Does your tot have a passion for piglets or pirates or playing princess? Then give her current craze a starring role at her bash. Here are some of the best little-kid birthday party themes — and the fun and games to go along with them.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
25 Things You Didn't Know About 'Beauty and the Beast'
25 Things You Didn't Know About 'Beauty and the Beast'
By Gary Susman (Subscribe to Gary Susman's posts)
Posted Nov 15th 2011 9:00AM
Filed under: Best Movies Ever, Family Film Guide, Columns, This Week in Movies
Be our guest, be our guest
Put your knowledge to the test
There's some trivia you may know
But you might not know the rest
It's a treat, it's a feast,
Disney's 'Beauty and the Beast'
Now the movie's turning 20
We've come up with factoids plenty
Chip 'n' Dale, Jean Cocteau,
They're connected, don't you know
As are Jackie Chan and Pixar -- you impressed?
Sure, these lyrics may be trash, man
(We're so sorry, Howard Ashman)
But be our guest, read the rest, be our guest!
1. 'Beauty and the Beast' was more than 50 years in the making. It was one of the first fairy tales Walt Disney tried to adapt after the success of his first animated feature, 1937's 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,' but his writers couldn't get a handle on the story.
2. Before the Disney cartoon, the most famous film version of 'Beauty and the Beast' was the 1946 live-action film by Jean Cocteau. From this classic French film, the Disney version would borrow the ideas of a rival suitor for Belle and household objects in the Beast's castle coming to life.
3. Starting in 1987, Disney storyboard artists spent two years working on a version of the tale, only to have Disney studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg scrap their work and start from scratch. The new directive: make a movie like Disney's recent success 'The Little Mermaid,' a Broadway-style musical with a strong heroine
4. To that end, Katzenberg enlisted the 'Mermaid' songwriting team of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. Ashman was dying of AIDS at the time and couldn't travel far, so much of the story's development took place at a Residence Inn in Fishkill, New York, not far from where the lyricist lived.
5. Screenwriter Linda Woolverton landed the job despite having written only a few scripts for Disney cartoon series 'Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers.' She made a point of making Belle an unusual Disney heroine: she wasn't a princess, she liked books, she was independent, and she had no interest in marrying the handsomest eligible male around (the vain, macho Gaston).
6. Katzenberg also hired relative neophytes Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale to direct; their previous major credit had been a short called 'Cranium Command,' a film commissioned for an attraction at Disney's EPCOT Center.
7. Another unlikely hire: Robby Benson, the dreamy-eyed, soft-spoken actor best known for playing sensitive teen leads in movies like 'Ice Castles' and 'The Chosen.' But in his audition, he summoned up a dark, rumbling voice that was perfect for the Beast. "There's a rage and torment in this character I've never been asked to use before," he told Entertainment Weekly.
8. Benson's booming bellow was his own, but the Beast's howls were enhanced electronically, mixed with the sounds of growling panthers and lions.
9. For the other leads, Belle and Gaston, Disney went with seasoned Broadway performers Paige O'Hara and Richard White.
10. Even the well-known veteran movie and TV character actors who played the Beast's servants-turned-knickknacks were performers with a Broadway background -- Jerry Orbach (Lumiere), Angela Lansbury (Mrs. Potts), and David Ogden Stiers (Cogsworth).
11. As Chip, the teacup who is Mrs. Potts' son, Bradley Michael Pierce, initially had just one line of dialogue, but the boy so impressed the filmmakers that they expanded his part and cut out the role of a mute music box.
12. Years before 'Toy Story,' 'Beauty' marked one of Disney's first collaborations with Pixar, which lent its computer-animation software to the sequence where Belle and the Beast dance to the title ballad. The software allowed the animators to create a 360-degree ballroom set as the camera appeared to twirl around the dancing couple. Critics singled out the sequence as a highlight of the film, and its success helped convince Disney to make the leap into full-length computer-animated features.
13. Ashman was 40 when he died in March 1991, eight months before the release of the completed film, which he never got to see. He'd also been at work with Menken on lyrics for the next Disney cartoon feature, 'Aladdin.' Those songs would be completed by lyricist Tim Rice.
14. Upon its release in November 1991, the film was hailed as an instant success. Frank Rich, the New York Times' powerful theater critic, asserted that it was a better musical than anything he'd seen on Broadway that year. Audiences made it the first animated feature to earn more than $100 million at the box office. By the end of its six-month run in theaters, it had earned $146 million in the U.S. and Canada. It was the third highest-grossing movie of 1991 (after 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day' and 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves').
'Beauty and the Beast' - Original Trailer
15. 'Beauty' became the first animated film ever to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It was also the last, until Disney/Pixar's 'Up' 18 years later.
16. 'Beauty' did win two Oscars, for its musical score and for Best Original Song, for the title tune.
17. The Celine Dion-Peabo Bryson version of the song, heard over the end credits, became a top 10 hit single in the U.S. and in the U.K.
18. When the film was released in Chinese-language markets, the Beast's speaking and singing voices were dubbed by Jackie Chan.
19. Inspired by Frank Rich's comment, Disney developed 'Beauty' into the first of many Broadway musicals based on its animated features. It opened in 1994 and ran for 5,464 performances, making it the eighth longest-running show in Broadway history. After 13 years, Disney closed the show in 2007 only because it didn't want 'Beauty' stealing the thunder of its new princess-themed musical, 'The Little Mermaid.'
20. The film's spinoffs include two straight-to-video "midquels" (sequels that take place amid the sequence of events of the original film): 'Belle's Enchanted Christmas' and 'Belle's Magical World.' Other spinoffs include a live-action TV series ('Sing Me a Story with Belle') and six video games.
21. A 2002 IMAX re-release included a new sequence built around a song, 'Human Again,' that had been deleted from the original film.
22. Woolverton went on to co-write Disney's 'The Lion King' and 'Mulan,' and she wrote the studio's huge 2010 blockbuster version of 'Alice in Wonderland.'
23. Wise and Trousdale went on to work on such Disney features as 'The Lion King,' 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame,' and 'Atlantis: The Lost Empire.'
24. O'Hara turned up (along with several other actresses best known for voicing Disney cartoon heroines) in 2007's 'Enchanted.' She appeared as a soap opera actress on TV, in a scene echoing the one where Belle tends to the Beast's wounds. Her character's name was Angela, an apparent reference to 'Beauty and the Beast' co-star Angela Lansbury.
25. In the wake of the success in September of the 3D re-release of 'The Lion King,' 'Beauty and the Beast' will be re-released in 3D in theaters on January 13.
[Photo: Disney]
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Funny Things Kids Say
http://www.whattoexpect.com/toddler/photo-gallery/funny-things-kids-say.aspx?xid=aol_wte-preg_3_20111107_&aolcat=HLT&icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl5%7Csec3_lnk1%7C111981#/slide-1
Various Crafts
http://www.stylelist.com/2011/11/10/craft-of-the-day-brown-paper-bag-flowers_n_1086538.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl3%7Csec3_lnk1%7C112183#s455356&title=Teacup_Pincushions
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
The Year 2000
Me and your aunt lived up North. Your daddy lived down south and was a senior in high school. He became super rebellious. I didn't want to go to his graduation, because he had been such an idiot and a jerk. He pissed away his senior year. My dad was not in very good health so he sent Jason money to buy himself a car. Your daddy bought a 4 wheel drive Jeep. It ate up gas and was nothing but a pain. He worked at Firestone, got fired for forgetting to put oil in a car...and it burned out the engine...
Finallly, your dad moved up North with me and your aunt. He decided to talk to recruiters. My dad and I were not getting along well at all. I felt your dad was driving a wedge deeper into mine and my dad's relationship.
On Thanksgiving, we went up to Ohio to spend it with our friend's up there, and while we were there, my dad died. Back then, we didn't have cell phones, so we didn't find out until we got back home at 0400 on Monday morning when I listened to the answer machine. I refused to go to the funeral, because of the hatred I had in my heart for my dad. But I wanted your daddy and aunt to go. Your daddy was 18 and your aunt was 16.
When your daddy came home, he went down and enlisted in the Marine Corps. We went to Ohio for Christmas vacation and drove back Christmas Day to take him to the Recruiting Station for him to head off to boot camp. I was so proud of him, but so much had happened over the last 1.5 years...
Finallly, your dad moved up North with me and your aunt. He decided to talk to recruiters. My dad and I were not getting along well at all. I felt your dad was driving a wedge deeper into mine and my dad's relationship.
On Thanksgiving, we went up to Ohio to spend it with our friend's up there, and while we were there, my dad died. Back then, we didn't have cell phones, so we didn't find out until we got back home at 0400 on Monday morning when I listened to the answer machine. I refused to go to the funeral, because of the hatred I had in my heart for my dad. But I wanted your daddy and aunt to go. Your daddy was 18 and your aunt was 16.
When your daddy came home, he went down and enlisted in the Marine Corps. We went to Ohio for Christmas vacation and drove back Christmas Day to take him to the Recruiting Station for him to head off to boot camp. I was so proud of him, but so much had happened over the last 1.5 years...
The Year 1999
I had gotten transferred up north in May of 1999.
I bought a house in M.
Your daddy was a junior in high school and I decided to let him stay down south the following year, so he could graduate with all of his buddies and finish MCJROTC. What a mistake.
I left my new Nissan Altima with him...he had it for 29 days and while changing a CD in the car CD player, he hit a 12" curb...bent the frame, broke the whole front axle, what a mess. I wish I had a photo of it...that is when he was a junior. It took almost a month to fix. I was so mad. When school got out in June, I had him and your aunt drive up north and I kept the Nissan and my Chevy Astro Van with me up North. I didn't want him to have a car, because I could see he hadn't learned his lesson. And at my expense...I think that summer he went with my father, rv'ing around the country.
Your aunt and I took 3 wks and drove thru the New England states, up to Quebec, Canada to Montreal and back down to New York. The morning we left, John Frances Kennedy Jr, his wife and her twin sister, left for a cousins wedding and they never made it there. He was piloting a small single engine airplane. While we were on our trip, we kept the radio on, listening to hear what happened and if they had found bodies. It was a sad time for America. Only Caroline was left of John Frances Kennedy's off-spring.
We stayed at Lake Placid for a few days, renting a Camping Cottage at the KOA Campground. We had such a great time. The Ironman Competition was going on, so we got to see the athletes practice. We rented a sail boat and went out on the lake and your aunt would dive off the bow of the boat and I would go back in a circle to pick her up, just so she could do it again. We had such a good time.
We rented racing cars and raced in an indoor track in Quebec, and had a blast. She was pretty good.
I bought a house in M.
Your daddy was a junior in high school and I decided to let him stay down south the following year, so he could graduate with all of his buddies and finish MCJROTC. What a mistake.
I left my new Nissan Altima with him...he had it for 29 days and while changing a CD in the car CD player, he hit a 12" curb...bent the frame, broke the whole front axle, what a mess. I wish I had a photo of it...that is when he was a junior. It took almost a month to fix. I was so mad. When school got out in June, I had him and your aunt drive up north and I kept the Nissan and my Chevy Astro Van with me up North. I didn't want him to have a car, because I could see he hadn't learned his lesson. And at my expense...I think that summer he went with my father, rv'ing around the country.
Your aunt and I took 3 wks and drove thru the New England states, up to Quebec, Canada to Montreal and back down to New York. The morning we left, John Frances Kennedy Jr, his wife and her twin sister, left for a cousins wedding and they never made it there. He was piloting a small single engine airplane. While we were on our trip, we kept the radio on, listening to hear what happened and if they had found bodies. It was a sad time for America. Only Caroline was left of John Frances Kennedy's off-spring.
We stayed at Lake Placid for a few days, renting a Camping Cottage at the KOA Campground. We had such a great time. The Ironman Competition was going on, so we got to see the athletes practice. We rented a sail boat and went out on the lake and your aunt would dive off the bow of the boat and I would go back in a circle to pick her up, just so she could do it again. We had such a good time.
We rented racing cars and raced in an indoor track in Quebec, and had a blast. She was pretty good.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
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Sunday, June 12, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
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Thursday, April 7, 2011
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