Happy Birthday to the evil house of mouse… oh sorry i mean the wonderful disney studios. This has been spoken about for ages as the perfect birthday gift. So i am waiting to see what diseny deliver for there centenary, because so far its gone well, with he shorts.

This was a straight to the cinema after work at 6pm run, got there just about in time. My screening had a couple of families in but no more than 4 & maybe 1 group of millennials & that was about it.

Trailers, Wonka, Aquaman, Inside Out 2 (ekkkkkkk) & Migration. Which was all to be expected for a kids film.

& then… the film didnt start. I was expecting the usual 8min disney short or the once upon a studio i had already seen, but no there was a little were 100 video which was about 3mins long. & it was lush. People at parks. from the humble beginnings to the evil machine it now is(& i bloody love disney but they have been evil this year they really have & they deserve some of the hate they have got) but it was so good going through Disney in order & it ending with the classic of Steamboat Willy, then Timone & Pumba & ending with Grogu, showing they have always been able to make magic that inspires. Yea it was good.

& then the film started… & considering this was the birthday film, i felt more for that 3min video than i did this film. Im Sorry i did.

I get what disney were trying to do & by god what a fun easter egg hunt it was at points but it just lacked being disney because it tried to be to disney. Like the way all the background was drawn old style was so beautifully, but then seeing the big eyed female lead like in frozen leaping about with modern technology felt a little odd. I get you wanted to show how far you had come but damn that didnt work at points. It was only twice when i was like ahh this looks beautiful.

But as an easter egg hunt ahh. There were so many nods to the past it was crazy. I was sitting there ticking them off a list i didnt know i had. & those mates she had, they were quite clearly someone else in the future. One of the songs was very enchanto. We had a shooting star section. Oh i could be here for like 5 hours listing out everything i say in the film that was a nod to the studio but it would ruin it all for you when it comes on disney plus in a few weeks time (im certain this will be on there by new year{turns out i was wrong}).

Chris Pine as the villain… ahhhhhhhhhhhhh i need more of that in my life please. I really really do because damn. I mean its not the scar villain song but damn it was good. Also using green for baddies iconic as always. But there were a few moments when he pulled some face & it would so be what Pine would have probably done in a live action version of the film if he was acting.

There was an MVP though, The Tudyk as the goat. He didnt speak until act 2 but i was sitting there laughing a lot. He was there for the parents for sure. I know hes technically another disney easter egg but im glad he got to do more than chicken noises. He was fabulous & stole the show entirely.

I know im not 5 anymore i get that, but it even a 5 year old would work out where that was going on quite early on for sure. It actually lost some of the spark because of that. IT was not the best written story. Again i think this is because disney tried to make it so much of too many other disney storys that it just lost its charm.

Honestly disney im a bit disappointed with this. Considering this has been advertised as the disney film. The ultimate birthday gift. It just was like nah its not. & i feel a bit cheated by that. I didnt cry or feel a sense of pride in the company. It just felt like it was a half baked idea that they gave up on half way through if im honest. It had potential but didnt reach its high. Sums up Disneys 2023 in a nutshell really doesnt it. So maybe it was right then.