Je Suis Charlie

The Mouse Castle is shocked and saddened at today's horrific terrorist attack on the office of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. We offer our deepest condolences to the victims, their friends and families and the good people of France. At the time of this post, 12 people have died and 11 people have been injured it what is being described as the deadliest terror attack in France in over 50 years.

While all the details and motives of this terrible act are not completely clear, it seems painfully obvious that Charlie Hebdo was attacked by religious extremists in retaliation for the magazine's provocative and sometimes incendiary cartoons, many of which took aim at Islam and its teachings. While Charlie Hebdo's brand of vitriol may not be for all tastes, it is nevertheless the product of a culture that like the United States puts a high value on freedom of speech. It's a value that no crazed fanatic should ever be allowed to silence with the muzzle of a rifle.

The attack on Charlie Hebdo is an attack on writers, journalists, cartoonists and bloggers everywhere--any individual who uses the written word to convey an opinion or express a thought. Even a blog that covers as benign a topic as Disney does so because the principles of free speech allow us to do so. We will never take those principles for granted.

Today, we stand with France and against all those who would violently suppress free expression. Je suis Charlie!

'Galavant' is a Humorless Send-Up of Fairy Tale Legends

Joshua Sasse is Galavant.

I can honestly say I'm looking forward to seeing Agent Carter tonight on ABC. And it's not just because of the Marvel connection or my obsession with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. It's also because, as mid-season replacements go, anything has to be better than Galavant.

I caught the first two episodes of ABC's new musical comedy series Sunday night. No, make that endured. Galavant fancies itself a medieval fairy tale send-up in the gleeful spirit of Spamalot, Shrek, The Princess Bride and Enchanted. Instead, it's just a humorless ripoff--and a tepid one at that.

Our hero, Galavant (Joshua Sasse), is a noble knight who has it all: looks, charm, strength, the admiration of the common folk and the passionate devotion of his lovely lady love Madalena (Mallory Jansen). That is, until the smarmy, evil King Richard (Timothy Omundson) takes a liking to Madalena, kidnaps her and forces her to marry him. Galavant races to her rescue only to be dumbstruck at the alter. It seems his would-be soulmate is also greedy and power-hungry. She's had a change of heart. Marrying the King won't be such a bad gig after all.

Time passes and the heartbroken Galavant has sunk to the bottom of a wine barrel when he is approached by Isabella (Karen David), a princess from a neighboring kingdom with an ax to grind against Richard. Or not. She says she wants to enlist Galavant's help to wreak vengeance on the King, but she may just be a pawn to lure the besotted knight back to Richard, who has plans to kill Galavant.

The plot sounds engaging and complex enough on paper, but it's really just a wisp of an idea to get Galavant to the next joke or the next musical number. And that wouldn't be so bad if the jokes weren't so flat and the music so annoying. One of the great disappointments of Galavant is the song score of no less a talent than the great Alan Menken (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast). He composed the songs along with Glenn Slater (Tangled) and acts as one of the show's executive producers. And while there is some clever wordplay, there's little noteworthy or memorable about the songs. Menken could use more of the inspiration that allowed him to merrily skewer animated musical conventions in Enchanted.

Galavant will continue to run two episodes each Sunday night starting at 8:00/7:00 Central through January 25th.

Please, Agent Carter, be better.

Inside The Mouse Castle 01-01-2015 - Tim and Anthony's Surprise New Year Party

Happy New Year from Tim and Anthony!

So, this happened: Anthony made a surprise trip to Las Vegas to hang out with me and the result was this episode of Inside The Mouse Castle. It's an unplanned, unscripted look back at last year with some of our favorite Disney moments and stories from 2014: Star Wars, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Disney Infinity 2.0, The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Maelstrom, Into the Woods, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and a whole lot more. So, mix a martini, pour some wine, down a shot or two and join the party. Happy New Year!

Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/insidethemousecastle/InsideTheMouseCastle01-01-2015.mp3

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