Tyrus: Disney Channel's first official gay couple

 It has been a while since I write on this blog and it mostly go to the fact that I speak my mind more on Twitter. Recently my Surface shut down and had to switch the battery and screen. The second, my laptop lost its wifi combability. I'm trying to fix that while I have teaching workshops for work during the summer. Anyway, enough about me...

Andi Mack is/was a Disney Channel program about pre-teens and their trials and tribulations. A coming of age story that was controversial with the bible belt and conservative parents because Andi finds out her sister is really her mother. The show deals with gun violence, bullying, unplanned pregnancy and other topics. Anyway, after three seasons Disney decided to cancel it. No real reason was given. Some suspect it has to do with Stoney Westmoreland (Andi's grandfather), being arrested for attempted sexual liaison with a minor. He was fired and all scenes of him were removed from new episode. I don't think it has to do with the LGBT storyline.

In the last episode "We were here," one of the main characters Cyrus (Joshua Rush) developed a friendship with his friend Buffy''s former bully/rival T.J. (Luke Mullen). Throughout season 3, their storyline is about their blossoming friendship and underline romantic love. The creator of the show Terri Minsky (who also did Lizzie Maguire) says the majority of their storyline was subtext. TJ hung out with Kira, who seemingly seemed romantic but he assured Cyrus it wasn't romantic. Cyrus seemed left out. In the last episode, they are at a party and Buffy tells Cyrus that there is a reason why TJ is with Kira. The reason is not revealed. Kira makes fun of Cyrus' dancing and TJ calls him out and she gives him an ultimatum. He says Cyrus wouldn't give him an ultimatum. This answers her question and she leaves. TJ, Cyrus and gang sing Lady Gaga's "Born this way." Then TJ and Cyrus sit on a bench and Cyrus bugs him to learn his real name. he tells him, Cyrus tells him he loves the name. TJ asks Cyrus if he wants to know any more and it becomes a loop of them asking themselves those questions. And they hold hands.

I only seen a couple episode of Andi Mack, mostly of when Cyrus came out and his interactions with TJ. It is a good episode. I am sad the show ended. I wish we could see the rest of Cyrus and TJ's journey. I did initially wanted Cyrus and TJ to kiss like Buffy and her love interest in the episode. But Terri Minsky spoke about it saying it was appropriate for their story/journey that they touched hands and not kiss. And their relationship was subtext. My perspective of it is that if the show was ending, it was their last chance to go all out and they could have just kissed. The show was already cancelled. 

The future I see is different spinoffs or a reunion movie. When I say movie, it could a TV movie.

• Andi Mack reunion TV Movie on Disney Channel
• Andi Mack reunion TV Movie on Disney+
• Andi Mack mini-series on Disney+
• Cyrus + TJ Spin-off on Disney+

The following are my ideas only, they are not real---yet:

Andi Mack TV Movie

Andi has entered the Art high school and still hangs out with Buffy and Cyrus. Buffy and Cyrus cope with being Andi-less. Cyrus and TJ cope with the relationship becoming public. 

Andi Mack Mini-Series
Same as the TV Movie but more drawn out. A couple episodes like 6 or 8. Andi has entered the Art high school and still hangs out with Buffy and Cyrus. Buffy and Cyrus cope with being Andi-less. Andi struggles making friends in school and makes a new friend who is a girl and Buffy becomes jealous. Cyrus and TJ cope with the relationship becoming public. 

Cyrus + TJ Spinoff (Tyrus)

I think this would be better for Disney + because it wouldn't have the scrutiny of Disney Channel. They could have the Andi Mack TV movie or mini-series to continue her story so this would be the whole focus of Cyrus and TJ. The reason I say Cyrus and TJ, not only Cyrus because TJ wasn't a main character in Andi Mack. We can learn more about TJ and his family. I foresee them having a strong relationship but having some outside influence. Not that all the kids would bully them but there would be people like Kira that might sneer. Also there might be things that take their time like basketball  movie making or what not.

I think the reason "Tyrus" is fascinating is it is the jock/arty kid relationship you rarely see on TV or gay movies. It usually is the bad boy and arty kid or the macho guy and the feminine guy. It is rare to have relationships like that. TJ and Cyrus is just a completely cute relationship. 

My Top Ten Animated Horses

The majority are from Disney, it can't be helped as they have the majority of horses. I'm not counting unicorns (even though I love The Last Unicorn), Pegasus (sorry Disney's Hercules), ponies (sorry My Little Pony) or robotic horses (yes they exist).

10. Spirit/Swiftwind
She-Ra's horse was suppose to be female but they cast the male voice that did Battlecat in He-Man and he became male. Spirit became the Allicorn Swiftwind.


9. Angus
Disney/Pixar's Brave had Merida and her horse loyal steed Angus. He is a Clydesdale.

8. Bullseye

He doesn't speak, doesn't do much or contribute to the plot but he is a sweetheart and loyal. He debuted in Toy Story 2 and continued on to Toy Story 3 and the shorts and TV specials. He is the only toy horse on the list.

7. Headless Horseman's horse

In The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Sleepy Hollow was adapted and the Headless Horseman had his equally scary black horse with the red eyes. The horse's name was Daredevil in some stories.

6. Samson

Prince Philip's horse in Sleeping Beauty (the 50's) was considered his personality by the animators. The Disney animators before the 80's hated animating the Princes. They thought them boring and stiff but the animators enjoyed animating Samson as an extension of Philip. He is the only grey horse on the list.

5. Phillipe
Belle's dad's horse in Beauty and the Beast (1991). He was smart but a coward, he abandoned his owner to go get Belle. But when Belle stayed at the Beast's castle, he did too. He is the second brown horse on this list.

4. Skydancer

Starlite was cool but Skydancer was the bad boy horse in Rainbow Brite, belonging to Stormy. Stormy was in charge of lightning, storms and winter. Skydancer jumped on clouds and sneeze out icicles. Onyx the robotic horse was cool too but I didn't want this post to be all about Rainbow Brite. He is the only purple horse on the list.

3. Kahn

The loyal horse of Mulan (1998), he always stood by her and protected her but did not help Mushu nor the lucky cricket.  He is the third black horse on the list.

2. Maximus

The horse of the guards of a kingdom in Disney's Tangled (2010), he was relentless to find Finn. Maximus didn't speak but conveyed a lot in his face and actions. He was a bit anthropomorphic as he did things horse aren't even capable of doing. He is one of three computer animated horses on this list.

1. Starlite

Number one has to be the most magnificent horse in the whole universe, Starlite (Starlight) of Rainbow Brite. Rainbow Brite was a 1983 franchise from Hallmark Cards that included TV specials, a movie ("Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer"), toys, cards and other merchandise. He 'flew' by running on a Rainbow. What made him so magnificent other than he can speak. He entered a large castle on his own to retrieve a stolen belt and save Rainbow Brite. Also, he always managed to outsmart Murky Dismal, which wasn't a big feat unto itself but still.  Plus he is the third white horse in this list.

Could Skating Arena attendance be increasing by Disney's Frozen?

My nephew went to a little girl's birthday party at a skating rink yesterday and all the girl parties were Frozen related. Frozen was released in 2013, most little girl parties have been Frozen.

 

I didn't find an article about Frozen influencing increase but attendance is up:

http://www.wbir.com/story/news/local/west-knoxville-farragut/2014/02/14/knoxville-skating-rink-sees-increase-during-olympics/5501927/

http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20140228/News/402280326

 

Ice Skating Rinks with Frozen themes or contests:

http://newsok.com/skaters-enjoy-frozen-theme-at-devon-ice-rink-in-oklahoma-city/article/5385989

 

Birthday themes most popular:

http://www.bnd.com/2015/02/01/3636299/popular-decorated-cakes-does-anything.html

Disney has always cut corners

People have complained that female characters of Tangled and Frozen look a like and that minor characters in Frozen are the same people in different dresses but this isn't the first time Disney has cut corners. Disney has always recycled models and animation.

Beauty and the Beast

At the beginning we see a forest, the forest animals were recycled from Bambi. At the end, the dancing animation cycle of Beauty and her prince was recycled from Sleeping Beauty, you can tell by the Prince's sudden body change. This was done because they ran out of money.

 

Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland used animation from Pinocchio (fish underwater) and Bambi (blue bird on branch).

 

 101 Dalmatians

They reused animation of the cat from Cinderella, a woman walking from a short and an outdoor building from Peter Pan.

 

 Sword in the Stone

They reused a dummy getting hit on the head from 101 Dalmatians, animals from Bambi, a boulder from a short, a man on a sword with shield from Sleeping Beauty, Jousters from a short called The Truth about Mother Goose and the tiger from short Tiger Trouble.

 

 Robin Hood

They reused a lot of animation like Mary clapping to dancing was taken from Snow White, Baloo dancing in Jungle Book became the bear Little John dancing in Robin Hood and the Aristocats dancing was also used for the Merry Men dancing.

 

 Pocahontas

Pocahontas as under production during the same time as the Lion King. Pocahontas was released after Lion King. The staff thought Pocahontas would do better. These feathers and things flying in the air were reused, it is hard to tell which came first.

 Princess and the Frog

Believe it or not, maybe it was a homage and not the original animation but the alligator did a similar move as the witch in Sword in the Stone.

 

For much much more, check the link below!

Source:

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_recycled_animation_in_Disney_movies

 



Big Hero Six - Movie Review

May Contain Spoilers

A short summary of this movie is that Hiro (Supah Ninja's Ryan Potter) is a 13 year-old genius loses his genius brother Tadashi (Male Model Daniel Henney) who invented Baymax (30 Rock's Scott Adsit), a med robot and seeks to stop a mysterious man in a kabuki mask who seems to have stolen his own invention. Tadashi went to a technology university with colorful friends who become Hiro's teammates like tough chick GoGo (Jamie Chung), Follow-the-rules Always-in-order Wasabi (New Girl's Damon Wayans Jr.), goofy dreamer Fred (Silicon Valley's T.J. Miller), and Manic Pixie Dream Girl Honey Lemon (Miami's Genesis Rodriguez). The sidekicks come off one-dimensional without a lot of depth. We first see Fred only in a comical manner so when we first see him serious, it looks ingenue. 

Baymax is a well-meaning A.I. fish-out-of-water huggable and lovable character, an innocent. When we first meet Hiro, he is doing illegal gambling in robot battles and Tadashi is his protective older brother that only wants the best for him. The whole movie is an ode to Japanese culture (Hiro has a Mazinger Z clock in his bedroom), set in the fictional San Franstokyo. It is the usual coming-of-age story with the Disney tropes of loosing a love one. It is a bit over-kill that Hiro has lost his parents and then his brother. The story is a bit predictable. The villain is hinted upon to be the millionare Alistair Krei (Suburgatory's Alan Tudyk), I had a feeling the characters would think it would be him and they did and then I knew it wouldn't be him. And there you go.

 

Hiro convince/tricks Baymax and his friends in a different manners to become the team. For Baymax, he tells him to capture the kabuki mask guy would make him happy. He tells the gang all they are doing is taking off the mask of the villain-which controls the robots that Hiro made and were stolen. But what Hiro later becomes obsessed with is revenge and almost kills. Well, he wants Baymax to kill and it gets deliciously dark. Of course being a Disney film, he learns his lesson quickly and changes his mind. But there is that duality there with him and the villain, here are the spoilers:

FOR SURE SPOILERS

The villain of course ends up being Hidashi's mentor and he wants revenge on Alistair for losing his daughter in  failed experiment. But when Hiro asks Callaghan about Hidashi, he says it was his own fault, not seeing the irony in that Hiro lost his brother and wants revenge and he wants the same thing--he wants his daughter back. If you seen the movie, you know that Hiro and Baymax end up saving his daughter and bringing her back. The movie could had done in two directions: Callaghan could have gotten Hiro on his side by convincing him Callaghan started the fire and get revenge for Hidashi on Callaghan as well. The second direction could had been that Callghan could had egged on Hiro more so about the loss of his brother in order to drive him to the edge of committing a double suicide-kind of thing but of course, that's way too dark for Disney but has happened in Pixar's Incredibles.

Conclusion

Anyway, the movie is funny and great but has noticeable flaws. As for cameos and in-jokes, there are references to Kajuu (Godzilla-like monsters like Fred's costume), giant robos (like the aforementioned Mazinger Z), Sentai (masks in Fred's room) and other Anime (Samurai Pizza Cats in the end credits). I don't want to be a total negative person, it is a pretty movie but is it better than Frozen? It's like comparing apples and oranges. But is it better than Meet the Robinsons, Bolt and Chicken Little? Lightyears.

Unused or Discarded Disney Characters

While developing a script or a movie, creators have to get rid of a character or no longer see the need for it. Or the character evolves into something better.

 

Little Mermaid

Ariel not only had Flounder and Sebastian, she also had a dolphin friend. Breaker the dolphin's personality was then implanted into Ariel.

http://www.mouseplanet.com/6928/The_Little_Mermaid

 

Beauty and the Beast

Belle was supposed to have a cute little music box who didn't speak but had music. He was replaced by Chip. He does appear in the movie next to Lumiere before the villagers attack the castle.

http://fancysomedisneymagic.tumblr.com/post/3922625605/unused-disney-characters

Aladdin
Aladdin's mom was once in the movie and Aladdin had a song called "Proud of your boy", a song that Clay Aiken even sang at one point in time. She was removed from the movie and Aladdin was made an orphan. It returned in the Broadway show. Also, there was to be another genie, one in a ring that Jafar would use. Rumored voices were Jim Carey and Lily Tomlin, unknown if they were actually asked.
http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Aladdin's_Mother
http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Genie_of_the_Ring

Before Jeffrey Katzenberg's "Black Friday," Aladdin had three human friends called Babkak, Omar, and Kassim. "One Step Ahead" was originally written by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken as "Babkak, Omar, Aladdin, Cassim" and was deleted. They came back in Broadway's Aladdin. Cassim's spelling was changed because Aladdin's dad was called Cassim in "Aladdin and the King of Thieves."

 

Lion King

There was Meethu ("Mee-Too"), Nala's brother had a desire to tag along with the two older cubs and their other friend, a bat-eared fox. After Scar’s coup, Nala would’ve been tasked with protecting her brother from Scar. The development of characters like Timon and Pumbaa rendered a second group of friends for Simba not needed.

http://thefw.com/more-deleted-disney-characters/?trackback=tsmclip

 

Pocahontas

Believe it or not, Pocahontas had another friend in a turkey. Redfeather the turkey was replaced by Meeko.

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Redfeather

 

Mulan

Mulan had two dragons named Yin and Yang instead of Mushu, then it was a dragon and a phoenix, eventually they were canned for Mushu.

http://www.curatormagazine.com/aaronbelz/the-maker-of-mulans-mushu-speaks/

 

Muppet's Treasure Island

Amazonia the Parrot was Black Beard's female friend. Apparently Black Beard's Parrot friend was too flirty and female, was changed to Stevenson (above) who appeared in a CD-ROM game and he was ditched for Polly the Lobster.

http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Amazonia_the_Parrot

 

Bambi

Bee was an insect that was taken out of Bambi, no reason given.

http://www.disneydreaming.com/2011/03/27/discarded-bambi-character-bee/

 

Not only the bee, but Thumper's dad was booted too. Mr. Hare is referenced in the movie but never seen but he was to be included, as he was in the original book. In one early draft of the script, he is constantly trying to tell Bambi a story, but keeps having to run off to avoid a fox before he can finish. He was to die as well. Thumper replaced him because of a cute child actor.

 http://thefw.com/lost-disney-characters/?trackback=tsmclip

 

 

Snow White
In the original Snow White story, the dwarfs all had generic names and no defined personalities. Disney gave them names, but there were some that were unused. Deafy, sometimes written as 'Deefy,' he was hard of hearing.  Story drawings of Deafy still exist, proving that he was a more serious contender for a role in the film than other suggested dwarfs like Thrifty, Burpy, Wheezy, Jumpy, Baldy and Awful (steals and drinks and is dirty). Sneezy did replace Deafy. In Once Upon a Time, an 8th Dwarf has been added named Stealthy. http://thefw.com/lost-disney-characters/?trackback=tsmclip

 

 Alice in Wonderland

Gryphon and Mock Turtle were in the books and they were planned characters for the movie but they were probably cut for time, which is funny because Alice in Wonderland is one of the shortest Disney animated features. Gryphon and Mock Turtle were actually used in a Black and White Jell-O commercial and it looks like they reused some cells from the planned canceled scene and some cells of Alice from the exact movie and just put new voiceovers for Jell-O.

http://thefw.com/lost-disney-characters/?trackback=tsmclip

 

 

The Rescuers

Among the ideas considered early on was a story where the mice rescue a bear trapped in the zoo. Very little has been written about this version of the film, so not much is known about Louis the bear. Louis Prima (King Louie from ‘The Jungle Book’) was slated to voice him. Walt Disney’s death in 1966 may have weakened enthusiasm for the bear in the zoo storyline and also that Louis Prima had a brain tumor.

 http://thefw.com/lost-disney-characters/?trackback=tsmclip



Once Upon A Time Family Tree

 UPDATED 11/21/13 11:30 PM EST
SPOILERS AHEAD

ONCE UPON A TIME SEASON 3

Pop culture Uncles and Nephews

I have been an uncle since I was 5 and became a Great Uncle four years ago (I'm 31, my sister is 48 and a grandma). I am fascinated by uncles and nephews in the media, as many don't mention the mother or father of the nephew.

 Kermit and Robin

 Robin first appeared in Frog Prince in 1971 television special. Although Robin made a few appearances on The Muppet Show's first season, his relationship to Kermit was not established until Season 2. He was voiced by Jerry Nelson. He is now voiced by Matt Vogel. They were then translated into Muppet Babies, Robin was a tadpole.

 Scooby-Doo and Scrappy

Scooby-Doo was part of a ghost detective group of teenagers and he loved eating. Later on in the first series, his nephew was introduced. Scrappy was not a popular character but he was Scooby's nephew. Scrappy turned up in the live-action film as a villain.

Donald Duck and his nephews

Huey, Dewey and Louie were created by Ted Osborne and Al Taliaferro, and first appeared in a newspaper comic strip on October 17, 1937. They are identical triplets, they have also been given to Uncle Scrooge on DuckTales.

 Mickey Mouse and his nephews

His nephews aren't very well known but appear in a lot of merchandise and a few cartoons. Morty and Fredie Fieldmouse are their names. They started in Mickey's Nephews (published in 1932).

 Popeye and his nephews

Popeye's nephews Pipeye, Peepeye, Pupeye and Poopeye first starred in "Me Musical Nephews.” They are not as better known as other nephews in popular media.

 _______________________
Here are some Uncle and Nieces or Aunts and Nieces

 Inspector Gadget and Penny

Penny was the brains of the operation.

 

Minnie Mouse and her nieces

In the short Bowtoons, Minnie has twin nieces Millie and Melody.

  

Tenderheart and Wonderheart

In the current CGI series "Welcome to Care-A-Lot," the main bear Tenderheart now has a little niece known as Wonderheart.

Miss Piggy, Andy and Randy

Her nephews became more known in Muppets Tonight.