Bunchland

Finally, a Disney princess with a mom!

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.

Have you seen the latest trailer for Brave?

Image via YouTube

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!

Image via Youtube

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...

What we’re reading today:

1. The New York Times parenting blog recommends the New York Times Children’s Book Review. This would be ridiculous except for the fact that we actually do have complete trust in the NYT Children’s Book Review, so a fair recommendation.

2. Disney acquired Babble. What will this mean?? We’re thinking we’re going to get more Catherine Connors in fun and silly get-ups.

3. Does being a mom make you want a smartphone? From what we’ve observed, yes.

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!)

What we’re reading today:

1. Is your unborn baby waging war on your uterus, or are you and the baby happily coexisting?

2. At what age do you let kids trick-or-treat on their own?

3. It’s happening; people are referring to themselves as dadpreneurs.

4. Anderson Cooper had pageant kids and moms on his show and had staff “make under” the girls, wiping all their makeup and taking off their false lashes and such. The crazy result? The girls seemed way happier without makeup.

5. These parents tried to surprise their kids with a trip to Disney World… the kids weren’t having any of it.

Photo by sean dreilinger via Flickr

Win a new Toyota Sienna and take it for a ride

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:

Corinne: The 5 Rs to rosy roadtrips!  Read more...