Friday, September 27, 2013

Annie and Danny's FastPass Podcast, Episode 6 - Busting out a Heimlich


Hey Everybody-

Annie and Danny recap the rest of Dan's Disneyland trip, his thoughts on eating food out of cones and how customer service and OSHA don't mix. Annie goes into depth about how all of the princesses look great, except for Aurora. Dan's

Then they spend the rest of the episode ranking and discussing the many Walt Disney World resort hotels from Best to Not as Best.

Also notable: Annie is far more prepared than Dan for their main topic, Dan gets a little drunk, and Annie thinks his rankings are bad.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

We're also available for FREE subscription on iTunes by searching "Annie and Danny's Fastpass Podcast". Look for the same graphic as above.

If you have any feedback, or topic suggestions, please feel free to e-mail us at AnnieDannyFPPC@Gmail.com

Happy Listenin!

Friday, September 20, 2013

Annie and Danny's FastPass Podcast, Episode 5 - Live from Disneyland


Hey Everybody-

This week's podcast is a special one. I recorded it from my hotel room during a trip to Disneyland!!

We talk about all kinds of fun things focusing on The Happiest Place on Earth.. Annie gives me a scavenger hunt with all kinds of Disneyland specific challenges, and we generally breeze through an hour and it could have easily been five.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

We're also available for FREE subscription on iTunes by searching "Annie and Danny's Fastpass Podcast". Look for the same graphic as above.

Happy Listenin!

Friday, September 13, 2013

Annie and Danny's FastPass Podcast, Episode 4 - Fifty Shades of Nemo


Hey Folks! 

We got another podcast on the books!

In this episode talk about all kinds of things. We discuss recent Disney World and Disneyland news involving street toughs, Club 33, my "Dark Times", Annie's anxiety about rule breakers, Starbucks at Epcot, Princess Fairytale Hall, Annie's scuba fantasies, and all kinds of other things.


Feedback has been very positive, but if you have anything you'd like us to talk about, or if you just wanna tell us what you think please hit us up on Twitter @beefydisney or @djphob


You can e-mail us at AnnieDannyFPPC@Gmail.com


Click Here to Listen

If you prefer to listen to us on iTunes, search for us there as "Annie and Danny's Fastpass Podcast". Be sure to look for the NEW feed with the NEW graphic (the same one as above).

Thanks for listenin'!

Thursday, September 12, 2013

The Disney Twitterati


Right before I went on my Disneyland trip in January, I decided to start my own Disney-centric Twitter account. I live-tweeted my trip, and had a really good time interacting with some new folks on Twitter. In fact, I had a non-specific twitter account for a few years and never really made any sort of effort to join into the conversation. I'd tweeted, but always randomly and I had no real audience. I mainly used it for news and my own reading entertainment.

I've found the Disney Twitter community to be a whole lot of fun, at least somewhat welcoming, informative, and definitely entertaining. Probably most importantly, I've found it to be the exact kind of fix I needed when I was most in need of some Disney nourishment.

I am not a pro Disney-Tweeter at this point, by any means, but I like to think that over the past 8 months I've come to realize there are very specific Disney-Twitter Types.

So, without further ado, I give you my take on the Disney Twitter Account Types

The Sanctioned –
These are the official accounts. Some of them are kinda fun like the @DisneylandToday or @DCAToday feeds who will interact with you if you're at the park, will sometimes have contests for park visitors, and are generally pretty responsive. For the most part, though, these accounts are boring, only parse out official information. They're more often commercials than anything, and certainly don't have much personality. I highly recommend finding the “Today” feeds if you're at the parks, but otherwise, you're not gonna get much entertainment out of them.

The Obsessed Teens –
One of the biggest groups seems to be largely comprised by teen girls who pepper their feeds with emojis, pictures of their favorite princes, or screen caps from whatever Disney movie they're watching at any given time. Most often, they tweet about how badly they want to go to one of the parks, how many days there are until their next visit, or how sad they are now that they're back from their most recent visit. The thing I think about most with them is how often they seem to go to the parks. It's just a crazy amount. There's a lot of charm about these feeds, because they have that youthful exuberance that many of us lose as we get more cynical. I can't totally see why some folks would be annoyed with these girls, but I like them in moderation.

The Authorities –
Like with just about anything, Disney Fandom has a way of designating its own experts. The experts here are the folks who have somehow taken their Disney passion and made it their living, or at least partially, through ceaseless blogging, trip planning, restaurant reviews, and all kinds of other tidbits of content that they've taken from hobby to profession. Sometimes it's a little hard to tell how much they're willing to say, out of fear of harming their reps or their relationships (which, even with my modest following, is why I'm not going to call anyone out), but they often have a lot of great pictures, and a lot of great tips about park touring.

The Moles –
This might be the most tantalizing of all categories, as this is where all of the Twitter feeds of Imagineers, Animators, and other 'in the know' cast members fall. Some particularly good ones It's pretty cool to follow legendary Imagineer Joe Rhode. It's neat to read about what some Pixar animator is working on. I call it tantalizing, and I mean it. I would guess that 90% of Disney fans would say we'd love to be an Imagineer, and be a part of the secrets, and even having this sort of tertiary connection to them makes it feel like we're closer to the action.

The Know-it-Alls –
The Know-It-Alls are basically like the Experts, but instead of keeping it mostly positive, they're mostly dicks about everything, so people don't really look to them as authorities, but rather antagonists. They're like the bizarro-world versions of our heroes. You can most often find them ranting and raving about some insider tidbit, or telling more casual fans how “in the dark” they are about some thing they just innocently enjoy. They often have a ton of followers, too, and they use this fact as ammunition to prove how important they are. My suspicion is that many of their followers are more entertained by their dickery than they are impressed with their knowledge.

The Family –
I have to admit that these folks are my favorite. They're people with a love for Disney, they often have podcasts, or blogs much like the experts, but it's not their job, and they're not beholden to sponsors, so they're a little more honest with their opinions. Most importantly, though, they don't take things too seriously. They're willing to make a joke at our pal Mickey's expense, and they don't see that as some sort of blasphemy. I'd even go so far as to argue their love for Disney is even more apparent, because they don't treat it as an unreachable, inaccessible icon, but rather a member of the family. As we all know, family members can be loved and joked about at the same time.

Themed Accounts -
One of the more entertaining types of accounts, if they're done well, are the themed accounts. They have an angle, and they're sticking with it. It's hard to explain without giving examples, so I'll mention @DisneylandCats. This is an account written entirely from the point of view of the famous feral cats living at Disneyland. It's funny, it's light-hearted, and it sticks to their concept. These kinds of accounts can be hit-or-miss, but the hits are definitely worth a follow. (Also, I'll be blogging about the Disneyland cats at some point. I've encountered them at the Disneyland Hotel on each of my last 2 visits).

The Others-
These are the folks who dabble, or don't fit into a mold, or maybe aren't established yet. Certainly I fall into this category, though I'd like to think I'll find my way into 'The Family” at some point, as they're the ones I tend to talk with the most, listen to the most, and enjoy reading the most. Some day... Some day.

So there ya go...

I'd love to hear if you think I'm missing any important groups.

Happy Tweeting!

Friday, September 6, 2013

Annie and Danny's FastPass Podcast, Episode 3 - Snow White's Sassy Mouth


Hey Folks!

It's Friday in the Blog-o-Sphere, and that means that Annie and I have got another Podcast posted and ready to rock.

This time we tackled a fresh re-watch of the original Disney animated classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. We break down the legendary flick with fresh eyes, Annie finds her salty mouth, and I reveal my secret time-travel fantasies.

Click here to Listen

Also, we are now officially available on iTunes, where ALL THREE Episodes are downloadable. I highly recommend using the excellent Podcasts App if you're using an Apple product. 

Just search for us in the iTunes store as "Annie and Danny's Fastpass Podcast"

Send us your feedback either on Twitter (I'm @BeefyDisney , she's @DJPhob) or by e-mail at AnnieDannyFPPC@Gmail.com

Happy Listening!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Monsters University. It's a prequel!


I think that all of the podcasting and twittering and whatnot has upped my Disney-brain quite a bit over the past month or so. I'm definitely at a fever-pitch, similar to how I get right before a long-planned trip to Disney World. Only like.. all the time. It's probably not a great thing, ultimately but I do love it so.

Speaking of... I'm going back to Disneyland in a couple weeks for the first time since the incident. I look forward to giving you all the full updates.

In the meantime, I went to see Monsters University, and I've got some thoughts.

Monsters U was pretty well received, overall. It's "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes, and that's usually a pretty good signal of success, though at 78% it's still not quite reaching the levels of most non-Cars Pixar movies, and after watching it... I just not sure why.

I laughed out loud several times throughout the movie, I was invested in the characters, and unlike many prequels it had some surprises in terms of how characters ended up where they were when we first met them in the original films.

In fact, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I liked Monsters University more than I like the original Monsters Inc. Whoooaaaa now, Muchacho. Explain Yo'self.

- The Setting.
Both movies are, to at least some degrees, send-ups of a specific setting. The first is the "world" and the second is "college". I just think that Monsters Inc doesn't have a chance to really focus on that kind of examination of how the world of Monsters is different than ours in funny ways. First, it's way too big and voluminous to get into a lot of detail (I admit there are TONS of throwaway easter-eggy things in the first movie that require a million views to catch, but I'm sure this one does too). College, on the other hand, is just sooo ripe for parody. The cliques. The boring classes (Scream Canister Design!!). The girls. The friends. The scary-ass teachers. It's a small enough world to really allow the filmmakers to focus in, but it's textured enough to be able to throw in a million details.

- The lack of children.
I never enjoyed the Boo portion of the original's plot as much as I think most people did. Aside from the abject fear the little girl struck into the hearts of monsters, I just didn't find her all that appealing to watch. I much preferred the monster stuff. This movie? Nothing BUT monster stuff, and I loved it.

- The monsters!
Okay... Small quibble here with the Monsters Franchise production design, but I think that almost all of the monsters are too cute looking and not at all scary. Obviously, if a 4 foot snake-lizard thing came out of my closet and roared at me, I'd be scared, but overall I think they're all kinda cute looking. That said, I think the monsters are awesome, and this one had a crap-ton (that's metric) of them. I love how they all move differently. How they all have such varied physicality. On top of that, I love how they all use their physical difference to scare kids differently. It's so clear that the animators had an awesome time figuring out how a tubby, tentacled monster with a bat wing mustache would scare a kid differently than giant, fur-covered monster with giant fangs.  This movie had so many awesome monsters!! (Special shout-out to the dean of the Scare College. She was actually scary. She both flies AND has a million creepy bug legs. Eeessh).

I'm not gonna get too deep into the plot, but I highly recommend this flick. It does everything a prequel needs to do (sets up how familiar friends meet, rivalries start, jobs are obtained), and it goes there in a particularly creative, unexpected way.

Some additional notes:
- I wonder if the joke about how close-up magic is super nerdy will run out of steam some time. First Pitch Perfect and now this?
- This is the second Disney animated movie I've seen this Summer (Planes is the other) where female characters are basically non-existent. It's probably my biggest issue with this movie in particular, because I mean... College is roughly 90% about hooking up. I get that this is a movie designed to appeal to kids, so you can't have monsters banging each other and whatnot, but whereas Planes was probably justly criticized for placing its only female characters in strictly romantic entanglements, this movie was BEGGING for them.
- Charlie Day's portrayal of a sort of strange, darkly funny monster in Oozma Kappa is one of the more entertaining small roles I can remember in a Pixar movie. They use him jusssst enough.
- Not used enough? Nathan Fillion's Frat boy character. Maybe there were too many villains? I dunno. I wanted to see more of him.
- Speaking of Villains... Randall's thread must have been cut for time at some point, because he's prominent at the start, and then sort of disappears for a while.