Disney's Descendants

Disney's heavily hyped Descedants movie aired Friday night. While everyone in my family has been on the fence about actually watching it, we ended up spending the day Sunday sitting through the 2-hour movie. Was it worth it? Well...

In case you have been living under a rock, here is the premise of the movie: The fairy tale villains have been shipped off to a desolate island to live out their years. In the meantime, Beauty (Belle) and the Beast have united all of the kingdoms and everyone is living happily ever after. Fast forward to everyone having 16-year old kids. The children of the villains have all grown up as good-for-nothing scamps while the good children have grown up in boarding school. Ben, the son of Belle and the Beast, is about to be crowned king. His first proclamation is to bring four of the villain-kids to Auradon to go to school. After all, they are not their parents.

So. The characters. The four villain-kids are Mal (daughter of Maleficent), Evie (daughter of the Evil Queen), Carlos (son of Cruella deVil), and Jay (son of Jafar). The main good-kids are Ben (son of Beauty and the Beast), Audrey (daughter of Aurora, Sleeping Beauty), Jane (daughter of the Fairy Godmother), and Doug (son of Dopey). There are a few more good-kids hanging around but they aren't particularly important to the plot. 

Maleficent sees this school transfer as an opportunity to get Mal to steal the Fairy Godmother's wand, which will give her tremendous power. Fairy Godmother is the head mistress of the academy so it shouldn't be too difficult, right?

OK. I think we have everything laid out now. First, I'd like to say that the movie wasn't as awful as I thought it was going to be. That said, it isn't particularly good either. There are problems and there are a lot of them.

I'm not sure why they picked these particular villains as the main characters. I understand Maleficent and the Evil Queen. They are usually the first baddies you think of when you think Disney. I'll even give Cruella a pass. But Jafar? Of all of the Disney baddies, they picked Jafar? It wasn't a good choice. 

And while we're talking about the characters, let's address their names. Every single kid is somehow named after their parents. Mal is Maleficent's daughter, Evie is the Evil Queen's daughter, Lonnie is Mulan's daughter...the list goes on and on. While I could understand one or two narcissistic princes/princesses/queens naming their kids directly after them, I can't believe that every single parent would be like "How can I make my baby a direct comparison to myself?" Insert facepalm.

Next up, let's talk plot. Maleficent is the big baddie here. The other three villains simply go along with her. Everyone is afraid of her. Except the other three kids. They are only afraid of their parents, even if those parents haven't actually shown any reason for the kids to be frightened. Everything seems to hinge on the sole fact that they were the villains in their stories. 

Most of the plot is typical Disney fare: the kids are (slightly) shunned by the other kids because they are villian-kids. The villain-kids do "bad" things like stuff their faces with chocolate. The good-parents are shocked when their kids get along with the bad kids. Prince Ben and Mal fall in love. Love conquers all. You know the story.

Then we get to the songs. Man, there were some stinkers in there. Mal and the gang are introduced through a song - "Rotten To The Core." Where none of them really do anything rotten beyond walking on some tables. OK, at the end, Mal does steal a lollipop from a baby but it wasn't particularly difficult nor did it come off as a terrible act. We were just supposed to THINK it was terrible. The best song of the bunch was a remake of "Be Our Guest" that the good-kids sing when their parents come to visitation day. Sigh.

In the end, the movie was just barely tolerable. They should have gotten rid of Carlos (for serious, Cameron Boyce is NOT a good actor. Get rid of him!) and Jay (though Booboo Stewart did a really good job with the crap he was given) for more interesting villains. Mal should have been way more evil in the beginning. I get the evil-turned-good plot device but she wasn't all that evil to begin with. To be honest, the best villian-kid was Evie. She was never in it to BE evil. She just wanted to be beautiful and marry a prince, just like every other kid in the kingdom. Her turmoil was the most honest. The movie's ending suggested a sequel. I hope not. I can't see this getting any better. 

Paper Towns - the book vs the movie

Way back in April 2014, I read and reviewed John Green's Paper Towns. As soon as the movie was announced, I knew that I was going to see it. My daughter (who also read the book), my husband (who did not), and I went to see it Saturday afternoon. I wanted to take a couple of days to fully digest the experience but now I am ready to talk about it. Needless to say, there are spoilers below. 

Before I go picking everything apart, I'd like to say that I did thoroughly enjoy the movie. While there were a few moments that jarred me out of the plot (more on that later), it didn't interrupt the entertainment value. Now let's get into the nitty gritty.

There are a lot of differences between the book and the movie. Some of them, in my opinion, change the story a lot. Some of them do not. One of the big changes is the Sea World adventure. In the book, Margo convinces Quentin to break into Sea World during their revenge rampage. This doesn't happen in the movie. As a matter of fact, Margo explicitly states that they have 9 things to do (instead of 11 in the book) that night but I can only count 5...6 if you are super generous and count their shopping excursion. But maybe I'm mis-counting something. Either way, the Sea World thing is a fairly big thing in the book - after all, this is the first real illegal thing Q has done - and it isn't even addressed in the movie. The reason is understandable (no one wanted to give good press to Sea World) but it would have been nice to even have a throwaway line or maybe a discarded pamphlet or something to insinuate they did it anyway.

The movie also downplays the importance of the Omnictionary. In the book, editing the Omnictionary is Radar's LIFE. When he isn't in school or with Angela, he's editing the website. However, in the movie, the site is only used as a reference when looking up the term "paper towns." We don't see any of the characters editing it nor do we see it being leaned on heavily.  I don't know that this is a huge change in the book. But it may have shown the boys as the  social outcasts they were. Otherwise, it seemed like they didn't participate in social activities because they didn't want to.

However, the biggest change, in my opinion, is the road trip and everything that happens afterwards. In the book, Q, Ben, Radar, and Lacey skip graduation to take the road trip to Agloe to find Margo. The prom already took place. Quentin skipped the prom to go check out pseudivisions (abandoned housing divisions...also not discussed in the movie) by himself. In the movie, Angela comes with them and the gang (minus Q) insists they must be back to Orlando in time for prom. This is a very important part of the movie. So important, in fact, that the gang leaves Q in Agloe when they don't find Margo within their time limit. Yes, his best friends abandon him in New York for the prom. That is messed up. 

After his friends abandon him, movie-Quentin makes his way into the nearest town and buys a bus ticket home. While waiting for the bus, Margo happens to walk by. He chases after her and the two have a couple of milkshakes and talk it out. Margo kinda pats Q on the head and gives him a "silly boy, I'm not coming back" type of speech. Then Quentin gets on the bus and joins his friends at prom. Happy times ensue. 

BUT

In the book version, Margo is in the barn in Agloe. And Ben, Radar, Lacey, AND Quentin all find her. Margo rails at Lacey for dating Ben. Then she argues with Q about his perception of her.  The gang doesn't leave Agloe until the next morning. Quentin goes back to Orlando with his friends and Margo goes on to New York City. 

I think that the book version of the story is much more powerful than the movie version. Book-Margo decided to disappear from everything and everyone and she is angry that people still sought her out. She lashes out at the few people who truly showed concern for her. Movie-Margo comes off as an overly mature woman setting off on her own. But she's not. She is still a young woman trying to figure out who she is. Yes, she says this in the movie but that isn't how she looks or sounds or acts. 

As I said earlier, none of these changes made the movie less enjoyable for me. Though I was thrown out of the plot every time they talked about the prom. But, for once, I can truly say the book is better. If only because it had a more emotional journey for the characters. Without them missing graduation or prom, the movie left out that heavy emotional impact. 

(Side note: My husband said Margo was selfish and wasn't worth trying to find.) 

Glow bracelets make a great party

Kids love glow bracelets, right? Over this past week, my daughter's dance studio has competed in the True Talent nationals competition. While my daughter did not compete this time, many of her friends did. So, on Saturday morning, we drove up to Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, to cheer for her friends and we brought them a set of 100 glow bracelets as a sort of "You did it!" present. 

After the competition ended, the kids and the adults had a great time playing with the bracelets. Since there were way more bracelets than there were kids, they spent time stringing them together into long necklaces or earrings. It was a funny sight, to say the least. 

At the end, the competitors did well. There were a lot of trophies and plaques handed out and the kids had a great time. I can't wait to see them compete again next year. 

I received this product for free in exchange for this review. All opinions contained within are my own. 

Where has all the free time gone?

Summer has always been my favorite season. However, it hasn't always been my most productive season. While I tend to have more "free" time in the summer, that time is usually spent taking my daughter around to her various summer activities. (She plays tennis in the summer and she is starting pointe ballet classes as well.) My truly free time ends up being at about 10:00 at night when I'm starting to get ready to head to bed. That is why there hasn't been a ton of content here or on my YouTube channel. But I want to change that.

I would really like to hear from all of you out there. What would you like to see here on the blog? Would you like more product reviews? Maybe some tips on parenting or activities to do with your kids? (Granted, my daughter is now 13 years old. I'm a little out of touch on what to do with the little ones.) Perhaps you would like to hear about what TV shows or movies I'm watching? Should I go back to reviewing Japanese dramas? Whatever you want to hear about, let me know in the comments and I will do my best to get that going for you. 

The Diagram of Dogs by Pop Chart Lab

Pop Chart Lab is a merchant that sells all sorts of kitchy posters. There are posters about guitars, posters about wine, posters about eyewear....if you can name it, they probably have it. They send me one of their dog posters to review. 

This particular poster shows every breed of dog in their specific category. For example, if you look at the toy breeds, you will find a pomeranian or a pug but then that category branches off into sub-categories, like poodles. I have three dogs, myself, and it was pretty cool to look up each of their breeds to see how they fit into the world of dogs. 

Everyone in my family loves dogs. This poster is an absolutely perfect piece to hang on our wall. Personally, I would probably choose to frame it but it isn't absolutely necessary. The poster paper is thick enough that you could hang it on your wall as is without any problems. I highly recommend picking up one of their posters if you can. Not only are they well-made, they are cute to boot. 

I received this poster for free in exchange for this review. All opinions contained within are solely my own. 

The Couch Tomato in West Chester, PA

On Saturday afternoon, my family and I stopped by The Couch Tomato in West Chester, PA.  I don't usually spend a lot of time in West Chester but my husband does. He easily found us a decent parking spot fairly close to the restaurant. (Hint: The parking meters nearby have free parking until 5PM on Saturday!) I believe there are some parking garages in town but they aren't quite as close to the restaurant.

We arrived around 4:30PM. Strangely, the only other people in the building were the two guys that walked in before us. However, more people arrived after we sat down, closer to 5:00. 

The Couch Tomato is set up a little bit like a fast food joint. You place your order with a cashier then you find a seat until they call your name over the loudspeaker. Once you hear your name, you head back to the front area to pick up your food. You also bus your own table, separating the recyclable materials from the food waste and placing the dishware onto shelves next to the trash can. So maybe not quite like McDonald's but not like a sit-down restaurant with waiters either. 

I had a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato bisque soup. The grilled cheese was delicious. It had a mix of cheeses and arugula grilled on...well, OK, I'm not sure what kind of bread it was. But the bread was chewy and crunchy at the same time. As for the tomato soup, I'm not a huge fan of tomato soup and, since this was a bisque, it wasn't quite a creamy as the tomato soup I'm used to. It wasn't the worst soup that I've had but it wasn't something I would have usually ordered. 

While my food was delicious, it took a very long time to come out. My husband and my daughter ordered food and both of theirs arrived before mine. My daughter got a Hail Caesar salad and my husband got the Couch Club sandwich. (More on those later.) All of the sandwiches are grilled so I'm not really sure why my sandwich took 20 minutes to cook while his only took less than 10. 

This was my daughter's Caesar salad. We both really liked it. (Yes, I tried her food too!) The salad dressing was perfect; the lettuce was nice and crisp; and the hard boiled egg was well-done. My daughter didn't like the croutons too much but she doesn't usually like croutons to begin with.

My husband had the Couch Club sandwich. This is turkey, tomato, turkey bacon, cheddar, and avocado ranch on a weird sort of sesame bread. As I said, all of their sandwiches are grilled, unless otherwise requested. I think I liked his sandwich better than mine. It was a little bit bigger so it might be difficult for small mouths to bite into but I think it would be well worth trying. The bacon was crisp, the turkey was tender...I didn't even realize there was avocado ranch on it! I would probably recommend this sandwich over the others.

Finally, my husband and I both got fountain sodas. And we both chose the cola flavor. The Couch Tomato uses New Hope fountain soda, which uses cane sugar instead of HFCS. For some reason, our sodas tasted off. We have both drank our fair share of cane sugar soda and he has had New Hope soda before. None of it tasted like this. It had a weird aftertaste that none of us liked.

As a whole, we had a rather enjoyable experience at The Couch Tomato. The only downsides were the soda and the extremely long wait for my food. Otherwise, the food was delicious and very well priced. 

If you would like to see my video review of the restaurant, please click below:

I received my grilled cheese and tomato soup for free in exchange for this review. All opinions contained within are solely my own. 

Gwynnie Bee has let me down

I have been a loyal Gwynnie Bee customer for a little over a year. I opened my account in April 2014 and I haven't looked back. Until now.

Let me start by saying that I have never been particularly "fashion forward." My favorite clothes are jeans and sweatshirts. However, Gwynnie Bee opened me up to a whole new world. They showed me that I don't need to hide under sweatshirts. For the first time in a very long time, I wore dresses. And they were cute dresses. And, even though I am "fat," I could look good. Really good. And I felt good.

In case you haven't seen my Gwynnie Bee video reviews, I will start from the beginning. Gwynnie Bee rents plus-size clothes. From pants to cartigans to dresses, you can probably find something you will like there. For a monthly fee, you can receive anywhere from one to ten pieces at a time. When you receive your clothes, you also receive a blue bag for returning the item. Once you wear the item, you simply put it in the blue bag and mail it back. But if you like the piece, you can purchase it. In the past year, I have purchased two dresses. 

Fast forward to this week. On Monday, a mere five ago, I wore this amazing dress.  At $78, it was a little pricey for me but I decided that I would buy it on Friday, when I got paid. This morning, I logged onto my Gwynnie Bee account, fully ready to purchase the dress. I was stunned to find out that the dress now cost $91.50. In less than a week, the price went up. I don't think I have ever experienced a retailer raising prices on their clothing. Sure, there may be sales or discounts but the cost going up?

So, I emailed the company, hoping it was just a typo. Nope. I received a reponse stating that their prices are dynamic and they change based on how many pieces of a certain item they have versus how many customers have "closeted" the item. Basically, because I chose to wait until payday, I have to pay an extra $13.

Sorry, Gywnnie Bee, I refuse to play that game. I had every intention of purchasing this dress and I probably would have purchased the dress that is arriving today. (It is the same dress in a different pattern.) And I am quite seriously debating on closing my account. Why should I continue to try on clothes without a guarantee on how much the piece will cost if I want to buy it?  What happens if the price changes in the two or three days that it takes for a piece to get from your warehouse to my door? Not only do I get punished for waiting until my paycheck arrives, I also get punished for the delivery time? This is a ridiculous pricing structure and I suggest you rethink it.  

Movie review: Big Eyes

My husband, knowing that I wanted to see Big Eyes, rented the movie from Redbox over the weekend. We didn't get a chance to watch it until Monday night but I'm glad we did.

In case you are not familiar with the movie, Big Eyes tells the story of Margaret Keane, an artist who is famous for painting children with large eyes. After she left her first husband in the 1950s, Margaret did what she could to support herself and her young daughter, Jane. She found a job painting art on children's furniture. But she never stopped painting the big eyed children. It was during an outdoor art exhibition that she met Walter Keane, who would eventually become her second husband. 

Walter was an artist himself. However, where Margaret painted people, Walter painted Parisian streets. When Margaret's first husband threatened to take custody of their daughter, Walter proposed to Margaret. Now there would be a stable home for Jane. 

Ever the businessman, Walter tried to get both his paintings and Margaret's into art galleries. When that failed, he rented wall space at the local jazz club. People would frequently ask about the children with large eyes and Walter began to tell them that he painted them. Margaret was angry when she found out about Walter's lies, but he somehow convinced her that this would be better for sales. 

Years passed. Margaret continued to paint the "big eye" paintings and Walter's fame continued to rise. Profits soared, allowing them to open their own gallery. 

One day, Margaret came upon a shipping box with Walter's name on it. Inside, she found dozens of Parisian street paintings with a different artist's signature. She suddenly realized that she had never seen Walter actually paint anything. After scraping the Keane signature off of one of his paintings, Margaret confronted Walter. 

Despite knowing about Walter's false life as a painter, Margaret continued with their "big eye" ruse. Walter had convinced her that no one would accept a woman as an artist and that business was better if everyone thought he created the paintings. It wasn't until the 1964 World's Fair in New York that Walter's lie began to unravel. An art critic, John Canaday, rejected the piece Margaret painted for the Hall of Education. Canaday called the piece "tasteless" and Walter just lost it. 

Eventually, Margaret tired of the lie and how much of her life she lost to Walter. She took Jane and moved to Hawaii. It was here that she was introduced to the Jehovah's Witnesses. With some support from the community, Margaret sued Walter for slander. Since the case was he-said-she-said, the judge decided that, in order to figure out who was telling the truth, both parties needed to paint a picture. Walter claimed he had a shoulder injury that left him unable to paint while Margaret completed a painting in 53 minutes. Margaret won the case. 

Big Eyes is a very difficult movie to watch in 2015. Since it takes place in the 1950s and 1960s, there is a lot of misogyny and male dominance in the story. Margaret stays with Walter, despite the fact that he is taking credit for all of her work, for ten years! Even when she knew what a con man he was, she still stayed. The viewer definitely needs to keep in mind that, at that time in history, it was very difficult for a woman to leave her husband and be independent. Thankfully, the movie does a fairly good job of setting that up early on.

This is also one of the few movies where I could forget who made it and who starred in it and just lose myself in the characters and story. Amy Adams did a wonderful job becoming Margaret and Christoph Waltz was scarily good at being Walter. On top of that, it didn't have all of the telltale signs of a Tim Burton movie. It is obvious that Burton loved the film's subject and took a lot of care to tell the story properly. If you get a chance to catch Big Eyes, I would definitely recommend checking it out. Margaret Keane's story is an inspiring one, even if it took her a long time to make it happen. 

Cinnamon Vanilla English Muffins?

I don't always eat Thomas' English Muffins. Actually, I rarely eat them. But when I do, it is usually the plain or the cinnamon raisin version. I really love cinnamon-flavored foods. Applesauce, bagels, oatmeal...you could probably make anything taste better with a bit of cinnamon on top. So when I saw these strange english muffins in the bread aisle, I knew I had to taste them. 

Yes, those are Cinnamon VANILLA english muffins. I like cinnamon. I like vanilla. These have got to be delicious, right?

After working up some courage to actually eat one of the muffins, I found out that they are. Despite the fact that they smell like a candle, they are quite tasty. I have read some reviews where people say they can taste a hint of vanilla. I, however, did not. It tasted like a regular cinnamon english muffin without the raisins. (Which works better for me, honestly. The raisins tend to get stuck in my toaster and that is never a good thing.) They were definitely not as scary as I thought they would be. 

So go forth, all of my cinnamon lovers. Eat your fill of the cinnamon vanilla english muffins without fear. They are only available for a limited time. Stuff your face while you can! 

A little help please!

As you may know, I have a 13-year old daughter. She is in 7th grade. Her middle school has a chapter of the Technology Student Association. This is her second year as a member of the club. They do all sorts of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) competitions. 

At the regional competition this year, she helped build a solar-powered car, a bridge, and a website on 3D printing. All of these ended up qualifying for the next competition level - states. At the state competition, she built a glider that flew for over 8 seconds, she helped build another bridge, and she helped build a mobile map of her school. The map display placed third, which qualified her to go to the national competition.

The national competition takes place in Dallas, TX this year. She would really like to attend. However, it is a little expensive to get from Philadelphia to Dallas. So I have started a crowdfunding site to raise the funds to get her there. I would really appreciate it if you could toss a few dollars her way or share the link on your choice of social media sites. She has worked very hard to qualify for nationals. It would be awesome if she could actually go.

http://www.youcaring.com/tuition-fundraiser/send-morgan-carothers-to-her-first-tsa-national-conference/342261

Thank you so much for helping!