One Piece Film: Gold

Musicals are the "it" thing this year and even the anime game is getting in on the action with the release of Funimation Films...One Piece Film:  Gold!  The opening montage is complete with a Swinging Big Band, showgirls, kick lines and pirates ships.  The Gran Tesoro, where most of the action is set, reminds me of a golden version  The Venetian Hotel on the Vegas strip.  Aboard the Gran Tesoro, where it rains gold upon a golden river, The Straw Hat pirates become enamored with their VIP status and 300 Million dollars line of credit.  However, deception is king and the crew soon discovers that all that glitters is NOT gold.

Based on the wildly popular hit anime manga and television series, One Piece Film: Gold  follows the Straw Hat pirates to the big screen in an all-new high-flying adventure. The Batman-like graphics, slot machine sound effects and high-octane music keep the energy of this entertaining flick moving and grooving.

Originally a Japanese manga series, One Piece was adapted into a television series by Toei Animation (Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Super, Sailor Moon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Digimon) that has since aired over 760 episodes. As of August 2016, the original manga series has more than 380 million copies printed worldwide – the best-selling manga series in history.

The new film One Piece Film: Gold is a standalone film that does not require new audiences to be familiar with previous content to enjoy the thrill of this new adventure.  Do the Straw Hat pirates luck turn them into billionaires?  Or,  are they turned into gold slaves?  You can find out for yourself when On Piece Film:  gold begins its North American Release begins TODAY  through January 17th.   Click Here to Grab Tickets to One Piece Film: Gold

MOANA→

Disney is on a roll for 2016!!  Disney Animated Studios has bragging rights to Frozen (the highest grossest animated film of all time),  Zootopia in the #2 spot and Moana is well on its way to melting Frozens's record.

Moana (Auli‘i Cravalho) tells the story of a young Hawaiian girl who is searching for a demigod (Maui played by Dwayne Johnson), who once he is found, the two embark upon a journey to save her island and her people from impending destruction. Auli'l's voice is absolutely amazing and "The Rock" surprised me with his vocal prowess on "Your Welcome".

It was so nice to see Disney add another ethnic Princess to their stable twice in one year (Elena from Avalor was introduced to the Disney Channel earlier).  The photography is absolutely stunning and so life-like that one forgets that you are watching an animated feature.

The diverse and dynamic team behind the film’s inspired music includes Tony®- and Grammy®-winning lyricist/composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, who’s behind Broadway’s Pulitzer Prize-winning and multiple Tony-winning “Hamilton” and the Tony-winning “In the Heights,” and is a 2015 MacArthur Foundation Award recipient. Three-time Grammy®-winning composer Mark Mancina created memorable scores for films like “Speed,” “Tarzan” and the Oscar®-winning “Training Day,” and also co-wrote songs, produced and arranged the score for Broadway’s musical production of “The Lion King.” Opetaia Foa‘i, the founder and lead singer of Te Vaka, is a winner of numerous world music awards, including the Senior Pacific Artist award for his contribution to Pacific music. Miranda is well on his way to becoming an EGOT  (Emmy-Grammy-Oscar-Tony) member before the end of 2017!!!

Click HERE for how the cast and crew felt about working with WATER

Kudos Disney  and directors Ron Clements & John Musker for really working it out on the diversity front for 2016!  Of course, this shouldn't be a surprise since this same team brought us Princess & The Frog and Aladdin.  We won't have to guess who all the little girls will want to be for Halloween 2017...lol.

Of course, No Disney film would be complete wthout villains (the Coconuts) and the loyal best friend (The Rooster and the Baby Pig).  Of course, my favorite was Grandma Tala (Rachel House).  She is sugar and spice with everything naughty and nice:).

Moana is a great film for the adults and the kiddies and an even greater flick to check out during the holiday season!!!

If you are not convinced...maybe these clips will convince you to run to the theatre NOW!

Click HERE for MOANA Trailer

The Secret Life of Pets

Have you often wondered what your pet does to occupy his/her time while you are away?  I have often envisioned my Maltese having a card party complete with cocktails and snacks while I'm away.  Why?  He just seems way to chill when I walk through the door and it always leaves me with the feeling that he has definitely been up to something.

Nothing makes me happier than films with talking pets and babies.  As silly as it is, it just brings a big, fat smile to my face and let's me escape the reality of this troubled world we find ourselves having to navigate through on a daily basis.

The Secret Life of Pets takes us on the journey of how Max (Louis C.K.) was adopted, which is quite sweet.  however, when Max's owner feels that he might be a little lonely and buys Duke, things go awry.  Not only is Max NOT lonely, but is on a personal mission to make sure that Duke (Eric Stonestreet) get put out  is out - pronto!

However, Max's plans are thwarted when he accidentally hooks up with some street dogs led by tough top dog Snowball (Kevin Hart).  Snowball is proud of being a street thug and despises "domestics".  Of course, Max's secret lady-love Gidget (JennySlate) is on a mission to find her man and that's when things become even more hilarious.

My favorite scenes are the dog's rocking out while the owners are gone, spending the entire film running from the dog-catcher and  finding out that Snowball is just a softie at the end of the day.

For those of you who have a child's heart, you will adore this film.  It tugs at every heart string you might have and then some.  My Mom and I had a great time, as we likened a lot of what we witnessed to why my little Spanky behaves the way he does sometime.  I swear, if he could talk he might be speaking a little foul French (if you know what I mean).

The Secret Life of Pets has already grossed 261 million dollars in the US and is in theaters now!

Life, Animated

The very time I became aware of autism, what it was and how it manifests was when I was in rehearsal for the 1st National tour of "The Who's Tommy".  You see the character of "Tommy" was a high functioning autistic child who becomes a rock star.  The creative team had professionals come in and tell us all about it, so that onstage our relationship with Tommy would be authentic and real.

About a year ago, I was chatting with my old friend Jonathan Freeman.  He began telling me about a book by Ron Suskind called Life Animated and about his kid named Owen who was autistic.  He revealed that Owen broke out of his autistic prison through watching Disney animated films. Now, this was fascinating, because both Jonathan and myself have a Disney connection.  I played Shenzi in Los Angeles production of "The Lion King" for three years and Jonathan is the voice of "Jafar" in the Disney animated feature "Aladdin" and performs this role eight times a week currently on Broadway.

BROADWAY'S JAFAR IN ALADDIN AND CARLA RENATA

As life works, while at Sundance 2016,  I found out Owen Suskind is now the subject of a documentary directed by Roger Ross Williams.  When I tell you, I spent 90 minutes doing the ugly cry while trying to laugh...I really do not exaggerate!

At three-years old, Owen Suskind began speaking gibberish.  After taking him to numerous medical professionals, he was diagnosed autistic.  For those of you who don't know what that means, it simply means that these kids have a brain that is overly stimulated.  They are brutally honest and don't know what lying or being polite is.  They simply live in the moment...whatever that moment happens to be.

After one year of complete silence while watching "The Little Mermaid", Owen uttered what his parents Cornelia and Ron understood as "juicer voss".  Owen was trying to say "just your voice" ( a line from the character Ursula). Now, as a 23-year old adult, Owen has transitioned into adult assisted living, had his heart-broken for the first time and secured employment at a local movie theater.

Life, Animated is one of the most inspiring, heartwarming and heartbreaking films I have seen in quite some time.  It was truly a reality check.  It reminded me that just when you think your life sucks, there is always someone else who has it just a little harder.

I wonder what Walt Disney would think about his films being the catalyst for a child who most people wrote off and were ready to throw in the towel on.  Ron and Cornelia Suskind  and their other son Walter NEVER gave up on Owen and continue to make his life as normal and easy-going as possible.

While saying goodbye to Jonathan, Owen and his family popped by and when we asked if he was tired of being a movie star, he simply replied "Yes, it will be nice to get back to me".  One of my favorite moments of the film was having Gilbert Godfried pop by Owens' Disney Club and do a live reading of Aladdin for all the members along with Jonathan.

Thank you Jonathan for bringing Owen and his beautiful family to my attention.  You and them have TRULY changed my life and mindset forever.

Life Animated opened in theaters on July 1st and remember you heard it here first...it will definitely be on the short list for the Oscars in 2017.