Not in Nottingham

Perhaps it says something about me that one my favorite songs from any Disney movie is the rather downbeat, almost depressing, Not in Nottingham from Robin Hood. When I was growing up we watched Robin Hood a lot. It was one of my favorite movies and Robin Hood, that fox, was one of my first crushes. And Roger Miller's sad, hauntingly beautiful version of Not in Nottingham was the one song I would sing from the movie. 

There are certain songs that just hit you the right way and stick with you through life. Almost thirty years after hearing that song for the first time, I'm still looking for a copy I can call my own. Disney has only once, to my knowledge, released the song in a physical form. It was part of the record soundtrack. Sadly, that record is one of the few that I can't find in my parent's house. We have the cover, but not the record. It's not on iTunes or Spotify or Pandora or LastFM. I'm not surprised that Disney would prefer to focus on the more upbeat songs from its movies but there is just something wonderful about that song. 

I'm clearly not the only one who loves the song. When I go looking for it, I find all sorts of covers of the song. Los Lobos did a version. Benjamin Baker did a version. I just found a version by Mumford and Sons. If you google Not in Nottingham, you'll find hundreds of covers with a couple versions of the original mixed in. But nothing that I can put on my iPod to hum along to later. So I'll keep looking. And hopefully find that old record. I'll wear out the needle listening to that song but it will be worth it. "Every town, has its ups and downs..." 

For those of you who've never seen Robin Hood or heard the song, check out the original here. And the Mumford and Sons version isn't too bad. 

Disney History

When it comes to childhoods, I know that mine was spoiled. I had amazing Christmases with piles of presents. I had a small children's books library that I only had to share with my brothers and sisters. I had two amazing parents who adored us and spent time with us. But when it comes to vacations, we were well past spoiled. We dragged my poor parents to 6 Flags, Busch Gardens, any amusement park we could find really. We spent time out West and down South. But our favorite (or at least mine) was going to Walt Disney World in Florida.

I think I've been to Disney World 6 or 7 times in my lifetime, most of them as part of family trips. One year Jeff and I went by ourselves but a majority of them were during my childhood. Even now I get the urge to go every three years or so. I am a Disney World fanatic. And it doesn't stop with just visiting. I read books about the design and engineering that went into the parks. I read about the history of the Disney Corporation, Disneyland, Disney World, and about Walt Disney himself. 

Recently I went through a bag of stuff that my parents had found in their house and packed up for me. Much of it was old school papers and things but I found a couple of books that I thought were fun. I found my Birnbaum's Guide to Disney World for both 1985 and 1993. I found some vacation guides I had picked up while in the parks back on the 1994 trip. It included information about the new MGM Studios. The 1985 book covered the newly opened EPCOT center. I found both of these hilarious. So much has changed for the parks since then. So much has been added or changed. 

But my favorite find was an old souvenir map that I had brought home from one of the trips. It shows the resort area, as it was at the time with some of the popular characters of the day. The funny part is that many of the character featured were 80s and 90s TV characters that were big then. The characters from DuckTales, Gummi Bears, TaleSpin, and Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers make an appearance along with Figment, the long defunct (but still beloved) character from Journey into Imagination. Many of the hotels and recreation areas picture above don't exist anymore. But the big change is the expansion. The park has spread and changed. New things have popped up all over. So even though I know the map is outdated I love it. I know the book I bought in 2007 will soon be outdated in the same way. At Disney World things change constantly. But it was nice to find this bit of history to remember the parks of my youth. And look forward to going back. 

Epic Mickey

Jeff and I were in Target this past week and noticed as we walked in that they had a couple video games listed for relatively cheap (half price actually). I was shocked to see that one of the games was Epic Mickey, which I've been drooling over for months now. Ever since I saw the graphics on this game I've been lusting after it. Even at half price (Half!!!), we hesitated. Our budget doesn't have a ton of wiggle room. In the end though, we asked the clerk for assistance and dropped the coveted game into the cart. We were going to buy.

Jeff and I had played Kingdom Hearts when it first came out and had been instantly hooked on it. I'm a huge Disney fan (we both are) and the mix of Disney characters, puzzles, and fighting had hooked us. We played almost non-stop for the entire first weekend. We only left the couch for bathroom and sleep breaks. So we knew that another Disney game would suck us in just as much. And it did.


Epic Mickey is not just a fighting game and not just a character game. It has dimensions to it. Your character, Mickey, has to fight his way through the Wasteland (a deranged version of Disneyland) to set about making things right. He had originally tipped an entire container of thinner into the world, creating the great Thinner Incident. Now Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (Mickey's real-life predicessor) has taken over the world. Mickey must turn things back to the way they were before. He is equipped only with a paint brush which can wield either paint or thinner. Thinner makes things go away, Paint makes them appear. It's that simple...mostly. There are things you need to uncover to move forward, there are gears that need to be painted before they can turn. We just recently learned that you can remove sections of the floor and trap creatures beneath it by thinning and then repainting.


I love the fact that the game is set in Disneyland (albeit an odd looking one). We've already had to face the clocktower from the "It's a Small World Ride." We're currently wandering our way through Tomorrowland trying to get the People Mover to work. Many of the parks rides are there, in some form or another. Main Street is a twisted place called Mean Street with buildings so accurate I could recognize them from their real-life counterparts even without signs. "Hey look the ice cream shop." The graphics are downright stunning. The first time I saw Mean Street (with the tilted off kilter castle in the background) I gasped. It was amazing looking. Ostown (a take on Mickey's Toon Town) is just as colorful and interesting look as the land is in Disneyland.


The characters are fun. The puzzles are challenging. The only complaints I can think of about the game are the same ones that I had with Kingdom Hearts. Disney lays out the path a little too easily sometimes (it is a kids game after all) and that there are often too many hints, which hinder smooth play. There is a lot of dialogued hints which must be passed before you can get to game play. In Kingdom Hearts they were from Goofy and Donald. In Epic Mickey they come from The Gremlins (characters created by Roald Dahl incidentally) that are helping Mickey through the land.


Jeff and I have no idea how far we have progressed through the game at this point. We might be half, we might have just scraped the surface. All of the Disney games we've played are like that. I enjoy the complexity though. My feeling is that we have a long way to go. And I'm not upset about that. I'm excited to figure out the puzzles. I'm excited to see the way the rides have been corrupted. And more than anything I'm excited to see what the world looks like whole. I love Disney's story-based video games. This one is now at the top of my list.

Alice Art

'Be what you would seem to be'--or if you'd like it put more simply--'Never
imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others
that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had
been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.'"---The Duchess

For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge Alice in Wonderland fan (I know I've mentioned it before). Alice's Adventure in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are two books that I re-read regularly. I make it a point to see each film adaption no matter how strange or unusual. For the record I have not yet seen the new Tim Burton adaption yet. I don't do the theaters so I'll have wait until it comes out on video. Although it looks strange enough for me to enjoy.

The really wonderful thing about Alice is that there are so many adaptions to choose from, both print and film. More illustrators, filmmakers, and artists have tackled Alice over the years than almost any other book in history. It is rife with possibilities. And each new version offers something new. There is the original manuscript, available online as part of the British Museum's Turning the Pages series. That version includes black and white illustrations drawn by Lewis Carroll himself. See below.

There is the original published version which included the work of the amazingly talented Sir John Tenniel (still considered the authoritative work on Alice).


But there are others who have tackled Alice with differing effects. This poster by Honor Appleton is one that I've been looking to purchase for years now but didn't know the artist.

We all know this particular version of Alice. Disney may be a child's first introduction to these classic works but it tends to be the one that was the least faithful to the book.



For film versions I own the star-studded 1999 television version directed by Nick Willing. This offered us Gene Wilder as the Mock Turtle, Peter Ustinov as Walrus, Ben Kingsley as Caterpillar, Martin Short as the Mad Hatter, Miranda Richardson as the Queen of Hearts, and Whoopi Goldberg as the odd choice for Cheshire Cat. It was also one of the more faithful adaptions I've seen.


I recently reviewed the new SyFy version of Alice here which strayed so far from the book that only character names were identifiable.

What got me thinking about this post was a new website that I found on Monday. Lauren Harman is an illustrator and designer who also has a passion for Alice art. She has put together one of the most impressive collections of Alice artwork that I've ever seen. Much of the images here came from her site. If you are even remotely interested in the Alice motif, I would recommend stopping by. If nothing else it was amazing to see the sheer variety of styles and images. Everyone from Barry Moser to Arthur Rackham have tried their hand. And Alice will continue to inspire artists into the future. I can't wait to see what they come up with.

New Cartoon

I'm a small child at heart. I love animated films, picture books, comics, and cartoons. Anything childlike or whimsical catches my attention. In my free time I read about children's book authors and gifted animators. So it would seem likely that I'd enjoy the Disney Channel. But up until recently I haven't. Too many live action dramas and musical series. Too many people, too adult. Not enough children's stuff. So when I happened to flip by a couple weeks ago, I was shocked to find a cartoon. I was even more shocked to find out that it is a Disney Original and that it happens to be great.

I'll admit it, I'm suddenly addicted to Disney's Phineas and Ferb. The story follows two half-brothers who fill each day of summer vacation with marvelous inventions and exciting adventures. They can build pretty much anything . They are dogged by their older sister who is constantly trying to get them in trouble. But somehow the evidence always manages to disappear (normally without the boys' help) before she can show their mother. In fact the boys want their parents to see what they are up to. Along with the boys' adventures there is the story of Perry, the family's pet platypus. Perry may seem like just an odd pet but he's actually a crime fighting platypus who's mission is to thwart the bumbling, mostly evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

Each 30 minute episode has two cartoons. And each cartoon has both the Phineas and Ferb storyline and the Perry the Platypus storyline. These typically intersect at the end of the cartoon in hilarious ways. I'll admit that while I enjoy the Phineas and Ferb segments, I adore the Perry the Platypus one. His interactions with Dr. Doofenshmirtz are witty and clever. I enjoyed one recently where Perry arrives at the Dr.'s office to be told that Doofenshmirtz was still in the planning phase. He can't thwart his evil plan yet because he hasn't even been able to write his evil monologue. So Doofenshmirtz offers Perry the chance to help him so that he can then be thwarted faster. We see them grocery shopping together to pick up all the necessary ingredients for the evil scheme. When they run into Perry's boss, there is a brief silence and then Doofenshmirtz simply says, "well that was awkward." Witty, hilarious, and a little offbeat.

The Phineas and Ferb sections have just as much wit and can be just as funny. The difference is that the storyline there takes itself more seriously. The actions aren't quite so tongue in cheek and there is a sweetness to many of the resolutions that doesn't occur on the Perry side. But it is always a wonder to see the fantastical inventions and where they take the boys. Each cartoon also has a musical bit. And the songs might have to be the best part of the shows. One of my favorites has to be a song (played in hip-hop style) about Candace (the boys' sister) getting squirrels in her pants (it's much more chaste than it sounds). Or the song that Dr. Doofenshmirtz sings about covering his perfect brother in pigeon poo. Hilarious and surprisingly catchy. If you get a moment check out Phineas and Ferb either at IMDB or at the Disney Channel site. Well worth some time. I don't remember the last time I enjoyed a new cartoon this much.

Book Review: Team Rodent

It's a bit hard for me to write this review. I am quite a big Disney fan and an even bigger fan of Walt Disney World. But I try hard to be fair so I borrowed this book by Carl Hiaasen. The full title is Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World and it is not the most flattering picture of the company. Hiaasen is not a fan. 

Part of that seems to come from the fact that he lives in Florida, in a place taken over by Disneyfication. Hiaasen writes about the major destruction that has happened to the Florida environment since Disney moved in. And that I have to agree is true. Before Disney Orlando was a small orange growing community. Now those trees are gone, plowed under to make room for more and more housing. The sprawl in that city is terrible. Florida has grown by leaps and bounds, and that is painful for the environment. Point one for Hiaasen. 

Disney is often held to a higher standard of behavior simply because they are Disney. And Hiaasen is quick to point that out. He is also quick to point out that they should be. They claim to be the ultimate family friendly place and it doesn't look so good when one of their employees acts up. And I have to agree with him there. Disney does a lot to cover up problems rather than deal with them outright. But even Hiaasen has to agree that there have been a lot of frivolous lawsuits for Disney just because of the money they have. 

Hiaasen's big argument though is that Disney is gentrifying everything. He claims that they have destroyed Times Square by making it less seedy. Here is where he loses me. I have no problem with strip joint and bars but I am also pretty impressed with what the city has done with a corner that was not the most well traveled. I have no problem with the escapism that Disney helps to create. I'm going to sound old when I say this but manners and gentrification are not always a bad thing. I love to go to Disney world mostly because people are nice, the grounds are immaculate, and there are lots of things to do. Now I know that is not real life. It is escapism pure and simple. But I have a tough time believing that a little escapism is a bad thing. Sometimes it's nice to pretend. 

All and all this was a very good book with a ton of great points. And of course Hiaasen tells it with humor and insight. I love his work. Perhaps if I lived in Florida I would have a different impression of Disney. But for right now I still don't mind the fantasy. 

Trilogies and other crap

So I broke down this evening and watched the last of the Pirates movies. You thought I would have learned my lesson after the second but apparently not. I just had to finish the series. And it was actually worse then I thought possible. The jokes were forced and contrived, the plot was beyond stupid, and the movie just kept going on. I caught myself looking at the clock a couple of times to see how much longer it would last. I knew I was in trouble the first time I saw Jack surrounded by forty of himself. And it just went downhill from there. 

But maybe I should start by saying that I hate trilogies. Always have. Now I get that movie studios make a ton of money on series like these. The first film is almost amazing, fresh, funny, startling. It is because of its originality that we love it. The first time I watched The Matrix I was so in awe of the plot that I forgot that Keanu Reeves was in it. My whole impression of things was turned on its head. When I saw the first Pirates I was shocked at how funny it was. And how original and interesting the character were. Then they turned both of those series into crap. 

I once read a fantastic article about Walt Disney. His studio had just put on one of the first Silly Symphony cartoons, The Three Little Pigs. People were writing to him and asking him on the street when he would be making the next pig cartoon. They wanted a sequel. Disney supposedly answered the same time every time he was asked. He would ask, why do you want more pigs? I've already give you pigs. Now I want to do something new.

I wish some of these movie studios thought the same way. I won't even discuss the horribleness that is the new Star Wars. Now I love movies. I love a new idea to watch. I have a number of favorite films and many of them are new concepts or fresh approaches. They are often uncharted territories. I still claim that the best things coming out of Disney lately is Pixar. The Disney Company has been on a sequel kick lately. I can watch Peter Pan 2, Cinderella 2, The Lion King 3, or any other classics that have been remade as silly sequels with stale dialogue. Or I can find a new character, new plot, and fresh jokes through Pixar. 

So again I have finished a series of movies and been profoundly disappointed in the result. They have taken a brilliant movie and cheapened it for money and some quick laughs. Another title I won't be rushing out to buy. I say the same for books as well as movies. Avoid series. Remember that pigs and pirates are only funny the first time through. Give me something new.