Girl Meets World is Disney Channel's Best Series in Years

Mitchell Stein- Disney Channel currently lives in the darkest of timelines, making actual good entertaining shows almost impossible to come by. Every show is just so awful and brings the whole former glory of Disney Channel to an ultimate low, and it seemed as if it were never going to be redeemed. Then enters Girl Meets World. 

Finally, an entertaining show with actual entertaining humor, good story-plots and likable characters. Girl Meets World takes place nearly a decade after Disney's 90's hit show Boy Meets World left off. When it was announced, many people were concerned it would just be another disappointing Disney Channel tween show, but man does it soar so far above all of that. For the first time in many years, Disney delivers a good, fun, entertaining family comedy enjoyable for all, but leaving out the general stupidity that surrounds the channel today. Okay, maybe not all of it. It still has some Disney Channel stupidity, (which mostly generates from Farkle) but about 80% of the show is real family entertainment that hasn't been seen in many years. Most of the time, it feels worthy of being on primetime TV, where Boy Meets World was home to for many years. Maybe not yet, but if it continues to step in the right direction, it would easily be worthy of it.

The show centers around Riley (Rowan Blanchard), a middle-school aged teenage girl facing the many challenges of life and growing up, in many of the same ways Boy Meets World did, normally tackling every-day situations and coming of age. Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel reprise their roles as Corey and Topanga, now living in New York and the parents of Riley and her younger brother Auggie. It has a ton of fantastic call-backs to it's original predecessor, though not always quite living up to the original. It's great to see where the characters ended up after these years, and ironically, Corey ended up as a teacher in Riley's school, showing what kind of major impact Mr. Feeney had years before. We've been told that Shawn will make more cameos in some upcoming episodes as well.

Currently the show is in middle of it's first season, and on August 6th, it was announced the show had already been renewed for a second season, which I am thrilled about. Disney has finally created a masterpiece with Michael Jacobs at the helm (who worked on dozens of beloved Disney television shows including Dinosaurs, The Torkelsons, and Boy Meets World).

It's impossible to not have only positive things to say about this series. It's practically perfect in every way, with a great cast of characters, hilarious humor and great and emotional story-plots, and paved a whole new potential future for Disney Channel. I'm hoping that Disney Channel will get back on track eventually, and this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Lion King spin-off "The Lion Guard' to air on Disney Junior in 2015

Mitchell Stein- Looks like Boy Meets World isn't the only Disney franchise to be resurrected back to television again this year. In a very surpirsing announcement made today revealed by the Wall Street Journal, Disney Junior is producing a series based off The Lion King set to air sometime in 2015.

“It’s kind of like ‘The Lion King’ meets ‘The Avengers,’” says Disney Junior general manager Nancy Kanter in the article. The plot story follows a cub named Kion, who is the son of Simba from the Lion King films, who assembles a group of animals to help him protect the pride lands. You might be familiar with Simba's daughter Kiara, who appeared in the direct-to-video sequel The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. Unless they plan to incorporate Kiara into this brand-new series this probably makes the canon in Simba's Pride completely irrelevant and may even pretend that the film didn't exist, which is likely as the movie was received a bit more critical reception than the original film, although it leveled up as a direct-to-video film. No recognition is found much in the world of Disney movies, theme parks or merchandise, so it's possible Disney chose to forget about that one altogether.

The new series, is set to premiere on Disney Channel sometime in 2015. It is unknown if it will have any specific connection to Disney Afternoon's Timon and Pumbaa television series.

You can read the full article on the Wall Street Journal's website.

UPDATE: The announcement was made offical on the Disney Insider website. Kion, is the second-born cub to Simba and Naala, and the show will feature Kiara, who is preparing to become the future Queen of the Pride Lands. So, good news folks. Simba's Pride is still part of the Lion King canon! It will also feature appearances by characters Simba, Nala, Zazu, and Timon and Pumbaa although no voice actors for these characters have been announced just yet. Read the official Disney announcement on their website.

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com

Disney Fan Art Showcase: Brittany Myers Part 1

Today we're really excited to showcase some truly incredible pieces of artwork illustrated by the incredibly talented Disney fan artist Brittany Myers. Be sure to check out Brittany's website to see even more fantastic artwork! We'll be spotlighting Brittany's wonderful Disney artwork in a special two-part fan spotlight series. Be sure to check back soon for part two:

"Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" 

Kim Possible 

"Conceal, don't feel."

Tinker Bell Sketch 

Sally (Nightmare Before Christmas)

Esmeralda (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

Ursula 

Be sure check back for part two of Brittany's art soon! Thanks again to Brittany for sharing her work with us!

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com

News Update: April 11th 2014

Starting off the news this week, the first teaser trailer for Disney Channel's Upcoming show, Girl Meets World has surfaced the internet. The show is a spin-off of the Disney Channel show which ran from 1993 to 2000. Characters Cory and Topanga return to the spin-off show, this time playing the parents of the main child characters. Watch the first teaser here:

Season two of the new Mickey Mouse shorts premiere on Disney Channel today, April 11th! Make sure you keep you DVRs running at 9:00 EST to catch the new wonderful shorts! 

This week, the Disney Parks celebrated fifty years of the famous "It's a Small World' attraction with a major worldwide celebration. The folks over at Inside the Magic have the full scoop, which you can read right here. Coverage of the entire event can also be found over at The Disney Blog as well right here. 

Toughpigs.com published this great article setting the record straight: The Muppets are still puppets, and no CGI was used in Muppets Most Wanted, contrary to internet rumors of the Muppets being replaced by CGI in some scenes. You can read that great article right here.

Speaking of Muppets, our friends over at This Happy Place Blog raised an excellent idea. What if the abandoned "Wonders of Life" exhibit became "Muppet Labs?" Make sure to check out their creative and exciting new ideas of what could quite possibly be of use for the abandoned building in a new, fun and creative way. You can read the article here: 

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D is the show on TV that just keeps getting better and better. This week, ABC aired an episode leading directly off of last week's new film, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The episode includes spoilers of the film, and this seems to be the new direction that the show will be taking from now on. Marvel released this all-new video where the cast and crew of the TV series talk about the new direction the show will be taking. Spoilers ahead. 

An all-new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse adventure will be hitting DVD shelves May 20th 2014! Around the Clubhouse World takes the Fab Five on a journey through France, China, Italy and more, and learn about different countries and cultures, with lots of song-filled fun, and will feature a slew of bonus episodes from the series. 

The date draws closer for the opening of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in New Fantasyland in Walt Disney World, and today, Disney Parks released a thirty-second video taking a look at some of the impressive new Audio-Animatronics that will be featured in the attraction. 

UPDATE: Disney Parks ALSO released this 16-second CGI ride through of the attraction. Now we'r really, really excited. 

Disneynature's Bears opens next Friday, and in anticipation for the release, Disney released two more clips from the film, two of some of my favorite clips from the movie. In fact, the whole film is wonderful. We'll be reviewing the movie in it's entirety later this week. 

Speaking of Disneynature, the trailer for their next big film has been released yesterday online. The film, Monkey Kingdom will swing into theaters Earth Day 2015.

For the final bit of news this week, Disneyland Paris announced that Marvel's Spider-Man will start making meet-and-greet appearances starting April 19th in the Walt Disney Studios park! Disney also released this artwork to anticipate the upcoming appearances.

That's it for this week's short weekly news roundup! Be on the lookout for some special brand-new reviews this week, including our review for Disneynature's new film: Bears. 

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com

Good Morning Miss Bliss Streaming on Netflix

Mitchell Stein- Our good pals over at Disney Afternoon Forever just alerted me that Disney's Good Morning Miss Bliss has been quietly streaming on Netflix under Saved by the Bell Season One. Apparently, they've re titled the original series, but have Mills as the headliner in the new credits.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with the two shows, Good Morning Miss Bliss was originally a show created for Disney Channel in the 80's. Disney decided to dump it after only 13 episodes, but NBC picked it up, dumping the character Miss Bliss played by Hayley Mills, added a few more characters and re-titled the series Saved by the Bell and ran from 1989 to 1993. More info can be found at Wikipedia. 

If you're a Netflix subscriber, make sure to check this out soon!

UPDATE: breRNurse in the comments alerted us that the season is also available on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video and Vudu as well. Thanks for the update!

Photo: Tmstash.com

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com

Disney Fan Project: On A Sunny Disney Afternoon

Mitchell Stein- I'm super excited to introduce a brand new fan project by Tim Van Hal, a talented and motivated author (not to mention a major Disney Animation fan of course) named, On A Sunny Disney Afternoon, an all-new book showcasing his love for Disney Afternoon. The book will take a look at the first twenty years of the division and what it moved onto become and how those characters live on to today.
But instead of myself telling you all about it, here's some info from Tim himself!

Tim Van Hal- Hello! I am writing a book on the history of the first twenty years of Disney television animation. The book goes in depth on the forming of the division, the development of series and the multitude of studios that were involved in the production.

Over the last few years, I have gathered many sources and I'm in the process of interviewing the people involved. At the moment this is done by Skype, phone or email, but the time has come where i need access to some people and archives that I can't interview or check out from a distance. For this reason I put up a crowd-funding page to finish the last stages of my research and finish the book.

If the goal of 15.000 dollar is met, I want to use my time abroad by filming the interviews and create a documentary of this wonderful period in animation. The people who help fund my research will (of course) be entitled to a free copy of the book (and the documentary, if the goal is reached).

Here is a link to the Indiegogo page:http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/on-a-sunny-disney-afternoon/x/6078342

There you have it! Feel free to visit Tim's page (link included above) and donate to this special project! 

Disclaimer: On a Sunny Disney Afternoon is not associated with The Mickey Mindset or any of it's writers. The showcased project is an independent fan project and should not be mistaken as a work of The Mickey Mindset, The Muppet Mindset or any of our other website branches. The fundraiser is held on Indiegogo, which is neither associated with The Mickey Mindset. You can donate to this exciting new project at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/on-a-sunny-disney-afternoon

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com

Why Aren't Classic Disney Channel Shows on DVD?

Michael Wermuth-I didn’t have The Disney Channel until it switched from premium to basic cable in 1997, but I did get to watch the channel often before then, at my babysitter’s house and on special weeks when The Disney Channel was available for free. And I must say, the channel was a lot better back then than it is now (not that I watch the channel voluntarily very often now). It had a wide variety of non-Tween programming, lots of classic Disney shorts aired, the channel’s Vault Disney block contained stuff like Disney’s classic anthology show (the channel always listed it as “Walt Disney Presents”, even though it had other titles), and the original Mickey Mouse Club (as well as The New Mickey Mouse Club), the channel aired a lot of non-Disney programming (and maybe that’s still true now, but back in the past Disney aired various Jim Henson productions long before buying the Muppets, lots of Peanuts specials and movies, and even some of the Looney Tunes compilation films, among other properties), and of course original programming. And in an age where all kinds of retro shows have been released on DVD, I must ask this: How come none of the classic Disney Channel shows have been on DVD? 

 Why do classic shows from the early years of The Disney Channel need to be released on DVD? Well, technically, they don’t need to be available on DVD, and I’d much rather have most of The Disney Afternoon shows be completed, but it’d still be nice to see these old shows on DVD. But what were the most memorable original Disney Channel shows of the 1980s and 1990s?

 Well, there’s Dumbo’s Circus. That was a decent show. It used puppet and costume versions of Dumbo, plus a variety of characters not from the classic animated movie. I don’t really remember the names of the other characters, and there’s really only one episode I remember, but it had quite a catchy theme song. For some reason, Timothy Mouse wasn’t on the show, though there was a Koala who resembled the character a bit. It would have been nice if at least one episode had been on the Blu-ray of Dumbo (well there’s always the next release…). 

 Perhaps a better-known show with costumed and puppet versions of classic Disney characters was Welcome to Pooh Corner, featuring the Winnie the Pooh characters. This show featured an on-screen narrator, a story involving the characters, a song segment (I think these were repeated in multiple episodes, much like the various segments from Sesame Street), and another segment with the narrator talking to one of the characters. This series also spawned a fairly infamous PSA special called Too Smart for Strangers (I actually don’t remember seeing that show). Out of all the shows I’m mentioning in this article, I am most surprised that this show hasn’t had a DVD release, especially considering how much of a cash chow franchise Winnie the Pooh has been in the past decades. I heard a rumor that when the 2011 Winnie the Pooh movie was released that Disney wasn’t releasing any new Pooh DVDs out of fear that consumers would confuse them for the movie, but how could anybody confuse Welcome to Pooh Corner for the 2011 film? I especially liked the songs that appeared on the show. It’d be great to hear Pooh and Piglet’s “Please is a Good Word”, Eeyore’s “Yes I Can”, or Piglet’s “Say Hello” songs again.  

 Another show on the channel is it’s own version of The Mickey Mouse Club, commonly referred to as MMC. This version didn’t really interest me as a kid (I was expecting animated segments, which were not included, plus other elements of the original series which this show avoided). This show was pretty much a teen variety show. Many of this show’s Mouse-Kateers would go on to be famous pop stars in their own right, including Brittany Spears, Christina Agulerro, and N*sync’s Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez. So maybe it’s not pop artists I’m interested in, but that fact alone should have gotten this series a DVD release by now. 

 The final series I’m going to talk about is Adventures in Wonderland, based on Alice in Wonderland. Each series was bookened by scenes of Alice in her room in the real world. The structure would be: Alice would talk to her cat about some sort of problem she’s having, she enters Wonderland through her mirror, the plot would somehow be related to her problem, and she’d talk to her cat about the experience and have learned a solution to her problem. So a lot of characters were different from their animated Disney counterparts, and the Queen was a lot nicer (not the kind of person who’d shout “OFF WITH HER HEAD!”), but they pretty much got The Chesire Cat right. It’s especially puzzling that this series didn’t get a DVD release when Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland got released.

Maybe those shows will get released on DVD someday, but only time will tell. I should point out one show I am aware I didn’t talk about: Kids Incorporated. I didn’t talk about that show because Disney doesn’t own the rights to it (though Disney does have the master tapes in its vaults).

What's your favorite retro Disney Channel TV show? Which show do you want to be released to DVD most? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below! 

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com