My Random Musings | Peaches Prattlings

{March 31, 2021} Movie Trailers

I absolutely la la la love movie trailers! I mean, I love trailers. One of the reasons I love going to the movies, I mean actually going to the movies is to watch the trailers before the movie starts.

Some trailers are great…they give you just enough to get you interested, but not enough to give the whole movie away. Other trailers, you wonder why they bothered, you get the entire movie, what’s left to go see? Some trailers give you almost nothing and you sit there and scratch your head!

For those of you who know me, you know I absolutely la la la love movies, well, in addition to the trailers I was just talking about. But I really do and I have a knack for knowing who’s in a movie, even if I haven’t seen the movie. I can also tell you things about a movie after only seeing it once. I can also watch a trailer and 9 times out of 10 I know if I’m going to like the movie, I’m not usually wrong.

I remember my dad calling me once because he was playing Trivial Pursuit and needed to know the name of an actor in a movie and, yup, I knew it. I had never seen the movie, but I knew the actor was Broderick Crawford, no idea how I knew, I just did. Another time that spoke volumes, I was at a friend’s house with a bunch of people and we started playing Scene It. It’s a game where you answer trivia questions about movies and pop culture. After we finished playing, we decided to play again and it was seven people against ME! What? And guess what…I lost by ONE point! Not too shabby. I really do love movies! You know I watch movies over and over, I watch movies in the background and to fall asleep, movies!

In college, I majored in Communications, focus on television. My goal was actually to work for Children’s Television, truth be told, I really wanted to work for Sesame Street! How amazingly awesome would that have been! Working in an industry I loved with a show that I adored. You have no idea! I am such a Muppet head! During my communications courses in college, we focused not only on television, but film. We disected scripts, counted beats, watched for continuity, broke down scenes, analyzed how music plays a huge part in film, you name it, we did it. I even wrote a script, it was awful, but I wrote a script. I would never have gone to see my own movie if someone made it, tried to get my money back! That bad!

What all of that did was give me an appreciation for film, I know a movie is good if I don’t start breaking it down while I’m watching it, finding things that are wrong or don’t make sense, I’m mesmerized. And one thing I always wanted to do, while in college, and then after college, was to make movies. To watch a movie and have to pick out the scenes that would entire someone to want spend their money, want to watch that movie. It’s a skill and a gift. I knew that there were certain movies I could never create trailers for, horror for one, omg! I don’t watch horror movies, no thanks! Reality can be scary enough!

One of the things I love about Hulu, Netflix, IMDB, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, even YouTube [the list goes on!] is the ability to search for and watch trailers. It’s something to do, something I love and gives me something to look forward to when I select Add to My Watchlist. I am telling you, I can get lost in trailers, especially when they have suggestions, oh man! Ooh, this looks interesting, ooh, that one too! And then it’s an hour later, what happend!? Where did the day go?

Here are a few that I love. A Song is Born, Guardians of the Galaxy, Wolverine, Animal House, The House Bunny, Mary Poppins, The Godfather, The Wizard of Oz, Grease, Footloose, Beauty and the Beast, The Muppet Movie. There are so many more, but we’d be here for ever!

{March 30, 2021} The Court Jester

The Court Jester is one of my all time favorite movies. I know, I know, I’ve said that before, but if you have spent any time with me and my family, especially when I was younger, it was Danny Kaye all the way.

I truly have been a Danny Kaye fan most of my life and one day I’ll tell you all about the other movies of his I love, like The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, yes, before Ben Stiller‘s version, White Christmas with Bing Crosby, A Song is Born, the list goes on. But…today, I’m going to tell you about a movie that myself, my dad, my sister, and my mom all loved. When we were kids, we spent our summers in Mastic Beach, NY, which is on the South Shore of Long Island. We had a VCR, for those of you under 45…ha ha, that’s a video cassette recorder, you would put the cassette tape in, watch it and then have to rewind it before you took it back! and we would bicycle or drive to the library and get movies out.

Two movies that my sister and I absolutely adored were Walt Disney’s Cinderella [1950] and The Court Jester [1955] with Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, Angela Lansbury. Some of you will know who all of these people are, but I’ll give you other references if that helps. I told you about Danny Kaye, but…you might not remember that he played Dr Burns, the dentist on The Cosby Show. Glynis Johns was also the mother, Mrs Banks in Mary Poppins and the grandmother in While You Were Sleeping, she used to come into the deli I worked in, in the Hamptons! Basil Rathbone was most famous as Sir Guy of Gisborne in The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn and personally, I think he was one of the best Sherlock Holmes. Lastly, there was Angela Lansbury, Miss Price in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Mrs Potts in Beauty and the Beast, and probably most known as Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote. Ok, now you’re caught up on some of the bigger names in the movie.

The tagline in IMBD: A hapless carnival performer masquerades as the court jester as part of a plot against an evil ruler who has overthrown the rightful King. That pretty much says it all. It’s an action/adventure story, with a little swash buckler thrown in, romance, intrigue, all wrapped up in a musical. What more could you want?!

Danny Kaye plays Hubert Hawkins, he’s part of The Black Fox’s band of merry men, gives you a Robin Hood type of vibe. His role is to entertain the merry men, but he wants more, he wants to be out there, on the front lines, fighting, but The Black Fox feels he is best suited where he is. King Roderick I is on the throne, but not by birthright and he is constantly looking over his shoulder because there is a rumor that the royal baby was missed, the rightful heir to the throne and he can’t have that!

His righthand man is the evil Sir Ravenhurst, who does the kings bidding. Basil Rathbone can play a mean one, he can. Little known fact, he is best known for his fencing skills as the greatest swordsman in Hollywood history, what do you think about them apples! He really was great, it was a treat to watch his skills with a blade! What he did made Danny Kaye look good in their scenes.

Something happens at The Black Fox’s camp and Hawkins has to go with the Maid Jean, Glynis Johns, who happens to be The Black Fox’s Captain, to deliver the royal baby to the castle and take the throne back for the royal baby. Along the way, they meet Giacamo, King of Jesters and Jester to the King, and Hawkins takes his place when he gets to the palace, perfect cover!

Throughout the movie there is laughter, silliness, sword fighting, poison, intrigue, romance, spells, threats, singing, dancing, and to top it all off, a baby with a royal birthmark. What more could you want?!

The songs are clever and fun, with Danny Kaye, you know there has to be hillarity, some of the best scenes are where he is being a total goofball. The best scenes also have the most tongue tying lines! “The pellet with the poison’s in the flagon with the dragon; the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true.”

Here’s a quote from IMDB about that line: Danny Kaye’s daughter, Dena Kaye, said for the rest of his life, when people recognized Danny in a restaurant, they would walk up and spout the entire “brew that is true” speech.

I mentioned romance, right? Hawkins is awkward around women, and when he appears at the castle, Princess Gwendolyn’s handmaid, Griselda, who is also a witch, puts a spell on Hawkins to romance the princess to save her own neck! She makes him braver than he ever was!

The reason I’m telling you all about this movie and these memories is I has it on as background while I was working today. There are certain movies and tv shows that I have seen so many times, I don’t have to actually pay attention to them, I can have them on in the background and still get work done. I might sing along, maybe to The Maladjusted Jester, or Life Could Not Better Be, or any of the songs he sings. When GES and I watched this movie, the same thing with Cinderella, we would watch it, rewind it, then watch it again, rewind, watch, repeat. We don’t have to say much more than one of the lines and we’re off and running, quoting lines and laughing with each other.

Today, while I was watching it, I actually recorded the Pellet with the Poison scene and sent it to my dad and sister, sent good vibes into the universe and got them right back.

My hope is that any one of the clips I posted has maybe piqued your interest just a bit, maybe you’re curious to explore the world of Danny Kaye, even try to find The Court Jester and check out all the merriment. Even if you just watch the clips, maybe look for additional clips and laugh, I’m good with that!

Get it. Got it. Good. Yes friends, if you’ve ever heard me say that…now you know where I got it!

{March 29, 2021} I wish I could use telepathy to blog

I know, it might sound crazy, there are so many reasons someone might want to use telepathy, and by the way…telepahty is apparently one of those words I have trouble typing without sounding it out. Do you have any of those words? I digress..shocker!

Back to my reason for this post. I know there are many reasons someone might want to be a telepath or have that ability, not here to talk about that, but the reason I want it…so I could blog any time! There are so many times I think about things I want to tell you and I’m not near my pc or even able to use my phone to jot down notes or even dictate, so…how great would it be if I could just think my post and there it would be?

Yeah, that’s about it. Are you loving this? This might be my shortest post in a long time.

You’re welcome. ha ha.

{March 28, 2021} Start with a Ride…End with a Seder

Sounds like the perfect Sunday to me, right?! It’s the second night of Passover, but the seder isn’t until the evening, so we planned a motorcycle ride with some of the guys from our group and another group.

It was supposed to get warm, up to about 57 today, sounds good. I layered up, had my Cuddl Duds on under my jeans, high-top sneaker knee socks, a long sleeve Indian Motorcycle shirt, my Looney Bin zip up sweatshirt, it’s not a thick sweatshirt, but it fits under my Indian Motorcycle Jacket. I wore leather gloves and covered my face with the neck gaiter I got at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. You’d think I was warm enough! Think again! O M G!

The wind, which was not supposed to come in, came in, and oh my word, it was frrreeezzzing! My legs, arms, and chest were fine. My feet and hands…let’s just say when I got off the bike at our first stop, I had trouble walking my feet were so cold and I stayed in the bathroom a few extra minutes, under the warm air dryer! PSM had even given me glove liners, didn’t help after the first 20 minutes!

We had met two of the guys at the usual starting point, then we rode into Illinois, it was about a 25 minute ride, met the rest of the folks that were riding, everyone one geared up, leather chaps, heavy winter coats, face coverings, the works. Mother Nature was trying to beat the tar out of us! She was succeeding. We left from the parking lot and rode to Grafton, only about a 30 minute ride from where we were.

At that point, after I came back from the hand dryer, which I considered taking with me! PSM and I decided we couldn’t keep going with them, they had about another 60 or 70 mile ride. On any other day, I would have been with them, I just couldn’t do it. I was also feeling the weight or in this case, the lack there of, of my bike. It’s a heavy bike, it weighs just under 600 pounds, but what this wind was doing, I was fighting some times to keep her straight, I was never in danger of falling, it just took a little more to keep her upright.

So…we bid everyone a fond farewell and headed back into town in search of breakfast. I will tell you, PSM was texting with one of the guys, they all felt like they had gotten the you-know-what beaten out of them! I think we made the right decision. Before I do another ride like that, much warmer gear!

We rode into Grafton, IL and looked for a place to eat. Google Maps listed a place that said “Great Weekend Breakfast”, perfect! We parked and went in. Guess what they didn’t have. Really? We looked for a few options and settled on the Alton Village Inn Pancake House, sorry, I could only find their menu online, the other links wouldn’t help you if you were interested! It was warm! They had hot tea and decaf coffee, we were happy! The service was pretty good and we were feasting on a veggie omelet and hash browns in no time. Ahhhh.

Eventually, begrudgingly, ha ha, we got back on the bikes and headed home. After getting the pups out of the crate, I headed in one direction…the hottest, steamiest, hottest, did I mention hottest? shower I could take! I took a few extra minutes in there, it was hot and steamy! And I finally started to get feelings back into my extremities again. Warm clothing on, we did stuff around the house and relaxed and eventually, it was time for second night seder with PSM’s family.

I was also able to sneak in a Zoom hello with my family, that was dad, LaLa, my sister, GES, my b-i-l ACS, and my nieces, EJS, and MGS. They were also zooming with extended family friend, I haven’t seen them all in a while, it was great! This was while we were on a break from PSM’s family. Tonight went a lot quicker than last night, less people so less technical difficulties, still a lot of fun, stories, laughter, and love, and food, always food. We went through the exodus out of Egypt, drank our four cups of wine, but…BTK, who wrote up the virtual haggadah added two extra blessings over the wine for PSM and I, hmmm…broke matzah, brought it together again, let in Elijah, and were blessed, what more could you want?!

We started with a ride and ended with a seder, life is good!

{March 26, 2021} Vegan Pho! Wa to the hoo!

We found a new place to go in St Louis that is not vegan, but has vegan offerings and guess who’s happy about it! Well, both of us! First, the food was really good and second, there is something or lots of somethings for both of us! Almost all of their offerings had a non-meat version! Wow!

We were looking for some grub and I went to my happy place, Happy Cow, and found something that was still open, not too far and had vegan options. The vegan restaurants were not close enough, and everything was closing in about an hour, and…dine in isn’t everywhere. So…I found DD Mau: Vietnamese Eatery, not far from where we live and we both wondered why we don’t go to that area very often, we definitely will rectify that.

The place is simple, a bunch of tables, spaced out socially distant, the centerpieces consist of a glass with three pieces of realistic looking, small fruit, an orange, lemon, and a lime. On the walls, now, that’s my favorite part…there was a mural of St Louis, hand drawn, but the other things…right up my bad pun alley…frame pictures of food items with cheesy puns. Two burritos dancing “Epic Wrap Battle”! A bowl of raman with two eggs on top “We are so eggcited to see you!” A head of lettuce “Romaine calm: There’s plenty to go around!” Have you met me?! I La La La Love that! The menu looks hand drawn and super simple and classic.

We each had a bowl of pho, mine was vegan, with vegan beef and PSM had seafood. We also got spring rolls with vegan shrimp and peanut sauce. These were the spring rolls made of rice paper. Now, don’t think I thought either of these vegan options tasted anything like the real thing, it’s just fun to have protein based options and why not. I do wish they had mock duck, one of my favorites.

The food didn’t take too long to come out, the spring rolls did come out a few minutes before the soup, which was nice. As we were eating, we enjoyed chatting, talked about some upcoming motorcycle rides and trips we are hoping to take, if…we can ever travel again. And…we remarked how good the food was, how close it was, and how we will definitely be going back. I am definitely looking forward to it, they have bánh mì, bao sliders, and tacos, how can we go wrong!

Overall…Two thumbsup!

{March 22, 2021} It’s really nice having nice neighbors

We moved into our neighborhood in November 2019, that was just long enough to meet our next door neighbors, and one couple down the street, and that was really it, and then…Covid shut everything down. Since we’ve lived here, we started meeting a few more people, or at least waving to them, then…April of last year, we adopted Bee and Ruby, and it’s amazing how many more people you meet when you have dogs.

I remember one of my first apartments when I lived in Atlanta, I moved in with someone who had a dog, Casey, a too smart for her own good Australian Shepard. My roommate started dating someone shortly after I moved in, so it was just me and the dog. We would go out every day for doggie happy hour, everyone would bring their dogs out to the big field out back, near the vollyball court, or what we sometimes referred to as the cat box…Everyone would let their dogs off leash and we would watch them have a great time. The funny thing is…we didn’t really know each other’s names, we knew the dogs names, and isn’t that what really matters? ha ha

Well, that’s what’s happening here, we’ve met so many more of our neighbors because they are out walking with their dogs and they know our dogs. I know I remember almost everyone’s name because I remember their dog’s name. And the same thing for them to me. Funny thing happened the other day…I was in the grocery store and I saw a neighbor without her dog and had to do a squinted look to think about who she was for a moment, kind of like when you’re a kid and see your teacher out of school!

It really is a nice feeling, seeing someone, saying hello, catching up, in your own neighborhood. I had that in my last house in Georgia, I didn’t have a dog, but I lived there for about 11 years, it was bound to happen. We had that a little in Hawai’i, people knew Molly, the four legged one, they liked saying hello to her. But here, I realized it this morning as we were walking the girls, and then tonight as I was getting the mail and one of my neighbors said hello and my name, but I didn’t see her in the dark!

Won’t you be my neighbor?

{March 18, 2021} You do not belong here, please leave.

Our dreams are our own, aren’t they? They’re supposed to be, and they can be wonderful. Now, I’m talking about actual dreams, like when you’re asleep, not your hopes and dreams in life.

As we’ve talked about, I don’t sleep much, sometimes at all, so when I do sleep, and it’s a sound sleep, I value it, so…if I dream, and I don’t dream often, I would like them to be pleasant, but…we can’t control them, can we. They say dreams have meaning, right?

Last night someone came into my dream that I really did not want there. There were two other people I haven’t seen in a long time, nothing to do with that someone, but I was happy to see them, it was odd. Actually there were three other people and we were all in my car, Beetle-Bug Annie II, or it could have been the first Annie, because I knew this unwanted person when I had her.

I kept looking at the individual asking what they were doing there, just didn’t get an answer, go figure. Most of the time, when you’re dreaming, you don’t realize you’re dreaming, you’re very confused and can’t figure out how to get out of the situation. I finally realized “hey, you’re dreaming, wake up!” And something clicked and I realized I was dreaming and I said “I don’t want to be in this dream anymore, I’m out of here” and I woke up.

The residual of dreams, sometimes, is that when you wake up, whatever you were feeling in your dream, it stays with you, and you wake up mad, sad, angry, confused. Isn’t it odd how other times you wake up from a dream and want to remember it and can’t. For me, this morning, no such luck. I woke up a little confused, slighty frustrated, and annoyed that this person was there at all, which I think is understandable.

I grabbed my favorite Winnie the Pooh, got a hug and all was right with the world, dream gone. Time to greet the day!

{March 17, 2021} Alta Mar [High Seas]…bring Dramamine

I had really high hopes, no pun intended, for Alta Mar [High Seas in English] on Netflix. The tagline from IMDB.com: Two sisters discover disturbing family secrets after a string of mysterious deaths occur on a luxury ship traveling from Spain to Brazil in the 1940s. That’s a good way of putting it.

I was excited about watching because of a few things. I love period pieces, we’ve talked about this before, but the 1940’s was a great time, from a fashion perspective and the show did not disappoint. The women wore skirts and dresses, but they also wore pants and playsuits, which was of that time, along with wearing dresses with bobby socks, mainly because their silk stockings were needed to make parachutes and waterproof maps, fascinating! The hair, the makeup, all of it was done just so.

I was also excited because watching the preview, it looked like fun, my kind of show. Murder, mystery, intrigue, mayhem, what more could you want?! Apparently, a lot more…

It started out with some intrigue right away, the two sisters, on their way to the ship had a slight mishap and accidentally hit a woman, who claimed if she was caught by her husband, he would kill her, which spoke to the sisters and they stowed her away in their trunk. They were accompanied by their maid, I think that would be the term, she helped raise them and still takes care of them, like a ladies maid, I guess. They are also accompanied by her daughter. The two women don’t really want to go along wtih this scheme, but what choice do they have, they have to do what their employers say.

One of the reasons they are going on the boat is so that Carolina can marry Fernando, who owns the ship, along with his sister and her husband. Their mother passed away when they were young and their father was killed in the last year or two. They are joined by their uncle, who was in business with their father, and another partner, who is also a doctor, which comes in handy during the voyage. There is romance above deck, and below, between different classes, officers and passengers, it goes all over the place. Almost like The Love Boat but definitely with better costumes!

Then, the intrigue, murder, or so we thought, passengers in disguise, distrust, anger, fear, valiance, strength, dismay, dirty cops, abuse, murder, disappointment, shock, surprise, happiness, and a wedding, but not the way it was supposed to be. Is that enough? And this is only the first season!

Season two has ghosts, betrayal, con artists, sadness, loss, fear, loathing, murder, discovery, disappointment, suicide, frustration, that one was mostly from me. Season two starts with a continuation of the season one story, bridging a new storyline that tied into season one, but going down an entirely new path, sort of, well, maybe not really. See how frustrated I am?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like it when good characters turn out bad and that’s what happened, I can’t tell you more, but it was someone protecting someone they loved, doing what they thought was right, see where that got them…

Then…we move on to Seaons 3. It’s been a few months since the sisters have seen each other and they get ready to set sail again, oh, I should mention that one of the sisters is a writer and these adventures, let’s call them that, are great material for her books. Before they get ready to sail, there’s more intrigue…espionage this time, and a deadly virus, shootings, disguises, betrayal, torture, drugs, or keeping someone drugged and captive, spies, mutiny, sneakiness, abandonment, I think that’s it.

Here’s where the issues come in…With one of the story lines, even though there is an answer, there is no consequence for something that happened and in another, one of the bad guys gets away. With another story line, even though there is an answer, there is no sense of peace, even with the one who was searching for answers. With the last story line, love is lost, people are dead, lines are crossed, loyalties are tested and crushed and the one good guy, well, no happy ending for him and overall, no happy ending period. I walked away from the last episode wondering why I started. Hence…the Dramamine.

All of this, as you know, is strictly my opinion, I would never stop you from watching it, my dad, I stopped, ha ha. We have similar tastes and when one of us tries a show, if we’re not trying it at the same time, we tell each other what we thought and that either encourages or discourages the other. Now, this is when it comes to mysteries mostly, some comedies, some dramadies, as it were, period pieces, sci fi, wait, I take back the mostly statement, ha ha! We’ve recommended things to each other and told the other to run screaming, which is quite nice! He started to watch High Seas and lost interest and when I told him I was watching it, he said maybe he’d try it again, whenever he was finished what he was watching. When I finished the series, I told him not to bother! I knew he would definitely not enjoy it, I know where he stopped, which was just before one of the bad dudes got his just desserts, but it wasn’t worth watching the entire show. Again, my opinion. Take it or leave it.

I, personally, am going to leave it, right there, where it lies, at the bottom of the ocean floor.

{March 16, 2021} Our Marvel-ous Marathon Progress

Like how I did that?! I am over the top punny! Well, at least I think so, PSM keeps groaning.

So…our progress so far in our Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) Marathon, meaning watching the movies in order. We have watched:

I promise, you will get a review of each movie from me here in the future, just not today, but I will definitely share my thoughts. One thing I have observed, which is interesting…as we watch these movies, a few things are happening, which contradicts the beginning of this sentence, go figure…

As I was saying…as we watch these movies, I don’t know about PSM, but I am seeing these movies through not only new eyes and maybe getting new perspectives on a few aspects of the film, noticing things I might not have noticed before, but I am also talking a lot more, well, asking questions, which I don’t do very much the first time I watch a movie, notice I said, not very much! There are more questions that I have as I watch these movies, much to PSM’s chagrin, I’m sure! At least we’re not in the movie theater!

The other thing I’m doing, oh my word, is coming up with some awful [ly funny] puns! For example…tonight we watched Iron Man 3 and the villians were on something which made them get very hot and blow up, so my brain can’t stop, which comes right out…”Oooh, she’s hot!” “He blew away the competition!” and it went downhill from there! I laughed!

Overall, it’s been fun to watch them again, and to watch them with PSM. So far, some of the ones we just watched are the first time we’re watching them together, that really has been fun. Also, looking for the amazing Stan Lee. I know there are lists of where he appears in each movie, but I am keeping my own list as we go, and I will share it with you when we are done with all 23 movies, promise.

I wanted to say thanks for joining me on this marvel-ous adventure, it’s quite the undertaking. Over the course of these posts, we’ll Iron out the details. I’m keeping my Hawkeyes out for Stan Lee’s cameos, which I think is a Banner idea! [groan!] I honestly tried to keep it all Loki, but it’s not working! I’m afraid I mave have made you Fury-ous! I am Thoroughly enjoying this! As I’ve Peppered this post with puns, it’s made me so Happy! I hope you don’t find all of this Strange and you’re not Hulking mad! If you did, please don’t Avenger, I might turn Scarlet, sorry, I had a Vision. Ok, I’m done! [I’m sure there will be more down the road, I’m just that determined, I’m trying to get to the Groot of the problem! Maybe more on Thorsday! Thorry…

{March 14, 2021} Raya and the Last Dragon

Today, since it was raining, no motorcycle rides for us, but…we decided to go to the movies and saw Raya and the Last Dragon, the newest Disney movie. The IMDB tagline is “In a realm known as Kumandra, a re-imagined Earth inhabited by an ancient civilization, a warrior named Raya is determined to find the last dragon.” Pretty accurate.

A little bit of trivia…Kumandra was inspired bythe Southeast Asian cultures of Brunei, Singapore, Laos, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The story is that Kumandra is peace and harmony and all peoples living as one, with the five lands in the shape of a dragon: Heart, Talon, Spine, Fang, and Tail, all connected by the River Dragon. One day, a very long time ago, the Druun emerged, a swirling mass of purple and black, reminding me of The Nothing from the NeverEnding Story, it basically swirls and swarms through the lands turing the people and dragons to stone statues.

The dragons pooled their magic into a magic gem called the Dragon Gem, to protect against the Druun and the five lands are now divided. The dragons who pooled their magic gave the Dragon Gem to their sister, Sisu, the last remaining dragon. The Heart Land was tasked to guard the Dragon Orb for centuries and when Raya’s father brings the lands together, hoping for peace and a return to Kumandra…unfortunately, I think you can guess what happens, and the orb is broken apart and each leader takes a piece of the orb to try to protect themselves and their people. Unfortunately, that unleased the Druun to begin it’s attack on the people and the lands again. And the mistrust is even greater amongst the people.

Raya’s Ba, or father, is turned to stone as he pushses Raya away, gives her his piece of the orb and tells her it is on her to go and bring unity back to the world. That’s a lot to put on a 12 year old’s shoulders, but she rises to the challenge. We see her six years later, riding on Tuk-Tuk, her loveable pet, comprised of one third-pill bug, one third-armadillo, and one third-pug hybrid, with the ability to roll into a ball, it’s pretty cool. He’s adorable, as a wee bit, and then a big bit and stays very much a goofball throughout the movie, but he can move! Where do I get one?! These movies have to stop creating characters that I want for my own!

As Raya sets out, she goes to each of the lands to attempt to take the piece of the gem to reunite them together. Along the way, she finds Sisu, who seems to have been asleep for a while, not really sure what’s happening when she ‘wakes up’. It was interesting to watch their dynamic, and to see Sisu see the world through new eyes, a lot has changed since she’s been gone, almost the eyes of a child, or at least a very trusting, naive innocent, she still has faith in humanity and what it can accomplish if you put your trust in one another, something hard to do at this point, for most of the people still there, or left behind, as it feels.

Along the way, as she is going to each land, Raya meets someone that she has to trust and earn their trust in return and as you might imagine, they become their own band of merry men, so to speak. It really is an interesting combination of characters that she brings together. I hope you can picture all they can do, when they learn to trust and work together.

And that’s what the movie is about, believing in yourself, having the power and strength to open yourself up to others, to trust them and allow them to trust you and what you can accomplish together. Did they succeed? Was there unity? Were people reunited with their lost loved ones? Did Raya get her Ba back? First…if I tell you everything, how will you be surprised. Second…it’s a Disney animated movie, yeah, that about sums it up.

The cast is great, Raya is played by Kelly Marie Tran, Sisu by the brilliantly funny Awkwafina, the dialog was perfectly her and there were a few times I felt like she was channeling Robin Williams, in that way he would kind of do his own thing with dialog, go off the rails, like he did in as the genii in Aladdin. Gemma Chan was Raya’s nemesis, from Fang, Benedict Wong was Tong from Spine, Sandra Oh was Chieftess Virana from Fang, Lucille Soong was Chieftess Dang Hu from Talon, Daniel Dae Kim was Chief Benja and Raya’s father. I love that Alan Tudyk played Tuk Tuk, he didn’t say much, but his noises were mighty cute!

Overall, it was a great movie, a lot of wonderful symbolism, pageantry, colors, feelings, story, action, humor, humility, unity, trust, and love. What more could you want?! I hope you enjoy it, I’m going to watch it again!

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