now live in. This is of course not including the two new songs written just for this film, both of which are sung by Jasmine. They were stylistically very clashing with the rest of the soundtrack, and felt almost as if Disney was just trying to make a song as “empowering” as ‘This is Me’, from The Greatest Showman, just because of how popular that song has become. Additionally, most of the ‘Prince Ali’ scene has actually already been posted to YouTube, and I think watching that clip is really all you need from this movie. It gives you a taste of exactly what to expect.
Will Smith’s performance is what actually keeps this movie from sinking under though. The musical numbers are great, but they are few and far between. Every time Smith was on screen he stole the show, which is actually important because most of the other performances felt nearly lifeless. Before the release of this, there was a lot of controversy about his appearance in the movie, and how they would pull it off. I didn’t really care one way or the other, but I definitely had no issue with him in the end.
Overall, it was indeed entertaining, but lacked any real purpose. The plot was more or less the same as the original, so it’s not as if they’re making any groundbreaking leaps or bounds in storytelling, which is bold for a remake of a movie only 27 years old. You can watch this movie and have fun, but you can watch the original and get the same emotional beats/moments. And simply listening to the soundtrack is enough to be satisfied for a “new” Aladdin.
There is something beautifully ironic about this movie being entirely surface-level though, as it mirrors Prince Ali’s character arc in the original film.
Parts of it felt like a Hallmark movie, parts of it felt like a Disney Channel Original Movie. It was just an odd thing that exists, but I’m not sure why. It was fun in the same way a direct-to-video sequel is fun. It exists purely to be looked at, and will be enjoyed largely because people like the original, and this movie didn’t change anything.
While it’s not a spoiler in any way, this movie ends with a black screen, you hear the words, “DJ Khaled… Anotha one!!” and the credits roll, and that should really speak for itself.
The TODAY Show-inspired ‘Today Cafe’ is now open at Universal Orlando Resort! Join us as we check out some of the festivities including behind the scenes of filming the TODAY Show.
This vlog was filmed on May 16th, 2019, at the Universal Studios Orlando Resort, for the opening of the TODAY Cafe. Check it out below!
Before this review gets started, I’ll say that this review, like all of my others, contains NO SPOILERS, so read away with no worries of ruining the story. These are merely my lasting impressions.
About a month ago, I wrote a pretty negative review about Captain Marvel. One of the biggest takeaways from this review was that I began to feel as if I was suffering from “Marvel Fatigue”. That is to say, I felt as if there were more Marvel movies being produced than I cared to enjoy. The majority of them were only entertaining at best, but did nothing in terms of great filmmaking. They were largely ‘popcorn films’ – something you can sit down and watch, and know you’ll have a good time watching it, even though it’s not anything groundbreaking. They all followed the same basic format, and utterly, it grew quite old to me.
That is, with one exception: ‘Avengers: Infinity War’. Infinity War to me was the piéce de rèsistance of the MCU. I find myself still watching that movie over and over again, whereas I’ve still only seen most other Marvel movies one time. But I digress – point of the story is that to me, Infinity War was the climax of the series, and left me incredibly excited for Endgame. Captain Marvel just simply didn’t deliver on what I wanted from the MCU.
Endgame did.
Avengers: Endgame is truly the thrilling conclusion we all signed up for back in 2008. None of us knew it back then, but this is what we were waiting for. I’ll actually keep my descriptions of it more brief than usual, since I know spoiling anything in the MCU – let alone a proper Avengers title – is basically a death sentence.
I was ultimately left speechless by this movie. Where the MCU typically left me wanting more – wishing that the stories would be developed deeper, that there was more of a richness or diversity to the arcs we saw – Endgame fulfilled tenfold.It truly was the Super Bowl of the MCU, the great single climax we’ve all been waiting for.
In my initial draft of this review, I listed my only ‘con’ as the runtime. I mentioned that at times, even though I wasn’t bored, I was wondering if this runtime was truly necessary. Now that I’ve had more time to think about it – yes, it absolutely was. Every aspect of this film was necessary, and the runtime was definitely a key player. I might even be able to say I find no ‘con’ in this movie,which is not an honor I throw around very lightly, and certainly not for a movie in the MCU.
There are moments that feel the same as when we first saw The Avengers in 2012, with all the giddy joy of seeing them come together on screen for the first time. There are moments that feel the same as Thor: Ragnarok, which was notable for its lighthearted fare and comedy throughout. And there are some moments that feel the same as Infinity War, with all of the depressing realism of coming to terms with the fact that you can’t win every fight.
If you enter Endgame seeking an end to the arc we began in Infinity War, you will find it. If you enter seeking a newer, bolder story, you will find it. If you enter wishing to reminisce on the nostalgia of all of your favorite Marvel characters, you can do so.It really is a cinematic spectacle the likes of which has never happened before, and might never happen again.
The most I’ll give away is this: pay attention to the score. It can often be overlooked in action movies, but I thought the soundtrack of Endgame was masterful. When utilized fully, the soundtrack can be the biggest single tool in the directors’ arsenal to help tell a story and create their masterpiece – Endgame definitely does this. There are actually a few times in this movie where the score is a big focus, and I don’t recall that being as much of an emotional moment at any other time in the MCU.
Now, while I did absolutely love this movie, I don’t think it’s the most amazing movie I’ve seen. I think initially I would be quite hesitant to put it at the same level as some of my favorite movies – The Favourite (2018), Birdman (2014), La La Land (2016), etc. But I also don’t think that’s what it was trying to be. It wasn’t your typical Oscar-nominated spectacle-of-theatre that you know will be looked back on as a classic. Or was it?
The performances were great. Robert Downey Jr. brought new depth to his role in this film alone unlike anything we’ve seen. And he’s not alone. Hemsworth, Evans, Ruffalo, the whole team were at an elevated level of performance. The storytelling was great. The music was great. The visual depth and experience were great. It’s not your typical Oscar selection, but I think it certainly manages to prove its worthiness as one.
What it did do was subvert every expectation I had of what an action movie could be. 11 years ago, I never thought I would care about what Thanos did, or who War Machine was. But Kevin Feige and the entire Marvel team have crafted a cultural moment unlike any other. I’ll be the first to say I haven’t enjoyed every stop along the way – like I said earlier, I got bored. Retaining the audience’s attention for this long was surely a daunting task, and it wasn’t always a successful one for me. Regardless, time after time, I showed up. And I’m very glad I did.
Endgame manages to do something right in the MCU. That is to say, it takes every boring and action-heavy flick in its roster and kicks them to the curb. Every low moment of the MCU we slogged through for the past 11 years was worth it for seeing the Avengers come to life on screen one last time in Endgame. Whatever it takes.
As a funny bonus, this movie was so engaging that my heart rate went a little crazy.
To say that Endgame is a great movie is actually kind of difficult. First a different question must be answered; Is it truly great, or is it great only built off the success of the 22-film MCU?
I’m a big fan of Harry Potter. And I think that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is a good movie, and ended the series off in a way that I was fine with. But you certainly could not watch ONLY Deathly Hallows Part 2. I think you might be able to watch ONLY Endgame (if you somehow hadn’t seen anything else in the MCU).
Really, I don’t think I can answer that original question. In fact I would be hard-pressed to find anyone who actually could. It seems as though the entire world has seen at least most of these movies, so it would be very difficult to find someone who will watch Endgame with absolutely zero prior knowledge. So I think that invalidates the question. To ask if Endgame is good is to, by association, assume whomever you’re asking has prior knowledge already. And that actually makes this easier to talk about.
Endgame is a great movie. It certainly doesn’t make any groundbreaking leaps or bounds in terms of cinematic filmmaking. But it does completely change film history. Never before have 22 films culminated to one thrilling, rollercoaster of a conclusion. And I think something like this may never happen again, or at least, I hope it doesn’t.
While I definitely enjoyed this wild 11 year ride, I’m ready for it to end. In a perfect world, this would be the end of the MCU, and we would be able to look back fondly on this crazy journey and reminisce the time of year a new Marvel movie would come out. Unfortunately, I know it doesn’t end here. They’ve already announced films like Spiderman: Far From Home, and Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3, and who knows what else is in the works.
But if I’m being honest, after Endgame, I’m actually looking forward to whatever happens next. I’m ready for it to end, but something about the masterminds at Marvel Studios has left me curious about where we go from here. So the MCU shall continue, seemingly endlessly into the horizon, as new stories are told and new heroes are born. But for now, Endgame signifies a brief moment of rest. I no longer know what the future of the MCU holds, but I’m ready for a whole new adventure to begin.
There’s no question that the original 1941 release of Dumbo is a landmark animation release. It’s truly a triumph of the techniques of the time that come together to cement a piece of Disney history unlike any other.
For one reason or another, I was not very excited for the 2019 remake of Dumbo. It could’ve been because I personally was not a fan of the original for a handful of reasons. Or maybe it was because (despite him being one of my favorite directors) the recent work of Tim Burton has been rather sub-par. Either way, I didn’t know what to expect. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. From the first scene of the film, where a familiar score introduces itself while we see a newer, updated Casey Jr., I knew everything was going to be okay.
And yes, you heard that right, I was not a fan of the original. This isn’t a review of that film, so I won’t get into it, but to sum it up, I think the original release of Dumbo is very outdated today. Comparing the runtime of the two films alone – 112 minutes to the original’s 64 – it’s clear that Burton has a much larger story to tell.
Where I find faults in the original, I find nothing but success in this retelling. But that isn’t to say that Burton completely erases any memory of the original. I think this remake pays homage to the original by respecting its legacy, and building upon it to tell a new story. You don’t need to have seen the original at all to understand this new film, but there are certainly a few nods to it that those classic fans will pick up.
For the past 5 years, we’ve been subject to a new kind of Disney film – the remake. It’s become something of a joke that Disney just keeps remaking their classic movies, creating an endless cycle of profitability. I personally have not been very kind to these remakes. At the base level, I don’t understand the point of remaking a classic movie as they have been doing.
2015’s Cinderella, 2017’s Beauty and the Beast, and (from the look of it) 2019’s The Lion King – just to name a few – all tell the exact same story as the original film they’re based on. The remake simply updates the graphics, or makes it “live action”, or adds a few new songs to the soundtrack, and doesn’t make any attempt at doing something radically different with the story. I don’t like these films because they seem like a waste of time. Yes, I would love to see Childish Gambino as Simba the lion, but I’d like even more to see him doing something I’ve never seen before, not exactly what I saw Matthew Broderick do 25 years ago.
I appreciated Maleficent for this reason. It wasn’t a remake of Sleeping Beauty, it was a retelling from a different perspective. Ultimately, I didn’t like that movie as a whole, but it’s the only “remake” that I felt actually justified its existence. That is, until Tim Burton’s Dumbo.
Dumbo (2019) takes the simple concept of the original movie, ‘a flying elephant in a circus’, and runs away with it. Burton’s movie does feature some of the same events as the original, but builds upon them in a way that is wholly unique and more powerful than the original was.
Burton was clearly the best choice to tell this story. Don’t go into this movie expecting his typical gothic atmosphere, but do expect his ability to turn a dark story or dark events into a bright and vibrant world. This movie feels very similar to his remake of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. From the soundtrack to the over-the-top visuals, they both respect the classic and truly bring it to life.
I’ll leave it at this – this is the movie we thought we were watching when we saw the original Dumbo. You can go back and watch the original and still respect it for its legacy, still honor the achievement it made, and still love the story it told. But watching Burton’s new take on the film brings back all of the wonder and amazement of truly seeing it for the first time. It’s the movie that made me a Dumbo fan.
Dumbo opens Friday, March 29, 2019 in theatres everywhere. You can read Zannaland’s original Dumbo animated feature review here.
Over the course of 10 years, we have all slowly been indoctrinated into the cult of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We have simply come to accept that seeing a Marvel movie is part of the yearly routine – or as of late, part of the seasonal routine. I accept it willingly, myself. Even at their worst, the MCU has been able to produce 21 movies that are quite entertaining. Some are great, some are Thor: The Dark World. Regardless, Groot, Thanos, and Doctor Strange have all become household names thanks to the MCU.
The beauty of these films is that they can be very rewarding for the fans of the original comics, who gasp at the sight of a character they never thought they’d see on a movie screen, who they recognize immediately from their childhood. And they’re able to do this without it being a turn-off for the general audience who don’t make those immediate connections, and who may have never heard of the characters.
Having watched all of these movies upon release, and then multiple times after, I have become inundated with the knowledge of things I didn’t think I would care about. But ever since Avengers: Age of Ultron, something has been lurking in my mind that I like to call ‘Marvel Fatigue’ (noun): Extreme tiredness caused by an excessive amount of Marvel movies, over, and over, and over.
So let’s discuss Captain Marvel.
For those who manage to not stay into the know of every happening within the making of all of these movies, Captain Marvel takes place in the 90s. And if you didn’t know this before going into the movie, you’ll definitely know it by the end.
Don’t get me wrong, stylistically/culturally, the 90s is one of my favorite eras, so I’m ready for all the Nirvana and frosted tips you can give me. But I legitimately lost count of how many times the audience laughed at this movie for simply saying “Hey remember the 90’s? That was weird, huh!” It’s a minor gripe, sure, because it doesn’t really have much to do with the story, but it happened so many times it started to drive me crazy. I’m talking Blockbuster, Nine Inch Nails, Radio Shack, Payphones, Pagers, etc. all within the first act. To be fair, one could point out that the Guardians of the Galaxy films center on very late 70s and 80s culture. The difference is that Guardians is funny.
This feeling of being overcome with the same joke over and over again is how I feel with the MCU as whole. As of Marvel, I have seen 21 movies that all tie together with all of these very different characters. But the feeling of seeing new characters tie into a universe we already know things about can only last so long. The routine grows old eventually. Captain Marvel, to me, never seemed to find its place amongst these self-love reveals and the groan-worthy amount of 90s references.
Sure, I already mentioned people laughed, so obviously people managed to find it entertaining. That’s the point of all of the references. But it makes for lazy writing. Yeah, you can have a movie that just feeds off of audience members reacting positively to things they recognize, but if it needs all those references to survive, what will the lasting impact of the movie itself be? This was truly the Emoji Movie (or the Ralph Breaks the Internet) of the MCU: story aside, it thrived solely off of people recognizing the pieces of pop culture which it seemed to toss together into a collage of empty nostalgia.
Another glaring issue I had with Captain Marvel, was that it looks like it tried to be a ‘female empowerment’ movie. Whether or not this is what it actually was going for is something I may never know, but it’s certainly the impression I got from the trailers. Some parts of the movie still tried to be like this too, with random throwaway lines about how women can do anything. Which they can. But it definitely felt very very forced in this movie.
The Captain Marvel comics were not about female empowerment at all, at least from what the little research I have done after seeing the movie seems to indicate. Originally Mar-Vell is a man, and when, in 2012, the character of Carol Danvers (who we follow in the Marvel movie) takes over the role of Captain Marvel, it still is not about female empowerment. She simply takes over the mantle when Mar-Vell dies, because Captain America believes it’s what he would want.
My problem with this is that when 2016’s Wonder Woman came out, there was a sort of rallying cry around the empowerment aspects of it, because it was truly well done. While I still had other problems with Wonder Woman, I thought that arc they tried to convey really payed off. I think it’s pretty common knowledge that in the original comics, Wonder Woman is rubber-banded between being almost laughably stereotypical and being far superior to the men who hold her down. When the movie completely shatters all of those previous tropes, it comes across a lot stronger because it has a meaning behind it, and the story is almost directly linked to this point specifically.
When Captain Marvel attempts this, it feels as if executives saw the success of Wonder Woman, remembered they had a movie with a female lead in the works, and decided to try to replicate it when there wasn’t really anything there.
The last thing I’ll say about this issue was that in the end, shoe-horned in or not, the empowerment they tried to achieve wasn’t good at all. While I could easily say “Hey get yer darn feminist views out of my cool superhero movies!!”, the arc that was in the movie wasn’t even ‘feminist’ in any sense of the word. If Captain Marvel was played by a guy in this movie, the story could actually be exactly the same, because Danvers never battles any overpowering male force holding her back. In a way, it’s a human empowering story. She realizes that as a human, she can still be great, even if she thought she was something more.
I think it’s very okay to just have an ‘empowering’ movie. Not specifically female empowering, not specifically minority empowering. Both of those are obviously great, and super important. But I also think that a movie can just be empowering, and give anyone hope or a purpose or a voice or a way to see themselves on screen when they feel like they’re alone. Captain Marvel does a great job at this. But it does so after selling itself as something it is definitely not.
So where do we stand? From what I’ve already written, it’s clear I didn’t like some major aspects of the story the way it was told – but did I like the movie or not? The answer is I really don’t know.
I think I appreciate what the movie tried to do; it tried to rewrite the book on how origin stories are told, by telling it How I Met Your Mother style. (She already has her powers, but where did they come from?) It tried to fill in what tiny gaps are left in the Avengers story we already know. It tried to serve as a lasting memorial to it’s infamous creator Stan Lee. But while I think it certainly did do some of those things, I also think that they alone did not justify it being a successful movie.
In a word, Captain Marvel was unmemorable – perhaps the worst fate for a movie that carries such importance. The 21st in a saga; the final film before a climactic ending 11 years in the making. And it was just forgettable. Captain Marvel was certainly an entertaining way to spend 2 hours. What $150+ million movie wouldn’t be? Visually it rivaled Guardians at some points. The performances were good, and Samuel L Jackson in particular was great as always. There were definitely some moments where I thought it was funny, or cool, or interesting, but not the whole thing. I could name any scene in Infinity War, or Ragnarok, or Doctor Strange, but walking out of Marvel – and still while writing this – I didn’t remember every character’s name.
So why? Why are those movies good and this one bad? Other than the issues with the story that I already pointed out – which already left a bad taste in my mouth, this one just felt bland. In a world where we already have an Infinity War, and even a Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, it’s hard for a Captain Marvel to truly leave a mark. If this was released before either of those, I think I would’ve let it slide as much as I let Ant-Man slide. But the release date of this turned it into the film-equivalent to eating dessert before dinner.
It should be noted that Marvel is not the first film in the MCU to leave this poor of a taste in my mouth. I think both Ant Man’s are boring, and I already joked about Thor earlier. It’s easy for a movie to just not be interesting at all when its sole purpose is to fit as a tiny piece into a much larger puzzle. Marvel Studios or Disney doesn’t need this movie to even be good because they know everyone is going to see it anyway. We have to do our homework and sit through the Marvels of the world so we get to enjoy the Avengers’. A film like Captain Marvel can often worsen the effects of Marvel Fatigue. The doctor recommendation is instead a healthy dose of Infinity War or Spiderverse.