We Want The D

From the corpses in the backgrounds of The Black Cauldron to Charles Martin Smith's D in Never Cry Wolf, the Disney movies of the 1980s have given us some strange and precious gifts. But perhaps none moreso than this week's film, MIDNIGHT MADNESS. Featuring a cast of dozens of some unknown but some very familiar faces, more hijinks than you can count, and a shrill disco theme song, there is no mov...

Our hosts have been hit with some standard podcasting pitfalls (travel delays, general illness) this week, but rather than leave our dear listeners without your weekly dose of D, we have another Minnie Mouse-isode for your enjoyment. Listen to Jill's story of her first trip to Disneyland, recorded shortly after her return back in January 2018, while Vicky and Nolan recount their own childhood expe...

You don't need us to tell you that the 1990s were a different time. There's enough "only 90s kids" memes to cover that territory. But what is often left out is how gaga everyone went for this Wonderful World of Disney staging of Rogers and Hammerstein's CINDERELLA. And on paper, our hosts can see why. Whitney Houston! Brandi! Whoopi! Victor Garber! A veritable who's who of titans of song and stage...

As any regular listener knows, we often find ourselves confused by Disney's choice in movies when doing this ill-advised dive into their filmography. But this week's confusion has a bit of a different tone to it. Because in 1958's THE LIGHT IN THE FOREST, rather than romanticize the rugged individualism and rough-and-tumble attitude of colonial America, they almost seem...critical of it? Don't get...

One of the universal truths in life is that movies based on video games will never work, and it's a lesson Disney learned well with their attempt at adapting PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME. It's hard to pinpoint exactly where they went wrong first, but somewhere between not really thinking the plot through and casting all white actors in a movie set in Persia and about Persian royalty is prob...

What is there to say about Disney's SUMMER MAGIC? A teenage Hayley Mills moves to the country and does some light home renovations; Burl Ives commits mail fraud and sings a song about bugs set over nature documentary footage; an easter egg from previous We Want The D episode The Barefoot Executive is revealed...and that's more or less it, really. For some (or one of our hosts) that's enough. For o...

Funny how different people have different definitions of what constitutes a miracle. For many, it's an act of God - fishes and loaves, water to wine and whatnot. For others, it's when a hodgepodge of college hockey players are physically and psychologically abused and manipulated by their coach so they can beat a team of professional-level soviet players. Such is the story of Team USA at the Lake...

Disney often confounds us with the stories they chose to tell in their feature films, and no more so when they lean heavily into the genre of war movie. But VALIANT turns that confusion up to eleven with its decision to focus on the, erm, brave pigeons who served as messengers during WWII. As always, it's not just the concept but the execution; why make the birds so ugly? Why are all doves girls?...

The Mighty Ducks are back! That's right, the whole gang is here, except for the handful of players who are inexplicably missing. And while a few teammates aren't the only things retconned out of this sequel, our focus in this episode lands elsewhere. You see, as Canadians, it is our hosts' birthright to complain when hockey is inaccurately depicted. And boy are there all sorts of rules in regulati...

Don Quixote is a timeless classic that has been retold and adapted many times over the years. So it shouldn't really have surprised us that Disney would take their own kick at the can with SCANDALOUS JOHN, which takes the story of the Spanish noble who believes himself a chivalrous knight and adapts it into one about an old rancher suffering from dementia who holds dozens of people at gunpoint on...

This week on We Want The D we dive into another one of Disney's post-war package films. This is another collection of shorts that lack any sort of thematic commonality, only connected by the fact that each is backed by some sort of song or soundtrack. Something so nondescript deserves the title of MELODY TIME, so it's not surprise when Vicky, Nolan and Jill have a hard time focusing on shorts abou...

To tell you, dear listener, anything about this movie here would rob you of the unique opportunity of hearing Vicky, Nolan and Jill attempt to explain this particular Disney movie. But we have to write something, so we'll say this much: THE ONE AND ONLY, GENUINE, ORIGINAL FAMILY BAND is a movie of length. The title is obviously long. The runtime is long. There's an almost absurd amount of musical...

It's likely no secret by now that our hosts have some misgivings about Disney's most recent (and to date most whole-hearted) foray into remakes, reboots and sequels of some of their most beloved properties. So that there's quite a divide in opinion when it comes to CHRISTOPHER ROBIN, their nostalgia-dipped installment in the Winnie the Pooh canon should come as no surprise. Is this a charming, if...

We end at the beginning. A journey that started with the Wildcats of...uh...High School Musical High? (Sure, let's go with that) graduating having learned that they're all in this together begins with them auditioning for the Winter Musicale and ultimately learning that they're all in this together. It should be no surprise that in the end at least two thirds of our hosts would never quite grasp h...

The last time Vicky, Nolan and Jill watched a collaboration between Disney and ImageMovers Digital it was...well it was Mars Needs Moms and it was one of the worst movies any of our hosts had seen. But it seems like even an effort to create MoCap Monstrosities can't overcome the Christmas spirit, as their adaptation of the Dickens classic, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, manages to impress all of our hosts to...

With so few Christmas movies to chose from in the Disney theatrical canon, it is a tad disappointing that so many of their meager offerings are so...underwhelming. Take I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, a vehicle for teen heartthrob Jonathan Taylor Thomas in his declining years (ie 17 years old) that is part road movie, part teen sex romp without the sex. Cause it's Disney. JTT's Jake is one of the more...

This week on We Want The D, our hosts break with tradition to bring you our first ever non-Disney movie in the podcast's histor- wait what's that? MAX KEEBLE'S BIG MOVE is a Disney movie? Huh, you're sure? Cause tonally and stylistically, it looks and sounds a heck of a lot like a Nickelodeon joint. And has quite a few Nickelodeon stars in it. But you're certain? Disney, you say? But that dad wear...

It's pure coincidence that American Thanksgiving has just passed us by and that our hosts just so happen to be taking on the Disney-fied, romanticized version of the first Thanksgiving with SQUANTO: A WARRIOR'S TALE. Or at least as Disney-fied as a story can be that still opens with a horrifying sequence of two First Nation's men being stolen from their homeland and forced to perform in sideshows...

This week, our hosts return to the most incomprehensible franchise in the Disney catalog with RETURN FROM WITCH MOUNTAIN. While the first movie featured young siblings fleeing from those who would use their alien powers for nefarious purposes, this sequel mixes things up by having one of those siblings captured by those who would use their alien powers for nefarious purposes. And, in a dark twist,...

Our series on Mary Poppins draws to a close with the big show itself, and Vicky, Nolan and Jill put on a big show in its honour. MARY POPPINS, if it wasn't already clear by the weeks of discussion we've been giving to it, is a very special movie that holds a special place in our collective hearts. So we earnestly gush about the performances, the songs, the matte paintings, and everything in betwee...

Our series on Mary Poppins continues with SAVING MR. BANKS, a Disney movie about how Walt Disney made a Disney movie. This is some meta-level stuff so it merits some meta-level discussion from Vicky, Nolan and Jill and boy do they go deep. Not only does this movie have enough to talk about on its own merits, from its stacked cast to its somewhat disjointed flashback structure; and not only is it i...

We're kicking off our series on all things Mary Poppins with a Disney documentary focusing on two of the most instrumental figures not only in the making of the legendary film, but in Disney history in general. Robert and Richard Sherman were brothers who could not be more different, except in their general distaste for one another. But that animosity didn't stop them from being the greatest songw...

As the scariest time of year draws to a close, our hosts are discussing what may be the most terrifying subject we've seen yet - the innate fear in all of us of having to walk home alone at night. That's right, it's time to look at Disney's take of the legend of Sleepy Hollow and the Headless Horseman...which because it came out in the 1940s was paired with the story of an anthropomorphic toad tha...

Long time D-sciples will know that Disney hasn't really stockpiled a plethora of Halloween-themed movies in their theatrical catalog, but rather than let this spookiest time of year go unacknowledged, Vicky, Nolan and Jill are returning to the well of Disney's televised movie offerings. After being nigh-on inundated with requests, we had no choice but to go with MR. BOOGEDY and its sequel BRIDE OF...

We're kicking off this spooktacular season with a mini-episode looking at the most gruesome, disturbing, karmic deaths in the Disney animated canon. Note this episode was recorded back before we had watched some of the movies referenced, so no you did not travel through time while listening to this episode!