1. Want your car to smell like the happiest place on earth? Now it can, thanks to Disneyland’s new scented air fresheners. Scents include Mickey Mouse ice cream bar, candy apple, turkey leg and Mickey Mouse waffle. Fresh! Although .. turkey leg?
2. Four mom engineers revolutionized the Chevy Malibu to make it quiet so you can hear your kid in the back seat, automatic so you don’t have to juggle bags and super fuel efficient so you can save money. Sounds like a pretty sweet ride to us.
3. Camp directors lament that parents are stalking their kids online while they’re away. “I spend much of my day answering phone calls from parents who say, I don’t see a picture of my kid, or, they’re not smiling — are they having a good time?” How do you keep concern at bay when the kids are finding themselves in the great outdoors? Read more...
1. One neighborhood in Colorado is putting the clampdown on sidewalk chalk after one too many street murals have led to public offense. Graffiti can be a dicey issue … but sidewalk chalk? Wait it out till the next rainfall, we say.
2. A new smart car seat comes with a built-in monitoring system that can alert parents via app if the kid is riding at an unfavourable angle, if the buckle comes undone, or if the seat gets too cold. Helpful, or too much?
3. Disney is launching 3 new free apps - Watch Disney Channel, Watch Disney XD and Watch Disney Junior for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch starting Wednesday. Subscribers will have access to live feed and on-demand content. Your long summer car ride just got a lot quieter from the back seat. Read more...
Have you noticed the absence of moms in Disney movies? The heroines, with the exception of Sleeping Beauty, either have a wicked stepmother, or their dad just hasn’t found a new wife. But Princess Merida from Brave seems to have a very present and loving mother in Queen Elinor. Could this be why Merida promises to kick so much ass?
We very much enjoyed this new Mother’s Day spot from Brave and June 22 just can’t get here fast enough.
Chimpanzee follows an adorable baby chimp named Oscar
Chimpanzee opens next week, but if you’re in Toronto, you can see it now as part of TIFF Kids. We’re sworn to secrecy until April 20, but we can tell you we’re sort of in love with little Oscar. There are a few scary parts, so use your best parenting instincts to determine if this is a good fit for your kids. Are other Disney movies way too scary? Maybe wait for the DVD. Is your family super into the zoo and Discovery Channel? Get yourselves to the movies next week!
Meri Perra blogs about the challenges she and her partner face in trying to raise their girls with feminist values
Our daughters are joyfully riding the wave of a well-meaning but definite over-abundance of Disney Princess gifts they got for Christmas.
Part of the infestation includes a very big, very pink Disney Princess story book, the complete princess series, in point of fact, which comes with an infinite number of stickers that are now scattered all over our house.
The book is not all horrible, it’s just mostly horrible. Mulan is a brave hero who goes to war, and Belle from Beauty and the Beast gets trapped when she goes off to rescue her dad. (By which I mean, Mulan and Belle are less bad than the other stories.)Read more...
4. Bad lessons from good movies. We knew the princess-y ones, but hadn’t thought about the unconventional play thing and the perhaps unfair optimism in Wall-E.
5. Did you see that awesome 3D chalk drawing of the Lego Terra Cotta warriors? Here’s how they did it:
Scariest Disney ever? Even more than The Legend of Sleepy Hollow?
Some Youtube genius who goes by ChiefBrodyRules recut the Sin City trailer using all Disney characters. It’s pretty awesome. It’s been a while since we’ve watched Sin City, but let’s try to match up the characters: Read more...
Mickey Rourke = The Beast (genius)
Benicio Del Toro = Gaston
Alexis Bledel = Belle
Rosario Dawson = Esmerelda (good fit!)
Jessica Alba = showgirl mouse? From the Rescuers?
Clive Owen = Phoebus (from Hunchback)
Nick Stahl = Quasimodo? and/or some evil Rat King (Or does Benicio also get to be Quasimodo)
Devon Aoki = Mulan (Really, who else could have been deadly little Miho?)
Jaime King = Sleeping Beauty
Michael Clarke Duncan = Frolo from Hunchback (His awesome voice would be waaay too scary for kids if used as the villain!)
Roadtrips! Forget about placing all your travel sized liquids in a clear ziplock bag and just throw whatever you might need into the back of the car. Pack a few sandwiches and an ipod full of tunes and you’re set to hit the open road! We’re pretty convinced that whoever wins the grand prize from Disney Junior’s Watch & Win contest (a Toyota Sienna) should celebrate their win with a good old fashioned roadtrip.
So how do you roadtrip? Set breaks every few hours until you reach a final destination? Or stopping and stretching your legs every time the kids spot a lifesize dinosaur model to climb? We asked Bunchlanders via Facebook and Twitter for their best roadtrip advice:
Do you like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse? Or Stella and Sam? How about Handy Manny? And you must be watching Jake and the Never Land Pirates, right? When checking out these great Disney Junior shows, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for a Toyota Sienna — a special Disney-fied Toyota Sienna that is.
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, princesses are all over the flipping place. Recently seemingly more than usual. Here’s what we’ve come across:
1. Is Disney evil? DeviantART-ist Chris Hill says no. Hill assigned each Disney princess (including Tinkerbell, but excluding Princess Tiana) one of the seven deadly sins. Check out his profile and click on each card to see why he chose each Disney character for her particular sin. Via Jezebel
2. Why do little girls seem to favour princesses over ballerinas, fairies or other uber-girly symbols? Money. Princesses gets diamonds, gowns, carriages, castles, etc. Mommyish says this is perhaps why Cinderella, Snow White and Ariel (Snow White??) top the list for most popular princesses. Shouldn’t Jasmine be #1 then? She has a pet tiger. That’s way better than mice friends. Also Ariel trading in her sea princessdom for land princessdom? While we don’t know what thrown Prince Eric was heir to (do we?), we suspect Ariel downgraded. Read more...
