BEGINNINGS

Welcome one and all to The Year of Disney project!

2014 is shaping up to be a fantastic year, and I hope you'll join me on a trip through Disney history, from the first Mickey Mouse cartoon up to the present day.

First I'd better introduce myself and answer some questions.

My online handle is "Irvyne." I'm named after a character called Irvine Kinneas from the game "Final Fantasy VIII." (That's his picture above)

I have been a Disney nut my entire life, with a particular passion for the official animated films, of which there are currently 53, "Frozen" having just come out on Boxing Day. There are a couple that I really don't particular like (Chicken Little, I'm looking at you) but basically I'm a big fan of the artistry, the music, the characters and the storytelling of these masterpieces.

With this is mind, my Heaven-On-Earth is any Disney park. Being Australian, I have to travel a long, long way to visit one, but that has not stopped me in the past, and danged if it'll stop me in the future! I visited the original Disneyland park in both 1997 and 2001. I also snuck in a day at Disneyland Paris on the same holiday in 2001. Last year I made it to Walt Disney World with my sister-in-law. We had the time of our lives. Then on the way home, I quickly called in at Tokyo Disney Sea.

 

1: Outside of the magnificent castle.

2: Two Lumieres! (More on that below...)

3: I swear this wasn't planned. I was just chatting to Aurora, she was telling me how much she loved my name, I was asking her where Prince Philip was and if Merriweather would be grumpy about her dress, and then I just saw a moment and took it. Man, if only she wasn't already married... ;-)

4: So cuddly! ^_^

Another one of my passions is live theatre, and I have performed in a number of pretty big shows in my life. Nothing professional, but I love acting, so it's a joy for me to do it. In 2007 I featured in a production of Disney's "Beauty & the Beast" as Lumiere, a role I adored playing.

For the last few years I have been the proud creator or the "Year of Retro Gaming" blog, which was only supposed to be active for a year, but I'm still slowly adding to it! All up I have over 10 hours of videos on YouTube from this blog! Crazy!

But this year it's all about Disney. So that brings me to the next question...

Why on Earth would I want to make a blog about Disney movies? I mean, surely the internet is full to the brim with Disney fan sites. (It is... Trust me, I checked..) So what has prompted this sudden desire to blog?

Well first of all, I'm making a triumphant return to Orlando at the start of 2015, where I will once again be visiting Disney World, this time with more family in tow, including kids! Before that I'll be stopping in at good ol' N.Y.C. to see the brand new stage adaptation of Aladdin. So throughout this whole year anticipation will be building for this holiday, and I'm already very excited!

Another reason is because I just love talking about these films. It came to my attention recently that there are some movies in the Disney collection that my nieces and nephews have not actually seen (sacrilege!) so I'm looking forward to watching some of these masterpieces with them and chatting about them. This should put them in good stead to appreciate everything they'll be seeing at Disney World.

I have some friends who are going to be watching the movies with me throughout the year. I'll introduce them in the near future. I'm sure we'll have some similar opinions and some differing ones, but that's great. I'm looking forward to the possibility of chatting to other people online as well!

SO!

How is the blog going to work?

If you click the link at the top-right there, you will be taken to THE LIST. This is the aim of everything I plan to watch this year. There's a lot of movies there, but take note that a fair few of them are just short cartoons and are therefore only 7 minutes long each. I was originally planning to only watch the official Disney animated films, but I've added in a few live-action classics as well.

Please note that I'm only going by the OFFICIAL Disneys. That means no direct-to-video sequels (thank goodness for that - in my mind they do not exist!) and no Pixars.

With each of the main films that I watch (not the shorts) I'll give it some ratings in four categories:

ART & ANIMATION

Is it beautiful? Is it ugly?

 

STORY & CHARACTERS

How well is the story structured? Are the characters memorable?

 

SONGS & MUSIC

Would you want to buy the soundtrack?

 

TEST OF TIME

 Does the movie stand? Or is it best left forgotten?

 

And here are the ratings they can get:

I shall endeavour to wear my rose-tinted glasses as little as possible... ^_^

SO!

I hope you'll join me! Each week I'll post up a schedule of which movies I'll be watching when so that everyone can play along at home. Can't wait to get started! See you in the Magic Kingdom!