Category Archives: Mouse-Next-Door

Off the Page

1 Comment Posted by on March 30, 2012

I have to say, my favorite store at the Mouse-Next-Door is Off the Page.

This is all lit up blue and stuff because ElecTRONica had started

 

I mean, a whole store dedicated to Disney art? Awesome.

First off, they still have the Mary Blair merch that I was afraid went away with the Mary Blair exhibit at the Gallery.

But here's my thing--why do they make these t-shirts so dang small??? It's like an XL is equivalent to a S in normal stores.

 

I’m still thinking of the teapot and a mug. What do you think? I mean, we don’t drink coffee or tea, really, but who doesn’t want a “Guten Tag” mug?

Okay, probably a lot of people, but I’m not one of them.

There’s great art on the ceiling. Characters are depicted as falling off the page. However, it does make for a rather weird picture. I mean this one looks like Aladdin is throwing himself to the floor or something.

And nobody wants that

 

Have I mentioned how darned excited I am about Cars Land? I mean in the last three seconds? I can’t wait to share it with you all! Here’s some Cars Land art.

Mater and train? Pretty much Theo's idea of awesome.

 

What I really love are the attraction posters. When an attraction opens, an official poster is made.

Like this

 

In fact, we have  a Matterhorn ride poster in the hallway (full-sized), and a smaller framed copy of the Dumbo poster in Theo’s room. I just love these. And the cool thing is that you can order ride posters and a number of other works of Disney art right from print on demand.

Just find it right here in the computer and order it!

 

True Disneyland fans have ride posters all over their houses. Just sayin’.

There’s a cool set of tin signs for the Disneyland railroad. I’m considering getting these for a special someone who loves trains.

Kind of blew the surprise there, though.

Still, they are cool

 

And art by my favorite Disney artists, Jody Daily and Kevin Kidney

I'm totally in love with all the retro styling

 

There’s also the Wall O’ Art, with moving panels, to show you the cool stuff you can get.

Gorgeous pictures here

 

And my favorite part–that actual Real Live Artist!

I think it's so cool to see artists at work. You can sometimes catch them at the watch shop and the Disney Gallery at Disneyland.

 

You can buy your very own sketch.

One or more characters

 

And not that I’m trolling for gifts or anything, but if you were planning on getting me a present and just didn’t know what the perfect one might be, I could point you to this page

I do love Alice

 

So if you’re over in CA Adventure, take a look at Off the Page. It’s a great shop!

Mouse-Next-Door

Turtle Talk with Crush

8 Comments Posted by on March 28, 2012

Heading over to the Mouse-Next-Door for a bit, I have to start with one of my favorite attractions, Turtle Talk with Crush. Located in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot, Turtle Talk is inside the Disney Animation building, and in my opinion is really one of CA Adventure’s hidden treasures.

My lens got a little smeary, sorry

 

Turtle Talk is a show that takes place in a small theater. Theo just LOVES waiting and never has any energy to burn off–ha–so he kicked off the event by doing snow angels on the carpet.

"Look Mommy! Angels!"

 

I know it looks like he was throwing a massive tantrum, but he really wasn’t. This time. And the place was practically empty, so while I’m not in general in the habit of letting my child make carpet angels on the floor, there was plenty of room for it, and the carpet looked quite clean.

And let’s be honest here–I guarantee it gets vacuumed more than our carpet at home.

All that dirt is good for the immune system. heh.

ANYway, at the front of the theater is the large screen, also known as the tank (or as Crush calls it, the human tank). There’s theater-type seating and a nice, big spot on the floor for the kiddies.

Like I said, it was basically empty.

 

The cast member with the microphone also invited any adults to sit on the carpet, up to age 150. He did note that if you were 151 or older, you might have trouble getting up off the floor. Lucky me, I have trouble getting up off the floor at 38. But I was game.

The gist of the show is this: the audience has a real-time conversation with Crush. Oh, by the way, if you live under a rock and don’t know who Crush is, he’s from Finding Nemo, a movie Theo has never seen but easily identifies.

Anyway, first the moonfish come in with a few instructions.

This was a formation of a knife and fork telling us not to eat in the theater. Also an example of excellent photo timing.

 

Theo was already enchanted. Then Crush comes out and does some back flips and a few other fancy diving tricks.

He taps on the glass of the "Human Tank."

 

Crush then explains that he has a few questions (well, Squirt has a few questions) for the humans, and he wants to answer human questions about turtles.

Crush then looks into the audience and selects people in the audience by describing them (usually clothing, hats, or facial hair). At our show, he identified the “Dudette in the black shell with the hood.”

Adorable Dudette

 

The cast member with the microphone then goes to the audience member and hands them the microphone (well, he doesn’t hand it over or anything, you never know what some guest is going to do with a free microphone. Like I might be tempted to burst out into a rendition of Debbie Boone’s You Light Up My Life, and nobody wants to hear that)

And yyouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu light up myyyyyyyyyyy liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiifffffffffffffffffffeeeeeeeeee…

See?

Anyway, the guest says their name and Crush repeats the name with a new nickname, like “Cowabunga Kaylee.” It’s pretty awesome that he gets the name right every time, no matter what it is, or at least every time that I’ve heard. We had one guy in our audience named Kupono, and Crush’s comment on that was, “I’m going to call you, uh, Kupono, cause that name rocks all by itself.”

Crush then asks a few questions of the audience members. In our group he asked a dad how many kids he had. Dad answered “Just two” and Crush said, “Dude, you’re just getting started!”

Crush also invites audience members to raise their hands and ask them questions, again identifying them by sight. The cast member with the microphone doesn’t choose anyone–Crush does! As I said, it’s a real-time conversation with virtually no lag between questions and answers. The animation and the dialogue line up perfectly with the conversation. I have some guesses for how it’s done (DON’T TELL ME IF YOU KNOW!!!) but the best part is just sitting back and enjoying the Disney magic.

Also cool is Crush’s animated reactions. He has a number of different expressions.

Looking for an audience member to call on

Crush is embarrassed!

 

Partway through the show, Theo decided he needed to get up and sit in a seat rather than the carpet. Talk about embarrassing. I’ve officially become That Mom, I think. The one chasing her kid around looking like she has absolutely no control over what he’s doing.

I guess it was better than him attempting some more carpet angels right there in front.

Crush also has several comedy bits. In this one, he talked to a 6th grade boy and brought out a bikini, asking him was it was.

"Dude, what is this for?"

 

Poor kid caught right on the spot, said “it’s a bikini top.” Crush asked, “but what is it for?” and the kid said, “Uh, I don’t feel comfortable answering that.”

Which hey, go kid setting boundaries!

Crush then got an expression of understanding and said, “Ohhhhhhhh, dude, I’m so embarrassed.” It was all quite fun.

After the show was over, I intended to take a few pictures of the inside of the theater, just to give you guys a look around. But remember what I said about the out-of-control toddler?

Yeah:

Sorry guys--action shot, where I'm doing all of the action

 

I think the entire Animation building is really worth spending some time in, especially when it’s hot outside. Turtle Talk is particularly great for the little ones. I recommend watching a short video from Turtle Talk here.

And a tip for extra fun–when Crush said, “Dude, you so totally rock!” be sure to respond nice and loud with “Duuuuuuude!”

 

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Francis’ Ladybug Boogie

Leave a comment Posted by on February 10, 2012

We’re still over here at the Mouse-Next-Door in Bugs Land, which is basically like Little Kid Land. I already posted about the bumper cars so here’s Flik’s Fun Fair’s equivalent of the Teacups.

Ta da!!

 

That’s right! Pissed-off ladybugs!

Obviously.

Here we are at Francis’ Ladybug Boogie. Now I will admit that it has been a very, very long time since I saw A Bug’s Life. And I’m pretty sure I’ve only seen it once, quite possibly when I lived in Missouri. Which was a while ago.

So I didn’t quite remember the character of Francis, but his ride seems fairly comprehensive.

Read the bottom

 

Yep, it says “He’s No Lady.” And you know, I get that he’s miffed that people keep mistaking him for a lady, but at this point he should probably just get over it.

The Boogie part of Francis’ Ladybug Boogie comes from the record theme.

I remember these!

 

Like the rest of Flik’s Fun Fair, the theming is exquisite.

Which you can clearly see from this dark, entirely nondescript picture

 

I do love that many of the FFF rides have shaded queues.

Anyway, you board your pissed off ladybug

"Theo! Look at Mommy! Look at Mommy!"

 

Inside your pissed off ladybug is a wheel that just like the teacups, spins your car around.

We have told Theo that it’s just a handle and it doesn’t actually turn. I’m hoping that by the time he figures it out, he’ll be paying for his own Disneyland tickets.

Anyway, the group of angry ladybirds* swirl around in a crazy carnival-type pattern…

Wheeee!

 

…underneath this bafflingly lame picture I took of the roof. I really have no idea what I was going for here, but whatever it was, I didn’t make it.

Ah now, they can't all be good pictures. Especially here on MYWTM.

 

In all, it’s a short but fun ride. It doesn’t have the capacity of the teacups, but its position in the park means there are far fewer crowds back there. I don’t know if Theo actually liked it this time–he’s liked it in the past and he likes the teacups, but seemed trepidatious this time. Then again, he is 3 years old.

*The terms ladybug and ladybird are interchangeable. Theo is in the Ladybug class at his preschool.

And speaking of Theo, we decided to take a cute picture at the Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater meet and greet.

The cars don't sign autographs

How cute is that?

 

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Soarin’ Over California

6 Comments Posted by on March 29, 2011

People ask me a lot if I’m going to do Disney’s California Adventure for My Year With The Mouse, and I say no because there’s tons of stuff to do in Disneyland alone to keep me occupied for a year. But I do occasionally go over to California Adventure to hit a few rides, and on my Mom’s Night Out we went on Soarin’ Over California, so I’m going to blog about it.

Also, I just learned via the Standard Research Methodology that the actual name of the park has changed to Disney California Adventure Park. Which, quite frankly, is kind of lame. D-CAP? That sounds like some kind of nutritional supplement. What was wrong with Disney’s California Adventure? Well, a lot was wrong with Disney’s California Adventure, but that’s a whole other blog or something. Anyway, for the purposes of THIS blog, I’m going to call it the Mouse-Next-Door (MND).

The MND has a small handful of cool rides, and Soarin’ Over California is one of them. Now let me just get a personal pet peeve out of the way. The Mouse-in-law also has Soarin’ Over California in Epcot, but they just call it “Soarin’.” For some reason, this makes me irrationally irritated. It’s Soarin’ Over California because the film is you flying in the air over California. The ride at Epcot is exactly the same. That is, in Epcot, you are still Soarin’ over California.

Every time someone says Soarin’ without the California part, small blood vessels explode in my brain that, over the long term, might cause some real problems for me. Yes, I know that’s actually the name of the ride in Florida, but I can’t help it.

Let’s just get on with the post, shall we?

Okay, Soarin’ Over California was the first ride the mom friends decided to do after our dinner.

Notice the part where it says "Over California" underneath "Soarin'." I know it's tiny, but it's there. Trust me.

Soarin’ Over California is basically a ride where you sit on a seat and are dangled in the air, and then they show a movie on a hugely ginormous screen of various place in California from the air and your seat moves around like you’re actually flying over the Golden Gate Bridge or Yosemite or whatever.

First, you queue up outside and zig-zag for a while. This is also where we met Janine and Brianne.

It started to drizzle a little

Once you get inside, it’s pretty cool. The building is supposed to be like a big airplane hanger, and they give you lots of interesting things to look at.

The first time I saw this sign I thought it said "Wings of Flame" and I was like oh, famous plane crashes? Tacky.

There are banners with seminal moments in aviation as well as pictures lining the walls.

That wacky Kristin models the interior design

As an aside, I took the following picture because there was an adult in the line with a full face-paint job. Face painting is popular and expensive, and very very rare on an adult. I tried to hide the fact that I was trying to get a picture of the face paint guy by pretending to take a picture of my friends. Sadly, my aim wasn’t all that great and I just ended up with a picture of my friends.

Lesson learned--when you're trying to take a picture of someone, make sure they're actually in the picture

Kristin nearly got us kicked out by flashing a gang sign.

I'm kidding

At the end of the Wings of Flame part, you get funneled into either Concourse 1 or Concourse 2. The flashing sign cycles through the various airports in California.

I've actually flown out of the Palm Springs airport before. It's quite nice.

We were on Concourse 1. Shhhhhhhh–it’s the same ride either way.

You zig zag for a while more and then you are cleared for takeoff

Once again, I'd like to take the opportunity to point out the "Over California" part under "Soarin'"

You go inside the big giant room with the pretty blue screen

The cast member is here in case you get lost

You then sit down in your designated row

SIT DOWN, CARISSA! YOUR BUTT IS BLOCKING MY PICTURE!

There’s a simple seatbelt to keep you in your seat. There’s also a loop between your legs and if you’re under a certain height, you thread the seatbelt through the loop. This confused some of us.

There we go--group picture!

I laughed as I realized that, being a big group of moms, we were all leaning over and checking to make sure everyone else’s seatbelts were on properly. You can leave the kids at home, but you’re still going to feel horribly guilty if someone falls off the ride because you didn’t double-check their seatbelt.

Just sayin’.

Once everyone is belted in, the ride lifts up so that every row is equally facing the screen and you feel like there’s nobody else around you (except for the people whose seatbelt you just checked).

The screen looks like this, but it's much, much bigger

The movie itself is super cool. There are fun effects like when you’re flying over an orange grove, there’s an orange scent, and your seat gently tilts when you’re turning. Your flight ends over Disneyland at night during the holiday season with the fireworks.

And make no mistake–no matter how hard they tried to take the California out of Soarin’ in Florida, you’re still Soarin’ Over California.

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