As promised I am back with the second half of the updates for the Disney Home Entertainment update for August. Today’s post consists of two new release reviews as well as a look at what is great about the new Disney Movie Anywhere application.
Being Released August 12 along with last week’s review (DisneyNature: Bears) is the fan favorite sequel “Muppets Most Wanted.” This pack titled “The Unnecessarily Extended Edition” comes with the standard Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital versions of the film and bonus nonsensical materials.
Muppets Most Wanted (Release: August 12, 2014) 
I am a Muppet fan, always have been, always will be. I grew up with the “Muppet Movie,” “Great Muppet Caper” and “Muppets Take Manhattan.” I personally always felt the “Great Muppet Caper” was the best of the three, and as such when it was announced that the Muppets new film was “Muppets Most Wanted,” I had high expectations, so I will just say it, this film was not as good as “The Muppets” or “Great Muppet Caper.” The film itself warns you of this in the opening number, almost as if to say, “we have to capitalize on the heat so let’s rush this new adventure out there”. It could simply feel this way because we went so long without a good Muppet movie (see “Muppets From Space,” “Muppet Treasure Island,” etc) that “The Muppets” just set the bar too high.
I was very excited about this release though hoping that perhaps the theatre in which I saw it left such a bad taste in my mouth that it rubbed off on the film experience as well, I am pleased to say this was somewhat true. I honestly believe this film is better the second time around, and will do well in the home entertainment experience. Also as a Muppet purest I was confused by the inclusion of (SPOILER ALERT) a Kermit and Piggy wedding. They got married in “Muppets Take Manhattan!”
All of that aside watching it again in the living room was an enjoyable experience. Continuing to enjoy these characters I love with my kids never gets old. Including the likes of Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey and Ty Burrell is fitting for a Muppet movie. Their characters drawn in true Muppet fashion each have their moments of wacky antics that do add to the film, just not as much as Jason Segal did in “The Muppets.” Overall this adventure with the “Muppets Most Wanted” is a fun summer take but without the heart of The Muppets gets two out of five Mickey heads.
Toy Story of Terror (Release: August 19, 2014)
“Toy Story of Terror” is the latest release in what Pixar has found to be a way to keep their characters alive without having the huge costs associated with the release of a feature. Combining that with the recent resurgence of appointment television during times when it’s target audience wants it most (holidays) makes this a home run. This story follows our favorite toys on a smaller scale adventure to find their way out of being lost and sold and back to their owner, but with the twist of it being a scary film. We also see some new toys presented including both the Barbie size and then smaller versions of G.I. Joe figures and what appears to be a Voltron type character.
Being able to go back and visit Woody, Buzz and Jessie, whether it’s a Hawaiian vacation, bath time or scary movie is absolute brilliance on the part of Pixar and nothing short of fun for the viewers. I can only hope that Pixar continues the trend in releasing these shorts not only of these Toy Story characters but maybe perhaps in the future with other properties as well. I mean what better way to ramp up the audience to the release of The Incredibles 2 with short comic strip adventures with Mole Man or some of the other villains Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl and Frozone faced? Pixar if your listening I have plenty more ideas where those came from!
Disney Movies Anywhere
This brings us to the Disney Movie Anywhere update, and segues nicely into what I will call “what Disney is doing right that other studios couldn’t”. Having so many properties under its control, and continuing to add more (see Star Wars & Marvel) makes it easy for Disney to keep its fans coming back for more. Also Disney is not only heading off the great “cloud service” of doom but is using these properties to do something other studios simply can’t do.
As we mentioned here on Doctor Disney at the beginning of the summer, Pixar was releasing a new brief 5 minute clip of 14 movies pointing out the secrets in each. All of these would be posted on the Disney Movies Anywhere site. While I am not sure what the numbers are in terms of viewers I can say that in my house we are watching these clips every week, sometimes more than one time. In the end, the intent from Disney in doing these short pieces is marketing their materials and forcing us to go back and watch our favorites again! Who hasn’t watched the Toy Story or Cars secrets and then went back to see it in the film just to make sure they weren’t messing with us! I for one can say I love what they have done and every Disney Pixar fan has to go back and watch all of these releases found in the Featured section of Disney Movies Anywhere.
Also found in this section is another set of new releases which brings us back to the Muppets. Let’s not forget that where the Muppets started on The Muppet Show. This show was comprised of a series of short funny clips contained in the variety show. The new cloud based approach offered by Disney Movies Anywhere is very much the same thing only not shown back to back for an hour. Instead it offers the ability to watch these short clips online in their cloud & web based app in the format that originally started the Muppet sensation. Let’s face it kids have short attention spans offering 10 minute clips of their favorite Muppets means the result is a tighter and funnier offering that I can only hope continues. So far they have released 4 shorts titled Disney Drive On with The Muppets.
The reality of Disney Movies Anywhere is that it is clear that the studio is starting to move away from a DVD offering and replace it with the cloud based DMA. Having existing properties available as well as new content such as the ones listed above excites me for the future as I expect to see not only more Pixar content but other Disney properties as well. We have all heard that the Star Wars universe will continue to expand and what better place to do it than through their own distribution platform. If you have not already boarded the DMA train you should do so quickly, as I predict at some point in the future there being a monthly subscription cost for the new and existing Disney content.
If you think this summer has been big on Disney releases, hold on for the fall and winter with “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Maleficent” and a new “Frozen Sing-Along” DVD are all going to be released along with some surprises along the way. Stay tuned and see you next time!
